Ghost Writing Online

A ghostwriter is a writer who writes on an assigned topic under someone else’s name with their consent, or writes under another alias. They often write books completely from scratch but sometimes their work involves rewriting or editing an existing work. Websites and blogs on the internet have a lot of content and and many of these website and blog owners hire ghostwriters to write the "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer" (SEO) content for their sites. This frees the owners up to market and build the sites to the specs that they want. There is a rising need for online ghostwriters to write new content for all of these sites. New SEO content keeps these sites at the top of the search engines. People take advantage of this need by becoming online ghostwriters, however, there are many ethical issues of online ghostwriting such as making plagiarism easy and other issues of authenticity of content.

Ghostwriting Historically

In the past, a ghostwriter writes the book for which someone else received credit. When an author needed help writing a book, a ghostwriter would take their idea and turn it into a story. The ghostwriter is paid a flat rate for the book and signs over all rights to the owning author. In some cases, the ghostwriter may receive a small percentage of the profits. The ghostwriting services people received when they hired a book ghostwriter are simple and straightforward. One would supply the ghostwriter with the idea, genre, the audience they intended to reach, and any information that they wanted to be included in the book. The ghostwriter handled the research and produced the content of the book. The ghostwriter kept costs within budget and produced the book in the time frame that was required. Ghostwriting services also included proofreading, editing, and in some cases, publication. Ghostwriters are often hired to write speeches, sermons, articles, copy for advertising, screenplays, e-books, sales letters, book proposals, op-eds, & radio and TV commercials. Because of their experiences working with clients from different fields, ghostwriters have had the tendency to have knowledge on a variety of topics. Usually a ghostwriter will then need no more than one hour per week of a persons time to make sure they're on track as the ghostwriter completes the authors book over the next 3-6 months depending on the length of the book.

Online Ghostwriting

Some websites are ghostwritten, due to the fact that not all authors have the information technology skills or the time to dedicate to running a website. Nonetheless, the style, tone and content is modeled on that of the credited author. Many website ghostwriters are freelance but some are freelancers who work under contract, as with radio presenters and television presenters. Occasionally a "house pseudonym", or collective name is used by the author of the website. This is similar to ghostwriting for blogs, and in some cases it can be used as an SEO tactic. Since the 2000s (decade), with the increasing popularity of blogs as a form of writing, a new form of ghostwriter has emerged: the blog ghostwriter. Companies or organizations hoping to generate interest in their blog site sometimes hire ghostwriters to post comments to their blog, while posing as different people and using pseudonyms. Blogs are sometimes rated according to how many web 'hits' they get from users viewing the page, and this rating is used by advertisers considering paying for ad space on a blog website.

Many people working on the same piece of written work

How to Become an Online Ghostwriter

Submit a few well written articles to content sites like Associated Content. Someone who is new to being a freelance writer will need to have a few published samples to use to apply to become an online ghostwriter. One can submit the articles on the topic area that you are going to focus on becoming an online ghostwriter on. These writing clips are usually between 400 and 600 words a piece. The articles usually showcase a keyword density of 3 to 5 % to show that you know how to write great SEO content.

Sources of Online Ghostwriting Work

Indeed.com

A search engine specifically for finding ghost writing jobs.

Constant Content

Here one can get to write what they want and set their own prices for it. One also can set usage rights instead of all rights to sell the same thing over and over again if they like.

Jobs for Bloggers - ProBlogger Job Board

Jobs that caters more for blogging than anything else.

Twitter

One can search for jobs and Twitter can lead to other good job sites.

Find writing work on Elance

This site is packed with opportunities for all kinds of writers and bloggers. One can becomes a free member and try it for before paying for a membership.

Freelancer.com

It costs nothing to join this site, and one can start bidding on ghostwriting jobs as soon as they've set up their account. One can bid on writing work. When one wins a writing job, they pay a small percentage of the fee they receive for the work.

Online Freelance Writing Jobs

Full of information about online writing. For beginners to freelance writing, they'll find this extremely useful, as well as find some jobs.

Ethics

Ghostwriting online is a topic that has opaqueness as well as ethical issues that come along with it. The two major issues are authenticity and plagiarism.

Authenticity Issues with Anonymity

One of the great things about ghost righting is the fact that there can be a cooperative effort in getting work done. Also there is the fact the most of the information can recorded can be done anonymously. With that being said, there is a greater chance of the work being unbiased. However these factors are also a double edged sword. With so many people working together, as well as the fact that people can do work anonymously or with and alias, it is arguable that the information is not accredited, and is only someones, or a group of peoples' opinions.

Plagiarism by Ghostwriting

One report from the Vancouver Sun did an article on plagiarism in ghostwriting:

By Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun September 11, 2012

Simon Fraser University writing professor and plagiarism expert Sean Zwagerman says studies, including one conducted on 11 post-secondary institutions in Canada, show one per cent of people who admit to cheating use online “paper mills.”

“Of students who’ve cheated, the number who have bought a paper outright? It’s almost non-existent,” he said. “Students can just buy papers online. They can, but they don’t.”

However, a glance at the writing services section of Craiglist in any major North American city proves purchasing a custom-written academic paper is cheap and easy. Del Paulhus, a psychology professor at the University of B.C. who has studied students who plagiarize, said this evolution of plagiarism makes it very hard on professors.

“Now it just takes a couple clicks and you have the exact paper you want,” he said. “In the past if you copied right out of a journal it looked too good, but now you can order a paper that has typos in it.”

Still, instructors can almost eliminate plagiarism in their classes by tailoring their assignments to include specific personal details that a student’s ghostwriter will find hard to produce, Palhus said.

Conclusion

Ghostwriting online has a lot of benefits and problems that come along with the job. On the positive side of things, one is able to make a decent amount of money from ghostwriting. Books and articles articles are produced at a faster rate, as well as there is a great collaboration of ideas from many different people working on a single piece. However authenticity and plagiarism stigmatize the field of ghostwriting online. In fact one could conclude that ghostwriting online can lead to the a larger authenticity issue of knowing whether or not an electronic document or source is original, or altered.

References

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