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.

There are many ways and styles of writing. The secret of speed writing is to first collect your thoughts together and concentrate on the subject matter. You don’t have to be an expert on that topic. Step one is to go to Google, Yahoo, or MSN search and type the keyword of the article. Open three to four sites, which have maximum information. Remember not to copy and paste. This is only for reference. You need not copy what is there on another site. Read the sites and get a grasp on the topic. After thoroughly reading those sites, jot down 4 points that you feel are relevant to your article. With this, your research work is over. While you have read the sites, most of the information has got registered in your subconscious mind. You will be surprised how it all comes on paper when you start writing. All this takes around fifteen minutes max.
Step two is to start writing. Have a punch line ready to grasp the attention of the reader. A question or unraveling a secret generates curiosity. For example, if you are writing about credit cards, say that did you know that the interest rates have come down? Or give a title that grabs attention like “truths about credit card usage,” and so on. Give the reader ample information that he is not aware of.

Remember that every sentence you write should be informative and not away from the subject. Do not deviate from the topic. Have the introduction in 4-5 sentences. Here, introduce the purpose of the article and say what exactly the keyword means. The next two paragraphs of 4-5 sentences become the body of the article. Here, explain the topic in detail and refer to the four points you jotted down from your research.

Finally, the conclusion here makes a general statement about the topic you have written about. Hint at other points that are connected to the topic, but you haven’t mentioned and sum up the article. Lo! Behold. You have your 400-word article in less than half-hour ready for publication.

Value addition not only enhances the experience of clients but also results in additional income. Take, for instance, a customer who wants to get his memoirs ghostwritten. The customer may have a wry sense of humor, and a ghostwriter’s job is to maintain the original voice.

A writing assignment is unlikely to be standalone, in the sense that ultimately the manuscript has to be printed in electronic or book form. Here ghostwriters can add value by advising the customer on approaching publishers and agents, writing the query letter, jacket blurb, synopsis, and the like. All this assistance can amount to a tidy sum of money. But more than that, a satisfied customer is likely to return for more.

If the customer wishes to promote his work on the internet, there are several easy ways which a writer is usually familiar with. Assisting your customer to reach out to his prospective clients would be greatly appreciated. For example, a ghostwriting assignment can be followed up with a series of search engine optimized articles on the Internet, leading to awareness and ultimate success of the book.

There are several self-publishing firms, which your customer may need. Having a business relationship with such publishers can help get the book published. The customer would appreciate guidance in this matter.

As far as the actual writing goes, a well-stocked library with books on jokes, quotations, and a good dictionary can be quite useful in giving quality output. Suggestions on the structure of the booking flow and other details should be properly communicated, and any differences sorted out before actual writing. Planning and working from a common platform would save time at a later date and also result in a quality product. Remember that your commitment is towards quality writing and not simply to appease the customer.

Your continued efforts to add incremental value to your work would finally amount to genuine customer satisfaction.

Let us look at a simple assignment. A ghostwriter is contracted to write an autobiography for a well-known and respected sportsman. This man has been a member of the American Davis cup lawn tennis team. The first job is to write his autobiography. Most writers would stop at that which will be the culmination of the assignment. The client would thank him, pay the contracted amount and move on. At this stage, how do you, as a writer, create more opportunities, quite simple.

The sportsman has not spent his money getting his autobiography written and then decided to put it on his shelf. He wants to get the manuscript published. For this, he has to write a sharp query letter and then approach agents and publishers. Here is an opportunity for you. You can offer to not only write the query letter but also research some prospective agents for him. I am sure he would bite. There are a few more things you can do here. Writing a jacket blurb, a synopsis, and promotion material can all add up to considerable writing effort. Since you have written the original work, it would be easier for you to coordinate your clients publishing efforts. Not only this. Once a client is published, it becomes a kind of addiction. Even if the autobiography were only mildly popular, you would soon be in business again, writing for this customer.

The Internet is a huge market for ghostwriters. There are millions of articles to be written. Web content development is a tremendous opportunity. Often, it happens that a ghostwriter is contracted to write content for a website. The contract can be extended to include a sales copy for the site and promotion. Due to the extreme obsession with search engine listing, rewrites for sister sites are in demand. Some webmasters have several websites with the same theme hosted on the Internet. Between themselves, rewrites, sales copy, and promotion can be one big project.

A ghostwriter has to take a holistic approach to writing. There are several opportunities, which arise from a single writing assignment.

How do the economics of ghostwriting business work out? Celebrity writing has become a money-spinner. A well-known personality has to approach a publisher and express their desire to write a book. Memoirs, scandals, exposure, and inside stories, all make for good reading. They even manage a handsome advance on the book project. But the problem is that these celebrities don’t know their vowels from adjectives. Here is where the ghostwriter comes into the picture. For a fraction of the contracted sum, a society symbol can hire a ghostwriter, who in turn churns out a best-selling memoir.

The ghostwriter can indulge in writing without having to undergo the agony of going through the publishing process. This scenario is prevalent in the book publishing industry. One should remember that the memoirs or books become best sellers due to the popularity or in some cases notoriety of the client and not on the strength of the writing. It is a win-win situation.

There is a whole new avenue for writers on the internet. Needless to say, there is a boom in the internet industry. There is a requirement for all kinds of writing ranging from simple articles, blog posts, web page content to search engine optimized written material. Many established writers are overwhelmed with work and prefer off-shoring it to other writers. This huge labor market in creating intellectual property is a ghostwriter’s paradise. Effectively for every genuine writer, there may be a dozen ghostwriters sweating it out in the background.

A ghostwriter always remains a ghost. They get no credit for the writing, nor can they aspire for celebrity status. But they can earn a livelihood through it.