What you may not know is how to work with your ghost writer so you get the results you’re looking for.

As someone who has been ghost writing web content for several years now, I’ve learned that not everyone understands how the ghost writer/client relationship works best. Take these three things to heart, and you will be on your way to getting more than your money’s worth from the ghost writer you hire.

Generic articles get generic results.

Many small business owners will approach a ghost writer for the first time by saying, “I need a 500 word article on such-and-such a topic.” Your ghost writer will be able to produce that for you, of course. But if that’s all the information you give your writer, you’ll likely get a generic-sounding article that anyone could have written. And, more importantly, that no one will want to read.

Web content is most effective when it is written in your unique voice and contains your one-of-a-kind ideas. Articles like that are the ones that will help you gain trust with your audience, and eventually turn them into clients.

To help your ghost writer produce a relationship-building article for you, give her some insight into your thoughts and ideas so they can be included. Alternatively, be prepared to add your own original ideas to the article after the ghost writer is done with it.

This is a relationship.

Once you’ve found someone you think you could have a good working relationship with, it’s worth investing the time to foster that relationship.

The longer you and your writer work together, the more she will understand your web content needs. As she learns about your business, she may even be able to help you plan your article topics and develop your article marketing strategy.

If the content you get from the ghost writer the first time isn’t exactly what you had in mind, don’t assume that using a ghost writer is not for you. Perhaps you need to communicate your ideas more clearly. Or perhaps it will just take some feedback to get her on the right track.

Maybe what you really need is a virtual assistant.

There are ghost writing services. And then there are virtual assistants who specialize in ghost writing.

What’s the difference? A ghost writer is just that.

A virtual assistant, on the other hand, has business sense and experience and can help you use the content she writes for you in strategic ways.

A virtual assistant can repurpose your content into blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, ebooks, even teleseminars. If you don’t have a blog or don’t get social media, she can help you with that too. She can also help you find new places to publish your articles, and keep track of them for you.

The one article you paid for can be used in so many ways to find new prospects and win new clients. That saves you time and money, and makes you look really smart.

Business owners who decide to outsource their content often initially wonder if it’s worth the money they’ll spend. Or they wonder if the ghost writer will be able to produce the articles they need. By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be on your way to building a positive relationship with the writing professional you hire.

Are you thinking of outsourcing your content? I help my clients build relationships with their “people” by writing professional blogs, articles and press releases, then publishing and repurposing them in strategic ways.

Check out my portfolio and read my client testimonials. Then request a quote for your article and press release marketing needs.

Want to learn more about Roxy and Smokey? You’ll find that here

“Blah, blah, blah…. treat!”

“Blah, blah, blah…. walk!”

“Blah, blah, blah…. cookie!”

Most of what I babble on about is irrelevant to their little lives. But once in a while I hit on something that is really important to them. The rest, well, they’ll just put up with it because that’s what dogs do.

When people visit your blog, do they read “blah, blah, blah”?

Or do their ears perk up because you’re hitting on things that really speak to them?

Unlike my dogs, who are devoted to me regardless of my blah, blah, blahing, your blog readers don’t have time to sift through the blah blahs until they get to something good. The nanosecond they feel a hint of boredom, they’ll just click away.

You’re fascinating. (All of us are!) Yet when it comes to our blogs, many of us aren’t doing justice to our captivating personalities and spellbinding ideas.

So just how did your blog get so boring? I think there are some common culprits for the boringitis that’s infesting so many blogs right now. Here are a few of them.

Laziness… or is it thoughtlessness? Occasionally, laziness is the culprit behind a boring blog. Instead of coming up with their own ideas, people rehash the overused ideas of others. PLR articles, even rewritten, can kill a blog. Hiring a ghostwriter to write a generic article on a generic topic, without giving any input of your own, will result in blah blah blog posts.

Maybe it’s not true laziness that’s the problem here…  It might be just that these boring bloggers haven’t realized it’s not the blogging that matters. It’s the personal investment that goes into your blog that counts.

Overly focused on being the expert. Current internet culture puts high value on being the “expert.” To a degree, I understand that. As consumers, of course we want to work with people who know what they’re talking about.

But I have to confess, this idea of being an “expert” has always bothered me a little. I want to work with real people. Not experts who stand aloof, preaching that they know better than everyone else…  and forget to mention that they’re real people too.

You’ve heard the saying, “people buy from people they know like and trust.” The key word for me in there is “people.” Be a real one.

Not enough time. You may have heard blogging experts pronounce that having no time is no reason not to blog.  To an extent, I agree. You can write a quickie blog post in 15 minutes.

But to be fair to everyone who cries out that they’re too busy to blog (and to my clients who have their days scheduled down to the last five minute increment with not a second spare for blogging) there’s a lot more that goes into a blog post than just the writing of it. There’s planning the overall role that your blog will play in your business. There’s choosing topics to write about. The actual writing of the blog fits in there somewhere. Then there’s taking the time to schedule it or publish it depending on your schedule. Sometimes, that’s just too much to ask.

If your blog isn’t working for you - i.e. bringing you traffic and customers and earning you money – it might be worth asking yourself why. And what you’re going to do about it.

Maybe it’s time to insert a few of your more outrageous opinions. (I know you have them!) Or reveal that you’re not always perfect – you face the same challenges your readers do. (We all know you do anyway, so you might as well admit it.) Perhaps it’s time to consider outsourcing some of your blogging – whether it be the planning, writing, or even the publishing.

Once you show your readers that you know what they really want to hear from you, you’ll have them salivating for more.

Why don’t you engage and give me a call next week?

Next Monday, I’m launching Office Hours with Denise. For two hours each week, I’ll be sitting here by my phone, eagerly anticipating your phone call.

You’re invited to call me up and chat about whatever’s on your mind. We can check out your blog or website content together. Talk about your upcoming book or the articles you’re writing. Working at home, starting an online business, homeschooling the kids, or even about our dogs. It’s all fair game.

Really, I just want to learn more about the people I’m hooking up with online, and I want to give you the chance to get to know me better too.

The hours will vary each week, because I’m a busy mom and dog owner as well as a full-time entrepreneur. But you can find out about my open office hours each week by visiting my Facebook page.

I’m looking forward to talking (for real!) with you soon.

I wasn’t aware there was so much ambiguity surrounding the word “original,” but there has been enough debate about its definition lately that I decided to revisit it myself.

Even Ezine Articles, the mother of all article directories, has found it necessary to clarify the meaning of the word for its users.

When new clients contact me about writing an article for them, one of the first questions they ask me is something like:

“Do you write original articles? That you don’t copy from someone else? Because I found out the last writer I hired was just copying and pasting from other internet articles she found.”

Does “original” have any other meaning? To some other “writers,” it must, or else we wouldn’t be having these conversations and writing these blog posts.

The articles I write for my clients are 100% unique, belong exclusively to them, and represent their own unique ideas.

How do I come up with articles like that? By asking you a lot of questions. By learning about your business. By discovering what makes you so special… because of course you are.

That kind of article doesn’t come cheap. though. And it isn’t whipped together overnight. Instead, it requires a lot of thought and research and wordsmithing to get them to sound just right. And then if you’re not happy, it takes some more tweaking.

But when you’re building your reputation by distributing articles online, that kind of content is priceless.

To clarify, that is not what I do.

When you hire me to handle your ghostwriting, we agree that I’ll do the writing, or a portion of, and you’ll take the credit.

Since I’m also a virtual assistant, sometimes my job includes learning about your business, developing topics for your articles and books, or reviewing the role of your words in your overall strategy. But however we work together, the final result belongs to you. It has your name on it and is yours to use as you like.

One of the first questions new clients ask me about ghostwriting is, does it bother me to not get credit for my work? (Maybe they’re concerned they’ll suffer the same fate as the protagonist of that creepy book.)

No, it doesn’t bother me at all. I get satisfaction from using my talents to help my clients make the most of theirs. Which makes me think, if the guy in the book had only hired me before stealing that manuscript,  his life would be a whole lot simpler right now…