Pay Per Blog.....is it Kosher?

WOW!....add Insurance Agents to the list of most disliked professionals; BEFORE lawyers and real estate agents....Jessica, did you expect to open up this Pandora's box??? Very stimulating conversation!

I think it's the content that is important to the reader. I see nothing wrong in having someone write for you.

Patricia/Seacoast NH

I do think that being involved and proofing/santioning what the person is saying in the blog they are writing for you would be key. 

Patricia

Paula Hathaway, Get off you're soapbox #87  and read comment #9. Who does he work for?  

...and who are you Jeff Link?--someone who is on the "inside"? ...why set up guidelines? or should I ask: who are the guidelines for? Maybe You should fall into your waterfall and I then I will get off my soapbox...It would be nice to get some answers.

Based on my interpretation of the comments so far we're approxamately at:

43% Kosher

57% Not Kosher

That being said, the idea behind social is to be transparent and connect with your community.  If you can find a qualified Ghost Writer that can connect with your community on your behalf (The CEO of our company has me doing this as we speak) then GREAT!  The key is having a close relationship with the Ghost Writer to write on your behalf.  There is no way you will get that kind of persional attention for 30 blog posts for $75/month.

After a quick review on the ActiveRain terms of service this is all I could find:

"You agree that you are solely responsible for all Content that you make available on the Site. You also represent and warrant to ActiveRain that you own all rights and have unlimited control of your Content, which makes it possible and legal for you to share and transmit your Content. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you agree that you will not post Content to the Site that is copyrighted by someone other than you, without the express, written permission of the copyright holder. You agree that your Content, once posted on the Site, is non-confidential."

Based on the language (Realizing that I am not a legal professional in any sense of the word), it looks like not only can you use a Ghost Writer, but you can also use copyright content as long as you have written permission.  Can we say ...  ActiveRain just wants more content?  The more content we as users can contribute to ActiveRain.com, the more search terms ActiveRain.com can show up for in the SERPs.  Great Post!

I would never contract with anyone to write my blog. Period. End of Story. It's not even an option. For all the reasons listed above by those that agree with me.

I couldn't imagine for a minute using a ghost writer on my personal blog. Corporate blogs are a different animal and a blog for another time. But, my blog is me, my thoughts... like me or not, it's authentic.

Do I dare jump in here?  Let me ask a couple of questions:

1) Do you write your own brochures?
2) Do you create your own Website?
3) Do you write your own Sales Letters?
4) Do you write your own Direct Mail?
5) Do you write your own News Releases?
6) Do you create your own Signs?
7) Do you write your own Speeches and Presentations?
Now it gets harder:
8) Do you create your own Radio Spots?
9) Do you produce your own TV Spots?

...you get the idea.

All of these should represent your brand image.  So should your blog, micro-blog, forums, etc.

Most of the time it takes a team of talented folks to do the above well and match your brand.  Plus, to get the return for your investment, you should be distributing your content through a lot of well researched channels to attract the exact right target customers and stakeholders.

If you can do all this yourself, and do it well, and still have time to sell, manage your business, and spend some time with your family, congratulations, you are super person!

I agree with the bloggers that say that blogging is another business decision.  You have to decide whether to make it yourself or buy it.  Some of your decision depends on the size of your business. Some depends on what talents you have.

Real professional writers know how to understand you, your brand, messaging, styles, content development, and channels to help you market your business and honestly portray what you offer.  It's up to the person that hires them to educate the writer and review everything they do before it goes "live" to make sure it's the message and image that matches your brand.

Though late to the debate here I wanted to put in my two cents as this thought has just come up for me. I am working with a virtual assistant and in the course of what I needed to be done blogs was on the top of my list. Why??? Because I know the importance of one AND the importance of being consistant. Since the latter has not been coming easily I was considering giving her specific topics to write, put in draft, I would edit and then publish. Then it hit me....that would be so unfair to do on AR. Why?? Because we get points here and those points should be for our content and originality and not someone elses even if I was proof reading and adding my 'personality'. So.... I set up a wordpress blog and will place those blogs there. AR is a special and 'original' community and should be kept that way. Besides blogging for business and SEO juice we also forge friendships and alliances here that when all is said and done is worth more than anything else. There are plenty of other blog avenues to use a writer  helper. :0)  

This is always a question that gets mixed reactions on AR, and I have mixed feelings about it.  I can see the pros and cons and am not certain how I feel.

Again, I write my own content...  IMHO worry more about your own content than every one elses.  If ActiveRain changed the rules for the "fussbudgets" here how could they enforce it?  Are you going to reform all the other real estate platforms as well?  How about all the  real estate blogs on WordPress/ Typepad/ Blogger.com blogs? Are you going to somehow get all real estate blogs to ban ghost writing? 

I've seen ActiveRain members  burn out over their need to dictate to other members what good blogging is.  It is a network but we are better off if you worry about your blog content and allow others to make decisions about their blog and their business.

#101 Don't worry about me falling in. It's deep water as for who I am I can remember when there were 10,000 members here on the Rain. As for you and

you're soapbox quoting guidelines. Well the definition of guidelines would be a general rule, principle, or piece of advice Then we have Bob Stewert

write

Quote from #9

If it was me (and I've said this on other posts of a similar topic) I would pay someone to write my local area posts. I know my time is more valuable than the 30 minutes to an hour it might take me to get the  I would interject two or three more personal posts a week to give my readers a sense of my personality. I would go on craigslist and look for local college students to write the local area posts.

Maybe and this usually happens in life things change. 

If it is wrong to have a ghost writer would it not also be false advertising to use a picture from you're senior year at high school? 

I left this comment on Lenn's reblog but thought I would post it here as well.

I've been blogging on AR since 2006 and I write my own stuff albeit I have slowed down. Blogging burn out is very real and posting once a day can create burn out not only for the writer but for the loyal reader. That said, It's not something I want to do or like the idea of but even the company I work for now offers paid Blog writing services in attempts to get their agents blogging. Personally I think it stinks.

A while ago I had been conversing with someone via a blog here on AR. Our conversation was good and we went back and forth for a litte bit.  Finally I got to meet that trainer in real life...when I mentioned something we had spoken about ...he had no clue what I was talking about and admitted to using a ghost writer on AR.  I walked away feeling pure disgust and very much like I had been used.

This is going to stir the pot.

It seems to me baby boomers are the main ones against a ghost writer. Kind of like back in the days of yore where Boomers did not trust any one over 30. Things change and the real estate profession has to change. unless you want the lead aggregate sites to start muscling in on you're market and then sell the leads you could have gotten your self. There is big money in real estate even in a bad market for the one who controls the leads. Are you the local agent going to be able to keep up with a local team of real estate agents. When the team has a social media manager on staff?(Go ahead and laugh at that statement, but you heard it from me first) 

Want to know how serious internet lead generation is for me? I have software that will analyze you're site tell me the best keywords and how many searches a day are done for that keyword.  The number of click thru's for that keyword the number one site should get. Plus tell me where my main site ranks for that keyword plus my other sites.(YouTube, Facebook, Twitter) rank and how many back links I need to out rank you.  

How many referrals would it take to pay a collage student to take care of this. I see a massive opportunity here. Paula Hathaway I would go after a market like yours. You are the only one posting in it and that is massive. You basically have no competition here in the rain. Take a look the Southhamton for your self. Scroll down who do you see? Nothing but Paula, who owns South Hampton? (Hint starts with a P) 

Now when not if, and there will be a time when the big guys catch on to this and go after local markets. Then what are you going to do.  Go head to head with a real estate team who has a dedicated manager? I look at it like this.  When there was no easy way to get on the web what did the big boys with big budgets do? The hired a website designer who then managed the creation of the site. Then if the were smart they hired a good marketing firm who had a team of great copywriters on staff. I cant compete with a staff of copywriters I can barely keep up with marketing listings and taking buyers around. So I don't do much blogging. Just look at my blog here. My point is , there is going to be a big change in the way real estate is done. Are you going to change are be forced out. There are a lot of highly skilled people that know tech. (Gen X and Y) That might not get in real estate when things are tough but when it turns around? The good thing is google loves domain age and content. Hyper local write you self. General information about the area hire someone. When a local business wants to do a brochure, does the owner do it. Not a true business owner would. So why would someone who has a business and we are in business here. Fail to concentrate on the one true task(working with clients) to a pay day. I personally would rather spend time with the wife and kids then blog or make a video. 

I have two thoughts here, what I think and what reality is. What I think is that it is a wrong to write about yourself when actually it is someone else writing it. But, my second thought is I could go to everyone's website here on Activerain and I would say 95% of them were written by someone else and using general information on why to hire them as your agent.

To me there really is no difference, but, I do see where people thing Social Media is more personable than a website, but many don't.