Keeping Your Blog Active

On my weddings blog, I’ve struggled to keep it current and on top of the trends.

I started by creating a draft entry anytime I thought of a topic to write about. This was great when I had time to blog then I at least had some ideas to start with.

But then I had nearly 100 drafts and still not much content.

So part of my New Years’ resolution was to create an editorial calendar. For me, it meant setting certain days/weeks of each month to a certain topic. Then on my calendar, I set what topic I am going to cover for each of those days.

The great part of this is that when I dedicated one afternoon to blogging, because the editorial calendar spreads out the topics, I have a good solid base of blogging created over the next 3 months. Any new time I find to blog will be dedicated to dates past those. The hopes, is that I get to be ahead of the game, and always have some topics scheduled to post.

I still have to do the same with this blog, but I’m happy that 3 days into the New Year I’ve accomplished a great system for keeping my wedding blog current.

Do you use an editorial calendar? How do you structure it?

Jolyn | Wedding Planner Mentor
Secrets of a Wedding Planner

E-Book: Lessons from Burnout

As wedding season progresses, it is time for you to do a check on your stamina – how are you really coping?

Are you drowning in paperwork or having trouble returning all your calls.

In the early years of my business, I’d strive to work weddings every weekend. I quickly learned it led to a non-existant social life, always feeling left out of the activities of family & friends, and a growing dread towards my business….

It takes strength to recognize when you are burning out, and it takes courage sometimes to take some steps to stop your drowning spiral…so I ask you again, how are you really coping right now? If you are cruising a long, loving what you do – fantastic! If you are finding you are getting further and further behind or dreading answering the phone…then you need to take steps immediately to prevent further burnout.

I love reading Liene’s blog – Think Splendid – it’s full of wonderful business information. She’s put together a great e-book on “Lessons from Burnout” – a great reminder for all wedding planners how easy it is for us to take on too much, and how to make sure Burnout doesn’t consume your or your business.

I’d love to share this e-book with you – simply use the form above, and you’ll be send to the online pdf e-book for you to immediately review.

I hope your wedding season is going well, and that you don’t experience burnout. I want you to find ways to grow and be successful in your business, but have balance in all aspects of your life – that’s the key! I hope the e-book serves as a great reminder to you of the need for that balance!

Jolyn Saramaga  | Wedding Planner Coach
Secrets of a Wedding Planner
www.secretsofaweddingplanner.com

Emailing Forms to Clients

With working with so many couples out of town, you’ll be bound to be sending many documents via email.

When you are emailing sensitive documents, such as your contracts or forms and questionnaires, be sure that you convert your document into a PDF before emailing.

A PDF document will ensure, that no matter what fonts or what program you used to create the form in, your couple will be able to view it just as you created it. I love creating forms in Microsoft Publisher because of the ease of adding lines and check boxes, but not all couples have Publisher. By converting to a PDF document, all couples will be able to view it.

You can purchase Adobe Acrobat to create PDF documents which is usually close to a $300 purchase price – remember, it’s a business expense and tax write off under ’software’.

If it’s not fully in your budget, then you could also use a free program such as Primo PDF which will become an additional printer. When you are done your document, click print, select the Primo PDF from the printer options and watch your PDF get created. Save your file and then when you need to email the document, select your saved PDF version. As easy as that!

The added benefit of a PDF document, is that it is not easy for a customer to make a modification, especially for important documents such as your contracts. And because you can embed your logo, your documents will look that much more professional when received by email.

Jolyn | Wedding Coach

Newsletter Hook – offer a freebie!

What makes your newsletter the one a visitor should sign up for? It’s a question your website visitors are asking, and so should you?

You should already be maintaining a list of current clients and those who have inquiried about your service – but if you are looking at a way to increase your mailing list database, consider offering up a freebie.

I’m not asking you to give away free services or massive discounts. I’m asking you to write a brief document to share some of your knowledge – and in turn, wedding couples will give you their email address, in order to obtain a bit of this free knowledge!

I know the hardest part is figuring out what to write and how to provide it. I’ve known for years you should offer a freebie in order to grow your mail list, and in my hectic wedding planning ways, never got around to it. So this fall, I decided to focus on my newsletter list and make it grow. I decided to write about something that I say I do for my clients – personalize their wedding. For many couples, they may not have a full understanding of exactly what that may involve. So I decided that my ‘freebie’ would be a report on the 5 easiest ways to personalize a wedding. I kept it to 5 points, because I didn’t want to give prospective customers all of my secrets, but I wanted it to be enough for them to get a glimpse at what I can do for them. And I wanted it to be something that every couple could use, no matter what stage of planning they were at when they stumbled upon my website.

I then wrote it out, and made sure it sounded like I was writing specifically for that one couple reading it. I made sure to thank them for requesting the report and I made sure at the end to give a bit of a spin on how I could assist them, and how they could follow up with me.

I then added a little graphic to the header of my website, that visitors could click on that would take them to my sign up page. When they submit their email address, it comes to a specific folder in my inbox, which sends out an automatic reply, which includes the link to my special report.

So with very little time, a websurfer can find my site, sign up for the report, and receive the report – all without me having to be involved…what is more simplistic than that!!

And the best part, when I started my newsletter list, I had just 50 recent and current clients on it – and within 2 weeks of offering the ‘freebie report’ – my list had grown to over 100…that’s over 50 people that I can now speak to monthly through my newsletters, and get them to recognize how badly they need my services.

What is the freebie you are going to offer? I’d love to hear about what you implement on your website and what results you got!

Jolyn | Wedding Planner Coach

Online Passwords Overload

Anyone else getting tired on all the different online passwords you have to remember? Some can only contain letters, some have to have letters and numbers, some can only be 5 characters long, and some have to be at least 8 characters long…

Just over six months ago, my husband installed Roboform on my computer despite my protests…I’m glad he did. It keeps track of all my passwords for each and every online site I frequent, and it controls it all with just one master password I have to remember. It’s got very high security for your home or office computer, but saves you time when you just have to get access to a website before you leave for a meeting.

Say goodbye to looking through a stack of sticky notes on your desk (my previous way of managing my passwords LOL)

Jolyn | Wedding Planner