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Who Would You Hire, the Rookie or the Veteran?

May 17, 2011 By

I’m occasionally asked by clients whether we have a writer with a specific background. Are/were they in IT, in finance, in animal husbandry?

I can usually find someone with a skill set that matches what the client is looking for, but it’s not always possible. But, it’s not always necessary either. We have two things going for us that make it unnecessary to have a solid background in the client’s industry:

    1. The client provides us with all the information first, and then they approve the final post. If anything is incorrect, they find it before it gets published.
    2. Our writers are smart enough and spend enough time working with a client that they get pretty good at the client’s issues, their value to the client’s, and the features that make the client’s business so awesome. They become marketing copywriters for that company.

So this presents an interesting problem for us. Do we hire a good writer who is smart and can learn the product, or do we hire someone from the industry and fix their writing?

Think of it this way: You’re a baseball coach, and you need to sign a hitter to your team. You have a choice between a rookie who can run from home to 1st in 3.5 seconds, and a veteran who run the same distance in the same time. Who do you pick?

Most people will pick the veteran, because he knows the game and is a proven talent. But the best pick is going to be the rookie. If he can run to 1st in 3.5 seconds right now, think of how great he’ll be if you can hone his technique and teach him a couple tricks to make him run faster.

That’s how we choose our writers. I prefer to work with writers who don’t have the industry skills, because I can teach them about the industry, and help them become better “runners.” But hiring the industry veterans who have reached their writing peak is problematic. I can’t teach them anything new. They’ve gone as far as they’re going to go as writers, unless they dedicate themselves to becoming better writers. (That’s not to say that these adults can’t become writers. It’s just that they have to make a major commitment to improving and becoming better, but I don’t have time to wait for that.)

Who would you choose? Would you go for the industry rookie and teach him or her the ropes, or would you get the industry veteran who has a wealth of knowledge on the topic? Leave a comment and let me hear from you.

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    Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Who Would You Hire, the Rookie or the Veteran?  •  Keywords : baseball, blogging, business blogging, clients, corporate blogging, Ghost Writing, rookie, veteran, writing  • 
    Filed Under: Blog Writing, Blogging, Corporate Blogging, Ghost Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

    Finding a Working Definition of Ghost Blogging

    October 1, 2010 By
    Bar chart on the acceptance of ghost blogging

    With all of the controversy that seems to swirl around the acceptability of ghost blogging, I realized we weren’t really arguing about the same thing. The acceptance seemed to be based on their definition of the term.

    Is it writing a blog post with the full input approval of a client? Or is it writing a post that doesn’t have any input, but does have approval? As I read descriptions and arguments by Jason Falls, Lindsay Manfredi, and other blogging luminaries, I realized it was the definition that was the problem.

    So we created a short little survey to figure out what the most widely understood definition of ghost blogging to be. Survey respondents were given 5 different options of what ghost blogging might entail, and then asked to rate them on a 5 point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). These are the results out of 51 responses, out of a 5 point scale*:

    1. CLIENT writes a post, YOU proofread, edit, and publish under CLIENT’S name: 4 people disagreed or strongly disagreed (7.9%), but 43 people agreed or strongly agreed (84.3%). Rating: 4.41/5
    2. Interview CLIENT and write a post based on their answers. CLIENT approves before article is posted. 1 person strongly disagreed (2%), 47 agreed or strongly agreed 92.2%). Rating: 4.49/5
    3. Write a post for CLIENT using their ideas and past statements. CLIENT approves. 4 people disagreed 7.8%), 44 people agreed or strongly agreed (86.3%). Rating: 4.29/5
    4. Write a post on behalf of CLIENT, using their ideas and past statements. CLIENT does NOT approve post. 31 people scored SD or D (62%), while only 15 people scored A or SA (30%). Rating: 2.5/5
    5. Write a post for CLIENT, using YOUR ideas. CLIENT does NOT approve post. 40 people scored SD or D (78.4%), 8 people scored A or SA (15.7%). Rating: 1.86/5

    (*These numbers won’t add up to 51 in this description, because I left the “neither agree nor disagree” out of this text for simplicity and brevity. The actual numbers are at the bottom of this post.)

    Bar chart on the acceptance of ghost blogging

    From these results, we can infer a few basic ideas about ghost blogging’s acceptability:

    • Ghost blogging is acceptable to most people as long as the client approves the posts before they are published. In fact, this was the most important factor in deciding whether ghost blogging is appropriate or not.
    • Ghost blogging is acceptable, as long as the client has input (#2), or at the very least, the ideas used have been addressed in the past (#3). Option #2 is akin to a copywriter sitting down with a client, and synthesizing the client’s thoughts and ideas into a piece of text. Option #3 is similar to a presidential speechwriter who is already familiar with the president’s stance on certain topics, and can write about them with authority.
    • At least 8 people thought it was acceptable to essentially put words in the client’s mouth without their knowledge. Personally, I can’t think of any instance where this would be acceptable, in business or government, let alone blogging. Even when I was writing speeches for the Indiana State Health Commissioner, everything had to follow her vision. Her administrative may have assigned the speech or project, but I had to know the Commissioner’s stand on the issues.
    • Conversely, 4 people thought it is wrong to even proofread and edit a client’s writings, and then post it on the client’s website on their behalf. While I’m a little worried that nearly 16% of the respondents thought it’s okay to pose as a client without the client’s knowledge, I can only wonder at how rigid the beliefs are of the people who are opposed to editing and then copying, pasting, and clicking “Publish.” It also worries me what they would think if they knew I had four editors poring over my book before the publishers printed it for me.

    Because the first three options all scored above a 4.4, I can conclude that most people will accept the idea that ghost bloggers need the client’s input and approval before a post gets published. Anything that does not have at least the client’s approval crosses the line of acceptability, and anything that has both input and approval.

    So, that is our baseline for acceptable ghost blogging. The next step is to find out how strongly people feel about it, and see if we can get a bigger group to respond. More on that later.

    Ghost Blogging Survey Results

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      Filed Under: Blog Writing, Blogging, Ghost Writing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

      Really? We’re STILL Talking About Ghost Blogging?

      September 7, 2010 By
      Avinash Kaushik makes a misinformed tweet about ghost blogging

      What is it with these social media purists and ghost blogging? What exactly do they not understand?

      Ghost blogging is a service that is provided by ghost writers. We transcribe interviews from our clients, get their approval for what we’ve written, and we post it to their blogs.

      This is no more inauthentic than hiring a social media agency to run your social media campaign, or an ad agency to create your TV commercials. It’s no more inauthentic than private labeling/white labeling a product made by someone else — food companies do it all the time, and no one complains.

      Avinash Kaushik makes a misinformed tweet about ghost bloggingMy friend, Doug Karr, recently wrote a post about Avinash Kaushik’s rather misinformed statement about “ghost blogging being the antithesis of everything social.”

      Doug said:

      It’s always interesting when someone with as much authority as Avinash throws out a rule like this. Not only do I disagree with Avinash, I know many, many companies who would disagree as well. Ghostblogging is not the antithesis of everything social… inauthenticity, dishonesty, and insincerity are the antithesis of everything social.

      As a professional ghost blogger, I’m sick to death of people who paint ghost bloggers as some sort of moral leper, the used car salesmen of the social media industry. (Oops. There, now you’ve made me offend used car salesmen. Happy now?) These social media purists decry ghost blogging as being less than honest because CEOs of large corporations and small businesses don’t spend 1 – 2 hours a day crafting a single blog post.

      “Oh, but if you were serious about it, you’d make the time,” they lilt, wagging their fingers at the slacker CEOs who whine that they’re “tired” after a 14 hour day. “Because social media is all about the conversation and community and the inherent good in other people.”

      No it isn’t. Social media in the business world is all about making money. Businesses can’t pay their workers with conversations. You don’t appease shareholders with community. And their vendors don’t want to hear about all the good you’re finding in other people when they ask why you’re 60 days overdue.

      If we followed the social media purists’ logic to its logical conclusion, we would not be allowed to use these other ghost-type services:

      • Businesses would have to produce their own ads, commercials, and graphics in-house. They could not hire an outside agency to do it. Or if they did, there would be a big disclaimer on it saying it was produced by that agency.
      • Software companies could not outsource their programming to freelance coders. They should do it all themselves.
      • Celebrities should not hire ghost writers to help with their books. They should be allowed to suck on their own.
      • Politicians would not be allowed to use ghost writers to write their speeches. They would have to mumble and fumble their way through every speech, no matter who they were. Or if they used a ghostwriter, they would have to interrupt their speech every 10 minutes with, “This speech was written by my ghost writer, Jeff Shesol.”

      Ghost blogging is the last bastion of any kind of ghosting, where some purist thinks that we shouldn’t be allowed to do it because it’s “inauthentic.”

      Do you know what’s inauthentic? Inauthentic is following fewer than 100 people while 25,000 people follow you on Twitter. f you’re in “the conversation” business, don’t you think you should have a conversation? Otherwise, you’re just holding a one-way broadcast with 25,000 people, and are showing that you’re not willing to listen to anyone else. That’s not authentic in the least bit.

      Whether the purists like it or not, ghost blogging is going to only get more popular. As companies want to enter the social media marketing realm and realize they can’t, because they just laid off their best writers, they will look for other ways to gain that competitive edge. If they’re going to outsource their web design, their ad creation, and their strategy, why shouldn’t they outsource their writing too?

      There are freelance writers in all other parts of business — marketing copy, TV scripts, radio scripts, ad copy, web copy, annual reports, press releases, white papers, grant proposals — so why is blog writing so different from all those other forms of ghost writing?

      It isn’t. If you hire someone to write something for you, and you don’t stick their name on it, they’re a ghost writer. I don’t care if it’s marketing, advertising, or grants. They’re a ghost writer. No one is complaining about their inauthenticity or their non-transparency.

      So the purists need to get off their high horse, learn how the world works, and accept the fact that ghost writers are skilled writers who are paid to provide a service for other people. And we’re going to be here for a while.

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        Author :  •  Content Location : Indianapolis, IN  •  Headline : Really? Were STILL Talking About Ghost Blogging? - Professional Blog Service  •  Keywords : blog writing, bloggers, Doug Karr, etchis, ghost blogging, Ghost Writing, ghostblogging, Lindsay Manfredi, Social Media  • 
        Filed Under: Blog Writing, Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Ghost Writing, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

        5 Tips to Become a Professional Blogger

        April 26, 2010 By

        Someone once asked me, “How do I become a blogger?”

        “Simple,” I wrote back, “Raise your hands over your head, and shout to the heavens, ‘I. Am. A BLOGGER!!‘ And then you are one.”

        It really is that easy to become a blogger. Truly anyone can do it. You just need some basic software, and know how to type. After that, you’re good to go.

        But becoming a professional blogger is a whole different matter. Here are 5 tips to becoming an actual professional word slinger.

          1. Make sure you define what you mean by “professional.” There are two types of professional blogger: the person who makes a lot of money selling something via their blog, usually either Google Ads or ebooks, and the professional ghost blogger. While finding success as the former is possible, finding it as the latter is more likely. I have one friend who has a very popular blog, and sells Google AdWords on it. It only brings in a few thousand dollars a year, certainly not enough to make a living. Ghost bloggers, on the other hand, can earn a decent living writing blog posts for other clients. Part copywriter, part social media geek, part blog manager, the ghost blogger is your basic freelance writer, but working in this specific electronic format.

         

          1. Make sure your writing skills are strong. Writing is easy, writing well is hard. I realize that we can all write in complete sentences and organize our thoughts into semi-coherent patterns. So can your average eighth grader. Unfortunately, some people never progressed beyond that level of skill. If you want to be a professional blogger, your writing needs to be of a higher quality than most.

            If you’re not sure, find some other writers you trust and whose skills you admire, and ask them to honestly evaluate your writing. Tell them you don’t want the typical pat on the head and “it’s pretty good” assessment. Ask them to be honest, and to give you a real evaluation of your skills. If they truly like it, then you’re on your way. If they don’t, start a blog, and work hard to improve. I’ve been a writer for 20 years, and am still learning and improving.

         

          1. Try to specialize in an area you have experience in. It’s not a requirement, but it will make your life easier. The one interesting thing about newspaper reporters is that they are an expert for a day, absorbing enough information to write their articles. The next day, they move on to a new subject. Ghost bloggers do this. They learn as much about the client as they can, and will write whatever the client wants them to. The client will usually dictate what they want said, the writer writes it, and then gives it to the client for approval. This way, the writer learns about the client, much like a reporter learns about his or her beat.

            When we take on a new client, we spend a lot of time learning about their industry and their company. As we work for them over the months, we do become knowledgeable about their field. But the clients we truly excel at are those we have experience and knowledge in. With them, we can hit the ground running, and our learning curve is significantly flattened.

         

          1. Associate with other professional writers. It’s often said we’re only as good as the 5 people we hang out with the most. If that’s the case, make sure you’re spending it with other professional writers (or at least really good amateurs). In fact, some of your best mentors and referral sources will be your competitors. Read their blogs, meet them at conferences, hang out with them at coffee shops. You’ll learn a lot from them. Then — and this is the important part — be willing to do the same for other, younger writers who come to you for advice and education.

         

        1. Read a lot. Every writer has a writing style they learned from reading someone else’s stuff. I learned mine from reading Dave Barry, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Waits, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ernest Hemingway. To keep my own style from becoming stale, I revisit my favorite works and re-immerse myself in their words and style. I also seek out new writers with similar styles, and draw inspiration from them.

          It’s important to remember, however, not to copy your favorite styles, but take the best from each of them, and synthesize them into your own. By creating your own distinctive writing style, you’ll stand out as a quality writer and blogger, worthy of the fees you demand.

        What about you? Do you have any writing tips or suggestions for aspiring professional bloggers? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

        Photo: Brad J. Ward (Flickr), noted social media marketer

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          Filed Under: Blogging, Business Blogging Content, Ghost Writing, ProBlogService, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

          The Biggest Mistake “Business Bloggers” Make

          January 16, 2009 By

          Before you rush into business blogging there’s something you should know:

          Blogging does not work in a vacuum.

          Every week someone calls us and asks if we can just ghost write blog articles for super cheap for their business blog. There’s a name for these spammy business blogs, and it sounds like something that grows in that goo that accumulates in the drain pan under the fridge: splog.

          Splogs are blogging’s answer for the guy at the fair who yells “Hey you, with the face! Step right up…” So, after discovering that our future client has a splog, our first question is, well, if we are just writing, how is the blog being promoted? The answer from our prospective client is nearly always:

          “We don’t care about that. We just have the blog around to mop up on some keywords on Google. It needs lots of new content, but we don’t really care what it says. We just want Google to index it.”

          After we take a look at the prospects blog, we usually find three things are true about the aforementioned business blog:

          1. It’s written by fake people. Not real people with pen names, but fake as in department store mannequin with a bad wig and big sunglasses.

          2. The content isn’t personal (it’s written in third person), usually isn’t well written and isn’t tracking in the search engines for keywords that actually get traffic. It’s usually just more spammy content that will end up on page 8,500 in Google’s search results for a fourth rate keyword.

          3. The business blog is screaming fire in an empty theater at three in the morning on a Sunday after the popcorn ran out. It gets 20 clicks. Per month. Meaning a visitor is more likely to be a hacker’s spider looking for unpatched scripts than a person, anyway.

          Cheaply written business blogs which are put up for an audience consisting of a search engine spider and a ranking algorithm don’t work very well if you are trying to actually market.  To engage, you have to actually communicate with people. Which raises the biggest mistake that people make when they start business blogging: failing to be genuine.

          Blogs which are written by real people that can be called on the telephone are the most effective if you want good marketing.  That does not mean you have to write the article, but it does mean that every blog post needs to be your ideas, and said in a way that is personal and genuine.

          Why? Because, people do business with people. It’s that simple.

          What are you going to do when someone calls and asks if Mr. Fake Person can speak at a trade show or come on a sales call? Hire an actor? Good luck with that.

          Think about it.

          People do business with people. People network with people. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn connect people to people. It’s called social media for a reason, and the blog is the foundation of it all.  Spammy business blogs are anti-social.

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            Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , ,

            Creating Content Isn’t Sexy, Just Critical

            December 29, 2008 By
            typing

            Look at any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) course or checklist… you’ll find content freshness to be a key line item.

            Read almost any social media plan… you’ll see that you have to have content to feed that huge network of friends, contacts and buddies you are creating.

            Brush up on a few blogging how-to’s… you’ll find it’s all about content.

            So, if content is so important, why do business people invest so little time in creating it?

            Since starting Professional Blog Service, I’ve learned a little bit about why business people struggle with content:

            typingWriting just isn’t urgent enough. Most business people are stuck in a reactive mode (much to Stephen Covey’s chagrin) where they deal with the most urgent task right now. Writing content is important, but it isn’t urgent.

            Business people look at writing as something anyone can do well. My friends in the copywriting, legal and journalism professions know this isn’t so. Good writing isn’t easy to find. It takes time. And usually the person who has the time isn’t the one that can write the article.

            Content creation isn’t fun. It’s fun to create campaigns, videos, and diagrams but writing content just is not most people’s idea of fun. It’s homework. It’s not sexy. But now more than ever it is critical to your marketing’s success.

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              Filed Under: Business Blogging Content Tagged With: , , , ,

              What We Are & What We Aren’t

              December 23, 2008 By
              carpetbagger

              carpetbaggerTop 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert is a Carpetbagger”.

              On Beth’s blog, she posts: “7. Will ghostwrite blog posts and other social content for you.” as an indicator that your social media expert may be a carpetbagger.

              At first, I was offended. After stepping back and reading it again, Beth is right. If your social media consultant is being paid to advise you and tells you to have them ghost write your blog, the consultant is a douchebag (with apologies to douchebags).

              See, a consultant has a responsibility to disclose conflicts of interest or to avoid them. If that consultant doesn’t than “carpetbagger” is a nice way to describe them. “Snake in the grass” may fit better. You see, there’s no integrity in being paid as an impartial advisor, only to turn advise buying services from your own company. Your client wanted an advisor, not a salesman.

              Which leads me to a little clarification about our company – Professional Blog Service:

              We are not social media consultants. We are not social media experts for hire who will analyze all kinds of problems and provide impartial advice. We’re downright biased. If you want impartial advice, talk to a non-carpetbagger consultant (there’s maybe 10 in existence).

              If you want a blog and social media program and don’t have the time, skill set or just have terminal writer’s block, we are a good fit. We do the work so you don’t have to. You inspire, we perspire. We do the grunt work so you can get the glory.

              We happen to believe in business blogging, we believe in social media, and are very, very good at it. Some people might even call us experts. But the truth is we would simply love to have more happy customers that use our service.

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                Filed Under: ProBlogService Tagged With: , , , , ,