Written by Raymond Z, Freelance Writer

Have you ever gone to a website for freelance writers and get excited when you start to read about how it works? That’s the feeling you’ll get about Ghostbloggers. You get to write about any topic you choose. You get to set your own price. The site adds their commissions on top of your chosen price, they don’t take it out of the chosen price. Yes, there is a downside, but it might not be what you expect.

Overview

Ghostbloggers gives writers the opportunity to write about what they enjoy writing about. There are no specific assignments. The site serves as a marketplace for content. Since writers are more prolific writing about subjects they are comfortable with, it is an interesting option for content providers.

Writers sign up and can begin submitting articles rather quickly. Once an article is approved, it is categorized and placed for sale on the Ghostbloggers website. Ghostbloggers suggest writers submit evergreen content in case articles to do not sell right away.

The site does provide a list of recently requested topics, but once you write on the topic there is no guarantee it will be purchased. In fact, currently there is no way to know when a potential buyer submitted his request. It could be weeks or months old.

For writers who have down time, it is a good way to write about topics they know and enjoy.

The Opportunity

The biggest opportunities at Ghostbloggers are the fact that you decide the subject matter, and you set the price. While that sounds almost Utopian, the reality is lower priced articles sell better. You should also keep in mind that Ghostbloggers will add 30% to your price as their commission. That means if your price for an article is $10, the client will pay $13 and the platform keeps that $3 commission.

If writers choose topics that are popular, the opportunities for sales increase. The challenge is that it is up to the clients to search out articles. Writers can write hundreds of articles and if the topics aren’t selling, they will sit there. Of course until they sell, they are still the property of the writer, but it is not clear how to delete them from the Ghostblogger system. It seems Ghostbloggers could serve as a sales platform, where writers can send potential clients to purchase their work. When used this way, writers essentially use the Ghostwriter platform as an online search and sales vehicle.

Once writer fees accumulate to $25 or more, writers can request a cashout. All cashouts are done thru PayPal. Ghostbloggers does take about 7 business days to complete any cashouts, which seem like an unnecessarily long time. The site says this is to allow publishers time to submit any complaints for copy that doesn’t meet their expectations.

How to Sign Up

One of the big pluses to Ghostbloggers is that it is easy to sign up. Writers simply fill out a relatively simple form and read and approve the users agreement and they are ready to go. Once an article is submitted it will be checked for quality and plagiarism. Once it is approved it is put into the Ghostblogger system so potential clients can find it in their database of articles. It seems to take a least a day to get articles approved.

How to Get Jobs

Writers may feel a little helpless at Ghostwriters. Once an article is submitted, it is out of their hands. It is left up to the site to promote to publishers, and then up to the publishers to find and select their particular article.

On the other hand if writers choose to use the platform to “store” their unsold work, Ghostbloggers can be successfully used as an effective sales and search option. Writers could then send potential clients to the site to search for their articles and complete the transaction there. This allows writers to avoid the fee collection process.

Reputation

Best I can tell is that Ghostbloggers has been around since about 2011. The good news is there is not a lot of bad chatter about it. The bad news is there is not a lot of chatter at all about it. The site is a good concept. It is writer and publisher friendly. It does however seem to need better marketing and an influx of attention and updates. The site’s own blog is outdated, and the latest requests for article topics are weeks and sometimes months old.

Personal Experience

I like the concept and how it gives the writer more control over what they write. I am disappointed that the site doesn’t have more “energy”. Just as I was writing this review I got my weekly update. The email reads in part “These articles have recently been requested by potential buyers:” It then listed four article topics. Two of the four listed were listed when I signed up for the site several months ago.

Now, I understand that not all publishers will request topics. I could see that many would just browse the articles and add them into their shopping cart. But the lack of site updates and new topics suggests that the platform is in need of renewed energy and an aggressive marketing plan. For writers, it is potentially a valuable asset.

Overview

Ghostbloggers discourages articles that aren’t evergreen so they will still sell a year or two from now. The trouble is nobody wants their articles to sit around for a year or two. It may be part of the reason the site is not as vibrant as it could be. Publishers may be more interested in timely or at least seasonal articles. Those are discouraged at the site. The Ghostbloggers website and technology is good. The concept and system is good. They even update their Facebook page. For writers it is worth posting a few articles too. It just seems to lacks energy and visibility. For a similar site that has much more activity, we recommend looking into Constant Content.