By Michele Scism
The Results Lady
Finding Content for Your Blog
Dear Fellow Blogger:
Did you participate in the August Ultimate Blog Challenge? If so you already know that we will be starting the next blog challenge in October.
I thought it might be time to do a little series on where to get good blog content. We all know Content Is King when it comes to blogs.
Hire a Writer
There are freelance writers who make it their business to write articles, blog posts and more for website owners as well as bloggers. Most of these writers, also known as ghostwriters, charge per written piece and base their charges on the word count of the content you need.
Normally, you will send the writer either a broad topic or even an actual title and they will in turn write the content for you following your specifications. Finding a ghostwriter is not hard, especially with the field growing by leaps and bounds every single day. The hard part is finding a writer you can communicate well with, afford, and who can write in a way that captures your voice.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when hiring a ghostwriter.
Ask for Recommendations – Ask around and see who comes recommended. You can easily get references from other bloggers, website owners, Internet marketers, and even on social media sites such as Twitter.
Search Engines – While this is an option, I would definitely ask people you know and trust for their suggestions for a writer first. Just because a person’s website makes it to the top of the search engine results and they “claim” to be an experienced writer, doesn’t mean they are.
Recommendation: Elance.com offers a variety of writers to choose from.
It Might Take More than One to Find THE One
Just as every blog is different, so are writers. Don’t get discouraged if you try one (or sometimes more) writer and he or she is not what you had in mind. Some writers can take any blog owner’s writing style and implement it in their articles and blog posts with no problem what-so-ever. Others don’t find it as easy.
If you hire a writer and find you don’t like their writing style or approach to a topic, move to another. I can tell you from experience; sometimes it takes going through a few writers to find the one that “gets it” and will whip out superb content that fits your personality as if you wrote it yourself.
Review & Edit
It is critical that any piece of writing you have someone else put together for you, should be reviewed and edited as necessary. Whether you’re making changes to put more of your own thoughts and opinions to it or simply adding monetization items, you must, must, must review each and every piece of content you have created for you.
Coming Next – – Guest Experts!
I personally do not recommend hiring someone else to write your articles for you. No one (not even article writing and marketing experts like myself) can duplicate your personality, style and tone. That’s why I suggest you write your own blog posts so you become a thought leader. If someone else writes it, all you’ll get is…regurgitated content. So, try writing your own posts with my article templates at http://www.startwritingarticlesfaster.com
If you don’t want to do all the work — then have some guest bloggers contribute to your blog as well — but make sure your posts get prominence. If you’re looking for guest bloggers then..
#1 Email me at eric@articlemarketingexperts.com and I’ll let my list know plus email you my client’s articles that fit your needs.
#2 Fill out a free request at http://www.bloggerlinkup.com
Thanks!
Eric Gruber
Article Marketing Experts
908-380-8564
Hey Eric – Thanks for letting everyone know about Bloggerlinkup.com – that is a great idea. I am really looking forward to our call tomorrow where you can expand on this for everyone. Having someone write for you is only one of the ways to get content for your blog – you should definitely write your own articles (using your templates really helps with that) but there are also lots of other ways which I will be covering in this series. Todays article will actually talk about guest blogging (so this comment was really right on). Then we will talk about things like looking at your newsletter to see what you can use as a blog post, looking at what questions your clients are asking you on a regular basis and creating FAQ posts, etc.
Thanks for commenting, Michele
Eric:
I have to respectfully disagree. Of course, I am prejudiced because I do extensive ghostwriting. I also ghostblog, but not as much as I do ghostwriting of articles. I wrote a couple of posts on the topic.
I will agree that not everyone is as effective at ghostwriting. It is an art. As I said in my post on ghostwriting, you have to work at getting the voice of the expert. The more you work with that individual, the easier it becomes. I use their words and their passion. If you don’t capture that, you’re right. It’s regurgitated content.
It is especially critical in ghostblogging. I draw the line at responding to comments on their behalf. Not trying to push my content, but here are links to my posts with tips on perfecting the art of ghostwriting.
Thank you for the discussion.
http://simplystatedbusiness.com/2010/04/14/why-i-love-ghostwriting/
http://simplystatedbusiness.com/2010/04/26/is-ghost-blogging-unethical/
I think using a ghost writer really depends what you are wanting the blog to be about. But I partially agree with Eric, that if your blogs are based on your personality, tone and ideas, a post written by someone else, that is supposed to be you, might look a bit funny.
But if it’s a company or corporate blog, it might be fine. I did use a ghost writer once for one of my previous blogs, and it kinda worked well. So I really think it depends…
@Fiona-
I agree-it totally depends on the situation & the writer. The blogs I have done are for businesses.