Ghost Writers Resource To Better Writing

In the past year after running a successful Ghost Writing company I have learned a few things that may come in handy for those of you looking to hire these type of services out for your web copy. In this article here I want to describe a few things that you should know before you decide to hire any ghost writing service.

Web Copy Is Sales Content Not Articles

There are so many internet scams that people have adapted and now take the time to read your site copy. Many Ghost Writers are skilled in the art of informational content and not into sales copy. The difference is in the delivery of your site copy.

A great example would be someone selling shoes. An article based on a shoe type like "Clarks Wallabees" would be filled with details about the shoe, maybe different types or even details on how to keep them clean. Sales copy would be more compelling information like

"If you are looking for the best deals and service to buy your next pair of Clarks Wallabees then you have made the right choice with us. We offer the widest range of clarks shoes, the best prices and the fastest delivery! choose your favorite clarks by clicking here."

The delivery of your words will make or break your site. You need to qualify your choice of ghost writers by their ability to turn your web copy into a selling machine full of compeling and directive content.
Your Ghost Writer Should Know How To Research!

Another aspect of quality site copy is in the research. This requires an investigative intuition that many people do not qualify for. This is a very important factor in your sales copy. It will make the difference of telling someone false information versus true information. Imagine your site copy written in such a way that the reader gets the impression that your pricing is different then what you really charge. If not worded correctly then it could mean that something you offer on a monthly basis for monthly fee was presented as a monthly service for a yearly fee. Maybe you sell Ad space for $10.00 per month, but instead your web copy implies it is $10.00 per year.

If your ghost writer does not take the time to research your site, ask you questions and check other sites in your industry then you could end up with confusing content or content that leads your clients away.

Clear and Consise Content Is a Must

Filling up your content with keywords and jibberish will only upset potential clients and turn them away. If someone writes you great seo copy and you end up on page 1 in the major search engines, you could feel like you were given the best service in the world. If the results of this great exposure does not turn into profits for you, then you have a wasted position on your hands. Though keywords are important and keeping in line with the search engines to get placement is just as important, you can't affort to waste getting top positions and no sales ever convert from it.

Everything from your Meta description to your site copy must be clear and consise to deliver traffic and sales for your online business.

Conclusion

Though there are many other aspects to ghost writing, you will have to wait until the next article to get those details. I believe that if you understand the importance of web copy for your site then it will be easier to hire a ghost writer and feel great about your choice. Check back for more information and get ready to convert your traffic into sales.

Based on my experience working with Ghost Writers and offering content writing services I have run into a few things that believe can be very helpful to give an edge to ghost writers.

Most people looking for help on content for their site, blog or articles typically have another need... "everything else". What do I mean? Well, lets say someone hires you to write an article and then you hand it over to them, they love it and email you back asking "now what?".

This is typical, people know what they need because they read about it daily, but to actually put it into use is something else entirely.

A skilled ghost writer will also know how to:

• Submit Articles To Ezine Sites


• Prepare the bio line with inline text links


• Create an html version for their client so the client can add it to their site


• Actually be able to add the articles to the clients site

This applies to article writing, but imagine site content, blog writing, etc. I know a lot of writers, but not so many who have basic html skills and knowledge on what to do with the content after it is written.

Take pride in your work and extend your knowledge to include these skills. It will take you far.

I am steering away from my normal talks on ghost writers and moving into an area of deep concern. Though this still applies to those of you looking to become or hire a ghost writer, this also applies to any industry and the growing need to find a friendly voice and quality customer service.

If you go back to an earlier time when you would drive your car to a Gas Station. It was nothing short of great customer service. Someone would run to car, clean your windows, check your oil and fill up your tank. You just sat there and relaxed while your car was being taken care of.

Now you go to a gas station and you will be lucky to see a worker walking around. This is the issue we are finding in every business.

Here is a typical situation that I get at least 1 time per month. I will get a phone call from someone and talk over their needs and work out a plan for their online business in the form of content, site design, etc. Now these are clients who have had difficulties getting answers or just getting what they were sold. Within 5 minutes of our conversation they are usually ready to hand over to my company the work they were going to have the other company handle for them.

The reason for such a quick turn around from a client like this is because we are taking the time to explain and educate them on what we offer and how it works. This is way more then what they typically get.

Some helpful hints to improve your customer service:

1. Be attentive. Listen to your clients needs and don't spend your time over selling.
2. Explain your services in a way that makes sense to your client. In many cases this is your biggest selling point.
3. Set time lines and stick to them. If you can't meet the time lines you set then let your client know in advance and set a new time line.
4. Write up an agreement for the services you offer and stipulate your terms and conditions. It can be a very simple contract that explains what you offer and re-states your time lines, etc.

Your greatest asset is your ability to communicate and earn trust. If people call or come to you, they are more then likely ready for your services.

Though there is a lot more details I can go into, I think it is obvious there is a great need for quality customer service. If you want to see consistent growth for your company I highly suggest you up your people skills and start making your customers happy, the way it used to be.

For some time now there has been much talk about content for SEO and how effective it is. What I noticed most about these talks is that they tend to say that you don't need to worry about content as much as you do getting links. Then the flip of this is you need content and not worry about links.

I have studied the trend of the Search Engines for close to 10 years now and though they change their algorithms all the time there is some consistent things that have not changed:

1. content


2. links


3. clicks


4. popularity

What amazes me here is all these are based on content. In fact in the arguments against content they still claim to need links, bookmarking sites, networking sites and more. Well, don't those require you have content. Lets break this down into a way that makes sense for all.

Content

Ghost Writing Services have emerged more and more on the net and the reason is there is a growing need for Quality content. At first we were so excited about the internet that as long as the site looked cool that was enough. Now it needs to make sense. Choosing your words for your site can make or break it.

The need for content for improving SEO is based on these marketing techniques that absolutely improve your rankings:

1. Website Copy


2. Meta Tag Setup


3. Article Writing


4. Blog Writing


5. Social Networking Accounts


6. Bookmarking Sites


7. Forums


8. Discussion Groups


9. Directory Submissions

If you are not active doing the above techniques you are suffering on the world wide web for traffic. The thing is, you need content to make all 9 of those techinques work. If you are not a skilled writer then you will definetly need a ghost writer. If you just put anything out there, just to do it, it will count against you. The search engines will see it and your readers will see it. If you take another sites content and duplicate it, then you are causing not only your own downfall but potentially the downfall of the site you are stealing from (I will cover in a future article how to protect your content agains such thieves).

Links

Above, I just touched on about 9 different ways to use content. Well, most of thosse techniques will assist you in building back links. For a long time, the idea of link exchanging was huge and had great effects. Now people are wanting to build one way links.

Lets take one of these techniques here like "Article Writing". You write a 400 word article and it is great!, you then submit it to a site like "http://www.ezinearticles.com" and get approved. Your article has a bio and in that bio is a link to your site. You are now getting 1 quality link from a high ranking site. Imagine if you take that same article and submit it to 50 ezine sites. You can get 10 articles out in a month and receive 100's of links back to your site and spend very little time doing this. Doing link exchange is a much more tedious process and maybe you will end up with 10 links after all that work.

In order for the link building to work using strategies like articles, blogs, social networking, etc. You need quality content, other wise your efforts will be rejected. Plus, the more links you have from other sites the higher you move up in the search engines.

Clicks

Did you know that search engines measure the clicks you get from search results and can even measure clicks from other sites to your site? The all power Google and others like it can measure your clicks. These clicks determine your position in their search engine.

When you create content and links on other sites, are they getting clicks? If not, it may be due to your ability to compel your readers to do so. This is where creativity comes into play. You need to move your readers to click. Here are a few ideas:

1. Join a Social Network like Digg, Squidoo, Linkedin, facebook, etc. As you put out articles, blogs, etc send messages to your group of friends and collegues and ask them to read and review.


2. Write contreversal content that really gets people going and sending out emails and asking others to read it


3. Give something away like an ebook, software, images, services, etc

There are many other things you can do, but the point is getting people involved with what you are doing in order to get them to click. I want to stress here there are many programs out there that claim to do these on auto pilot, but will almost always put your site on the black list of SEs. It is not worth trying these black hat methods and they only hurt you in the long run. If you are serious about business make it obvious with the time and quality of your hard work.

Popularity

Of course if you are success in the above, you will become popular. The great thing about this is you don't have to become popular because of your looks and your weight, you become popular by your hard earned results. Popularity will get your far because not only does it continue to help improve your rankings, but it sends clients your way that you never would have received other wise.

Conclusion

I will stress this over and over again. Learn what it takes to win online. The world is changing and how people spend their money is too and online sales and marketing is the way to go at this time and will only increase.

In the past few years this service of Ghost Writing has become more common and now an acceptable way of doing business. This craze has brought what most new business ventures seem to bring out... con artists and sloppy customer service.

When I make first contact with potential new clients they typically ask me the same thing which is "can you show me samples of your work". Well, not to arrogant, but what a waste of time that is. Truly, this is really a waste of time. I can show them any site I want and say "I did this".

The question to prove your content by showing past work is common, but there is no real merit behind it. What I would ask if I were hiring a new Ghost Writer is:

A. Where are you located and are there more then one writer and where are they located?
B. Can I be assured that what I get is original content and not duplicated and will you stand by your word on this?
C. Will you make changes if needed that are within reason and for just cause?
D. Are you a legit company or just an individual selling services. Either way can you provide me with a contract that states this is my content once I pay for it and that you will not use this content without my permission.

Then of course I would ask them to write me at least 1 page for my review and really see them in action. If I am happy, then I will pay and continue to use them for more content.

The idea here is that you get what you pay for and too many times by relying on the word of the writer and their past work, people go full force, pay for tons of content and end up stranded with no way to get their content or money back.

If you have not heard of CopyScape then you have now. Have you paid someone to write your content and did you after wards make sure it was unique content? If not, copyscape it now! Why?, there is a huge epidemic of terrible Ghost Writers that are charging you for content written by others.

A great example, we put together a slick seo'd blog for one of our clients and they had an in house writer and did not need us for this service. Well, after 2 months I got a phone call because the writer was making many mistakes with spelling and grammar.

After a long detailed look into his blog we discovered more then bad writing, we found duplicate content! What a mess! It did not take any effort after this to offer our services and suggest we replace the duplicate content with fresh and original content.

It is one thing to research other writers work and get ideas and then come up with your own version of content, but it is another thing to out right take the content and claim it as your own. At least give credit to the original writer by linking back to them.

In a future article we will discuss how to secure your content and get credit for it as well. In the meantime, be smart and check up on your writers!