A ghostwriter may as well remain a ghost unless they can market themselves and create awareness. These are exciting times and there are various online avenues that can be duly exploited.
There was a time when sending mass email messages was considered honorable. Nowadays, it is called spam. There is a stigma attached to this form of communication, and it is better to avoid this online opportunity. What a pity. Because I still consider email to be the most efficient advertising medium.
But other equally effective forums have sprung up as substitutes. Social websites are no longer for youngsters alone. You can leverage the heavy traffic of these sites by becoming a member of a relevant forum. Orkut, MySpace, FaceBook, Hi5, and many other social sites can be mined. Joining these sites would allow you to interact with would-be authors and writers. Don’t underestimate the power of these sites. I have personally used them to create a significant presence in the writing community. The word gets around that you are available and if you are smart enough, offers to start pouring in.
Of course, these sites are slowly going the email way. There is too much spam, and the communities are flooded with irrelevant and irreverent messages. I don’t know how pornography inundates these sites but it gets into the way of proper communication. People have resorted to moderated sites but the very purpose seems to get lost in such closed sites. The social website structure is being continuously rewritten and the last word is still way down the road.
Another effective online medium is the blog. I need not say much about blogs except that a blog is a lively, here-and-now medium of communication. Combined with RSS feeds, cross-linking and aggregation, a blog can be an effective online marketing tool.
A ghostwriter should be able to create a unique profile of their on the blog. Writing on issues of interest and the style and manner of presentation can be effectively communicated. Inviting others to view their blog can be a powerful advertising tool. Lately, whenever someone asks for a sample of my work, I direct them to my blog. A blog is free, simple to set up, and requires no knowledge of technology. You need not know about HTML and stuff. Knowledge of the English language would suffice.
