Optimizing Your Photos Just Got More Powerful

March 26, 2013 By ndulj Leave a Comment

You know where I stand on how powerful the photos on your website are. If you somehow missed this, read this article on labeling your images for SEO.

In a nutshell…

Today’s bride search by images.

You have to label your images for the search engines to find them.

Well I have just discovered a new tool that will make those images even more powerful. It’s called ThingLink and allows you to embed links, music, videos and even more labels in your images.

Here is a slide show that explains it all

Here it is in use, Click on the icons.

I can’t wait to play with this over on Wedding Dish.

Here are the details.

It’s free.

It’s a breeze to use.

It has analytics!

You can install it on your website as a WordPress plugin.

It connects with just about anything you could want from YouTube and Vimeo to Sptify and Sound Cloud, Facebook and Twitter.

The images on your website just got even more powerful.

Yes, it adds another step but oh it is sooooo worth it.

Filed Under: Announcement, Marketing, Social Media, Website marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: blogging, Marketing, search optimization, SEO, ThingLink, Website marketing, wedding marketing, WordPress

Do You Know Where Your Website Traffic Is Coming From?

February 26, 2013 By ndulj Leave a Comment

I’m sure you are checking the stats on your website, but are you paying special attention to where your website traffic is coming from? Everybody check to see if there traffic is up and how many visitors hit a particular article. I pay even closer attention on where my traffic is coming from and capitalize on that.

Hello, my name is Christine and I am a stats addict.

Social media is one of the top traffic drivers today, right behind Google(if you are doing it right). Because of that,I have people ask me all the time if they should post on Facebook, or is Pinterest more important; but wait, what about Twitter and should I be on Linkedin. I hate to break it to you, but there is no hard and fast rule.

You all know that I run 2 very different websites under the Think masthead. Where the traffic comes from is very different for each.

For Think, Linked in drives a ton of traffic, so does StumbleUpon. On theDish, it’s Pinterest and Google image search.

This isn’t a guess, it is what the stats tell me. So what to you think I do with this information? Why I exploit it to the nth degree!

As soon as I publish a post on Think, I use the socialize buttons on the post to send it to my groups on Linkedin and to StubleUpon because I know they are already interested in what I have to say. I have Linkedin set to email me every time there is a like or a comment on one of the discussions I have started. I respond as close to immediately as possible. Yes, I also have the app on my phone. Oh sure I put it on my Facebook fan page and if it has an image that goes to my marketing board on Pinterest.

Over on the Dish, it’s Google image and Pinterest. To optimize the Dish I pay special attention to labeling my images. Yes it takes time but it really pays off. I have the Pin it button enabled to make it easy for everyone to share. Not only others, but I use it myself as soon as the post goes live.

I am sure there are some of you thinking that if Linkedin works so well on Think, why not use it for the Dish. The answer is that they have 2 different targets and I pay attention to my stats. It all ties in with yesterday’s post where I said to forget about your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths.

Why should I beat my head against the wall trying to get Think noticed more on Pinterest when I can really soar on Linked in?

Where is your traffic coming from and are you exploiting that to it’s maximum potential?

Do a little testing and see which social media network is best for you.

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: internet marketing, search optimization, SEO, Target Marketing, Website traffic, wedding marketing

Tip for a Successful Blog I Learned from The Wedding Dish

October 25, 2012 By ndulj 1 Comment

I don’t know if you have been following the changes taking place on my other blog, Wedding Dish, but I thought it was time to share it here.

I started the Dish back in 2006 as a way to speak directly to brides. At the time Think was subscription only mainly because I didn’t want brides to read it but with a name like Think Like A Bride, I knew that they would find it. So I gave them somewhere to go.

Wedding Dish began to take shape as a curation type website long before anything like Pinterest existed. Rather than post entire montages from real weddings and style shoots, I would post single topic articles. Think posts on guest book alternatives, winter wedding decor and cakes. I think you get the idea.

Frankly the dang thing was just rockin’ along and I was passionate about it and having fun.

Then I had some things happen in my life and I just couldn’t face another happy-happy wedding post. Oh, I tried, but I just didn’t have it in me. I posted here and there but without any spirit or dedication. About this same time the web design and consulting part of Think Like A Bride really took off and I didn’t give the Wedding Dish another thought.

Recently, I started seeing a bunch of pins from the Dish come up on Pinterest. So I wondered to myself, ” What the heck is this all about?” Well OMG! That little puppy had been rockin’ along on its own steam, never losing a beat. In fact, the monthly visitors had doubled. WHAT??

Now mind you, this site had laid there unloved and unkempt for nearly 2 years. With all I have learned about website design in that time I took one look at it and declared it ‘butt-ugly’ and a visual embarrassment!

Over the course of a weekend I gave it a complete overhaul, new look, new theme, fully mobile responsive.

Then I started to really dig into the stats to see what was making this such a successful blog and share those tips with you.

Well, it is everything I have been telling you regarding web design, how brides search, how to create content and how to optimize it all.

Tips for a Successful blog that I learned from the Wedding Dish

Start with great structure. I swear by WordPress and Genesis.
Know your target market and speak directly to them.
Split your site between image heavy posts and keyword rich copy.
Optimize your images like your life depended on it.
Give your visitors very easy ways to share.

If you thought none of that mattered, then explain to me why I have images that have been pinned over 65,000 times?

Keep watching Wedding Dish. I have once again found that passion and am ready to rock this thing. As you may have seen, I am taking submissions for images, detail shots please. Contact me at weddingdish@thinklikeabride.com or check the Submissions page for the full details

Filed Under: Announcement, Back to Basics, Building Your Business, Inspiration, Website Design Tagged With: Announcement, search optimization, SEO, website design, WordPress

A Word About Keywords to Attract Brides

June 22, 2012 By ndulj Leave a Comment

By now everyone knows that you have to use keywords on your website to boost your search ranking, but are you using the right keywords to attract brides?

Huh, what? Of course you do! If you are savvy you come up with some keywords you think describe your business and run it through the Google Adwords tool and refine it a bit and you are good to go. Well that is true ~ IF ~ you start from the right assumption.

Here is the problem I see most often, you are starting with the words that YOU and YOUR INDUSTRY use to describe your product. You should start with the words brides use to describe your product.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

I was working with a lovely woman who had been in the men’s formal wear industry forever. At the time I was webmaster for a membership site that had vendors upload their own business listing. She called me and was pretty mad that when she searched the site for “tuxedo’ her business didn’t come up. Off to her listing I went to see what was happening. The word “tuxedo” never appeared in her listing! Every where she could have used “tuxedo” she had used “formal wear” which is, of course, the correct term in the industry. It isn’t, however, the word anyone outside the industry would use to search for it.

Google is pretty damn smart but it is only an algorithm, not an intuitive brain. It doesn’t understand what a tuxedo is, it just pulls the word or related words.

I did a little experiment on the Adword Tool and here are the result. The search term Formal Wear had 832,000 Global Monthly Searches. In related terms the highest was Formal Wear Dresses with 550,00 Global Monthly Searches. (not even close) The search for Tuxedo yielded much different results; 1,500,000 Global Monthly Results. The only related term that even came close I was Tuxedos. Which keyword should my tuxedo client use?

Yesterday I was working with a bridal salon on tagging images for their website. I asked her point-blank, how would a bride ask for a gown like this? The words she used were much different from the almost clinical description that the image came with.

You have to remember that your brides don’t have the same level of knowledge of your segment of the industry as you do.

You need to listen to your brides. How do they describe your product? That is how they will search for it. It may sound silly to you, but not to them.

Take a stroll through the brides forums on sites like Wedding Wire. How are they describing what you do. You may be pretty surprised.

You know the beautiful lighting used for monograms on walls and dance floors is a gobo, but they may search for “monogram for dance floor”

Why put all that work into refining your keywords and keyword density if you are using the wrong keywords to begin with!

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Marketing, Website marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: keywords, search optimization, SEO

Why Do You Blog?

June 6, 2012 By ndulj 2 Comments

I bet the majority of you answered, “For SEO” or “Because I was told to do it to market my business.”

Well, those are both really good reasons to blog. The real reason you should be blogging is to market your business. Unfortunately, too many of you are acting more like you are trying to market your blog than you are trying to market your business!

If you are modeling your blogging on sites like Style Me Pretty you are missing the point. Sites like SMP are pro-blogs that are trying to build eyeballs because they are selling advertising. You on the other hand are trying to sell your service or product. There is a big difference in the anatomy of the posts.

Here are some tips for writing good blog posts for your wedding business

You need a catchy headline, solid content that applies to your business in some way, good keyword density and a call to action.

The post that sparked this was for a banquet hall and was talking about the trend of Candy Stations. What they said was what a candy station was, how it worked and using it to carry your color theme.

What it didn’t contain was images of such stations at their facility or a call to action. Telling your visitors about a trend without also telling them how you can implement it for them is a waste of pixels.

One thing they could have done was showcase their own displays. Even better would be to show visitors that they have a lovely selection of containers that brides could use for their candies, making it a kind of plug and play solution.

“Look at all the great candy station containers we have for you to use! We save you the bother of having to buy a dozen or more glass jars or vases that you just have to store afterwards.

We take care of all that and you just do the fun part: picking out all the yummy candy!”

How much more powerful is that?

Finish the post with a strong call to action:

“Call Denise today at (555)555-5555 to get started designing the candy bar for your event at XVZ Banquets. She even has a whole list of the best places it get all the yummy candies.”

Now you have highlighted a trend and showed how you can help to implement it for your bride. You followed it up with a call to action.

Another type of post that you must have on your blog is showcases of your work. Photographers and florists are usually very good at this. What they aren’t good at is telling the reader how they can translate this to them.

You have shown them beauty, now make them believe they can have it for their own and that you are just the person to do it for them.

What made shooting Brad and Angie’s engagement photos so much fun was shooting at (random cool location). Call us today to discus all the amazing hidden locations we have discovered to make your engagement photos just as fun.”

Don’t forget the pitch.

Speaking of which, do you need help with your blogging? Find out about my Blog Post Analysis Package and then drop me an email, I can help!

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, wedding marketing Tagged With: Blog writing, blogging, bridal marketing, search optimization, Services

Brilliant Wedding Marketing

March 14, 2012 By ndulj 4 Comments

Marketing is tough. How do you decide where to start, where to invest and how to design your marketing material.

You are getting pitched daily by this one and that one telling you have to advertise with them.

“You have to do print!”

“I can deliver (insert ridiculous number here) leads to you a month!”

“If you want to do well in this market you have to do this bridal show!”

Who do you believe?

The only real way to know what to do and who to believe is to build a marketing plan specifically for your business and stick to it. Don’t you wish someone would just tell you step by step how to market.

BINGO!

Brilliant Wedding Marketing is the step by step guide to building your marketing plan in a logical, layered way.

It tells you where to start and why. As you grow your business, add a layer.

Not only where and why, but how to perfectly execute each facet of your brilliant plan. From what to include in your website to how to design an ad for print, here are the answers. What about Email? It’s covered! Outrageous marketing? You didn’t think I would leave that out did you?

It’s all here in one clear, logical road map to marketing your wedding business brilliantly!

What do you spend in a year on marketing your wedding business? Isn’t it worth $19.95 to make sure you get it right? You bet it is. One decent print add will run you at least $2400! Isn’t it worth less than 20 bucks to get that right?

I know there are about a million books on marketing, but how many of them are written specifically for this wacky industry known as WEDDINGS? More than that, how many of them are written by someone you already know and trust? One of the reasons you read THINK is for marketing advice in a clear and easy to understand style. No bullshit, no gobldygook; just straight talk from someone who has been there.

Brilliant Wedding Marketing boils it all down to a step by step plan to keep you on track with your marketing.

Get the e-book today!

$19.95
Still haven’t bought Bridal Show Success? Let me tell you, Bridal shows are a key part of your marketing plan and you also have to do those right. If you buy both ebooks I’ll take $5.00 off.

Buy the e-book bundle and market like a pro.

$29.90

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Filed Under: Announcement, bridal shows, eBooks, email marketing, Marketing, Website Design, wedding marketing Tagged With: advertising, bridal marketing, bridal shows, Brilliant Wedding Marketing, internet marketing, lead lists, Marketing, search optimization, Target Marketing, website design, Website marketing, Wedding Business Success, wedding marketing

A Magical Affair

February 5, 2012 By ndulj Leave a Comment

A couple of years ago I put together a blog for Courtney Hammon’s company A Magical Affair. This year she decided to finally bag her old flash website in favor turning that blog into a complete website. Yeah! Courtney. Now you get all the SEO power of WordPress and Genesis.

Of course we did some updates but kept the same basic look she loved in the blog. Click the image to visit the site.

Filed Under: Announcement, Clients, Portfolio, Website marketing Tagged With: blogsites, search optimization, SEO, web/blogsite, website design, Website marketing, Wedding Business Success

Fisher’s Tudor House

February 2, 2012 By ndulj 3 Comments

It may not look like it on the surface, but this was a huge project. The mandate was to take two very dated, very old school websites and bring them into 2012. There were so many pages and interior links that just sorting it out required a flow chart. The SEO was Jurassic but losing ranking in such a competitive market wasn’t an option. Top it all off with an eCommerce component and a former webmaster that didn’t want to be a team player. I even pulled in old friend Marc Fuller to tweak the SEO.

The shining light was a client I just love. He understood the challenges and listened to my advice. Now he is no longer held hostage and is amazed at how easily he can update the new site himself.

Fisher’s Tudor House 2012

Just so you can get some idea of where we started…

thanks Pete.

Filed Under: Announcement, Portfolio, Website Design, Website marketing Tagged With: internet marketing, search optimization, SEO, website design, WordPress

Facebook or Your Website? What’s More Important?

October 25, 2011 By ndulj 2 Comments

I was out trolling the internet for inspiration this morning and ran across a little website I rather liked until I saw this on the portfolio page…

For current photos, please visit our blog or facebook fan page.

Excuse me but that is exactly backwards. Exactly Backwards. Your social media presence is (or should be) designed to funnel people to your website, not the other way around.

Your website is the main hub of all your marketing. Everything else you do should be designed to get them to that point. It is where you have (or should) the most real-estate to capture their undivided attention. It is where your contact forms are, your full portfolio, your pricing information and for goodness sake your freaking sale pitch. Why would you use it to send them somewhere else?????

But wait! there’s more…

What this one statement told me is that first off, the website was not designed with the clients needs in mind. You, as the site owner, should have full control of your site. You should have full reign to update any and everything on it. Moreover, you should have been trained on how to use it. If you weren’t, you are being held captive by your web designer.

Then there is the issue of the blog being on a different url. Why? Your blog should be a fully integrated part of your website. Your blog is one of your best SEO tools. It is a near effortless way to add important keywords and tagged images for the search engines to delight over. Why put that much effort into a blog in the hopes that people will make the leap to your website. Dang it, they should already be there.

{can’t your tell I am just slightly irritated}

How about this…

Your blog is an integrated part of your website, just another page really. You work hard and keep updating your blog. The best of the best pictures you also ad to your gallery/portfolio. Every time you do that, your site is set up to automatically post it to both your Facebook page and your Twitter account. Now doesn’t that sound simple?
How about…If you have a website, a separate blog and are still putting all you effort into your Facebook page you are working way to hard. Just like the hub that it is, your website should not only be the central point you bring everyone, but it should also radiate out your hard work.

One page to rule them all

or is that to Lord of the Rings?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Rants & Raves, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: blogsites, search optimization, SEO, websites

Tip for a Successful Blog I Learned from The Wedding Dish

Tips for a Successful blog that I learned from the Wedding Dish

A Word About Keywords to Attract Brides

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Why put all that work into refining your keywords and keyword density if you are using the wrong keywords to begin with!

Why Do You Blog?

Here are some tips for writing good blog posts for your wedding business

Brilliant Wedding Marketing

Brilliant Wedding Marketing is the step by step guide to building your marketing plan in a logical, layered way.

It’s all here in one clear, logical road map to marketing your wedding business brilliantly!

Brilliant Wedding Marketing boils it all down to a step by step plan to keep you on track with your marketing.

Buy the e-book bundle and market like a pro.

Your Shopping Cart

A Magical Affair

Fisher’s Tudor House

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Brilliant Wedding Marketing

Brilliant Wedding Marketing is the step by step guide to building your marketing plan in a logical, layered way.

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How To Really Make Bridal Shows Pay Off

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