The Best Place to Make Money Ghostwriting in 2023

Twitter or LinkedIn?

Social Media Ghostwriting is the sexiest new job on the internet.

Overhyped?

But if you want to ghostwrite, you need your own personal brand. You don’t need to be a mega-influencer with 100k followers. You need to demonstrate competency with the platform.

But which to choose, Twitter or LinkedIn?

Here’s a breakdown to help you decide:

Why LinkedIn is Better

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1. Strong Organic Reach

I’ve generated over 10,000 views on some posts with merely 1000 followers.

And my buddy, Nils has generated way more impressions with just 600.

Need a LinkedIn writer? This is your guy.

Even with a small account, LinkedIn can send your post to the moon.

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2. Comfortable Post Lengths

LinkedIn posts have a 3000 character limit.

Long enough to get your point across but not too long to put you to sleep. Add in a picture, and it’s possible to get across a really coherent point.

(But it’s not all gravy with LinkedIn posts as well see in a moment.)

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3. Preexisting Network

Assuming you went to college in a western country or India, you probably have a preexisting network on LinkedIn. This makes it incredibly easier to stack up some early wins and build momentum.

Preexisting Network → Early Wins → More Fun → More Wins

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4. Less Competition

Frankly, 99% of people are afraid to post on LinkedIn.

It feels like it will damage your permeant record or something. But if you’re weird like me and not afraid to be out on the frontier, you’ll enter an underpopulated playing field.

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Before we talk about why LinkedIn sucks, let’s talk about why Twitter rocks.

What’d I miss about LinkedIn’s strengths? Let me know with a comment:

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Why Twitter Rocks

1. High IQ Readers

I’m convinced Twitter users have the highest average IQ of all social networks. I’m not the only person who believes this:

JK MOLINA @OneJKMolina

Instagram content vs. Twitter content

That’s not to say there aren’t people spewing BS on Twitter. Or creators spamming generic content for the algorithm. But day in and day out, I’m blown away by the level of intelligent content on Twitter.

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2. Positive Sum Culture

Building on the last point, much of the culture on Twitter is downstream of intellectual giants like Naval Ravikant, Tim Ferriss, and Paul Graham.

Naval @naval

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

Especially in Writing Twitter and some pockets of Money Twitter, there is a built-in positive sum mindset that everyone can win.

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3. You Can Slide in the DMs

Here’s a real DM that booked my first-ever coaching call:

Less BS on Twitter — You can be a normal person.

This would be inappropriate and weird on LinkedIn. But on Twitter, it’s perfectly acceptable to pitch in the DMs because of that built-in positive sum mindset that many people accept.

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4. Forgiving Audience

You can take more shots on goal on Twitter.

On LinkedIn, you can really only post once a day (twice is already stretching it). And people expect it to be good. Twitter isn’t like that. I know a 16-year-old who gained 14,000 followers by posting 27,2000 times in 2 years.

This has obvious drawbacks that we’ll get to in a moment.

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5. Strong Organic Reach

In my first month as a ghostwriter, we generated 850,000 impressions on my client’s account. But that’s nothing for the big players.

Dickie Bush, for example, generated 11 M last month. To do that with FB ads would have cost over $100,000. He got it for free.

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Why LinkedIn Sucks

1. Cringe Culture

Maybe you saw the “Crying CEO.”

The Level of ‘cringe’ material on LinkedIn is at least 10x that of Twitter. Something about corporate seems to make people act weird.

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P.S. If you want to die laughing about LinkedIn, read this:

Jack Raines @Jack_Raines

“The irony in this whole thing is that by expressing your moral outrage at a piece of obvious satire, you show your network that you are, in fact, someone who expresses moral outrage at obvious satire. A self-dunk, so to say.” I think I broke Linkedin.

youngmoney.coI’m Pretty Sure I Broke Linkedin | Young Money by Jack RainesThe best finance blog you’ve never heard of. 10/10 stories, 5/10 art.

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2. Your Boss is on LinkedIn

Like I said before, 99% of people are scared to post on LinkedIn.

Maybe for those of us in corporate jobs, it’s for good reason. It’s probably best to hide your writing side hustle from your boss.

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3. Sliding in the DMs is weird

If someone Dm’s me on Twitter, I read it.

If someone DMs me on LinkedIn, it’s mostly an automated message from some sort of recruiter or B2B salesman. Not fun.

(Although sometimes the Twitter DM’s are weird crypto scams too)

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Why Twitter Sucks

1. Hard to Start

Posting into the void is tough.

Without joining a cohort-based course or some sort of engagement group, your chances of growing on Twitter these days are significantly reduced.

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2. Uber Competitive

2 years ago, Sahil Bloom was “early” to Twitter threads.

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

@ItsKieranDrew Yep two notes: (1) My general framework is I have to dominate one thing before moving onto the next. For me it was Twitter first, then newsletter, then anything else. (2) I benefitted from being “early” to a market with Twitter in that threads were a new format when I started.

Those days are long gone. The secret’s out and if you’re on Twitter, your timeline is full of threads. It’s simply become harder to stand out.

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Conclusion

So if I were a brand new ghostwriter, where would I start building my personal brand?

Conclusion: It doesn’t matter.

Both platforms have their pros and cons. And the biggest mistake you can make is spreading yourself thin on a war on two fronts. (This is probably the biggest mistake I’ve made in the past half-year)

But hey, if you’re curious, Nils and I are both racing toward 10,000 followers.

He’s attacking LinkedIn, and I’m on Twitter. Follow along for the Ride.

Thanks for reading!