Hi,

Everyday I spend atleast one hour or thereabouts visiting some of the people on my blogroll.  They all over fantastic information, and many probably have more diverse sources of information than I do or are more experienced in certain aspects of Internet Marketing that I am — there is absolutely no harm in admitting you are not the “gawd” or know-it-all guru of IM.  We all learn, right?

So today I was at Fred Blacks site, PQInternet.com and he has written an excellent post – you can check out out here: http://www.pqinternet.com/121.htm.  The title of the post is “Will The Real Blogger Please Stand Up…”.

Here is a quote from his post (I do suggest you read the entire post, and even the comments):

One of the biggest drawing cards to the popularity of blogs is that, as a reader, you are given the opportunity to get to know the blogger at a more personal level than regular web site. Blogs are, by their nature, updated more frequently than traditional web sites. In addition, blogs are usually written with a writing style more like talking with a friend than giving a formal presentation.

Call me naive or stupid, but I go against the grain of a lot of bloggers in this market in that I don’t use ghost writers, interns, or employees to write my blog entries. Like a salmon swimming upstream, every letter of every word you read here is typed with my own hands, and unless I’m quoting someone, it is all thought of in my own brain.

I agree with Fred fully.  I did comment on his post:

An excellent post.  I’ve followed the advice of another IM’er (JB) and there is a lot of wisdom in what he says – especially if you want to have your business run on “auto-pilot” or with minimal intervention.

I like the idea of having a ghostwriter write the blog posts — but I’m wary of that.

Like all bloggers chances are that a post on your site may be as a result of reading something else somewhere else — which is fine, especially if you put your own spin onto the topic.  However more and more often I see a post, (for example only) on your website then see similar posts all over the place and in some cases it’s the exact same title being used! 

Now if you know the writing style of the site owner you will clue in that it’s probably a ghostwritten or intern written post.  If the individual is doing this — then shouldn’t there be some type of reference back to where they spotted the idea from? 

Writing something new everyday is a daunting task, I struggle with it but manage quite well.  I do find ideas from other blogs but always provide reference to my readers and visitors — after all shouldn’t you give credit where it is due?

Will I ever use ghostwriters or interns?  Who knows — right now, I don’t think so but that could change.  But if I ever do I will ensure that if the individual uses someone elses posts as the ground work for my post that they provide proper credit and at minimum a reference to the post that gave them the idea.

Fred is correct – reading a blog is like delving into the mind of the writer.  If you’re reading a post that was not written by the blog owner but rather by an intern or ghost writer — are you gaining any additional insight into that person?

To make things clear: I do not use ghost writers, and I don’t have any interns.  I do write 99.99% of my own posts, that .01% are articles that I’ve either had ghost written for me years ago that I am using today but in 100% of the case I rewrite the article and interject my own thoughts and comments into them

I’m curious to know what YOU think and welcome your feedback.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: Ghostwriters, Internet Business, internet marketing

Hi All,

Short and sweet – please have a look at http://www.oibo.org/guest-writers.

If you’re interested in exposing your name even more, consider becoming a guest writer for my blog.

Simply read the page that I’ve posted and reply to this post with your name, and topic you’d like to write about.

I’ve had several people ask me about this, and never had a process in place to handle it — but have worked out the bugs and it is now ready to go.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: guest writers, Internet Business, internet marketing

Hi,

In Part 1 we discussed what ghostwriters are, and where you can find them.  In Part 2 we did a sidebar and talked about Elance.

In the third part of this series of posts we will look at choosing a ghostwriter.

Choosing a Ghostwriter 

Choosing a ghostwriter is as difficult as hiring someone to work for you.  You want to make sure that the “fit” is there. 

You can find many ghostwriters and writers in general on Elance.  Some are “local” (meaning they work in North America) and there are many that are offshore – Europe, Asia, and India.  Are they any better or worse?  You need to be the judge to decide that.

Personally I’ve never gone with anyone offshore, I always stayed with North American writers.  I found that the words they use are more in-tune with the way people behave and think.  I did try offshore once, and wasn’t pleased with the work so it was put up for bid again.

Experience

Next you want to consider their experience.  Have they been doing this for years?  Or are they new at it?  There could be nothing wrong with someone new at it, afterall they have to start somewhere – right?  But when you look at experience you also want to see what type of writing they specialize in.

I’ve worked with writers that were “jacks of all trades” – meaning that they would spend the time to research particular topics and could write good, compelling articles.  I’ve also worked with writers who specialized in a particular areas — for example jewellry and diamonds whose work was comparable to what you’d find in specialty magazines because they knew the topic extremly well and you could read the passion they put into their work.  It was truly without reproach.

There is nothing wrong with using someone who is able to write on a wide range of topics, and depending on your needs this may be the way to go.  However if you want something very precise, and written by a SME (subject matter expert) it will be beneficial to look for someone with those specific skills.

Evaluating a Ghostwriter

When evaluating writers, you will also want to see samples of their work.  Most, if not all, will provide samples to you.  Take time to read them.  Start a conversation with them.  How they respond to you, how quickly they respond and what “language” is used will all give you an idea of their skill.

When you review their samples, see if you can answer these questions:

1. Does the writing make sense?
2. Does the writing get the point across, or does it lead you down different paths?  Is it confusing?
3. What is the vocabulary like? 
4. Are there mistakes?  Spelling, grammer or other apparent or obvious errors?
5. What tone is used in the samples?  Will it fit with your needs and requirements?  Do the different samples use different tones?  Will the writer be able to adapt to a tone that you need for your project?
6. Is the intended audience obvious, or is it very confusing – meaning, are there multiple topics in one sample making it confusing to determine what they are trying to get across.

A well written document/sample should flow from A > B > C.  Think back to school – is it answering “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why” and “how” (note that the article may not need to answer all those questions)?

References

Most of the writers on Elance will provide references, in fact the way they are set-up it is difficult to not provide some type of reference.  Writers that are serious about what they do, and that want business will be more than happy to provide you with references.

One thing to remember - always use references with a grain of salt.  After all, do you think that a writer will give you a bad reference?

One thing I like about Elance is that everyone is rated so you can always question someone that was rated poorly or received a poor reference.  It’s tough to hide anything on Elance.  Each writer on Elance receives a rating by the people that have used them:

Here you can see that the writer has a 98% positive lifetime rating, 671 positive, 12 neutral and only 2 negative.  You would probably be safe to use this individual for your project.

If the writer avoids specific questions, you probably want to avoid them entirely.

In the next installment, we will discuss pricing and how to manage your project and the writer you’re working with.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: elance, Ghostwriters, Internet Business, internet marketing

Hi,

Have you read Part 1 yet?  If not, do so.  It provides an introduction to Hiring Professional Ghostwriters.  I’ve created a master page linking to the posts “Hiring Professional Ghostwriters to Grow your Internet Business“ as well so that you can get to each part quickly, and easily.

Lets get going…

An Introduction to Elance

This is a bit of a sidebar before we go into the regular series of articles.  As I mentioned previously, I am most familiar with Elance as I’ve used it successfully in the past.

Elance is one of the original, and larget marketplaces to hire virtually anyone – from ghostwriters to software developers, virtual assistants and more!  They are a major source of resources for anything that can be outsourced.

When you reach their homepage, you’ll see a list of categories.  These are only high-level categories, within each category are subcategories.

Here under “Writing & Translation Professionals” are several sub-categories:

• Article Writing
• Web Content
• E-book and Blogs
• Copywriting
• Ghost Writing
• Translation
• Edit & Proofread
• Other

With so many categories – where do you start?  We’ll get into that as we progress into this tutorial.  In this part, we’re providing a quick introduction to Elance. 

What I like is that as you mouse-over each sub-category you see the most active professionals in that category.  If you were to click on any of the categories you’ll be greeted with another page:

From here you can refine your results using the sliders, or you could browse through the 425 entries in this particular category – not always the easiest method.

If you click on a service provider, you will see:

This is only a small snippet of the information available for this particular provider.

It is probably worth your while to spend some time, and look around Elance to become familiar with it.  In future sidebars, I’ll go into setting up your account, how to advertise your project and more!

Here is a link to a short video by Timothy Ferriss, the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek” http://www.youtube.com/v/LmniMo7bKMo

The video describes how Elance works. I had pasted the actual video into the post, and tested – but for some reason it is not being displayed. My apologies!

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: Ghostwriters, Internet Business

Hi,

As you embark on your journey to untold millions, you’ll be doing a lot of work along the way.  Initially you probably start doing writing yourself – such as posting to your blog daily, researching topics and turning them into products or freebies that you may give away to gain more readers.

But eventually it will get too busy to do it all yourself, that’s when you’ll look at hiring VAs or virtual assistants.  You may even decide to run an intern program, like the one James Brausch runs.  Until then you’ll be looking at ghostwriters.

You can find them in many places, Elance is one of the better sites out there.  I’ve used Elance in the past and have been very happy with them. 

But how exactly do you hire a ghostwriter?  What do you pay them?  How do you evaluate them?

I’m putting together a series of blog postings, that will walk you through hiring a ghostwriter.  I hope that you will subscribe to my list and follow along.

Here is part 1.

GHOSTWRITERS – PART 1

What is a ghostwriter?

Ghostwriters are basically writers for hire.  They work under the premise that whatever is produced, is done exclusively for you and that your name will be attached to the final product.  They are able to write single articles or a series of articles that could be turned into several blog posts, or articles to be used for submission to article directories.

They can even write long manuscripts, for e-books or other products that you may have in mind.

A ghostwriter is like hiring any type of resource, you will get what you pay for so the trick is knowing what you want, what your goals are for the project, what your timelines are and what is your budget. 

You want a ghost writer that is good – someone that will research the topic you want them to write about or someone that knows the topic well.  If you find someone whose niche is not the topic at hand, there is a good chance that you will get shoddy work.

Who uses ghostwriters?

You’d be surprised who doesn’t use ghostwriters.  Most internet marketers use ghostwriters, in fact James Brausch’ Friday protected post talked about ghostwriters you SHOULD NOT use on Elance!  Luckily I subscribe to his blog announcements list and I was given access to this fantastic list (in fact he has TWO great posts today, one on hiring human capital and his protected posts.  Have a look by clicking on the links provided.).

Ghostwriters can be the most effective, and effecient way to create articles and other manuscripts.  I’ve used ghostwriters in the past to write articles on a w-i-d-e range of topics.

Finding Ghostwriters

So where do you start looking?

I would start with Elance.  I mention them, because I’ve used them in the past with GREAT success and am most familiar with Elance – however the topics I’ll write about will apply to any service you decide to use.

You’re not limited to Elance though, there are many other methods you can also use — but I find that Elance is easy, safe and secure.  You also get ratings on writers you may be considering on hiring — which is a great bonus.  The other thing about Elance is once you’ve got one or several writers you like working with, you can continue to work exclusively with them!  You don’t need to put each project out to bid.

In the next post we’ll discuss how to choose a ghostwriter.  I’ll try to post on this topic every couple of days.  I will warn you right now though, once I get into the meaty sections I will probably password protect the entries!

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: ghost writers, Ghostwriters, Internet Business