Can someone else write your blog? What's allowed, and how to do it right

Every business owner I talk to knows they should have a blog. Almost none of them have the time to write one. So the question comes up fast: can someone else write it, and can it go out under my name?

Yes. With one condition that does all the work.

The short answer: it has to be yours

Ghostwriting is everywhere. The executive's LinkedIn post, the CEO's "letter," half the bylined articles in your industry's trade magazine — someone else drafted plenty of them. That isn't a scandal. It's normal, and it's allowed, as long as the person whose name is on it actually stands behind it.

The line is involvement. You give the direction. You read the draft. You fix what's wrong. You approve it before it publishes, and it goes out as your own. The writing was done for you, but the thinking and the sign-off are yours. That's the difference between a ghostwriter and a fraud.

Where it crosses the line

The version that's a problem is the hands-off one. A content mill cranks out a generic article, slaps your name on it, and publishes without you ever reading it. Now your name is on writing you didn't direct, didn't check, and might not even agree with. If it's wrong, it's wrong under your name.

That's the version to avoid, and it's the one most cheap content services sell. It's also why so many business blogs read like nobody wrote them: nobody really did.

Lawyers and doctors: the bar is higher

If you're in a licensed profession, the stakes go past taste. This reaches your license.

Lawyers are the clearest case. Every state's rules of professional conduct say a lawyer can't put out false or misleading communications about their services (it's Rule 7.1 in the ABA model the states draw from). A blog post under your name is your communication, whoever typed it. The chair of the ABA's ethics committee has said plainly that ghostwriting a firm's blog is fine as long as the lawyers approve it, adopt it as their own, and it follows the advertising rules. That last part matters: some states treat blog posts as attorney advertising, with their own disclaimer and record-keeping rules. You know your state's; a good writer builds the review step in so you can meet them.

Doctors, financial advisors, anyone whose words carry professional weight: same principle. The writing can be delegated. The responsibility can't.

How I'd do it

I'm building this into the Living Content plan, which is coming soon. Here's the shape of it, so you can hold me to it.

I write long-form content for you — in your voice, on the questions your clients actually ask. Every piece is fact-checked and human-edited. Nothing publishes until you've read it and said yes. Your name goes on it because it's yours — I built the site and wrote the draft; the substance and the final call are always yours. I don't practice law or medicine, and I won't pretend to.

That review step is the thing that makes the whole arrangement honest. In a regulated field, it's also the thing that keeps you on the right side of the rules.

What to ask before you hand your blog to anyone

Whoever you hire to write for you, ask:

1. Do I see and approve every piece before it publishes?
2. Is it written in my voice, on my topics, or pulled from a template?
3. Who checks the facts, and who's responsible if something's wrong?
4. If I'm in a licensed field, does the process account for my profession's rules?

If the answers turn vague, or if "approval" means a rubber stamp on something you didn't shape, keep looking. A blog is only worth having if it sounds like you and you'd stand behind every word of it.

When that's how it's done, tell me what you need. Or if you run a firm, here's how I think about it for law practices.