Come play and learn in New Orleans for The Special Event 2010.

I will be there to speak on social media for wedding professionals. This is a must attend for anyone marketing to today’s brides. If want to reach them you have to go where they are; and social media is the place.

Here is what I will be teaching in this powerful 1:30 Seminar. Don’t miss the boat. 1/14/2010   1:15 PM -3:15 PM

What is Social media Marketing and just how do you do it? Blogs: Why you need one, where to get one, how to write effective posts for both readers and SEO, how to read & understand your stats. Twitter & Facebook: How to use both to effectively increase your exposure in the market place and increase your readership. Email marketing: Best practices, effective design and writing, and reading and understanding your tracking stats.

Deliverables:
1.  Come away with a deep understanding of the new media available.
2.  Who can benefit from using these new tools.
3.  How to effectively craft a blog and it’s posts for maximum results.
4.  How to put together an effective campaign using a full spectrum of social media tools.

We just completed another social media dialogue website for The Something Blue Shoppe, a full service bridal and prom salon located in Hartselle Alabama.

Sarah Morris, the owner, contacted me after hearing a presentation I did on Doing Social Media Right for 2Be University in St.Louis. Sarah wanted all the advantages that goes along with our all WordPress based websites, including:

• Easy do it yourself content additions, upgrades, and site maintenance.
• Complete automatic interaction and cross posting with Facebook and Twitter
• Integrated blog
• Low cost hosting
• And the truly best SEO that only WordPress based websites can deliver.

We updated the look and layout, while still keeping the established branding of The Something Blue Shoppe

After just one lesson, Sarah is doing her own updates like a pro. I wish you could have heard the excitement in her voice when she realized just how easy her new site was to manage.

Please take a look.

From the Archives of Think

I have gotten an earful lately from the photographers about price. I hear too many considering dropping their prices to compete with all the lower priced (read less experienced) options out there. Holy moly!! What are you people thinking?

Are you marketing the intangibles you offer? I have had this conversation over the course of the last few years with the bridal salons. I still am as a matter of fact; some get it, some don’t. Now I think I need to direct it to the rest of those industry professionals that have been at this for a while, that have built up a sterling reputation, that have become remarkable but are now running scared of the newbies nipping at their heels.

You need to take a good hard look at the intangibles you offer that they can not. I am not just talking about your product, I am talking about all the things you have learned to do over the years that they have not. It may be as simple as the way you package your products. I know a photographer that sends out his proofs in a beautiful custom designed box. I know a florist who deliverers her bouquets in special disposable vases so they stay in water as long as possible, even between photos. I know caterers that never have a wrinkled linen or a water spot on the silver, I know others that can’t say that. What are those things that you do that you don’t even think of anymore. The little touches, the extras that you don’t notice but that make all the difference.

Get your staff together to brainstorm. Ask the vendors that refer you. Ask your clients why they picked you. You may be surprised to find out just how spectacular you are. Make a list of all the things out of the bare minimum that you do for your clients. Let me give you an example…

When I did cakes I always put them on custom cake boards to match the cake. Never thought anything about it, I just hated those I would see with foil on them. One day a florist said to me that they were always happy when they knew I was doing the cake because they knew they wouldn’t have to try and hide the base. I added that to my marketing and the brides loved it. “Oh cool, custom board” To them it was a perk, to me it was just standard procedure.

I know a florist that has had two different brides mention his wonderful collection of containers. Now he is using them in his marketing. Not only are brides finding it a huge selling point but he is making an upcharge on rental. Duh!

Find out what you do differently than all the rest and find out why that may be important to your target market. Then you have to find a way to highlight it.

With bridal salons, one of the biggies that a bride should expect over ordering online was the way their gown arrived. If you order online the gown arrives inside out, compressed into a box that you or I would never believe it could possibly fit it. Needless to say it is a wrinkled mess. A bridal salon receives the gown the same way; the difference is that before the bride see her gown it has been steamed and fluffed and is looking fairy tale perfect. I suggested to salons that they buy a very cheap gown online, unpack it and put in on display just like it arrived along with the box. It made the point.

None of this will stop all the price shoppers. Nothing will; but now at least you aren’t having to defend your price with nothing to point at. Sell everything that you do, that is what makes you remarkable.

To read more articles like this, become a subscriber at Think Like A Bride

Due to the tremendous response by Bludomain users seeking to enhance their website’s search potential, we have decided to offer a $50 discount to all current Bludomain users for the new Kertesz2 platform.

Now it’s a breeze to take your beautiful (but poor search performing) Bludomain Flash website and turn it into a fully functioning dialogue website with a minimum of effort by wrapping your existing Flash site in a search engine friendly HTML site with blog capabilities.  Your Kertesz2 enhanced Bludomain site can even easily interact with Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin if you wish.

Kertesz2 finally provides Bludomain users an easy drag and drop way to create a compelling SEO powerful replacement for the standard Bludomain splash page. And like Bludomain, everything you need to manage and configure the Kertesz2 site expansion and blog is all contained within the site’s easy to navigate administration features.

With Kertesz2, we will install, configure, and make any adjustments to your hosting account.   Next you make the styling changes you want to make it yours alone (Your Bludomain site will continue to function normally) Then when you are done customizing let us know, and will make any adjustments and make sure all the SEO features are optimized, make sure it all works together and within 24 hours we will make it live.

This gives you the beautiful Flash portfolio galleries of Bludomain with an SEO improved replacement for your splash page plus a fully functional blog with the ability to post images up to 900 pixels wide. Because Kertesz2  is built on the tremendously popular WordPress platform it offers unlimited pages and categories, thus allowing users to combine all the pieces of their online marketing into one site.   You also get the ease of a fully widgetized  frontpage  that allows for drag and drop set up.

So, all you Bludomain fans, here’s the deal:

For a limited time, you can use coupon code BLUDOMAIN at check out and receive $50 off the standard price of $397 for Kertesz2 . And we’ll install and configure it, transfer all your existing blog content and wrap your BluDomain site for you.

To see Kertesz2 work with a Bludomain site visit Cathy Ericson’s site

Click here to find out more about Kertesz2 and purchase your copy today. Don’t get left behind, this deal only runs for a limited time

Announcing release of Kertesz² our new WordPress based full dialog website for Professional Photographers. Featuring an easy to configure landing page and impressive dynamic image content gallery Kertesz² offers style and ease of use. Kertesz² is an excellent full featured stand alone website, or ideal companion configured to enhance and increase the search rank of Flash based photographers’ template sites like Bludomain. Kertesz² is provided to you fully setup, tested, SEO optimized and integrated on the webhost of your choice. It can even allow your existing site to remain in place, while your new site is being completed.

Take advantage of our introductory special between now and July 20th For this limited period you can buy Kertesz² for only $297 not the regular $397. Be quick this offer expires 11:59pm 7-20

Click here and use coupon code KERTESZ2INTRO

Photographers have long been considered visionaries of our industry in terms of internet marketing. They were among the first on the web and the first to see the value in the heavy use of images in marketing to brides. But in choosing their website platform they have faced a dilemma, select a Flash template like Bludomain for its optical appeal or choose a standard HTML type site sacrificing optics but getting much better search engine traffic. They know they need a visually beautiful site to show off their images and talent. But the brides, over 90% of whom use Google to help plan their wedding, never see the photographer’s website in the search listings. Kertesz² is the remedy

Building on the inputs of our clients and the advancements in WordPress over the last year we have totally reinvented Kertesz, with Kertesz². The code base is all new! (and 30% larger.) Fully compatible with WordPress 2.8 and using all the 2.8 features. Compatible with the past and even better, it takes advantage of today’s new features in an even easier to use and customize theme. If you are currently using WordPress it is easy to add Kertesz².

Using the technology of Kertesz² we have increased our clients website traffic 500% in less that 4 weeks. We have even taken brand new domains to front page Google search search results, also in less than a month.

Kertesz² retains all the features of the old Kertesz, updated. Better, more interactive, easier to design main page options, improved photo galleries and contact forms. Easier to style and with more impressive graphics. If you already have a Flash based website, like Bludomain, with the inherently poor search potential, Kertesz² can easily replace your splash page, making it easy to add search friendly content, integrate your blog and Twitter and Facebook feeds and rapidly move your existing Flash site towards the front of Google.

Regardless of your situation Kertesz² will increase your site traffic and prospective clients. If you have any questions just send me an email.

Last year we began pioneering the concept of using WordPress not only for a blog, but even better using it’s content management system for a full website including the blog. Our clients saw instant search marketing results. Plus the new found ability to manage their own websites with lower costs. The win-win of a web/blogsite.

For the last few weeks I have been working to add a shopping cart to a new WordPress web/blogsite I am creating for a friend. We are doing the full site from art to design to programming/implementation. The purpose of the site is to market Trollbeads. The goal was to have a small business affordable website, that can be managed by the business owner and with superior front page organic search results, so the choice of WordPress was pretty quick.

But what for the cart? Third party shopping carts even from Yahoo or GoDaddy can cost $50 to $100+ a month plus transaction and processing fees. We wanted a less costly option with better styling options. We looked at ZenCart, osCommerce and WPe-Commerce. All of them were good and provided an excellent low cost self hosted cart with the ability extension. I was familiar with ZenCart from some other projects but wanted to try something a little different and that would not have the standard Zencart look.

WP e-Commerce is what we used for Trollbeads Trail. Like many WordPress plugins, it is free with full functionality and the upgrades with a grid layout and really cool drag and drop cart are very inexpensive. It is a little complex to setup (all shopping carts are to some degree), but very straight forward once you understand the application’s terms (the developers are from New Zealand).

The finished look is outstanding and the SEO power over the first 30 days has been even better than expected. So much so that we cloned it for a second site for the same customer replacing the existing website for her jewelry store, Santa Fe Trail Jewelry.

This is excellent for anyone wanting to increase their item sales or rental potential while keeping expenses as low as possible. Take a look at the finished site, remember it is all WordPress even the shopping cart, and let us show you how we can put this feature to work for you -