What’s the difference between one ghostwriter charging $100 for a thought-leadership article and another charging $1,000?

How they’ve framed the value of the service.

The work could be identical. But that’s not what matters when you are selling a service. So many writers struggle to understand that it isn’t about the amount of “work” you do (in terms of hours worked, words written, etc) that is inherently valuable. It’s the outcomes your service generates for the client which are valuable. How you frame those outcomes is how you are able to charge premium prices as a ghostwriter.

You understand how to frame those outcomes by thinking about and creating an “Irresistible Offer”. This is your 30-second elevator pitch you give to anyone interested in your services.

There are 3 parts to consider when creating your Irresistible Offer:

Part #1: Niche down until you have an Information Advantage

An Information Advantage is how you’re able to distinguish yourself from other ghostwriters or freelance writers.

The Information Advantage is a way for your clients to spot and choose you. They don’t want “any old” ghostwriter. They want a ghostwriter who has the expertise to help them with the problem they are facing.

There are 3 parts to niching down until you have an Information Advantage:

• Solve A Different Problem: What problem, specifically, are you helping someone solve? For example, do you help FinTech startup CEOs scale their message to attract investors? This is very different from a FinTech ghostwriter who attracts new users to their platform. Even within an industry, there are different problems to solve.
• For A Different Person: Who, specifically, has this problem? What industry are they in? What’s their role? For example, if you a FinTech ghostwriter who writes for startup CEOs then those people will be able to pick you out from a crowd of other tech ghostwriters. It pays to get this specific.
• In A Different Way: How are you helping this specific person solve this specific problem? For example, do you write X threads or thought-leadership articles to scale the FinTech startup CEO’s message?

See how this works?

You want to get super specific on the problem, the person who has that problem, and the way you solve it, until you can’t be compared to anyone else in the industry.

Part #2: The Problems and The Solutions

There are two “narratives” the client needs to understand in order to believe your Irresistible Offer works.

One is to do with the Specific Problem they have, and the Ultimate Negative Outcome it creates if they don’t solve it:

• Specific Problem → The Reason Why They Have This Problem → The Consequence of Not Solving This Problem → The Ultimate Negative Outcome

Then, you need to be able to frame how your solution as the way to solve the problem and create their Ultimate Positive Outcome:

• Specific Solution → Reason Why This Solution Works → Benefit of Solution → Ultimate Positive Outcome

It doesn’t matter what ghostwriting service you provide or which one you think is “more lucrative” than the others—if you don’t effectively frame the Problems and Solutions, it’s going to be hard for someone to say “Yes”.

Let’s take an example, and thinking about it using this framework:

You are a ghostwriter who specializes in writing weekly newsletters for FinTech CEO startup founders.

You help these founders with their user retention problem.

Most FinTech startups don’t effectively communicate updates about their software, use cases, and success stories. The reason they have this problem is because they rely on impersonal emails from the “company” to update the users—an email that’s boring, infrequent, and doesn’t help the users in any way. As a result, the existing users don’t see the value of using the application and so cancel their subscriptions. This means more and more users leave the platform, jeopardizing revenue targets and the ability of the company to raise their next round of funding, etc.

But, luckily, there is a solution.

A weekly newsletter from the FinTech startup CEO with product updates, success stories, and educational content about the wider industry. This will keep current users interested in the product, actively using it, and help them understand how they can use it to solve their problems. This means user retention increases. And if user retention increases, the company makes more money, increases user numbers, and boots their valuation for their next round of funding.

Which FinTech startup CEO wouldn’t want to buy a newsletter package off you if you framed it like that?

Part #3: Make the trade explicit

So far, we’ve not spoken about money.

And that’s because the first part of the offer is all about setting the scene: explaining the problems your client has and showing them the Ultimate Positive Outcome. But when it comes to money, there are 3 “trades” all customers and clients on planet earth want. Hitting at least one of these helps price your services and makes the trade a no-brainer for the client:

• Insane value for a minimal relative cost
• Urgent & painful problem solved for minimal effort
• Highly desirable outcome, generated instantly

If your offer does not fulfill one of these 3 “trades,” it might be a good offer but it certainly isn't “irresistible.”

So stack the value of what you offer (”insane value for a minimal relative cost”) and make it so the customer doesn’t have to do much work for the outcome (”solved for minimal effort”). And, if you can generate a quick outcome, include that too.

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