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Ghostwriting completely changed my life.

It’s how I:

• Quit my day job as an entry-level copywriter
• Moved out of my dumpy studio apartment in Chicago
• Bought my first car (then my second and they my third car)

And it’s how I became a millionaire before the age of 30.

After becoming one of the highest-paid ghostwriters in the world, I wrote a book sharing everything you need to get started: *The Art and Business of Ghostwriting.*

For context, this book has everything I learned from starting from $0 as a freelance writer to:

• Ghostwriting for 300+ industry leaders
• Building my ghostwriting business from $0 to $180k/month in less than 2 years
• Ghostwriting everything from articles, to Twitter threads, to Video Sales Letters, to Educational Email Courses—you name it, I’ve ghostwritten it!

So, if you’re currently a freelance writer and you’re stuck between $3-$6k/month…

Or if you’ve never ghostwritten before, want to make money as a writer but you’re struggling to land your first client…

Then I can help.

Because I’ve been where you are today.

In this deep dive, I’m going to give you the 7 big takeaways from my book *The Art and Business of Ghostwriting—*the lessons I learned along the way which you can implement today to start landing high-ticket ghostwriting clients.

Let’s dive in!

Lesson #1: The Fears Holding You Back From Making More Money Aren't Real

I struggled with these fears for years.

• You're afraid if you ask for more money the client's going to say “No”
• You're afraid the client is going to get upset with you
• You're afraid you won't be able to deliver
• You're afraid that you aren't worth it

But it's important to internalize that all these beliefs are completely self-inflicted.

Here’s how I beat this:

Every single year I look back on my previous self and think, “Wow I sucked back then! I didn't know anything. I know so much more today.” Then I remember that's exactly what I thought about a previous version of myself back then (and the time before that, and before that).

We have a terrible habit of believing two faulty realities at the same time:

1. I'm not ready or I'm not qualified today
2. I know so much more (or I’m so much more qualified) than I was yesterday or last week or last year.

The truth is, you will always have more to learn and more room to grow—so embrace it. The good news? That means you can start today.

And if you want a full guide on how to figure out what to charge as a ghostwriter, check out this post here.

Lesson #2: There Are Only 5 Voices You Need To Ghostwrite For Anyone

These voices are:

Recognizing these voices isn't as difficult as you might—in fact you could probably recognize them no problem right now.

For example which voice is this:

“I believe that clean energy is the future. According to the New York Times, in 2023 Americans bought more than 1 million fully electric cars trucks and SUVs with electric vehicles growing to 8.5% of new auto registrations nationwide.”

Yup, that’s right—it’s The Fact Presenter (look at all the stats they’re presenting!).

Now let's keep this idea but change the voice:

“I think clean energy and electric vehicles are going to completely dominate. The legacy automotive industry Americans are buying more EVS than ever and that number is only going to go up.”

This is the opinionator because they're just sharing an opinion.

See how easy this is?

So if you know how to write in these 5 voices you can literally write anything for anyone.

Lesson #3: You Are Not A Freelancer, You Are A One-Person Business Owner

This is such a simple but powerful mental shift.

Freelancers get treated like freelancers because they think of themselves as freelancers. But one person business owners get treated like business owners because they think of themselves as business owners.

When you're a freelancer your mindset is to:

• Do anything for anyone
• At any time
• At any rate

But that's not what business owners do.

When you're a business owner you sell a specific type of product at a set price and you stand by it.

For example, if you sell handmade teacups and a customer walks in asking if you sell red Solo cups for beer pong you don't all of a sudden try to accommodate them. Instead, you say that's not what I do and then you move on. But every single day freelance writers end up trying to accommodate everyone—and that's a huge mistake.

This is why I'm such a firm believer in niching down and treating yourself like a one-person business.

Lesson #4: Ghostwriting Is A Dividend On Your Skill

The reason I encourage every writer to also ghostwrite is because it's the easiest way to capture value you're already creating elsewhere.

So if you're regularly writing on Twitter/X there are so many people who would love to pay you to help them write regularly on Twitter/X. That's a dividend on your skills. Or if you enjoy writing on LinkedIn, or scripting YouTube videos, or making short videos on Instagram, then you can monetize by providing them as a service to someone else.

Take whatever skill you're already doing, practicing, and using on a regular basis and then rent it to someone else.

Lesson #5: Don't Provide Every Service Possible

I have generated over $5 million in ghostwriting sales and the vast majority of that revenue came from one service:

Ghostwriting 800-word thought leadership articles.

So even though you can ghostwrite:

• Emails
• Or landing pages
• Or Twitter threads
• Or YouTube scripts

My recommendation would be to pick one and get really, really good at it—so good that you become the go-to person for that specific type of asset.

Because the more services you offer as a writer, the less efficient you become. Writing thought leadership articles is very different to writing Twitter threads, which is very different to scripting YouTube videos.

The mistake everyone makes (and I did it too!) is thinking none of these are that hard. You might be able to do them all but you can’t do them all efficiently. And as a one-person business owner, scaling your earnings becomes a game of efficiency. Getting more done in less time for the same or more money.

Which leads us to the next lesson.

Lesson #6: If You Want To Make More Money, You Have To Charge Per Asset Or Per Outcome

There are 5 levels of pricing as a writer:

These levels separate low-earning writers from the high-earning ones.

So if you aren't making the amount of money you want, then you need to climb up the staircase by fixing your pricing problems.

• Level 1: Charging per word. This is the worst-case scenario. If you’re doing this, stop… today!
• Level 2: Charging per hour. This is where most people stay stuck. Their earnings are directly tied to time and effort so they only make more money if they work harder and longer (and so they aren’t incentivized to become more efficient).
• Level 3: Charging per month. This is better because charging a monthly retainer allows you to lock in more guaranteed or ongoing work. But over time you start to realize it's actually not that different from charging per hour. You’re just getting paid for all your hours upfront.
• Level 4: Charging per asset. This is where you want to get to. It’s where you finally divorce your earnings from time and effort meaning the client doesn't really care how many hours it takes you or how much effort you put in. What matters is the final product.
• Level 5: Charging per outcome. This is the more advanced version of Level 4. You aren't just being paid for the final product or asset but you're actually being compensated for the performance of that final product in the form of a revenue share deal, royalty, or some other form of long-term upside.

It took me years to get to level 5 so don't worry about that yet.

But anyone can jump straight to level 4.

Lesson #7: He Or She Who Frames The Problem, Owns The Solution

Without fail, every single freelancer I see online complaining about how they make no money or they can't find clients willing to pay them a fair wage is because they look for jobs on Upwork or Fiverr.

They send off an application and then they wait and see if the client wants to work with them and what the client is willing to pay. This is wrong, wrong, wrong (and will mean you’ll stay a broke freelance writer forever!).

Why?

Because when the client is dictating the agenda you have no pricing power.

• You are an entry-level employee
• You are a lowly contractor
• You are an order-taker

But when you go to the client and educate them on a problem that they didn't know they had (or a problem they know they have but haven't gotten around to fixing yet), you aren't a lowly contractor anymore.

• You are a peer
• You are a fellow business owner
• You are a business consultant (who just so happens to be an all-star writer)

And if you frame the problem, you own the solution. This is the basis of my $3,000,000 cold outreach framework which you can find out more about here.

You have to be the one to go to the client to set the frame and educate them on the problem. Don’t wait for them to tell you what to do!

That’s it!

If you want to go down the ghostwriting rabbit hole, then grab a copy of The Art and Business of Ghostwriting.

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