The Trials and Tribulations of Hiring a Ghost Writer - A Guide Copyright © 2005 Bill Platt the Phantom Writers http://thePhantomWriters.com







You have heard that one of the very best ways to get exposure

for your online business is to write and distribute your own

articles. Another exceptional method to get exposure for your

business is to create and develop your own ezine/newsletter.





CROSSING THE BRIDGE OF THE DECISION



For a lot of people, knowing that these two methods are as

effective as they are leads to the decision to get started. Once

the decision to get started has been made, the only decision left to make is to decide on a topic that will gain the webmaster the

best results for his or her time. Once this marketing decision

has been made, the webmaster will sit down and get to work

creating articles or their newsletter.



For other people, deciding on the topic is only the beginning of

the agony in the process.





DO YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO WRITE YOUR OWN MATERIALS?



I have heard the arguments many times before... "I am not a

writer. I cannot do that. It is not an option for me."



My brother used to tell me that he could not be a writer... That

was many years ago when I first started my own online business.



I always told him what I had always told everyone else. I told

him that if he can have a conversation with another human being,

then he could write. I told him that he should write as he

speaks. And, when he was finished with his story, he should use

Microsoft Word to spellcheck his work. MS Word can serve as a

steady crutch for most people who don't have good grammar or

spelling skills.



I have always said that most people do not lack the skills to

become a decent writer. What they lack is the confidence in their

own ability to communicate well with others.





SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!



Three years down the road, I was talking to my mom on the phone

and she mentioned that my brother was ghost writing for other

people. Imagine my shock in learning that I could not talk him

into writing for profit, and then he came to do it on his own.

In fact, it turns out that he used ghost writing to pay for his

living expenses while he went back to college to finish his

master's degree.





DECIDING ON A GHOST WRITER



For those people who just cannot believe in their own skills, or

those who simply do not have the time to write for themselves,

many look to a ghost writer to help produce materials for the

promotion of their businesses.



Many challenges face those who make the decision to pursue

employing a ghost writer.



* Price of Service



Too many clients lose the battle of selecting a good ghost

writer by putting too much emphasis on the cost of the

service being provided.



Let's face it, different writer's demand different prices.

More often than not, the price of the service is a strong

indicator of the value of the work being provided.





* Writing Skills and Commitment of Writer



Just because they tell you they are a professional writer,

does not mean that they will do professional work when you

pay for them to do so.



Even I have hired other writers to help me to fill client

orders. And from personal experience, I can share with you

that getting "writing samples" from writers is not always a

good indicator of the skills or commitment of the writer

who wants your job.



When I hire a writer to do a job because I don't have the

time to do it myself, and then I spend more time editing

the work than I would have spent creating the work, there

is a problem. I have taken losses on several jobs because

the writers I had hired to help me had done such crappy

work.





* Ability of Writer to Match Client Needs



A skilled ghost writer can match the needs of any client,

on any topic. A skilled ghost writer is also a skilled

researcher. When they do not know the topic that they have

been employed to write about, they will do the necessary

research to learn the topic and to turn out a good product.





* Good Communication Between Client and Writer



The ability of both the client and writer to communicate with

one another is vital. The client must clearly communicate to

the writer their needs and desires for the finished product.



A skilled ghost writer is not necessarily a mind reader, and

he or she should not be expected to be one.



If you want to hire a ghost writer who does not want to

speak with you about what you actually want in your ghost

written work, then move on to a writer who will take the

time to communicate with you. The writer should know in

advance what message you want to communicate with your

readers and any quirks or considerations you want to use

in those communications.



Your ghost writer is your mouthpiece, so your ghost writer

should know as much about you as possible, and they should

know how you would like to see your information communicated.





* Editing Process



Since the ghost writer you hire is your "paid mouthpiece",

they should be able to communicate your message in a way

that you believe they should. If you have communicated with

your writer well, editing will be a quick and painless

process. Your writer will send you the final edit, and you

will sign off on it or ask for a couple of minor fixes.



If you have not communicated your ideas with the writer well,

or you have simply selected the wrong ghost writer to handle

your job, then the editing process can become very painful.



The writer's commitment to task is determined sometimes by

the level of pay that you are offering to the writer, and

more often, it is indicative of the writer's integrity. Keep

in mind that if you have forced the writer to accept a pay

level inconsistent with what they believe their skills are

worth, you will pay for that decision in the quality of work

you receive from them and in the process of bringing the

final product to the level of professionalism you wish to

convey to your readers.



If you find that you have to hire someone else to edit the

final product to taste, then either you will have failed to

pay your writer well, you will have failed to communicate

with your writer well, or you will have done a terrible job

in selecting the most appropriate writer for your job.





When all is said and done, there are literally thousands of

people out there who try to pass themselves off as professional

writers, and then there are thousands more who are exceptional

writers who will be good for your tasks.





PRE-WRITTEN ARTICLES ARE ANOTHER GOOD OPTION



If you shop around, you can find companies that offer pre-written

articles that you can purchase full- or partial- rights to use

for your purposes. Some companies will sell the same pre-written

article to dozens of people, and some companies will sell one

article to only one person.



The primary advantage in buying a pre-written article is that you

will not have to suffer the process of selecting and employing

the right ghost writer for your task. With a pre-written article

catalog, you can go in and look at articles that have already

been written, and if you like it, you can buy it on the spot.



Most often, pre-written articles are a lower cost option than

having articles custom written for you.







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Bill Platt is the owner of thePhantomWriters.com. In July of

2005, TPW officially restarted its ghost writing activities.

Register to shop their Catalog of Pre-Written Articles and know

that they will only sell your article to one person - you. If you

write your own articles, you can use Bill's article distribution

service to get your reprint articles distributed to 17.000+

publishers and webmasters. http://thePhantomWriters.com