How to Hire a Ghostblogger for Your Lawn Care/Landscape/Outdoor Living Blog

Over past the past two years, I’ve written blogs on “How to Hire a Lawn Care or Landscape Company,” for many of my clients.

Now, I’m writing a blog for you, the lawn care/landscape/outdoor living business owner, to help you hire a ghostblogger for your website.

Here are 7 tips to help you when you need to hire a ghostblogger for your lawn care, landscape, or outdoor living blog:

1. If you’ve found a blogger or business writer who you want to hire, read their blogs. Check to make sure that they write their own content. If they do, get a feel for their style to see if you like it. Also, can they write a cohesive blog that flows and draws you in? There’s a lot involved to successful blogging and readability is one of the most important skills to have.
2. Check out the content writer’s (also known as a ghostblogger or copywriter) online portfolio. Most writers have their portfolios on their websites. Go down through them. How long have they been writing? Where have they been published? Do they have experience writing about the lawn care, landscape, or outdoor living industries? Have they written for related industries, such as gardening or agriculture?
3. Do they have testimonials on their website? If not, ask them for references. Check them out and see what their clients say about them. Ask these references if your intended content copywriter gets blogs to them on time.
4. Go to LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Many writers have pages or bios on these sites. Check out their feeds—what do they talk about? Do they mix their personal lives with business? If so, how much? Do they have a professional tone to their business social media channels? Or are they sharing a lot of personal stuff, like what they had for breakfast that morning?
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for samples. I’ve had prospects ask for links to my clients’ blogs. I happily gather those links for these prospects because I want to convert them to paying clients. Go to their clients’ posts. Again, ask yourself if you like their writing style? The amount of detail? Does the ghostblogger know enough about lawn care and landscape practices to write intelligently about them?
6. Talk to your intended content writer. Ask him/her questions about their work process; how long they’ve been in the business; and when they’ll send you your blog posts?
7. Do they stay on top of their learning? Do they read green industry websites, blogs, and trade magazines? Do they read about current SEO practices and content marketing?

It’s always a challenge to hire someone new—even if it’s only to write your blogs. However, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of headaches, money and time if you invest in finding out about your ghost blogger before you hire them. That way, they’ll stay in the background, like good ghostwriters should, without suddenly vanishing on you.

What questions do you have about hiring a ghost blogger, a.k.a., a content writer, a web writer, or a web copywriter?

Do you want to find out more about how to hire a ghost blogger for your lawn care, landscape or outdoor living blog? Then, email me at wendy@landscapewriter.com.