Talk about building your reputation and boosting your credibility! Being published is a great way of telling people what you can do for them. The more often potential customers see your name and read about your business, more confident they’ll be in buying your products or services.

How Does it Work?

It all begins with a phone call or email inquiry to ghostwriter or ghostwriters you’ve selected. From there, ghostwriters will typically interview you over phone and by email (often for free). Let’s say you want an article on “Designing Widgets”…the ghostwriter will need a detailed summary of your ideas to create a series of review drafts, which will go back and forth for your edits and, eventually, your approval. Ghostwriters will work closely with you until job is done to your satisfaction. Once you’ve signed off on it, they can call their media contacts (or yours) to shop your article.

A book-length project follows same pattern, but takes longer and costs more—sometimes a lot more. You might want to test waters with a self-published e-book before plunging into print publishing. E-books can be made available on a website (your own or someone else’s), and have become popular and highly effective marketing tools.

Whatever job, however, talented, experienced ghostwriters know how to provide value to their clients. At end of day, ideas are all yours and finished product carries your byline. Articles with free-reprint rights are routinely published in ezines and by websites, both of which can generate results, though you may prefer writing to a local readership.

For example, a financial advisor I work with approached his town's newspaper about writing for them on money matters. His name and reputation earned him a monthly 500-word column. Although he has plenty of ideas, he has a lot more profitable things to do than write. Spending a few minutes a month on phone with me laying groundwork for each column is a smart, efficient use of his time. It lets me do my job, while advisor spends more time where he needs to be: in front of prospects and clients.

Selecting a Ghostwriter – Talent, Versatility

Find a way to build this into your routine. The more people you talk to and learn about (with regard to your product or service) more you will know what your customers really want from you.

The fun thing about this is you meet a lot of wonderful people in process. And, you develop ability to match your company's strengths with what your market wants. You find out what you can and should offer as well as what you can't or should not offer.

The other nice thing about this idea is that it helps me remember that we are in business to serve our customers. That is our top priority. If we do that well, rest falls into place.