Did you know you can hire a ghost writer to take care of your photography blog? Finding the right blogger can be a lifesaver, freeing up your time to focus on the parts of your business you really love while still giving you all the benefits of an active blog. If you
- Don’t like writing
- Struggle to keep your blog up-to-date
- Don’t know what to write about
then bringing a professional or freelancer on board might be just what you need. Before you take the plunge, here’s what you need to know about hiring a ghost writer for your blog:
What You Need to Know About Outsourcing Your Photography Blog
You Get What You Pay For
If you’re looking for someone who’ll write a $5 blog post for you, chances are high that you’ll find plenty of options. The chances that you’ll be happy with the work?
Not so high.
Like just about every other product or service, you pay for quality.
When I started out as a ghost writer—with exactly one client—I was charging very low prices. Why? Because I had zero experience. I was just a girl who wanted to write for a living and whose college professor had told her she had a flair for copy.
When my first client reached out and asked me about blogging services, I was totally upfront with her and told her that as long as she was okay with me learning as I went, I would love to take on her photography blog.
It was a learning experience and I’m happy to report that we both benefited from it. That first client is still with me, even though I’ve increased my prices considerably over the years as I’ve learned how to provide better content for my clients.
So yes, you can definitely take a chance on a newbie—it might just work out great! But someone charging low prices should be honest about where they’re at and what they can deliver.
When shopping around for someone to write your photography blogs, remember that you’ll pay more for someone with experience. And not just with writing. Running a successful blog also requires expertise in SEO, which is a whole ‘nother skill set.
Hiring the cheapest option won’t get you the results you want, and it can lead to its own set of headaches. Getting the right combination of expertise and relatability is totally worth the investment.
A Good Ghost Writer Has Expertise…So Use It!
Since you’ve invested as much as your budget will allow for professional ghost writing services, it only makes sense that you would want to take advantage of your blogger’s expertise. And I’m not just talking about leaving the crafting of well-worded sentences up to them.
Ask them what they would recommend for things like keywords, word count, and posting frequency. Ultimately, you get the last say, but a good ghost blogger will be able to offer you sound advice on those types of details. Keep in mind that their advice may change depending on the type of content you’re looking for.
For example: When I write up a newborn session, I’ll recommend a nice short word count. Frankly, people don’t want to read a thousand-word saga about a cute and sleepy baby any more than I want to write one. Most of the value from a session post comes from being able to showcase your photos, share your personality, and support your top keywords. You just don’t need a lot of words for that.
Now, if my client had ordered an informational blog post about what parents should bring to their newborn session, I would recommend a higher word count. And if they wanted a step-by-step tutorial for how to take better newborn pictures at home, I would probably recommend higher still.
Why?
Because I want to create outstanding content that offers value to my clients—which means offering value to their clients. I also want to make sure that my client’s blog supports their SEO goals—and part of that means knowing the best word count for different types of content.
If you decide not to take your ghost writer’s advice, realize that they’ll do the best they can with what they’re given, but the results may not be as spectacular. No matter how good they are, they’ll have a much harder time increasing your site traffic on a single 300-word blog post per month than if they can divide up a higher number of words into multiple blog posts of varying length, depending on the topic.
Don’t Underestimate Your Own Expertise as a Photographer
While your photography blogger can bring a lot to the table in terms of writing prowess, SEO know-how, and even topics and keyword suggestions, don’t forget that you are the person who knows your ideal client best.
You’ll get the best results if you and your photography blog writer collaborate to come up with topics that really speak to your audience.
This doesn’t mean you should micromanager the writing process or that you need to provide a detailed outline for every post. Once your blogger has gotten to know you and your business, they should be able to pretty much fly solo.
But it does mean that you should still be involved with your blog and be in touch with your writer to make sure that you’re both on the same page.
Personally, I like to get to know my clients with a course of weekly email questionnaires so that I can really get a handle on their business and what might be most helpful for their blog. I also offer content planning calls so that my clients and I can brainstorm about upcoming blog posts and have our topics lined up for the next several months.
Staying connected like this really helps if you’re looking for stellar results from your blog!
It’s OK to Give Your Ghost Blogger Feedback
Your ghost writer wants you to be happy with their work. But the relationship between photographer and blogger is like any other relationship. It can take a little bit of time for you to get to know each other well enough for your blogger to imitate your style in a way that’s spot on.
For example, if the first couple of posts feel too sedate, let your writer know that you have a super gregarious personality and that they’re good to go wild with the exclamation points and put words in all caps for EMPHASIS!!!!
Remember, feedback isn’t about nitpicking. It’s simply about letting someone know what’s going great and what can be improved so that your relationship can grow.
It helps to have clear parameters in place for giving feedback, so definitely ask your blogger about their policies and preferences. Some may offer a free edit, while others may charge for any changes. Some might be fine with you texting them over the weekend to request changes, while others may have a policy that changes need to be requested by email within a few days of delivery.
Figuring out upfront how much feedback is welcome and what the process is will help things go smoothly and ensure that you have a good working relationship.
Remember, It Takes Time and Experimentation
If you’ve decided to outsource your blog, there are probably specific results you want to see from your investment.
Maybe you’re hoping to boost your SEO. Maybe you want to increase traffic to your website, get more client engagement, or book an additional client each month.
Blogging is a long-haul kind of thing, and it can be six months to a year (or longer) before you start seeing results. Scrapping the whole thing six months in because you haven’t seen results yet is a waste of the time and money you’ve invested into something that could have helped your business…given a bit more time.
It’s a good idea to keep track of your goals for blogging. Just remember to be patient and give your blog the time it needs to work.
It’s also important to pay attention to other changes you notice along the blogging journey. Maybe your goal is to appear on the first page of Google results for a specific keyword. When you hired your ghost blogger you were on page 6, and now you’re on page 4. You haven’t hit your goal, but things are moving in the right direction.
Or maybe you’ve noticed more client referrals, because people are stoked to have their session on your blog and have been sending friends to check it out.
Maybe you haven’t noticed a lot of new business, but website traffic is up because you post great photography tips and parenting info.
It’s up to you to decide whether these results are worth the money you’re putting in, and to do the detective work to figure out whether trends like these are due to blogging or something else. Changes like these can be valuable, and you want to be aware of the many different ways in which blogging might be supporting your business.
And Blogging is Not a Complete SEO Strategy
There’s no question that blogging can be super helpful for SEO. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
Hiring a blogger as your entire SEO strategy is like buying photo editing software and expecting it to create great pictures for you. Yes, of course you need high-quality editing software to produce beautiful images, but that editing software isn’t going to pose your subjects, take classes in newborn safety, set up lighting equipment, or make clients feel at home in your studio.
Same thing with blogging.
Hiring a blogger and then neglecting website optimization, keyword research, and social media posts is going to produce disappointing results. It’s just not realistic to expect your blog to take care of all your SEO needs. So, be sure that you have blogging in perspective: as an important tool that has to be used in conjunction with others to build your business.
Should I Outsource My Photography Blog?
Hiring a ghost writer for your blog can be a lifesaver. Outsourcing your blog can free up a significant chunk of your time and mental energy, give you better search engine results, and provide free value to your clients. And when you know up front what to expect, you can create a long-term, beneficial relationship with your blogger based on mutual understanding and respect.
The decision to hire writing help is one only you can make—but I can tell you that if you keep these need-to-knows in mind, you’re likely to find a great fit and be able to look back and say, “Hiring a blogger was one of the best things I did for my business!”
If you’d like more information about outsourcing your photography blog, please be in touch! I’d be happy to send you my inquiry packet and/or set up a time to chat.
