Ghostwriting is an underground world.
I’m not supposed to talk about it. You’d be shocked to know that most of the popular accounts you follow on social media, especially business people, don’t write their posts. Ghostwriters like me do.
Some say my writing isn’t me. They argue I’m an AI because my output is superhuman. I’m happy to announce I’ve never used a ghostwriter. But I have ghostwritten posts for others.
The traditional advice for writers is to make money from a platform like this.
I think that’s the worst strategy in history. One ghostwriting client is easily worth $2000 a month. Try writing 100 essays making twenty bucks a pop — it’s way freaking harder.
Here’s how I got my first ghostwriting client at $2K a month.
The most obvious strategy every writer overlooks
You can’t be a ghostwriter until you’ve written under your name online.
Because if a potential client googles you and no social proof comes up, what are they supposed to do… blindly trust you? LOL.
This doesn’t just apply to ghostwriting. It’s the same hidden problem 9–5 workers face. They spend all their time racking up useless years of “experience” and polishing their resume. Then they interview for their dream job and don’t get it.
Why? It’s too hard to trust someone based on what they say in an interview or by how many years they’ve been doing the thing. We want proof. So do prospective clients of your ghostwriting service.
What I did was write on LinkedIn for a year or two. I built up a library of content and grew a small following. One misconception is you need millions of followers to sell a service. Wrong.
5000–10,000 followers on one platform is more than enough. Notice how I didn’t say zero or ten followers?
Turn generic conversations into a different kind
Once I had some social proof, I changed my strategy.
When someone left a comment or sent me an email about my writing, I casually asked them (privately) if they were looking to do the same thing. About 1 in 5 said yes.
So I told them I was a ghostwriter and could help.
Craft a stupidly simple ghostwriting offer a 5th grader can read
Next, I’d send them my ghostwriting offer. The offer told them the following crucial details:
- How many posts I’d write
- How many Zoom calls we’d do
- How many weeks it would take
- How we’d interact
- What it would cost
- What the ROI was
- What results they could honestly expect
- What platforms I could write on for them
- What they had to do (provide stories, do interviews)
I’d never been a ghostwriter before so I had no one to ask. That’s why I took a guess at these details. I also asked other people who offered services. Even though their niche was different, the principles were often the same.
As I racked up more experience, I refined this offer to match reality.
Make the price so low it feels like you’re dropping your pants
Where writers stuff up is they start with high prices.
“My time is precious, dontcha know.”
Problem is if you’re a novice your price in the market is $0. People don’t buy on faith anymore when there’s a global marketplace of writers with social proof who they can work with.
What I did was make my starting price embarrassingly low. Something like $50. Why? My initial goal wasn’t to earn. It was to learn.
I knew if I could land one client at $50 I could slowly level up. That’s exactly what I did. By the time I got good, I was able to ethically charge a client thousands of dollars a month.
Do one too many exhausting Zoom calls
It’s hard to sell stuff via email or direct messages. Yet most people burn themselves out by trying to do so.
What I like to do is burn myself out on Zoom calls with prospects. This is where I validated my ghostwriting offer. Prospects told me what problems they had, where the pain was, and how much money they’d spend.
It took a lot of time to show up to Zoom meetings but I’m glad I did.
It’s the difference between a delusional writer who thinks they’ll get discovered by a famous book publisher and become a millionaire, and a 6-figure ghostwriter who makes bank in their first year and quits their job.
Learn then earn. Get hard evidence that your offer is validated.
Finding more clients is easy
At the time most of my writing was on LinkedIn.
Ghostwriting clients found me through my posts. So, to get more clients, I just wrote more posts. This exposed me to more prospective clients.
What a lot of amateurs do is try to start a ghostwriting business with bugger all traffic/views. Then with the two prospects they have they hard sell their offer. If no one buys they say online business and/or making money online is a scam.
Two prospects isn’t enough of a sample size, the same way ma$turbating once won’t lead to pregnancy.
Post daily to find clients.
Deliver on your promise to unlock a big bag of cash to splash
Ghostwriters suck because they sell irresistible offers.
These offers are built on big promises that don’t reflect reality. And smart people can smell bullsh*t from a mile away. I learned early on to make smaller promises, and not just deliver on them, but overdeliver.
This led to raving fan clients. They would give me testimonials. When I met a new client I’d highlight these testimonials. For some happy clients I even got permission from them to share their details privately with future prospects.
Think about it… one ghostwriter says “trust me, I’m amazing.” Another ghostwriter sends three references a prospect can email to ask about the service. Who wins? The second type.
The best ghostwriting offer is bullsh*t-proof. It puts you in a different lead and it helps you rake in the cash.
The huge downside of ghostwriting that the gurus don’t want you to know
Wait, what?
Yep, ghostwriting isn’t all champagne, good times, confetti, nude models, free canapés, and Hollywood mansions.
The huge downside of ghostwriting is you’re selling your time.
It’s a great way to rocket your way to 6-figures, but it’s not the top of the writing game. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. Just means you’ve got to be aware what it is and what it’s not.
The next level above being a ghostwriter is selling digital products and building digital leverage.
I’m no longer a ghostwriter because I progressed up to the next level of the video game. But I loved my time ghostwriting. The clients were fun and it made my own writing better.
Final Thought
It’s not where you start but where you end up.
Ghostwriting is awesome for that reason. It’s a gateway drug to the upper levels of the writing world, and it gets you off being paid peanuts by a platform or being a volunteer publication editor.
Dare to write for someone else and get paid $2000 a month or more for it.
