Ghostblogging
Some people say that they know blogging. People like me who have worked as a blogger under unusual circumstances may just have a more interesting story to tell than most.
Washington, DC is a city of secrets. You know that. So, it should not surprise you to know that within the world of secrecy that is Washington, DC, there are people who blog in secret. This is an inside look into one of the most fascinating elements of today’s digital media online, ghost blogging.
I am someone who can now admit to being a professional ghost blogger. It’s true. In February 2006, Lawrence Ragan Communications of Chicago published an online profile of me because of my ghost blogging work in Washington, DC. Download a pdf of that 2006 online story here.
Since the need for secrecy no longer exists, in the interest of historical accuracy and honesty, I am happy to share with you the fact that I was a ghost blogger in Washington, DC for AARP, the well-known nonprofit organization for older Americans.
In those days, the purpose of AARP’s public-facing blog was marketing. The AARP blog was one of that organization’s first attempts to use new media to reach out to its target audiences in innovative ways. The organization started in 1958 and for decades was known for using traditional, mainstream media methods for outreach. Due to management changes at the organization during the early 2000s, the original AARP blog as it was conceived and produced in those days, no longer exists.
A current version is now online in a completely revamped format. The value for any organization to have a public-facing blog for marketing to target audiences cannot be denied. An organization like AARP that needs to keep constant interaction going with its target audience or lose relevance by now understands the importance of maintaining online interaction channels such as blogging.
From my experience, being a ghost blogger is very similar to being a speechwriter who functions as a ghost writer for someone else. Since I started as a Washington, DC ghostwriter of executive speeches at AARP in 1995, I am someone with significant experience in writing for someone else while concealing my own identity. I can tell you from experience that in Washington, DC, concealing your own identity while writing blog entries on behalf of someone else is an extension of concealing your own identity while writing speeches on behalf of executives.
But, let me warn you from my own experience: Only if you can set aside your own ego and submerge your natural need for recognition of your writing from others will you be successful at the craft of ghost blogging. (Why is ghost blogging two words compared to ghostwriting, which is one word!?)
Here’s a less comical question: Is ghost blogging better or worse than bylined blogging? My experience has taught me that one form of blogging is not better or worse than the other. Writing for a blog is what it is–writing for a blog. Whether you conceal your true identity or you put your real name right there online for the world to see, you need to know how to write for a blog and how to adapt what you write to your blog’s intended audience.
While there may be business reasons or even political reasons for concealing your true identity when you write for a blog, knowing how to write and knowing how to adapt what you write will always remain more important to your blog’s success or failure. When I worked as AARP’s unnamed blogger, I understood the reality that what was important was the messages conveyed in AARP’s blog. My identity as the blogger was completely irrelevant and secondary to the primary importance of the messages that AARP wanted to transmit in its blog.
Here you can download three pdf samples of my writing that are representative of my work as a ghost blogger in Washington, DC:
blog archive 1 (pdf); blog archive 2 (pdf); blog archive 3 (pdf)
