Should You Hire a Famous Writer or Write Your Own Articles?
by Bill Platt
Testing has proven again and again that promotional articles
generate more click-through traffic than standard ezine
advertising. And it is much cheaper than standard ezine
advertising, even if you are paying someone else to write
and distribute your articles for you.
Promotional articles that are distributed with free-reprint
rights get published regularly in ezines and on websites and
the results are long-term. Both publication outlets generate
results, although both outlets generate different patterns of
traffic to your site.
Creating Content
Either you know that you are capable of writing your own
articles or you feel that you might need to hire a ghostwriter
to help you with your task.
If you need a ghostwriter to help you create articles to
promote your program, there are literally dozens of companies
and hundreds of freelance writers out there that can help you
complete your task.
Tips for Selecting Your Ghostwriter
One of my clients asked me the other day whether they should use
their own in-house writer to develop their articles or whether
they should hire a famous writer to write their articles for
them.
That is a good question. It depends on how many articles you
will want to have created for you.
If you plan on creating fewer than ten articles, it might make
more sense to hire an already famous, professional writer. So
long as your famous writer is known for the type of content you
want to have created, then your famous writer will help you get a
strong running start in that they already have a good reputation
in the field you want your articles written.
If your famous writer is not known in your field, then it does
not matter whether you use the famous writer, your in-house
writer, or if you create a pen name for a fictional writer.
Gambling on the Long Term
If your intent is to have more than ten articles created, then
it is my suggestion that you should either use your in-house
writer using his or her real name or create a pen name for your
in-house writer.
Whether you use the writer's real name or a pen name, your
decision should be made upon your confidence in your in-house
writer. Sure, you can count on their skills or you would not
be considering using their work. The real question you must
ask yourself is how long you feel that the in-house writer
will remain in your employment.
There is always a chance that your business will be built on
the name of someone who goes to another job, taking his or her
name recognition with him or her to the other employer. Using
your writer's real name or a pen name is always a gamble. Weigh
all of the factors well before making your decision.
If It Were My Business
If I ran a brick-and-mortar business in a very competitive
marketplace where personalities can shine brighter than the home
office, then I would strongly consider using my in-house writer
and providing him or her with a fictional pen name. There is no
sense in building a name that will go on to promote your
competition.
Manifesting the *Power of Seven*
If you have plans to develop more than ten articles for the
promotion of your business, then it does not matter if your
writer is already famous in your field.
I am sure that you have heard about the *Power of Seven.*
Many research companies have studied the question of how many
times a business must be seen before the customer has confidence
enough to spend money with the business.
The research has been conclusive. Seven is the magic number.
Once a potential customer has heard of a business seven times,
the business has rose above the first major hurdle in attracting
the potential customer to their business. After a potential
customer has heard of a business seven times, then the potential
customer is much more likely to trust the business enough to
spend their money with the business.
The *Power of Ten* in Publishing
A writer is very much like a business, and a publisher is very
much like a customer. The *Power of Seven* plays an important
role in getting the writer's work published.
However, we cannot count on seven promotional articles to bridge
the trust gap with the publisher. While publishers will see most
of your articles, as they are made available for publication,
usually they will not see seven articles in seven distributions.
Publishers are busy people and they do not check for new
articles daily. But, publishers do check for new articles
regularly as they need to continuously find materials for
publication.
The goal is to send out ten articles to get seven articles seen
and read by publishers. Once the publisher reads the seventh
article, if the quality of the articles had been good, then the
publisher will trust the value of the articles created by the
writer.
More Figures Concerning Promotional Article Success
Ironically, the fact that the publisher has seen articles by a
particular writer seven times is often good enough to get the
writer published. The publisher only needs to read one or two
good quality articles by the writer to cement the trust they
will have in the writer.
Once the publisher has come to the decision that a writer is
good and provides information important to their readers, the
publisher will always notice the writer's name as they are
browsing for the next article that they will publish.
With my business, I have been distributing articles for my
clients since early 2000. Any writer who has permitted me to
submit articles for them for the length of six months remains
to be one of my clients. Why do you think that is?
I believe it is because six months worth of article submissions
--- whether done weekly, bi-weekly or monthly --- has enabled my
client's to bridge the *Power of Seven* with the publishers and
webmasters who receive the articles that I distribute.
Some who distribute weekly cross the *Power of Seven* bridge
well before the six months is up and they reaped fast rewards
for their hyper-distribution schedule.
Publishers & Webmasters Are the Gateways to Buyers
With my service, I am able to get your articles into the
mailboxes of more than 12,000 publishers and webmasters looking
for good quality content.
If only 25 publishers --- with an average of 5,000 readers each
--- reprint an article, then 125,000 potential buyers could
read the average article. Add to that fact that several of my
client's get published in ezines that reach more than 700,000
readers, and my clients can reach nearly one million buyers
with a single article.
The *Power of Seven* Could Make YOU Famous!
I always suggest that if you are doing more than ten articles,
you should use your in-house writer's name or a fictional pen
name. The reason I say this is that after ten articles, you
will be strongly on the road to becoming famous yourself. Once
the name used to promote your business has become famous, and
then your business will continue to reap the rewards for that
famous name for years to come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Platt owns http://thePhantomWriters.com . Do you need
free content for your website or ezine? Our archives deliver
more than 700 free-reprint articles available for your use.
http://content.thePhantomWriters.com . Do you write your own
articles? Let us distribute them for you to our network of 12000+
publishers & webmasters http://thePhantomWriters.com/distribution
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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