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 | 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.
by Mark Bloom | Sep 18, 2013 | Content Provider
Why Ray Access Doesn’t Write for One Niche
Linda and Mark at Ray Access claim to be able to write about any topic they can research. And it’s true. They’ve written about plastic surgery, retail furniture, medical issues, construction, website development, and a whole range of other topics. Yet the prevailing “wisdom” in the industry is to specialize. Why?
Specialization Creates Experts
In today’s world, people gravitate toward experts. Experts speak the truth, they get paid lots of money for their intimate knowledge of their chosen field, and businesses and the media seek them out for advice. What’s not to like about specialization?
First, it limits your market and your audience. If your specialization is computers, you may occasionally write a piece that appeals to a wider audience, but most of the time, you’re writing for geeks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If your specialization is construction, you’re going to be writing for businesses in that field. Period.
While it’s easier to brand your services as a writer if you specialize, you also limit your marketing reach. An expert only matters when someone needs an expert in that field. Most days, they don’t.
Generalization Creates Opportunity
Since we can write on virtually any topic, we can write for virtually any client. Are you a dentist? We can create a terrific, engaging blog for you. Are you a landscaper? We can provide dynamic website text that’s SEO-friendly and written for the common man (or woman).
Being generalists means we specialize in a new field with every new assignment we take. We can still relate to the general population, so we don’t get bogged down in jargon. We get to learn and write about lots of different topics, and that suits us fine.
So regardless what your business is, it’s in good hands when you hire us to write about it. We offer 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 | Aug 28, 2013 | Editing
Make Your Words Count with Correct Grammar
When all you have is a funny video and a few lines of text in a Facebook post, those words better be correct. When you’re looking at a 140-character tweet, one misplaced modifier could ruin your message.
Grammar is not dead. In fact, the need to know and use proper grammar is more important than ever because you have less time and fewer opportunities to do it right. Marketers abbreviate words because they believe that the attention span of consumers has been reduced to that of a gnat. So the words you use — and how you use them — are vitally important. Take this simple example:
- Let’s eat grandma.
- Let’s eat, grandma.
Do you want to send out your latest ad to bring in customers to eat grandma? I think not. Then there’s the popular example: “A woman without her man is nothing.” Punctuation and grammar make all the difference when you write:
- A woman, without her man, is nothing.
- A woman, without her, man is nothing.
Grammar Lessons Pay Off
Photo by Valentina Degiorgis
We love the thousands of examples out there that cross our desks every day. We collect them. Here’s one of our favorites: “The average American consumes more than 400 Africans.” Apparently, we are a very hungry nation.
Improper grammar also makes you look incompetent. iFixit owner Kyle Wiens says: “Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.” And he won’t hire anyone with bad grammar.
If you can’t remember your high school English lessons, please let someone else read your words before you publish them, especially if you are paying for the privilege. Websites, Facebook updates, LinkedIn pages, Twitter feeds and all your print advertising must be correct if you are to be taken seriously.
Put simply: proper spelling, punctuation and grammar increase your credibility. Bad writing doesn’t.
So regardless whether you know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” or you are just too busy to care, give Ray Access a chance to proof your words before you post. We’re not merely writers — we edit and proofread too.
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 | Aug 4, 2013 | Press Releases
Breaking News about Online Press Releases
Some time ago, we blogged about press releases, since we have experience writing them. We said that press releases had to contain real news and be directed at the right audience. We said that over time, these press releases have value.
Well, that was then — this is now.
We learned recently that in the new Google paradigm, links in an online press releases hold no SEO value. None. Zip. Nada. So if you’re writing a press release and sending it out online, you should not expect a bump in the page ranking of your website, even if you placed links in the release that point back to you.
Is a Press Release Useless Then?
Here’s the interesting thing. While an online press release by itself has no value, the content of the release has as much value as it’s ever had.
How can that be, you may ask? Simple, as SEO expert Matt Cutts once summarized:
So the link from a press release will probably not count, but if that press release convinces an editor or a reporter to write a story about it… then if that newspaper links to your website as a result of that… it doesn’t matter whether it started or was sparked by a press release or it was started by an email that you sent.”
It’s Press Release Content That Matters
Press releases today are really just meant to provide a lead for someone in the media to pick up and run with. If your press release can inspire that kind of response, then it’s done its job.
If the reporter sites your company or its website in the article, that link, ladies and gentlemen, has tremendous value in SEO. Depending on the reach of the media outlet that writes and distributes the story, that link can drive all kinds of traffic to your site. It’s the ultimate in marketing: an independent third party writing about your company. And it all might start from a press release.
Long Live Press Releases!
So the press release isn’t dead. It isn’t a waste of time and money. But — and it’s a big “but” — the press release has to matter to its audience… and that audience is always the media. It has to contain significant news. And it has to be well written.
The team at Ray Access is constantly on the lookout for trends and tools in the world of online writing. When we find something of interest, we don’t hoard it for ourselves; we share it with you. Because you have a right to know.
We realize you can choose anyone to write your online content, whether it’s press releases, blog posts, or even your website text. You’ve probably know someone whose nephew writes pretty well and works for beer money. That’s fine, but remember you get what you pay for. When you want quality, professional work, writing that is effective and gets you attention, you need the pros. You need us. For more advice about our services, contact us today.
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 | Jul 12, 2013 | Website Content
Ray Access’ Secret Service: Website Content
When we say that we’re “content providers,” most people — even some technical people — give us the deer-in-the-headlights look. We’re never upset or surprised. Providing content is a reasonably new field, and we’re always eager to explain what it is we actually do.
Fewer people hear “content providers” and immediately make the association that we write blog posts. They understand that businessmen and women usually don’t write their own blog posts, even if they do come up with the topic.
Providing Content Means More
But as content providers, we’re proud of all the services we perform. One of the most popular at the moment, in a trend that even took us by surprise, is writing — or more frequently, rewriting — website content.
The words on your website have a lot of work to do. They have to positively influence search engines to help deliver a high page rank for the keywords that are important to your business. Website content also has to attract the attention of those real people who find your site, either accidentally or on purpose. Perhaps most importantly, they have to tell your story.
Put Website Content to Work
If you find your website slipping in page rank, all the signs indicate that updating your content should be a first step. It’s certainly less expensive and longer-lasting than an all-out pay-per-click marketing blitz. Remember, the best traffic to your site is organic — that is, the people who find you through a search or a referral, not through an ad.
Revising your website content, checking for the keywords you need, even redesigning the site are all ways to freshen up a stale site and reinvigorate your online presence. Every time you change or add content to your website, whether through a rewrite or a blog, you force the search engines to re-index your site. And that’s usually a good thing.
Gradual Change for Best Results
So think about what you want from your website in the next year. Then start putting the pieces together to make it happen. You don’t need to complete this project overnight. In fact, it may be best to approach it piecemeal, making small changes over time, keeping those search engines busy.
When you’re ready to start work on improving your website content, consider turning to the pros. That would be us, here at Ray Access. Contact us for a free estimate for your site. Join the many other satisfied clients who have seen positive change just by updating the text on their website pages. It works!
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.
