A form of ghost writing, “ghost blogging” means writing blog posts for someone other than oneself. Such writing may be presented as coming from the client, from his or her “team” or “desk,” or even from a fictional character or mascot.

Why use a ghost blogger? To answer this question, it’s necessary to explain both the benefits of blogging and the benefits of using a ghost blogger.

The benefits of blogging

• SEO effect: Building up online content about your business can have a positive impact on your standing in search engine results.
• Promotional effect: The blog posts contain valuable information about your business and industry accessible by your customers, your employees, and yourself. This information may be further used in email and print newsletters, white papers, brochures, and many other media.
• Credibility effect: Putting out new and pertinent content about your business and industry on a continual and consistent basis demonstrates that you are “in the game” and authoritative. As Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.”
• Training effect: Blogging trains you to communicate effectively about your business and industry and encourages you to keep abreast of current and important topics.

Because of the substantial value blogging adds to an online presence, standalone static websites are becoming a thing of the past. My personal belief is that the much-touted SEO effect, as important as it is, actually is the least important of the above for most businesses. In any case, in order to realize a substantial SEO effect, it’s important to treat blogging as one part of a complete SEO strategy. I can recommend good SEO experts to anyone who has the need.

Benefits of using a ghost blogger

A company will have to spend either time or money to create blog posts. Therefore, as with any potential marketing project, a company should decide whether or not to use a ghost blogger based on ROI. On average, a skilled ghost blogger can more cost-effectively create quality blog posts than the average owner or employee.

When an owner or employee has writing skills and wants to write and has time to write, he or she may be preferable to a ghost blogger, since no one writes better about a business or industry than a person who is knowledgeable, experienced, and intrinsically motivated. A ghost blogger, however, can help in any number of ways:

• Write blog posts from scratch
• Write blog posts based on ideas, summaries, etc.
• Edit others’ blog posts
• Any combination of the above

Ghost blogging requires a genuine relationship between client and writer and a substantial, ongoing time commitment on the part of the writer. I currently have one ghost blogging client and am looking for a few more with whom to build excellent rapport and a long-term partnership. Should you have an interest in this exciting marketing tool, I welcome you to contact me to discuss your business and your blogging needs.