The "101 Tips from the World’s Most Famous Authors" aren’t specifically directed towards business bloggers, but many of them might be.  Ernest Hemingway, for example, advised using short first paragraphs (‘nuf said).

Mark Twain had the idea writers ought to substitute "damn" for "very".  Since editors would likely delete the "damns", the writing would be left as it should be.  What this means for bloggers – let the information about what you sell, do, and know about make its own impression without help- from "very"s.

While there are differences of opinion on the use of exclamation marks, F. Scott Fitzgerald thought they’re "like laughing at your own jokes."

"Show, don’t tell," is the creative writing advice of Anton Chekhov.  "Don’t tell me the moon is shining.  Show me the glint of light on broken glass," he explained.  In the case of business blogs, along with text, the "show me" can consist of photos, graphs, clip art, and videos to boost reader engagement and response.

When Stephen King teaches aspiring writers to "read a lot and write a lot", he might well have been addressing bloggers for business.  My version (as a blogging trainer): Reading + writing = blogging. King explains reader helps writers find their own style.  In blogging, reading other blogs can help you scope out your own blogging niche.

Anais Nin observes: "The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we’re unable to say." A professional ghost blogger needs a "third ear" to hear not only what the business owner says, but to pick up on the intangibles of the business’ culture that owner has created – and then translate that into blogs!
 

There I was, mixing-and-mingling at a Dance Kaleidoscope fundraiser a couple of weeks ago. Nibbling hors d’oeuvres, I was enjoying a chat with a small group of people when a young man approached.  Recognizing we’d met somewhere before (but not remembering my name), he offered, "I’ve met you – you’re the voice-over lady!" Well, that impromptu opener certainly suggested an interesting perspective on what I do as a professional ghost blogger!

The dictionary definition of voice-over is "a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television, film, theatre, or other presentation. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor."

A ghost blogger is a specialist – in writing, and in particular, writing for the Web, posting short, engaging pieces using keyword phrases with consistency over extended periods of time. Most business owners lack the time to keep up that effort.

A ghost blogger serves as a "reporter". Television news, according to Wikipedia, is often presented as a series of video clips of newsworthy events, with the reporters describing the significance of the scenes shown through voice-overs. A skillful ghost blogger for business offers blog visitors a more personal and even a more analytical perspective on the information they might find on the company website.  The information may be available through the website, but the ghost blogger’s challenge is to helps readers understand the "So what?" and why the information could be meaningful for them.

A ghost blogger is a translator.  Television voice-overs are used in several European countries as an alternative to dubbing entire dialogues, to make the program material more understandable in different localities (Wikipendia).In a way, I think, business ghost-bloggers "translate" the corporate message into terms with which target audiences can best relate.

Anyway, I think my young acquaintance may not have been far afield in his description after all.  Next time you introduce your professional ghost blogger – go ahead and say, "Please meet Rhoda, our company’s voice-over talent!