5 Questions To Ask Your Ghostwriting Clients To Generate Endless Content Ideas

Nicolas Cole
6 min readApr 18, 2024

Absorbing the masses of content a client might already have is one of the biggest tasks at the start of any new ghostwriting project.

When you first start working with a new client, it’s important to do a full “content audit” to see the ideas they are already publishing out into the world.

All of this content is “pre-approved” and you can repurpose it in the pieces you write for them. But what happens if your client has never published anything? How do you come up with ideas if you have nothing to draw from?

The answer is simple: you interview them.

But when it comes to interviewing, most ghostwriters have two problems:

  1. They don’t know what questions to ask their client
  2. They haven’t mastered the art of “Close Listening”

Luckily, there is an easy way to overcome both of these problems.

Let’s dive in!

What is “Close Listening”?

Here’s a brutal life truth:

Most people don’t listen.

When you talk, a lot of people don’t really hear you. Instead, they’re hearing their own thoughts, interpreting what you’re saying, and…

--

--

Nicolas Cole

100M+ Views | 5x Author | Co-founder of Ship 30 for 30 | Want to start writing online? Get the Ultimate Guide: https://startwritingonline.com