George Blogs!

Here’s a fair warning to all Internet Marketers looking to hire a ghostwriter – don’t trust them! Now, don’t get me wrong here – I am not saying that ghostwriters are crooked and will take your money and run, or that they will intentionally do a lousy job. If anything, as a former ghostwriter myself, I have nothing but respect for men and women who do their best to create value through the power of the written word.

My point, however, is simple – just because you now have a ghostwriter does not magically mean that your problems will disappear. In fact, keep the following in mind – just because your ghostwriter isn’t sitting in the same office as you doesn’t make them any less of your employee. And, as with all employees, things sometimes go wrong, even in spite of the best intentions.

For example, I recently outsourced a project to a person who looked like a brilliant writer, with an extensive resume and a record of accomplishment. Everything was fine and dandy, and I even allowed myself to take the afternoon off, reasoning that I’ve earned it.

Guess what? I came home to an e-mail from my ghostwriter that read that she will be unable to complete the project due to a family emergency (speaking of which, my thoughts are with her and her family – I won’t go into details, but it’s a tough break for sure).

Luckily, I anticipated in advance that something like this might happen – so when I posted the vacancy the other day, I waited to receive PMs from several interested people, some of whom I shortlisted for future references. As such, I had a backup writer working on the project within an hour.

In short, my point is simple – never, under any circumstances, assume that, simply because you have a ghostwriter, the job will always get done. Murphy’s Law is a dreary old bugger, and you always need to have a Plan B for dealing with emergencies such as these.

Incidentally, it’s also one reason why I always work with multiple graphics designers – even though some of them are somewhat better than others, I know I’m not putting all my eggs into one basket when one of them can’t take on the next job for whatever reason (not to mention, it enables me to have multiple projects in the pipeline simultaneously).