Where Do Blog Ideas Come From?

by Elle Ray | May 19, 2022 | Blog Writing

Where do blog ideas come from?

How Do I Keep My Blog Fresh and Pertinent?

For some, the answer to this question is as difficult to answer as responding to a 6-year-old asking: “Where do babies come from mommy?” You kind of know, but can’t really explain it in words that your toddler understands. Instead, you yammer on about fairies or the cabbage patch and change the subject as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, in business today, you can’t ignore this valid question if you want to continue to make your blog as valuable as possible. After all, you aren’t creating this daily, weekly or monthly content for your health — blogs can play an important role in your current marketing strategy. And if they don’t, they should!

What If I Run Out of Ideas?

Solopreneurs who don’t have a partner or staff to turn to for blog ideas often have the worst time. When the well runs dry, it can be difficult to replenish without outside help. That’s where your network of peers, your tribe, your drinking buddies, your family and friends come in. Don’t hesitate to tap into their creativity by:

Throwing out a challenge over a dinner party so everyone can collaborate
Sending out a call for ideas through your private messaging apps
Asking for help one on one or in small groups
Creating a game with prizes for the best ideas to be played at parties

Even if you work within a partnership, corporation or team environment, it can be tough to draw others out to help you with what they may assume is your work task. If you’re the boss or a supervisor, try:

Using the same technique as you do at parties, with prizes each week for the best idea (note: one good idea is always worth at least a drink at the local coffeeshop)
Requiring one to three ideas a week from all team members as a part of their job description
Doling out the duty of coming up with a brilliant blog idea each week to a different team member or partner
Adding 20 to 30 minutes onto monthly staff meetings for a brainstorming session, taking note of all blog ideas, whether you plan to use them or not (you never know when what you think is a bad idea at the time, turns out to be gold later on)

What Are the Best Blog Ideas?

Once you’ve figured out where to glean your best blog ideas, you need to develop cues and clues to get yourself and your idea teams on track. Ideas flow best in a brainstorming environment, but the second-best way to trigger good ideas is with simple guides such as:

How the blog ideas relate to current events
Where the ideas fit into your business model
What the ideas have to do with the seasons
When the best blog ideas relate to holidays
Who might the target of the blog be in any certain week
Why anyone should care about the blog content

Kick off the creative juices with little nudges that answer the who, what, where, when, why or how. Let your idea-makers know that you want blog ideas that month to follow a pattern or a theme. Get in the habit of cultivating blog ideas on a regular basis instead of waiting till deadline time and you won’t ever have to answer that uncomfortable question again because you’ll know exactly where your next great blog ideas come from.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Keep Your Hands to Yourself!

by Elle Ray | Feb 7, 2022 | Website Content

Search engines penalize websites that rely on stealing content, called online plagiarism. Clean up your act.

How Online Plagiarism Ruins Your Reputation

Some years ago, we had a client who had an enormous, in-depth website. It was a medical practice that provided readers with a page for every possible condition they treated, as well as a page for each of the treatments and services this practice provided. The site was larger than 100 pages. But you couldn’t find it on a search engine unless you knew the exact name of the practice and searched only for that name.

Why, if so many important medical topics were covered, didn’t popular searches turn up any results for this large practice? How is it possible that not a single entry in the first 10 pages of a Google search pointed to this practice for an answer? It’s because every page was an exact copy of other pages posted elsewhere online. It was pure theft that our client thought was OK, as long as it was online plagiarism.

Google Hates Plagiarism

Google and other search engines — like Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go and even YouTube — not only penalize websites that rely on online plagiarism for content, but they also often kick you out of the search engine universe altogether until you clean up your act.

Whenever you’re creating a new webize, adding content to your existing site or even just creating regular blog posts, take steps to avoid online plagiarism by:

Running content through an inexpensive plagiarism checker like CopyScape, especially if you hired a writer to create your content or you’re not sure if you copied something you just read
Hiring a professional writing team like Ray Access to create new, unique copy for all your proprietary content, one that runs its copy through the online plagiarism checker for you
Telling your marketing and web design teams that you only accept original content for all your written platforms, including your social media platforms
Checking your site regularly to ensure your copy hasn’t been copied and taking down duplicate copy when you discover it — because search engines only catch duplicate content, not necessarily who created it first

Quality Is the Key

Quality content — meaning valuable, useful information for your online readers — is completely original and contains no instance of online plagiarism. Quality content helps you stand out among the competition. Quality content gets you first- or second-page search engine results. The big search engines like Google reward long-form informative content that involves at least 1,000 words per page. You can improve your website ranking simply by having quality content.

It’s worth a couple of bucks to protect your reputation and your online presence. So just when you think no one is looking, understand that someone is always looking online. And online plagiarism has nowhere to hide. So to avoid paying a big price for getting yourself put in the search engine penalty box — just don’t do it.

Writing for a General Audience

by Elle Ray | Aug 24, 2020 | Writing

Stay True to Your Values without Insulting Potential Customers

In this day and age, it seems like everyday personal choices are being politicized. You get dirty looks from one side of the political spectrum or the other for the kind of food you buy or how much you recycle. And don’t even get us started on the politics of wearing masks. It’s become difficult to keep your business writing neutral.

But business owners small and large know that every customer counts when it comes to the bottom line. If you can refrain from insulting any current or potential customers, you’re walking a thin line. Sometimes, your decisions pit strong opinions against profits. The goal of business writing has been and should remain to be to reach everyone. And you can only do that by writing for a general audience.

How Do You Write for a General Audience?

Even though your business may cater to a more educated audience — say with at least a college degree — not everyone reads and understands in the same manner. It’s wise, therefore, to follow the journalist’s creed and write to an 8th grade education. That means avoiding big words and writing in shorter sentences.

A general audience also shares a multitude of varying political, social and cultural views. What may seem like sarcasm to you may be taken as a racial slur or political putdown by someone else. So unless your business is designed specifically to reach a biased clientele, it’s best to keep writing for a general audience that spans the globe, focusing solely on your products or services.

What Does Neutral Copy Look Like?

In addition to keeping your writing simple and easy to read, there are a few other hallmarks to hit when writing for a general audience, including:

Avoid making opinions sound like facts. Be clear when you insert an opinion. Even a general audience appreciates honesty and transparency, even if they choose not to buy from you because of your opinions.
Keep copy positive. Whether you’re writing a newsletter for your mailing list, a blog post to hit all your social media channels or a page for your website, turn any negative side effects or consequences into positive points. Aim for feel-good sentiments that can be shared by all readers.
Keep it clean. Off-color references, violent images, sexual innuendos, cussing and strong language definitely turn off some people — guaranteed.
Know your target market. If your target is the right wing of a political party affiliation, for example, then it doesn’t hurt — and may actually help — if you insult those on the other side of the aisle. But that’s not a general audience. If you’re selling your goods or services to a broad market, writing for a general audience allows you to reach both sides of any aisle.

Neutral copy is inoffensive and appeals to a wide range of socio-economic, cultural, political, educational and regional audiences. Your best friend, your grandmother and your preacher should be able read your writing and understand your message. Idealists and traditionalists alike become willing to buy what you’re selling. And they’ll gladly forward a reference to everyone they know.

When to Draw the Line

The dilemma then becomes: when and where do you set boundaries for those you attract? An even broader question may be: should you even set a boundary when it comes to business? Your answer obviously is personal. Discuss it with your partners or board members. What kinds of goods and services you sell may drive your ultimate decision about whether you want to be writing for a general audience or targeting a specific type of clientele.

If you’ve got a healthy cushion and can afford to be picky about what kind of customer you serve, then you may be able to be more outspoken in your business-related communications. On the other hand, if you can’t afford to turn away paying customers, then you may have to stick to writing for a general audience and reserve your personal opinions for the dinner table.

Business Owners Make Difficult Decisions Everyday

It’s not always easy to swallow your convictions in the name of paying the rent. And sometimes the effort isn’t worth it; your beliefs may play too big a role in your image. Deciding whether to put your profits on the line in defense of a position or keep your marketing content neutral is perhaps one of the most difficult decisions a business owner makes. But it can be done effectively. If you’re having trouble sorting out your ability to remain unbiased while marketing your business, contact Ray Access for customer–neutral writing that saves your income while maintaining your integrity.

Priorities drive your ultimate decision. But understanding the consequences of your writing style and content is vital. Stop and think about it before you post a raving rant about anti-maskers or left-wing protestors. Consider that perhaps there is a time and place for boundaries when you’re doing business. No matter how you decide to proceed in your writing, be prepared to reap the results.

Silver Linings

by Elle Ray | Jun 15, 2020 | Announcement

Look for the Blessings as Restrictions Loosen

As restrictions loosen throughout the country this month, it may behoove you to take a beat and consider just what your new normal will look like. The shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic created a hole in time during which you actually were given a gift: time to consider your priorities, your purpose and your goals.

Many people found new interests, from gardening to cooking. Others either relished or regretted the extra forced time they spent with their families and roommates. Some shut down their companies, moved to a work-at-home environment or put business on hold.

Reports abound about people who started meditating, journaling or convening with nature. Memes fill social media with tales of woe from those who gained weight and turned into couch spuds. Hopefully, you found some lessons during the shutdown that will drive your decisions into a future closer to your design. Hopefully, you haven’t filled up on frustration and pent up anger at those things you can’t control right now.

Where will the pandemic take you once restrictions loosen?

A Revised Bucket List

Now is a good time to review your goals and take a revised bucket list into your new normal when restrictions loosen up even more. Consider your own personal takeaways that may include:

Deciding to go into full-time work-at-home mode
Allowing more of your employees to work remotely
Cultivating new-found skills
Taking a class or earning a degree
Writing a book, short stories or poetry (or all three!)
Joining a church or other spiritual practice group
Retiring early
Meeting a new fitness goal
Closing your business
Opening a new company
Switching careers
Pursuing your passion
Getting married or divorced

The list can go on and on, but you get the idea. As restrictions loosen and you head back to the office, the gym, school and social gatherings, don’t forget the lessons that seemed so glaring when you had nothing else to do. Instead of rushing out to return to your old normal, take this challenge:

Figure out what new insights you learned about yourself.
Write down the lessons you learned.
Create a plan for your personal new normal.

Restrictions Loosen to a New Normal

The world is a different place today and will be for a while. We’re required to wear face masks as part of our regular public dress. We can’t shake hands or hug just anyone outside of our home. We won’t be going to concerts, sporting events or crowded churches in the near future. And who even knows how long small business owners can keep their doors open before another round of shutdowns comes?

Rather than rushing out to try to resume your personal and professional life as it was pre-coronavirus, as restrictions loosen, listen to your heart, review your insights and take the lessons you learned as a guide to:

A better work/home balance
A more rewarding career
A smarter business plan
New friends and relationships
Healthier eating and exercising routines
More productive personal and professional initiatives

Find the silver lining from these past few months. Don’t let it go to waste or just to your waist. Sometimes, we need a good hard slap in the face to snap us out of a rut, to redirect our energy and to get us to the great life we are meant to have. Consider the COVID-19 shutdown as that slap in the face to snap out of it, refreshed with new vigor, imagination and anticipation.

Get Published Now!

by Elle Ray | May 26, 2020 | Blog Writing

Tips for Getting Personal and Professional Bylines

To deal with the sudden isolation brought on by coronavirus stay-at-home policies, people have turned to a wide range of activities to keep occupied. From assembling 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles to conquering a complicated recipe to binge-watching a new TV series, quarantined families report tackling projects and submitting to diversions for which they never before seemed to have enough time.

Another project that many report doing during this unprecedented lockdown is writing. Some do daily journaling to deal with their anxieties. Others decide to get started on that book they always wanted to write. And then there are those who are bursting with story ideas, but don’t know what to do with them.

Ray Access helps you get published.

For accomplished authors with an agent and writing contracts, it’s been a good time to get a lot of work done. For new writers who want to get published for the first time, it’s a time filled with questions and doubts. These issues may bog you down or even stop you in your tracks. But you can’t allow fear of not getting it right to keep you from even beginning to put your thoughts on paper. If you’re suffering from writer’s doubt, consider the wise words of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor:

“A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.”

Getting Started

The first rule for any wordsmith is simple: Writers write! Whether you’re just jotting notes or applying stream-of-conscious practices to your writing attempts, you’ve got to get your pen to paper or your fingers to the keyboard at all costs. You’ll never get published if you have nothing to show. Ideas that stay in your head may as well be written in invisible ink where no one can see them.

As you get into the writing process and find your groove, the next step is to decide where you would like to get published, where your words are needed and where, realistically, you may be able to get published. The first step is a solitary activity, ideal for the quarantined writer. The second may involve other people who guide you to the places where you can successfully get published. Suggestions for help include:

Friends and family who can already get published
Your boss or business contacts
Local newspaper reporters and editors
Owners of blogs you read

One caveat: beware of going down the rabbit hole of the internet. You can spend days sifting through websites telling you how to get published, where to get published and even how to write. You can end up with carpal tunnel syndrome and a sore back before you ever write your first sentence. Limit your online searching to maybe 30 minutes a day or to two or three really helpful websites. And remember: Writers write!

Where to Get Published Today

Blogs are the perfect medium for both first-time and accomplished writers. If you own or work for a business that has a blog, get published online through that ready-made medium. Blogs rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to get readers. And this is a perfect time to pen blog articles that meet relevant, trending SEO guidelines. For example, you can write about:

What you’re doing during quarantine
How you’ve adapted to new work-at-home situations
Whether your family is cooperating with your need for work space
What your business is doing to stay afloat despite the economic challenges
How your business is supporting the community during the crisis
How you’re dealing with grief when COVID-19 strikes close to home

If your company isn’t in the blogging business — although the practice benefits every business — look for companies that may appreciate a free blog post for their websites. Just make sure to request a byline with a link back to your site. Then you can add the link to your portfolio of published work, which will help you can get published for money. Consider contacting:

Mental health professionals — pitch them an article about managing stress or fear during the pandemic, for example
Financial planners — research and write a blog post about how best to use their stimulus money
Doctors, dentists and clinics — ask if they’re interested in a piece about virtual appointments
Daycare centers and companies that cater to children’s products and services — pitch an article about how to stay on track with at-home school assignments
Trades that provide homeowner services — write an article about how to make a bookcase or turn an old door into a desk
Rehab facilities — try writing advice on staying sober during these stressful times

The Time to Write Is Now

You get the idea. The list is endless. Sure, it may not be what you dreamed about for your first foray into publishing. But blogging is a viable and accessible vehicle for wannabe writers to get published for the first time … and second time and third time. Who knows? It may even lead to a paid gig writing for the business who accepted your piece. And you may find enough of an audience that appreciates your voice to become an influencer in that industry.

Just like any other skill, writing chops improve with practice. If you’ve always wanted to see your writing published, there’s no better time than now and no better avenue today than the internet. If you think a topic is interesting or valuable, chances are someone else does too. And if you’re still wondering what to write about, consider the sage advice of Ben Franklin:

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.”

How to Set Up a Happy Home Office

by Elle Ray | May 12, 2020 | Small Business Advice

Creating a happy home office

Tips for Being Productive at Home

The home office has long been a staple in American households. It’s that spare room with your computer and the spare futon where guests sleep when they visit. Maybe it’s a space you share with your family or housemates. Or perhaps it’s the junk room that catches the overflow of all your stuff, from the ironing board to your workout equipment.

Unless you already work at home for a living, you may not have given the space very much design consideration or designated it off-limits to the rest of the family. But as more and more people follow stay-at-home orders or are being told to stay away from the office, the home office suddenly has become the most important room in the house — and the most-used.

Where’s My Favorite Pen?

Whether you’re new to the home office experience or have enjoyed the benefits of working in your sweats for a while, now is a good time to take a closer look at your home office set-up. It’s time to make it more functional. There’s a lot of design thought goes into the flow and Feng Shui of a business working space. You can take some of that combined wisdom and incorporate it into your own home office.

Alternatively, if your living situation doesn’t allow you to have a designated space — with a door you can close — you can take steps to create a home office space where your necessary work tools are easily accessible and the ambiance is most conducive to productivity and success.

Can We Have the Room Please?

If you’re fortunate enough to have a room that you can turn into an office, free of outside interference (unless you invite it in), make it into a home office that inspires and supports your efforts. Plenty has been written about how to stay healthy while working from home, including recent Ray Access blogs about minimizing distractions and how to stay healthy working at a computer all day.

Add a few more less obvious strategies to your home office, and you may just find that working from home makes you a better employee, boss or contractor. For example, make time to:

Organize. You waste more time looking for documents or your favorite pen when your home office is disorganized than trying to find a movie to watch on Netflix. You don’t have to buy new filing cabinets or bookcases to organize your home office — although that may be a great investment of your stimulus money. “A place for everything and everything in its place” is a long held tenet of good organization because you can:
- Put things back in the same place from which you got them.
- Mark files clearly … both on your hard drive and in your desk drawers.
- Use coffee cups, baskets, shelves and drawers to keep tools you rely on every day.
- Make sensible piles designated for separate projects or tasks.
- Place notes and reminders where you can see them.
- Clean up your space every evening so you can start fresh in the morning.
Visualize. Lighting in your office makes a huge difference in how you feel during your working hours and how effective you communicate. When you walk into your home office, the lighting should make you feel relaxed and ready. The right lighting improves your efficiency, increases your energy, affects your mood and reduces headaches and eyestrain. It also plays an important factor in how you look in your online meetings. Even born blind, Helen Keller knew that “knowledge is love and light and vision.” To maximize the light:
- Allow as much natural light as you can from outside into your home office.
- Face your desk to the windows to prevent glare and optimize your view.
- Rely on wall sconces or other lamps throughout the room for ambient light.
- Reduce dependence on overhead lights.
- Use a task light on your desk to ease eye strain and improve your focus.
- Keep direct light off your face and make the room as muted as possible when interacting on a live internet feed.
Compromise. When you can’t set up your home office in a room designated specifically for that purpose alone, you can still make your time at work more productive and efficient with a few modifications. Not only does working from your bed or leaning over a coffee table in the living room make for a sore body, but it also makes it more difficult to concentrate, stay on task and get as much out of your working hours as possible. But if your living situation means “sharing is caring,” then it’s vital you get everyone in your household on board to respect your space and do a little compromising themselves so you can continue to bring home a paycheck. Try to:
- Use shelves and screens to divide a room and isolate your workspace.
- Invest in a rolling file cabinet if you have to move around to find workspace.
- Use headphones for meetings and alert others when you’re on a call to prevent as much background interference as possible.
- Create a work space with a small desk in an otherwise used room that has a door, like your bedroom, attic, walk-in closet or she-shed.
- Set aside specific times for your kids to do schoolwork, plan quiet activities or make movie dates for others in your household at the same time you’re working — and make sure you have enough internet bandwidth to accommodate multiple users at one time.
- Be as flexible as your work allows. Your family shouldn’t be the only ones making compromises. Get up early before others rise or stay up later to work after others have gone to bed. Arrange your schedule around their activities. Be reasonable and don’t set yourself up for conflicts that could be avoided with prior planning and prioritizing.

How to Motivate At-Home Workers

by Elle Ray | Apr 28, 2020 | Agency Advice

Everyone Reacts Differently to Isolation

As most managers, contractors and partners know, everyone responds to different motivators. For some, it’s money. Others thrive on praise. Still other workers prefer to be left alone and successfully thrive in their independence.

Ray Access knows something about at-home workers: we hire them!

Juggling all the various motivational styles is a major task in the best of times, but when you’re trying to keep at-home workers on task, your skills demand a little more creativity and a bigger toolbox of tricks. Keeping at-home workers productive is both an art and a science.

Learn the Wiles of Their Ways

The first step in effectively managing at-home workers is to learn:

How they first react to a new work environment
Whether they adjust appropriately
How quickly they adapt to changes
What motivates them to stay on task

The worker who is vigilant with deadlines and always on time for meetings may in fact turn into an entirely different creature when away from the office. Some people need a time clock and a place to go before they can don their working caps. Some require an overseer who’ll notice if they slack off. While these employees may perform admirably during working hours in the office, they may flounder without the schedules and supervision.

Then you have those staff members who turn into hyper-vigilant workers when they lose the safety net of the office. These people may really shine as at-home workers, as they draw on their well-honed self-discipline. When they are given the freedom to create their own schedules and working environments, their creativity and productivity flourish.

You’ll quickly learn how each of your partners and employees reacts when placed in a work-at-home situation. To get a handle on the new arrangement, give your entire staff a project with a one-day turnaround time and see how they respond. Then, keep communications open and check in to find out how they’re doing with the project.

Tips for Motivating At-Home Workers

Once you’ve deduced the various styles of at-home workers you have to manage, you can devise ways to keep them motivated for however long the situation lasts. You may even discover that for those who excel as at-home workers, continuing to allow them to work from home may be best for them and for you in the long run.

For those who need a little extra push and too easily give in to the distractions of home, try giving them a little push with motivational techniques geared toward their specific needs. Make sure, however, that you give those great at-home workers the same (or even better) benefits and rewards that you offer the needier workers. A few ideas that might work for your staff:

Recognize their efforts regularly. Send short emails and texts of gratitude and praise. Tell them how important they are to the continuing success of the company.
Make it very clear that your virtual door is open. Respond to questions as soon as possible. Answer your phone when they call. Let them know when you’ll be available.
Offer bonuses or gifts for beating deadlines.
Arrange for video meetings. Talking while looking at people makes the work seem more real. Too much isolation encourages minds to drift and lose focus.
Ask for suggestions for making the at-home workers more productive. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate their ideas whenever possible.
Walk your talk. An effective leader doesn’t ask her staff to do anything she wouldn’t do. Whether you’re quarantined for health reasons, moving your company to a permanent virtual workspace or just trying out different ways to save your business money, you need to find your own motivations and put them to use. And let others see your progress too.

When All Else Fails

While threats are not the most positive form of motivation, there are those at-home workers who respond to nothing less. Fear can be a great motivator for some people. And fear of losing their jobs may be just the final straw that gets them moving.

The problem with that style of motivation is that once the threat has passed, slackers tend to revert back to their former work habits and you often find yourself back in the same quandary about how to get your project completed on time and how to keep justifying the relationship. When positive motivations, warnings and threats land you in the same dilemma over and over, it may just be time to cut your losses and part ways.

The Power of Live Streaming

by Elle Ray | Apr 14, 2020 | Agency Advice

Take Advantage of Streaming Technology

Ray Access promotes live streaming for businesses

Some trends in business come in hot and soon after flop like a 10-pound river trout on the end of a hook. Remember keyword-stuffing and auto-blogging? Everyone thought they’d cracked the Google code for good. How about the Tide pod and ice bucket challenges? They seemed like a good idea at the time.

One idea whose time has come isn’t going anywhere — live streaming. First employed in 1993 by a group of Xerox employees trying out a new use for the internet, the technology was grabbed by Microsoft in 1995, which then started RealNetwork and the advent of RealPlayer live videos. YouTube didn’t run its first live streaming show until 2008.

Not only is live streaming getting more play than ever, it’s picking up steam as the whole world relies on the streaming technology to maintain connections during the coronavirus pandemic. By the time you read this, everyone from your local Realtor to your grandmother has been introduced to live streaming and has begun using the technology for commercial and social interactions.

Take Advantage of the Surge

Now that live streaming has gone mainstream, small business owners and corporate conglomerates alike can take advantage of its benefits to:

Connect with customers and employees in real time
Promote new and existing products and services
Disseminate company news and announcements
Build trust, as business leaders can enter the conversation directly
Develop loyalty among employees who appreciate your efforts to communicate directly
Save valuable resources by using Wi-Fi infrastructure that you already have in operation
Use the existing technology in smartphones and computers that most of your target audience already owns

Millions of people have learned to successfully access live streaming platforms to talk directly with friends, families and customers. They’ve realize the ease with which the technology works. Once the social distancing rules that dominate the lives of populations all over the world ease, it’s a given that live stream users will be open to continuing to use video streaming for more and more communications and commercial interactions.

Ways to Use Live Streaming for Your Business

Anyone can create a live streaming program with just a smartphone and an internet connection. There’s a multitude of easy-to-use platforms available online, many of which are free. At the same time, expect a surge of live streaming companies, freelancers and marketing companies featuring live stream options to ramp up and appear on your radar.

Depending on your intended audience and your professional reputation, you can benefit by hiring professionals to run your live streaming programs. They can set up the coding necessary to provide safe and secure connections on the back end while filming your event with a polished presentation on the front end. Common events ripe for live streaming in business include:

Board meetings
Stakeholder and shareholder events
Grand openings
New product or service rollouts
Staff training
Employee and company-wide announcements

Benefits of Live Streaming

The biggest benefit of live streamed meetings and training sessions is the savings in costs for travel, food and lodging for participants who have to come in from other locations. Additionally, everyone involved saves time by avoiding travel, which reduces the time off of work. Participants appreciate the extra time they have to be with their families, too.

Whether you announce your live stream publicly or send invitations to a select few, you control the message and its delivery. A live streaming production can be as minimal or creative as you want. And if you’re a photographer or videographer with top-of-the-line equipment, this might be your chance to expand your business by offering:

Corporate meetings and training sessions
Destination weddings
Amateur sporting events
Church services and events
Concerts and live performances
Marketing promotions

No matter how you employ live streaming technology, be assured that this is not a trend that’s going to fade any time soon. While Ray Access doesn’t offer these services, we can recommend businesses that do. Contact us for a referral. We do this for our clients not because we make anything, but because we want our clients to succeed.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or talk about your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Keep Up with Trends

by Elle Ray | Mar 31, 2020 | Small Business Advice

The coronavirus is one of those trending topics you can use to draw attention to your business

How to Use Trending Topics to Your Advantage

The goal of search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing is to give the people what they want. The big daddy Google is so successful because it puts its users first:

“Google ranking systems are designed to … sort through hundreds of billions of web pages … to find the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second, and present them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for.”

To make your blog and website relevant and useful to searchers, you must answer their questions. One of the most effective means is to tap into trending topics. Then you’ll know what questions to answer.

Follow the News

Water cooler fodder are those trending topics that people are talking about. For example, trending topics that most definitely are being searched today include:

Breaking news like the 2020 stimulus package
Ongoing events such as the coronavirus crisis
Tips on how to stay sane during a quarantine

Put any one of those words or phrases in your headline and you’re sure to get clicks. Staying abreast of the changing attitudes and interests of your target market is one of the keys to effective search engine optimization (SEO). SEO helps consumers (i.e., your customers and potential customers) find you and your company online. SEO also helps you get picked for the first page of search engine results, which increases your visibility enormously.

How to Find Trending Topics

Granted, not every day provides you with trending topics that everyone is following. Today, it’s easy: the entire world is talking about the pandemic, searching for news about that one subject. Normally, to get the most out of this tactic throughout the year, you have to know what interests your target audience.

What's next for your trending topics?

If your market is retirees, sign up for AARP news alerts and follow senior news aggregates. If it’s new mothers you’re trying to reach, follow a similar tact and spend a little time each day on sites geared toward that market. It won’t take long to figure out what they’re most interested in on any given day in any given week.

Find the Key Words

Listen to your demographic. Then research the topics they’re interested in to see what pops up in the news, then use those few key words that they’re seeking throughout your writing. Of course, you can always use some complicated keyword trackers to see what’s trending, but there’s nothing better than going directly to the source.

Another alternative is to hire a public relations firm whose job it is to keep up with the news to find trending topics that impact your business. Content providers like Ray Access provide another good source for topic ideas that are sure to get you noticed. In fact, any time you contact the writers and editors of Ray Access, you’ll get an idea, which we’ll give to you free if you hire us to write the piece!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

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