Pro Article

Archive for April, 2009

A ghostwriter is a writer that you pay to write content on your behalf. The type of content will vary based on your needs and can include anything from poetry to sales letters to research papers and anything in between. No one will ever now, nor do they need to know that you paid someone to write for you. Hiring a ghostwriter is one of the smartest business decisions you will ever make.

We can start with an expert opinion on the matter. According to Don Schwerzler of Family Business, hiring a ghostwriter makes good sense for small to medium sized family businesses. I would like to add to that, hiring a ghostwriter for any business makes sense. Most companies do not keep on staff a writer, yet they are in constant need of things being written. Whether it is a company newsletter, business proposals, email letters, newspaper ads and so on.

One of the first benefits hiring a ghostwriter offers is that the ghostwriter can handle the tedious and time consuming tasks of creating content for a number of mediums. An experience ghostwriter will be able to take a look at your business, understand your vision, mission and business plan and be able to relay that message to your readers/customers/clients.

A second benefit that ghostwriters offer is that they will provide quality content for you. It is their job to do the research that is needed to complete the project. It is also their job to make sure that what they are writing conveys the message you are after in the manner you want them to. Yes you could spend the time writing, but that isn’t really your forte and a ghostwriter will get the job done quicker which will allow you to make money quicker.

In most cases, when you hire a ghostwriter you retain all the rights to the work they have done. There are times when this is negotiable and it is highly advisable that you ask when you are contracting with a writer. Most times the writer understands this, and it is a given… but always ask and get it in writing if possible. Nothing formal, just an email showing that you both have agreed to terms is sufficient.

A third benefit to hiring ghostwriters is that if you are short on time and have deadlines to meet, the ghostwriter can help make sure that you are meeting those deadlines. On average a 550 word article on a topic that most people know about should only take the writer about 20 minutes to create. You also know that with a ghostwriter you are going to get quality work. After all, their job depends on delivering quality.

Research, which few people enjoy doing, ghostwriters know that it comes with the territory. So when you need something written that is going to take a little investigating you can find a writer that is already experienced in the area, or that enjoys the challenge of working on a new topic. If they are already well versed in the topic then they will be able to get the project completed for you quickly.

If you are looking for quality content that can be delivered to you quickly consider hiring a ghostwriter.

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website, build your brand, and of course, make sales is to use article marketing. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, article marketing refers to the practice of writing brief, informative articles on a subject that is relevant to the content of the website you’re trying to create a flow of traffic to. This is done by submitting articles to online directories, e-zines or anywhere else on the web where they may be republished and seen by readers. Each article can carry a link to your website, so this is also a back link building technique. While most article marketing is done with a commercial motive (especially by affiliate marketers), writing this sort of content works much the same whether or not you’re trying to sell something.

The most important thing to keep in mind when writing for the purposes of article marketing is to create something that is genuinely informative and of use to its intended audience; you want to inform, not present your reader with a sales pitch.

The purpose of these articles is to generate interest in your site and to build a brand image for yourself as a source of useful information. You want to pre-sell, not sell with your articles. What you are really trying to do here is to make yourself someone that consumers feel that they can trust - give them information that they can actually use and they will come to you for more.

Naturally, you’ll want to write these articles on topics which you already have some expertise in; or at the very least, you’ll have to research your topic thoroughly beforehand. Never present yourself as an expert in something that you know nothing about - it will come through in your writing and readers will move right on to someone else’s content.

Keywords are an important element of article marketing writing. If you’ve never done any sort of SEO writing before, these articles are a great way to get some practice. You want to use your keyword enough for search engines to take notice, but not so often that your content is stilted and difficult to read. Anyone who has spent any time surfing the web has run across these keyword stuffed monstrosities before - and they’re awful to read, aren’t they? Not only will readers tend to pass this kind of substandard content by, but keyword stuffing may even lead to being penalized by search engines - which negates the time you spent trying to figure out how to use the phrase “how to find the best widgets for widgeting” 50 times in your 400 word piece. Keep to a keyword density of no more than 2-3%. This is plenty; remember that your real audience is human readers, not search engines.

Writing good content for article marketing is both a skill and an art, but it is not an impossible challenge. Write from a position of expertise, provide genuinely useful content, and use keywords in a natural way while making sure to attract and hold the reader’s attention and you’ll do just fine.