Dear Reader,

It’s Monday, I’ve just returned to the office after a successful Wedding Event this past Saturday where I got to meet many new wedding vendors; A Wedding Coordinator, A few Photographers, Videographer, Wedding Cake Vendor and of course the great staff at the wedding venue: Paraiso Marabilla. All of whom collaborated under the direction of the Wedding Coordinator to create an Elegant, Fun, Memorable and Beautiful wedding Reception on August 23rd, 2008.

The conversation came up with the Wedding Coordinator about ranking high in the search engines, and of course I offered a small bit of advice to her. I would have loved to help her more but because of the setting and how in detail I would have to go into to help her understand the success of my wedding dj website I just mentioned to her to make sure her SEO was all optimized.

So, today I will take a break from the series I had started and I want to ask you, reader, if you have any question for me about how to achieve website success. It can be related to marketing, list building, website optimization, Search Engine Optimization, strategic website planning, Email Autoresponders, Email Marketing, etc… Anything related to your website and how you can improve it, please feel free to contact me via this post by adding a comment or by sending me an email through my online Contact Form.

All questions will be answered in the order they came in and could also be the topic of an upcoming post.

Thank you and have a Great Monday!

–
DJ Francisco
Bloggin Wedding DJ in Houston

What’s the formula of a successful website?

Bloggin!!!

Blog often, ideally Daily, and you will attract the attention of the Search Engines with new content.

Attracting the attention of the search engines will get you ranked ( higher ) in the search engine results.

Achieving a higher Search Engine Result will result in more visitors to your website and in turn, and increase in the number of booking from your website.

Pretty straight foreword, right?

Then why don’t most businesses start a blog?

Is it not worth it? Is it not professional enough? Is it a lot of extra work? Is it not worth the return of FREE additional business? Why wouldn’t you do something that is proven to work, and is so easy and inexpensive to implement?

The biggest bloodline of my business is search engine traffic. Search engine traffic amounts to over 80% of my bookings for this year (2008) and last year (2007).

Word of mouth is great, but by the time people, who saw me perform at an event, try to book me, I’m already booked for their date.

I had released a website to start a photo booth business, and I started that website with a free blog (Wordpress) installed a free template, and it’s up and running. All I had to do was come up with the content, add a few pictures, post a few blog posts and vioala. I have a running business with $0 in advertising or in buying a template and a 1st page ranking in google for Photobooth related search terms. (Notice I am taking advantage and placing a link on this post to my photobooth website, it helps with search engine rankings, and no that is not the main reason I blog )

Search Engines LOVE Fresh New Updated Content. Blogs allow you to refresh your content easily and as often as can. Just Login, and start typing. It’s that easy (once it’s installed).

Sure the installation of a blog is technical, it will require more time out of your day (1hr – 2hrs max), and u have no idea of what to blog about. But it’s worth the time and effort. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have started this blog of free information and my success with bloggin. I love it and I want to attract as many people to this great resource that I love sooo much!

Maybe you are not the technical type. Pay someone to install it and configure it on your server and be done with it. If anybody is interested I could do it for only $50 USD.

Or if you are technically inclined or know someone who is here are some great videos that teach you how to do it for free.

Become a Blogger Videos – A free resource for complete bloggin beginners. It takes you through the steps necessary to install and create your blog.

Get started now, you WILL appreciate me in the future for telling you this and pushing you to do it.

Happy bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco
DJ in Hosuton

Writing a Blog post everyday is ideal for any blogger that wants to have success on the internet, however, it’s time consuming and it’s hart to come up with a good topic to blog about on a daily basis. That’s mainly because we don’t take the time to read and learn about some of the techniques that most professional bloggers use to stay at the top of their game. Reading a few minutes a day, posts by the top bloggers, will help you generate some great ides for coming up with useful content.

Yaro Starak, Darren Rowse, John Chow, Brian Clark. They all come up with the most helpful, up-to-date posts to their blog on a consistent basis. That’s why they have so many subscribers that read their blogs daily.

Here are 3 resources on Bloggin’ for Complete Beginners.

Blog Mastermind Blog Mentoring Program – This is the best coaching program and “getting-started-with-bloggin” program that I have ever taken and it is worth the investment.

Become a Blogger Videos – A free resource for complete bloggin beginners. It takes you through the steps necessary to install and create your blog.

Blog Profits Blueprint – A report to get you to understand the logic behind making money from your blog. Free PDF Report.

7 articles the pro-bloggers have written to help other bloggers stay at the top of the bloggin game.

• 20 Types of Blog Posts – Battling Bloggers Block
• 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
• Writing Good Content
• Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?
• Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques
• 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer
• Podcast: How To Launch A Product Using Your Blog (May be used for services too)

Reading, or even scanning and reading the parts you don’t understand, will get you caught up on your bloggin terms and on a mindset that most successful bloggers have. Happy Bloggin!!! — DJ Francisco Your Bloggin DJ in Houston

A recent poll on Problogger.net, What is the Biggest Source of Traffic to Your Blog?, reveals the current method most bloggers are getting their traffic. It’s no surprise that 46% of the bloggers who participated on this poll get most of their traffic through Google.

See the results to find other ideas to generating traffic to your blog. Social Media (Myspaces, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc…) is in second place and those are the easiest ways for beginning bloggers to get traffic to their webstie. The name of the article is Where Bloggers Get Their Biggest Levels of Traffic, and you can find i Here.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco, Houston
Wedding Vendor Blogger

Many people who live in the offline world have a hard time understanding how a blog can drive traffic to their website. Some see blogs as a waste of time and others think it’s hard to keep up with a blog. They lose motivation so they stop posting to their blogs and as a result start to say that blogs don’t work.

The mentality is different from running your business offline and running your blog and business online. And changing your mentality from what you have worked so hard to do over so many years to incorporate new technology is hard, extremely hard as John Chow states in his Blog.

So understanding that Blogs are the Holy Grail to online marketing may be a bit hard to swallow. Well they can be if you work them correctly and understand how they can increase your current traffic.

Here are 10 Ways Blogs will increase Traffic to your Wedding Website!

1. Host your Blog on Your own Domain
   Your blog is going to bring in a lot of traffic, there is absolutely no doubt about that. However if you start a blog away from your domain name, guess where all that traffic will go to? You guessed it, it’s going to your blog, where ever it is. It’s not going to magically transfer that traffic over to your website. Additionally, it looks less professional to have a blog in one place and a business website in another place. It feels like there’s two of you and it could potentially lead to distrust.
2. Participate in Related Forums or Blogs
   Remember you are trying to establish an online presence and provide us with a little bit of your experience. Don’t worry, nobody is going to steal your ides, besides most ideas are not new nor are they original, they are all borrowed, so why not share them back. What it will do is establish yourself in the minds of your readers, whether they are brides or other vendors / bloggers, as an expert in your field. And if your participation is of high quality, then you will gain followers, who want to know what you are all about, back to your blog. Since most bloggin platforms and forums allow you to place a link in your comment, the more you participate in forums or blogs, the more links to your website you will create, and back links to your website are very important in building traffic to your website.
3. Cover topics that need attention NOW
   If you have strong beliefs about a particular topic in your industry or a current event. This is the place to vent it out, express your beliefs on the topic, and share your thoughts with others might (or might not) agree with you. For example, I believe that a DJ’s is very important in the outcome of a wedding, so I would hope and expect that other DJ’s do a lot to prepare for a wedding both professionally and personally. A lot of problems come because of personal misunderstandings, so I believe that wedding vendors should invest A LOT in their personal development. Depending on your topic, you too can voice your opinion on things like that and additionally on current events.
4. Quality Content (Can’t stress that enough)
   Quality content is key. If people can read your blog, understand your view, and feel like you are providing them with a value, an answer to their problems, then they will want to come back for more.
5. Create Some Buzz
   Attending a bridal show? Do you have a current discount this month? Did you make the cover of a local newspaper? Are you launching a new product line? Are you expanding your services? THEN Blog about it!!! People want what’s new and on the cutting edge.
6. Build and use and Email List
   Email Lists… all blogs and online businesses should have one. They are a great source of traffic to your website and for some businesses they are the bloodline to their success.
7. Do an interview with someone well known
   This serves as two purposes. One, you feed the person’s ego, which will motivate him to talk about you and your interview as well as where they can find it (Hint: Your Blog). Additionally, it connects you and puts you on the same level as that person’s perceived image. This is called social proof. Most people feel they can trust you easier if they have proof that others trust you.
8. Be the first in your field to build a quality blog
   Don’t just be the first in your field to have a blog, be the first to have a quality blog. A blog that updates it’s content often and provides answers to problems or helpful advice. Your audience will be brides that NEEEED good advice and help on something they have never done in their entire life. Be the go to person in your field. In turn, they will tell their friends and family about your website and your blog. Again, if your blog is in your website this applies if it’s off site, then chances are they will be directed to wherever your blog is.
9. Join the Social Networking Medias
   Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, etc… these are all terms you must familiarize yourself with and join these services. There are many more and they all can and will drive a lot of traffic if help them, help you. I got 6 Weddings of Myspace alone, in 2007.
10. Be Patient
    Patience (lack of), the #1 killer of success. If you stop watering your seed just before it breaks through the ground, you will never be able to enjoy the benefits of your hard work. Bloggin Works, I know first hand, and there were many, many, many times where I asked myself; “Am I wasting my time? DJ in Houston: Google #1 Ranking (on 04/29/2008). I’ve had not only online success but also offline success. I’ve gotten calls from newspapers asking me for advice on something related to the wedding industry, which drive more traffic to my website.

These Ten Techniques for driving traffic to your Wedding Vendor Blog are a compilation of what I use to drive traffic and from advice I’ve gotten from other, more established bloggers. One article I read was 5 Ways to Increase your Blog Traffic by Darren Rowse:ProBlogger.com and the other, post is by Seth Godin’s 54 56 Ways to Get Traffic to your Blog, which is also linked to from Darren Rowse’s Blog. Since they helped me out just by reading their articles, I link to them as a thank you and so other readers, like yourself can visit their blogs.

Happy Bloggin!

DJ Francisco, Houston
Wedding Vendor Blogger