by Elle Ray | Jul 6, 2014 | Asheville
Another Reason to Live in Asheville, NC
Asheville entices retirees and dreamers to move here. The city — known as either a “Cesspool of Sin” or as a bastion of liberal politics, depending on your point of view — offers a bustling beer scene and enough gourmet restaurants to satisfy most foodies. In other words, there are many reasons to move here.
Bring Your Job
But the region’s high-technology community is in its infant phase. The economy relies heavily on tourism, health care and construction. Normal office jobs are scarce. You must bring a nest egg with you to tide you over until you figure out how to make it here. Alternatively, you must already have a job that doesn’t rely on the local economy.
If you come to Asheville expecting to find the perfect job, you may be disappointed. We personally know several people who have come here, stayed a while, and then left to find a more lucrative location. Because not only are the jobs not plentiful, the pay scale is less than in other markets.
Outside of Work
There are benefits to living here, though. The scenery is breathtaking. The nearby mountains bestow feelings of peace and fulfillment. Even if you don’t like hiking, river sports (including river tubing) or ziplining, Asheville has a lot to offer.
The downtown scene jumps and hops during the summer months. The bars, restaurants and pubs do a brisk business. The sidewalks crowd with young, old and everyone in between. Asheville is a vibrant, fun small city.
Where Creativity Never Ends
We live and work here, and as long as we’ve been in Asheville, we have not suffered writer’s block. We’re not sure if it’s the mountains, the people, the trees, the architecture, the air or the food, but we never lack ideas. We never lack inspiration. Whenever we sit down to write, we always have the words.
Asheville is a place where creativity seems to appear whenever we need it, as if by magic. We can’t explain it, but neither can we deny it. Asheville supplies us with what we need to create. The place makes working joyful, fruitful and nearly effortless.
Let Us Show You
As a result, we create quality content for our clients. Due to where we choose to live and work (at least partially), our work is always on time and on budget. Our clients appreciate not only the timeliness of our work, but also the effectiveness of our words.
Let us show you what we can do for you. Check out our portfolio to see what we’ve done for other clients. Then contact us about your needs. We can solve your website, blogging and online marketing issues. If you let us.
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 | Dec 24, 2013 | Asheville
Life Sneaks Up on Us When We’re Not Looking
We are always right on top of our deadlines when we’re working for a client, but at this time of year, we admit to getting a bit lax sometimes. Our blog suffers and our networking lags as we spend more time with our loved ones. Christmas in Asheville is about life, after all, not business.
But we wanted all of our contacts, and all of you who read our blog, to know that we’re still well and productive. We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Our Christmas List
For your entertainment and edification, here are some of our wishes for this holiday season and beyond:
- May all our clients experience the joy of prosperity as their websites and their businesses gain traction from our content marketing efforts
- May the Internet become a more reliable source of information (we’re talking about you, Wikipedia)
- May the difference between good, useful writing and poor, keyword-stuffed writing become evident to all
- May good layout, with captivating imagery and engaging infographics, become the norm throughout the Internet
- And finally, may all our neighbors, friends and family eventually come to understand why we are so passionate about what we do
Merry Christmas to All
And to all a good, fruitful search. But if you can’t ever seem to find what you’re looking for on the Internet, it’s not because the information isn’t out there. It’s because too many businesses don’t understand the value of quality content. Ray Access can help you stand out from the crowd.
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 | Nov 13, 2013 | Asheville
Why Ray Access Chose to Live in Asheville, NC
We are writer/editors. We produce content for websites. We work alone, in front of a computer. We could live anywhere. Why did we choose to live in Western North Carolina?
Everyone comes to Asheville for a different reason. For some, it’s the mountain air. For others, it’s just the mountains. Some people, and you know who you are, get out every weekend to go tubing, fishing, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking or rock climbing. Or all of the above.
As writers, we live a more sedentary lifestyle, but we enjoy the mountain views. We like driving the Blue Ridge Parkway whenever the opportunity presents itself. But there’s more to Asheville than its scenic environment.
Asheville Has It All
Asheville boasts terrific restaurants, cozy musical venues, safe neighborhoods and independent stores. Downtown is human-sized, small enough to walk around in. Breweries abound, and hotels are springing up as fast as the leaves are dropping. The culture is artsy without being pretentious. It’s a small town with some big city amenities.
Best of all, Asheville is friendly and supportive. It’s a place to make real connections and to develop real relationships. It’s the kind of place where you see friends and people you know as you go about your daily errands. Who wouldn’t love that?
It’s a Good Place to Live and Work
We chose Asheville because we like it here. We chose Asheville because it has everything we need. We chose Asheville because we want to support the local businesses run by passionate, creative people.
Our business is helping other businesses. We can (and do) work for companies outside Asheville, since the work we do doesn’t force us to be local. We aren’t selling widgets or fixing drains. We can work for anybody that speaks English.
But we chose to live and work in Asheville because it combines the best of everything: healthful living and a thriving marketplace. While not every local business depends on tourism, every local business needs to be online. And so we can help every local business.
Life isn’t all work, though, and when we take a break and leave the computer, there’s a restaurant or coffeehouse or park where we can get away to. And isn’t that what you want from a hometown?
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 | Oct 5, 2013 | Asheville
Professional Asheville Blog Writers Spell It Out
Even in a business community as small and insular as in Asheville, businesses face competition for their services. Asheville restaurants, Asheville architects, even Asheville dentists need business blogs to give them an edge. Why? It’s all about visibility.
It’s All About Visibility
Blogs not only add flavor to a staid website, but they attract potential customers. Blog posts can be about anything, potentially tying the business blog to almost any topical subject. In fact, if you’re using your blog merely to tout your monthly specials, you’re not getting enough visibility out of your blog.
Use the space to educate your customers. Write about not only what sets you apart, but also about the inside tips about your industry. Write about Asheville and why you chose to live and do business here. Regardless of your subject matter, if you provide useful information, visitors will not only remember you, they’ll come back.
Climbing the Ranks
An active website helps its page rank, too, which is another way to increase business. When anyone searches for your business online — not by your company name but by the product or service you provide — the first five listings (after the advertisements) are the links most likely to be clicked on. The competition for those spots is fierce, but an active blog helps.
What’s an active website? A site with changing content. That doesn’t mean you have to redesign your website every week. That wouldn’t help anyone. But when you add valuable information (like blog posts and new pages) over time, it gets attention from the search engines and from Internet surfers.
Finding Services in Asheville
Since consumers are turning away from the yellow pages and moving online, your Asheville business needs to make sure your listing shows up when those consumers do their searches. As Asheville grows, the new arrivals are going to be looking for new dentists, realtors, gardening stores, home decorating stores, and more. If you want their business, you have to be where they’re looking.
So update your website. Start a blog. Get busy finding the consumers who are out there trying to find you. We’re experts in website content, which means we’re experts in helping your customers find you 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.
