If you are a wedding vendor, or any other business for that matter, you know that the economy is in a rocky state. Everywhere you turn, you see and hear, the economy is getting worse and worse and you see it as well… Or do you really? Or is it just that since everyone is saying it, you start to believe it yourself?

When all these news reports started, you probably thought to yourself, “oh my God, the economy is getting worse and worse, I need to pull back my money and start saving more of it.” Or something along those lines. I know I did.

You probably got emails stating, now is not the time to stop advertising… and you probably received those emails from the people you advertise with. So that really has no real value in your decision, after all, they are pretty much telling you not to stop giving them your money… And they know that the first thing people will pull back on is their advertising budget.

So what are you to do? Believe the people telling you not to stop advertising or believe your own gut feeling?

That’s a hard decision to make, and I personally, can’t tell you what to do. However, I can tell you what I see and hope you can make your decision accordingly.

Now for most of you who follow these post on a regular basis know that I am a Wedding DJ and that I have my own DJ Website at www.fhpentertainment.com. Most of my marketing is done through bloggin’ and a couple of other methods.

Bloggin’ of course had the highest ROI since all I invest is… time. The main reason I started this blog, to try to get wedding vendors to understand that bloggin is the Single Best Method to get their website found listed and found by Google.com. After all, what you invest is time, not money. Quite the opposite, if you wish, you may chose to make some extra money as a result of your hard work and dedication that you invest into your blog.

In 2008, the blog at my DJ website brought in over $1,000.00 usd! Now that may not sound like a lot, but consider that every year this figure goes up and that is extra money that could be used to… well, invest in advertising!

Remember, my website draws over 100 visitors, A DAY! right now, well this year it has erupted to over 150 visitors a day! The fact is that this economy scare has driven people to use the web more for research.

Does that necesarily mean that they are going to spend less? Well, you know that the answer to that question is.. it depends… on the same exact things that it depended last year… How well prepared you are as a vendor, how good of a salesman you are… etc. In fact, I am seeing brides spend More money on my services than they did last year…

So again the question is, do you listen to the adverting agencies or do you listen to your gut feeling?

Here is one fact that I can give you about what the industry is actually doing.

As I mentioned above, I make money by having a website, how do I make money? Well through ads. If you go to my Wedding Blog, located at http://www.fhpentertainment.com/blog/ you can see a few Google Ads at the top and at the bottom. Those are business advertising through the Google Network and since Google tries to match your website with their advertisers, you get ads from, omniballrooms.com, photographyshoppe.net, WeddingWire.com, etc…

So those are businesses advertising through the Google Network. So why does that matter? Well this year the amount I make per month is higher by 50% of what it was last year.  What that means in plain English is that more people are advertising this year and they are spending A LOT more than they were last year.

Last year in the month of March, my website made $25 just through the Google Ads Network, this year, in March (as I type this post, it is March 18th, 2009) I have already accumulated $42.53 through the Google Ad Network.

I also use another ad network called Text Link Ads,  http://www.text-link-ads.com/, They are not as big as Google, but I still make about $6-$7 a month per advertiser and this month I picked up an extra one, giving me a total of 5 Advertisers… These advertisers can bee seen at the bottom of my main website… Elegante Entertainment. Last The income was $33.45, so this month it will go up by either 6 or $7 more.. Giving my website a total of approximately $90 for the month… Not bad for not doing anything at all but be recognized by Google as an important website in the Houston Wedding Industry.

So businesses, are indeed spending a lot more in advertising than before, at least from what I can tell.

If you feel the need to advertise, you should give Bloggin a try. It only takes about an hour a day and you have so many benefits, if done correctly, that you will be ahead of the game… well let me take it back, you will be caught up with the game. Blogs have been out for a while and just like when when websites first came out, blogs are now a standard for any busienss.

Wal-Mart has a Blog, CNN Has blogs, The Houston Chronicle has many blogs, even Google the biggest player in the internet has a Blog.

Why don’t you, and if you do, why aren’t you getting the most money for your blog? In a time where the economy is struggling, why don’t you do both… Advertise (free through Google) and keep more of  your money?

–
|o| Simply Frank |o|
Bloggin Wedding DJ

Ok so it’s been a little over 4 months since I posted any sort of post. In that time, we’ve had a long season of successful Holidays, a new president has been elected, we’ve entered the year 2009 and now it’s time for me to show you guys the standings for traffic during that entire time.

We all know, if you’ve been doing any type of online marketing, that January is the month that brides flock to your website. Why? For many reasons, here are three;

1. NEW YEAR’S or CHRISTMAS ENGAGEMENTS
2. THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER, OH YEA, WE HAVE A WEDDING TO PLAN
3. NEW YEARS RESOLUTION TO FINISH THEIR WEDDING PLANNING

1. NEW YEAR’S or CHRISTMAS ENGAGEMENTS

Christmas is probably one of the days that, us guys, think it’s a great idea to proposed to that loved one.

Our thought probably go something like this: “We’ve gotten her sweaters, perfumes, dresses, jewlery… We love her, what else can we get her?? Oh, yea a huge diamond engagement ring, she will surely love me now!!!”

Ok, so a bit of humor there, but it really is one of the most popular days to get engaged. So once Christmas is over and New years has gone by. The first thing they have to do, is start searching for people to do their wedding. Everything is usually closed New Years and Christmas day, so most Brides go online to do a few web searches to see who the top dogs industry are. Where do they go…. It’s almost a verb…. Google.com, they ‘Google’ their vendors. Ok so it is a verb, just not in the dictionary yet.

From the comfort of their home, they get to read your websites and your Sales Copy to see if you have what they are looking for, more importantly if you can convince them to buy from you!

2.THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER, OH YEA, WE HAVE A WEDDING TO PLAN

During the Holidays, it’s hard to do any research for wedding related planning. Most brides, well most of my brides at least, do all their planning all the way up to November, after Thanksgiving, they enter into Holiday Mode, where, if they have the time, they will completely procrastinate their wedding planning up until the holidays are over. Unless their wedding is the Month of January, February, or March, chances are they will not be looking online for a wedding vendor. This is also a huge part of why there is such a huge rush of brides to your webstie. If you don’t know this… shame on you.. you don’t know what you are missing… Top paying brides looking for wedding vendors, again, from the comfort of their very own home.

3. NEW YEARS RESOLUTION TO FINISH THEIR WEDDING PLANNING

Ok, this one is not as popular, but it is a reason why brides rush your site during the month of Januray.  Brides make it a part of their new years resolution to finish that harsh, endless, job of planning their wedding. Planning a wedding is hard, it’s no easy task, that’s what Wedding Planners are there for. But a lot of brides decide to do it for themselves and before you know it, they are behind on all their tasks and their goals have gone out the window. So they have to do something like, make it a new years resolution to finish planning the wedding by March 13th… The day before their wedding!

BONUS: THERE ARE NO OTHER HUGE DISTRACTIONS

Here is a bonus reason why brides rush to your websites during the month of Januray. For once there is a month with no distractions! There may be a Bridal Show or two to attend, but for the most part. There are no huge distractions during January. The brides have time to relax, clear their head, go to their computer and calmly take a few minutes to do a quick search and find the local talents. What better way to relax than to the calm sounds of your home, sitting in front of your computer, and searching for vendors to fulfill their needs and expectations!

Why did I not Put Bridal Shows?

Ok, so most of you are wondering, why would I not put Bridal shows like the Houston Bridal Extravaganza, or the Bridal Symposium, or Sonja’s Bridal Showcase… Well, mainly because I don’t attend those events and I sitll get more traffic than 90% of the people that do attend. Most of the time it’s the exact same brides… Why?  Good question, I will answer that in a later post, just remind me. Don’t get me wrong, bridal shows are a great way to drive traffic to your website, but what’s the point, you’ve already had a one-on-one with the bride, a personal Sale is a lot more important to me than a remote sale, or selling them through your website. I think the reason you want people on your website is to drive them to call you or set up an appointment. Not to drive them away once you meet them. That is not good business and it makes no sense to me why people tell the bride, when SHE’S RIGHT IN FRONT FO YOU, “just go to the webstie.” My interpretation, if I were the bride, you don’t want my business.

Compare the Results

Lastly, you want proof. You want to see that I’m not just making this up. Of that I’m sure… So I logged on to my Google Analytics program to get a display of the past few months of traffic. Additionally, I have another visitor tracking program on my website, which I think is more accurate and I will display some details from there.

In the image above, you can see that starting from September 2008, wedding inquiries died down little by little all the way until December 2008, and in January 2009, they just sky rocketed almost doubling the number from December.

In the image above you can see the actual numbers as reported by the visitor tracking program I use on my website, which is called Trace Watch. That is probably the greatest, or second greatest, tool I installed on my website. Without it I am blind as to what to do and more importantly, when to do it. And if what I did resulted in a positive or negative outcome.

What do the terms above mean?

• Unique Visitors: The number of unique visitors to my website that day, or under the months, that month. The way it is measured is that it counts each person once per day. So if I visit my website more than once, it will only count me one time. However, the next day, it will count me again, but just one time.
• Sessions: This one counts me or any other person, every time the access the website, leave and come back again. So if a bride visits me once in the morning and once in the evening, it will count her twice, as two sessions.
• Page Views: Pretty self explanatory, the number of pages viewed by the visitor, or bride. Page Views are also known as hits by other trackers.
• Robot PViews: This one is important, it tells you how many robots visited your website in one day. Robots are sent by the search engines to gather new information. This information is then stored by their databases and displayed when a user goes to the search engine to perform a search. Robots, are not counted in the Unique views nor are they counted anywhere else.
• The rest are daily averages of all the other results. Those are more important on the far right hand side, where you can see your daily average, for that month.

As you can see, by the above images, my DJ Website gets over 150 Hits a day, which is awesome, it’s more than most wedding directories and most local wedding websites can get. Those people you pay money to be on their website… They don’t get nearly as many hits as Elegante Entertainment DJ Website does on a daily, consistent basis.

YOU DON’T NEED THEM. Stopy paying them money for nothing!!!!

Remember the Bridal Extravaganza Show in Houston??? Well even because of that, I got some traffic. Wanna know how???

Well if you are smart enough to figure it out, you can try it on your website, and you will see for yourself… Below are two images,  One for the number of total visitors the Elegante Entertainment DJ Service and the other of what the people who arrived at Elegante Entertainment DJ were searching for (keep in mind that the Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show was on January the 10th and 11th of 2009):

These are the results for One Day, through One Search Engine. The first image show the number of results for three days and many different search engines, the second image shows you what people actually typed into the search engine to arrive at Elegante Entertainment’s DJ Website.

Well, that’s all for today, that should get you going on installing a blog onto your website. They are effective and they work. It may be too late for this January, but more than right on time for next January: January 2010!

Happy Bloggin!

–
|o| Simply Frank |o|
Bloggin Wedding DJ in Houston

I was asked by a reader recently that same question:

How long should any wedding vendor go before responding to an Email inquiry?

His/Her argument was that he/she does not like answering an email immediately after receiving it because it makes it seem like they have no work and are desperate to take the event.

I think that’s a load of BS that you feed yourself so that you can make yourself feel important.

I usually answer an email or a phone call immediately because I know if I call a business or a friend, I want to talk to them at that exact moment. Not 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days later. It’s then and there that I want to talk to them.

It’s important, if not vital that you return phone calls, or in this case, emails as soon as you get them. It’s a part of the selling Psychology. They are interested and more open to trusting you when they call you as opposed to hours or days after they’ve called you. Who knows if a few hours after the initial phone call they will have time to talk to you, or if they’ve already found someone who did return the phone call or actually answered the phone, or if they even recall calling you.

How many times have you gone to a store, and this happens in just about any store, pizza place, or restaurant. You stand in line for minutes or hours, you get right to the counter and the phone rings. Who is that clerk going to assist first??? Of course, the person on the phone. WHY? Why is it so important to answer the phone when you know that the person right in front of you might give you a hard time for doing so?

Now I don’t know for a fact, but I can bet that their managers and supervisors advice them to do so and have probably stressed the importance of the phone calls.

Phone calls and emails should be answered immediately or as soon as you can. It’s people calling you to find out about your products or your services. They have taken an action, and action that most people who are not interested do not take. They have an immediate urge for you to answer their questions, or come to their rescue, about/with your services. If you don’t do it, then in that short time that they have, they will find someone else who will. I know I’ve heard the comment, many, many times.

We loved the fact that you answered our call/email almost immediately after we contacted you (if not immediately)

I think that fills brides/clients with a sense of security, where as not answering an email or the phone immediately fills them with a sense of doubt.

One recent bride said the same thing about the main reason she went with me was that I always answered her calls and always answered her concerns. Whereas the other DJ’s could go days without calling her back and when they did, they would not give her straight answers. She also said that the preferred vendor at the venue did not call her back until the week of the event! WTF (dubya-tee-eff)? He shall remain nameless, but that was very-unimpressive.

So the answer to the question, for me, it is to answer an email immediately if not as soon as possible. It feels good, and it’s impressive, to have an email response almost as soon as you hit the send button. I think it makes the bride feel like someone there, and some one cares about her, and if they are that quick in responding to an email the they can only imagine how helpful the person on the other side will be when it relates the the most important day in her life. And winning over the bride’s emotions is almost guaranteed to be a right step in winning the trust and the opportunity for you be of service to the bride that wonderful day.

Happy Bloggin!

–
Francisco H. Perez
Bloggin Professional DJ in Houston

Yaro Starak, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, has published a podcast interview with Alborz Fallah, a former Blog Mastermind student.

Alborz started writing about something he loved, Exotic Cars , and now he is making a full-time living from bloggin.

listen to the interview to hear how he did it: Audio Interview.

This is a great interview, and it explains at least one concept that you can use right away; writing the titles of your blog posts to get the most traffic to your website and to rank high for your targeted keywords. Also you can understand how to use what you yourself would type in the search engines to find your website. It will open your eyes and your mind to whole new world of online marketing.

Go now and listen to this Audio Interview.

Happy Bloggin

Every Post I write has specific objective, whether it’s to inform, to teach, or to prove something to work, I write to create something useful for my readers.

Most people still don’t trust blogs as a form of marketing, or think it’s not worth the time and effort, or whatever excuse they’ve made up in order not to jump into bloggin’. So this post is for those of you…

In my Houston DJ website, I recently published an article promoting the upcoming Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, the main objective is, of course, to inform my readers and to make them aware of the show and how successful it can be to attend. I think all brides will find it useful, so I promoted it because I believe in it. The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) objective is, of course to rank high for the words Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show, on the search engines and have the brides click on my link and get some free publicity that way.

This can be referred to as white hat SEO, since I am not doing anything illegal or anything that goes against any ethics. I am simply using the power of my blog to put my website in front of where I think the brides will go, by providing valuable information to them… as a result Google.com awards me with a very high ranking for my website.

Want Proof?

Google (without quotes): “Houston Bridal Extravagazna Show”, “Bridal Extravaganza Show”, or “Houston Bridal Extravaganza” and see the results for yourselves. Also notice how you will get different results for each set of keywords.

If you notice, my DJ in Houston Website, FHPEntertainment.com shows up in the top of the search results (in cases over huge corporate websites like the Houston Chronicle: See Picture above), and that’s only because of the length of time that I’ve been bloggin’ consistently. Again, the hardest part is getting started.

So, this is just one of the perks of consistent bloggin’, building up great content for both the search engines and the readers.

Oh, and of course the end results is, more visiting my website, seeing my name and face, and of course getting to trust me because I’m everywhere.

Happy Bloggin!

–
DJ Francisco
Bloggin DJ in Houston