Should You Hire a Famous Writer or Write Your Own Articles?

By Bill Platt
Posted Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Proven and Exceptional Click-Through Results

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.

About the Author
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)