It seems blogging is held to higher standards than traditional media. Books and magazine articles are commonly ghost written. Half the “quotes” in press releases were only approved, never uttered. In fact on websites nobody would bat an eyelid if they found the articles and news releases were not written by staff members. Why are blogs different?

I would say the expectations of a blog are the problem. Regardless of what we say blogs ARE they now come with certain assumptions of openness that are not always true.

Chris, I must agree with you about our assumptions around blogging as opposed to the reality of blogging. I think the biggest issue I had is when people consider ghost blogging is describing it as completely “unethical”. I think it is too harsh of a term to throw around.

I really don’t have any different feelings about ghost blogging as I do about paid posts. There are some worth reading and there are many that are not. It still falls back to the skill of the writer at telling a good story.

MrCorey, there are many times where a ghost writer will do a better job than the person taking credit for the blog. But like you said, quality of content is final measure for me.

[...] over at Invesp Consulting discusses ghost blogging - its reality, its pros and [...]

Khalid:

I really don’t have a dog in this fight…all good if someone wants to ghostblog or have someone ghostblog for them. I was expressing an opinion (perhaps poorly) that blogs by their nature, in my view, are from-the-heart thoughts that should reflect the “realness” of the person blogging. Ghostblogs get away from this by a degree…Blogging is different than writing a quote for an executive in a press release…in my view, a blog should reflect the original thoughts of the person blogging…warts, mispellings, and all..

I’m for. How is this any different from copy writing ads? Also, say Matt Cutts blog was ghost written - I don’t care as long as I find the information I need.

Also like copy writing for ads there may be situations where a corporate blog is being used where a user may post as the company they work for, but this is just the nature of business. People as blogs are just brands - at least they are having their blogs ghost writing and are not simply scraping.

Ghosting (I new word I just made out?) is done in every every field, from music writing, beat making, books, or re-branding a product. No one is complaining. As long as the final product (an article, or a song) is good, what’s the problem really? The final product has been (or should be) reviewed by the supposedly-creator before release anyway. If it get’s the “creator”’s approval, I don’t see any problem.

I don’t have a problem with it. Frankly I’m more concerned about the quality of the content than who writes it. Now if it was a case of someone going on television because their knowledge in a subject that actually was mostly ghostwritten, then that would obviously cross the line… Once it goes into the traditional journalism world, disclosure is a must.

I’m not totally against that, although I like unique content, having an updated blog is very important too

I see nothing wrong with it. I have a pair of Nike shoes but i am under no delusion that they were made in China

Lets face it, the name of the author becomes like a brand and so long as that brands standard is maintained then where is the problem?

Those that are upset by this, i would have to ask them “why”.

Elliott
PS thanks for the post