The Disney Wedding Blog: February 2009

This is the last part in the five part series on making money with your wedding blog. So far, we've covered

1. Blogging 101,
2. Creating an attractive wedding blog,
3. Writing posts that people will want to read, and
4. Directing traffic to your blog.

So, here we are. We’ve created a blog, made it beautiful, written great content, and gotten a ton of people to hang out there. We’re having a lot of fun and it’s rewarding to be getting so much feedback and to have a place where you can really think things out…but ultimately it would be nice to be making a few pennies off of all your hard work. It’s time to start thinking about profiting from your wedding blog.

But how?

Part Five: Profiting From Your Wedding Blog

Ways to Profit From Your Wedding Blog

Advertising
The most obvious way to profit from your blog is by putting up advertisements and charging a “rental fee” to companies who want to snag a spot on your blog. Google Ad Sense basically works this way. You set up an Ad Sense account and then you pick a spot on your blog. From that point on, Google will put different ads in that spot and when your readers click on the ads, you’ll earn money (usually one or two cents).

Good News: It’s easy to set up these types of accounts and to get ads on your blog in less than 24 hours. Many of them also have options to that you can decide how you want the ads to look and customize them to fit into your blog.

Bad News: Readers don’t like to click on these ads. If every reader I had clicked on just one ad every day, I would make almost a thousand dollars a week. Awesome, right? Well, the reality is that readers don’t click on one ad every day. In fact, most readers never ever click on ads. Between not being interested in what is being advertised and not trusting that the advertisement won’t take them to some terrible, virus-filled spot, people just don’t want to click. The sad thing is that most of these ads are for pretty good things and the people who pay for them probably pay a lot, but people have gotten so used to glossing over them, they aren’t really a great marketing strategy…plus, most of these services require you to hit a minimum of earnings (Google’s is $100) before they’ll send you a check…

I say: Do it if you can work them in without making your blog look obnoxious. If every other line on your blog is an advertisement, people are going to stop focusing on the content and they won’t come back. I have those kinds of ads on a sidebar to the far right and this is the first time I’ve put them on the blog without seeing a dip in traffic.

Other sites like Google Ad Sense: Technorati Engage, Adbrite, Federated Media

***You can also do direct advertising, which is where you deal directly with the business who is doing the marketing. For example, Disney could pay me $50 a month and in return I could put a banner at the top of my blog advertising travel deals. (They don’t, btw. I’d love it if they did, but c’est la vie.) These are harder to do, however, because larger companies generally don’t want to deal with tracking all of the little blog owners who are offering advertising space, so you’re probably going to be dealing mainly with self-employed entrepreneurs or teeny tiny businesses.

Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are posts that other people pay you to write. For example, I could take a $20 fee from a photographer and then write a post on how great their work is, how reasonable the pricing is, and whatever the latest deals are that they have going on. This is a smart marketing strategy on the part of businesses, particularly small businesses like that, because readers tend to trust blog authors (especially if they’ve been reading for a long time) and therefore if the blog author says that something is great, the readers will believe it.

Good News: Getting paid to write blog entries? Sounds like a bag full of awesomeness. If the business you’re advertising is quality, you’ll be happy to be doing them a favor and your readers will thank you for the hookup. It’s a win-win-win situation!

Bad News: If the business you’re writing about isn’t actually that great, but you’re getting paid to tell your readers that it is, you’re going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. You’ll be obligated to advertise for the person who is paying you, but at the same time you already have an obligation not to lie to your readers and trick them into paying for something you aren’t actually behind.

I say: I don’t do sponsored posts. For anyone. I’ve only had a handful of proposals for sponsored posts (it’s still a pretty new fad) and of those, I’ve highlighted two of the businesses because they were awesome and I was happy to let readers know and the other three businesses were all businesses that I would never refer a friend to. They weren’t “bad” businesses…just not something I’d pass along. Yes, a little bit of money for writing blog entries would be great, but at the end of the day that’s not why I blog and I’m not going to risk my reputation on a one time payment.

Selling Your Stuff
One of the big money pots for blog authors these days is using their blog as a way to snag an audience for their own marketing schemes. Blog authors are selling e-books, t-shirts, pieces of art, and even services like consulting or graphic design. If you’ve got a wedding blog, you might want to eventually capitalize on all that bridal knowledge and write an e-book of tips or your adventures in wedding planning. You can also use your blog to highlight things that you’re selling after the wedding, like your dress or extra decorations that never seemed to fit into your theme…

Good News: Blog readers = captive audience. If you’ve got something to sell, this is a good place to start.

Bad News: Having stuff to sell requires a little elbow grease. It’s unlikely that people will pay just for the blog entries you’re already writing, so tossing them into an e-book and trying to sell it isn’t going to get you anywhere. You’ve got to be creative here.

I say: Hey, if you have stuff to sell and you planning on turning your blog into “The 100 top reasons why you should buy my stuff”, I say go for it. You all may have noticed the shop button in my new header…(details to follow)…

Getting Free Stuff
So far we’ve really only been talking about using the blog to bring in cold hard cash, but there is another big plus to having a successful blog: people want to give you stuff! I haven’t been quiet about the fact that I love getting stuff to try out and report in on. The difference between sponsored posts and posts about things that have been given to you by sponsors, is that you’re pretty free to say whatever you want in your review. If someone gives you a $900 necklace, it might be worth a lot of money but that doesn’t mean you can’t announce to the world that it’s ugly and then turn around and sell it on eBay. (Although that might limit the amount of free stuff you get from companies in the future.)

Good News: Getting free stuff is always fun and as you plan your wedding, you may receive items to try out that you would have been buying anyway, such as jewelry, accessories, gifts, decorations, and craft materials.

Bad News: If you aren’t careful, things can get out of hand. When people started offering to send me free stuff to talk about on the blog, I was initially thrilled and said yes to everyone. The result was an apartment full of UPS boxes as I struggled to figure out what was from who and when I was supposed to talk about whatever on the blog. To complicate matters, I got a lot of great stuff to giveaway to readers (yay!) but because it all came in a big rush, I would have had to do twenty giveaways at once to get rid of it and that started to take away from my free time (boo!).

I say: Do it if you can because it’s fun, but keep it under control. Don’t feel like you have to say yes to everyone and try to focus on “testing” items that you would have bought. Feel free to contact businesses and see if they’re interested in a little advertising. I got our address stamp for our invitations (love it), my jewelry for the reception (love love it), and our color printer to print out all our wedding photos (love love LOVE it) all because I sent emails to the company letting them know that I was available for marketing. I would have paid for each of these things, but because I had the blog, I was able to keep those funds in the wedding account.

So, this was all very interesting…but how exactly do I make money with my wedding blog?

Create a blog
Make it attractive to readers
Write quality content and keep it up
Get traffic to your blog by using social networking sites, attracting readers through forums, and communicating with readers in your comment areas.
Maintain quality content and traffic for a while.
Add in advertisements on the blog in a way that won’t bother your readers.
Consider contacting businesses to do sponsored posts or get free stuff.
Think up a creative service or product that you could offer and then use your blog to market it.
Remember that blogging will never make you rich, that it is supposed to just be an exercise in self-expression, and that all the profits that come off the blog are just “cream”.

Enjoy!

Hopefully you've had a good time reading this series. If you have any questions about anything that I've covered in the series, be sure to shoot me an email, or better yet leave them in the comments. If you've got a question, I'm sure someone else is wondering the same thing...

Wedding Day - Our Ceremony

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the presence of these witnesses, to join together Kyle and Carly in holy matrimony; this is an honorable estate, instituted by God. It is therefore not to be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, and with the approval of God. It is into this holy estate these two persons come now to be joined.

I require and charge you both, as you stand in the presence of God, before whom the secrets of all hearts are disclosed, that, having duly considered the holy covenant you are about to make, you do now declare before this company your pledge of faith, each to the other. Be well assured that if these solemn vows are kept, as God’s Word demands, and if steadfastly you endeavor to do the will of your heavenly Father, God will bless your marriage, will grant you fulfillment in it, and will establish your home in peace.

Do you, Kyle, knowing of this woman’s love for you and returning it, realizing her strengths and learning from them, recognizing her weaknesses and accepting them, take Carly, to be your lawfully wedded wife?

I do.

Do you, Carly, knowing of this man’s love for you and returning it, realizing his strengths and learning from them, recognizing his weaknesses and accepting them, take Kyle, to be your lawfully wedded husband?

I do.

Would the parents of the couple please stand?

Kyle and Carly have asked me to publicly express their love and appreciation to you, their parents, for all the love and guidance you have given them. It is through you, they have learned the meaning of the words “respect,” love” and “honor”. These gifts that you have bestowed upon them - they will now come to share and exchange with each other. It is a tribute to you that they now stand here before us. For your support that has brought them this far in their lives they say thank you...and I say thank you.

Carly and Kyle, you are now taking into your care and keeping the happiness of the one person you love the most. You are agreeing to share strengths, responsibilities, and love. As husband and wife you will be each other’s best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener and protector. As your relationship grows it will deepen and enrich every facet of your life. Your happiness is fuller, your memories fresher, and your commitments will be stronger.

You will indeed experience marriage to be one of life’s greatest commitments, one of life’s greatest blessings, but also one of life’s greatest challenges. So, be mindful of this; every effort to preserve love with one another by demonstrating patience, by holding each other gently, and by lifting each other up, will go a long, long way in guaranteeing a wonderful and happy life together.

I, Kyle, take you, Carly, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live, this is my promise to you.

I, Carly, take you, Kyle, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live, this is my promise to you.

May I have the rings?

May God bless these rings and the two of you who wear them. May you always abide in His peace and continue in His favor. Amen

With this ring I thee wed
So the world may know my love for you
I pledge to honor you with all that I have
And all that I will become.

Kyle and Carly have asked me to share the traditional Apache Wedding Blessing.

"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth."

Heavenly Father, Thank you for Carly and Kyle as they begin this, their journey through life together. Walk with them each step of the way giving them the faith, and the wisdom, to face together whatever the future may hold. In your name we pray, Amen.

Forasmuch as Kyle and Carly have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have pledged their faith each to the other, and have declared the same by joining hands and by giving and receiving rings, I pronounce that they are husband and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Amen.

You may kiss your beautiful bride.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with the greatest of pleasure I present to you for the very first time, as husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.

NEXT: Part Eight (So this is getting married)

Wedding Day – Part Seven

The one thing that everyone said to me before I got married was that I wasn’t going to remember my wedding day. “It just whirls by! It will be over before you know it!” In one sense, this was true. Our wedding was a rush of happy faces and things to do and congratulations and lots and lots of pictures. When it was all done, I think I literally had to stop and catch my breath. But, in another sense, because I was trying so hard to take it all in, I remember more details about that day than I do any other day in my life…and, like a bad Lifetime movie, at least half of those memories are in slow-mo.

Walking down the aisle was one of them. Marion and her assistant opened the doors and it was completely and utterly bizarre to see everyone standing there waiting for me, including Kyle at the front of the chapel. I remember when Craig and Kristen got married and I saw her walk down the aisle for the first time. It was actually at their rehearsal, and not their wedding, so she was walking down the aisle with a big bouquet of ribbons gathered at her bridal shower and we were all standing around in jeans, watching her. As she practiced going down the aisle, I distinctly remember tearing up and being embarrassed about it because I barely even knew them. A couple summers after that, when Justin and Jenna got married, she and her dad had the whole audience going when they both cried as they walked down the aisle. So, I was actually prepared to get a little watery-eyed on the walk.

Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever been more dry-eyed and calm. It's funny, because I was in a complete panic right before the doors opened, but when they opened I suddenly felt very focused and clear. I can honestly say that it was the most relaxed I had been all day. I wish I could say the same for dad, who approached walking down the aisle with the idea that the faster we got there, the faster he could sit down. We booked it about a fourth of the way until I dug my heels in and made him walk more slowly. As we walked, I looked at all the little piles of flowers that Kaitlyn had dropped, at all the people watching me through the digital screens on their cameras, and at Kyle who looked exactly as calm as I felt...and then the calm went away again.

I’ve heard brides say that locking eyes with their groom while walking down the aisle was the single most important part of their wedding…that at that second they could see all the happiness and love that the couple has between them…that their entire life had been leading up to that moment. That didn't happen to me. I actually sort of wanted to lock eyes with Kyle (beautiful, tear-filled bride eyes) and realize that everything in life was absolutely perfect...but instead I looked into his eyes and started to feel ridiculously ecstatic to the point of being out of control. I just kept thinking to myself "Girl, you have got to calm down. You are a half step away from squealing with glee and that's going to be very very inappropriate right now."

I am a little disappointed that I wasn't all tears-of-love coming down the aisle, but one of the nicer things I remember about the whole ceremony is having my father put my hand in Kyle's, because as soon as we were holding hands, I felt complete relief. If I could have, I would have turned to him and said, "Friend, it's a good thing you're here because I was about 30 seconds away from freaking out just now. Ok, let's do this..."