Best of Wedding Photography

Submission Guidelines for Publishing on the BOWP Blog

A PERK OF MEMBERSHIP

One of the perks of BOWP membership is the right to post on our blog whenever you like. Our blog is one of the highest traffic areas of our site with thousands of visitors monthly. Posting recent weddings and images is a great way to gain exposure among both brides and fellow photographers. You are also welcome to include links back to your own website for SEO purposes.

LOGGING IN + YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD

You’ll receive your username and password via email shortly after joining. You are welcome to log in and post at any time. You can log in at: www.bestofweddingphotography.com/blog/login.

HOW TO CREATE A BLOG POST AND SUBMIT FOR REVIEW

In case you are new to WordPress, here are the simple steps to creating your blog post and submitting it for review.

Click Posts >Add New.

  • Fill in your title.
  • Type any text in the body (do not cut and past directly – see below).
  • Add images using the ProPhoto Lightbox: Upload/Insert Media > Pro Photo > New Gallery >Select Files From Computer > Edit/Insert ProPhoto Gallery > Insert as lightbox.
  • Select categories  as needed (four categories maximum).
  • Click “Submit for Review.”

Here are some additional tips:

  • Pasting Text. To paste text, use the “Plain Text” paste button. This removes embedded formatting from other software programs. Otherwise your text may appear strangely formatted.
  • Subheadings. Add subheadings by clicking on the arrow by the word “paragraph.” The preferred subheading choice on BOWP is “Headings 4.” Some photographers use Headings 6 as a substitute for captions when placing captions between sets of photographs.
  • Icons. To see a full set of editing tools when typing your post, click on the KITCHEN SINK icon.
  • Adding Video. You can easily add video to your blog posts using YouTube. First, you need to put your video on YouTube. Then copy and paste the YouTube video’s URL into the post with one small change: the prefix should read as httpv://… (add a v for video) or httpvhd://… (add vdh for high definition video.
  • Saving. Be sure to save your work often by using the SAVE DRAFT and UPDATE POST buttons located at the upper right corner. Please constantly save your work.
  • Previewing. You can preview your saved blog post by clicking on the PREVIEW button.
  • Submit for Review. When you are ready to have your blog published, just click on SUBMIT FOR REVIEW. Your post will be reviewed and  published within two business days at the latest.

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

What to publish? We love it when BOWP members share their recent weddings on the blog and would also like to encourage other types of articles to further increase the value of the website for its visitors. One of the best ways to do this is by publishing educational articles.  As an example, you might want to publish an article that talks about what a couple might want to wear for their engagement sessions and why.

Styling, Formatting, and Organization. With many members logging in separately and posting on the blog, it is an ongoing challenge to ensure consistency in style. We ask that you follow these guidelines when submitting your posts. We also review all posts prior to publication, and may adjust your post if it does not meet the following guidelines.

  • Please limit your photographs to 960px in width.  The reason for this is because the theme that is used on the website is only 960px wide.  So by uploading larger photographs, they will not be viewed bigger and only be slowing down the loading speed of the website.
  • Please also limit your articles to a max of 50 photographs in the article.
  • Please take advantage of the ProPhoto Lightbox Gallery style, instead of the blog style. This has some advantages over the other gallery styles, like site loading speed.  Here is a quick video showing how.
  • Because we are using the Lightbox gallery style, there will be one large photograph at the top and rows of thumbnails below. Each row will contain 9 photographs.  In order to have each row filled, please upload 10, 19, 28 or 37 photographs.
  • If possible, please provide some text to give readers some context for the photographs. For example, talk about the wedding day, where it was or mention one part of the day that stands out for you.
  • When choosing a category for your article, please choose no more than 4 categories.  Our recommendation is to pick a type and location. For example:
    • Weddings go under the "All Weddings" category
    • Engagement sessions go under the "All E-Sessions" category
    • Boston, Australia or Toronto are examples of locations
  • Tags should not be used in any articles.

Here is an  example of an article using the recommended format. Here you will see the Lightbox gallery style in use, text content before the gallery, and specific categories selected.

TIPS FOR BETTER SEO

BOWP generally ranks well in search engines. A few SEO-friendly adjustments can help ensure your post ranks on search engines for relevant terms, bringing even more traffic and visitors to see your work. Here are a few tips:

  • Please use your important keyword(s) towards the beginning of the article title.
  • Please include your important keyword(s) towards the beginning of the text content that you include before your gallery.
  • Choose only appropriate categories related to the article so locations are optimized at its best.
  • For users with an advanced understanding of SEO, please note that we have the Meta Title and Meta Description fields for all articles to automatically be created based off the article’s title and the first two sentences of the text content.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR BOWP MEMBERSHIP

Every time your articles are published, please click the share buttons that are floating to the left, and below the article’s content. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest will increase the chances of your article being viewed and also help with search engine optimization.

Linking back to your article, profile and location pages are more ways to increase the exposure of the site. Backlinks are part of the SEO process, and there are many ways you can take advantage of this.

When you publish an article for Wedding XYZ on your website, in the text content you can link to your BOWP article on the same Wedding XYZ.

On your website where you share associations you are a member of, you can include text along the lines of: Member of Boston Wedding Photographers at Best of Wedding Photography.

Wherever you place the BOWP logo on your website, you can link to your profile page instead of the main BOWP website.

That brings us to the next tip.  We have many BOWP badges available for you to use on your website, so please take advantage them as they serve as a powerful marketing tool for your customers. You can download them or link to them here.

Keep your profile up to date with any description changes, your best photographs, locations served, etc. Email your changes to editor.com.

Share your profile page through social media and leverage it as a marketing tool.

Post on the BOWP blog as frequently as you can.  It’s there for you, so take advantage of it.

Submit your workshops to us (editor@bestofweddingphotography.com).  By doing so, we will add it to the workshops page and share it with the social communities, thus increasing chances to attract more attendees.