I received a question via email the other day that I thought I would share with you. This person who has chosen to remain anonymous wanted to know:
Is it possible to have a successful ghostwriting career without a website, marketing or self promotion?
Now I know this is going to go against everything that you have read or are reading at the different freelance writing blogs at the moment but my answer to this question is yes.
You may wonder why I answered yes and the truth of the matter is, I answered yes because I know that it is possible to have ghostwriting success without doing any marketing or having a website. I have done it and I know that there are many people out there who continue to do it today.
When I started my ghostwriting career I began by using the bidding website Elance. I didn’t have a website, social networking hadn’t been invented and I didn’t promote my services in any way. I worked solely via Elance and I earned enough money to enable me to quit my day job. It really is possible.
Today you don’t even have to rely solely on Elance or other bidding websites either because you have a number of choices. You can get paid to write blog posts and you can use content mills. Websites such as Suite101, Associated Content, Demand Studios, Helium and others pay you to write for them. You don’t have to market your services all you have to do is write. This actually suits a lot of people and that is why these websites are successful.
I know there are plenty of websites and freelance writing blogs condemning these content mills but in my opinion everyone deserves the right to choose who they write for. On Elance it is normal to receive around $10 per 500 word articles. This is what I would expect as a minimum payment anyway. With practice and especially if you are writing SEO articles you can complete around eight of these articles in a hour and I don’t think that $80 an hour is a bad rate of pay do you? I must mention here that if you are going to use Elance that you steer clear of the hourly pay jobs that are posted. Elance introduced a new system a while back that actually allows clients to spy on what you are doing so avoid hourly paying jobs at all costs. Fixed rate jobs are fine to bid on as this new software does not apply to these.
I know that Demand Studios pays a minimum of $15 per 500 words but they only accept writers from the US, Canada and the UK so that actually rules a lot of people out. They also have very strict editorial rules.
As you can see there are ways to earn as a ghostwriter and have a successful career without a website and without marketing. This is how I started and I will be totally honest with you, I very seldom market my services. I do have a website and social media accounts but I just don’t have the time to devote to these. My clients actually come to me and this is mostly through word of mouth. Previous Elance clients have recommended me to their contacts.
I want to leave this post open for comments. What do you think, do you think it is possible to maintain a successful ghostwriting career without marketing?
Until next time,
Keep Writing
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Hi Amanda,
I think the key to your question is “maintain”. I landed a very good ghostwriting gig by answering a Craigslist ad. I would have gotten the gig even without a website. With that said, it was good to be able to point the client to my site so that he could get a sense of my style and ability.
In terms of maintaining a ghostwriting career, unless I went with word of mouth and perusing the ads, I think it may be difficult to sustain a career. Although my web site has brought in *zero* ghost clients.
Great post!
George
Thanks George,
I have to admit my website has brought very few clients my way too in all the years. My client base is made up of repeat clients that I won through Elance and word of mouth. I very seldom market my services so I guess I am a successful ghostwriter without any marketing effort.
Amanda
It’s possible – I know Tiffany Dow built a very big reputation as a premier, highly paid ebook ghost writer for Internet marketers on Elance. I’m a big advocate for marketing. I’ve experimented here and there with bidding sites, but my personal experience has been that it’s easier to find higher paying work when I market my services directly to businesses.
Marketing regularly can be a very time consuming process, but it’s been the best way for me to keep business coming through the pipeline. It takes a lot of time to find businesses to contact, prequalify them, etc.; and I’ll admit that when I get really busy with client projects I slack in this area big time.
I’ve only used bidding sites as a supplementary income source, which is quite convenient; but I’m no expert on basing a business around them – though I hear many writers have done so successfully.
Thanks Kimberly,
I agree that finding the higher paying clients does require some marketing and yes there are a lot of people who have built really successful businesses using bidding websites. I guess the best thing is to find what works for you and stick to it.
Amanda
I’ve been writing for more than 20 years and have never used the bidding sites because I can’t see how anyone can make a decent living on $10 or $15 per article. I don’t think I’ve ever written an article for less than $60 and that’s for a writing newsletter where I know and like the editor.
Unless you are simply trying to publish your first work and get some initial credits, you should move away from the bidding sites as quickly as possible. You can go from one auto repair shop to another and nobody will end up fixing your car for $15, nor will someone paint your house for that matter. But someone will always find a writer willing to do something for nothing – like W.C. Fields once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Don’t be that sucker. Take pride in your work and your ability and don’t sell yourself short on websites in which people are looking to take advantage of your skills. The more people who do this, the less respect for all writers.
Once you have some clips, set a bottom line, for example, $50 for a 500 word article or $100 for a 1,000 word article, or whatever you think is fair. I’ve worked for 2 business websites frequently in recent years, one of which pays $800 per article, and the other pays roughly $400. They are not the only sites out there that pay – there are magazines that pay $.25 to $1.00 or more per word…why shouldn’t you go for those magagaines – look for them in Writer’s Marketplace. People who want to pay practically nothing to have their articles or web content written should simply do it themselves.
I have found the best way to market yourself is by networking in the writing community, through LinkedIn and through word of mouth. And once you get some work, keep in touch with your regular client base. It also pays to have a good website from which to market yourself – drive people to your site so they can see who yuo are and what you do.
Very interesting post, Amanda! While I would certainly recommend that writers have a website to which they can refer potential clients, I see your point. I know of several writers who have been approached about ghostwriting books and articles based on their having written for well-known magazines. It’s very possible their client never even bothered to look for a website, so you may be on to something. Maybe reputation and a proven track record trump marketing tools.
Best regards,
Marcia