James Blunt did it.  Used a ghost blogger, I mean (see my earlier blog For Songs Or Blogs, Success Proves The Best Silencer Of Critics). Now his ghost blogger, Amanda Ghost, is busy composing songs for Beyonce and Shakira. David Byrne did it.  In fact, Byrne let a building do his singing for him (see Buildings, Like Blogs, Can Be Interactive).  Now, the big question whizzing and quizzing its way around the blogosphere these days is this: Is Kanye West doing it, too?

A professional ghost blogger myself, I’m always alert for what others in my field are blogging and for whom.  Then – bam! In the past week or so it seems what’s preoccupying a whole lot of gray matter for a whole lot of people is Kanye and the big “Is He Or Isn’t He?” issue.  It’s so ironic, because, whatever the real answer, Kanye’s reaping a whole lot of green matter over this dispute by earning (through blogging, mind you!) a whole lot of attention on search engine slates.

The popularity of Kanye West’s blog has grown enormously, and Sandra Rose’s claim that Marcus Troy is the real writer of West’s blogs has helped grow it even more enormously.  What do I think? Well, first I need to confess – as a financial columnist and now professional ghost blogger, the world of hip hop music has not been on my radar screen until now. Marcus Troy himself says in a post, “How the H___ does Kanye have time to update his blog with ten new posts a day?”  Now that is a question to which I can relate, because most businessowners don’t find the time to update a blog ten times a month, let alone ten times a day!  That’s exactly why the demand for ghost bloggers like me is growing.

Blogging is an essential business tool in the web-based world of today.  Email is a way to reach customers, but you can’t use it to reach potential customers.  For that, business blogging fits the bill. Fact is, very few business owners, even with the help of talented and dedicated employees, can be assured that relevant, new material will get posted on their blog with enough consistency to improve rankings. Finding the right professional ghost blogger and working with that ghost makes the most sense for winning the search.

From my point of view, all the excitement about whether Kanye is writing his own blogs or whether he found someone that can “speak” for him well enough to even trigger a debate – it’s a matter of “So there you have it!” Blogging works to drive traffic and interest.  Period.  Ghost blogger, anyone?

Responding to a broadcast about ex-Pacers basketball star Jermaine O’Neal’s supposedly “trashing” his old team at an introductory news conference with the Toronto Raiders, Indianapolis Star’s Bob Kravits remarks how unfair he considers that report to be.  Kravitz points out that O’Neal has been a treasure for our community, spending lots of time and money to make Indianapolis better for young people.  Needless to say, I wasn’t present at Kravitz’s talk with O’Neal on draft day, and I had not caught the broadcast “Trashing Our Town” on WTHR that made Kravitz so indignant. What this whole incident reinforces for me, though, is how careful we all need to be with our words, first because it’s easy for words to be misinterpreted, and then because it’s more productive in business to emphasize the positive and unique things you bring to the market than to “trash” your competitors.

Because blogs, by definition, are much more informal and personal than marketing brochures or websites, bloggers need to be particularly watchful to avoid “trash” and deliver treasure.  Being informal (which is what blogs should be) is different from being casual (which perhaps is what blogs, at least business blogs, should not be).  With each blog post, you should focus on some aspect of your overall marketing approach.  In trying to “win the search” and at the same time “win the hearts” of potential customers, include at least one valuable nugget – some expert information, a little-known fact, an observation about something going on right then in your business or in the world.

In winning blogs, the number of words devoted to bashing the competition or used just to fill space on nonrelevant topics:  few to none.  As a professional ghost blogger, I know that the focused blog offers byte-sized “treasures” (pun intended) in each blog post!