Very few is done to educate wedding vendors how to properly run their blogs. It’s exciting news to hear that there will be an upcoming bloggin Bootcamp here in Houston. If you want to learn the correct way to run a blog, this might be an event worth checking out. $150 is not a lot compared the the benefits you WILL receive once you properly run your blog. As stated in my previous Post, My blog currently brings in over $100 a month by doing NOTHING, just sitting there and hosting Links for other advertisers. And that’s beside the amount of business that is brought to my website as a result of a properly run Blog!  Most, I would say over 80%, of the people who already have a blog are doing it incorrectly, losing out on a huge opportunity that is the internet, and missing out on a lot of money and business because their blog is not run correctly.

So, there could be nothing but great benefits from attending any form of training on how to properly Blog!

You already know why you should blog.  We’ll show you how.

Blogging Bootcamp :: Houston
presented by Liene Stevens of Blue Orchid Designs and The Smart Planner™

Who: Any wedding professional who wants to effectively leverage online media to grow their business
When: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Where: For Your Memories at the Lofts of Post Oak
Cost: $150 per person

Since the launch of the Blue Orchid Blog in 2006, it has grown to include over 3000 unique daily visitors and is partially to credit for the launch of two new Blue Orchid Designs offices on the East Coast.  In the Blogging Bootcamp, Liene will share specific strategies and techniques she has personally used to grow the Blue Orchid Designs blog to where it is today.

This workshop is open to all wedding professionals, not just wedding planners.  Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis so reserve your spot now!  Laptops are optional and lunch will be provided.

Topics covered will include:
*How to discover and leverage your blogging voice
*How to maximize your blogging ROI
*How to develop killer content – consistently
*How to set short term and long term goals for your blog
*How to effectively analyze your stats and blog traffic
*How to increase your readership and keep them coming back for more
*Specific strategies and techniques to use your blog to improve your main website’s SEO or “findability” on Google
*How to promote your brand through your blog’s design and content
*Maintaining professional boundaries while still being personable
*And more!

The Blogging Bootcamp will not be a class on blogging philosophy.  You already know that blogging is a good idea.  We’ll be showing you how to do it so that it is worth your time. No topic will be off the table, and any questions you may have will be fair game.

This event would not be possible without the generous support of Beginnings Wedding and Event Planning and For Your Memories Wedding Consulting.

Questions? Please send an email to workshops{at}thesmartplanner.com.

The fine print: Payment must be made in full prior to the event and is non-refundable.  Payment may be made via credit card or PayPal at the Eventbrite website.  Lunch will be provided and is included in the cost of the event.  Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. In the event that the workshop is cancelled due to not meeting minimum registration requirements, a full refund will be issued to each registrant via PayPal.  Prices and terms are subject to change.

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

All Brides are GO!

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.

Elegante Entertainment Web Site Statistics

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.

Elegante Entertainment Traffic Results for December, January, & February

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):

Elegante Entertainment Search Results for the Bridal Extravaganza Show

Google Results for Elegante Entertainment on January 8th, 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

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