Cake Media Turns One!

Cake Media turns one this week, happy birthday (cakeday?) to us!

We have learned a lot over the last 12 months, as we’ve navigated the ups and downs of being a brand new business, not to mention wearing the many hats it requires. From accountant, to human resources department to contract negotiator to social media manager, graphic designer, editor, photographer and more, we do it all. It has been an interesting learning curve to say the least.

However, more than anything, the last year has been FUN. Being able to do what we love and to work together (in Maui!) as sisters, it really doesn't get better than that.

Not to mention, we have connected and worked with some incredible individuals and companies here on the island and we feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to do so.

Thank you so much to all our clients, family and friends who have helped and supported us in getting Cake Media off the ground. We couldn't have done it without your words of advice, cups of coffee, child and dog sitting, patience, encouragement, slices of cake, referrals and—it would be remiss of us not to mention—your likes, shares and follows on social media.

We have made so many great relationships over the last year and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

Thank you for visiting our site and here’s to the next year of Cake Media!

Laura and Jenny

Making Writer's Block a Thing of the Past

Following a recent Instagram post, where we touched on the topic of writer’s block, we received a couple of direct messages asking us to elaborate on how we really overcome a creative clog to set about filling an empty page.

It's something I used to face quite regularly when starting out as a writer. I knew I wanted to write but sometimes—deadline looming—I'd find myself staring at a blank screen, not knowing where or how to begin. The longer I spent watching the clock and worrying about what to write first, the worse it would get.

The feeling can be familiar in any creative field; photography, art, music, design, we all face moments where the creative juices just seem to dry up.

I’ve now worked as a writer, in print, online and radio for over 11 years, I have studied a degree in Creative Writing and a post grad in Newspaper Journalism and in that time, I’ve learnt from friends, teachers, colleagues (and my procrastinating self) how to get past the occasional bout of writer's block. Of course, it will still show up from time to time but now I know how to overcome it.

So, for anyone who has ever sat and looked at an empty page or canvas and despaired, here are a few of my favorite ways to get back on track:

1. “The Morning Pages”

An old friend and spoken word writer/performer told me about the Morning Pages sometime around 2002/03 and to this day I still thank him for it. It’s a great creative hack for anyone who wants or loves to write. It's simple: keep a pen and paper next to your bed and every morning when you wake up, before you do anything else, sit up and start writing. Don’t think about what you are writing, don't worry about punctuation, just allow a stream of consciousness to flow. I guarantee that you will be surprised at what you produce in your half-awake state. Granted, the combination of words may not make sense but the Morning Pages will kickstart your day in a creative way. Once you get into the regular habit, you will see the positive effects on your writing.

2. Take a Walk

If the words just will. not. come. and your ideas are feeling stale, a walk can be one of the simplest ways to recharge. Fresh air, a change of scenery and exercise always has me coming back to my computer in a much clearer frame of mind.

3. Inspiration From Others

Ever read a line in a book and feel inspired to put pen to paper? I find that the more I read, the more I write and I’d urge anyone who wants to write as a career to read as much as they can, from as many different sources as they can. Visit a second-hand bookstore, dip into the newspaper and magazine section in your local Barnes & Noble, leaf through a dictionary, read online articles. Carry a notebook and note down interesting words or phrases from real people out on the street. It will all help to inspire and shape your writing.

4. Caffeine and Music

It’s a failsafe combination and one I use every single day. A good cup of tea/coffee and some music in the background is how I start every writing project (in the afternoon, I normally switch to water). The music keeps me stimulated and eases boredom, the caffeine energizes and helps me stay focused. It makes me type faster too…

5. A Change of Scenery

It can be hard to stay creative when you sit at the same computer, in the same place, day after day. Especially if you work from home where the distractions are many. At least once a week, I like to take my laptop to a nearby coffee shop, connect to the free wi-fi and work from there. This week, try working in another space, it’s amazing how change can affect your output.

6. Write

You have to train your body and your brain to write, just as you would with running or any form of exercise. Don’t worry about writing Pulitzer-prize winning material, just write. Trust me, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

7. Skeleton First, Flesh Later

Before I start thinking about writing an intro or how I want my article to be structured, I will write down all my researched facts, statistics and quotes. This is done in no real order, it’s just a matter of getting the most important points onto the page first. This forms the framework, or "skeleton" of the piece. Then I move the parts of the skeleton into an order that makes sense for how I want to tell my story/get my opinion across, before getting creative and fleshing the rest of it out. It might not work for everyone, but I find this approach very useful, especially if I am writing an article that leans heavily on stats and research. 

Have any questions or comments? Please get in touch. Thanks for reading!

Laura

SEO services for rodrigo moraes photography

We are thrilled to announce that Rodrigo Moraes Photography is Cake Media’s latest client.  

Rodrigo Moraes is a Maui-based photographer, who specializes in shooting destination weddings and family portraits. We love his work, so needless to say we were delighted when he came to us looking for search engine optimization help for his website, www.rodrigomoraesphotography.com

For those of who who may not know, search engine optimization (SEO) is a way of using a number of creative and technical techniques to improve search engine rankings. The goal is to increase the visibility of a website and to bring in more traffic.

For any independent professional or online business, high rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are crucial when it comes to hooking potential paying customers. 

After a complete audit of Rodrigo’s site, we began by meeting with him several times to talk strategy and to find out more about his work and style of photography. We also delivered and discussed a tailor-made proposal, outlining our SEO plans for his business. 

We found that Rodrigo's site was content rich in so many ways; plenty of beautiful photographs, great use of video, a blog, plus social follow buttons for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

However, it was clear to us that there were areas in which Cake Media could add to and adjust the existing content to boost SEO.

Aside from providing services for the technical side of SEO (think meta tags, sitemaps, eliminating crawl errors, Google Adwords and so on), there’s nothing we love more than creating fresh written content. 

We can’t stress the importance of good content enough. It encourages users to spend longer on your site, it can help them to find all the information they need without navigating away and—our ultimate goal—it will keep them coming back for more.

Any content on your site needs to be consistent, trustworthy and it should convey the personality of your brand. This is exactly why we wanted to spend time getting to know Rodrigo, so we could take on his “voice” when developing copy.

We aren’t about keyword stuffing, we’re all about creating well-formatted, reader-friendly content with the short and long-tail keywords carefully worked in. So far, we have already edited and rewritten sections of Rodrigo’s blog, we have penned a new About page, added in FAQs and Testimonials from previous clients, with lots more SEO strategy happening behind the scenes (we can’t tell you all our secrets).

We must warn you, SEO is not a fast process. It’s something that requires a great deal of patience and it’s easy to see why a lot of business owners may not have time to do things on their own.

That’s where we come in. 

Please feel free to contact Cake Media with any questions and we’d be more than happy to help!

Thanks for visiting, Laura and Jenny