WHAT I LEARNED FROM 8 YEARS AS A WEDDING BLOG EDITOR
For 8 years these were my main goals:
Drive traffic to my wedding blog Style Unveiled
Grow a social media following and learn how to make it work for my goals
Catch the eyes of higher-end brides
Gain the attention of wedding professionals
Create ways to generate page views and KEEP people on my wedding blog
Being a wedding blog editor is a TOUGH job ... you have to keep a balance between creating relationships with wedding professionals while also making brides happy ... with that comes the daunting task of staying worthy, current, well branded for the industry, and trying to monetize your online space! It feels like chaos sometimes and while I don't miss it (now) it was such an amazing adventure. There are a few things that you can only learn by doing ... and one of those things is learning the BRAIN OF A BRIDE ... and for 8 years I was inside of the brain of a bride and learned exactly what makes 'them' click and what makes them say 'no thanks' and move on.
Style Unveiled was built around the target market of a 'hiring bride' - which to me is the exact opposite of a 'diy bride' ... my goal was to capture the love of brides who are looking to HIRE professionals for their wedding. I focused on featuring events and weddings that had an entire team making it happen and beyond that I earned a reputation for being a major PHOTOGRAPHY SNOB .... I'm proud to say that I still wear that snobby hat today! So how does this make me the perfect asset to design websites for the wedding industry?? Here's a few reasons:
Image Selection: Image selection is KEY to your website keeping brides around and here's why: they are already online taking in all the pretty! Wedding blogs and magazines have set the bar high and when a bride is coming from taking in all the goodies on SMP and enters into your website the last thing you want to do is stop her excitement and momentum. My 'editor's eye' can quickly scan 50+ images at once and know IMMEDIATELY which images I want to use and why. I use this talent to select images for my clients to use on their websites.
Image Layout: One of my biggest jobs as a blog editor was creating daily features and a key component in making them look amazing was 'image layout' ... Designing banners, graphics, and ordering images for features made me very sensitive to images and what images should be paired or not paired together. Knowing not to make a 'headless bride' in an image go 'up the skirt' of the image on top of it ... and other things that most people wouldn't even notice or be able to 'pinpoint' ... creating a friendly visual environment so that people feel good when they 'click in' and while they may not know what it is, they like it and they stick around.
Page Views: There is nothing a blog editor loves more than page views ... seeing that when people come to their website they don't 'bounce out' and they click around to see more. But this doesn't just happen ... you have to create it with tricks and 'calls to action' ... and it's more than just that: you have to create a 'want' for them to click around with more than just a simple: CLICK HERE button ... the knowledge I've gained from the 8 years of blog editor experience is something I bring to all the websites I design for my clients and I love watching the metrics of my clients to see how things are going!
Appeal: This industry has ever changing trends and new ideas popping up all the time and on the other side of that coin is: things get dated VERY QUICKLY. The last thing you want is a dated website. If your website is dated then my guess is you probably have a high 'bounce rate' ... branding and website design and layout is very important and keeping up with the latest 'website trends' is key to keeping your visitors around. Even if you are featured all over the place and have ads on all the top blogs - one click into your dated site and none of it will do you any good. Being a blog editor trained me to stay up on the trends online and keep up with what's hot or not ... and I use that 'some would call snobby' eye to design fresh online faces for my clients.
Optimization: There is more to a website than just a 'pretty face' ... you need substance and something supporting all that so that Google and other search browsers can see what you've got going on! Through trial and error over the course of 8 years I learned EXACTLY what works and what doesn't to keep your images, blog posts, and content in top shape - even through changes in algorithms ;) << yeah, not even kidding. There are tricks and things you can do to stay important to Google, Pinterest, and more and these are things I inject into the websites I optimize.
Want to know how the tricks I learned as a wedding blog editor make me the perfect one to design your website? CONTACT ME and we'll hop on a call!
XO~ Heather
