In this day and age, everyone who's anyone needs a Twitter presence. But very few entrepreneurs and thought leaders have the time to actually create and manage one.
If you can write tweets on their behalf, they'll pay you money. And that's what Twitter ghostwriting is all about.
Twitter ghostwriting is a service where a professional writer manages and grows Twitter accounts on behalf of their clients.
The concept is simple: clients pay you to create content, but it appears on their Twitter profile as if they had written and published it themselves.
When "ghostwriting" comes to mind, you probably think about Quentin Miller, the guy behind Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late," or Daniel Paisner, the person who wrote books for Serena Williams, Steve Aoki, Ivanka Trump, and my personal favorite Shark, Daymond John.
Well, you don't actually think of them.
You think of their clients: Drake, Serena Williams, Steve Aoki, Ivanka Trump, and the bald Shark.
That's the point. The people who hire you for Twitter ghostwriting services don't tell anyone you wrote your stuff. In fact, there's a good chance you'll sign an NDA.
Social media ghostwriting is a bit different.
You're not writing novels or albums. You write small pieces of content, which clients then post to their own Twitter accounts.
But the idea is still the same: you're using your writing skills to create content that represents someone else.
The term "ghost-writing" is a bit misleading. You're doing a lot more than writing tweets.
Here's what a typical week looks like for one of my ghostwriting clients:
Of course, Twitter ghostwriters do create Twitter content. It's the core activity of the job and it's what you'll spend the bulk of your time on.
You'll use a combination of...
...to create and schedule multiple tweets per day that align with your client's brand and spark conversations.
Once you write them, you'll send them over for approval and schedule them to post at an optimal cadence (based on their audience and engagement metrics).
To streamline your process, you'll use plug-and-play frameworks to guide your content creation. For example, I've found the "Defeating the Monster" framework works well for almost any account.
Having a dozen or so of these means you don't have to start from scratch every time, but you're also not just recycling the same stale content.
You'll have endless content ideas. And you'll frame them in a way that has a proven track record of success.
The real value of ghostwriting tweets is in the growth and engagement you can achieve for your clients. Otherwise, you're just sending them into the void.
Broadly, you'll be responsible for:
Optimizing their profile picture, Twitter bio, and link to help them attract their target audience and sell more.
Growing their followers, reach, and engagement month-over-month through comments, networking, and strategic retweeting.
Launching targeted growth strategies, like DM giveaways
Monitoring and reporting on client performance.
If you're a good ghostwriter, your clients are smarter because they have you in their corner.
In addition to providing Twitter ghostwriting services, they should be:
You'll help them connect the dots between what you're doing on Twitter and how it affects their overall brand, business goals, and bottom line.
Part of being a Twitter ghostwriter is doing all the boring internal stuff.
All that stuff.
Your ability to make money as a Twitter ghostwriter depends on your ability to stay organized.
I know I mentioned I built my Twitter ghostwriting agency to $50,000 per month. That's a big (and vague) number.
So here's a detailed breakdown of how much it costs and how much you can make as a Twitter ghostwriter.
Twitter ghostwriting is far from cheap. Managing someone else's social media presence takes a lot of work and skill.
A typical Twitter ghostwriter charges their clients between $3,000 and $12,000 per month, depending on the scope. That’s what I charge, and my Growth Ghost students are doing the same:
Monthly retainers are the norm, so you'll need to get good at finding clients who need your services on an ongoing basis.
Even if you just charged $2,500 per month and had five clients, that's still an annual income of $150,000.
That's a realistic number for someone who's in the beginning stages of their Twitter ghostwriting career.
But what about when you're more established?
If you pushed yourself and raised your rates to $5,000/month per client, that turns into $300,000 per year.
And if you're starting an agency and hiring other ghostwriters?
Well, then, the sky's the limit.
Let me break it down for you:
So, you can start and run your Twitter ghostwriting agency for roughly $50 per month.
Over time, you can stack tools, hire VAs, etc., to scale "the machine," but that's not a concern as a newbie.
I have a whole article about how to become a ghostwriter. For Twitter specifically, here are the basic steps:
Social media platforms are algorithm-driven, and Twitter is no different.
Learn the following:
The easiest way to do this is to study successful content. Save successful tweets to a swipe file and analyze them.
Tons of different types of people hire ghostwriters:
Basically, anyone who wants to grow and engage a Twitter audience (but lacks the time or skills) might need you to do it for them.
The best way to get better at copywriting is to grow your own account (more on that below).
Other than that:
You wouldn't trust a dentist with bad teeth, right?
I amassed well over 100,000 followers before launching my Twitter growth services.
The main benefit to this is you learn everything about Twitter by doing it firsthand. You also reap all the benefits — a huge network, potential clients right off the bat, and, most importantly, credibility.
Plus, you're now a living, breathing example of your abilities.
A big CEO isn't going to pay some rando thousands of dollars to have free reign over their Twitter account. It sounds sketchy.
You can eliminate that risk and show you mean business by offering one of the following:
When I launched my service, I landed one $5,000/month and two $3,000/month clients right away because of my personal brand. People trusted me right away because they already knew who I was.
You don't even need a high follower count. I got that $9,000 worth of inbound clients with ~5,000 followers total:
To keep things authentic, I use what I call the "Joe Rogan" interview method, then transcribe everything using Otter AI.
Before asking questions, I frame the call like it's a podcast interview. I let clients know that every question I ask will be answered in bullet point format.
Then, I ask questions about their goals, 3-5 topics they want their account to cover, their habits/typical day, milestones from their starting point to where they are now, and their biggest lessons.
I'll follow each response with two follow-up questions: "Why is that point important?" and "How can someone apply the advice in their own lives?"
With this information (plus my grasp of their tone and personality on the call), it's easy to speak to their values and write from their perspective.
I show you how to build a high-paying creative business without doing work you hate.
