Professional wedding blogging, as an industry, is still relatively young, with the oldest wedding blog being just eight years old. The advent of social media in the wedding industry has brought with it its own set of pros and cons. Never before have brides been able to find so much inspiration as quickly as they can today. Never before have wedding professionals had to fight as strongly the glut of misinformation mixed in with the good.
Every niche in the industry tends to complain about the newbies flooding their specific area: photographers deal with hobbyists putting an expensive camera on a credit card and calling themselves a pro, planners know very well that anyone who "walks by a wedding" now considers themselves a professional consultant, anyone with Microsoft Publisher and a nice printer is an invitation designer, and at Catersource I heard several complaints that "anyone with a kitchen and who watches the Food Network" now fancies themselves an event caterer. The barrier to entry is low across the board (event industry veteran Howard Givner wrote a great post about this last week), but in no segment of the industry is it easier to start up than as a professional wedding blogger.
In 2009 alone, the professional wedding blog industry took in over $9.4 million in advertising revenue. It's no surprise then that professional wedding bloggers (which are different than wedding professionals who blog) are now facing the same issue that everyone else is: brides who just adored chronicling every detail, decision and argument with their dearly beloved in their own wedding planning process are now blogging for the masses from the position of an expert and trying to monetize it.
This past weekend, I attended The B-List's annual conference, an association of the most influential wedding bloggers worldwide. To be honest, I was a bit nervous going into this event. Several issues had cropped up in the industry in the year that had passed since the last conference and I knew that discussing them as a group could go one of two ways: it could be a giant sob-fest where everyone complains and no solutions are found, or it could be open, productive dialogue. Fortunately, it was the latter.
In my opinion, the state of the wedding blogging industry is strong. The blog editors are not naive about the difficulties, and realize that some business models will have to adapt as the level of influence shifts, competition increases, and some legal issues force changes in the way things have been done thus far.
Is the wedding blog market saturated? Not even close. Out of the thousands of wedding blogs available to brides, there are still less than 100 that can truly be considered mainstream or garner high amounts of traffic. Is there room for new blogs in the professional wedding blog industry? Absolutely, but to survive financially they should focus on the niches rather than try to be all things to all brides.
The new bloggers entering the market will find out quickly whether they have what it takes to survive in an increasingly competitive industry or they will close their doors when they see how difficult professional blogging really is. Writing a blog about the planning process as a bride is very different than soliciting advertisers, developing and publishing original content, getting brides to read rather than just vendors (perhaps the most difficult part), and then proving to the advertiser that the site was valuable in both the number of targeted readers and the number of clickthroughs and qualified leads delivered so that they renew.
While the professional wedding blog industry is still in its "wild west" stages, it has a long way to go before we even realize the potential it truly holds.
Photo by Kate Headley
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13 comments:
Hiya!
As a relatively new wedding blogger, I was wondering what sort of blogging etiquette is considered appropriate for newbies like myself? Where do you draw the line between linking and showing another blog's post and just copying their content? Also, when's the next B-List? Looks like it was a great event.
x
Terrific post Liene! I like how you are networking and that as a group you were able to talk about the challenges that your industry faces with solutions, not fear.
liene! amazing post...so insightful and accurate. I only wish I could have been at the b-list to be a part of the discussion. There's alot of these same things happening over in the UK at the moment. People are starting to understand blogs more and a lot of new ones are springing up.
Hi Alexis,
If you're going to reference another blog's content, I'd feature a snippet of it and link back to their site (ALWAYS link back to their site).
Never, ever copy and paste their entire post and use it as your own. This is not only poor etiquette, but it hurts both your SEO and theirs. It also can be construed as hurting their copyright (especially if they end up in court later for another copyright issue), so many bloggers are vigilant about asking that those posts be taken down.
The next B-List conference will be next Spring in California. You can follow http://blog.theb-list.com for more details.
Liene - such a great post and insight.
Hi Liene,
Thanks so much for your message back. If you're ever thinking of doing some B-List Events in the UK, I would love to help out.
x
i was just talking about this last night with two other wedding professionals. as a relatively new wedding blogger, i'm hesitant to start advertising yet because i want to be able to assure my advertisers and sponsors whole-heartedly that i can guarantee not only click throughs to their site, but client bookings too. after speaking to a multitude of vendors, they let me know that they very rarely get as many referrals from other wedding blogs. but you are right, the professional wedding blog industry is still young so it will be interesting to see where it will take us. i'm game for the ride though. :)
"It's no surprise then that professional wedding bloggers (which are different than wedding professionals who blog) are now facing the same issue that everyone else is: brides who just adored chronicling every detail, decision and argument with their dearly beloved in their own wedding planning process are now blogging for the masses from the position of an expert and trying to monetize it."
Funny thing is that the majority of the bloggers in that photo were the brides who blogged about their weddings and then wanted to monetize on it! I started reading most of them when they were just engaged and now they are considered "professional wedding bloggers"? The industry is too young for anyone not to be considered a newbie so I hope no one is complaining yet about it being oversaturated!
Excellent post, Liene! It was so good to meet you and brainstorm about the biz with so many inspiring and admirable fellow bloggers.
Oh, and I'd like to add...
Over-saturation is a non-starter in my book. Regardless of how many doctors, lawyers, newscasters, planners, bloggers, etc. there are two truths that will always prevail, in my opinion:
1. Cream will rise to the top, and
2. There is enough success to go around
Rather than spend my time worrying about the competition, I focus on doing what I do bigger, better, faster and stronger. Not only does it keep me sane, it keeps me real.
As always, a fabulous discussion, Liene. :-)
To Anonymous I would just like to concede that I am absolutely one of those girls who starting writing about weddings when I started planning my own wedding, so you are right that a lot of us were formerly just girls blogging about our own weddings. However, how I write my blog now could not be more different than when I was chatting about what dress I loved best and it was only after years of growing as a blogger, growing traffic and growing as a professional within the wedding industry that I even considered monetizing. I believe Liene is referring to the bloggers who get engaged, start writing a blog and two months later decide they want to sell ads. Are they going to be able to effectively deliver a return on that investment for sponsors? Possibly, possibly not, but any way you slice it or dice it there is definitely a difference between these new blogs and "professional" wedding blogs.
And it may just be my opinion, but I don't find many bloggers are complaining about oversaturation or expressing major concern about competition. I love seeing the blog community grow and thrive. Long term it only lends more credibility to the industry and makes it more viable for those of us who love what we do and hope to make it a permanent part of our careers.
Great post.
I am curious to know how you genereate your numbers regarding the $9.4 million dollars spent on advertising. Does this include commercial wedding blogs like aisldash.com and weddingbee.com?
Or independant bloggers?
Just curious!
Kellee
What a great blog site. Am also in the wedding blogging industry promoting photography and also adding tips on how to drive free targeted traffic to your website or blog. Have bookmarked this site thanks
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