Weddingbee PRO
Most blogs are run by one person, and one person only. I have a lot of help now — I could never run Weddingbee alone at this point — but once upon a time it was pretty much just me.
I thought it might be interesting to list some of the things that go into running your average blog for any aspiring bloggers-to-bee. Not all of these will be relevant, but I think it’ll give you a good idea of how much work really happens behind the scenes!
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My parents emigrated from Korea when I was 3, and my mom worked in retail and restaurants to support our family while my dad received his English degree. They were the first of our entire family to emigrate to the States, and came with virtually no money — so much so that my brother and I remained in Korea with relatives for almost a year until my parents could settle in and afford to have us fly to America to join them.
Shortly after my dad received his degree, he started teaching English to one student out of our little apartment. Soon that number grew to five. Once he had ten students, he opened up a small, one room school. I remember my parents working from 7 am to 11pm in those early years, yet still having time to make my brother and I do our supplemental workbooks, provide us with homecooked meals, and take us on monthly camping trips.
I have nothing but the greatest respect for immigrants who sacrifice so much to move to America to provide a better life for their children. I think a combination of growing up around that immigrant mentality and the entrepreneurial spirit my parents embodied have largely shaped how I think about work and business today.
I completely understand that starting your own business isn’t for everyone. The hours suck, you work weekends, it’s hard to take vacations, and managing employees is probably the hardest part of the job (I hate managing). But I’ve pretty much been my own boss for almost the past decade, and I think once you’ve been your own boss, it’s hard to work for someone again. Just like I can’t imagine what it’d be like to go into a regular office again because I can’t give up working in my pajamas! 
Had my parents not been entrepreneurs, I wonder if I would have ended up following a completely different path. Now I can’t imagine another life. I’d rather take the risk and work twice as much for half the money as my own boss because of the flexibility and the possibility of unlimited growth.
Were your parents entrepreneurs and do you think that affected whether or not you became one yourself? Do you have your own business or would you like to start your own business one day?
One of the most common questions people ask me is how we started accepting ads on Weddingbee. I’m definitely no expert when it comes to advertising, but I wanted to share what I’ve learned from my experience with Weddingbee!
I thought I’d answer this Q&A style, so if you have a question, please leave it in the comments section and I’ll try my best to answer it in this blog post.
I’ll start with some of the most common questions I get asked:
When did you first launch ads on Weddingbee?
We launched Weddingbee in early February 2006, and we launched Google Adsense ads on June 26, 2006. Prior to launching adsense ads, we didn’t have any other source of revenue. Text ads may not be the prettiest ads from a design perspective, which is why I think a lot of people are reluctant to add them to their site. But Adsense is definitely a consistent and often largest source of revenue for many blogs.
As Weddingbee grew, advertisers would purchase Google adsense ads that would only show up on Weddingbee, and not any other sites. For quite some time now, our Google ads have actually been predominantly graphic ads rather than text ads.
Why did you decide to use Adsense instead of the other ad networks out there?
Adbrite and Blogads were popular ad networks for blogs back then. For female-targeted sites there was also the Glam Network, and now there is Martha’s Circle and BlogHer (I’m sure there are many more that I’m not as familiar with). But we were already familiar with Adsense, it was easy to set up, and we’d never have to worry about inventory. We looked into Adbrite’s text and image ads, but eventually we launched direct graphic ads instead of going through a network which would take a portion of the revenue.
How much revenue do Adsense ads generate?
Revenue will always vary depending on your traffic. I also think that in a category like weddings, readers are more likely to click on ads because they’re looking to purchase so many items.
The first month I think we did around $300 - $400 in adsense revenue. But with each passing month, we made more and more until we were making thousands of dollars a month. Google automatically generated the ads based on the content of our site, and at the end of each month they direct deposited a payment into our checking account. If I could go back in time, I would definitely have launched Weddingbee with Adsense ads already on the site.
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We’re going to be starting an interview series with all kind of vendors in the wedding world, and we need a snazzy new icon for it! Do you have any recommendations?
Also what are you dying to know about wedding vendors? We’ll incorporate some of your questions into their interviews!
I mentioned in my typical day post that I’ve been a dog walker for the past two and a half years. The story of how I became a dog walker is kinda interesting, so I thought I’d share it here!
When I first started Weddingbee, working from home alone was pretty lonely. Sure I could work in my pajamas and never think about washing my face or brushing my hair. But there were times when I wouldn’t leave the apartment for days at a time, and I’d never talk to anyone other than my cat Smokey, who never answered back. At one point I considered waitressing part-time in the evenings or weekends so that I’d be forced to socialize and leave the apartment. But I quickly put it out of my mind because it was too big of a commitment.
A lot of businesses out there could use an updated website design. I wouldn’t want to feature or visit an unattractive or difficult to navigate website, and neither would today’s savvy bride and groom. I think it’s extremely important to have a website that represents you, your aesthetic, and your business, and creating a beautiful website on a budget may be easier than you think!
Personally I’m not a fan of flash, but I know that it’s pretty standard in creative industries. I learned about flash website template companies BluDomain and Simplyblu from my friend Rebecca Grinnals. They offer easy to fill in templates specifically designed for creative professionals like wedding photographers, planners, bakers, etc., and cost between $100-$400!
The pictures on the site are by none other than our very own PRO, Amelia Lyon!
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I get around 50 emails a day from PR agencies asking me to feature their client’s latest work, product or service. Most of the time I don’t respond because it’s obvious they haven’t really spent any time on Weddingbee to see if their product or service is a good fit. They’re also probably emailing every blog out there, and I don’t like blogging about something that’s already been covered extensively on other blogs.
Here are some of the common mistakes PR agencies make when they contact me:
1) Their product or service has absolutely nothing to do with weddings. I’m sure there are blogs out there that would love to write about the latest innovation in car wax, but unfortunately Weddingbee just isn’t the right blog. Sometimes though, they’ll try to convince me that car wax is indeed wedding related.
2) They address the email to the wrong person. If someone addresses me by my last name “Kim”, it doesn’t really bother me because 90% of people who don’t know me do it. But I also regularly get emails addressed to bees like Mrs. Dragonfly — retired bloggers who haven’t been active in years. That tells me you haven’t spent any time on the site at all.
3) They send a form letter where they just change the name of the person the email is going out to. Sometimes you’ll see the name of the previous person the email was addressed to somewhere in the email. Most of the time it’s a standard press release with no personalization at all.
4) Even though our contact page clearly states that we do very few product and vendor reviews, I often receive the same email sent to info, press, help and vendors@weddingbee dot com. Maybe some people think blogs are bigger than they really are, so they want to make sure they get in contact with the right person. But most blogs are run by one person, and all those different emails come to the same person, who probably doesn’t want to receive 4 copies of the same email.
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About 5 years ago, famed professor and writer Lawrence Lessig sent out a mass email in response to the insurmountable number of emails in his inbox. Here’s what it said:
Dear person who sent me a yet-unanswered e-mail, I apologize, but I am declaring e-mail bankruptcy.
I think most of us have a love/hate relationship with email. We love it because it’s so convenient. We hate it because its convenience lends itself to overuse. In this world of blackberries (I confess I’m addicted to mine) and iphones, we carry our inboxes with us, and they’re a constant reminder of the work we have yet to do.
Currently I have 1885 unanswered emails in my work inbox, and I get hundreds of new emails daily. I regularly sit and power through emails for 4-5 hours straight. It’s not the most productive use of my time. I think if I answered every email I receive, I’d never get any work done. Another problem with email is whenever I have to write a difficult one, it takes me much longer than it would if I’d just had a conversation with the person. I want to make sure that I say the right thing since whoever I’m writing to will have a copy of my email to read or forward on for all eternity.
We currently use gmail for business to power Weddingbee’s email. As soon as I respond to an email, or decide not to respond to an email at all, I label it and archive it so that it’s out of my inbox. I tend to answer emails as they come in throughout the day if I have time, and then power through a bunch in the evenings or on the weekends. I have yet to figure out a system that enables me to respond to everyone I need to in a timely manner, and doesn’t take up large chunks of my day.
What systems do you use to manage your email? Are you ever overwhelmed by the volume of email you receive and want to declare email bankruptcy?
Please welcome the latest vendor to join the Weddingbee PRO family, New York based letterpress designer Blue Ribbon Design!
Kimberly will be popping in later today to introduce herself, so please help us give her a warm hive welcome.
Most of the year, I work, work, and then work some more. I actually enjoy it because I generally love what I do, and working hard and seeing results makes me work even harder. But managing a community and running a small business of any kind is tough, and sometimes it really gets to you. The sheer amount of day to day work/emails/meetings/stress can become suffocating.
Once or twice a year, I get completely and utterly burned out and demotivated. I work as many hours as I usually work, but I get far less done. I’m in the midst of a burnout. I have an amazing team around me, but Mr. Bee, BIL Bee, and Mrs. Penguin typically work over 100 hours a week, and they’re all feeling the burnout too. I think any business owner can understand how easy it is to let work take over your life.
Do you ever get burned out? What do you do to remotivate yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed?
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Mrs. Bee, New York
Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet
Engagement Date: May 7, 2004
Wedding Date: March 5, 2005
Venue: Westside Loft, New York
About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
