How To Get Brides To Read Your Wedding Blog

Editor's Note: This post originally ran in July 2009, and I am reposting it now since the topic of attracting readers is one I've been asked by several people recently. 

If you want brides to read your wedding blog, don't try and sell them anything.  Don't talk about what you can do for them as a wedding professional. Don't talk about your store or your publication. Don't only talk about the products your store carries.

Brides are reading your blog in search of information or inspiration that will help them have a better wedding.  If you make it your goal to help them have the best wedding possible, regardless of whether they hire you or not, the chances of your phone ringing will increase exponentially and you'll find that doors will begin to open to opportunities you never even thought to dream up.

Remember, the world is a bakery that produces fresh opportunities each day.  It's not a fixed pie where everyone has to fight for the last crumb.  You can argue that these are quaint philosophies with no real-world application, but this is largely how I've built my wedding business in a relatively short amount of time.  And it's worked.

Try it out: blog valuable "I should really be charging for this" information three times a week for six months.  At the very least, if it doesn't get your brand a broader audience or more calls, it will have increased your search engine rank, making it easier for other brides to find you on Google later on.

Wedding Twitter Lists to Follow

Twitter has launched a beta Lists feature, in which it allows users to create lists of different people on Twitter, whether they follow them or not. The lists can be public or private and can be used to organize people you want to be sure not to miss an update from (much like you would in Tweetdeck) or they can be used to highlight people in certain segments of an industry.

I've created a few lists that highlight certain segments of the wedding industry in order to help you figure out who to follow.  The lists are not just comprised of people I follow and I've chosen to include companies I feel have a high standard of integrity, including how they treat their clients, vendor colleagues and employees both publicly and privately. Some other companies may not be included simply because I forgot to add them as well as because I am still adding to and editing the lists.

Here are the lists and a bit of my thought process behind each of them:

Wedding Media
This list is a compilation of both print and online media resources specific to the wedding industry. It does not include any publicists or public relation firms - it is strictly the media side.

Wedding Pros to Watch
In twenty years when this handful of people have Preston Bailey or Colin Cowie status (or bigger), I want to be able to say "I told you so".  This list is so I can say that.  If someone isn't on this list it doesn't mean they won't have huge, fabulous companies in 20 years, after all I don't have a crystal ball. However, these are all people I am willing to bet actual large amounts of money on, and I never bet with anything more than Skittles or M&Ms or a $5 bill.

Wedding Fashion
This list was inspired by all the talented wedding fashion designers featured in recent Bridal Market tweets.

The B List
This is a list of the wedding bloggers who attended the inaugural B List meet up this past April. They are companies who are greatly shaping the way weddings are planned online and they're awesome women to boot.

Wedding Business Advice
A list of people on Twitter whom I know personally who have wedding business advice worth paying for and a track record to back it up.  Bonus for you: they give a ton of solid advice away for free on Twitter and their blogs.

Seasoned Wedding Pros
These are people who have been in the wedding industry for "a very long time" as Marcy Blum calls it. They have seen the patterns of ebb and flow (that this industry is known for) over and over again, first hand. Many have greatly shaped the modern wedding industry as we currently know it and many invented the styles that are now commonplace. They are wise and have a lot of great insight.

Wedding Book Authors
These are people who have written books related to the wedding industry, either for engaged couples or for wedding professionals.

The Twitter lists are still in beta and not yet available to all users. If you're eligible for the beta testing, click on the links above and follow whichever lists you prefer. If you're not yet, sit tight, you will be soon. If I create additional lists, I'll update this post as well.

6 Tips for Using ReTweets to Your Advantage

One of the most useful aspects of Twitter for wedding businesses is the retweet factor. If your update is retweeted (or reposted by someone else), the information that originally went to your network, is now being shared with multiple other networks, putting your brand and information in front of a broader audience. Here are some tips on how to be retweeted more often and some advice for when you retweet someone else's updates:

1. Studies show that updates with links that are retweeted the most often use bit.ly or su.pr to shorten the links. Tinyurl.com is retweeted the least often because it is the longest of the url shorteners and often gets cut off in the retweets.

2. If you want the update to be retweeted by others, leave room for at least the number of characters in "space RT space @YourUserName".  This is a strategy we employ with the @pinkinitiative daily quotes and tips (we leave 19 characters open at the end) and it works well. People spread relevant information to their followers and the word about the non-profit organization reaches a larger network.

3. If you are retweeting someone, the two most common models are adding RT @TheirUserName at the beginning of the update or (via @TheirUserName) at the end of the update.

4. If you are using the RT @TheirUserName method, put your own opinion or thought before the RT and not at the end of their statement. Adding your thoughts at the end, even in parentheses, causes confusion as to who said what.

5. There is no need to retweet every positive thing someone says about you. On occasion, this is acceptable because part of being an entrepreneur means you have to promote your company.  Doing it for every positive tweet however is a surefire way to annoy your followers.

6. When you retweet something someone else said, be sure to include their name in your post to give them credit for the original tweet.

How has the retweet factor helped you on Twitter?

Page Views, Unique Visitors and Online Advertising

I was recently asked to discuss the difference between unique visitors and page views and whether there is a benefit of one to the other.

First, some quick definitions:
*A unique visitor is counted once for each IP address that visits your website during a certain amount of time. It does not always equal a unique individual (if you read this at work and then at home then you would be counted as unique twice because of the different IPs). Unique visitors are typically measured per day and per month.

*A page view or impression is generated every time a visitor refreshes the page or visits a new page within your blog or website.  Multiple pageviews can be generated by the same unique visitor.

The reason page views are important is because the longer you can keep someone on your site with interesting, relevant content, the more apt they are to either click on your banner ads or subscribe, giving you permission to put your content in front of them in the future. 

Blogs that have high amounts of page views often have deeper placed content for their readers to explore: forums for brides to chat with each other or vendor directories that are four or five clicks in, with each click generating a new page. With this strategy, one unique visitor could easily generate over 50-100 page views in one session. One note of caution if you are considering this method: be careful to not bury content so deep into your blog that people give up on clicking and close your site window instead.

Online ads are typically charged per CPM or cost per one thousand impressions (M being the Roman numeral for 1000) whether a blog reader clicks on the ad or not.  This means that the more page views a website or blog can generate, the more ad revenue they can generate for themselves.  This can also be good for the advertiser depending on their marketing strategy, because it means that their ad is in front of eyes more often, even if they are the same eyes.  

The future viability of the CPM model is a hot topic right now in social media and online advertising circles and the subject of much debate (which I'll discuss in another post).  In my opinion, there are marketing strategies where purchasing a CPM banner ad makes sense and others where it does not.  It really all comes down to what your specific business goals are and what results you need the ad to produce for you. 

If your goal with advertising is to generate client contracts with brides, then a blog that attracts a large portion of vendors as well as engaged couples may not be the best place to focus your ad dollars because the clicks generated are more likely not going to be qualified leads.  Your marketing budget is probably better spent on a blog that receives lower visitor numbers but is more targeted to your market and has a higher conversion rate of ad clicks to closed sales.  However, if your goal is to generate recognition for your brand so that other professionals in the wedding industry say "yes, we've heard of them", then paying for a CPM based ad on a more highly trafficked blog could be a very effective strategy for you.

Do you currently take page views or unique visitor numbers into account for your advertising? Which one shows better results for you?

Social Media Etiquette: Saying Thank You Online

Call me old-fashioned, but I am definitely of the camp that believes a handwritten thank you note trumps an emailed thank you any day.  However, there are some instances when an online thank you via social media is appropriate, but even this line has become pushed further and further in the name of "efficiency".  Here are some thoughts on the etiquette of saying thank you online:

*If you are saying thank you for a thank you gift, sending them a note on Twitter or Facebook or via email to acknowledge receipt of the gift and their kindness is perfectly acceptable.  Drafting a handwritten note of gratitude for the other person's note of gratitude is a bit overkill in these types of situations.   

*If you are sending a thank you gift that includes an online order (flowers, gift cards, etc), then a handwritten note doesn't need to arrive a few days later as well.  The note that is printed from your order on the gift tag is sufficient.  

*If you are saying thank you and not sending an online gift, then it should be via a handwritten note and not done via email or in a Twitter message. 

Saying thank you should never be a matter of efficiency.  There are some things in life and business that you should slow down for and expressing your gratitude is one of them.  Even from a pure business standpoint, investing the time and energy into saying thank you via snail mail will set you apart from the majority of your competition because most of them won't bother saying thank you at all, and those that do will do so via email. It's not hard to tell which company will stand out.

What are your thoughts on saying thank you online?

Splendid Sundays Volume 14

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Sean Low, a genius business consultant and owner of The Business of Being Creative, will be speaking in Atlanta on November 19th.  This is a chance to learn from one of the best business minds in the industry and at an amazing price. If you are in the Atlanta area or within driving distance or a short flight, be sure you don't miss it! You can read more about it here and register here.

*Event industry sales coach and wedding planner, Saundra Hadley, filmed a segment for Mutual of Omaha for their Aha! Moment ad campaign. Her video entitled Just Me and the Bride has made it to the top 25 finalists. If she wins, Saundra will be included in the national ad campaign. Please take five seconds and vote for her here. You won't be required to log-in or give your information or anything like that. Voting ends October 31st.

*On the heels of Conde Nast announcing the closure of four magazines, including Elegant Bride and Modern Bride, one of their magazines - GQ magazine - will be making their entire December issue available for download on the iPhone. The digital issue will cost $2.99 and be available in the iTunes store. What are your thoughts? Would you buy a magazine to read on your phone?

*If you advertise online, here are some tips on getting more out of your banner ads and designing them to perform better.

*Book of the week: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen. From Amazon: Allen, a management consultant and executive coach, provides insights into attaining maximum efficiency and at the same time relaxing whenever one needs or wants to. Readers learn that there is no single means for perfecting organizational efficiency or productivity; rather, the author offers tools to focus energies strategically and tactically without letting anything fall through the cracks.

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Three Services to Track Your Blog Stats

I am often asked which sites bloggers in the wedding industry should use for tracking visitor statistics for their own websites and blogs. Whether you want to measure your wedding blog's traffic or simply channel your inner Nancy Drew, here are a three analytics services and some thoughts on each:

Google Analytics
googleanalytics.com
Cost: free
Google Analytics is, by far, the most powerful free tracking service available on the market today. It is even better than some of the paid services (in large part because it used to be a somewhat pricey paid service before Google bought it). It allows you to track unique visitors, returning visitors, the amount of time those visitors spend on your site, the keywords people type into Google to find your site (example: wedding florist in San Francisco), the time of day your blog gets the most amount of traffic and much more.  In addition, Google also recently purchased Feedburner, which tracks subscribers, and has been integrating those statistics into Google Analytics as well. If you only had to choose one statistics tracker to use, I would recommend Google Analytics.

Statcounter
statcounter.com
Cost: free for the most recent 500 visits, then $19.99 and up per month
Perhaps the most useful function of Statcounter is the ability to track the IP addresses of each visitor to your site and the ability to tag those IP addresses for easy identification on future visits.  Because of this, I know exactly when specific people are on my site, including competitors, and exactly which pages and outgoing links they visit.  It is also helpful in knowing which pages potential clients have looked at so I know going into a meeting what they have read about my company and what they may have missed. I would not recommend using Statcounter on its own as it is not always the most accurate in recording each visit, but it is good in combination with other services.

Clicky Web Analytics
getclicky.com
Cost: begins at $9.99 per month
Clicky features the ability to track and tag IP addresses, but also allows you to track product or link downloads per IP address. This makes it very easy for me to keep tabs on how many of my ebooks are downloaded, which are the most popular and who is downloading them. Clicky also allows you to integrate with Twitter links and track those as well.

There are many other statistics trackers available, but these are some of the most accessible cost-wise and powerful results-wise for solo entrepreneurs.

For best results, I recommend using a combination of different services and not depending solely on one. All of these analytics services will allow you to export data so you can keep it on file and create your own benchmarks to compare where you are at now, six months from now, and so forth.

Do you currently track your wedding blog or website's analytics? Which services do you use?

The Value of Blogs vs Other Social Media Outlets

For the majority of 2009 I've largely neglected my wedding blog. This neglect has been purposeful and was part of an experiment I did in conjunction with my blogging workshops.  I wanted to see, with real results, what would happen if an established wedding blog stopped posting on a consistent or frequent basis.  While I certainly want to apply a "don't try this at home" disclaimer and don't endorse the type of absence I gave that blog, I did want to share some of the the findings here.

The results? Even with the purposeful neglect, the blog still receives several thousand unique visitors per day.  Many find it through a Google search for wedding-related search terms that bring up related posts I wrote two and three years ago.  The subscriber count has still been increasing daily as well.  Because the content is largely text based and not photo based, it has given the search engines a wealth of information to crawl.  Also, because my focus for that blog has always been practical, tried-and-true wedding planning advice rather than being heavy on the visual inspiration side, the information presented is still relevant to today's couples because it isn't trend based.

So how does this information help you? It means that even if you blogged often for a year, with text and not just photos, and then walked away, your blog would still help generate organic search engine results for your company.  This is a benefit that blogging has that Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and other social media outlets do not.  When you post your content on those sites, they help increase the rank of those sites. When you apply the content to your blog, it helps increase the search engine rank of your own site or blog.

I do believe Twitter and the other sites are valuable for their own unique reasons, but comparing each as though they bring the same things to the table is an apples to oranges scenario.  Understanding what each social media tool offers and how it can help your company is critical to developing an online media plan that brings a return on the time, energy and money you invest.

Mental Detox Twitter Series

At the end of last year, I declared that 2009 would be my year of zen. For the most part, it has worked. For the parts where it hasn't worked however, it has failed miserably. Because of this, I am rerunning last year's Mental Detox Twitter series this week. The series shares tips on focusing your mind on the things that matter and letting go of the stress of the things that don't.

You can follow along on Twitter here or you can download the free ebook here.

Social Media Etiquette: Sharing Private Conversations Online

Social media has made it easy to share conversations, but not all conversations are meant to be shared online.

If you plan on blogging or tweeting a conversation you had with someone in person or via email, ask their permission prior to posting. They may have meant that particular conversation for you only and not for public consumption.

If you are sending an email, consider letting the recipient know at the beginning of the email if you'd like it to remain private. There have been several emails that I have prefaced with a sentence such as "the following information is not yet public knowledge, so please don't blog or tweet about it yet".  I've also asked, "is it okay if I post about this online?" in reply to emails I've received.

If someone asks you to not blog or tweet about part of a conversation you've had with them, respect their wishes. It isn't worth risking your professional or personal relationship with the other person over the buzz that information might create online.

Educational Calendar for Wedding + Event Pros

One of the core values here at Splendid Communications is that if you think you've "arrived", then you've given up and have stopped trying. A true professional knows that there is always more to learn and more ways to think outside the box and improve.

There are a growing number of educational opportunities in the wedding and event industry for professionals in every segment and at all levels of business. Because of this, I've created a calendar to list the educational events, seminars and conferences available to wedding and event pros. When you sit down to plan out your schedule or education budget (or both) for the upcoming year, this resource can help you choose which opportunities you want to invest in.

To simplify things for you, there's an RSS feed to subscribe to, so you can get updates of new events in Google Reader as they are added. A permanent link to the calendar is also listed under the Be Splendid resources in the right sidebar of this site.

If you'd like to submit an event to be listed, please click here for more information on how to do so. If your event is not currently listed on the calendar, please don't take it personally. I am not aware of all the educational opportunities being offered (and there are quite a few!), so please contact me with the info. Local, national and international educational events are welcome for inclusion. 

Splendid Sundays Volume 13

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Laura Novak, founder of Strategy Avenue - a business resource for photographers, launched PhotoPrice this past week. It is the first iphone app created especially for wedding and portrait photographers and allows you to figure out your cost of goods sold (COGS) so that you know exactly how much money you actually make on each sale.  The best part? It is only $4.99! Check it out here. 

*Brides Magazine also released an iphone app recently, this one focusing on, well, the bride. From their press release: Users of Brides Dressing Room will browse a variety of wedding and bridesmaid dresses, and sort by silhouette, designer or price - then check availability, and schedule an appointment with a local bridal shop for consultations and fittings. They can also email a photo of a wedding gown or bridesmaid dress to friends to get their feedback.  This app is free and you can read more about it on the Brides.com Wedded Bits blog.

*If you're on Twitter and feel like you're the only person in the world NOT at Bridal Market in New York this week, you can keep up on the action by following the #bridalfashionweek hashtag and/or following the ladies at Brides.com either on Twitter @Brides or with their hashtag #bridescomrunway. You can also follow London-based event designer Mark Niemierko, who I think may be my new favorite bridal market twitter correspondent.

*I had the pleasure of meeting the brilliant ladies, Jubilee Lau and Jean Marks, behind Wedding 360 this past week at Engage!09 Encore, and I am so excited about this education series they are putting on. Wedding 360 offers education and inspiration for both engaged couples and wedding professionals through two different types of courses. Registration for The Academy for Planners and Designers opens soon, so check out their website to stay in the loop!

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Engage!09 The Encore :: Wedding Business Conference Recaps

This past week I've been in Las Vegas for Engage!09 The Encore, a luxury wedding symposium put on by the genius Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce of Engaging Concepts (pictured above).  I wanted to share links to some of the recaps from the other attendees:

You can read the post by the fabulous Joy and Garrett Nudd here. I have been huge fans of the Nudds for several years and was so excited to meet them at Engage!09 in June (okay, I geeked out a little) and more excited that they came back for Engage!09 Encore this past week.

Lara Casey from Southern Weddings posted her iphone recap here (my favorite kind of camera).

Photographer Jen Domenick set up a Snapshot Studio at the farewell party at Blush nightclub inside the Wynn and you can view a slideshow here.

Juli Smith, who designs stylish wedding garters, live-blogged the sessions and you can read her take on it here.

Rebecca also announced the dates for both Engage!10 conferences next year. The Summer Engage!10 will be in Grand Cayman on June 7-10th and the Fall Engage!10 will be at The Breakers in Palm Beach on October 3-6th. Mark your calendars now so you don't double book. The Engage!10 website will go live January 10th, 2010, so keep your eye out for more information then.  Rebecca has some amazing plans up her sleeve and I am already excited for next June.

Be sure to follow both Rebecca and Kathryn on Twitter. They are truly the very best in the entire world at what they do and are a must to know and learn from.



Photo courtesy Love Life Images

7 Tips for Submitting Photos to Wedding Blogs by Vane at Brooklyn Bride

Vane Broussard is the founder of the modern wedding blog Brooklyn Bride and the co-founder of The B-List, a group comprised of many of the top wedding bloggers.  I asked Vane to share some tips for photographers and other vendors on submitting real weddings and content to wedding blogs. You can follow Vane on Twitter here.

When Liene asked me to offer up some tips to wedding professionals for submitting weddings to blogs, I jumped on the chance.  It's a question I'm often asked from photographers especially, so it's a great opportunity to put those questions to rest once and for all.  The tips I'm offering below are truly a group effort from a few of us bloggers (Liene, Emily from OnceWed, Ami from Elizabeth Anne Designs, and myself) after many conversations on the topics of exclusivity, legality, etc, when it pertains to blogging, so don't feel like you have to take this as the end all of the topic.  These are merely how we prefer to deal with submissions, and not every blog may subscribe to these recommendations.  Many blogs have submission requirements already laid out on their sites, so it's a good idea to check them out for each blog.

1. PLEASE do not send a real wedding to more than one wedding blog at a time.  Also, give them a time frame in which to accept or deny before passing it to the next blog.  It is time consuming for bloggers to set up posts, and it's not in their best interest to show a real wedding that has already been seen on another blog or that has been promised to another blogger. 

2. If you are submitting a real wedding to a bridal magazine, do not send it to a bridal blog, too.  The magazine will not want a wedding they are featuring to be published online before they have published it. 

3. Before sending photos out to a blog for consideration, make sure that the bride and groom want their wedding images published to begin with - especially if they appear in the images you're sending.   Also check with all vendors involved (wedding planner, florist, location, etc) to see if they've submitted photos to other blogs before promising a wedding to a specific blog.  More often than not, this has happened to bloggers, and they are left having to figure out who gets to post it.  It's pretty frustrating, especially if the post has already been coded.

4.  Know your audience.  Every blog has a different aesthetic and not all of them feature the same type of weddings.  Not all blogs even POST real weddings, so it is best to do your homework.

5. Do not send more than ten small-format images with your submission.  Most wedding bloggers get TONS of emails a day and need to be able to get a quick sense of the style of the wedding before making a decision.  Include some details shots if possible. If they want more pics, don't worry, they will tell you. 

6. Realize that it may take a few days or weeks for a post to go live on a blog.  If the wedding blogger doesn't tell you a live date you should ask for one and if 30 days goes by without a live date, you should withdraw your submission and send the pitch to another blogger.  However, you should tell the original blogger that you are submitting the pictures to another blog.

7. Many bloggers rely on the generosity of wedding vendors to get real weddings, but keep the best interest of your company in mind as you submit content for publication on a blog.  Do not allow yourself to be pressured by a blogger in relation to control of your work. 

I hope these tips help, and I'm happy to field any questions you might have.  Thanks Liene!

--

To view a list of publication guidelines for the most popular wedding blogs, please visit the wedding blog directory. 

The Cost of Comparison

In case you are keeping notes on the type of coffee I like, I prefer lattes, either hot or iced, no sugar added. The milk used can be any version - skim, 1, or 2% - just not soy. 

Invariably I run into a barista who upon hearing my order will shoot me a look of disdain and matter of factly announce that soy milk is the healthier choice.

"No, thank you," I reply, "the regular milk is fine."

This is followed with an emo-meets-birkenstock eye roll and sigh of disgust from the barista at my decision.

The fact is, I am allergic to soy. I can have trace amounts of it and I reserve those for sushi - a food I don't get to indulge in nearly as often as I'd like because of this.  Anything more than a teeny amount of soy and very terrible things happen to me, including trips to the hospital's emergency room.

Moral of the story: what is healthy for you may not be healthy for me. This applies to businesses and social media as well.

The moment someone says "everyone needs to do such and such" or "the ONLY way to do this is", grab the entire saltshaker, because you're going to need much more than just a grain.

6 Tips for Using Photos on Your Blog

Many wedding bloggers depend on the generosity of photographers to provide images that illustrate a point or make up the majority of the blog's content. Here are six tips to keep in mind when using photos on your wedding blog:

1. Always include a link to the photographer's website or blog, even if the photo has the photographer's branded watermark on it. Linking to the blog where you found the photo is not an acceptable substitute; link to the photographer's site. If you are not going to include a link to the photographer, do not use the photo.

2. Do not use the word "source" as the photo credit's anchor text.  Use the photographer's name or company when creating your link.

3. Just because a photo is on the Internet does not mean it qualifies as "fair use" and giving a photo credit with a link does not mean you have permission to use it. It's important to remember that many photographers make their money from selling the rights to use their photos, either through stock photography or on a case-by-case basis. When in doubt, ask permission first. This will work best when you plan ahead.

4. Consider obtaining standing permission from a few photographers to use their photos in your blog posts, or use the Creative Commons library from Flickr to find photos that are already licensed for you to use. If you are using a photo from this source, you still need to link to that photographer's Flickr page.

5. Do not crop out the photographer's watermark or alter the image. If a photographer is allowing you to use their photos free of charge, it is because it is a good marketing alliance for them as well. They have edited the photo to reflect their best work from their unique artistic point of view. If you alter the photo, it no longer allows them to put their best foot forward.

6. If a photographer asks you to remove one of their images from your blog, and you did not have to pay them for the rights to use it, then take it down immediately. Do not argue with them or threaten to pull their paid advertising (yes, this has happened on multiple occasions; I wish I were kidding); they hold the legal copyright. Wedding blogs can be mutually beneficial for both the blog publishers and photographers, and everyone needs to remember that.



Related Posts:
Using Your Blog Photos to Increase SEO
Wedding Blogs and Exclusivity
3 Must-Have Elements for Your Blog Design
Selling Wedding Inspiration Boards

Splendid Sundays Volume 12

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Estee Lauder launched a brilliant campaign tying social media to their brick and mortar cosmetic counters. They are offering free makeovers along with a free headshot for women to use for their Facebook, Twitter and other online avatars.

*Art buyer, Heather Morton, wrote a great blog post about the importance of having a good product to back up your marketing and social media efforts. While she was referring specifically to photographers, her advice applies to anyone working in a creative field. Money quote: "Do I have to actually tell you that the most important thing is that you have kick ass images in your book? Do I need to spell that out every time I talk about promotion? That should be a given! If you aren’t doing good solid work (mid tier) or super interesting work (top tier) then put down the laptop, pick up the camera and go shoot something fantastic!"

*Interesting article on doing work for free by Chris Brogan to which anyone who has worked in any type of consulting or creative field can also relate.

*For you typography addicts, an image showing the difference between Arial and Helvetica. Thanks to Trisha Hay for sharing this find.

*Book of the week: Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. From Amazon: Book Yourself Solid is a complete instructional guide for starting and growing a successful service business. It includes more than 200 proven marketing strategies for attracting new clients, earning more referrals, and building profitable, long-lasting professional relationships.

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Getting Results From Your Wedding Blog Ad

Remember the Pareto principle, the rule of thumb that 80% of a company's sales come from 20% of their customers? Well, research from Comscore Inc shows that this rule applies to the Internet as well.  According to their studies, 80% of clicks on Internet ads are produced by only 16% of the users.

This begs the following questions for businesses in the wedding industry:
*Do you know which wedding websites or blogs are reaching your specific type of bride?
*Are you spending your online advertising budget with the right outlet?
*Does your ad design appeal to your specific bride or are you just trying to be "wedding-y"?

Running an online ad that is designed and targeted to the masses will most likely fail because the masses aren't the ones who are clicking. Revisit your online marketing plan and refine where needed so that you can better capture the attention of the 16%.

Wedding Blog Readership Cycles

One disadvantage that wedding bloggers have versus the other types of bloggers is that it is much more difficult to build a loyal readership. A few months after the wedding day, the bride will decide that your content is no longer relevant to her life and will unsubscribe, moving her attention elsewhere.  One advantage that wedding bloggers have over other bloggers is that they can repeat content much more easily because of this cyclical audience. 

A wedding blogger has a bride's attention anywhere from 6-18 months as she plans for her wedding. Every three months or so you'll have a wave of new readers (your readership will most likely spike the most during the Thanksgiving to Valentine's day engagement season each year). This means that you can recycle old content, because unless the post is about a specific trend (poufy wedding dress sleeves or fuchsia and tangerine color palettes), the material will be useful information that this newly engaged bride can use in planning her wedding.

The majority of your readers will not spend their time digging through all of your archives from the past few years. When you have blogger's block, filter through your best advice and re-post it for your new audience.

What The New FTC Regulations Mean For You

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which oversees regulations related to blogging and social media, has passed final guides related to endorsements, sponsorships and testimonials on blogs.  You can read the release on the FTC Act here.

What does this mean for you? In simple terms:

*If you are receiving money for a post, you have to disclose it.  For example, if a florist is paying a wedding blog to write about them, the blogger has to disclose that fact.

*If you receive a product to review for a post, you have to disclose that. So if a camera company sends a photographer the latest gear to play with and write about, the photographer has to disclose that they received the product for free.

These are not gentle suggestions on the part of the government. The FTC can fine each violation of these regulations for up to $11,000 per post beginning December 1st.

Time Management Tips for Wedding Bloggers

There are three types of wedding bloggers: bride blogs, which are blogs written by brides (and to be fair, there are a handful of groom blogs now); professional wedding blogs where the blog is the full-time business (examples: Weddingbee, Style Me Pretty, Snippet and Ink); and wedding professionals who blog (examples: The Bride's Cafe, Ritzy Bee).  Many people look at professional wedding blogs and try to emulate them, but that will not work for your business because they are entirely different business models and have to take certain things into consideration that you do not.  Trying to copy what they do and the way they do it will only frustrate you if the blog is not your full-time job.

I often get asked by wedding pros for advice on how to balance the work of their wedding business with the work that social media requires.  Here are some quick tips for those of you who use your blog as a marketing vehicle:

1. Write in advance
Nearly every blogging platform (Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, etc) has the capability to let you schedule your posts to go live on future dates. Set aside a block of time one day a week for blogging and write and schedule the next week's posts during that time.  This will help keep you sane, especially during the busy wedding season when you barely have time to eat lunch, much less write a thoughtful blog post for the day. 

2. Create an editorial calendar 
Since you're now writing in advance, you can create a system for content publication. Real weddings on Mondays, advice and tips on Tuesdays, etiquette on Wednesdays, and so on and so forth.  You also know when major holidays and engagement season is, so plan ahead for those posts.

3. Get help
No seriously, you will wonder why you didn't do this sooner. If you don't have someone on staff to help with some of the work, consider hiring a virtual assistant through Elance or another source for a few hours a week. Hand over tasks such as resizing photos (this can be done easily in Flickr or Picnik if you aren't into fancy software) or contacting vendors for information for the posts. Hire a tech person to help with your code or a designer to help make the site visually appealing. These can be project-based and not full-time. Whoever is writing the posts needs to be identified as the author of those posts (and not just the default "admin") but there is no rule that says you have to do everything blog related all by yourself.

4. Automate
Use Twitterfeed or Su.pr to automatically update Twitter every time your blog updates. Many people use Twitter as their RSS feed now and having to remember to manually update it at a time they will see it is not efficient when you're trying to juggle food tastings, dress fittings and render CAD drawings for a wedding's tent set-up. 

5. Lose the self-inflicted guilt trip
There are about five blogs, both wedding and business, that I read word for word. Everything else I skim, and if the headline doesn't grab me to read the content more in depth, I hit mark all as read in Google Reader. Most inspiration I find for weddings does not come from weddings at all. I used to feel guilty about this, but then I got over it when I came to terms with the fact that reading every blog on business or weddings was not helping me grow my business.* If your blog's model is predicated on being the first to report a trend or story, then you probably should read all the other blogs to make sure they're not talking about those things first. Most of you don't have to be first to report a trend however because you are the professionals who are creating them.

*Please note: I am not telling you that it's okay not to read for your business. To grow your business you have to be willing to put in the time (and money) for ongoing education, and reading is a critical part of that. 

What time management tips do you have for wedding professionals who blog?

Splendid Sundays Special Edition

No links for this week's edition of Splendid Sundays; instead some thoughts on leading a more splendid life . . .

Recently a young woman I mentored died of a drug overdose. Everyone who knew her is understandably devastated.  Even though she was loved deeply, she didn't feel loved.

Make sure that the people who matter to you know they matter. Don't assume they know; tell them and tell them often.  Pick up the phone, mail a card, be generous with your hugs - demonstrate actively that those people matter to you.

When you walk into a room, do you walk in with the attitude of "yes, here I am!" or rather "oh, there you are!"?  I don't always get it right, but my goal is to always walk into a room with a perspective of "oh, there you are! YOU are just who I wanted to see because you are important to me."

People matter. Tell them so.

How to Make An Impact :: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

PinkFact: Four out of five women who are diagnosed with breast cancer do NOT have a family history of it.

Today is the first day of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and if you are in the wedding industry, I would like to encourage you to become involved with Pink Initiative.

Founded by wedding photographer Emilie Sommer, Pink Initiative is a collection of wedding industry professionals and private donors dedicated to funding awareness, outreach, education and research for breast cancer.  After a nine month wait, Pink Initiative received it's official 501(c)(3) non-profit status in August (the effective date was made retroactive to October 2008, so all donations prior to August are still tax deductible).

If you or your company would like to be involved, please check out Pink Initiative's latest newsletter on how to do so, including some grassroots ideas from other professionals.  You can sign up for the newsletter or make a donation to Pink Initiative on the website (a new website is in the works) and see who else is involved so far. You can also follow Pink Initiative on Twitter, which features daily WedFacts, PinkFacts or PinkQuotes.

A prevention for polio was discovered in our parents' lifetime, which up until then was a feat considered hopeless. Let's press on together so that we can say the same about breast cancer in ours.



Disclosure: I am on the board of directors for Pink Initiative.
Pink Initiative tag designed by Kelly Ashworth Design; photo by Darby Elizabeth Photography; photo shoot for Bride and Bloom Magazine.