Reasons to Hire a Contract Writer for Your Business
You may believe that a copywriter is only good for writing those things you don’t want to write. Running your business requires a good bit of writing, from your business plan to your promotional content. Whether you enjoy writing or not, you may feel that you can accomplish most of it yourself.
But writing for business is all about clear, concise communication. Hire a contract writer who understands the process of writing, because all types of communication take:
Knowledge of your audience
Clarity of thought
Purpose and goals
Command of the language
And good communication, including writing, takes time and effort to get right. If you’re a busy business owner, carving out time to write can be as difficult as finding time to market your business. If you’re an agency owner, you have people to manage, clients to keep happy, finances to juggle and technology to stay on top of. Do you really have time to write? If not, hire a contract writer.
How Can a Writer Help You?
There are at least 10 things a writer can do for you, thereby lightening your load and improving your results. Some are obvious, but others you may not have considered. Hire a contract writer to:
Write or maintain your website content. Every time you change your website, whether you add a page or change the content, you force the search engines to re-index your site, which keeps them engaged with your site. Search engines don’t like stagnant sites.
Create and update your blog. A blog on your website provides tips and insight into your business and industry. Add value to your website and keep your audience coming back with an active blog. You can also post your blog on your social media platforms for a greater reach.
Develop and run your newsletter. Weekly or monthly, you can share news and offer deals to those insiders who’ve given you their email address. They’re your most appreciative audience. Stay top-of-mind with a regular newsletter.
Announce your news. Press releases to the local or national media can have many positive outcomes, from a link to your website to public attention for your business. But you have to ensure that your announcement is crafted to attract the kind of attention the media wants and can use.
Plan your future. If you’re active online, you need someone to create an editorial calendar to stay on top of your publication plans. That task includes planning out the topics to write about to control your narrative. Contract writers like those at Ray Access are creative types who always come up with fresh ideas.
Write your bios. Your company may change personnel from time to time. When that happens, you can keep your marketing collateral and your website up-to-date with new bios of your team. The same is true when you or someone on your team achieve new degrees or specialty training.
Record your internal procedures. Your policy documentation, procedure guides, business plans, operations manuals — basically, any documentation you need to run your business more efficiently — lies directly in the wheelhouse of a professional business writer. With a nondisclosure agreement, you can hire a contract writer to complete them, worry-free.
Develop important white papers. Whether you want to state your company’s position on an industry issue or use an informative paper to lure customers into your circle, a white paper has many uses to your business. You can also send your white papers to industry magazines; they’re always looking for interesting articles.
Write eBooks. Like white papers, eBooks have many uses. They’re a great way to attract new customers. You have to provide useful information to gain the trust of the public. eBooks present the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Edit existing documentation. You can hire a contract writer to review all your existing company papers to make them easier to read, understand and follow. Editing is a specialized skill that makes every piece of writing better — more targeted, more effective and more widely read.
If you’re writing to communicate to your customers, your team or the media, rely on a proven expert. Contract writers do more than write business letters, proposals or articles. They can shape your company and define your purpose. Don’t hesitate to hire a contract writer to help your business get to the next level.
If you’re a content writer and you’re reading this, you can check out freelance job offers on Jooble.org. Otherwise, contact Ray Access for writing services, and you can put your own name on every article as the author, since we produce work-for-hire.
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.
More and more people are working from home these days. Will office buildings ever get back to normal? Certainly not until a COVID-19 vaccine is available and widely distributed. In the meantime, in this new reality, those who work from home are searching for tips to stay healthy. Ray Access has you covered with some timely and relevant work-from-home tips:
1. Don’t Forget to Breathe
This one seems like a no-brainer. You can’t forget to breathe without passing out. The truth is that breathing easy and deep is the key to staying healthy. When you’re tense, your breath changes, becoming more irregular and shallower. Take time during your day to focus on your breath. And just take some deep breaths.
2. Eat Right
Tips for health always seem to return to your diet. For good reason, as what you put into your body — as well as how much you eat — makes as big a difference to your health as the exercise you get. When you work from home, it’s also easy to eat at your desk while you continue to work. Take time to eat, away from your desk. And make a nice meal that includes all the food groups, including fresh fruit and vegetables.
3. Get Up, Get Out
This is one you probably already know: get up and stretch periodically. The rule is not to sit for longer than an hour. Stand, stretch and walk around, even if it’s just around the room. If possible, get outside and walk around in the sunshine. Wear a mask if you have to, but walking outside provides a terrific break from your in-home office when you work from home.
4. Mind Your Posture
While it helps to have a proper work chair for your home office, even the best chair can’t stop you from slouching now and again. It’s on you to be mindful of your posture when you’re sitting at your desk. More than that, watch your posture all the time: when you’re standing, walking, seated at the dinner table. The more you can maintain a proper posture, the more likely you’ll avoid back and spine issues.
5. Focus Your Mind
No matter what you do, do it with intention, and you’ll accomplish more than you realized you could. Before you sit down at your desk when you work from home, decide on your goals for the day. Put off email, news and the crossword — whatever you do for fun — until after you’ve accomplished your goals for the day. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted, but also realize that this focus takes time to integrate. If you can’t stop losing focus as you first start this intentional practice, don’t be too hard on yourself.
6. Treasure and Nurture Your Relationships
Life isn’t all work and no play. As hard as you work when you work from home, you need to give yourself time off. It’s easy to keep working when your office is in your home, but it’s destructive behavior. Set your time off on your calendar if you have to, and use that time to spend with your family, your pets, your close friends —whoever’s inside your COVID-19 bubble. This will keep you healthy and sane.
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.
More and more Americans have started working for themselves as part of the gig economy. The actual number may be as high as 40 percent of the workforce, and it continues to expand. Check out these game-changing gig economy statistics. The gig economy doesn’t necessarily involve starting new companies or opening storefronts. It includes, for the most part, people working for an app service or web service to generate either primary or secondary income.
On the face of it, app-based gig work — working as a contractor through a service — is a great way to earn extra money. The hours are flexible, the pay is acceptable, and it’s usually easy to get started. The downside, however, applies as much as the upside:
Like all hourly jobs, you don’t get paid if you decide not to work.
Gig economy work is perfect for part-time work, since your pay depends on how much you work in a given week. If you switch to working your gig economy job as your main source of income, however, you soon learn how undependable your paycheck becomes week to week.
When you work a gig-economy job, it’s not just difficult to save money while living hand to mouth, but it’s also almost impossible to get protection for your health.
Take the Risk out of Working for Yourself
Things are starting to change. This year, 2020, gig workers were allowed to collect unemployment for lost time due to the coronavirus pandemic. That was a first. What could be next? A safety net for gig economy workers? Affordable health coverage?
As a matter of fact, yes. These things and more are starting to roll out for gig economy workers across the country. It’s a testament to the sheer number of gig workers and the economic power they’re beginning to develop. Taking the risk out of working for yourself means making your gig economy job as viable, acceptable, and safe as a job for any brick-and-mortar business.
Take the Risk out of Working for Yourself
Imagine these benefits for gig economy workers (especially if you happen to drive for an app service):
80 percent of your normal weekly pay while your car is being repaired after an accident
80 percent of your normal weekly pay if you’re hospitalized due to an accident
80 percent of your normal weekly income if you’re temporarily let go by the app business.
Legal representation in the form of a letter written on your behalf
A complementary Hurdlr Premier account to track your mileage for business
Sick leave, based on borrowing from future earnings
Access to a remote healthcare professional, anytime, for you and your immediate family
This concept feels important and new enough to hype a little. And as Ray Access works within the gig economy framework — we hire freelance writers — it made sense to get involved in making this announcement. It has the potential to help many gig economy workers. And you heard it here first, on rayaccess.com.
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. And yes, Ray Access received compensation for posting this article, but we never do something just for the money. This actually sounds like a good fit for gig economy workers.
We live in an era when memes spread faster than news, when news become fiction and fiction news, and when you can find sources to corroborate your beliefs online. The internet has become more than a library of all human knowledge; it’s now a purveyor of the most outlandish, most esoteric and most fake information ever imagined.
As a race, humans have never before encountered so much information. And it’s all just a tap away. We don’t always know what to do with it. When you consider how to read websites, you have to first consider the website you’re visiting and the search term you used.
All Websites Are Not Created Equal
The idea started with movies, where money creates illusions. The better the special effects, the more easily you buy into the vision. If you’re watching a cheaply made movie, the suspension of disbelief becomes harder. In the same way, if you come upon a website that’s cheaply made, you start reading with a bias toward disbelief already.
As the technology improved, so did the production values of even cheaply made movies. That didn’t level the playing field; it merely pushed big-budget movies (and websites) to even greater heights. So you can’t make a movie like they did in the 1950s (or build a website like they did in the 1990s) and expect to be taken seriously.
Technology today allows even small business concerns to put together beautifully designed websites with ease and speed. That’s good and bad. It’s easier for you to put up a dazzling website for your business, but it’s also easier (and cheaper) for those publishing scam sites. Those sites have become more and more believable.
How to Read Websites
Truth is in the eye of the beholder. And the responsibility for determining the truth rests there as well. In other words, caveat emptor: buyer beware. Social media platforms have begun labeling sites of questionable content or at least sharing the bias of those sites. It’s up to you to figure out whether to believe what you read or not. Further research helps, but there’s so much online about any topic.
The same holds true for business websites. A slick site may try to sell you content writing, for example, with promises of excellent quality. It’s up to you to dig deeper. Look at the portfolio, if there is one. Ask questions. It may be true or it may be a sales pitch. At Ray Access, we not only show you our past work, but share professional advice on effective content creation. Because we’re truly professionals.
Be Careful Out There
When you surf the internet or search for information, be smart by remaining skeptical. Double-check facts before you trust them — including what you read here. You may eventually be able to trust certain websites, but always remember why a website exists. Sometimes, it’s to share vital information. Sometimes, it’s just to sell advertising.
When you know how to read websites, you understand the value of truly authoritative sources. You learn which sites to visit. We hope that you come to trust Ray Access. We provide researched facts and advice. We’re in business to provide online content to businesses. So become media literate; it’s a good way to learn how to read websites. Don’t take anything for granted. And use the internet responsibly.
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.
Use Promotion and a Newsletter to Build Credibility
Whether you write your blog daily, weekly or monthly, you don’t want to waste your efforts. Even if you hire a service like Ray Access to write or edit your blog posts, they won’t do you any good unless they’re read. Unread blogs — especially when they’re full of interesting, engaging material — are like packets of vegetable seeds left to rot in the pantry.
So if you’re sure your blog posts are well written and relevant to your audience, the next step is to make sure your customers know about them. There are a number of strategies for doing that, while reaching potential customers, too. These plans take a little planning and a little effort, but they can pay off in new and returning customers.
Step 1: Start with Quality
Some talented salesmen claim they can sell beer to a brewer. But when you’re using content marketing, you’re using words instead of salesmen. So your content better be top-notch. It’s one thing to employ the rules of grammar correctly; it’s another to craft compelling content that your audience wants to read and share.
Before you think about getting your customers to read your blog, make sure it’s worth their time. Make sure they’ll thank you and not curse you. Spend time on the creation process and make sure you’ve got a topic your people are interested in. Don’t waste your time promoting poor content. That’s not effective content marketing.
Step 2: Promote Your Blog
Once you’ve crafted your blog post and you’re satisfied with its quality, you’re ready to send it out into the world. Publish it on your website. Make sure it’s everywhere it’s supposed to be, as some websites — like Ray Access’ new site — link to the latest blog post from the Home page, the footer and the sidebar. The more places it appears, the more likely a visitor will encounter it and be intrigued.
Don’t stop there. Place a teaser blurb and a link on your social media platforms. The purpose of these blurbs is to entice people to click the link back to your website, where they can:
Read the entire blog post
Look around your site to see what your business is all about
Bookmark your site
Become a customer
Using social media, professional organizations and other online avenues to promote your blog posts give your company an immense online presence. It costs very little, but it does take some time every time you blog. The ROI for this little bit of work is enormous, especially if you choose the most appropriate sites and your content is well targeted.
Step 3: Reuse Your Blog Content
Content marketing doesn’t have to mean writing new content all day. Once you’ve written a blog post, you can reuse those words wherever and however you can. That increases its value exponentially and allows you to focus on creating really good content. If you’re just cranking it out every time, the quality will suffer. So create something special, and then reuse the heck out of it.
That’s where a newsletter comes in. Not all of your customers are going to keep checking your website for the latest blog post. They may miss your teaser blurb on their favorite social media platform. A newsletter is the perfect vehicle for reusing content. Use a pull quote or a paragraph from the blog post and place it in the newsletter, with a link back to the entire article.
Since newsletters are delivered directly into your customers’ email inboxes, they’re bound to see it. If you package it properly, they’ll gobble it up and be glad you sent it. Between newsletters, social media and your other efforts, you can do a lot to get your blog posts in front of the people who matter to you: your customers. And that’s worth the time. Good luck and remember the content marketing experts at Ray Access if you need help.
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.
Ray Access — an online content development firm based in Asheville, NC, but with an international footprint — has launched an updated, mobile-friendly website. This marks the second time in its short history that Ray Access has updated its site. This time, however, there’s a purpose behind the redesign beyond making use of the latest technology.
While the design and implementation are new, the real difference in the site is its updated content. It’s meant to showcase how new website content can make a difference in visitor retention and engagement. For the first time, Ray Access has created a site similar to the ones it produces for its clients: full of useful information and light on promotional material.
A New Website? Yawn
It’s common for businesses to update their websites from time to time. Nothing says “I don’t care” like a website that looks as if it were cobbled together from spare code back in the mid-1990s. An updated site has become a business necessity, so your business will be taken seriously. The recommended period for a relaunch is about every five years because that’s about how long it takes for technology to change significantly.
But new sites need more than a pretty design and an attractive combination of colors. It needs more than fancy graphics and flashy photography. Websites have a business purpose: to attract and retain customers. Does your website do that? If not, consider an update, whether or not the design seems out-of-date.
Why New Website Content Matters
In the past, the Ray Access site provided lots of information about our services and our value proposition — i.e., why a business should hire us instead of our competition. It’s a common approach for many businesses online. After all, isn’t that the point of a website?
No, as we’re all learning. The internet is evolving with how people use it. We could write about the evolution of keyword use, but that’s boring. Instead, think about how people, regular people, use the internet. They search for information, often asking full-sentence questions into their phone. If they find your website, what value can you give them?
That’s the value of good content. The best design in the world can’t hold a visitor for long. (No offense to designers; see above for our love of modern designs.) Visitors reach your website because they want something. They may be shopping for what you provide, or they may be researching something about your industry. Either way, your site has to impart useful information without giving away the farm.
How a New Website Earns Customers
As with the new Ray Access website, it’s the new website content that makes or breaks a site. No matter what your business, no matter what your industry, seek to add value to your community and the world at large. Provide free, useful information. If it’s good enough, you’ll gain an audience. Deliver that information in a clear, easy-to-comprehend format, and you’ll gain at least one fan: Ray Access.
The internet is an inconsistent place. Search engines help, but sometimes, the site you end up on is a garbled mess. If all you want to do is find the answer to a question, you’ll move on quickly to the next website on the search engine results page.
Keep visitors on your site longer. Statistics show that the longer a visitor is on your site, the more likely he is to becoming a customer. So if your new website content is clear, to-the-point and accurate, you stand a better-than-average chance of gaining a new customer.
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.
People in lockdown used to think that the only mental health dangers posed by their situation was the lack of stimulation. You’re stuck in your home with your family, unable to go outside for longer than a trip to the grocery store or a walk around the block. When you get tired of streaming movies or binge-watching new series, your options become limited and you develop the condition called going stir crazy.
Everyone’s seen the signs: a lack of personal hygiene, a manic look in the eye, five-day-old clothes and a couch-potato lethargy. You learn to stay away to avoid an expletive-laced tirade or a request for a second breakfast. But it turns out there are more dangers to a quarantine than going stir crazy. In fact, Zoom fatigue is affecting more people all the time.
What Is Zoom Fatigue?
When you meet someone in person, you focus on them. You look at body language, listen for verbal cues and react accordingly. All business people are accustomed to communicating in person or over the phone. Once the conversation moves to a screen, hidden perils await.
For example, the video chat window in Zoom and other video communication programs show a small window of what you look like in your video to the others on the call. It’s meant to be beneficial, allowing you to adjust the height of your video feed, center the image if necessary, and fix the lighting so you look as good as possible. So far, so good, right?
The Symptoms of Zoom Fatigue
When you meet someone in person, you don’t usually think about how you look, at least once you enter the meeting. But when you see yourself on the screen during a video meeting, it’s a different story. Many people on Zoom calls obsess about the image of themselves. As a result, they:
Notice themselves more: not just how they look, but how they may appear to others
Force a smile during the length of the call
Plan or change the backdrop of their presentation on-screen to create a pleasing effect
Exaggerate their expressions and responses
These actions may not seem like much, but amplified over multiple video chats in a day, and it leads to fatigue. The characteristics of Zoom fatigue include a sense of overall exertion, stained eyes, a throbbing headache and even dizziness. These symptoms stem from the extra concentration it takes to be online, looking at yourself and others for the full duration of the meeting.
How to Avoid Zoom Fatigue
Even before the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, people tracked the time they spent in front of a screen, whether it was the TV, a computer, a smart phone or a tablet. Too much screen time was thought to be unhealthy. It is, especially when you see yourself in the screen the whole time. So the best way to avoid Zoom fatigue is to limit your screen time. Get offline and go for a walk. Do some yoga or other form of exercise.
Other ways to limit your exposure and risk of video chat fatigue include:
Ask the people you meet with to turn off the cameras and have an occasional audio-only call
Focus on others, not yourself, during a video meeting
Don’t look at the screen during your meeting
Force yourself to take notes, which diverts your attention
Keep Zoom meetings brief
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.
In many ways, your home office resembles your office at work. That is, the things you put in place to make you more productive are the same things no matter where you’re working, whether you’re working in a cubicle farm or whether you’re in a work from home arrangement on a porch with a long extension cord. And it works when you incorporate the most common productivity tips, such as:
Create a space that’s your own, where interruptions are minimized
Set up a comfortable environment that has a supportive chair, an ergonomic desk and proper lighting
Keep your desk clean and clutter-free to help your mind focus
Maintain your schedule, which includes specific break times
Review what you want to get done every day before you start
Is It Safe to Return to the Office?
Every state seems to be on a different schedule for opening up. Some states have implemented strict containment orders, while others have thrown open the doors and invited workers back. If you have the kind of job that allows you to work from home, you’ve likely been working the entire time during the shutdown, assuming your state had a stay-at-home order.
As society loosens up, it makes sense to ask when or even if you’ll be leaving the home to return to your normal place of business. A lot depends on your employer, but you should have some say in the matter, as your health may be in danger if the pandemic is still raging. You can still work from home and be productive, as you’ve demonstrated over the past eight weeks.
A health assessment should be your first step. How are the infection numbers in your area? Is your local media still reporting deaths? How safe do feel leaving the house? If you return to work, you can expect — you should expect — to wear a mask and perhaps even gloves. Your office should be arranged to leave six feet of space between desks too. These new social norms will still be with us for months to come.
The Benefits of Working from Home
This is a popular topic that we’ve written about in our blog. But that was in March 2019. If you read that article, you can add to the list of benefits that “small” thing about staying healthy. There are many benefits you get when you work from home.
Maybe your employer will see the benefits as well. Why pay for office space when the team can work from home and still be productive? When communications technology is so advanced, team meetings are still easy to pull together, and you don’t need a conference room when you all can be in the same Zoom room.
Will the Future Embrace Work from Home?
No one knows for sure what the future of work will look like. Will cubicle farms go extinct? Will companies ever need a central, open-floor-plan office ever again? Can we all be productive without being in proximity to each other? The quarantine bubble may turn out to have positive consequences, as companies learn to trust their employees and working from home gains mainstream acceptance.
At Ray Access, we’ve embraced working from home since the beginning. While the principals used to meet in person every week, all the work gets done at home. Even when we added writers, we didn’t need a central office. In fact, our writers are separated by hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.
Your company’s needs may differ from our needs, but it’s time to really consider whether you need an office, especially if you’re not producing a physical object. Web developers, web designers, project managers, content producers and SEO firms can all work from home. For now and into the future.
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.
If you’re new to working at home, you may be encountering issues you never even considered before. Distractions are everywhere, whether you live by yourself, with your pets or with your family. You’re just not used to being at home while you’re doing your job.
Instead of sitting at your desk in the office, hammering out code or content, you find yourself at home, either at your home office or at the kitchen table, trying to focus. Meanwhile, all kinds of things are trying to distract you while you’re working from home, such as:
Your spouse or significant other demanding attention
Your next meal, which needs to be prepared now
The laundry that’s piling up in the closet
The pet whining to be fed or walked or petted
The snacks in the kitchen that are calling your name
The social media platforms that are just a click away
Videos of shows or movies that suddenly sound fascinating
All the non-work-related reading you have to catch up on
The food shopping and other errands that are waiting for you
Feeling guilty about trying to work in your pajamas
Trying to get in the work mood in your home environment
The need to keep up with all the latest news
Wanting to answer the phone or emails
Tips for Minimizing Distractions
The good news is that it is possible to be productive when working at home. The principals of Ray Access, a remote work firm since its founding in 2014, have developed strategies to get stuff done when working from home. Follow these tips to become a work-at-home pro:
Schedule time when you want to work and stick to it. Whether you put aside eight hours a day or two, block off that time so you can focus just on your work. If others are home with you, let them know you can’t be interrupted during that time except in case of an emergency.
Wear noise-cancelling earphones or play music loudly, so you’re not distracted by random sounds around the house.
Give yourself deadlines for specific projects or tasks. Work hard to meet them.
Make a to-do list with everything you need to accomplish that day. Prioritize the list so you get the most important things done first.
Keep track of important deadlines and meetings. Consult your schedule regularly, at least once a day, preferably first thing in the morning.
Get comfortable. To be the most productive you can be, do whatever you need to make your new workplace encourage healthy, focused work habits.
Unplug. To avoid getting caught up in email and social media, disconnect, unless you need it for your work.
Focus, focus, focus. Do whatever you need to do to focus on the work you have to do.
Set mini-deadlines. Give yourself things to do in the next hour, 15 minutes, whenever. These mini-deadlines are motivating.
Stand and stretch every now and then. Once an hour should be your minimal time of devoted screen time. Plus, it helps your body stay healthy and the breaks can keep you sharper mentally.
Working at home can be difficult if you’re not used it. Fortunately, Ray Access is here to share its experience of working remotely for the past seven years. Take it from us; working at home can be liberating and empowering. You just need to take the right approach.
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.
