article-blog.thephantomwriters.com

How many times have you seen this:

• Article Written by “That Business Down The Street”
• Article Written by “JoeBlowsDomain.com”
• Article Written by “Best Company”

People do it far too often. Corporations are the guiltiest about doing this, but small one person companies do it too.

Do you honestly think that I will believe “That Business Down The Street” wrote that article? Do you believe that you can convince me that “JoeBlowsDomain.com” wrote the article?

These are business names. Businesses are operated by people! Businesses do not write articles; people do.

Consider how much more credible your article would appear to the reader if you said instead, “Jane Whatever wrote this article. She is employed by JoeBlowsDomain.com.”

Readers know that “That Business Down The Street” did not write the article. Instead, they hired someone to write for them. Although “That Business Down The Street” paid to have the article created, the business did not write the article.

Article Marketing is about building credibility for a business. Hiding behind a business name or domain name, erases any and all credibility that could have been gained by the article. One cancels out the other.

Of course, if The Phantom Writers ghost wrote your article for you, you would not want your Article to suggest that The Phantom Writers or Bill Platt wrote your article. Even if you did want this, we would not do it.

As ghost writers, we are employed by your business, but you will not want your business tied to everything we might write in the future. And we don’t want to connect our name to your business, even if we are in your employment. We are two different entities and it should remain such.

The challenge with putting an article in the name of an employee is that the employee may one day be an ex-employee. We have run into that ourselves. For example, we still have articles that continue to produce results for us that were written by an ex-employee. Tammy Ratcliff is an excellent writer, but she has not worked for us in over a year. We paid her to write her articles, so we own the copyright on her articles. People still send notes to Tammy about the excellence of her articles, but I would have to explain her absence if someone called on the phone wanting to talk to her.

Many of my writers still create articles for our use, but now, we put those articles under an imaginary pen name. The copyright is still owned by The Phantom Writers, but we don’t put ourselves in the awkward position of having a former employee feeling cheated when we continue to use their articles for the promotion of our business.

Besides, Pen Names carry more credibility than the business or domain name.

We suggest saying something like, “Pen Name writes about [a topic relevent to your business].” Then we suggest going right into what your business can offer the reader.

From the standpoint of an honest presentation, it is better than making a claim that the imaginary Pen Name works for your company.

Just as it is dishonest to claim that Pen Name “works” for you, it is also dishonest to say that “That Business Down The Street” or “JoeBlowsDomain.com” wrote the article.

Here is an article that is an excellent example of how to address this issue. The article has been copyrighted by the Marriott Corporation and Written by Justin Burch. Marriott owns the copyright of the article, and still they give credit to Burch as the writer of the piece. That is credible.

Remember. The purpose of article marketing is to establish credibility for your business.

Some people just wish to hide behind their business or domain name. They are afraid of the boogy man. If they put their real name on the website, someone might come to their house and kill them or their family.

I have had my real name on my website from Day One. I have had my address on the website since the beginning also. My office phone number has been on the website since 2005, starting the day I left my day job.

During my seven years of operation, no one has ever given me problems as a result of my name being on the website. No one been to my house as the result of my address being on my website. With my phone number being on the website, I have never had a threatening phone call, although I do get a considerable number of business related phone calls - mostly questions about my services.

In all my years, I had one threatening email from some guy in Eastern Europe who tried to convince me that he was from my part of the world and that he would pay me a visit to personally whip my ass. That was three years ago, and I am still waiting for his arrival.

Most people who have a problem with their personal contact information on their website are women. That is a judgment call, but that is where Remington Steele comes into the picture.

If you remember the TV series Remington Steele, played by Pierce Brosnan before he became James Bond, it was a show about a woman who owned a private detective agency. No clients would take her seriously, because she was a woman. So she renamed her agency to Remington Steele, a very masculine name, and explained to clients that Mr. Steele was out of the office if they asked.

In the case of Remington Steele, the man’s name gave the detective lady, Laura Holt (played by Stephanie Zimbalist) credibility.

Then one day, con-man Pierce Brosnan showed up and introduced himself as Remington Steele. He convinced Laura that it would be in her interest to let him sell her business for her, using his pseudonym as the name on the door of her business. She was hesitant, but she agreed, and business was good for the next five television seasons.

If you are a lady, and you fear what might be lurking around the corner if you use your own name, then a man’s name attached to your business could offer you protection by associating a man’s name with your business. Just think about Remington Steele.

You could in fact Pen Name all of the articles for your business and your website, with a man’s name, just like Laura Holt’s Remington Steele.

Okay, so I can almost understand it when a woman hides behind her business or domain name, but men, why would you? Unless you are con-men like Remington Steels, trying to pass yourselves off as someone honest, why would you need to hide?

“Credibility” people. Article marketing works when people take credit for their work. Even if the business uses a pen name who writes about their topic, that pen name will give more credibility than the obvious “hide behind the business or domain name” approach.

So, what is it going to be? It is your future.

Bill Platt - owner of The Phantom Writers.com