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.

The Best Way to Improve the Value of Your Website

by Mark Bloom | Dec 28, 2021 | Blog Writing

Improve the value of your website by blogging

Start Blogging

The advantages of a blog on your business website are clear:

Blog posts allow you to explore areas related to your business.
They allow you to incorporate a broader range of keywords into your site.
Blog posts allow you to attract new visitors and satisfy your existing customers.
A blog provides a platform to address your audience directly.
Blog posts allow you to get the most out of advertising your products or services.
They let you share your values so you become more trustworthy.
Most importantly perhaps, blog posts force search engines to re-index your site to include your new content, so blogging increases your search engine optimization (SEO) effectiveness.

The only downside of blogging for your business is the time it takes to write and publish the new content. You can avoid this hardship by contracting out the blog writing to professional writers who understand both your business and your audience. Contact Ray Access to learn how affordable our blog writing can be.

Happy holidays to all our readers. May the year 2022 bring you continued success and growth to your business. Remember that Ray Access exists to help you reach your business goals online, through blogging, newsletters and your website copy. Make 2022 the year that your business takes off.

4 Topics Your Clients Want

by Mark Bloom | Jun 15, 2021 | Blog Writing

Satisfy your clients with content topics for 2021

What Are the Content Topics for 2021?

When you plan content for your marketing or website clients, you have to realize you’re not writing for them. You’re writing for their customers. That content performs a marketing role, interesting and engaging customers. To that end, there are four content topics for 2021 that will work for your clients and their customers:

Classic problem-solving
Mistake prevention (often in the form of tips)
Goal orientation
Behavioral changes

High-quality content can hit these topics from different angles over the course of this year. Your clients will enjoy the new content because it’s bound to be successful in attracting new customers. Your clients’ customers will enjoy it because it’s what they’re seeking. These topics can provide a framework for your content strategy for each client.

1. Classic Problem-Solving

Of all the content topics for 2021, this one is the most popular. Many people go online looking for answers to problems. Imagine if a piece of content — a website page or blog post, for example — can clearly describe a real problem that your clients’ customers actually experience. And when the same content provides a viable solution, it connects the audience to the company.

The content creator needs to understand the clients’ customers to be able to know which problems they’re experiencing. And the solution, which likely involves the client’s products or services, has to be reasonable. Knowing what’s reasonable goes along with knowing the audience. For example:

One target market may not think twice about buying a yacht to solve a problem.
Another target market would balk at having to purchase an annual membership to a gym.

2. Mistake Prevention

Helping your clients’ customers avoid making mistakes can come in macro and micro instructions. The most common form of mistake prevention appears as how-to information and immediately useful tips. Again, the content provider needs to know what’s important to your clients’ customers. They must know what these customers are having problems with so they know which mistakes to address, such as:

How to best use a certain feature of the client’s product
When a service, from cleaning gutters to fine-tuning a carburetor, is recommended
Which product or service is best for their particular needs

If the client is perceived to be a reliable source of useful information, that generates a lot of trust and more than that: referrals. No one likes making mistakes, to the point that avoiding one becomes an emotional endeavor. If your content topics for 2021 can tap into that emotion, it creates a strong bond with your clients’ businesses.

3. Goal Orientation

Consumers want, ideally, a respected source that tells them how to reach their goals. Where do they go to learn the best brand of TV to buy for their needs, the cheapest way to gain new business or a foolproof plan to invest their savings? Whatever the goal, if your clients offer a solution, your content writers should be able to explain why it’s the:

Most cost-effective
Most efficient
Cheapest or
Best targeted

Consumers have a limitless list of goals so branch out beyond those goals that tie directly into your clients’ specific products and services. Good content writers can make it work. How else do you explain hair care products that make the consumer feel successful with the opposite sex? That’s an example of tying an indirect goal to a specific product.

4. Behavioral Changes

Of all the content topics for 2021, this one is the most difficult, yet empowering. It involves teaching new ways of doing a task — not just with a new tool, but with a new approach. It’s one thing to produce and sell a new fabric for cleaning a car, for example. But it’s another thing to start thinking of car cleanliness as part of a daily routine. Changing behaviors for better overall results is beneficial to consumers, but difficult to implement. Remember:

Even after seat belts became mandatory, it wasn’t until a massive, ongoing marketing campaign began to change drivers’ and passengers’ behavior.
Cigarette smoking is in decline only because of a change in social values and lots of advertising.

While there are still people who don’t use a computer or smart phone on a daily basis, it took market saturation for mobile phones to become accepted.

Ray Access offers expert writers, thorough researchers, and professional editors all in one package. When you subcontract Ray Access for your clients’ content needs, you can stop worrying. We ask the right questions, dig into authoritative sources and deliver effective, compelling copy. If you need additional content topics for 2021, contact Ray Access today.

7 Questions to Ask Your Blog Writer

by Mark Bloom | May 3, 2021 | Blog Writing

How Do I Hire the Best Blog Writer?

You can likely find a blog writer in every city, town and hamlet, but how do you find the best blog writer for your business? The first tip to save time and money is not to hire a full-time employee. Then you’re on the hook for more than just the writer’s salary; plus you have to go through the hiring and onboarding process. If the writer doesn’t work out, you have to let that writer go, a chore in itself, and start the process from scratch.

So your best bet is to seek a freelance writer or blog writing service like Ray Access, where you can pay per hour or ever better: per blog post. But the question still remains: How do you hire the best blog writer? Fortunately, there are ways to discover if the writer or writers you’ve contacted have the chops to write your blog.

7 questions to ask to find the best blog writer

What Makes the Best Blog Writer?

Unless you’re an expert writer or an SEO expert, you may not be able to discern what makes a writer the best blog writer. Anyone who can string together several sentences doesn’t necessarily know how to write the best blog posts. So first, let’s review the purposes of having a blog attached to your business website:

Blog posts can be about any subject, as long as you’re able to connect it to your business or industry in some way.
Blog posts are often posted to social media platforms, so they’re a way to reach out to a new audience who may not have heard of your business.
Unlike website content, blog posts can be light and fun — they should entertain and engage readers, to interest them in your company.
Blog posts allow you to capture different keywords than are otherwise on your website.
Blog posts provide insight into your industry, tips into purchasing decisions or how-to information that’s not available anywhere else on your site.

The best blog writer can deliver on these counts. Find a blogger who can write in various styles, handle research tasks and incorporate keywords seamlessly. That may seem like a lot to ask, but for an experienced blog writer, these objectives are par for the course. The trick is finding the right writer or writers.

What Questions Should I Ask a Blog Writer?

To uncover whether a blog writer is a good fit for your business, ask the following seven questions and pay close attention to the responses:

How long have you been writing blog posts? This is self-evident. The longer a blog writer has been working in the field, the better the results. You pick up tricks along the way with experience.
What industries have you written for? It’s not as important to find a writer who’s written for your industry as it is to find one who’s written for a variety of industries. The former writer can delve deep into your industry, but a versatile blog writer has proven they have the ability to research and write compellingly for multiple industries. That’s valuable experience. Plus, a writer from outside the industry may bring new ideas.
Do you have samples to show? Every experienced writer should have samples of their work. When you review these samples, look for engaging writing from the first line. It shouldn’t be boring. Does the sample make its point without a lot of wasted words? Does it include keywords and a call to action?
What article lengths have you written? This question confirms that the writer can create short posts as well as long-form posts. The range, from 500 to 2000 words, requires different writing and research skills, and you want to be certain the writer you hire is up to the challenge.
How long does it take you to finish an assignment? The best blog writer can turn around an assignment within a week — even quicker if needed. It’s best to hire a blog writer who can plan out a schedule weeks or months in advance, but sometimes you may need something quickly to take advantage of recent news.
What do you charge? Some blog writers charge per word (such as two cents per word). Others charge by the hour, but this means every post may cost you something different, since you’re dependent on the speed of the writer. Ray Access charges per assignment. If you want a blog post with at least 500 words, we charge $75, regardless of how long it takes us.
Do you provide any related services? Some blog writers do keyword and market research. Some, like Ray Access, provide common-sense keywords (unless you have your own) and blog post ideas. We brainstorm and compile lists of blog post ideas well in advance and run it by our clients for approval well before we’re supposed to write the blog posts.

If you can use this list of questions to find the best blog writer for your business, we’ve done our job. But if you’d rather leave your blog writing in the hands of the experts who provided this advice, contact us today. We can answer all of the questions above to your satisfaction.

2021 Blogging Trends

by Mark Bloom | Apr 19, 2021 | Blog Writing

Why Is Ray Access Sharing 2021 Blogging Trends?

Ray Access works to stay on top of industry news. We’re always on the lookout for allies out in the real world, and when we find a tidbit, we share it with you. It feeds our mission:

To provide businesses with the best online content
for a reasonable price,
while educating business and agency owners
about the value and purpose of well-crafted content.

If you’ve been following Ray Access for any length of time, you know that high-quality content is our trademark, but helping small businesses and internet agencies is in our company DNA. We strive to make the internet a better place, one website at a time.

So we’re excited to share a recent find regarding the 2021 blogging trends. Did you know that 600 million blogs exist? Regardless of this astronomical number, it’s still not too late to start your own business blog. No one else has your unique perspective on your industry.

What Are the 2021 Blogging Trends?

The following infographic depicts the trends, originally published on the WebsiteSetup website. Whatever your interest in blogging, you’re sure to find something fascinating in these 2021 blogging trends.

As a reminder, blogging is a way to attract a new audience. It’s a marketing tool for drawing visitors to your website. A blog isn’t a promotional medium. Instead, it’s a way to share insights into your industry or company. Readers appreciate tips and advice that relate to your business. By sharing news and other information, you promote your trustworthiness. The blogging infographic:

2021 Blogging trends

Can You Write Your Own Blog?

Ray Access encourages its readers to write as much as you feel comfortable writing. If you can write your own blog, do it. Just make sure someone else reads it or edits it before you publish it. One small mistake may make you look unnecessarily foolish. Remember, you’re putting your words out to the world.

If you can’t write your own blog, consider Ray Access. We’re expert researchers, writers and editors who can turn your ideas into well-crafted articles you’ll be proud to publish on your website. We collaborate with you to help your business or agency attract new customers. Join our other satisfied blog clients. Contact us for answers to all your blog questions.

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.”

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