Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Blogging - what's the point and how do I get started?

Transcript

Blogging - what's the point and how do I get started? · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Becca: When I mention blogging, some of you are going to say it
0:04
all feels like too much work, kind of complicated, and you might even
0:08
think what on earth is the point.
0:10
Well, if that's you, then I encourage you to keep on listening.
0:13
As in today's episode, I'm going to be sharing why I think blogging still
0:16
matters in your wedding business or.
0:19
And I'm going to share my tips with you to make it all so much simpler.
0:24
I'm Becca Pountney, wedding, business, marketing, expert, speaker, and blogger.
0:27
And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
0:31
I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
0:35
examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
0:38
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
0:42
and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what
0:45
you love, then you're in the right.
0:47
Let's get going with today's episode.
0:51
When it comes to blogging, I'm probably a little bit biased as since 2016,
0:56
I've run my own award-winning wedding blog, vicinity, weddings, and I've
1:00
taught blogging workshops to venues and wedding pros up and down the country.
1:04
But let me start by showing you my five reasons that I believe blogging is still
1:08
something you really should be paying attention to in your wedding business or.
1:13
There are two main ways that you could be blogging in your business, either
1:17
on your own website or as a guest blog on other people's websites or
1:21
wedding blogs, like Vicinity weddings.
1:23
In today's episode, we're going to be mostly focusing on your own website and
1:27
the benefits to your wedding or venue by putting blog posts on your website.
1:32
Now for star, I don't really like the word blogging.
1:35
I think it makes it sound like it's something really complicated that
1:38
we've really got to understand really it's just adding content or articles
1:42
to your website on a regular basis.
1:44
So stop worrying about the word blogging, and let's just think about
1:48
what it really is practically, which is updating your website regularly.
1:51
So reason number one, why blogging matters is for SEO.
1:57
Google doesn't really like static websites.
2:00
So you go all out, you make your wedding business or wedding venue
2:03
website, and it's all looking great.
2:05
And what often happens is we spend a lot of time making the
2:08
website and then it just sits there for the next couple of years.
2:12
We don't often update it.
2:13
Perhaps we might update it with extra images or change our prices,
2:16
but we're not regularly updating it.
2:19
Now Google doesn't like this, as I just said, it likes to see the
2:22
websites are still active, is going to help you in the search.
2:25
If you're regularly adding new content and changing things on your website.
2:30
Now we don't have loads of time.
2:31
Do we to do that all of the time on all of the content, and this is where
2:34
blogging can really help you, because if you add new articles to a page on
2:38
your website every single month, or even once every quarter, you're automatically
2:43
telling Google, look, I still exist.
2:46
I'm updating, I've got fresh content.
2:48
I'm still relevant to people.
2:49
So make sure I'm being found in the search.
2:52
So that's the first reason is it's a way.
2:54
Add things regularly to your website, so that Google keeps on finding
2:58
you and knowing that your relevant.
3:01
The second reason blogging can make a massive difference in your
3:05
business is because it can help you be found for multiple search terms.
3:09
Now, again, when you first build your website, you'll probably if you've
3:12
worked on SEO and if you haven't, we'll get a podcast episode on it
3:16
soon, you're probably going to have some keywords you want to be found
3:19
for, for example, you might want to be found for Hampshire wedding, DJ.
3:23
Or Hampshire wedding photographer or Yorkshire wedding florist, and maybe
3:28
your whole website has been built around those keywords that, you know,
3:31
people are searching for to find you.
3:33
However, there may be other more niche keywords that you also want to be
3:37
found for, perhaps the names of venues, perhaps the types of work that you do,
3:42
perhaps articles about how to pick a florist that you want to be found for.
3:47
Now when you blog, you can write articles about these things so that people can find
3:52
you on Google for different search terms.
3:54
So for example, if you write a blog all about, uh, the perfect wedding
3:59
florist for X venue, and you write all about how you've worked at that
4:03
venue, maybe review the venue add pictures of your work at that venue.
4:07
If people are searching Google for florist at X venue, Chances are
4:12
that blog post is going to come up.
4:13
Now, you won't be able to build your whole website around those keywords it's far
4:16
too niche, but wouldn't it be great for someone to just find that blog post page
4:20
and then book you off the back of it.
4:22
So that's why adding these regular articles about different things with
4:26
more specific keywords can be really helpful for helping you get found in
4:30
Google for multiple search terms, not just those main keywords, which are
4:34
going to point people to your homepage.
4:38
The third reason why blogging or writing these articles is so helpful
4:42
is because it positions you as an expert to your potential customers.
4:46
Now, we all know that we need to be knowing, liking, and trusting
4:51
people before we buy from them.
4:52
And we're constantly trying to build that know like, and trust
4:55
factor with our prospective couples so that they go ahead and book.
4:59
Blog posts are a great way to show that you really know what you're talking about.
5:03
Now, when we talk about blogging, we're not talking about writing a
5:06
diary of what, what you're doing.
5:08
We're talking about writing really helpful articles, which are going to
5:11
help people in their wedding planning.
5:13
Now if you've got some great resources on your website to help prospective
5:17
couples in their wedding planning and in working with you, then
5:21
that's a great way to show you know exactly what you're talking about.
5:24
So for example, if you're a cake maker, perhaps you could have an article that
5:28
you've written on your website about to how to choose what wedding cakes have.
5:32
Size of guests numbers.
5:33
I have no idea what size cake you need for 50 people or a hundred people.
5:37
I've most couples don't either.
5:39
So if you write an article, which is a really helpful guide for them,
5:42
and you point them to it, when they contact you or you post it on your
5:46
social media, it shows, you know exactly what you're talking about.
5:49
And it positions you as the expert.
5:52
The fourth reason why blogging is still so relevant to you and your wedding,
5:56
business or venue is because it always gives you new content to share online.
6:03
We all struggle sometimes with what we should be posting on our social media.
6:06
And if that's you do go ahead and go back and listen to episode three,
6:10
where I talk all about what you should be posting on your social
6:13
media and give you loads of ideas.
6:15
But blog posts are a great way to have new, fresh ideas
6:18
to post to your social media.
6:20
You're giving people another to come and visit your website too.
6:25
When you're regularly writing articles, you can then turn
6:27
that into social media posts.
6:29
You can post about previous articles that you've written, which may be new
6:32
audience members haven't seen yet.
6:34
You can post extracts from your blog posts or point people to them.
6:38
You've got new content that you can share on Pinterest, which is.
6:41
Pinnable so it really helps your overall content and visibility strategy because
6:46
you've got new content all the time.
6:48
Now we want people to go to our website.
6:50
Why?
6:51
Because that's where people often buy from us.
6:53
Social media is like the shop window, our websites like the inside of the shop.
6:57
So we're always trying to attract people to go into our shop.
7:00
Now, if someone's been following us for a while, they may have already gone to
7:03
our website once and had a look around.
7:06
If that content never changes, you're not giving people another reason to
7:10
ever go back into your shop because they've already seen everything on offer.
7:14
If you're writing these articles and writing new things that they're
7:17
going to find helpful, you're basically enticing them back into
7:20
your shop, back onto your website.
7:22
So they've got a reason to buy from you.
7:24
So it's a great way to get new content, to share online and
7:27
to encourage people to click.
7:30
And the fifth and final reason, I think articles and blog posts are great on
7:33
your wedding business website or wedding venue website is it's a great way to
7:37
build working relationships with other wedding, business owners and other venues.
7:43
Also other wedding industry experts such as myself, because you've got
7:46
a platform that they can write for.
7:49
You can ask people, do you want to be featured on my website?
7:52
I've got a blog on my website.
7:53
I'd love to review you, or I'd love you to write an article for it.
7:57
Perhaps I could review a wedding venue or perhaps I could ask Becca
8:00
to write an article for my wedding blog so that she shares it on her
8:04
social media it's a great way for you to build working relationships with
8:07
different people, because you've got a.
8:10
Give them otherwise.
8:12
Yes, you can give them a shout out on social media, but you can't
8:14
do anything much more than that.
8:16
It also is a way to get around if you don't want to have lots and lots
8:19
of different recommended suppliers listed on your website, where you
8:23
can invite ones you want to, to write articles for your site, that you
8:26
can then post and send your couples.
8:30
So now, you know, that blogging really does matter.
8:33
I'm going to share with you some really actionable tips to
8:35
help make it easier for you.
8:37
You may want to grab a pen for this bit, or if you're driving,
8:40
maybe just mentally make a note.
8:42
And as soon as you get home scribble some of these things down, or of course you
8:45
can always go back and listen again, if you could put up with my voice that is.
8:48
So the first thing is knowing exactly who you're speaking to.
8:53
Hopefully, you know this already, hopefully you already have an ideal
8:57
client profile in mind, but if you don't spend some time thinking about
9:02
who your business is speaking to, who is it that you're trying to reach?
9:06
What kind of couple are you wanting to reach out to?
9:09
Don't turn around to me and say all couples all brides and grooms.
9:13
I want to speak to everyone because speaking to everyone basically
9:16
means you're speaking to nobody.
9:18
So narrow it down.
9:19
Think about the kind of person that you want to be speaking to.
9:22
What kind of wedding are they going to be having?
9:24
Are they going to be getting married in a Barn or in a luxury Manor
9:26
house or are they going for a more boho theme or a vintage theme?
9:30
What kind of jobs do they have?
9:32
What kind of life stage do they are?
9:33
Kind of get a really good picture in your mind about who your ideal customer
9:37
is so that when you start thinking about writing these articles, writing
9:42
these blogs, You can think about that person and think would whoever
9:46
you want to name them, read this.
9:48
So for example, if you decide that your ideal bride is called
9:51
Anna, she works in London.
9:53
She has a high paid corporate job.
9:55
She's a high spend client, she hasn't got a huge amount of time.
9:59
Uh, she wants to, uh, get married out in the countryside.
10:03
Uh, but she does love thinking and looking at ideas for weddings.
10:07
Well, what would you write?
10:09
Interesting to Anna.
10:11
Every time you write something, you need to think about Anna,
10:13
and think, would she read this?
10:15
Maybe it's ways to save time on your wedding planning.
10:17
Maybe it's reasons to get married in the countryside, or maybe it's why
10:21
you should book a wedding planner to save time on your wedding planning.
10:25
I don't know who your ideal customer is, but give them a name.
10:29
Work out what they're like.
10:30
And every time you sit down to write an article or a blog post
10:33
think, would that person be interested to click and read this?
10:37
And if the answer's no, maybe think of a better idea.
10:41
The second tip is going to answer the question that I know loads of
10:45
you are going to be sitting there thinking, which is this, how on
10:49
earth do I know what to write?
10:51
No, one's interested in hearing from me.
10:52
I don't know what to talk about.
10:54
Help.
10:56
I've got a few things to help you think this through.
10:58
Now, the first thing to note is that a blog post is not a diary.
11:02
If you've listened to my episode about the mistakes I made in my own business,
11:05
you'll have heard me talking about this, how I thought it was a diary I had
11:09
to update people on the wedding shows I'd been out or what we'd been doing.
11:13
And to be honest, that's just incredibly boring.
11:15
And no one wants to read that.
11:17
So you don't need to write a diary.
11:18
So it doesn't matter if you haven't got much going on in your business.
11:23
Or if you're brand new to the wedding industry, what matters is,
11:26
you know, what you're talking about and can show that you're the expert.
11:30
So instead of thinking like a diary, what should we be thinking about?
11:34
The best place to start is with frequently asked questions.
11:39
Remember you're the expert at whatever it is that you do, and your couples
11:43
are not, they get engaged and suddenly they're expected to become this
11:46
wedding planner that understands cakes and flowers and venue styling and
11:49
all sorts of different things, but they really don't know what they're
11:52
doing and you can be there to help.
11:55
So, what do you know that they don't?
11:58
What questions do you get asked all the time in your business?
12:01
We talked earlier about things like the size of the cake.
12:04
Perhaps they ask how soon they should book something or how they choose someone
12:07
or what questions they should ask when they're looking for a photographer.
12:12
Perhaps, they're asking questions about practical aspects of the day, the timings,
12:16
where people should sit at the top table.
12:18
Um, how you change your name, how you actually resgister for marriage.
12:22
I don't know what your ideal customers are asking you, but if you can work
12:27
out what they're asking, well, that probably means lots and lots of other
12:31
people are asking those questions too.
12:33
And therefore it's well worth you writing an article to show that
12:37
you're the expert in that subject.
12:40
So just take one question at a time and turn that question into an article,
12:44
so say for example, we say five ways to choose your wedding photographer,
12:50
and then you can do a little intro, give your five ways for them to
12:53
choose their wedding photographer.
12:55
A little outro, obviously with some kind of call to action.
12:57
If you're the photographer to book a consultation or book a call or whatever
13:01
it is that you want them to do next, and that's your blog post done, you see
13:04
it doesn't have to be that difficult.
13:06
Now, the other great reason for doing these FAQ type blog posts is if people
13:10
ask you the same questions all the time, you can start sending them these
13:14
articles because they're already written either in response to their questions, or
13:18
even before they even ask the questions to say, If you're wondering what size
13:22
your wedding cake should be, or you're wondering, how to keep your flowers fresh.
13:26
Then I've already written an article all about that, that you
13:28
can save bookmark and read later.
13:30
So frequently asked questions are the best place to start.
13:34
The other thing that I know loads of you are probably sitting on and not
13:37
doing a lot with are styled shoots.
13:39
If you're new to the industry, a styled shoot is where lots and lots
13:42
of different wedding business owners get together and create a photo
13:45
shoot, uh, and so that they can all use the images for their own content.
13:49
Maybe they can try and get it.
13:52
But you could also use them in a blog post.
13:54
Now you should be writing a blog post about every style
13:57
shoot that you've been part of.
13:58
It's great content.
14:00
There should be some words that you can write to describe
14:02
your part in the shoot as well.
14:03
You make sure that you credit everyone that was involved of course,
14:08
but it's a great way to get your style shoot onto your own website.
14:11
Even if you weren't the shoot organizer, as long as.
14:14
Bound by any, uh, magazine exclusive type things.
14:18
So check with the shoe organizer before you do it.
14:21
But if you've got styled shoots in your back catalog, that's
14:23
another great place to start.
14:25
Now.
14:26
I would be naming the articles around the colors or the theming of the
14:30
wedding shoot that you've done so that people can find you in Google.
14:35
So look at the images you've created.
14:37
Think what would people be searching for to find images like
14:40
this and then call your blog.
14:42
That's so styled shoots are great thing to add onto your.
14:47
The other thing is to do reviews.
14:49
So reviews of venues, reviews with other suppliers you've worked with
14:52
or interviews and guest articles.
14:54
So we already talked about guest articles, but just ask people you
14:57
work with, whether you can interview them for your blog, whether you
15:00
can, um, Write a review about them.
15:03
If you've worked with them closely, ask them to give you some images.
15:07
I love interviews because that's a really simple way that you can do an
15:11
article without spending a lot of time.
15:13
So if you set up some kind of Google form that you can send out to people
15:17
that you work with, where they.
15:19
All the answers to the questions ahead of time.
15:21
Ask them to send you the imagery and their links.
15:23
Then basically all you need to do is copy and paste that information into an article
15:27
add their images, and it's ready to go.
15:29
It's low effort, but it's also great for building relationships and
15:33
they will often share it on their social media platforms as well.
15:36
So interviews are a super quick way to get some articles and blog posts.
15:41
Your website.
15:42
So to recap, if you don't know what on earth to write, remember it's not a diary.
15:46
You don't need to talk about yourself and what you've been doing.
15:48
That's boring.
15:49
Instead.
15:49
Think about those frequently asked questions that you're asked all the
15:52
time, look in your back catalog.
15:54
If you've got style shoots, write reviews of venues or other suppliers you've
15:58
worked with, or ask people to write guest articles, or like I said, the simplest
16:02
way, get them to do an interview where you just need to copy and paste there anwers.
16:06
Okay.
16:06
My third tip is for you.
16:08
If you just think, I really struggle with writing, this feels really hard.
16:13
I'm not great with writing.
16:14
I'd much rather be out there doing something creative rather than behind a
16:18
desk and writing some kind of article.
16:21
I'm not a writer.
16:22
I'm not good enough.
16:23
Well, I want to say to you, I believe you are absolutely good enough to
16:27
get a blog post on your website, but I understand that not everyone
16:31
is super confident with this.
16:32
So if that's you, here's some things that might help you first up.
16:36
Don't try and be a perfectionist.
16:39
You're not trying to be a professional writer.
16:41
You're just trying to get some really helpful information up onto
16:45
your website to help your couples.
16:47
See it that way.
16:47
Think, is this going to be helpful for people?
16:49
If it is it's worth me putting it down on paper.
16:52
I often read my blog posts aloud.
16:55
If I'm worried that my writing doesn't sound great, because if it's readable
16:58
out loud and make sense, then you know, you're onto a winner or get someone else
17:02
to proofread it or check it for you.
17:04
If you're not confident in.
17:06
Another thing that you can do, which I do sometimes is you can actually dictate your
17:12
blog post into your phone or your laptop.
17:14
So if you use a laptop and use word, there's a dictation button on there,
17:19
little microphone, symbol, you can click that and you can just speak what's
17:23
in your mind, what you want to write about, and it will type it for you.
17:26
Obviously you need to go back through and edit it, but it will save you that
17:29
time of sitting down at your computer and trying to put pen to paper.
17:33
If you're better at just speaking and talking about things then dictate.
17:37
You can also do that on your phone.
17:39
If you've got an iPhone, uh, go into the notes app and again, on the keyboard,
17:42
there's a little microphone symbol.
17:44
You can just hit that microphone symbol and start talking into your
17:47
phone and it will dictate it, copy and paste it, email it to yourself.
17:50
And then you've got the start of a blog post.
17:53
Often I do this.
17:54
If ideas suddenly come to me and I want to get them down on paper
17:58
quickly it's very fast to just open up your phone app, hit that microphone
18:02
button and start speaking into it.
18:04
So dictations another great.
18:07
As we've already talked about, you can always get those guest articles or those
18:10
interview posts, because then someone else is doing a lot of the writing for you.
18:14
But it's sitting on your website, getting you the SEO benefits, showing
18:18
that you have good connections and know what you're talking about.
18:21
Or if you really think you don't have the time for this, but you
18:24
can see it's important, then consider hiring someone to do it.
18:28
I've got a great, uh, freelancer that works for me.
18:32
She's amazing.
18:32
I know she would, uh, have some space to take on other work.
18:36
So do reach out to me.
18:37
If you're looking for someone to write your blog post, but there's loads of
18:40
people out there that you can write, you can ask to write your blog posts for you.
18:44
You can pay them per blog, post or per hour.
18:47
Or if you don't want to go for professional blog writer, you just want
18:50
someone that knows what they're doing.
18:51
Why don't you ask around in your family, perhaps you've got a cousin that's
18:54
a student and is looking for some extra cash and it can happily write
18:58
down some blog, post ideas for you.
19:00
If you give them the information, they'll happily put it together
19:02
in an article, or they can do some research and write something.
19:05
Perhaps it's just, you don't have time for the formatting.
19:08
So you can pay someone again someone you know for a couple of hours to just
19:12
take those interviews that we talked about earlier and format them on your
19:16
website onto a blog page or an article page and get them onto there as well.
19:19
So consider hiring someone if you really, really don't want to do it.
19:24
If you can see the benefits, then try and take away that confidence
19:27
issue and find a way to fix it.
19:30
Whether that's taking away the perfectionism dictating it,
19:33
using guest posts or hiring.
19:36
Okay.
19:36
The next question, I know that some of you are going to be asking is, well,
19:40
how often should I be doing this?
19:42
Because I'm super busy Becca and I don't have time to add loads
19:45
of extra stuff into my business.
19:47
I totally get it.
19:48
I know that we're busy and this is where batching can really help it.
19:53
Doesn't have to be that often.
19:55
Okay.
19:55
You need to think about your own time and how much you think you can manage.
19:59
Now for some of you, you may have quite a lot of space and
20:01
be able to manage once a week.
20:03
For me, I don't think anymore that I would be able to manage that on a new website.
20:08
It may be that it's much more manageable to you to just do once a month.
20:12
Now, when you think about it, that's only 12 articles a year.
20:15
If you get half of them as guest articles, that's actually only six articles
20:19
a year for you to actually write.
20:21
And that will be in your updating your website.
20:23
Every single month, all the way through the year, you've got new
20:25
content to share on social media.
20:27
You got new things to talk about and you're showing you're the expert.
20:29
So once a month, I think is a great amount.
20:32
If you can manage more of that, amazing.
20:34
If you can't even manage that, then go for once every two months,
20:37
but try and do it once a month.
20:39
Now as well as saying you're going to do it once a month.
20:42
I think it's really helpful to make it like an episode.
20:45
Think about like TV episodes.
20:46
They always come out at the same time on the same day of the week and you know,
20:49
to make an appointment to watch them well, unless you are going to do it on.
20:53
Do the same with your blog posts.
20:55
So if you decide you're going to blog once a month, consider doing it on the
20:58
first Saturday of the month or on the first of every month, so that, you know,
21:03
when your blog post needs to be done by, and you can set yourself a deadline.
21:06
If you write out the date somewhere of all the blog posts
21:08
you're going to do over the next.
21:11
Write out the 1st of January, 1st of February, 1st of March or whatever
21:14
you decide, and then start writing your ideas of each one next to them.
21:18
You can start getting those blog posts done.
21:21
Now, like I said, this is where batching can really help because
21:23
you could maybe sit down for a day and write all six blog posts.
21:27
So then it's done for the next six months.
21:28
So you don't have to even think about it other than sharing it on social media.
21:32
So try and be consistent with your strategy.
21:35
I think once a month is absolutely fine.
21:37
If you're a wedding business or wedding venue, Make sure that episodic though.
21:41
So decide when you're going to release them the first of the
21:43
month the first Saturday of the month, whatever it is for you.
21:46
And then you can shout about it.
21:47
Yay.
21:47
It's the first of the month our new blog, post is out and this
21:50
month it's all about X, Y, Z.
21:52
So it's not about doing it all the time.
21:54
It doesn't have to take loads of time.
21:56
Just think 12 articles is a whole year's worth of content that you can
22:00
use it's going to be good for your SEO is going to be good for your Pinterest
22:03
going to be good for your social media.
22:05
And it's going to be good for showing that, you know what you're talking.
22:09
Okay.
22:09
So we know who we're speaking to.
22:11
We know what we're going to write.
22:13
We know how we're going to do it, even if we're struggling and we know
22:16
how often we're going to do it, we also know why we should be doing it.
22:20
So I'm hoping you're now feeling fired up to get started.
22:23
And I'm going to just share a couple of final tips before I finish.
22:27
Tip number one, the most important part of any blog post.
22:32
Is the title, the most important part of any blog post is the title.
22:38
The title is what's going to make someone decide whether
22:41
or not they read the article.
22:43
The title is going to be, what's found first in Google.
22:48
The title is going to be what you make on a graphic to put on Pinterest, to
22:52
try and encourage people to click.
22:55
The title needs to be enticing.
22:57
It needs to be catchy.
22:58
It needs to be clickable.
23:00
Just think when you're scrolling through your own Facebook and you're looking for
23:04
things to do, because you're just looking up and down this Facebook feed, you will
23:08
see articles popping up all the time.
23:11
Think about the ones that you actually stop on and click on.
23:14
What makes you stop?
23:16
What makes you click?
23:17
What is it that you want to find out about?
23:19
What is it that makes it so catchy and appealing that you
23:21
need to click to find out more?
23:23
That is why the title is the most important.
23:26
Once you've got that click, they're invested, then you're going to get
23:29
them to read the rest of the article.
23:30
But that click is the most important thing.
23:33
If the title doesn't do anything to excite them, they will never click on it.
23:36
And therefore they'll never read it.
23:37
So remember, the title is the most important part.
23:40
Think like your customer, think what they'd be interested to click on
23:43
and think what you'd be interested to click on yourself and make it.
23:49
The second tip for you.
23:50
And this is a really important one is to make sure that
23:52
your content is all original.
23:55
Now, what I mean by that is if you guest blog for someone else, don't copy and
23:59
paste it and put it on your website too.
24:02
If Google sees the same wording in different places and you haven't done
24:05
something technical to tell them why.
24:08
And most of us don't have the time to do that.
24:10
Google's going to see it as plagiarism.
24:12
And if they think you're plagiarizing your own content or someone else's content,
24:16
they're going to penalize you for that.
24:18
So obviously Google just sees matching words and assumes this plagiarism.
24:22
They don't know it's you both times.
24:24
So if you are going to have an article somewhere else first and then
24:27
put it on your website, make sure you've rewritten it enough so that it
24:31
doesn't look like it's plagiarized.
24:32
And it's not exactly the same article, whatever happens.
24:35
Don't just copy and paste all the wording.
24:38
The same is true if someone writes a guest article for you, just make
24:41
sure it's original, make sure they haven't added it somewhere else.
24:43
First, make sure that you are the original person getting it, or if it's been used
24:47
somewhere before that it's been reworded enough so that it's not plagiarism.
24:51
So it's really important to make sure all your content is.
24:55
And well, we're talking about those legal things.
24:57
Make sure if you're using images that you're using images, you're
25:01
allowed to use please don't go to Google search and find images.
25:05
That's copyright.
25:05
You're not allowed to do it.
25:07
You either need to ask permission from a photographer or someone, you know, to
25:11
use their images and make sure you credit them, or you need to go to a rights free
25:15
image site, something like Unsplash or Pixabay where you can use their images.
25:19
On your blog posts.
25:20
What you can't do is just go to Google search and add an image.
25:23
And you can't just say credited from Pinterest, because that is
25:26
also just stealing someone's work.
25:28
If you do come across an image that you like on Pinterest or reach out to the
25:33
original owner of the image and ask them.
25:35
Would you be happy for me to add this to my blog post?
25:37
If I credit you and can you send me the original file?
25:40
Most of them will be happy to help, but obviously that's additional
25:42
work for you, but please don't just go to Google and steal images.
25:48
Now, the final thing that I need to share with you about these blog posts
25:52
of these articles is once you've written them, please tell people about them.
25:57
So often we put all the work into it.
25:58
We write the article, we get the catchy headline, we've got the images.
26:01
We're really happy with what we've done.
26:03
We add it to our website and it just sits there and we don't tell anyone.
26:08
If you've spent time doing this, you need to shout about it.
26:11
Talk about it on Instagram, make a real about it.
26:13
Make stories about it.
26:14
Give people a reason to click on it.
26:16
Talk about it on Facebook, post on LinkedIn, share it on Pinterest,
26:20
email people and tell them about it.
26:22
Email your potential brides and grooms and tell them about it.
26:25
I don't know, shout about it.
26:26
Absolutely everywhere and make sure people know that you've written
26:29
it so they could go and read it.
26:31
If they don't know about it, why they ever going to go and read?
26:35
And don't forget when you've got a few of these blog posts under your belt.
26:38
Then you can talk about the ones from a few weeks ago or a few months ago,
26:42
and keep on resharing that content, the content is still relevant to your audience
26:46
and new people might be seeing it.
26:47
So you can talk about things that you wrote a year ago, two years ago,
26:50
six months ago, and reshare them.
26:53
If you never tell people to go and look at your content, people never will.
26:57
So be confident and go out there and shout about.
27:01
I hope you found that guide to blogging really, really helpful.
27:04
Hopefully that's given you a real insight into why it's important
27:08
and how to get started with it.
27:10
Now I've thrown loads of information at you, but of course
27:13
there's always more to learn.
27:14
So if you do need more additional help reach out to me, or if you'd
27:17
like to book me to run a workshop for your venue or for a group of
27:21
your friends in the wedding industry just drop me a message on Instagram.
27:25
Find me via my website and we can talk about running a two hour
27:28
blogging workshop just for you to get you started in the meantime,
27:32
hopefully you had a pen and paper.
27:33
Hopefully you got some notes written down.
27:35
And if you want to share your blog post so that I can have a look at
27:38
them, drop me a message on Instagram.
27:40
I'll see you next time.
27:41
one thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing
27:44
people you get to work with.
27:46
If you want to meet like-minded wedding pros, just like you,
27:49
then why not join my free.
27:51
Wedding pros who are ready to come meet some new connections, hang out with
27:55
me and hopefully learn some new things to just search for us on Facebook.