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

[Charles Montgomery]

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.

[Rob Ferrall]

Originally Posted by shkad14

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.

Not too long ago I was a full-time writer, and aside from the occasional one-time gig, I had a lot of repeat business. Plus, I received a decent number of referrals. I catered to SEO companies/web dev firms and brick-and-mortar crossovers, mostly, so my market may have been a bit different than yours, but I was averaging $30-$40/hour and didn't hurt for work in the least toward the end of my 'career'.

This is how I ran my business, and maybe may help you out some:

• I obtained, and maintained, clients who needed content on an ongoing basis -- weekly, a couple of times per month -- it varied.
• I used a 'fluid' pricing model. If a client had a lot of work for me, they would receive occasional breaks from my standard pricing. If the client forgot to tell me something important (and I had to fix the article), yet they had a project 'waiting in the wings' for me, I would eat some of the cost, or all of the cost, depending on the situation.
• I delivered excellent content that fit their needs. I took the time to understand what they needed, and I delivered the content that met those needs the first time around. In the two years that I was writing, I can only remember twice when I had to revise something I submitted -- this was twice out of thousands of pieces.
• I was easy to work with, mostly. If a valued client was in need of something ASAP, or a new client with a lot of money and a good attitude needed something ASAP, I usually worked with them to help them meet their deadlines. This alone made me some decent money.

Knowing the (online) freelance writing market intimately up until about June of last year, I have to say that the reason why you cannot maintain consistent business is likely due to one of these two things:

1) You charge too much for what you deliver (not just about your writing ability, the whole package)
2) You are targeting the wrong market

Now, I'm assuming here that you do deliver your content in a timely basis -- this can affect the longevity of your relationships.


Even though I was very comfortable with my business -- I did almost everything "wrong". I was unbelievably unorganized, I write "by instinct" rather than knowing proper grammatical rules, I had very few writing samples because I was a ghostwriter, I did not supply references to anybody for any reason, and I made every excuse in the book to avoid talking to somebody over the phone.

My reason for saying this is that if somebody like me, who hardly has a high-school education, is reclusive to the core, and who burned bridges almost as frequently as a chain-smoker lights up (I'm stretching that a bit... but I was hard-headed) can maintain a regular client base, and even get to the point where I had to shut my site down for a season, if you approach this like a professional, and you're a decent-or-better writer -- there should be no reason that you cannot have ongoing work. Yea, this is a long sentence.

Now, the downturn in the market may have affected things some, but if you're not opposed to some of the things I stated before, (fluid pricing, eating some overages, giving a bit above and beyond just writing) -- that may help you out some if you're willing to try them out.

Also, if you (you only) want to PM me, I'll give you something that I used to find jobs when I first started writing. You might already use something like this, but it may help.

[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....