The Pros and Cons of Ghostwriting: A Comprehensive Guide

Ghostwriters are in huge demand these days, whether for clearing piles of writing projects, delivering content at tight deadlines, or helping companies create content marketing strategies. 

While ghostwriting can be an excellent option for those who don’t have the time or skills to write themselves, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using this service.

We are here for your help!

In this article, you will gain insight regarding ghostwriting, a ghostwriter, the pros and cons of ghostwriting, and a lot more, so that you can decide whether hiring a ghostwriter would be helpful for your content marketing strategy.

So, without further delay, let’s get straight into the discussion.

What is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is the act of writing web or other forms of content under someone else’s name. Here, the actual writer does not get credit for their work; instead, an individual, company, or institution with whom the writers collaborate holds authority over the written pieces.

For instance, a business owner can use a ghostwriting service to write and publish their web content.

Who is a Ghostwriter?

Ghostwriters are professional writers who write content such as articles, blogs, newsletters, ebooks, speeches, or scripts for movies or YouTube videos for clients, leaving their authorship in exchange for payment.

Since they don’t have any rights over their work, they must keep their work confidential and not disclose it after receiving payment. Earlier, ghostwriters were mostly responsible for writing memoirs, but now they are involved in almost every sector, be it education, entertainment, or eCommerce websites.

Most clients who hire ghostwriters are either too busy to devote time to writing or lack the writing skills necessary to create great content.

So it can be said that ghostwriting helps create a mutually beneficial relationship between writers and clients, where writers can ensure a steady source of income and clients can enjoy authentic work under their name.

The Pros and Cons of Ghostwriting: Overview

Answering the most important question of whether to work with a ghostwriter or not becomes more clear when you have an overview of what kind of benefits and drawbacks a ghostwriting service offers.

Below is a brief summary of the pros and cons of using a ghostwriter:

Pros	Cons
They are professional writers	Can be expensive
Have experience working in various niches	Searching the perfect ghostwriter may be time-consuming
Creates SEO-friendly organized content	Miscommunicating may occur while explaining the needs and thoughts
Delivers work within a specific time frame	Some may misuse AI tools
Saves your time	Need to review and provide feedback multiple times

What are the Pros of Ghostwriting Services?

Hiring ghostwriting service offers a number of benefits to an individual, a business, or an organization.

Let’s look at some of the advantages of ghostwriting so you can understand how useful hiring a ghostwriting service can be for meeting your content-writing needs:

1. Ghostwriting grows brand awareness fast

Content marketing is the fastest way to reach your target audience. Sharing business stories, content related to your products, or simply answering their queries paves the road to connecting with the audience, building trust, and engaging with the customers.

However, this entire process requires a consistent time investment, which may not be possible for most business executives as they have other work to do. Even if they share content once or twice a month, it won’t be as effective as it would be with weekly updates.

In such a situation, a ghostwriter can be of great help. They can create effective brand-promoting content regularly with proper research on your target clients, market trends, and competitors, resulting in growing brand awareness.

2. Growing your business with idea assistant

You can collaborate with ghostwriters to assist you with idea generation for growing your business. Now you may wonder how a writer can help you with your business strategy! 

Well, content marketing is not a random process. You need to move forward with proper planning to make your content marketing techniques effective.

Let’s learn about the ways their ideas can assist you with your business.

• Content marketing plans

A well-defined content marketing plan works best to create engaging and relevant content that drives website traffic and boosts sales. On that note, ghostwriters use their work experience and knowledge to research, understand and identify a business or brand’s goal, target audience, and competitors.

Based on that, they conduct keyword research, decide on the content topics and types, plan the publishing schedule, and perform other necessary tasks to develop an effective content marketing plan.

• Content clustering

Content clustering is one of the most important SEO strategies that work as a long-term source for driving traffic to websites.

Besides, it helps with the crawling process of the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., to understand the hierarchy of a website. 

A professional ghostwriter knows the importance of creating cluster content for a website.

Hence, they can help develop pillar content, cluster content, and strategically place internal links so that viewers get all their queries answered from that specific website and increase the authority and engagement of the website.

• Creating content outlines

Ghostwriters know every nook and cranny of creating engaging content. For that, they begin with creating the content outline that works as a framework for the content.

They perform thorough research on the topic of the content to generate the headings and subheadings necessary to discuss in order to make the content informative, engaging, and helpful for the readers.

• Writing content

Last but not least is writing, which is their area of expertise. Ghostwriters create well-crafted content by adhering to SEO guidelines.

Besides, their experience in writing on diversified topics helps them think outside the box and create thoughtful, helpful, and engaging content that effectively conveys a brand’s voice, drives traffic, and boosts sales.

3. Ghostwriting services by professional writers

Writing is a complex task. Apart from having language proficiency and knowledge of the market, a writer must have a certain set of skills that are inevitable to create valuable, engaging, and sustainable content.

Let’s learn about some of the skills of ghostwriters that make them professional writers:

• Research and analysis 

The research and analysis skills of ghostwriters are pretty strong. They can easily identify valuable resources and generate topic ideas to create compelling and engaging content.

Besides, they conduct research with precise short and long keywords, which helps them analyze the resources to decide on the relevant information that needs to be addressed to make the content better.

• Creativity

Creativity is another important skill that ghostwriters possess. They often have to work for multiple companies in the same niche. And writing unique content for different companies on similar topics is the most challenging task. 

However, ghostwriters utilize their creativity to overcome such challenges. Despite writing on similar topics, they try to think from different perspectives to make each and every piece of content unique.

• Critical Thinking

Whether ghostwriters write informative blogs or marketing content, they must conduct extensive research using various resources.

They carefully evaluate the resources and systematically use the information to establish logical arguments and evidence that increase the authority of the content and achieve its intended goal. 

• Proofreading

Ghostwriters always proofread their work to ensure the ideas they have mentioned in the content are coherent. Besides, they check for spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes to ensure that the content’s quality is not compromised.

Moreover, they edit their work several times to make sure their ideas are right on track.

4. Stay focused on your main job

One of the significant benefits of hiring a ghostwriter is that you can leave all the tasks and responsibilities of content marketing in the hands of the ghostwriter and concentrate on your work. 

The ghostwriter will conduct all the research, design the marketing plan considering the needs and goals of your business, as well as write the content.

In the meantime, you can complete your other tasks without the need for investing your valuable time in writing content.

5. Faster turn-around time (TAT) adds to your profits

Every business proceeds with a proper content marketing strategy. Based on the marketing strategy, they have to produce a certain number of content each week.

E-commerce businesses, in particular, must keep their social media sites up to date on a regular basis. 

Hence, collaborating with ghostwriters can meet the content needs of your business as they take on projects and submit them on an agreed timeline.

No matter how tight the schedule you have given the ghostwriters, they will certainly complete your task within the time frame. 

How does fast content delivery add to your profit? 

• Your marketing strategy will be speedy
• Can meet your company target within your planned deadline
• Regularize online presence 
• Drive more traffic to the sites, and more.

6. Creating quality content that ranks and converts

Search engines act as the connecting bridge between your content and your audience. No matter how good your content is, search engines won’t direct your content to the viewers if it’s not SEO-friendly.

However, when working with a ghostwriter, you won’t have to worry about this matter as they know the standard SEO guidelines and policies. 

Ghostwriters craft content by maintaining proper on-page SEO practices, such as using keywords, optimized titles, headings, meta descriptions, etc.

As a result, the quality of the content gets enriched, establishes its authenticity, ranks higher on search engines, and boosts the conversion rate.

7. Don’t need to gain inspiration and spark creativity

Mastering writing skills is all about passion, inspiration, and creativity. Not everyone can be a writer, even if they have in-depth knowledge about the topic or market they intend to write on.

Therefore, if you don’t have writing experience, you must look for inspiration and unleash your creativity to create quality content. 

Why take the rough road when you can complete the writing task with the help of a ghostwriter? 

Ghostwriters love writing. They have the creativity and inspiration that fuel their writing skills for creating great quality content. They know in what ways content should be crafted to make them readable, engaging, and effective for the readers.

So you can relax and let them handle the difficult task of writing.

8. Traits of a quick learner

Ghostwriters are quick learners. Working on various types of topics and niches enhances their critical thinking abilities. For this reason, even if they don’t have extensive experience working in your industry, they can easily grasp your brand objectives and the target audience’s needs. 

Based on that, they can conduct systematic research to create quality content that meets the expectations of your marketing goals.

9. Using your own name in the website’s author bio

Despite having a busy schedule for writing or the skill to create quality content, you can establish your website or profile as an expert in that field through a ghostwriting service. 

The high-quality content published under your name increases the authority of the site. Besides, it can earn viewers’ trust, drive traffic, and create a positive impact on the conversion rate.

Besides, no matter how busy you are, your personal branding can continue without any issues.

10. Great way to grow your savings

Working with ghostwriters can help you cut costs and earn profit in various ways. With the help of ghostwriters, you can effectively conduct content marketing, which is 62% less expensive and generates 3 times as many leads compared to traditional marketing. So, it opens up the road to your profit generation. 

Moreover, you can hire in-house full-time or part-time ghostwriters at a low cost. However, hiring a freelance writer is a good option if you want to save more. You can pay them per word, per hour, or per project. 

Although professional freelance ghostwriters may charge a bit higher, considering that you won’t have to spend any additional cost on them other than paying for the writing makes dealing with them cost-effective.

What are the Cons of Ghostwriting Services?

Every coin has an opposite side. Similarly, hiring ghostwriters comes with a number of drawbacks along with numerous advantages.

Let’s learn about the disadvantages you can encounter while working with a ghostwriter:

1. Getting help from AI writing assistants

With the rise of AI-assisted writing, the content industry faces numerous challenges in producing authentic humanized content. The easy availability of AI technology may lead some ghostwriters off track. As a result, they can benefit from AI assistance to improve their content.

However, such content may seem good but can’t yield better performance in the long run.

Hundreds and thousands of ghostwriters are waiting to take on your project.

But selecting the perfect one can be time-consuming, as the selection process includes:

• Publishing circulars
• Reviewing portfolios
• Shortlisting writers
• Take compatibility tests
• Interviews
• Negotiation, and more.

2. Miscommunication while conveying thoughts 

The job of ghostwriters is to convey your thoughts through their writing. So, sometimes it’s possible that the perspective from which you have explained to the ghostwriters was misinterpreted.

As a result, the content didn’t come out the way you have hoped.

3. Review and Feedback

Although you don’t have to invest time in writing content, you have to spare time to review the content and provide feedback.

Based on your feedback, the ghostwriter has to edit and make changes. Reviewing and providing feedback may take more than once, or even three times.

So, have patience!

Should You Hire a Freelance Ghostwriter?

Well, ghostwriters can be hired in two ways, the first is an in-house ghostwriter and the second is a freelance ghostwriter.

Compared to an in-house ghostwriter, hiring a freelance ghostwriter is cost-effective, as:

• You don’t need an office space 
• Don’t have to spend buying a computer and other devices for the workstation
• Short time contract
• Flexible working hours
• Only pay for the content they have worked on

Moreover, you can receive professional quality content within the agreed time frame. Besides, freelance ghostwriters have diversified knowledge as they have experience working in various industries.

So, you can use their experience to develop your content strategy and quality, which may be less effective with in-house writers, as they will only work with your niche, limiting their knowledge to a specific niche.

After evaluating the benefits that freelance ghostwriters offer, hiring them can be a good decision.

What Types of Projects Do Ghostwriters Get Hired for?

Ghostwriters are writers by profession. They work in multiple niches and styles of writing, which makes them suitable for writing various types of content. Although ghostwriters may seem to be hired to write books, they are involved in various other projects. 

Some of the projects ghostwriters get hired for are:

Website Content Development

Website content development is a complex process, as apart from writing, a lot more tasks are associated with it. Many companies hire professional ghostwriters to develop content for their websites.

Where the responsibilities of the writer include:

• Planning
• Researching
• Writing
• Publishing
• Promotion 

Blog Post Writing

Blogs or weblogs build brand awareness and regularize their online presence.

That’s why companies hire ghostwriters to write different types of blog content for their websites, for instance:

• Business Blog
• Affiliate Blog
• Niche Blog
• Product or Service Blog, etc.

Web Service Page Writing

Web service pages are the most important place where customers can get information about the offerings of a business. Besides, properly optimized service pages assist search engines in learning more about the website, including its offers, products, and services. 

Business owners search for ghostwriters to write service pages with proper and detailed information, keywords, CTA (Call To Action), and more to make the service pages engaging and easy to reach upon search.

Technical Content Writing

Ghostwriters are also involved in writing technical content. With their art of writing and crafting words, they convert complex, factual, statistical, or educational information into reader-digestible content.

Some examples of technical content are:

• Troubleshooting guide
• Product Manual
• API Documentation
• Legal Disclaimer
• White Paper
• Case Studies
• Website Privacy Policy, etc.

eBook Content

An ebook is another important project category for ghostwriters. Ebooks are great for combining contents in a sequence so that readers can get all the valuable information from a single source.

Besides, businesses create ebooks to increase their credibility in the industry, improve lead generation, improve sales, broaden email listings, and more.  

Guest Post Content Writing

Guest posting is a popular content marketing strategy in which ghostwriters are often hired to create content for someone else’s website.

Business owners prioritize guest posting from sites with a similar audience because backlinks to their website boost SEO, resulting in traffic generation from referred clicks.

Highlights

Before moving toward the end, let’s check out a brief summary to quickly review what we have learned so far:

• Ghostwriting means creating content for someone else where the original writer can’t claim their authorship.
• Ghostwriter and client share a symbiotic relationship where both benefit each other. 
• Hiring ghostwriting service has both benefits and drawbacks.
• Building brand awareness, assisting with content development, saving time, improving leads, etc., are the major benefits of hiring ghostwriters.
• Hiring ghostwriters has disadvantages too, such as misusing AI assistants, a time-consuming search process, misinterpreting instructions, etc.
• Ghostwriters are involved in writing different projects, such as blogs, service pages, ebooks, technical content, etc.

FAQs About Advantages and Disadvantages of Ghostwriting

Conclusion

Content marketing is a time-consuming process. You need to invest time in research, create the strategy, look for topics, write, edit, and whatnot!

And for business owners, entrepreneurs, or any working person,  it’s a lot more challenging, as after working for 10-12 hours, they won’t have any energy left to invest in writing or strategic thinking. 

A professional ghostwriter can be an asset to your business. You can leave them all the responsibilities of content writing and content creation.

However, to clear any doubt, evaluate the pros and cons of ghostwriting mentioned above to come to a decision on whether you would benefit from hiring a ghostwriter.