I don’t ghost blog. But I do ghostwrite, and some of what I write are blogs. Sound like an equivocation? It’s not. Honest.
Ghost-blogging has been a controversial topic among professional writers for some time. Is it ethical? Is it real blogging? Is it kosher? Should there be a disclaimer?
These are all good questions and my take on it? Ghost-blogging is a bad idea. Your customers come to your blog to get to know you, not me. They want to know your thoughts, not mine.
But I’m all for an exec hiring a ghostwriter to write blogs.
I’ve ghostwritten for several clients, covering varying fields of interest – automobiles, health, retail products, environmental issues, business leadership, SEO, painting, and others. But I’ve never ghost-blogged.
When clients come to me asking me to ghost-blog, they seem to be hoping I’ll somehow just sit down, start writing some really smart stuff, slap their name on it, and call it theirs. Doesn’t work that way for me.
I’m a journalist by training. I listen. I interview. I take your ideas, thoughts and concerns, and based on what you tell me (using your words and style as much as possible), I write the article or blog. The blog is yours; the professional polish is my contribution.
That’s not most people’s idea of a ghost-blogger. But it is a ghostwriter.
