by Mark Bloom | Jul 19, 2016 | Blog Writing
Professional Bloggers Talk Writing Process
Potential clients, friends and curious business owners regularly ask the writers at Ray Access: “How can you ghost-write blog posts for someone else when you don’t know anything about their business?” They usually want to know how we’re able to capture the voice of another person or company and how we can write so authoritatively about it. It’s a good question, and one we answer earnestly.
While the whole ghost writing issue is certainly an interesting topic, this article deals with the writing process and how it applies to writing for others. At Ray Access, we follow a strict three-part procedure:
- Research
- Write
- Edit
The Writing Process of Ray Access Bloggers
This process is valid for many forms of writing, but here we’re applying it specifically for writing business blog posts for other businesses. It doesn’t matter who the client is or what the business does. Ray Access writers use the same process for everyone.
That doesn’t mean the end result is the same. It means the process is the same. We put the same amount of energy and enthusiasm into every blog post that Ray Access delivers. If you’re curious about how it might work for you, send us an email. Or try the process for yourself. These are the steps Ray Access takes for every business blog post:
Step 1: Research
First came the idea, and the idea was good. Ray Access generally plans its clients’ blog topics in advance. Brainstorming ideas, doing keyword research and reviewing hot topics and news items yields a slew of industry-related blog topics. We ask our clients to approve the best of the bunch, and they often select the ones that best fit their strategic goals.
The writing process then continues with online research. When people ask us how we can write about medical, plumbing or financial services, the answer is always, “through careful research.” Ray Access writers can write about any subject they can research. For example, medical websites like the Mayo Clinic or the National Institutes of Health offer a treasury of reliable information, making medical research readily available.
Regardless of the subject matter, however, research has to be done properly. Any Wiki is liable to contain inaccurate data. User-informed websites lack authority. Even other blogs may be wrong. At Ray Access, we insist on the facts. If we’re not sure, we crosscheck information. While our clients review the work our writers deliver, we aim to get it right the first time.
Step 2: Write
Yes, everyone who works at Ray Access is a good writer, a true professional with training and experience in various forms of writing. It’s not just about words, sentences, paragraphs and sections, though. It’s about flow, meaning, delivery, language and tone. Rhetorical writing is the art of effectively persuading a readership through words. It’s imparting information in a way that not only effectively communicates, but also influences action.
The writing process is at the heart of Ray Access’ business. We’re essentially content providers and content marketers. We deliver value to our clients because we’re able to connect with their audiences. Online writing has been called a science and an art, so when Ray Access writes for an online audience, we use keywords properly. Because it matters.
The online audience has shorter attention spans, but hungrier appetites. When they want to know something, they want to know it now and they prefer to get all the information they need in one place. Ray Access writers satisfy that hunger.
Step 3: Edit
No blog post is complete without a careful edit. Another set of experienced eyes catches any typos, grammatical mistakes, misspelled names and missing words. But the skilled editors at Ray Access also improve the article with incisive changes, such as:
- Tightening up the copy
- Choosing more powerful words
- Eliminating the passive voice
- Crafting stronger openings and endings
- Inserting calls-to-action
The editing step doesn’t involve mere proofreading. Sometimes, whole paragraphs get moved around. Other times, whole sections are replaced. As any writer will tell you, “Good writing is rewriting.” Editing is a vital part of the process. Ray Access has understood this from the very start. It’s the difference between what’s on websites and what’s on effective websites. It’s part of the Ray Access advantage.
You can either use this writing process yourself or contact the writers and editors at Ray Access to get the most effective and most engaging content for your blog. And we’ll even ghost write it for 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 Mark Bloom | Apr 15, 2016 | Blog Writing
Your Blog Posts Keep Your Website Relevant
Here at Ray Access, we specialize in writing website content and blog posts for businesses. We’re professional writers and experts at creating online content that works. Together, the principal writers at Ray Access have decades of writing experience and over ten years of online writing experience. But this article isn’t about why you should hire us; it’s about why you should listen to us.
She’s listening to us; you should too.
A website is only as good as the visibility it provides you (how easy it is to find) and as valuable as the leads it generates (how much it contributes to your bottom line). Consider your company’s website and ask yourself:
- Is it visible? Does it show up on searches?
- Does it draw traffic? Does it attract new visitors?
- Are the right people finding it? Do potential customers come to your website?
- Does it generate leads? Are you getting phone calls and emails from people who found you online?
If you answered “Yes” to these questions, keep doing what you’re doing; it’s working. Otherwise, start making plans to revise your website content or your website content will make you irrelevant.
Every Business Needs a Website
You may laugh at that. Of course every business needs a website! But the Internet is still a relatively recent development. While every business is now online, not every business sees the value in being online. They’re there because that’s what everyone tells them. “Ok, already. We have a website.” But that’s the wrong way to approach your online presence.
Going online isn’t a necessary evil; it’s an opportunity to grow your company potentially beyond your neighborhood or city. It’s a new way to find new customers. Your business needs to have an online presence not because everyone else is going online, but because it makes good business sense. A good website not only pays for itself, but it generates income.
The Role of Your Blog
So how does your blog fit into your website content? A continually updated blog does many good things. For example, a blog:
- Adds valuable content to your website
- Helps your business connect with your customers and potential customers
- Establishes your expertise in your field
- Answers questions people have about your industry
- Allows you to explore topics the rest of your website content doesn’t address
- Attracts more people to your website
- Connects new keywords to your website, making it relevant to a wider audience
- Injects some personality into your website, whether that’s fun, poignant or sophisticated
No Hard Sell
One purpose specifically not listed above is “Sells your product or service.” A blog is not a sales tool; it’s a marketing tool. Its purpose is similar to social media’s:
- To build brand awareness and community
- To educate and inform
- To entertain and engage
If you can accomplish all three of these points, your business will be top-of-mind when someone’s ready to buy. And that’s important for two reasons:
- Not every visitor to your website is ready to buy at that moment.
- People do business with companies they like and trust.
Use your website content to generate revenue long-term. Use your website to convert visitors. But use your blog to build a community. When your audience (or fans or followers) views your website as the Go-To place for information about your industry, they’ll be more likely to buy from you than from your competitors. Find out more about Ray Access’ blog writing services.
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 | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog Writing
Start Writing Your Blog Now and Keep It Going
A business blog contributes to the ROI of your website.
Just as every business eventually realized it needed a website, more and more businesses are coming to the conclusion that they need blogs. An effective blog drives more traffic to the website, thus generating quality leads and phone calls. A business blog that uses keywords correctly can even raise the search engine ranking for the entire site.
It’s never too late to start a blog for your business website. It can start delivering ROI within months of your first published blog post, which — in our age of instant gratification — may seem like forever. But the more frequently you blog, the faster you’ll see the results. And the earlier you begin, the sooner your work will pay off.
Start with the Basics
Once you commit to your business blog, brainstorm a list of topics. Make sure you have enough quality ideas to get you through at least three months. And plan to brainstorm more every three months. Put it on your calendar.
At Ray Access, we recommend starting a new business blog with three blog posts. No one wants to visit a blog on a website and see a single entry. Start with three, and it looks like you’re serious about it. Write a short “Welcome to Our Blog” post that describes your blog’s benefits to the reader. Then pick two topics that excite you. Write them and publish them all at the same time. Congratulations, you have a blog!
Maintaining Your Business Blog
If you’ve decided to blog weekly (or even more frequently), you may already feel the pressure building to write. But here’s the trick: you don’t have to spend time writing every week. Follow Ray Access’s example and spend a weekend writing all the blog posts you need for the following month. Then the articles are sitting there waiting for you to publish them.
When you brainstorm once a quarter, select not only the blog topics to write, but also the order in which to write them. Pick a day of the week as your publication day and make sure you have a topic for every one of those days during the three-month period. Then you can develop a publication schedule so you know when to “turn on” each blog post.
Don’t Forget to Edit
Any business writing needs proofing. You don’t want your business card to misspell your name. You don’t want a typo in your brochure. Your business blog is no different. Make sure you have someone else (not the writer) edit each blog post before it’s published. Make this part of your process.
An editor not only catches typos and repairs grammar, but a good editor can make sure the blog post is on target and effectively communicates your intent. Every one of the blog posts Ray Access produces, whether for our clients or for our own website, is thoroughly edited. Please do the same for yours.
- And if you need help writing your blog, even temporarily,
Ray Access writes blog posts.
- If you need help editing your blog,
Ray Access provides professional editing services.
- Even if you need help developing blog topics,
Ray Access can 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.
by Elle Ray | Oct 20, 2013 | Blog Writing
Your Business Blog Needs Topical Blog Topics
Regardless of what you sell, if you have a business blog, it’s doing three things for you:
- Adds new content to your website, forcing search engines to re-index your website, which helps your page rank.
- Establishes your business as an authority in your field while educating your customers (and prospective customers).
- Attracts new people to your website through keyword searches that may not be directly related to your business.
Halloween is a topical subject right now.
When Is a Topic Topical?
This article focuses on #3. Writing about new topics, topics that may be in the news, allows you to connect with an audience that you hadn’t previously sought. That awareness can help you generate business.
Everyone has an opinion about what’s happening in the world around us. Even businesses can contribute to the conversation. If you sell insurance, for example, shouldn’t you blog about the Affordable Care Act? It’s right in your wheelhouse, as far as topics are concerned, and it should attract some attention on the Internet.
That’s an easy example, but there are many others. If you’re a dentist, you can write something relevant about a Kardashian marriage (or divorce), the dangers of Twinkies, or the price of gold (caps). All these topics have been in the news recently, and your article may attract a new audience.
Topical vs. Evergreen
You should not, however, write only these types of blog posts. Topical articles are terrific, but they often have a short shelf life. Once the Kardashians, Twinkies, or the price of gold are off the headlines, searches for them drop, and so will your traffic.
Instead, sprinkle in topical articles while striving for more informational “evergreen” topics. Evergreen topics are those that have an unlimited shelf life. Whatever your business, you can write to educate your customers about some aspect of it. This kind of useful information will always find an audience.
If you’re an architect, write about matching a design to a specific location. If you’re a banker, write about the perfect client for a loan. If you’re a web developer, write about the newest technology and why it’s applicable to your customers. You get the picture.
We Brainstorm for You
If you already have an active blog, good for you. You understand its value and are working to increase your online visibility. But active bloggers sometimes need help thinking outside the text box. And that’s what we do here at Ray Access.
For a small fee, we will brainstorm 25 blog topics for you — topics that you can write about in the future. We’ll give you both topical and evergreen topics, complete with a title or heading that will attract attention and give you the angle to make the topic interesting and relevant.
And of course, if you need help getting your blog started, we’re the perfect people to turn to, since we write blog posts for a living. We can research, write, edit and deliver a blog post a week for a very reasonable sum. Interested? Contact us for details and a free estimate.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Oct 10, 2013 | Blog Writing
What Your Blog Can Do… and What It Can’t Do
When they first appeared in the late 1990s, blogs were running commentaries of writers’ lives, much like many Twitter and Facebook accounts today. Blogs were seen as one person’s opinion and deemed as little more expert than a diary. Unfortunately, many business people still consider a blog to be a four-letter word: unnecessary and not worthy of investment.
Like most things Internet, however, the blog has evolved and changed. Today, business blog have efficiently replaced the company newsletter in that it can contain news about recent business happenings or convey information on a single subject. Blogs may still contain opinion and commentary, but they are well respected as vehicles for passing along pertinent and sometimes vital communications.
What a Blog Does
Blogs are one of the primary means of communication between professionals today, according to Penn State University. Coupled with technological tools such as RSS feeds, blogs are an inexpensive inclusion in a marketing toolbox. They allow professionals to get their ideas out to their readers easily at little cost. Blogs are short, fact-filled articles that can be sent through email, posted on a website and sent to mobile devices.
The bottom line is that a blog is one of the best vehicles around today to communicate with your audience, whether they are customers, friends or followers. And since most blogs allow comments, the platform gives you an opportunity to connect with that audience, to have an exchange of ideas and to solicit feedback on your services or products.
Blogs vs. Newsletters
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Replace your monthly newsletter with a set of four weekly blog articles (which are called “posts”). You don’t need expensive software to write and publish your posts. Once you have a website, the technology to allow blogs is usually free and quickly learned. Since everyone has a web browser, you don’t have to worry about mailing costs, and since blogs are stored online, you don’t even need a filing cabinet to store your back issues.
Producing a newsletter can be costly. One eight-page monthly newsletter professionally written and laid out can cost you up to $500 a month, and that price only goes up the more clients you have. In other words, newsletter technology doesn’t scale well. Blog posts, on the other hand, can be professionally written and produced for a little as $60 a week. They are much more accessible, and always available, to your clients.
A newsletter requires coordinating multiple articles produced in advance of publication. A blog post, in contrast, can be produced and published on the same day. Even if you post your newsletter to your website, which is always a good idea by the way, adds new content for search engines on a monthly or quarterly basis. While that’s good for search rankings, you can publish a new blog post every week, providing a constant stream of new content and forcing those search engines to re-index your site more frequently.
Blogs Are Better
So forget the old stereotype of what a blog is. It’s gone the way of the www. It’s no longer necessary to produce expensive newsletters. Join the 21st century and jump into the blogosphere. Because it’s not just a good idea; it’s what you need to get noticed. It’s what will set you apart from your competition.
When you’re ready to get started, contact us. We are communication professionals and can offer free advice. Or if you understand the value of a blog, but don’t have the internal resources to create one, can do the writing for you.
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 | Aug 28, 2012 | Announcement
We’ve Launched a Content Business in Asheville
If you put a writer and an editor together, what do you have? Some might posit you’d have two underemployed dreamers who are on the government dole. Others might claim that you’d have the wait staff at a local restaurant. Fortunately, both conjectures are way off.
Writer Linda Ray and editor Mark Bloom have joined forces, combining their collective years of experience and expertise to form Ray Access, a content provider service firm catering to companies who wish to increase their online presence and establish themselves as authorities in their respective industries.
With more people searching the Internet to shop, research, or just read, more companies are discovering the value of providing compelling and informative copy to attract them. Fresh content is key for you to reach that goal. And that’s what Ray Access provides. Visit our Portfolio page for a selection of articles we’ve provided past and present clients.
In this blog, Linda and Mark will share more about our value-added service and explain our business model and why you need what we do. We will also use this platform to share our thoughts and opinions on a number of related topics. Business is about relationships, and we want to develop one with you.
We welcome your feedback on this or any of our blog posts. Use our Contact form to share your thoughts, experiences, or rebuttals. We look forward to our ongoing dialog.
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.
