Should You Hire a Famous Writer or Write Your Own

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

by: Bill Platt

Proven and Exceptional ClickThrough Results

Testing has proven again and again that promotional articles generate more clickthrough 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 freereprint rights get published regularly in ezines and on websites and the results are longterm. 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 inhouse 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 inhouse 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 inhouse writer using his or her real name or create a pen name for your inhouse writer.

Whether you use the writer*s real name or a pen name, your decision should be made upon your confidence in your inhouse 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 inhouse 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 brickandmortar business in a very competitive marketplace where personalities can shine brighter than the home office, then I would strongly consider using my inhouse 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, biweekly 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 hyperdistribution 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 inhouse 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 freereprint 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

This article was posted on September 27, 2004

by Bill Platt

Underestimating the Power of Inhouse PR

Underestimating the Power of Inhouse PR

by: Carolyn Moncel

Do smallbusiness owners always have to rely on large PR agencies to get attention from the press? An entrepreneur recently asked me this question during a networking event for women business owners. Of course my answer was, กNo,ก but not for the reasons one might expect.

Ultimately, I do believe the time comes when a company needs professional guidance from a PR agency be it a large or small one to secure media coverage. But I also believe that a really media savvy smallbusiness owner, or a twoperson marketing team can do a fantastic job in promoting an organization. Hereกs how I know it can work.

A few years ago during the dot.com boom, I worked for a small online publishing company. We had a terrific technical team and staff, two great products, but no one knew the company existed. As a startup, it was crucial for the company to gain awareness through media exposure because advertising was too expensive.

Since our marketing department only consisted of two people the marketing director and myself, there was a bit of concern within the organization as to whether we had enough inhouse resources available to successfully get the company muchneeded ink. So the companyกs executive team hatched an interesting plan. They offered our inhouse marketing team the chance to bid on the companyกs PR project as if we were an outside agency.

My experience had always been in public relations, rather than product marketing. My bossก experience had always been the opposite. We seized the opportunity to combine our knowledge, skills and research.

Our tiny twoperson team matched PR wits squarely against four established pros including one former White House aide. Guess what? Our ideas prevailed, and the company decided to ditch the notion of hiring a big PR firm in favor of keeping the inhouse team.

Before long we were generating some memorable press for our company. Over a twoyear period we placed stories on our company in more than 100 media outlets from MSNBC and Forbes to the Wall Street Journal and Wired News online. We did it by studying what the big PR agencies did well, and also by using our departmentกs กsmallnessก to our advantage. Hereกs how you can do it, too.

Research your company.

Forget that you own or work within the organization. Really invest the time in understanding your companyกs structure, the executives and their backgrounds, the products and technology, the industry in which your company belongs, competitors and experts, and most of all the target audience the people who stand to benefit most from your product or service. If you know all of this information, then youกll be in a better position to brainstorm ideas on how to get the mediaกs attention. Doing this also helps in flushing out your overall marketing plan which PR is only a part.

Research the reporters who cover your companyกs industry and study the types of stories that they like to write.

Learn their deadlines and how they prefer to be contacted. Introduce yourself by phone and make it a point to speak with them regularly not just to talk about your company, but also about the industry in general. Use those conversations to offer up source materials that will help reporters write terrific stories. If you are able to do this successfully, you will become a trusted source that reporters return to repeatedly, and you will significantly increase your chances of gaining coverage for your company.

Always Return Media Phone Calls Immediately.

Keep yourself and your organization at the ready to receive phone calls from the press. Make sure that reporters know how to reach you in a 24hour cycle. This means they should have your office, cell, home, and pager numbers, as well as a contact email address. If you still happen to miss the call, return it ASAP. Always prepare yourself or members from your organization to conduct interviews from anywhere, at any time.

Conduct proper follow up after the interview.

This is not a call to find out when a story will be published, but rather a call to make sure that the reporters have everything they need in order to write a favorable story on your organization.

Whenever our company executives were interviewed by reporters, one team member would always accompany them to the interview to take careful notes. Alternately, the other team member would remain in the office on standby. If, during the interview, the reporter indicated a need for specific information, an urgent message would be relayed back to the office so that the team member had time to gather the information. Without fail, we always had the requested information waiting in the reporterกs email inbox before they arrived back to the office. This may seem like a small task, but getting it right could really decide whether or not a reporter selects your story, or moves on to a new one.

The important point to remember here is this. Never underestimate the power and dedication of your inhouse staff. Before you make the investment in retaining a PR agency, look at your internal talent first. What you find just might surprise you, and their drive to succeed will become contagious throughout your entire organization. And when the time comes to hire a PR firm, you will have a readymade collaborative team in place to work with your outside agency. Your inhouse team knows your company better than anyone and thatกs where you, as a smallbusiness owner, have an advantage over the กbig boysก at the large PR agencies in getting the mediaกs attention.

About The Author

Carolyn DavenportMoncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at [email protected] or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.

This article was posted on October 09, 2003

by Carolyn Moncel