Who Do You Call? Ghost Bloggers

Several months ago I published a piece on corporate blogging. Since the

article first appeared, I have had many requests to become a ghost

blogger.

What is a ghost blogger? It is a ghost writer for corporate blogging Web

sites. But why is there a market for ghost bloggers?

Here is the trend. Blogs have been growing in number exponentially and

connecting more and more people who, in turn, are creating a huge

Internet social network. This network carries a surprising amount of

influence and has been known to greatly impact the popularity of

products, individuals, services, etc. At some point, marketing

professionals realized they needed to tap into this growing phenomenon.

A typical scenario would then follow this pattern… A savvy marketing

department sees the opportunity presented in blogging. They immediately

create a Web site capable of hosting blogs, and begin blogging about

their company. It is a huge hit for several months. Upper-level

management, mid-management, and employees begin blogging like crazy. The

writing is very passionate and the free publicity heats up sales.

But just like any new fad, interest wanes and less people blog until the

blogging becomes almost nonexistent. Now marketing is left scratching

their heads because they have a built an infrastructure and spent a good

deal of money and now they are in desperate need of content. This is

where I introduce to you the ghost blogger and the ghost blogger service

— passionate writing and informed content for hire.

The ghost blogger headhunter may get involved or a specific ghost blogger

will get hired at this point. The writer’s job will be to post eight to

12 blogs per week on the company’s corporate Web site. These writers can

get paid $1,000 to $5,000 a month, depending on the traffic they

generate.

For example, if a blogger is paid a base of $2,400 per month, she could

receive an additional amount of money based on the amount of traffic she

brings to the site. If the average traffic is 100,000 page views, she

could get a bonus if it goes up to 110,000, 120,000, 150,000 or 200,000

page views and so on. The more buzz produced, the more money earned.

Does it work? It certainly can!

The important fact to remember in this equation is that the person or

persons who are chosen to blog for your company can make or break your

Web site and marketing strategy. If the chosen person cannot write with

passion about the issues integral to your company’s success, your

promotional efforts will fail miserably. (In fact, it is possible that a

ghost blogger service will attempt to entice your company to hire their

writers by promising to only match your company with a writer who shares

your company’s same interests and passions.)

However, if you find the right person, the money you spend will be well

worth it. The writer(s) you hire should partake in weekly conference

calls with your marketing department to make certain they are writing

about the most important current events that deal with your company.

Blogging is a valuable tool, both for the marketing industry and for

consumers who wish to be informed. We live in the information age and

people fully expect to learn everything they want to know from someone

willing to write about it on the Web. Take advantage of this. Blog, hire

bloggers, and read blogs written on subjects that interest you.

And remember, the next time you read a blog on a corporate site, you just

might just be reading a blog from Steven S. Warren, your friendly ghost

blogger.