My failure to build a ghostwriting business

So last year I built a one person ghostwriting agency.

Ran it for a 6 months, grew it to $10K+ and then shut it down.

Here’s why I failed and why you should NOT become a ghostwriter -

First off - Why I did it -

I had a vision - I love to write, that’s all I wanted to do all day.

I thought I could write for busy people who didn’t have the time, skill or inclination to write.

I could help them get visibility on Twitter. Showcase their expertise in THEIR authentic voice.

So I did hour long interviews with my clients every week, asked them deep questions about their experience and world view.

And then crafted tweets and threads to highlight it on their Twitter.

This started to work, it helped them get engaged followers in their niches.

People started sending DMs, asking more questions, giving us more content ideas to write about

But there was a problem

My strategy only half worked

While they got engagement, follower growth was slow

It was steady, but slow.

And clients started to demand viral growth.

They wanted me to play the usual growth game -

• Write generic content
• Enter engagement pods
• Pay for retweets

This was a game I understood, but didn’t want to play

It felt like one giant ponzi scheme.

Because once you grow your followers like that, the only way to actually make money is by then getting paid for retweets and running engagement pods yourself

Not through any other product or service

I explained this to a bunch of my clients, some of them got the point, but most of them didn’t care.

All that mattered was viral numbers

Which I was incapable of getting them. I had failed them..miserably

Maybe I attracted the wrong clients, or maybe I was just not good enough

But I realized that I was better off writing for myself, and trying out other opportunities.

Instead of forcing a business onto myself that I just didn’t like the rules of 🤷

This wasn’t the game that I was having fun playing.

And I only wanted to play the games that were fun.

I had already quit corporate slavery for this very reason, didn’t want to fall back into the same trap again.

Sure ghostwriting paid good money, but I didn’t want to make money at the cost of enjoyment.

That’s when I decided to say no to all my clients, refunded their money and shut down the project.

Yes, I gave up.

Sometimes it's okay to quit!

So if you understand the ghostwriting game, and ready to play it, then definitely get into it.

But if you have a naive vision of ghostwriting like I had then it's best you avoid it.

There are better avenues out there. Better utility for your writing skill.

Cheers
Ayush 🙏

Originally posted on Twitter and Superframeworks