How Ghost writing Articles and Booklets Can Earn You Big Money!
Do you want to make $5000, $10,000 or more every month as a
freelancer? Does your current published materials earn you that
much or are you still struggling looking for new jobs every
month? Well, ghost writing articles and books for businesses
could earn you a lot of money and end your painful quest for
writing jobs.
Making money as a freelance writer can be tough especially for
newbies with no samples or prior experience. Most editors want
published writers with a proven track record. And the few
acceptances you will receive may get you paid $50 or $100 an
article. With these figures you can only imagine whether you can
make a living freelancing.
Well, its not all doom and gloom as there are other better
alternatives. One of these, is ghost writing of articles, books,
manuals, e.t.c. for business for fees ranging from $500 to $5000
or even more for big work. A single how-to article could be
ghost written for businesses for a fee of $1500 or $3000
depending on the work involved writing and the publications
placed in. Surely this is much more than many magazine and
newspaper editors pay for single articles from newbies. Sell
four or five articles per month and you can consider going full
time into freelancing.
GETTING STARTED To begin with, you need to identify a niche area
of you expertise .It could be in medical writing, business
writing or a narrow area which you are knowledgeable in or you
can make easy inroads into. Not that this limits your market
potential but having a niche area of specialization would make
it easier to operate, as you will be constantly drawing ideas
from a rich and ready knowledge base.
Next, you should research a few ideas and convert them into a
few how-to articles in your market niche. Post the finished
articles to article submission databases such as:
Use the published articles as samples of your writing ability
and work. At the same time the articles will be picked and
published in hundreds of ezines and high traffic sites, thus
gaining free publicity for you and your business. FINDING
BUSINESS To get business you will need to send letters or
e-mails to your local businesses and even those beyond with
proposals to write articles for them. Explain to them the
benefits of your business such as boosting their business's
image and credibility as well as generate leads for later follow
- up. Enclose a few samples, a tentative contract agreement and
a cover letter.
You can also purchase or rent business names and addresses from
direct mail list brokers, fish out names from your business and
yellow pages directory.
Before writing to them, you could do some background check and
find out the status and details of the business. If they have a
website, you could check it out and get the name of their
marketing executive. Address your letter to him/her and offer to
call or visit for a detailed business presentation. For
businesses which are far away, you could refer them to you
website or offer to send them more information by post or e-mail.
WRITING THE ARTICLE Once you have secured the business's
acceptance and you have signed a contract, you should ask them
to send to you brochures, press releases, manuals, e.t.c. Write
down a list of questions and send to the marketing executive
seeking answers about the business or industry.
You can also do further research at the local library, online
libraries and databases and read trade and industry publications
for further information to write an outline for a how to-article.
However, do not make a mistake to think that the article will be
about your client or load it with so many facts that bore you
reader. That could be suitable for a custom -made booklet,
manual or newsletter for the client. For articles, it is a
different matter. Offer tips, solutions to consumer or business
problems or give a valuable insight into a common issue or
problem. The article could be about self-improvement, making
more money, improving health, planning finances, training e.t.c.
The article would contain the client's by line and bio. The bio
would explain briefly who the client is, the client's websites
URL and e-mail address. This is very useful and will be the
centrepiece of the credibility and viral marketing campaign.
Once you have written the article, you need to send a draft to
your client for suggestions and revisions. Adopt the
suggestions, proofread it and prepare a final draft. Send the
final draft to your client and post it to article databases,
ezines and syndicates online and offline. In the course of time,
the article will be distributed and circulated online and off
generating wide publicity for you client.
How long should the articles be? For how-to articles 500-750
words is the standard but where the subject needs exhaustive
treatment 1000 to 1500 words is good length. For a higher word
count, you should advice your client to consider an ebook,
booklet or book. Of course, the longer the article, the higher
the fees.
SETTING YOUR FEES There is no standard way of pricing your
article writing services. You should set your fees based on the
research work involved, the hours you spend on the work, and
expenses involved in producing and publishing the article and a
profit.
For a 300 to 500 words article $200 to $300 is fair but as the
word count leaps into the hundreds, figures of $1500 to $5000
are reasonable. To convince your customers to cough such
amounts, you will need to tell them the benefits of your service
and business promotion through articles. You could also offer
them various packages laden with bonuses and offers. For
example, I offer a package, which includes paid placements to
article databases and syndicates, ezines solo ads and press
releases writing and posting. All this is done to assure the
client cheap maximum and wide exposure no matter what. For
booklets and ebooks of less than 50 pages, rates of $3000 to
$10,000 are not uncommon. For books a ghostwriter may be paid
anything from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on expertise, length
and research involved.
At those rates obviously, you will not get everybody in, but for
prospective clients who are used to paying hundreds of thousands
in advertising dollars they would see it s reasonable and
beneficial in the long term.
To ensure that you do not miss business from those who have
small budgets to spend on promotion, you can structure your
packages according to ability to pay. Those who pay less would
get good exposure with no assurance of leads while those who pay
more will get an almost guaranteed response.
BENEFITS Everyone wants to know how he/she will benefit from a
product or service. For yourself as a freelancer, you will get
booming business and enjoy making money as a freelance ghost
writer. You will get more business by collecting and showing
testimonials of your satisfied clients and establish a
reputation as a prolific writer.
For the clients, you will need to explain to them the benefits
of your service. Here are some benefits you can tell them:
Free publicity to millions of prospects online and offline. The
published articles may be used by the client to mail to existing
and prospective customers as a free service, building
credibility and a positive image of the business in the process.
Leads will be generated for future follow -up. Enquiries will be
made about the business and some sales will be made. The
publication of the article online which contains relevant
keywords with the clients website URL will increase its link
popularity and improve its search engine ranking. This may bring
in more targeted visitors to the website. The client will be
given progress reports for at least six months on the places
where the articles has been published .You can inform him/her to
also search for it on search engines using his/her by-line or
article title.
The article could provide spin-offs for other article ideas,
which you could slant for various businesses and markets. You
could also write new articles every month, post them to article
databases and send to prospective clients with a cover letter to
market your services.
This ghost writing service could be very lucrative. You could
earn tens of thousands of dollars every month from it. You could
even get clients worldwide through your website and e-mails to
direct response mailing lists.
Only the sky the limit!