Would you like a 14.56% Conversion Rate?

One of the most controversial topics discussed during Blog World Expo was the issue of ghost blogging. To be honest I was surprised. We have been providing ghost blogging services since the first day Invesp started. We completed over 500 blogs couple of weeks back. And while most of our clients prefer not to divulge the fact that they use a ghost blogger, they have been extremely successful. Getting on the first page of digg or redditt is something we see every week. But that is beside the point.

The topic of ghost blogging came up in at least two of the sessions I attended during the conference. Many of the speakers had “very” negative feelings towards it.  Jennifer Cisney who blogs regularly for Kodak thought that ghost blogging goes against the spirit of blogs and blogging. John Earnhardt’s who blog regularly at Cisco’s high tech policy blog did not have any kind words for it either. It is my understanding that Cisco maintains an editorial process to review and approve company blogs. John mentioned that besides the person authoring the blog, Cisco usually assigns someone from their PR group to own the blog. If we want to very pure about the blogging, then a blog should be posted without an editorial review.

Wouldn’t you agree?

So, what are pros and cons for ghost blogging?

Cons:

• Not an honest way of blogging: Someone is taking credit for a blog which he did not author
• It is easy to detect: you can easily tell which blogs are written by ghost blogger and which ones are not.
• Ghost bloggers are not able to convey the ideas of the person they are blogging for
• Ghost blogging is against the spirit of blogging and it might be unethical: Blogs are an honest way to communicate with the world, ghost blogging is deceptive.

Pros:

• Ensures that the company is able to maintain a regular blogging schedule
• A Good blogger is able to communicate the corporate message accurately and clearly
• Ghost writing has been used for tens of years. Ghost blogging is an evolution of that process.

Needless to say that I think ghost blogging makes sense to many companies. Many CEOs do not have the time to blog. Even more important, not everyone has the skill to write a successful blog, nor the ability to communicate his/her ideas clearly.

But there is a trick to ghost blogging. The truth is that for every successful ghost blogger there are ten who are not good. In blogs where we have been successful, we work very closely with the company to create the list of topics and to come up with an outline for each topic. Since the ghost blog will be published under the name of the CEO, it is imperative that he/she approves each blog prior to publishing. With some of our clients, the CEO spends the time writing the different thoughts covered in each post. The ghost blogger then takes that outline and adds meat to it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there were several occasions where we tried to discontinue the ghost blogging service. That was more of a business issue and how we want to position our services more than a question of the ethics around the issue. Also, every post you read on our blog is written by the author himself.

So, what do you think? Does ghost blogging go against the spirit of blogging? Are you completely for it or against it?

Tags: freelance-bloggers, freelance-blogging, Gohst-blogging
Posted in Blogging, Business

I received a mixed response when I posted on this blog and couple of online forums that we are looking to hire some freelance bloggers. The main point of contention was the rate we should pay for blogging. My post mentioned that our starting rate is $15 per post. Some people applied right away. Others mentioned that rate was too low. Some even thought it was insulting. Since I continue to receive emails about this until now, I wanted to clarify a couple of things.

How much a blogger gets paid depends on the value he/she brings to the client

The bottom line is what matters to every business. So let’s start talking about financial value a blog brings to a business. Most marketing activities are evaluated with a simple question: What is the return on investment for that particular activity. The same applies to blogging. Of course that is very challenging. It is difficult to draw a clear correlation between blogging activity and actual money coming to a business. That is the main reasons clients are hesitant to pay higher rates for bloggers. Yes, there are some sites that can evaluate ad-sense revenue generated on a particular day when a freelancer is blogging. But the clients I am talking about are regular businesses that do not run any type of advertising on their site. One of the things I spend a bit of time working out with clients is performance measurements. Many clients do not have a good way to measure the performance of the blog in the first place.

The real value to blogging is increasing brand awareness and establishing online community. They are extremely valuable, but it is difficult to put a real monetary value for them. Many clients do not see a value in blogging until a couple of months passed and the blog is generating repeat traffic. After the client gets a feel of how the blog can help his business in building an online community, then we sit again to talk about rates.

That is one of the main reasons most of our blogging contracts do not run more than 2 months. In this model, as the client sees real benefits from the blog and starts to experience an up word swing in readership, our fees and the rates we pay our bloggers start to increase accordingly. I believe that model works to everyones benefit.

How much a blogger should get paid depends on experience

Just like any other type of work. An established blogger can demand a lot more than someone who is just starting out. That does not mean that the new blogger does not write as well. As a matter of fact, sometimes I think a new blogger can produce better content than an established blogger. But in case of experience, the client is also paying for the name recognition of the blogger. He is also hoping to attract some of the loyal following of that blogger to his own blog. Chris Garrett or Muhammad Saleem can both demand and both deserve as much as they like per post.

Social media is a new element in the mix

 This is something that we just added recently to the way we charge our clients for blogging as well as how much we pay our writers. Everyone understands the value of making it on the first page of digg or Netscape. Some clients received close to 50k visitors in one week after getting on the first page of digg. The also had close to 200 link backs. That is a great value from a single blog entry. We invest a lot of time helping our writers improve their skills to attract readership from social media sites. That does not mean that every piece we produce is written for social media.

With social media, it is an easy argument for me to make to the client. You can see the value of visitors. You can see the value from link backs. As a result, we try to pay our bloggers between $50 - $100 if their piece gets on the first page of a social media site. I must admit that many clients have been resisting that. They want to pay for the post and do whatever they like with it.  

Technical vs. non-technical topic.

This is another major factor in determining the rate for a blog. Writing a post about c++ code, or medical post involves a lot more research, time and effort. It is only fair that technical writing gets paid more than regular blogs.

But I can write it myself…for free!

Please go ahead! Maybe I should not be saying that to a client. But if someone does not a real value in hiring an expert blogger, then the best way is show them the value to tell them try it out themselves. Some will actually be good at it. Most, frankly, will stink and come back to us to talk.

The marketplace

The truth is that there are too many bloggers who are happy to offer their services for so little that it affects everyone else. That will always be the case. Let me use my software background for example. You can find a Java programmer for $15 an hour. If you want to talk to me, you have to be ready to pay more than $80 per hour. I guess the moral of the story is that you need to establish your name and your experience and let the market take care of itself.

Now, if you do want to freelance blogging, then I definitely recommend reading Chris’s piece on the secrets of freelance blogging.

 So tell me what do you think.

Tags: Blogging, freelance-blogging
Posted in Blogging, Business