Does this sound familiar to you? You have a newsletter due out in a few days, but you just can’t find a good article to write. You have a bad case of writer’s block. Or, you know you should be adding more content to your site on a regular basis to keep the search engines (and of course your visitors) happy, but you just can’t find the time to sit down and write articles every week. There is an easy solution to both problems. Hire a ghostwriter to write the articles for you.
Basically, a ghostwriter is someone who writes articles for you that you can claim as your own and publish under your own name. No one but you and the ghostwriter should know that you didn’t write the article yourself. Once you pay for the article, you have all the rights to it and can publish it wherever and however you see fit.
Now let’s talk about the hard part. How do you find a good ghost writer? You can start by posting a small project on elance or guru.com. Anyone interested in writing for you can bid on the project and you will be able to choose your writer from among the bidders. I mentioned posting a small project because you just don’t know exactly what you’ll get until you receive the finished items. A small project in elance or guru terms would be 15-20 short articles on a topic that is common knowledge or easy to research. You want to make it worthwhile for bidders (attract good writers) without spending too much per article.
Other great ways to find a ghostwriter is to network with others in your field, ask friends, and post on message boards related to the topic you want articles written about. Just ask if anyone is interested in writing for you. There are also quite a few freelance writers who offer ghostwriting as well. Search for ghostwriting in your favorite search engine to find sites like momva.com.
The price of ghostwritten articles can range from $2.00 to $65 per article. Most writers will charge around $5.00 to $12.00. Keep in mind that you’ll pay less for shorter items than longer ones. The average article size is 300 to 1,200 words. Compare prices, but don’t buy on price. Like anywhere else, you get what you pay for. Items in the $2-$6 range tend to be pretty plain and, to be honest, pretty boring. To get a decent hourly rate, the writer has to produce 4-5 articles per hour and it will show in the quality of the article. However, you can find some great items in the $8-$12 price range.
When choosing a writer, start by asking for sample articles. Find a few writers whose style you like and ask them to write a few articles each. You should be able to know who will exercise and who will not. If you’ve written quite a bit yourself, you may want to provide the writers with a few of your own articles before they start, so they can get a feel for your style and personality. Pick one or two writers to write for you on a regular basis. It may also be worth keeping in touch with finalists in case a writer doesn’t work out or doesn’t have time for additional projects in the future.
So is it worth paying someone to write your articles? It sure does for me. Submitting articles and adding them to your own site is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to drive traffic to your site. When you add your ghostwritten articles to your site, optimize them for a particular keyword or key phrase to get more search engine traffic. Then submit the non-optimized version to the various article directories. As your article is used on other sites and in the newsletter, the traffic will start pouring in.
How much are you currently paying to advertise on various websites and in newsletters? $25 per ad or more? For $25 you can easily get 2-5 quality articles from a ghostwriter. These articles can appear in countless publications and websites over and over again. Don’t forget that your resource box, with a link to your site, will be included every time the article is published. Your articles may appear in larger newsletters or even print newspapers and magazines where you could never afford to place an ad. If you ask me, hiring a ghostwriter and getting more articles with my resource box is a great investment.