The WMF Archives

Today seemed like a good day to talk about ghost writing. This is something most struggling writers battle with themselves about. New online writers may not even know what it is. When i started I kept seeing the words "ghost writing" all over the place and I had no idea what it meant. Honestly I was too busy trying to find a way to make some money using the things inside my head and what resources I had available. Heck, I was impressed by the very idea that someone was going to pay me to write about things I just took for granted. When I thought about today's post I was trying to keep new writers in mind. There is a lot of money to be made doing ghost writing so I thought it might be prudent to address it.

What is Ghost Writing?
Ghost writing is a form of writing that the writers doesn't get credit for. You write it but someone else's name goes on it. To serious writers trying to get their name out there it's an almost offensive idea. No, actually it is offensive. Why would a writer bother? We'll get to that right after I tell you how it works.

There are plenty of people who are looking for articles to serve their own purposes. One primary reason for ghost writing is that the publisher of the writing doesn't want to be bothered with usage rights and page view payments. Some sites offer ghost writing jobs on a regular basis and individual clients go out of their way to find professional ghost writers. It's actually a booming field.

Why Do Ghost Writing?
The answer to this question is simple. Cash. If you want to make a living, you have to go where the money is. If you're a writer, this can be tricky. Some open calls take weeks or months to respond and even then you might get rejected. In the meantime, the bills still need to be paid.

Personally, I'm pretty good at seeing the silver lining in the cloud. I have to. Sometimes life just sucks and who wants to walk around with nothing to look forward. Yes, I ghost write. I do it for a couple of reasons like the ones I've listed below.

• Money.Oh yeah, I have bills to pay. A good portion of my income comes from ghost writing and all I can say is that yes I am serious about my writing, but I'm like most people and have to start at the bottom. I have news for everyone else. There's more to be learned along the way to the top than there is looking down from it.
• Learning different styles. Most clients have their own styles that they require from the writer. Different sites may do better with different styles as well. When I ghost write, I have to meet the standards of the client. In doing so I may use a completely different style than I normally would. This is one way for me to add some variety to my writing tools. You can never have too many of those!
• New Topics. If you've ever had writers block or just can't focus, working on ghost writing jobs is a great way to bring things together. You don't have to think of the topic or the keywords. They're already provided for you. All you have to do is string some words together and make sure all the standards are met. When it's all said and done, you've made some money and you may even have some knowledge of topics you never even considered before.
• Rewrites. Ghost writers lose all rights to their work. That means they can't sell an article then post it somewhere else for page views. But, any article can be rewritten. The general rule is to have a 60% difference in the writing. Personally, I don't rewrite other's work. I just don't feel right about it. But then I also don't write other people's research papers while other writers make a great living off of that kind of work. I am however, perfectly willing to rewrite my own work when I'm having a bout of writer's block and need to get some work out there for page views.
• Critiquing. Some sites that offer ghost writing work actually rate the work. Their rating system gives me an idea of how other people view my writing. Even individual clients are sure to share their opinion of your work. If they don't share their opinion but keep asking me to do work for them then it's pretty safe to assume I'm doing something right. It doesn't hurt to simply ask them either. Most are happy to give their opinion even if it's a brief one.

Where to Find Ghost Writing Work? If you're just starting out then there are a couple of sites that are great for testing your ghost writing skills. Textbroker is one that offers tons of ghost writing work and the pay is based on your skill level. No one is going to get rich writing for them, but they are great for making some quick cash and getting topic ideas. Payout is once a month and you have to have a minimum of $10 in your account to request it.

Mturk is another great resource site for ghost writing. They also offer other kinds of work which makes it a convenient place to go when you simply can't find anything else. Payout is whenever you request it after the minimum of $15 is reached.

Check job boards frequently for more ghost writing jobs. Don't be afraid to apply. After all, the worst that can happen is for them to say no or not respond at all. Since this can be a frustrating and repetitive, you might consider making a word pad document with a generic format that can be used over and over as well as being easily modified to fit the needs of particular clients. Then you can simply cut and paste it into forums and job boards.

While some writers may really enjoy this just for the sake of enjoying writing at all, chances are that this will simply be a starting point. That's okay. Everyone has to start somewhere. With the economy looking like it may get worse before it gets better, ghost writing may be the only thing between some writers and complete financial devastation.

Ghost Writing