Archive for category: the Say It For You blog

The majority of women, myself included, are not overly interested in what other women want.  Unlike the majority of my female peers, on the other hand, I’m only slightly interested in what men, as a gender, want.  (I’ll hasten to add that the wants of certain men important in my life do occupy a high spot on my priority list.) But, gender matters aside, as a member of a small but rapidly growing cadre of ghost bloggers, I’m absolutely fascinated with learning what search engines want. I’m referring to the likes of Google, MSN, and Yahoo, and giving those search engines what they want is the whole idea behind business blogging.

The other day I caught a cute article in Entertainment Weekly that discussed the fact that men are embracing their feminine side in romantic comedy movies these days.  The article was titled “Guys Are The New Girls”. The piece ends with a wry question: “What do women – and men – want out of a man?”

Apparently, the answer to that question is still the subject of much debate.  By contrast, (happily for me as a professional ghost blogger), what search engines want is rather clear – to deliver relevant content to online searchers.

What determines how relevant content is?  Well, two ingredients are important for sure – recency and frequency. That’s exactly why once-in-a-while blogging just doesn’t do the trick, even if it’s high-quality stuff.  To satisfy a search engine, your blog material must be updated frequently, and I mean very frequently.  It seems that when it comes to blogging for business, search engines are saying, “Never mind what you’ve done. What have you done for me lately?”

Ghost writers have been used by celebrities and public figures for hundreds of years now.  What you find today is that, in some cases, a book ghostwriter’s name is actually listed. The name might be labeled “a contributor”, or “as told to”, or even as “research assistant”.  Most of the time, though, the ghost writer’s role is concealed.  This is interesting, since human resource specialists and workplace psychologists seem to agree that employees crave recognition and appreciation as much as, or even more than, a paycheck.  My goodness, what happens to the praise-starved psyches of us poor ghost bloggers, who, along with Rodney Dangerfield, “get no respect”?

Since I spent many, many years writing under my own byline (see www.rhodaisraelov.com), I can tell you, it’s a little bit different fading into the shadows, allowing my clients’ businesses to take all the glory.   So why is it, then, that I find ghost blogging so satisfying?  To explain, I need to share with you an anecdote I read in the book “White House Ghosts”.  Dick Goodwin, who wrote speeches for Kennedy and Johnson, expressed it perfectly.  Here’s what he said:  “Naturally, writing this or any other speech would not make me a world-historic figure.  But, it was a chance to help make history.” 

Think about that for a moment – Goodwin got a kick out of being part of something important, whether he got credit for it or not.  Corny as it might sound, I feel exactly the same way about my work as a ghost blogger.  Each business client has an important message to spread. (If I can’t believe in that message, I won’t take on the assignment, because it won’t work.) My clients and I – we may not be making history together, but, by golly, with great blogging, we can sure make business!