Internet Business and Marketing

Good point Fred. I could count the number of posts written by interns on my blog on one hand. I don't use many of the ghostwritten posts because they don't sound like something I'd write.

Excellent post Fred.

Really, I feel similar way, write all 'stuff' myself. I had some help hosting a couple of Blog Carnivals, and I gave credit where credit was due.

I actually got some email, asking me, where I found that great an assistant? That had more positive impact than pretending I worked 120 hours a week or so.

Do you remember the story of Milly Vanilly? A pop duo that won a Grammy 1990 and lost it again, because it came out they had a "ghostsinger" on the album. There was also a class action lawsuit filed against them under various U.S. consumer fraud protection laws.

There are various ethical and unethical ways on how to use ghostwriters in your business, but my bottom line is ... a 'personal Blog' is personal [period].

Very interesting topic. Right now I'm doing a little testing in this area on potentially using ghost writers for some posts.

I don't see anything ethically wrong with it as long as you make sure every single post is something you would say anyway...even if it isn't in your exact words.

Maybe I should simply make it clear that my blog is not a "personal blog." It's a business blog. And you don't have a business if it requires you to do the work all the time (that was a mistake I made in the past which got me burned out).

Even in the past I didn't write every post. Some are simply taken as excerpts from materials I've written or edited from transcripts.

You are right on Fred. I have thousands of readers, and run five major sites (www.brentriggsblog.com; www.seriousfaith.com; www.riggsreport.com; www.brentriggsforum.com; www.riggsdesk.com). EVERY SINGLE KEYSTROKE that has my signature below it (which is ALL of seriousfaith.com and brentriggsblog.com; and all my comments on the Forum) is written by ME personally. Why? Because people come to my sites wanting to read what I wrote, what I thought of... not some ghostwriter who is pretending to write like me. If you are strictly selling products and business information, I have less criticism of the practice. If you go beyond that to the area of personal advice, religion or mentoring, you OWE IT to the people who trust you and think YOU are writing, to be the one writing, and responding to them. Unlike some unnamed people out there, if you really care about your readers, you are accessible to them, and you don't "fool them" with ghostwriters. Brent Riggs

Hi Fred,

I think this shows that people who have much of the same opinions can have a little of a disagreement on a subject.

Maybe my difference of opinion comes a lot from working with and even being a copywriter at times. For example, I've had many sales letters with my name on them that I didn't write. In fact, I once hired Brian Keith Voiles to write every sales letter for me for a year.

I've also written sales copy for others. Never once did we put my name on sales copy I wrote for them. It was always done in their voice and from them.

So anyone who hires a copywriter would definitely be breaking the rule of "if it has your name on it, you created it."

And remember, copywriters don't just write sales letters. They also write websites, whitepapers, free reports, emails, scripts for audios and videos, and blog posts. They also often write bonuses that come along with a product.

To reassure you on the book issue, I did write all the text for each of my books. Although that is not the normal practice for most authors, it is what I did for those.

This is so funny because I find that I actually like a few of the ghost writers writing style far better than the blog owner's oftentimes.

The blog owner's tone tend to be a brash, harsh and over the top when expressing their thoughts. Kind of like using a sledge hammer when a much smaller hammer would do in many instances.

I write all the posts on my blog, but I have considered having guest bloggers. Michel Fortin did it this past summer with much success. I had fun trying to write a blog post that would become more popular than the other guest bloggers.

I remember one person commented after a series of guest blog posts: "Michel, where are you? These guest posts are great, but I want to hear from YOU!"

I'm paraphrasing, of course. But I think it illustrates the powerful bond you make with people on a blog.

I'm not sure I have a strong opinion one way or the other. With blogging and article writing, my preference is to know who wrote the post. In other media, I'm not as concerned.

Like Terry mentioned, copywriters often write copy without getting credit. I'm a copywriter, and probably 70-80% of what I write doesn't have my name on it.

This particular issue about blogs is interesting because I'm currently ghostwriting another blog for a client. I basically try to think like he thinks and write like he writes. Unfortunately, there is a clear difference between our posts because I'm a writer and he's not.

But it makes me feel good when I write a post that gets a lot of feedback and praise directed at my client. Now, how would his readers feel? I don't know. They've been reading my copy for over a year now: sales letters, emails, blog posts, etc.

Back when I worked at the homeschooling company, I wrote a lot of copy on behalf of the owners. Sometimes what I wrote would be attributed to the male owner; sometimes to the female owner. Sometimes, as in the case of individual product descriptions, there was no attribution at all.

It would be fair to say that good copywriters are chameleons. They can adapt to almost anyone's voice.

I have a client who recently asked me to write an affiliate email for one particular person. So I had her send me some examples that had been written by this person. I read two of his emails, then wrote one of my own. When I sent it to my client, she said, "I think this is excellent. It sounds just like him. You are amazing!"

In the end, perhaps the onus is on the blog owner to publish only what he would have written himself, had he had the time to do so.

In this way, he can still be authentic without personally writing every line of copy. If he can't review and approve everything before it's published with his name on it, then perhaps that is where the issue begins to become unethical.

Fred - I do wonder who is doing the talking sometimes when other blog experts have their interns post for them. I don't think there is anything wrong with it per se because if the blogger allowed the posts on his blog - then it must have been something he would say.

I think you are taking a more moral view, which is, if people sign up to my blog or come to my blog to here me speak - then that is what you are gonna get.

Although for many bloggers, it is not a morality issue at all. For you, it just goes against your conscience and I respect that.

Its like if a group of people expected to hear Warren Buffet give out investment advice but instead one of his subordinates turned up and gave the same advice he would have given verbatim how would they feel? Probably cheated even though the advice is the same.

Ghostwriting blog entries is a mistake.

Anyone who follows a blog regularly can spot such an entry. It's a bit disconcerting.

Why do people regularly visit a specific blog in the first place? It's because they want A SPECIFIC VIEWPOINT. Why jeopardize your following by throwing in filler?

One online marketer who's initials are "JB" uses such an approach, and brags about it. I don't care for JB, nor do I think people should listen to his advice. But if I were one of his readers (why?!) I would be a bit insulted to know that he has people with zero background in marketing writing filler for him under his name. Why would I want to continue to read his blog knowing that some or much of the material is written by people with little experience on the subject?

In this limited time economy, people aren't going to keep returning when there is no meat on the bone.

It's hard enough to gain (and keep) an audience with so many blogs competing against you. It just seems a little crazy to make ghostwritten posts part of your strategy when YOU are ultimately the product that people come to see. You really can't clone that, because you can't clone YOU.

Fred
This is a very timely post as this subject was on my mind very recently.
Great article as usual. I appreciate your blog because of your quality material.
If you ever start using interns I will know and will stop reading.
However a clearly identified guest blogger would be fine if you need to take some time off.

I see both sides of the argument.

That said, I *used* to find JB's blog posts "must-read" and very helpful. Now, over 80% of them are drivel... almost as bad as going to the forums he so detests... except this is positive and upbeat drivel, unlike the admittedly frequent negativity of some forums. ;-)

This deterioration of quality is clearly a result of his outsourcers and interns simply re-spinning the same, tired content.

And yes, about 5%-10% of JB's posts are still somewhat useful. But nowhere near as "ground-shaking" as the highly useful information he wrote himself, in the first year of his blog.

Hi Fred,

An excellent post. I've followed the advice of another IM'er (JB) and there is a lot of wisdom in what he says - especially if you want to have your business run on "auto-pilot" or with minimal intervention.

I like the idea of having a ghostwriter write the blog posts -- but I'm wary of that.

Like all bloggers chances are that a post on your site may be as a result of reading something else somewhere else -- which is fine, especially if you put your own spin onto the topic. However more and more often I see a post, (for example only) on your website then see similar posts all over the place and in some cases it's the exact same title being used!

Now if you know the writing style of the site owner you will clue in that it's probably a ghostwritten or intern written post. If the individual is doing this -- then shouldn't there be some type of reference back to where they spotted the idea from?

Writing something new everyday is a daunting task, I struggle with it but manage quite well. I do find ideas from other blogs but always provide reference to my readers and visitors -- after all shouldn't you give credit where it is due?

Will I ever use ghostwriters or interns? Who knows -- right now, I don't think so but that could change. But if I ever do I will ensure that if the individual uses someone elses posts as the ground work for my post that they provide proper credit and at minimum a reference to the post that gave them the idea.

As alway - great information, Fred!

Regards,

Mohamed

Hi Fred,

Thanks for this post. I was in two minds as to whether or not to start getting my blog ghost written, and I think you've just settled that argument for me.

Not.

I'll be setting up another blog shortly after I've got over a hump of work, and I think I may well get that ghost written, or even just publish my contributors names etc. on there.

This is certainly food for thought.

-Frank Haywood.

Hi Fred,

Totally off topic - what are you using for your Digg button? I've got a plugin that I'm using - but when I go to a single post the post shows up twice! Aack...

Thanks!

Mohamed