How to Choose a Blog Topic

by Elle Ray | Oct 20, 2013 | Blog Writing

Your Business Blog Needs Topical Blog Topics

Regardless of what you sell, if you have a business blog, it’s doing three things for you:

Adds new content to your website, forcing search engines to re-index your website, which helps your page rank.
Establishes your business as an authority in your field while educating your customers (and prospective customers).
Attracts new people to your website through keyword searches that may not be directly related to your business.

Halloween is a topical subject right now.

When Is a Topic Topical?

This article focuses on #3. Writing about new topics, topics that may be in the news, allows you to connect with an audience that you hadn’t previously sought. That awareness can help you generate business.

Everyone has an opinion about what’s happening in the world around us. Even businesses can contribute to the conversation. If you sell insurance, for example, shouldn’t you blog about the Affordable Care Act? It’s right in your wheelhouse, as far as topics are concerned, and it should attract some attention on the Internet.

That’s an easy example, but there are many others. If you’re a dentist, you can write something relevant about a Kardashian marriage (or divorce), the dangers of Twinkies, or the price of gold (caps). All these topics have been in the news recently, and your article may attract a new audience.

Topical vs. Evergreen

You should not, however, write only these types of blog posts. Topical articles are terrific, but they often have a short shelf life. Once the Kardashians, Twinkies, or the price of gold are off the headlines, searches for them drop, and so will your traffic.

Instead, sprinkle in topical articles while striving for more informational “evergreen” topics. Evergreen topics are those that have an unlimited shelf life. Whatever your business, you can write to educate your customers about some aspect of it. This kind of useful information will always find an audience.

If you’re an architect, write about matching a design to a specific location. If you’re a banker, write about the perfect client for a loan. If you’re a web developer, write about the newest technology and why it’s applicable to your customers. You get the picture.

We Brainstorm for You

If you already have an active blog, good for you. You understand its value and are working to increase your online visibility. But active bloggers sometimes need help thinking outside the text box. And that’s what we do here at Ray Access.

For a small fee, we will brainstorm 25 blog topics for you — topics that you can write about in the future. We’ll give you both topical and evergreen topics, complete with a title or heading that will attract attention and give you the angle to make the topic interesting and relevant.

And of course, if you need help getting your blog started, we’re the perfect people to turn to, since we write blog posts for a living. We can research, write, edit and deliver a blog post a week for a very reasonable sum. Interested? Contact us for details and a free estimate.

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.

“Blog” Is Not a Four-Letter Word

by Elle Ray | Oct 10, 2013 | Blog Writing

What Your Blog Can Do… and What It Can’t Do

whether you're writing or reading a blog, you have to know what it is

When they first appeared in the late 1990s, blogs were running commentaries of writers’ lives, much like many Twitter and Facebook accounts today. Blogs were seen as one person’s opinion and deemed as little more expert than a diary. Unfortunately, many business people still consider a blog to be a four-letter word: unnecessary and not worthy of investment.

Like most things Internet, however, the blog has evolved and changed. Today, business blog have efficiently replaced the company newsletter in that it can contain news about recent business happenings or convey information on a single subject. Blogs may still contain opinion and commentary, but they are well respected as vehicles for passing along pertinent and sometimes vital communications.

What a Blog Does

Blogs are one of the primary means of communication between professionals today, according to Penn State University. Coupled with technological tools such as RSS feeds, blogs are an inexpensive inclusion in a marketing toolbox. They allow professionals to get their ideas out to their readers easily at little cost. Blogs are short, fact-filled articles that can be sent through email, posted on a website and sent to mobile devices.

The bottom line is that a blog is one of the best vehicles around today to communicate with your audience, whether they are customers, friends or followers. And since most blogs allow comments, the platform gives you an opportunity to connect with that audience, to have an exchange of ideas and to solicit feedback on your services or products.

Blogs vs. Newsletters

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Replace your monthly newsletter with a set of four weekly blog articles (which are called “posts”). You don’t need expensive software to write and publish your posts. Once you have a website, the technology to allow blogs is usually free and quickly learned. Since everyone has a web browser, you don’t have to worry about mailing costs, and since blogs are stored online, you don’t even need a filing cabinet to store your back issues.

Producing a newsletter can be costly. One eight-page monthly newsletter professionally written and laid out can cost you up to $500 a month, and that price only goes up the more clients you have. In other words, newsletter technology doesn’t scale well. Blog posts, on the other hand, can be professionally written and produced for a little as $60 a week. They are much more accessible, and always available, to your clients.

A newsletter requires coordinating multiple articles produced in advance of publication. A blog post, in contrast, can be produced and published on the same day. Even if you post your newsletter to your website, which is always a good idea by the way, adds new content for search engines on a monthly or quarterly basis. While that’s good for search rankings, you can publish a new blog post every week, providing a constant stream of new content and forcing those search engines to re-index your site more frequently.

Blogs Are Better

So forget the old stereotype of what a blog is. It’s gone the way of the www. It’s no longer necessary to produce expensive newsletters. Join the 21st century and jump into the blogosphere. Because it’s not just a good idea; it’s what you need to get noticed. It’s what will set you apart from your competition.

When you’re ready to get started, contact us. We are communication professionals and can offer free advice. Or if you understand the value of a blog, but don’t have the internal resources to create one, can do the writing for you.

The Small Business Trap

by Elle Ray | Sep 13, 2013 | Small Business Advice

Confessions of a Freelance Content Provider

Between us, Mark and Linda have owned a number of small businesses. As writers and editors, the businesses we start never get very big… yet we always strive for excellence and always work hard at marketing our services. Despite that, we continually fall into the trap of losing that balance between working like crazy and looking for work like crazy.

graphic of businessman reaching for money in mousetrap

Image courtesy of bplanet / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Some call it “the feast or famine cycle.” We’re not sure if that’s the best moniker for this syndrome, though. Maybe it should be “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” If we’re working like crazy, that means we’re earning money, but we aren’t looking for future work. If we are looking for work like crazy, that means we aren’t earning any money. As a result, we try to find a balance, but we never can. We tend to approach our marketing efforts in a disorganized and disjointed way.

Marketing Sure Helps

We tell clients in person and in our blog that they must maintain their marketing to get consistent, effective results. While we’re pretty good about adding fresh content to our website — it is after all what we do best — we’re slackers when it comes to consistent marketing beyond the site. Part of the problem may be a certain amount of laziness, but one of the biggest hurdles is forcing ourselves to do those unpleasant tasks — like sales and cold calling. It’s hard work, even when we know the person we’re talking to can benefit from the services we provide.

At the same time, as Linda says, “it’s difficult to make myself look for work when I have plenty on my desk.” Both Linda and Mark freelance to other clients outside Ray Access. It’s a small but growing business that doesn’t yet provide enough income for both of us to survive on, so we can’t afford to ignore other ready streams of income in order to step up our marketing efforts. “Why spend money,” Linda asks, “when I can stay at my keyboard and make money?”

Identifying the Trap

And there’s the trap. We’ve experienced it in every business we’ve ever owned. We’ve heard countless similar tales from fellow entrepreneurs. It happened when Linda was reconditioning yachts on the Chesapeake Bay and when she headed a freelance writing business. It happened when Mark was trying to ramp up a video production company and when he ran his own editing business.

As Linda so aptly put it: “I’ll be so enamored with a single lucrative contract that I ignore the marketing end of the business. I’ll do the jobs I actually contract for and enjoy the most, while telling myself — life is good, why not? And then — bam! — the single biggest client decides to move out of town or close up shop. And I’m left in the dust. A contractor without a contract.”

This blog post falls outside of our usual informational topics — talking about the importance of putting great copy on your website — to give you a glimpse of the darker side of small business. You may already know all about it if you run a small company. If you don’t, let this serve as a warning.

Is open confession good for the soul? I don’t know and can’t think about it because I’ve got some writing to do. What keeps you up at night?

Words Matter

by Elle Ray | Aug 28, 2013 | Editing

Make Your Words Count with Correct Grammar

When all you have is a funny video and a few lines of text in a Facebook post, those words better be correct. When you’re looking at a 140-character tweet, one misplaced modifier could ruin your message.

Grammar is not dead. In fact, the need to know and use proper grammar is more important than ever because you have less time and fewer opportunities to do it right. Marketers abbreviate words because they believe that the attention span of consumers has been reduced to that of a gnat. So the words you use — and how you use them — are vitally important. Take this simple example:

Let’s eat grandma.
Let’s eat, grandma.

Do you want to send out your latest ad to bring in customers to eat grandma? I think not. Then there’s the popular example: “A woman without her man is nothing.” Punctuation and grammar make all the difference when you write:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman, without her, man is nothing.

Grammar Lessons Pay Off

Photo by Valentina Degiorgis

We love the thousands of examples out there that cross our desks every day. We collect them. Here’s one of our favorites: “The average American consumes more than 400 Africans.” Apparently, we are a very hungry nation.

Improper grammar also makes you look incompetent. iFixit owner Kyle Wiens says: “Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.” And he won’t hire anyone with bad grammar.

If you can’t remember your high school English lessons, please let someone else read your words before you publish them, especially if you are paying for the privilege. Websites, Facebook updates, LinkedIn pages, Twitter feeds and all your print advertising must be correct if you are to be taken seriously.

Put simply: proper spelling, punctuation and grammar increase your credibility. Bad writing doesn’t.

So regardless whether you know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” or you are just too busy to care, give Ray Access a chance to proof your words before you post. We’re not merely writers — we edit and proofread too.

Press Release Update

by Elle Ray | Aug 4, 2013 | Press Releases

Breaking News about Online Press Releases

Some time ago, we blogged about press releases, since we have experience writing them. We said that press releases had to contain real news and be directed at the right audience. We said that over time, these press releases have value.

Well, that was then — this is now.

breaking news about press releases

We learned recently that in the new Google paradigm, links in an online press releases hold no SEO value. None. Zip. Nada. So if you’re writing a press release and sending it out online, you should not expect a bump in the page ranking of your website, even if you placed links in the release that point back to you.

Is a Press Release Useless Then?

Here’s the interesting thing. While an online press release by itself has no value, the content of the release has as much value as it’s ever had.

How can that be, you may ask? Simple, as SEO expert Matt Cutts once summarized:

So the link from a press release will probably not count, but if that press release convinces an editor or a reporter to write a story about it… then if that newspaper links to your website as a result of that… it doesn’t matter whether it started or was sparked by a press release or it was started by an email that you sent.”

It’s Press Release Content That Matters

Press releases today are really just meant to provide a lead for someone in the media to pick up and run with. If your press release can inspire that kind of response, then it’s done its job.

If the reporter sites your company or its website in the article, that link, ladies and gentlemen, has tremendous value in SEO. Depending on the reach of the media outlet that writes and distributes the story, that link can drive all kinds of traffic to your site. It’s the ultimate in marketing: an independent third party writing about your company. And it all might start from a press release.

Long Live Press Releases!

So the press release isn’t dead. It isn’t a waste of time and money. But — and it’s a big “but” — the press release has to matter to its audience… and that audience is always the media. It has to contain significant news. And it has to be well written.

The team at Ray Access is constantly on the lookout for trends and tools in the world of online writing. When we find something of interest, we don’t hoard it for ourselves; we share it with you. Because you have a right to know.

We realize you can choose anyone to write your online content, whether it’s press releases, blog posts, or even your website text. You’ve probably know someone whose nephew writes pretty well and works for beer money. That’s fine, but remember you get what you pay for. When you want quality, professional work, writing that is effective and gets you attention, you need the pros. You need us. For more advice about our services, contact us today.

Writing vs. Good Writing

by Elle Ray | Jul 26, 2013 | Writing

The Problem with Creating Effective Writing

Anyone with a fourth-grade education thinks he can be a writer.

Writers aren’t like athletes, who have visible physical attributes that define their profession. We’re not like scientists who have a wall full of diplomas. We look like ordinary people, so it’s easy for an untrained and unproven writer to blend in.

If any literate person with a pencil and a notepad can sit down and write something, then what’s the value of a professional? It’s not our spelling or grammar. It’s our skill at rhetorical writing. It’s our imaginative use of words. It’s our ability to get to the heart of a message and verbalize it. It’s our uncanny knack for saying the right thing at the right time.

Do you want good writing or better writing?

What Good Writing Does

Good writing, therefore, isn’t just spell-checked writing. Good writing serves a purpose. It answers questions, makes the complex understandable, and fills a need.

For example, let’s say you have a website to sell cars. If your home page shows photos of the cars you sell and lists the technical specifications, it has some value. You know potential customers can come to your site, do their research, and decide if one of your cars is right for them.

But if your home page instead highlighted the cars’ best features and told stories about what makes your cars so great, you may get those potential customers to invest time and emotion into your products. You may be able to persuade those website visitors that not only are your cars great, but your company or dealership is the best place to buy them.

Why Good Writing Matters

We’re advocates of good writing not just because we’re writers. We want to see the world a better place, and good writing — good communication — helps move it in that direction. The art of writing is the art of storytelling. The art of rhetorical writing is the art of shaping a story to a target audience.

the trait of good writing You have a story to tell. You have a product or service to sell. The two merge in the message. Your website, your blog and your communications should all reflect your core story in understandable ways. Your business writing should reach out and attract, entice and tantalize. Good writing can accomplish this.

Not Tricks, But Techniques

Good writing can combine business and pleasure. In other words, if you’re blogging about your catering business, you can write about the new royal boy named George and tie it into your business, whether through a special, a new item, or just a pondering about what the parents eat. It’s a technique that can potentially find a wider audience than people looking for caterers. And it works.

Another technique is to explore your business. There is more to catering, for example, than meets the eye, especially if the eye belongs to your customers. They don’t know what goes into making those delicious cakes and pies show up on time and piping hot. That’s what your blog can do; that’s what a blog is for: educating your customers. And if you can entertain them along the way, you’ll make friends and loyal fans.

This is what we do at Ray Access: we help you make fans. We help you reach out to potential customers with good writing techniques and stories that explain your advantage and uniqueness. Anyone can pick up a pencil, but not everyone can manage good writing. That’s why there are pros like us.

We Do Website Content!

by Elle Ray | Jul 12, 2013 | Website Content

Ray Access’ Secret Service: Website Content

When we say that we’re “content providers,” most people — even some technical people — give us the deer-in-the-headlights look. We’re never upset or surprised. Providing content is a reasonably new field, and we’re always eager to explain what it is we actually do.

Fewer people hear “content providers” and immediately make the association that we write blog posts. They understand that businessmen and women usually don’t write their own blog posts, even if they do come up with the topic.

Ray Access is hard at work

Providing Content Means More

But as content providers, we’re proud of all the services we perform. One of the most popular at the moment, in a trend that even took us by surprise, is writing — or more frequently, rewriting — website content.

The words on your website have a lot of work to do. They have to positively influence search engines to help deliver a high page rank for the keywords that are important to your business. Website content also has to attract the attention of those real people who find your site, either accidentally or on purpose. Perhaps most importantly, they have to tell your story.

Put Website Content to Work

If you find your website slipping in page rank, all the signs indicate that updating your content should be a first step. It’s certainly less expensive and longer-lasting than an all-out pay-per-click marketing blitz. Remember, the best traffic to your site is organic — that is, the people who find you through a search or a referral, not through an ad.

Revising your website content, checking for the keywords you need, even redesigning the site are all ways to freshen up a stale site and reinvigorate your online presence. Every time you change or add content to your website, whether through a rewrite or a blog, you force the search engines to re-index your site. And that’s usually a good thing.

Gradual Change for Best Results

So think about what you want from your website in the next year. Then start putting the pieces together to make it happen. You don’t need to complete this project overnight. In fact, it may be best to approach it piecemeal, making small changes over time, keeping those search engines busy.

When you’re ready to start work on improving your website content, consider turning to the pros. That would be us, here at Ray Access. Contact us for a free estimate for your site. Join the many other satisfied clients who have seen positive change just by updating the text on their website pages. It works!

Writing Tips

by Elle Ray | Jun 19, 2013 | Writing

How to Master the Art of the Article Opening

Two of the most common openings we see for blogs, newsletters and marketing blurbs are:

“Well, here it is summer again and the kids are calling to come out and play, but we’ve got work to do…”

And

“I can’t believe it’s summer again and time for my next newsletter…”

writing on a laptop

Beginning an article is one of the most difficult aspects for unprofessional writers. Once they get started, however, the words seem to flow a little more seamlessly, and they can get to the point. Unfortunately, by then, many if not most of their likely readers (except for friends and relatives) have moved on to something … anything … better.

When Linda started on her first newspaper gig, her editor almost always cut the first line of her submissions. That first line tended to be mundane and uninformed (like the sentences above) or were filled with words she’d fallen in love with. (Don’t worry; she’s learned her lesson.)

Putting words on paper is one way to start a writing project — a task many people we know dread as much as public speaking. So take a page from Linda’s editor and start writing however you can, but then cut the first sentence or two. You’ll probably find the meat of your topic by the third sentence.

Write the Way You Talk

The next tip is to quit trying to impress your readers with your three- and four-syllable words, unless they’re college professors, medical doctors, or simple politicians. Do you normally talk that way? Probably not. Write like you talk and you’ll find the process so much easier. And your audience will find your writing so much easier to read.

You can get your message across without torturing your readers. If you have important information to impart, the last thing you should do is write really, really long sentences that cause readers to stop and ponder your meaning. Write crisp, clear sentences. Help your readers understand, especially if you’re writing an online article.

In the long run, through many trials and errors, even after overcoming my fear of not being good enough and trying to get it right the first time, trying to make it perfect and then even when I try, it seems I don’t get anywhere quickly, then I begin to feel like I can write a sentence that makes sense, especially when the words just don’t seem to come very easily and I understand how writers feel when they are blocked and can’t write anything. That’s hard.”

Ugh. Even though you may find this kind of run-on sentence in a daily newspaper or so-called professional magazine — don’t do it yourself. It may be counter-intuitive, but it’s much more difficult to make information clear and concise than to run on forever. Bite-size information is more palatable. Just like a good meal, you don’t swallow the whole thing in one gulp. You take your time and savor each bite. Let your writing be that way. Your readers will appreciate your brevity.

We Are Writing Pros

For professionals like us here at Ray Access, writing is an art, a skill and a talent. It’s our passion. We sit down at the keyboard and don’t stop until we’ve produced a great article anyone can read and understand. The writing task that you might agonize over, we long for. The words that you struggle to put down on paper, we can twirl and twist and type out with flair.

Our best writing tip? Either brush up on those dormant writing skills so you can compose straight, clean prose … or let us help you get it right. Words matter, whether you’re writing an online blog or marketing brochure. Don’t lose your audience before the final period.

Writing for the Web

by Elle Ray | May 28, 2013 | Writing

Tips from Professionals for Website Writing

Make it short.

Make it hot.

Make it memorable.

The new breed of reader doesn’t go in for long, drawn-out sentences. They don’t want complicated explanations. They want answers, plain and simple.

Ray Access writes website content

It’s possible many readers never really enjoyed having to decipher their information before digesting it. It’s possible readers tolerated digressive writing only with the mantra: “The next sentence will have the answers I seek, the next sentence, the next…”

On the other hand, maybe poor writing and lack of clarity is one of the driving reasons for low levels of literacy in America and worldwide. Until the World Wide Web, most information-based writing was boring, long-winded, and academic. In other words, reading was a chore.

Reading Online

Modern Internet readers often seem to be in a hurry. They have twitchy fingers just itching to swipe or click to the next page. If you want to get a message across to readers of your web page, you’ve got to connect with them in the first few seconds — or you will risk losing them, permanently. There’s always another website waiting to give them what they want.

Internet readers are not going to wait for your perfectly set-up payoff. They want information, and they want it now. Successful journalists often make the best web writers because they’ve learned to give readers answers at the top of each article. Bury the lead, as they say in the newspaper business, and you lose your readers.

online content can make or break your website An article with a good lead will hook readers, drawing them in to read, and learn, more. Craft a good lead, and your readers stick around to discover your more in-depth information. At Ray Access, we know how to write for the web. We can make your website lead the pack.

But Wait; There’s More

While many people rely on the Internet to research topics, others use it like a phone book. They too want it now, and they don’t want to have to search for it. Make it easy on them — provide your phone number, email address, or location right up front.

You don’t have to sacrifice quality for efficiency. At Ray Access, we know how to incorporate the important information like your address and hours of operation into the first page and still hook your audience to they keep them reading. The writing has to be so good, they’ll want to know more. The page has to be so well organized, it’ll be obvious where to find everything.

So give your readers what they want, whether it’s your mission statement or your physical address.

They’ll stay.

They’ll look around.

They’ll learn something.

They’ll come back for more.

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