There are times in your blogging days that you can’t blog as often as before for some reasons: Busy with your day job, having kids to take care, or simply want to take a break once and a while.
If you experience such situation, you might want to consider hiring a ghost blogger.
Who is ghost blogger?
In essence, ghost blogger writes on behalf of the real blogger of a blog for a per-post or monthly fee. He or she should not be using his or her real or pen name. So, if I decided to hire a ghost blogger, he or she will blog for me as, well, myself.
Ghost blogging is controversial, to a certain extent. Some say that ghost blogging is unethical, while some other say ghost blogging helps them to take care of other business while keeping their blogs updated with fresh content.
Pros and cons of ghost blogging
Just like in everything in life, ghost blogging has its pros and cons.
Pros:
- It allows you to leverage your time in exchange of money.
- Ghost bloggers give fresh insights, reducing your blog’s dependence on you.
- Hiring the right ghost blogger with better writing ability can improve “your” blog posts’ quality and personal branding efforts.
Cons:
- “Creative” ghost blogger will use your blog for his/her personal gains – to promote his/her own blog, even make more money via paid review and in-post text link ads.
- It’s considered as unethical; what’s more, if your readers know that you use ghost blogger, you can lose respect, reputation and trust.
- If your ghost blogger went AWOL, you could have your blog tumbling upside down.
Where to look for ghost bloggers to hire
You can always go to freelance marketplace, such as Freelancer.com or forums, such as DigitalPoint Forums and Warrior Forum to find those offering ghost blogging services.
You can also Google for “ghost blogging service” “affordable ghost blogging service” and such terms…
Some tips on hiring ghost blogger
I use ghost blogging service in the past, but not today. I actually prefer to have guest blogger instead of ghost blogger in a sense that everybody represents his/her own view. Of course, guest bloggers can be hired by companies to write for them, but nevertheless, they do represent their own network.
However, I learn a thing or two from the ghost bloggers I hired – here are some tips on how to choose the right ghost bloggers:
1. Never fall for cheap rates
$1 per 100 words won’t give you the quality that is provided by a $3 per 100 words… Be sure to know what you can get from the rates. Of course, there are chances you will encounter good writers offering their service for cheap, but that’s a rarity…
2. Always ask for samples and/or place test orders
Samples can give you an idea or two about what quality to expect. However, people can fake samples, so it’s best for you to place test orders, instead… A couple of poorly written articles won’t lose you much money. Never commit to a long term partnership except you are very sure that you are partnering with the right ghost blogger.
3. Will the ghost blogger manage everything?
I prefer a “bundled service” – so I highly value ghost bloggers who can write, find related images, and post from an admin panel; if he/she can offer you social bookmarking or other social media marketing services, you’d better take them.
Of course, you can hire a ghost blogger to strictly write a blog post only and nothing more, if you want to.
4. Settle every detail before you start
Adding or subtracting details along the way of your partnership agreement with a ghost blogger is not recommended. It’s better to settle every possible details before you commence and be sure to make the instructions crystal clear.
I once partnered with a ghost blogger who publish blog posts as he wish – so he once posted blog posts every day and suddenly he wasn’t published any post for a week. If you don’t mind, then that is not an issue – however, if you emphasis on blog posting frequencies, you need to make this clear beforehand.
So – good luck hiring ghost blogger and share your experience with us 🙂
Image: Ex-in-the-City
I like this article, because I want the opposite topic addressed: How do you convince a company to hire you to ghostblog for them? I plan to approach a few local businesses that have no online presence. What should I tell them?
Chris,
I’m not an experienced ghost blogger, but I did blog for a business in the past.
IMO, you don’t need to explain what you do. “Hi – I’m a ghost blogger” would possibly scare them away! Businesses want simplicity and someone who is trusted and dependable to get the job done.
All you need to explain is that you will keep their online audience and target market engaged with your blog posts without any work on their part needed. That’s all.
Good luck!
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Hey there, great article.
Here’s something relevant: Have you seen or tried out http://www.ghostbloggers.net ?
Davy,
It seems to offer quality articles – have you tried it?
Ensuring the quality of content woudl be important to me so I don’t upset or disappoint my readers. I think ghost writing is an okay option but I’m sitting here thinking I would rather have nothing be published.
I like how you gave us an example of costs and perhaps that is enough to make me reconsider ghost writers possibilities. Little did I know paying less would give you less quality.
Again being a frequent walmart shopper I should know paying less always has it’s drawbacks lol…
bbrian017,
Sure – depending on quality, I can hire a ghost blogger for $1 / 100 words, including adding images and posting on my blogs – but expect to “fail” a lot of times as many would just rewrite other blogs’ content (yeah, I know – it sucks!) The best quality I can get was by paying a professional who understand what she is talking about – $20 / blog post (with various length, about 400-1000 words)… more than $20 is too expensive, IMO.
…and yes, just like what you said, paying less always has its drawbacks 😀
Thanks for writing this great analysis. As someone who offers ghost-blogging services, it’s really helpful to know what prospective clients are looking for and how to present my services on my website. Your post gave me some great ideas! Thanks =)
Keri,
Yes – I usually expect ghost blogger to provide something that a VA can offer… and only a few can offer the whole package very well (usually, it’s either great article but bad article formatting for WordPress with plenty of Word’s unfriendly markups or so-so articles but great formatting and social promotion…)
I even once work with a ghost blogger who rewrite blog posts… from my own blog and publish the rewrites… on the same blog! Talk about the risk of hiring ghost blogger without proper instructions… my bad!