I’m Rhoda, and I’ve been a writer for thirty years.  If you visit my website at www.sayitforyou.net,, you’ll learn that for many years I wrote financial advice columns for Indianapolis Business Journal, Indianapolis Star, Columbian magazine, and Radius Magazine.  Along the way, I composed travelogues and even some poetry for Mensa newsletters, and wrote motivational speeches to deliver at Toastmasters and at my investment seminars. Every word of these articles, poems, and speeches was written by me and appeared under my own byline.

Two years ago, with me now retired from my financial planning practice, my writing took a new and exciting turn.  I realized that, with the development of Internet commerce, marketing is more about driving business to websites than about people driving to stores.  Web logging, or “blogging” for short, was first used to share thoughts and carry on discussions.  Now blogs, I learned, have turned into a powerful marketing tool, part of Search Engine Optimization, drawing traffic to business websites.

And that’s where I saw a way to turn a problem into a professional opportunity.  All my business owner friends know that writing blogs in their area of expertise can help get their websites to pop up on Page 1 or page 2 on a Google search instead of on Page 19 or 20.  But how many small business owners have time to compose and post regular blogs?  Eureka!!  I had fixed on the perfect way to combine my love of writing with my considerable experience in marketing. (Psst!  Can you keep a secret?) I became a ghost blogger, and “Say It For You” was born. 

What qualities make for a great ghost blogger?  Drill sergeant discipline, for one.  Web rankings are based on frequency of posting new content, so blogging must be kept up faithfully, using search terms in the blog that lead web users to you.  A ghost must use her “third ear”, hearing not only what you want to say, but picking up on your unique style of saying it.  That way, the ghost can speak your message, in your ”voice”, to your customers. A good ghost blogger should not, herself, be seen or heard! 

In short, what do I do? Simply put, I Say It For You!

Alisa Bowman, like me, is a ghost, but in her case, she writes books. Actually, she helps write books, as she explains in her blog post "Ghostwriting Revealed", because it takes a lot of different people to write and publish a book.  The book's author, Bowman explains, serves as director, the one who hires key people and gives them direction on what needs to be done.  These key people might include a graphic designer, a photographer, a researcher, a copy editor, a proof reader, a sales team, and a publicity team, each dedicating specialized professional expertise to getting the book out to the public. In the end, sums up Ms. Bowman, the author gets all the glory.

So, why is a ghostwriter brought in to be part of the team?

• "The author has a great idea for a book, but doesn't have time to write it."  This is the principal reason so many business owners hire ghost bloggers to post content on behalf of their business.
  
• "The author has lots of credibility, but writing is not one of his or her strong suits."      Many business owners and professional practitioners know their business and their clients, but don't feel confident expressing their thoughts in writing.
  
• "The author got 20,000 words into the book and then ran out of things to say."                                                                                   20,000 words is the equivalent of about two months of a three-post-per week blog and many business owners run out of things to say a lot sooner than that!
  
• The author thought he/she wrote great book, but the publishing house does not agree.  Someone like me is brought in to help author publisher meet in the middle."  Blogs don't need publishers' approval.  The parallel here is that the blog hasn't been generating traffic, and so a professional blogger is brought in to help make the blogging more effective.

When we want a new house, we hire other people to build it, to decorate it, to landscape our lawns, paint our walls, and install carpeting and bathroom tiles.  We generally get the credit for having a lovely home, explains Bowman.  "That's because most people understand that, to be done right, such work requires a unique set of skills and talents".

Couldn't have written the case for professional ghostblogging it better myself!