My Best Advice to Beginner Ghostwriters (from a Pro)

What is social media ghostwriting? Well, I've made over $3 million as a ghostwriter, so I can tell you social media ghostwriting is where you have.

Conversations with business owners. You record those conversations.

That's what I like to do.

And then you turn their words into scalable social content.

Social ghostwriting is also one of the big three ghostwriting services that I encourage every writer to offer to start making ten grand per month. Newsletter, ghostwriting, educational email, course ghostwriting, and or social ghostwriting.

Those are the big three.

And you can EAS make six figures.

Per year offering one or two or.

Even all three of these services.

But if you're specifically interested in social.

Ghostwriting, then this is for you. Here are some of the most common questions I get asked about how to get started as a social ghostwriter. Okay. Darshit asks, how do I conduct content calls?

And make sure that I'm asking diverse.

Or unique questions every single week. So here's a really easy framework that.

You can use when interviewing clients.

I've been using this for years. I call it my social ghostwriting content generator. It goes like this. There are three content buckets that work for basically every ghostwriting client. Doesn't matter what industry they're in. The first is what I like to call futurism. So which is their thoughts on where.

The industry is headed in the future, Predictions. The second is their founder story, which is their unique experiences building their business.

And then the lessons that they learned from those experiences or mistakes they made, things they wish they would have done differently, things like that. The third bucket is actionable advice, which is them explaining how to do something.

So usually to their target reader. And their target reader could be a customer, or it could be an investor or an industry peer. Now, there's a fourth bucket that can also work, which is news.

But news takes a lot of bandwidth, right? And by the time you get a draft back to the client and they review it and you edit it and then you post it, that news story is probably irrelevant. So I tend to discourage ghostwriters from focusing on news.

Now, with these three content buckets in mind, how do you come up with content ideas?

You use what I like to call.

The 10 magical ways to expand anything.

And the 10 ways are tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits, reasons, mistakes, examples, questions, and personal stories.

And then you just start pairing one.

Of these ten magical ways with each.

Of the three content buckets.

Now, some pair better than others.

So, for example, here's how I like.

To group them for futurism. I like to Use stats, benefits, reasons, and questions. For the founder story, I like to.

Use mistakes and lessons and personal stories.

Right, that makes sense.

And for actionable advice, I like to use tips and steps and examples.

So to answer the question, how do.

You ask diverse or unique questions each week on your content calls?

You pick one of these three content buckets, and then you pick one of these 10 magical ways and you make.

That the focus of the call. So, for example, this week, maybe you ask the client about reasons why they think their industry is headed in a.

Certain direction, or you pull some new research and show them a few stats.

And you ask their interpretation of what those stats mean for the future of their industry. But then the next week, you ask them about mistakes they made building their first company, or lessons they've learned about.

Launching viral apps on the App Store.

Then the next week, you ask them.

For tips on whatever topic they want to be associated with.

So maybe hiring tips or time blocking.

Tips or biohacking tips. The point is, you just pick a different content bucket and a different magical way to center the conversation and then let them riff on that.

And one last thing, because this is.

Something I notice a lot of ghostwriters don't really realize is you don't just have to use their answers from that week's content call to create that week's content. Okay?

Every week, week after week, the library.

That you have to pull from gets bigger.

Right? The library is growing. So you could combine an answer that they gave you to a question this week with a story they told you last week with an example they told you the week before.

Which is why, again, the longer you.

Work with a client, and you should.

Explain this to them, the easier it is for you to write for and.

With them, and the less likely they are to leave.

Because you've collected a tremendous amount of.

Information on them, who they are, their stories, their insights, their unique experiences, their opinions. All of which makes creating the next piece of content for them easier and easier and easier. All right, David Southern asks, when should you only ghost, right, One specific topic for one specific person in one specific.

Way, and when can you expand that to cover more ways but retain speciality? Right, so, for example, starting with the EECs, then expanding into newsletters, articles, short form writing, etc. So this is a great question, but.

There'S a nuance here that a lot.

Of people don't understand. My entire philosophy, for context, is that.

You should position yourself to ghostwrite for one specific person in one specific industry in one specific way.

So, for example, Instead of saying I'm a ghostwriter for anyone willing to give.

Me money, which is what most people.

Do, you're far better off saying I ghostwrite specifically for sales managers in enterprise B2B technology companies and I only ghostwrite weekly newsletters.

One specific person in one specific industry providing one specific type of asset or ghostwriting in one specific type of way. Now the big question is why?

Why Cole? Then not everyone can be my client.

Correct? And that is a good thing.

When you say that you ghostwrite anything.

For anyone, you have no pricing power, you are easily replaceable, you are now a commodity.

But when you say that you only.

Ghostwrite weekly newsletters for founders of SaaS startups, you repel everyone who doesn't fit that archetype and you attract everyone who is that archetyp. It's very counterintuitive, but I promise you.

Do not need 9000 clients. If even 9 clients all said yes, I would like to work with you.

Tomorrow, you would have an anxiety attack.

So you don't need to say that.

You ghostwrite anything for anyone. You need to get specific and become.

The go to person for that specific industry and niche. Now to answer the question, when can you expand into other services? The honest answer is you usually don't need to. You could build a seven figure ghostwriting.

Agency just ghostwriting newsletters.

You could also build a seven figure ghostwriting agency just building educational email courses and creating insanely valuable opt ins. You could also build a seven figure.

Ghostwriting agency just writing social content or.

Just writing short form video scripts.

And I know because I did it. I built my entire ghostwriting agency to.

Millions of dollars in revenue.

80 plus clients, 23 full time employees. All we did was write 800 word thought leadership articles for executives. It's the only thing we did.

We literally did not offer a single other service even though every single one.

Of our clients asked for help with.

Web copy and emails and newsletters and managing their social content.

And the reason we didn't offer other services is because we didn't have to. Little fun fact. There was a point where my ghostwriting agency was producing as many articles each month as Forbes or Inc. Magazine. Literally hundreds and hundreds of articles each month. So oftentimes I find that people think they need to expand into other services.

Because either A one client asked them.

To and now they're having this identity crisis and feel like they have to say yes or B they haven't yet built the skill of cold outreach or warm inbound from their own content or asking for Referrals.

And so instead of building the skill skill, they run away from it and try and solve it in a different way. And the way they try and solve it is by adding more services. And the vast majority of the time.

I'm telling you this is a mistake. And it usually brings them right back.

To where they started, which is I'll go straight.

Anything for anyone with a pulse and a credit card. Now, can you offer other services? The answer is yes. But here are some rules that I would set for yourself. First of all, only offer other services.

That are related to your core offer.

So, for example, if you're pitching clients.

On building an educational email course for.

Them, it would make sense to upsell them at the end of that project on ghostwriting their weekly newsletter or setting.

Up some automated email sequences.

Right?

Why? Because those two services are extremely related. They have an EEC opt in and.

Now they need a weekly newsletter.

And those two services involve using all the same skills.

If you can build an eec, you can go straight a weekly newsletter. That's great.

The mistake would be pitching an educational.

Email course, but then also offering to script their YouTube shorts. That is a completely different skill. It's a completely different platform, It's a.

Completely different form of writing, which means.

There is massive switching cost for you.

So only upsell services that are related to your core offer.

That's how you build efficiency and that's how you build pricing power. The second rule is, is you want to decide whether you want to be on the brand side or the direct response marketing side. So this is probably a topic for another video, but I'm going to give you the quick crash course here. Broadly speaking, there are two types of content, which means there are two types of ghostwriting clients. On one side there's brand content, which is really just educational thought leadership. This is not about obsessively tracking clicks and conversions, it's just about building your presence online.

Fundamentally, anyone on the brand side believes if I consistently create content online, more good things will happen for me and my business.

It's very easy to understand and it's.

Even easier to measure. The measure for success is you were not creating content consistently, now you are.

So that's the brand side.

On the other side of the spectrum.

Is direct response marketing content, which means.

Creating content specifically with the purpose of driving a tangible, measurable result.

Clicks, opt ins, conversions, booked calls, whatever the metric is.

Fundamentally, anyone on the direct response side believes I only want to create content.

If I can measure it and attribute revenue generated back to Our efforts.

Nothing wrong with that.

You're just dealing with a different kind.

Of person and a different kind of client.

And after ghostwriting for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different types of people in different types of industries, I can tell you some ghostwriting clients only care about brand.

If you're a startup founder that just.

Raised half a billion dollars, you're probably.

Not looking for a ghostwriter to track.

Booked calls through your content. You're probably using a ghostwriter to continue.

Building your brand so that the next round that you raise, you can go.

Out and attract investors and raise another 750 million. Right? They only care about brand. I know because I ghost wrote for.

A lot of them.

On the other side of the spectrum, some ghost trading clients only care about direct response metrics.

They're more obsessive about.

We created 10 pieces of content, how many clicks did we get? How many impressions did we get, how many people opted in, how many people booked a call? It's totally fine. That's just a different type of ghostwriting client.

And some people, like me, I fit.

The criteria of both. I understand on the brand side, if.

I keep creating content online, more good.

Things are going to happen. But I also, because of the way we run our businesses, want to have.

Visibility into the metrics.

So I'm like a hybrid now.

The reason this is so important is.

Because whatever service you provide, you actually.

Want to get even more specific within yourself and decide whether you want to.

Be on the brand side or, or.

The direct response side. Because let's say you really focus on.

Social media ghostwriting for biotech founders, that's your niche and all biotech founders really want. And again, I know because I ghostwrite for a lot of them, is to.

Build brand so they can raise more money in the future.

Great, it's an awesome niche.

But then let's say another client walks.

In and they're also a biotech founder.

But they're obsessed with direct response metrics and now they're asking you all sorts of reporting questions that you don't normally.

Do or you don't normally speak to. So they want milestones, they want competitive metrics, they want benchmarks, they want bi weekly analytics reviews. None of these things are bad, they're just a different offer. And so what a beginner ghostwriter does.

Is they try to adapt their offer.

To make this one client happy, which.

You will eventually learn is the mistake. The seasoned ghostwriter, on the other hand, recognizes that this person isn't actually their ideal client. This client wants something completely Different. And you would be better off letting that client go or not even taking.

Them on in the first place and.

Then spending all that time going out and finding another one or two clients.

Clients on the brand side who are your ideal client. The point is, you do not need.

To say yes to every client who.

Walks in the door. And I promise you would be much better off just specializing in one single.

Service and then spending all your time building the skill of finding and attracting.

Those specific types of clients. Okay. Marti asks, starting out is the hardest part.

You mentioned doing free work initially. How do you recommend we go about.

Finding the right caliber of customers that we can serve for free?

So this is an interesting question.

And the answer is, when you're starting out, you shouldn't really care about finding the right caliber of customers.

You're a beginner, and beginners can't be choosers.

Right?

I promise.

And again, I went through this, too.

I promise you will learn a tremendous amount working with anyone.

Literally anyone. It could be your uncle.

It could be some random person you.

Knew in high school and haven't talked to in 10 years, but now they have a startup.

It could be the restaurant owner down the street. It doesn't matter. Literally anyone. The bottleneck to learning and improving in the beginning isn't finding the perfect situation or the perfect client. The bottleneck is literally just you choosing to jump into the deep end and get going.

All right. Jalen asks, how can you turn a.

Small or medium result from clients into a bigger clientele network?

So another great question, and this is something I notice a lot of ghostwriters don't. Do you have to ask every single client for referrals?

Whenever I say this, I hear all sorts of objections and faulty beliefs as to why they can't.

I don't want to ask anything of the client. I'm afraid the client's going to say no. I don't want to annoy the client.

And I'm telling you, all of these are wrong. I promise, happy clients want to help you.

This is something people don't really understand about entrepreneurs, okay?

Because that's who you're selling to. You're selling to an entrepreneur. You're selling to a business owner. I've been an entrepreneur for a decade now. I have ghostwritten for more than 300 other entrepreneurs. So let me tell you a little secret.

Entrepreneurs know how hard it is to.

Build a business, which means when they meet another entrepreneur, that's you, they genuinely.

Want to help them in some way. Sometimes they want to help them for selfish reasons.

So if they help you, then they can ask you for a favor later on.

Nothing wrong with that, right? Favor trading rules the world.

But more often people just want to be helpful for the sake of being helpful or they want to be helpful.

To make themselves look good.

I probably get asked 10 times a week by people in my network if.

I know any good writers. They want introductions.

They're looking for someone to hire. They're looking for a ghostwriter to work with. And when I introduce a ghostwriter to a friend or someone in my network, I look good, right?

I look smart. So yes, I enjoy being helpful to.

The writer, but I also like being helpful to my friend. So going back to the question, you.

Should ask every single client for referrals, and if they are a long standing.

Client and they've stayed with you for.

Year after year after year, you should be asking them for referrals literally every single year.

And this is how I would phrase it.

Okay, just repeat this.

I would say, hey, I'm really focused.

On growing my ghostwriting business this year and I was wondering if you knew.

Anyone who's looking for a ghostwriter.

No worries. If not. But if anyone comes to mind, I'd.

Really appreciate an introduction.

Just say that. And I promise other entrepreneurs will empathize.

With you and they'll empathize with the fact that you want to grow your.

Own business, because they've been there, they're working on growing their business, and they will want to help you. And the ones who don't want to.

Help you, whatever, just move on and try again.

Try again, try again.

All right, Navjat asks, what's the biggest mistake beginner ghostwriters make when starting out.

On social media platforms and should be avoided.

So I think the biggest mistake actually.

Happens with the offer even before you.

Start working with the client.

There's this trend by a bunch of Twitter bros where they think the best.

Way to get social ghostwriting clients, or just any type of client agency client, is to make some outlandish offer like, I guarantee you'll get 10 million impressions in the first 30 days or you don't pay.

And this is such a giant mistake for a lot of reasons.

But the biggest mistake is because you don't have control over that outcome.

Social algorithms are like a lottery. So you have absolutely no idea whether.

You'Re going to generate 10 million views or 10,000 views. More importantly, you actually don't need to make these kinds of promises. This is the thing that a lot of people don't understand about social ghostwriting. Specifically, the measure for success is not some specific tangible metric, especially for startup.

Founders, CEOs, executives, investors.

These people do not care about how many clicks their post got. The measure for success is that they're.

Not creating any content right now or they're not creating content consistently. And the reason they're not doing it.

Is because they don't have time, they.

Don'T have the skill and or they can't rationalize making the time or building the skill because they're too busy building a company. The value that you provide as a.

Social ghostwriter isn't some specific number of.

Views or anything like that.

You don't have to promise follower growth. You don't have to promise a certain number of impressions.

The measure for success for the client is literally you aren't creating content consistently.

We work together now.

You are. And when you create content consistently, more good things happen in your life and in your business.

It's such a simple concept, but it's so hard for people to understand and wrap their heads around. I am telling you, I built my entire ghostwriting agency, millions of dollars in revenue ghostwriting for some of the most.

Well known founders and CEOs and investors in the business world. And we did not promise one metric. Zero.

We didn't promise anything. Our entire pitch was you aren't building thought leadership at scale right now on.

The Internet and now working with us, you are.

That's it. If you have other questions that come to mind, leave a comment and I'll make a follow up video answering the good ones. And if you're at all interested in getting started as a social ghostwriter or an email ghostwriter, send me a dm. I would love to hear from you.