Hiring a ghostwriter for your LinkedIn is one of those decisions that looks straightforward until you start doing it.

The market has exploded. Rates range from a few hundred pounds a month for entry-level freelancers to over five figures for premium executive positioning agencies. The quality varies wildly. And because the work is inherently personal, a bad hire does not just waste money. It puts words into your mouth that do not sound like you, which can be worse than posting nothing at all.

Here is what to look for, what to avoid, and how to make the right call.

What a ghostwriter actually does

The word “ghostwriter” undersells the job. Writing is the smallest part of it.

A good LinkedIn ghostwriter spends the majority of their time understanding how you think. They listen to how you talk about your industry, your clients, your frustrations. They identify the opinions you hold that most people in your space are too cautious to say out loud. They find the stories that illustrate your experience in ways that create genuine connection with your audience.

Then they translate all of that into a consistent weekly presence that sounds exactly like you, because it is you, rendered in a form you never had time to produce yourself.

A real service takes what you already know from calls, deals, customer objections, and market positioning, then turns it into content your buyers care about. A bad one writes generic founder content that sounds clean, gets a few likes and disappears.

The five questions to ask before you hire anyone

Before you sign anything or pay a deposit, ask these directly:

How do you capture my voice?

The answer should involve a proper interview process, listening to how you speak, reading everything you have written, and producing sample content that you iterate on together. A good answer covers interviewing you for several hours about your perspective, favourite examples and opinions on industry trends, then writing sample posts and iterating until the voice is locked in. A bad answer is reading your LinkedIn profile and writing posts based on your industry.

Can I see samples from clients in my sector?

Generic samples prove they can write. Sector-specific samples prove they can write for your audience. There is a significant difference.

What does the ongoing process look like?

How much of your time will this take each week? What happens when you are too busy to brief them? What is the revision process? The answers reveal whether their process is built around your reality or their convenience.

How do you define success?

If the answer is mostly impressions, followers, or engagement, they may be optimising for LinkedIn performance instead of business outcomes. An executive’s LinkedIn profile speaks to multiple audiences at once: buyers, candidates, investors, partners and industry peers. A good ghostwriter thinks about all of those audiences, not just the algorithm.

Do you offer a trial before a long-term commitment?

Any ghostwriter confident in their work will offer a trial engagement. If they insist on a three-month contract before you have seen a single post, that is a red flag.

What to watch out for

The LinkedIn ghostwriting market has attracted a lot of operators who use AI to generate content at volume, dress it up with your name, and call it done. The results tend to be polished and empty. Posts that could have been written for anyone in your industry. Content that your colleagues, clients and team will recognise immediately as not really you.

Watch for these signs: every sample they show you has the same structure. The hooks all start with a bold statement or a number. The tone is relentlessly positive. Nothing is specific to any real person or real situation.

Good ghostwriting is specific. It contains opinions, observations, references and details that could only come from someone who has actually lived and worked in the world they are describing.

The question of disclosure

Founders sometimes worry about whether they should tell people they work with a ghostwriter. The short answer is that you do not need to. Ghostwriting is a common and entirely legitimate practice in publishing, PR and now social media. The ideas, experiences and opinions in every post are yours. A ghostwriter just helps you express them clearly and consistently.

The longer answer is that the content only works if it genuinely reflects your thinking. A ghostwriter who imposes their own voice or agenda produces content that feels wrong to you and reads wrong to everyone else. The goal is always your ideas, your perspective, your voice at a consistency and quality you could not sustain alone.

What good looks like

The best ghostwriting relationships are ones where, after a few weeks, the client reads a post back and thinks: that is exactly what I would have said. Not because the ghostwriter is mimicking them, but because they have genuinely understood how they think and are expressing it in a form that works for the platform.

That is the standard worth holding out for.

If you are considering hiring a LinkedIn ghostwriter, the best first step is a short conversation about what you are trying to build and whether the fit is right. Not every client is right for every ghostwriter, and the honest ones will tell you that upfront.

Book a free 20-minute call with MichalJay at michaljay.com