PR Tips – How To Submit To A Blog
One of the best forms of free marketing for your wedding business is getting your work featured on a wedding blog. Whether you’ve been a professional photographer for years or you are just starting out, getting featured on a blog is a great way of being able to show it to a wider audience, as well as helping to boost your SEO ranking. Preparing a blog submission can be pretty time-consuming, especially since every blog has a different submission process. I want to share my top tips as the former editor of We Are The Wanderers and the founder and editor of European Elopement Guide on how to submit to a blog and how to improve your chances of getting accepted.
How To Submit To A Blog
For the first part of this post, let’s look at the best practices. Here are some ways to increase your chances of getting accepted on to a blog:
Familiarise Yourself With The Blog
Take the time to have a look around the blog. Look at the most recent posts and see what types of things they feature. Then head over to the about page and find out the name of the editor and what the blog is all about. Each blog will have a different focus or niche, and finding out what that is will help you to decide whether your submission is a good fit or not. Also have a look at the types of images they feature. Is the blog heavily detail focused or more about the people pictures? Do they only feature a certain style of photography? Make sure you’ve looked at this before you prepare your submission as it may influence which images you decide to submit.
Read The Submission Guidelines (And Follow Them)
I don’t know many bloggers whose full-time job is blogging. But whether they are or not, we are all pretty busy people. We don’t just sit around waiting for submissions to come flooding in. And we know that photographers are also busy people. Reading (and following) the submission guidelines makes it much easier for us to be able to say yes to your submission, and it saves you time in the long run because we won’t have to keep coming back to you for more information or to send the correctly resized images.
Tailor Your Submission Email
Some blogs may have an online submission form where you just fill in all of the information they need. But many ask for submissions via email. Take the time to tailor your submission to the blog. If you’re sending us an email, start by addressing us by our name (it shows us you’ve read the about pages) and talk about why your submission is a good fit for the blog.
Connect With The Blog On Social Media
If you’ve found a blog that you think is a good match for you and you are thinking of submitting, start interacting with their social media channels. There’s a good chance that when your submission lands in our inbox, we’ll already have an idea about who you are and the kind of work you do. And if we see that you’re a big supporter of our blog, the chances are we’ll try and find a way to support you in return.
How NOT To Submit To A Blog
So here are some of my pet peeves, the things that you shouldn’t do if you want a blogger to take you (and your submission) seriously:
Not Doing Your Research
There are an increasing number of niche wedding blogs out there which is wonderful for couples looking for inspiration to suite their eclectic tastes. There are location specific blogs like French Wedding Style, LGBTQ wedding blogs like Catalyst Wedding Co, and blogs for every type of wedding you can think of from beaches to ballrooms. If you’re submitting to a French wedding blog, don’t send a wedding you shot in Spain. If the blog doesn’t feature styled shoots, don’t submit one. At We Are The Wanderers I’ve turned down so many submissions that I’ve lost count because they didn’t fit with the blog’s niche and if the people who had submitted would have taken just 2 minutes to look around the blog and see the things that are featured, they would have known that too.
Forward A Submission That Has Been Declined By Another Blog
Remember that time when you submitted to one blog and it got declined? It happens to everybody and it’s usually nothing to do with the quality of your work, but just more about whether it’s the right fit for a particular publication. By all means go ahead and re-submit it to another blog but PLEASE don’t just forward your original submission which is still titled “Rock N Roll Bride Submission”. Even if we aren’t your first choice publication, that’s just hurtful (and a bit lazy).
Submit To Multiple Blogs At Once
If you want to create a bad name for yourself amongst bloggers, send out one submission to multiple blogs at the same time. If multiple blogs accept it, but want exclusivity, you might find you’ll need to go back to the other blogs and tell them that they can’t share it a) at all or b) for another x days. It’s a sure fire way to get a big black mark next to your name. Even at a non-exclusive blog like We Are The Wanderers, I don’t mind featuring work that has been published elsewhere, but I don’t want to publish your feature at the same time as another blog, as it’s likely to get much less interaction.
Ask Us To “Check Out Your Website”
Did I mention bloggers are real people and we also have lives and work to do just like you? I’ve had a few emails and direct messages on social media with links to websites saying “Hey. I want to be featured on your blog. Here’s my ENTIRE PORTFOLIO. You can take a look through it and find something you like”. Um, no sorry. I’m way too busy for that!
Not Following Submission Guidelines
I said it nicely above, but I’m going to say it again because so many people don’t follow them! Please, please, PLEASE follow our submission guidelines. If we ask for images in chronological order, please send them that way. If we ask for a link to download your images from an online gallery, don’t attach 50 images individually to an email. Your work might be incredible but if you haven’t bothered to follow submission guidelines, it might be more work that it’s worth for us to say yes to your submission.
Want To Submit To European Elopement Guide?
You can find the submission guidelines HERE
