7 Tips for Writing Your Blog

by Elle Ray | Nov 24, 2013 | Blog Writing

The Worst Blog You’ll See Is the Outdated One

As we like to say: “If you aren’t paying attention to your website, it’s likely not paying attention to you.”

We can say the very same thing about your blog, a crucial extension of your site. A blog is an easy, inexpensive way to communicate with your customers. A blog can relate news that affects consumers, innovations they want to learn about, and invitations to hot events and happenings.

write your blog anywhere

But what if you’ve lost the steam needed to keep it up or you’ve just plain run out of time to add new posts each week? Here are seven tips for writing your blog:

1. Find Interesting Content

If you run into an interesting article or blog from another source during your everyday reading or research, you can write a short post introducing the other article. At the end of your short summary explaining why it’s important, include a link to it. If it’s truly interesting, your readers will thank you for sharing it.

2. Create a Calendar

Set aside an hour each week to write a blog or search for an interesting post to add to your website. Add it to your to-do list every week, and you’ll find the time. Don’t forget to allocate time to periodically brainstorm for new topics so you can devote your writing time to actual writing.

3. Organize to Simplify

Break down your schedule to focus on different topics every week. For example, choose the first week of the month to write about industry trends, the second week to write about economic forecasts, the third week for news-related or seasonal pieces and the last week to post a round-up of other blogs related to your business or your location.

4. Invite Guests

Blogs are easier when others write it. Solicit guest posts. Read them over carefully before publishing, but letters of appreciation or customer stories make effective blog posts. Pose questions to experts and then print their responses to give your readers even more in-depth information about your business.

5. Maximize Your Efforts

Whenever you do write a new blog, post it to your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. In fact, it can work both ways. Why should a popular Facebook post be confined to Facebook? Post it (with the discussion) on your blog. Your friends and followers will appreciate some meat in their social links instead of just the day-to-day ramblings that so often fill the social pages.

6. Examine Your Goals

Every quarter or so, stop and review your goals to make sure you’re not spinning your wheels. If you started your blog to inform and educate your customers, are you using it for that purpose? Or have you moved on to actively marketing your business? Or are you using the blog to generate new sales? When you have a clear picture of your audience, it’s easier to write for them and keep topics on target.

7. Hire Us

If your business has taken off, and you no longer have time to write a weekly blog, contact us. We’ll imitate your voice and craft fresh new content every week to fit your calendar.

If you just can’t get motivated to start a business blog but you realize you need one, contact Ray Access, and we’ll handle the whole process, from developing ideas to turning in perfect copy. We guarantee original content, thoroughly researched and professionally edited. It’s what we do.

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.

How to Choose a Blog Topic

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.