Great Ghostwriter, Terrible Marketer - How do I get consistent work?

[Charles Washington]

I have been ghostwriting ebooks, articles, and website content for a year. I have had a lot os success, but I cant get consistent work. What's the secret?

I would be happy with $1000-$2000 per month, but I am not willing to work for less than .02 cents per word. <~~I take pride in my research and craft.

I have tried elance, but with no luck. How do I find good consistent work as a writer?
Note: I am not ready to write sales letters just yet, just all other content.

[John Rowe]

Put a link to some writing samples in your signature so
members can see some of your past work and writing style.

[John_S]

In marketing your service, you have to position what you do.

Read my post in this thread, which reveals how you should market what you do.

[BeyondThePen]

1 - go back to your former clients and offer your services again. Maybe they need more articles, another ebook, etc. They already know your work, so if you crank out quality writing you don't have to convince them...

2 - Have you tried Guru.com? I've filled in some "open time" here and there with Guru - and these were $2k jobs. But yeah, you have to wade thru the $1 per article projects.

3 - I'm not a fan of writing for free - especially multiple articles. I would say if you choose to create a WSO first whip up some great articles on Ezine. Then link to that showing peeps your terrific writing style. THEN create a WSO with a kick ass deal (not free - but still kick ass) and pick up some potential long-term clients.

4 - Learn to love marketing. Read everything you can about it. Because if you're in business for yourself, then you have to market yourself. Period. No one else is gonna do it for you.

[maximus242]

As someone who has given ghostwriters consistent work for 6 months every week, day in and day out, I can tell you that it comes down to delivering results at a price that makes sense.

Your best bet for consistent work is to become a blog writer not an article writer and just start working for 5-6 different blogs, that should give you a constant stream of work since by nature, blogs have a constant need for new content -- where as it doesn't really matter with articles.

Also blog owners dont like to constantly change up writers because the readers get confused when they see constantly new styles of writing coming in.

So become the blog writing expert for a specific market and then market yourself to those people. Also become an expert on blog promotion so you have a Value Added Sale and can upsell your customers.

[arbitrage101]

The idea of marketing is universal for every profession.

1. Create an attractive website that sells itself.
2. Bring in traffic to your website through various portals.

Craigslist for every major city.
Write articles for major article websites that link back to you (SEO).
Post on forums that help people build websites and small business'.

3. If you are good at what you do and market yourself properly you will have no problem getting clients. Even if it means doing work for free or cheap, you have to build a foundation. Ask for referrals once you have the client.

[gtrusler]

Show us some samples of your work.

[mezzerino]

You need a good website, plus then you can have many streams of income affiliates/adsence etc,post in as many forums as you can using your website as a signiture, then you cans start on the blogging sites.

You should get some work if you put yourself about in these places then your writing will sell itself

ps if ya need a hand with the website let me know

[Nido]

To get more you must give more. So here's what you do pal,

1. Create an ezine that educates people what they aoght to know about whatever it is you. Ghost writing, Article writing...etc. This gives you credibility and power to demand high fees for work.

2. Get better at marketing. you're not in the Article or ghost writing business, you're in the business of MARKETING you're article and ghost wirting services.

3. Build a client list and keep going back to them once or 2x a month to see if they need work done.

Hope this helped....