by Mark Bloom | Jul 3, 2018 | Content Provider
Because Delivering Quality Content Is Effective
You have many choices when it comes to developing online content. You can write it yourself, you can get a staff member to write it or you can hire a professional. If you hire someone, you’re going to see broad ranges in price: everything from $5 to $1,000. But before we divulge our professional advice, we have to issue two warnings:
- This blog post may seem a little self-promotional at times. We are experts in the field of online content, and we provide what we think is the best solution for the money.
- You’ll learn a lot about why delivering quality content matters, why we don’t lower our prices to $5 and why you should insist on quality too.
The writers at Ray Access understand all too well about the “competition” that may charge as little as $5 for a blog post. But those writers or writer websites aren’t our competition at all. If you’re looking to fill your blog with $5 content, go ahead. You’re not looking for what Ray Access offers. You’re innocently unaware of the difference between what we do and what a $5 writer does.
Cheap, Fast, Good
You probably recognize these three adjectives — cheap, fast and good. They represent the three main qualities of products and services. Unfortunately, you can only choose at most two of them at any one time. Likewise, as a B2B consumer, when you choose to buy a $5 blog post, you’re getting something that’s cheap. You may also get fast, but you definitely won’t get good. In fact, you’ll be lucky to get fair.
On the contrary, Ray Access has been delivering quality content fast, and while we charge significantly more than $5, we aren’t going to break your budget. Our offices are in Asheville, NC, not New York City, and that helps us keep our expenses down.
Delivering Quality Content
When you publish content that cost you $5, you’re going to have two problems:
- The content that you paid so little for may be plagiarized from another website. If you publish it on your website, you may be penalized by search engines.
- That $5 content is going to end up being worth less than that. If it doesn’t generate any interest from either search engines or visitors to your website, it’s essentially worthless.
The purpose of your website, ultimately, is to generate awareness and increase your revenue. Delivering quality content does both. Since quality content is original, you won’t have the first problem above. And since it’s directed at your target audience, it strikes a chord with both visitors and search engines. It ultimately becomes worth more than what you paid for it because it keeps working day after day, week after week, month after month.
We Value Quality Over Everything Else
At Ray Access, quality isn’t just a tagline and it’s not just a buzzword. It’s not just what sets us apart. You could say that delivering quality content is our passion. It’s why we’re in business. It’s what we live and work for.
We know that quality content pays dividends. Once you publish and promote quality website content, its carefully developed and strategically placed keywords attract visitors to your website. The finely tuned content then works to persuade those visitors to contact you. As long as that content is up on your website, it continues to work. Now, isn’t that worth more than $5?
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.
by Elle Ray | Jun 26, 2018 | Small Business Advice
Put Some Life in Your Work/Life Balance
Sometimes, a word, phrase or concept can get so overused and worn-out that you cringe when you hear it, even when it’s pretty cool and even more useful. Consider, for example:
- Have a good day
- Fake news
- Mind/body connection
- Haters
- It’s all good
Useful words and phrases shouldn’t make you want to gag, but after a while, even the best turn of the English language can send you into a tither. And like the positive aspects of the mind/body connection that are saving so many people from fake news about haters and healthcare, the work/life balance teeters in that same realm: “I’ve heard it too often; if I hear it one more time, I’m gonna slap you.”
But Please…
Trends aside, it can be a daunting task to balance work, play, family, friends, culture, alone time, spirituality and physical fitness, especially for entrepreneurs. Thanks to technology and the advancements they bring, now you can work 24/7/365 if you choose. And you may end up doing just that if you can’t find that elusive work/life balance that you don’t want to hear about anymore!
Having said that, no matter how trendy and overused the phrase has become, you can never get too many work/life balance tips. Your sanity depends on it. Your health depends on it. Your relationships really depend on it. In fact, there is no “life” in the work/life balance equation if you can’t tune out sometimes and let work issues go straight to voicemail.
Side Effects and Risks Take Hold
Usually, you only see a subhead called side effects if you’re reading a medical blog. Not finding an acceptable work/life balance, however, may lead to a medical issue if you don’t do it. Since the U.S. ranks 30th out of 38 countries surveyed by Family Living Today that asked who thinks they have a healthy work/life balance, it’s appropriate to list the side effects that can happen when that sensitive balance is tipped too far in one direction. Too much work leads to:
- Poor morale
- Lack of motivation
- Fatigue
- Heart disease
- Stress
- Depression
Socially, an awkward balance leads to:
- Not being able to focus on anything but work
- Time spent with others is ruined by emails and texts
- Important events missed
- Losing touch with friends
- Anxiety
But, you may counter, if you don’t give your business sufficient time and attention, you won’t have a business to worry about. And that leads to missed bill payments, low self-esteem, feelings of failure, poverty and maybe even homelessness.
Show Me How It’s Done, Toto
Finding that elusive balance is the key to success both for your business and in your personal relationships. When you get enough sleep, eat right and exercise on a regular basis, your body is happy and supports your endeavors. And while some weeks, the pendulum simply must swing to long working days just to meet important deadlines, for the most part, it behooves you to build a work life based on balance.
How that looks varies from one person to the next. And when you’re the boss, you may have to put in extra hours each week. But instead of having to choose between making yourself sick and not being able to meet payroll, consider implementing a few balancing rods that shouldn’t be too difficult to manage. These tips allow you to still make the money you need and run a successful (and healthy) business:
- Plan blocks of time off for strictly vacation and relaxation.
- Insist on phone-free periods throughout the day, such as dinner time, for example.
- Kick time-wasters to the curb or at least limit their intrusion. Maybe say goodbye to Facebook?
- Include exercise time in your schedule at least three days a week. Make it as important as a big client meeting.
- Ask your family to help you with the everyday chores you typically do.
- Hire out those things that nobody wants to do.
- Make social commitments so that you don’t blow them off in favor of working.
- Stick to your calendar as faithfully as possible while still building in some flexibility.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 19, 2018 | Website Content
It’s Just Ones and Zeros, Right? What’s So Hard?
Website cost seems to have skyrocketed recently. You used to be able to pay your nephew or your neighbor’s kid $100 to build and publish a website on the internet that looked decent. What’s so hard about that? There are even simple tools now that provide a template. All you have to do is plop in some royalty-free stock photos, add some words and BAM — you have yourself a website.
One of the reasons your website cost has increased is that your nephew and that neighbor kid are now young adults working for companies that charge thousands of dollars for a website. And they’ve learned a lot in the intervening years. OK, the new sites look a little better today than they used to, but a website is a website, isn’t it?
Not All Websites Are Created Equal
Those slapdash websites of the 1990s wouldn’t cut it in today’s market. They are so slow to load. They look clunky, the images are tiny and what’s with that blinking text?! Those websites even look outdated, if it’s possible for a website to look old-fashioned after just 20 years.
By comparison, today’s websites are fluid. They load quickly and work on all kinds of devices. They take advantage of scrolling, zooming and collapsing menus. Ordering is easy and secure, as long as you confirm that you’re not a robot. What would someone from the 90s think of that?
The Elements of a Modern Website
Another reason for high website cost is the various specialties required to complete a business website project. It’s not one kid in a basement anymore. Website development agencies need:
- Project managers, who act as the liaison between the customer and the website agency. Communication must be timely and fluid, as website projects often require tweaking from phase to phase.
- Website designers, not just to make the website pop, but also to fit the design to the business’s target audience. AARP has a much different design than Red Bull, even though both act as a landing page for stories.
- Website developers, the down-and-dirty code-jockeys of website agencies. They do the actual coding to make the websites work as designed. Even when an agency offers template-driven forms, there is still coding to be done to customize a site for a particular business.
- Content writers to create the new content that populates the pages. Content isn’t the last step or an unnecessary extra. Some development firms start with the content. They know that without effective content, a new website will just sit there and underperform, no matter how well it’s designed and developed. Every piece works together to make a website work.
And that isn’t all — you have graphic artists, SEO experts, photographers, marketing pros, assistants, accountants and the beat goes on… As you can see, that’s a lot of mouths to feed, all of whom drive up the website cost. Most website development projects take a minimum of three months, from initial meeting to launch. That means a lot of people are putting in many hours on your website.
But It’s Totally Worth the Expense
Your business only needs a brand-new website maybe once every five years. Some companies update the look more frequently than that, but a five-year-old website doesn’t necessarily look old or out-of-place. You can always swap photos and insert new pages of content, but a completely new website is an infrequent expense.
Your website cost, ameliorated over its functional life, is fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to other business costs, such as advertising and personnel. And unlike personnel, your website works for you every minute it’s up, without a break. If it’s effective, it may be bringing in leads as fast as your best salespeople. Now you’re not thinking about website cost; you’re considering the website ROI.
Effective Websites Have Effective Content
Ray Access is a business-to-business company. In other words, we don’t sell our writing services to the public, but to other businesses. As a result, we work with smart companies to improve their websites, to make them more effective by attracting attention and encouraging visitors to contact our clients.
In fact, more often than not, we work with the web developers who create the sites because they know the importance of good content that blends in perfectly with the overall design and style. They don’t want their site launch held up while they wait for their business client to deliver or fix content.
Website Cost vs. Return on Investment
If you’re worried about website cost, think of it as an investment in your company’s future. Think of it as a marketing and advertising expense, since it’s your information listing and your outward facing image. In a way, that’s exactly what it is, if it’s done right. And a website that’s not done right isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on.
So, when you’re considering a new website, make sure you hire someone to develop your content too. Ray Access writers understand what a website has to do. They know how good websites work. And content is always edited, so that it always sounds like it comes from the source: you.
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.
by Elle Ray | Jun 11, 2018 | Blog Writing
Use Brain Power to Come Up with Blog Topics
One of the laments that we at Ray Access hear constantly from small business owners, website developers and marketing pros is that they have trouble coming up with unique blog topics every week. Some even tell us that they draw a blank for new blog topics they churn out only once a month!
Coming up with new blog topics week after week, trying never to repeat a topic, is a challenge for sure. Even though you may be able to get away with a different angle on a single topic, it still takes a certain amount of creativity, open-mindedness and yes — imagination.
Fact and Fiction
Some people equate imagination with fiction — things that are just made up and not necessarily true. And while you certainly can imagine fantasy and great story lines that never happened, you also can apply a vivid imagination to the truth, reality and your readers’ — and clients’ — interests.
In an article titled Nonfiction: Access to Information, Insight and Imagination, collaborating scholars write:
Nonfiction surrounds each of us daily. Such a profound notion suggests that nonfiction should be quite accessible… Such an assumption becomes reality…”
The thrust of the article — as published in The Dragon Lode and reprinted by Springhill College — basically covers how writers of fiction and nonfiction are more alike than not. They argue that the genres really aren’t all that separate. Each type of writing relies on a clear and open mind willing to receive ideas from that same place where the imagination rests.
Tap into Your Best Thinking
Now we’re not talking about making things up and trying to pass them off as fact. Actually, what we’re suggesting is exactly the opposite. Applying your imagination — whether you’re coming up with blog topics, creating a documentary, writing a company newsletter or covering breaking news — allows you to see beyond your own prejudices and ideas of right and wrong.
Being open-minded rightfully relies on the imagination to think beyond your upbringings, your assumptions and even sometimes the very foundation of your faith. For example, as a former newspaper woman, Linda was sent on a mission trip to a third-world country with a group of evangelical medical missionaries. Even while the members of the group proceeded to try to convert her to their religious beliefs, she had to write about their bravery and compassion.
It’s only because she learned how to leave her fears and prejudices behind whenever she covered a story that she was able to produce an award-winning special section. She could see past the facades these religious zealots wore outwardly to see the real humanity and oneness they shared with the “unbelievers” in their care. Linda came away a better person, a better writer and a respected journalist — all without converting.
Too Many Blog Topics
When you apply the principles embodied by information, insight and imagination to the act of coming up with blog topics every week, year in and year out, you may feel like you’re heeding a higher calling. But you never know who you might reach, what you might learn and how you might teach.
So, let us provide a few tips for opening your mind and tapping into the endless well of imagination you were born with. Use these tips when you sit down to create your own list of upcoming blog topics:
- Brainstorming. It’s said that the average person has about 60,000 different thoughts every day. When you storm your brain, alone or preferably with one or more other colleagues, you shake some of those thoughts loose and throw them down on paper. Even if you only use one percent of those random ideas, that can lead to 600 potential blog topics!
- Jotting it down. Keep a pad of paper nearby at all times. Most of the ideas we get pass through so quickly, they don’t have time to stick. Whether you use actual pen and paper or tap the words into a note-taking app on your phone, commit your ideas to hard copy when they catch your attention.
- Meditating. The practice of stopping all thoughts is the exact opposite of brainstorming and gives your mind a break, leaving it open to funnel in some surprising new revelations you may not even know you knew. Many meditators believe that their God/Higher Power/Source speaks to them during this quiet time. If your spiritual guide truly cares about you, she’ll pump you full of great blog topics exactly when you need them! All you have to do is get out of the way.
- Getting out of your chair. Exercise can shake loose a few of the cobwebs stuck inside your head. When you pose a question to yourself and then stop thinking about it while you push your body to move and sweat, all kinds of imaginings can take root and grow. The healthy shot of blood to your brain doesn’t hurt either.
- Caring and sharing. Out with friends who play no part in your industry? Mixing it up with fellow dancers before your Zumba class? Sitting around the dinner table with family? Toss the imagination ball around the room and see what happens. People love to explore new notions and tap into their own creativity out loud — even if it’s only to give you some new blog topics.
- Reading the news. Every day, you should get at least one blog topic from the news. The way your business and/or industry intersects with current trends and interacts with something in the news is one of the best ways to find blog topics. And it’s one way that web developers and SEO professionals get blog topics that are already trending online.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 5, 2018 | Small Business Advice
So Why Isn’t Your Business Taking Advantage?
Who wants to start an email newsletter when you have so many other marketing strategies in play. Consider all the efforts you put in to promote your business. Depending on your company’s size, resources and growth strategy, you may be doing:
- Print advertising
- Online marketing
- Blogging
- Social media campaigns
- Webinars or speaking engagements
- Networking
- Sponsorships
- Sales promotions
- Giveaways
No matter which of the above activities you’re doing, you must be tracking responses and weighing your return on investment. As any business person will tell you: “Why continue to do something that isn’t working for you?” Tracking where your business comes from is as important as promoting your business.
If you’re satisfied with these undertakings, you may believe you have no reason to start an email newsletter. Everything else is working, and you’re growing. Starting a newsletter takes work, coordination and above all, content. Where will you find the time?
But You Can’t Afford Not to Start an Email Newsletter
Getting a newsletter off the ground isn’t as difficult as you think. And the rewards can be phenomenal. To persuade you to start an email newsletter, here are the best five reasons to get on it today:
- You collect a list of email addresses. To start an email newsletter, you need email addresses. To get email addresses, you have to entice people to sign up and voluntarily give you their email addresses. Giving away a free webinar, ebook or company swag may be enough. Many companies just ask for an email at the checkout or as part of the client contract.
After a brief email address-collecting campaign, you’ll have enough of an audience to start sending out your email newsletter. And that list of email addresses has suddenly become a company asset. It’s a list of current and potential customers! It’s a gold mine if you use it properly. Collecting those email addresses is valuable enough for any business to want to start an email newsletter.
- You put your company branding in front of your audience every month. Most email newsletters go out monthly. That means every month — 12 times a year — you get to put your message in front of a growing number of customers and potential clients. You get to share news, offer tips and maybe promote special discounts. And it goes out electronically to as many people as you can get to give you their email addresses. There is no upper limit.
What your email newsletter contains should be worth reading, of course. You want your audience to look forward to your newsletter and to open it when it arrives in their inboxes. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. But think of it: your brand in front of a willing audience every month. That kind of face time via any other media — television, radio, print, social media or online ads — would be prohibitively expensive.
- You gain access to detailed reports at a click of a mouse button. All email newsletter delivery services — and there are many — offer analytics. For each newsletter you send, you’re able to find out how many were delivered, how many were opened, how many recipients clicked through from a link in the newsletter to your website. Some services break down the numbers by location, gender and age. Sometimes, you can get even more granular data.
Think of how valuable that information is to your business. Companies large and small often spend enormous amounts of time and money to find out who’s buying from them and what they want from your business. When you start an email newsletter, that information is readily available. Soon after you send your first newsletter, you can start collecting and analyzing that data.
- You can reuse the content from your newsletter. Remember that one of the objections to starting an email newsletter was finding the time it takes to develop the content for it. And it’s an expense, whether you do it in-house or hire a firm like Ray Access to write it for you. But this is content that gets delivered through email. It’s not posted online, so Google won’t penalize you for duplicate content. That means you can reuse that content in other ways.
Pull out the discount promotion from your newsletter and use it in a print ad. Grab a couple of pull-quotes and add them to your home page. Reprint a newsletter article as a blog post on your website. (You also can use your unique blog posts as fodder for the newsletter if they’re well written and pertinent.) The money you spent developing that content isn’t wasted; it’s a bonanza! You can never have too much good content about your industry, your business, your products or your services.
- You may want to run advertisements for your partners in your newsletter. After you start your email newsletter, you have to let it grow before considering this last tip. But once your newsletter has a big enough recipient list and you know your audience is opening it — you know the numbers and can back them up with reports — you can sell ads in your newsletter. You have to carefully curate those ads so you know they’ll be useful to your audience, but you may reach a point that your email newsletter is paying for itself … or even making your business a little money.
When you’ve started a successful email newsletter, you have a way of reaching out into your target market, an audience that’s already interested in your business. You can continue to provide value-added content to keep them hooked, but you can add ads, slowly at first, small enough to not get in the way, to gradually capitalize on that market. If the ads are in line with your values and are for businesses that complement yours, you can build on your success.
Start an Email Newsletter Today!
So, what are you waiting for? You now have enough ammunition to persuade your boss or your lender that you should start an email newsletter. You now know the value a newsletter can bring. A successful email newsletter creates many advantages and two distinctly new assets that add value to your business:
- The newsletter itself
- The list of email addresses
That’s just the bare minimum of benefits your newsletter can deliver. By slowly building up your newsletter, you broaden your company’s reach while satisfying your customers’ desires for inside information, special deals and useful tips. It’s time for your business to start an email newsletter. Here’s what you need to know. Make it even easier, and let Ray Access develop, write and distribute it for you. Contact us for an 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.
by Elle Ray | May 28, 2018 | Writing
Like All Web Pages, You Must Update Your Bio
If you’re a queen at what you do, update your bio to toot your horn!
Your bio is a way to put a face on your business, whether you’re a solopreneur, a freelancer or the head of a web development firm. Potential clients who’ve found your website may want to take a look at who they may be doing business with before you meet. It’s a way to show off your creative flair or your professional demeanor. A bio on your website also provides clients with frames of reference for:
- Where you live
- Where you went to school
- What your hobbies are
- What kind of family you have
- How long you’ve been in your industry
- What credentials you bring to the table
- And other important (or fun) facts
You should update your bio when you first create your website. At the same time, you should update your bio on your social media sites, especially business-related sites like LinkedIn, where your business associates are most likely to look for your background information.
Remember Why You Have a Bio
Name recognition is highly valued in business. Consider the enormous amount of time you’ve spent building your brand. Since you’re an integral part of that brand, whether you interact with the public or not, it behooves you to put your best face forward. Building your brand and encouraging potential clients to contact you are reasons enough to make sure your bio is up-to-date.
Website developers, for example, rarely meet with clients face-to-face if they’re spread out all over the world. (In fact, Ray Access has clients as far away as Singapore!) Yet readers and clients who’re thinking of hiring some geek to create their website still want — and inherently need — to know the person who’s going to help them create an online impression.
If you don’t update your bio on a regular basis, those clients won’t get to know the most recent body of work you’ve completed. They won’t know about any awards and credentials you’ve earned recently, and they won’t know what you look like now. Face it, a picture of a goofy college grad doesn’t carry as much weight as an experienced and dedicated 40-something.
Update Your Bio Now
When you think it’s about time to update your bio, it’s probably past time to get it done. Some say that a biographical account of you and your accomplishments should be updated every six months. Consider tweaking your online brand at least once a year.
A lot can happen in a year. Think of everything you’ve done in the past year worth crowing about! Besides, looking at and reviewing your bio annually forces you to stop and ask yourself important questions, such as:
- Is your brand still relevant?
- Is the bio as complete as it can be?
- Does your bio and that of your employees still express your values and mission?
- Can your potential clients relate to you?
- Are you being relatable?
If you answered “no” to any one of those questions, then it’s time to update your bio. Do it soon because every day you don’t may be a missed opportunity to impress a potential client.
DIY or Hire a Pro to Write It
A country-and-western song famously alluded to the fact that sometimes it’s hard to be humble when you’re so darn great. But for most people, humility is not the issue. In fact, too much humility can hold you back. And when it comes to your bio, maybe you’re the last person who should write it.
If you haven’t hired a professional biographer — and who has? — then turn to a professional writer, interviewer and former journalist, like the experts at Ray Access, who can ask you the right questions to capture an alluring personality and state all the reasons people should do business with you.
Ready to update your bio?
Call on the professionals at Ray Access. We can give you a one-page bio for your website, a shorthand version for your social sites and a couple of one-lines for your marketing materials. We’ll take the humble with the greatness and turn it into a thoughtful, true rendition of you — one that represents you today, not the old you of yesterday.
by Mark Bloom | May 22, 2018 | Agency Advice
Online Services Can Be Anywhere, Even in India
The world is changing. The business world may be changing even faster. Think about all the things you used to go down the street to buy that you can now purchase online:
- Groceries
- Cars
- Books, even used books
- Movie rentals
- Movie tickets
- Flowers
But even in this grand global economy we share, certain jobs — specific services, especially — must remain local. For example, you have to go local for:
- Haircuts
- Landscaping
- Home and office cleaning
- Gasoline
- Dental work
- Car repair
Local and Online Services — Choose Wisely
Services for your business present a whole other dimension. Many business services are available locally, regionally and internationally. Common services you might find in your town or remotely include:
- Writing services
- Accounting
- Social media marketing
- Advertising
- Human resources
- Website development
The Skinny on Local Website Developers
When you need a website for your business, you need professionals to design it, build it and create content for it. You can’t do it all yourself; you have a business to run. Plus, when you leave these services to the pros, they do it right. Admit it — professionals do it better than you ever could.
Local website developers go through a process to get your website up. There are meetings, drawings, wireframes, navigation charts and more. While you can hire a firm in another part of the country or even overseas in a country like India, you’re often better off finding a local firm for so many reasons. Here are 10 of them.
10 Reasons Why Local Matters
When you hire a local website developer, you get something you can’t get from a distance:
- A local website developer has a local office. You know where he works. You can have face-to-face meetings, look him in the eye and ask the important questions.
- Once he’s passed your interview and audition, you still need to follow up. Ask for references from past clients. Get their contact info and call them up. You actually may know some of them if they support local, too.
- If your business serves locals, it only makes sense that you should hire a firm that knows your neighborhood and your clientele. Locals know what’s going on. Locals are connected to the community. You’ll get work that’s appropriate for your business and connects to your audience. You’ll be totally connected to the local community in more ways than one.
- Being local improves the communication between you and your website developer. You’re both not only in the same time zone, but maybe even in the same ZIP code. Emails, calls and texts are returned promptly.
- Do you network locally? Even if you’re an informal networker, the type of person who doesn’t do networking meetings, but always says hello people around town, you can benefit from hiring a local website developer. Word gets around, and doing business locally means you’re networking without even working at it.
- You have a thriving business, which is why you need a new website. Your local website developer takes pride in his work too. If he surpasses your expectations, delivering everything he promised and more, you’re more likely to recommend him. And as he gets to know your business, he’ll do the same. It’s an added advantage of local work.
- Hiring locally keeps your dollars in the community. When you pay him, he pays his local staff. And you all probably shop in the same grocery stores, clothing boutiques and tattoo parlors.
- When you hire locally, you’re both putting your reputations on the line. Many communities — like Asheville, which Ray Access calls home — are tight-knit. If your local website developer does a poor job, you won’t be able to stop the flood of bad reviews. But a great website draws raves for both of your businesses.
- The cost of living in New York City is higher than most anywhere else. If you’re not in NYC, why hire a New York firm? You can probably find less expensive options in your local market than you can from afar. Now granted, that may not apply to website developers in India, but then you’re dealing with different issues. Shop around locally for the best talent at the best price.
- With a local website developer, add-ons are easy. Once the website’s done, maybe you want to start a blog or an ecommerce store. Smaller projects are easier to complete after the main site has been delivered. When they’re local, you can just pick up the phone or stop by.
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.
by Elle Ray | May 13, 2018 | Agency Advice
The Law of Attraction Works in Business, Too
Oprah talks often of the secret law of attraction. Singles looking for love, for example, work on the physical, emotional and mental aspects of the law of attraction to get a new partner. The whole world went crazy over the 2006 book by Rhonda Byrne called The Secret, which again heralded the law of attraction.
In fact, the law of attraction is no secret. For centuries, great minds have been writing about and talking about the power of the mind to attract what it thinks about. From Jesus to the Buddha and Confucius, the notion has been in play through all major religions and spiritual paths.
In Business as In Life
Too often, though, we categorize and compartmentalize our lives into different, disparate boxes. And twain they all shall not meet. Spirituality is for Sundays, yoga classes and early morning meditations. Family gets the evenings and weekends, when possible. Friends get fit into social boxes of varying colors. And of course — business is business, and it fills up the rest of the calendar.
If, however, we combine all the boxes into one big present called “life,” we can employ the metaphysical laws of the universe just as swiftly and effectively as we apply the physical laws. Gravity, for example, crosses all borders of life and keeps us connected to the earth. The human body requires fuel to exist, regardless whether it spends most of its time in church, at home or in the office.
Good Clients Don’t Grow on Trees
If you want to build a business that serves good customers who pay their bills on time (or pay them at all), who meet agreed-upon commitments and who give you honest feedback, the law of attraction requires you to be an honest business person. When you charge a fair price, meet promised deadlines and provide a quality work product, you’re more likely to attract the same.
Just as the single gal who wants a loyal husband must first become a loyal partner herself, so you, as a business owner, must first become the customer you hope to attract. That’s the law. Just as gravity keeps your chair firmly planted on the floor, so the customers you attract reflect the kind of business person you are.
How to Apply the Law of Attraction in Business
Many of the same steps that you employ in your religion, family and social interactions also work well in business. And the law of attraction is no different. It all begins in your mind. What your mind can conceive, you can achieve.
Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937. By 2015, more than 30 million copies had been sold. And it’s just as relevant today as it was groundbreaking then. It’s all about your thinking. So be careful what you spend your days thinking about, because just as sure as the sun rises each new day, you will invoke the law of attraction to bring into your business the sunshine — or darkness — that you’ve spent your days mulling over.
Do It Now
To help, if you haven’t yet heard “the secret,” or have forgotten its power, here are a few concrete steps to get you back into the positive stream of consciousness required for success:
- Make every thought count. Right now, change your mind. You can’t afford to let any negative thoughts intrude, especially when you’re really making an effort to attract new, quality business clients.
- See the future. Visualize clearly what your business looks like when it’s running efficiently and when you and your entire team are happy and prosperous. Picture what your office looks like, imagine your bank account overflowing and see your clients just as pleased as you are.
- Give thanks for your success. Gratitude speaks volumes about your attitude. Be grateful for the success that is yours for the taking — or attracting. When you give thanks as if it’s already happened, then the universe must comply.
- Fill your open slots with positive people. As the owner or manager, you have the power to surround yourself with positive thinkers. Give those Negative Nellies a chance to change their ways or let them go find their own kind if they refuse to get on the law of attraction train you have set in motion for your company’s success.
- Write down your goals as if they’ve already happened. Make sure you include a timeline. Think of it as your diary for success.
- Post affirmations around your office. They’ll remind you of the law of attraction and the power of your thoughts. They’ll help you channel your thoughts toward positive reinforcement and future achievement.
- Sign up for positive emails. When you surround yourself with positive thoughts and vibrations, your mind stays focused and your will, with the universe’s help, makes your positive thoughts come true. Set reminders on your calendar to think and grow rich!
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.
by Mark Bloom | May 8, 2018 | Small Business Advice
An Entertaining Look at Business Gone Wrong
In all the years Ray Access has operated — delivering website content, blog posts, press releases, you name it — we’ve never missed a client deadline. We may have to pull a few late nights. We may beat the deadline by just an hour, but we always deliver. It’s a point of pride.
But Ray Access has a team of writers, and sometimes we’ve had to cover for their missed deadlines. Many writers are deadline junkies. If they get an assignment due in a week, they often put it off until the day before. It’s a plan that doesn’t always work — which brings us to this week’s topic: the best excuses for missing deadlines. Enjoy.
Some of the Very Best Excuses for Missing Deadlines
We’ve heard them all, and ranking them is impossible, but here are our all-time favorite best excuses for missing deadlines:
- The internet connection crashed while we were downloading 115 songs from a piracy site.
- Is 6:00 am the next morning still considered the day before?
- I thought the deadline was flexible.
- I got unexpectedly sick from eating three-day-old pizza and couldn’t finish the assignment.
- My baby got sick, and while I was rocking her in my arms, she threw up all over my computer.
- An old friend dropped by, and I hadn’t seen him for, like, five years, so we just had to go out and catch up. I didn’t think I’d be gone for as long as I was.
- I struggled with the subject for three days and just decided I couldn’t do it.
- I had to help my neighbor jumpstart his car. He was so grateful that he drove me around all day.
- My mother-in-law came to visit, and I had to get out of the house.
- My laptop battery died, and the rabbit bit the cord, so it wouldn’t charge.
- I just started rehearsing for a new play!
- I thought I’d watch just one episode of Game of Thrones, but of course, you can’t watch just one episode.
- Instead of doing the assignment, I spent my time coming up with the best excuses for missing deadlines.
- When the kids got the flu, I thought I could still manage and meet the deadline. When my husband came down with it, I still thought I’d manage. Then I got sick…
- My computer told me to update the system. I had no idea it would take so long.
- I won the lottery! No I didn’t, but I thought you’d enjoy that more than “I overslept.”
- My mom passed away. It was 10 years ago, but it was right around this time of year, and it always chokes me up so that I can’t concentrate.
- A friend gave me a free ticket to the Biltmore Estate. I had to go!
- The dog jumped the fence again. We had to look for him for hours.
- I was working on the assignment in a café, but I got so jacked up on coffee that I ended up embroiled in this deep conversation about how best to eat ramps.
- My boyfriend is a real ass.
- It was on my to-do list, just further down than it should have been.
- I got locked out of my house, and my daughter wouldn’t let me back in.
- On the day I put aside to do this project, I got called in to my other job as a barista.
- I started a new diet that makes me irritable.
More of the Best Excuses for Missing Deadlines
Sometimes, one of our writers turns in the assignment on time, but well short of the targeted length. To us, that’s as bad as not turning it in at all. Their excuses included:
- My studio apartment is too small to write 1,000 words, so I only wrote 500.
- I ran out of ideas, and I’ve been wracking my brain to think of something else to add. I couldn’t. That’s why it’s short.
- My computer crashed while I was writing. Since I hadn’t saved it, I had to recreate the whole thing. But I could only remember half of what I wrote. Here it is.
- I got distracted by a visual thesaurus program, so I only finished half of the assignment, but it’s really good!
- I didn’t really know what you wanted, so I scribbled some thoughts down. That counts, doesn’t it?
- I kept going back and rewriting the beginning. That’s where all the time went. Sorry.
- I didn’t see the length requirement until I was almost done. That stopped me. I hope this is all right.
What are some of the best excuses for missing deadlines you’ve heard? Leave yours now!
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.
by Elle Ray | Apr 30, 2018 | Office
How to Stay Focused When the Weather Is Nice
Full disclosure: Here we sit at our respective desks. Outside, the sun shines on the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain town of Asheville, North Carolina. After a snowy March, lots of rain and below average April temperatures — we’d much rather be outside!
The grass needs mowing and the garden craves some plantings. There are a hundred good reasons to get out, from soaking up a solid dose of vitamin D to “networking” with everyone else who’s out and about. But we have work to do. Deadlines loom. Website developers around the world are waiting for us to deliver their content. And although we work at home, Ray Access is a professional business.
What’s a Writer to Do?
To work at home, you must possess a good deal of personal discipline. There isn’t anyone counting keystrokes when you’re the owner of the company. There’s no time clock. And no one is counting your breaks.
When you don’t have an office to go to, you don’t have a boss leaning over your shoulder. You must rely on your inner boss to tell you when it’s time to go to lunch, how long you can take and still get your work done, when to call it quits for the day and when to work overtime. It doesn’t matter whether you:
- Are a freelance writer
- Design graphics for websites
- Build websites for other businesses
- Own a writing and editing firm like Ray Access
- Create apps
- Operate a concierge service
Work at Home Blues
When it’s raining or the heat is sweltering, it’s easier to stay at your desk and work. But when the weather breaks and you want to enjoy the sun shining down on your face, you do have the option of taking your laptop outdoors. But that doesn’t work for everyone.
Instead, try these four well-worn tips and tricks to keep your BIC (butt in chair), get work done and still get a good dose of the great outdoors:
- Get started earlier in the day during the summer. Start your first cup of coffee before daybreak and you may actually get more done when you work at home. The distractions of family, friends and outside fun are fewer in the wee hours.
- Work later in the evening. If you’re more of a night owl, develop the habit of hitting the keyboard after everyone else has hit the sheets or is deeply entrenched in the latest television programs.
- Plan longer breaks. When you satisfy your need to socialize outdoors (especially on the weekends), get some fresh air, play a little of your favorite sport or dig in the dirt, it’s easier to return to your desk. Remember that there’s no one to tell you that you can’t take a two- or three-hour lunch!
- Count your blessings. And count your income! You get to work at home. You don’t want to blow it by not keeping your BIC. You’re not an undisciplined child. You are an entrepreneur, a free agent, your own boss! Act like it.
Work at Home Rocks!
So instead of the blues, when you count your blessings and work with an attitude of gratitude, you tend to see the bright side of every situation. If you’re stuck inside on a sunny day, turn it into a day to make some money that will enable you to go on vacation next month. Saying no to that rafting trip on Saturday means you’ll have the resources to retire early and go rafting every day if you choose.
Self-employment and work at home jobs definitely have trade-offs. And most workers who get to go to work in their sweats and PJs understand those sacrifices. It’s much easier to make that gratitude list when you finally hit the payday and all that discipline to work at home pays off in more ways than you can even begin to count.
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.
