I know that is THE site for a bride-to-be, my question is how helpful is The Knot if you are not located in a bigger city. For instance, I am about 2 hours south of a large city. There are no listings for my area or any other city in my state, only the city.

I would love to advertise on there but wonder if it would be worth it. I am sure there are brides on there from smaller towns and such. Surely, they do not just cater to metropolitan areas. Any insight from others who advertise on there?

TIA!

When you talk to the Knot's sales rep, tell them your concern and have a list of zip code areas ready. I'm in Indpls, but I want to market in my hometown, which is 75 miles away. I told them to update my profile with my hometown's zip code and I get inquiries from there that I never would have gotten otherwise. If you don't know all the zip codes, see if they can help you figure a region that they can put in your profile. The key is to get something from the brides (i.e. zip code) to match something in your profile so their inquiry goes to you.

You're not the only one this happens to so talk to them .... they WANT to sell you space on there and they WANT you to be successful, so they will work to find a way to make it work.

I'm a frequent knottie The city guides aren't just for those specific cities anymore. I'm on the San Antonio city guide and now it says San Antonio/South Texas, so that encompasses a large region. Anyone who lives in SA or south of here would be on that board and would see vendor listings from allover that region. Some states just say "all areas," so any bride, from anywhere in that state, could see your listing. By what you said, I'm guessing you live in one of those "all area" states. You might end up with a more widespread clientèle if you do join the Knot because brides from all over the state would see your cakes...so you'd have to decide how far you'd be willing to deliver (at a fee, of course ). I think being on the Knot brings your business to more people's attention as well. The dinky town where my family lived for a long time (Wimberley, TX - a town no one has ever heard of, apparently ) has two beautiful venues right smack in the Hill Country, but if those venues weren't listed on the Knot, how many people would know these places existed? This might be a good way to put yourself out there. JMHO.

How much do they charge for advertising on the Knot, if you don't mind my asking?

I pay $145/month, and honestly.. have no had a single order since I signed up in Jan. NOT impressed.

Especially not impressed that I was told - AFTER I signed up - that The Knot is known for "cheap brides" in my area, and that someone "high end" like me is throwing money down the toilet by advertising with them. I had hoped that wasn't true - was locked into a contract - but guess what? No sales. UGH.

So, buyer beware.

I'd ask about a trial run before committing to a long contract with them, because my experience was like FlowerGirl's. I didn't get business, but I did get a lot of random emails with people from out of the area asking me cake questions (like...How do you make a rose? Where did you get that topper? etc.) The knot board in my area is like a bargain-hunter's board, too, and when one person posted that they should try Walmart for cakes I just stopped taking it seriously! Having said that, I've seen other people on CC who have had good results, so it might depend on your area. Ask the sales rep if you can try it for 6 months. Oh, and one thing I thought was fishy was that when I cancelled my account they got all snippy and told me that I was getting X amount of traffic from their website to mine, but I can check my site statistics, and I wasn't getting nearly the traffic that they were claiming I was...

THanks for the info!

I've never heard the "cheap brides" thing about The Knot. Two of my biggest bookings for this year came from the knot. If I book one wedding from the knot, it pays for my total annual costs of being on there.

I'm very happy with it.

The story on why I started with the knot......

Cheesy as it sounds, it was an early episode of The APprentice. The project was to open a bridal shop in 48 hours. The project manager told one of her crew to contact the knot and do an email-blast to all the brides in the area.

When they were ready to open the shop. ..... in less than 48 hours .... the brides were lined around the block!! I looked over at my husband, didn't say a word, and he said, "Go for it."

I called them the next day and I will never remove my ad from the knot.

I have a premium listing with The Knot, the cost of which is $270 per month. They require a 6 month minimum contract, no free trials available. I pay an extra $25 to list 3 additional photos (in addition to the one that is included in the fee).

To date, I have only received two inquires. Inquiries, not bookings. Save your money. Even with your best images, brides aren't shopping for much cake on The Knot. I am counting down the months until my 6 month contract ends.

I emailed my rep recently to discuss my account but have yet to receive an answer. She was very responsive, however, when I inquired about advertising with them. SAVE YOUR MONEY.

I have been on The Knot since December. So far I have booked 10 weddings from it. More then paid for itself. I think the return on investment is well worth it in my area.

some of you guys are probably sick of me saying this, lol. i post with this info just about everytime a "knot" thread pops up. it was the best thing i ever did for my business. i've been on since sept 2007, and i will never leave. i've booked 58 of my 80 bookings from the knot, thats 72%. i keep track of sales in dollars ($$ talks!), and the knot has booked me over $30,000 for 2008 and i've got several brides booked for 2009. the most expensive/posh cake place in the city lists there and i know they get a lot of business from it. its funny, because the knot message boards in my area are full of bargain brides, talking about getting cakes for $1.50 or 2.00 per serving. (low for my area). and then i'll see posts from brides raving about the 2-3 uber expensive places here. i'm right in the middle as far as pricing goes (average cake sells for 2.75) and my knot brides have been happy with my pricing. its been so exciting for me to see brides starting to post info about how much they love me on the knot boards! there have only been 3-4 comments about my business, but they were all raves. its a start considering i was a complete unknown just 7-8 months ago.

I signed up for one year on the knot and I keep track of where any brides find out about me. I received just one inquiry and it was from a bride who was 50+ miles away asking if my prices included free delivery to her hall. I go on the knot every couple of days just to see the message board in my area and it is usually the same 20 or so girls planning a GTG or about a great bargain they saw at a store. When they discuss cakes, it is always about the same 2 large bakeries in Boston or how they ordered a small cake at a cheap bakery and plan to go get sheet cakes at BJ's or a grocery store. The other thing I see posted on there all the time is "advice" to new brides to try not to tell any vendor they are price shopping for a wedding to get a cheaper price. They suggest to tell the baker they need a tiered cake for 100 guests for granny's 75th birthday, but instead of a sheet cake, they want something "special" like a tiered cake with her favorite flowers cascading down the cake and no writing, then they should tell the florist the same story about it being a party, not a wedding, when ordering table arrangements (making sure you order your bouquets from a seperate florist so they don't catch on), etc. So for me it was 1 year of paying to be on the knot = zero bookings.

Thanks all! I think I will hold off a while. I am still building the business and that is a bit of money per month for me right now.

Does anyone know if you can advertise on the Knot if you are overseas? I live in the Caribbean, in a typical destination wedding location. I am thinking about doing cakes as a business, but could find it hard to muscle my way into to the wedding market which is controlled by a couple of wedding planners on island. I do not particularly want my business to be "owned" by others, so would like a way of being visible to brides who are thinking about coming here to get married.

Hi Meancat,

I use geocities for my web hosting and for some reason the counter adds hits to the counter as they relate to the link. That means that 26 people from CC have hit on my site. I have other links via businesses that I do cakes for, the same thing happens with them. If you do a web search for my site directly, it comes up for over 5000 hits. Anyone else use geocities and have this same problem??? When I was on the knot for that year, the knot "counter" for my site was over 2000, so people were looking, just not buying. I agree with some of the posters that it could be an area thing with the knot brides, here in Massachusetts and New Hampshire they are mostly bargain shopping brides. There are a few higher end ones posting in the downtown Boston area, but very few. I'd suggest reading your local message boards on the knot for a while and get a feel for the type of bride your area has. Be careful not to post though, it's a no-no on the knot for vendors to post.

cfao that wall of shame on your site is something else!!! I've never seen that before............oh and for the record....as soon as I get ONE bad check I'm not accepting checks anymore......and Ive told people that!! Wedding cakes...checks have to be given 3 weeks prior to date cash, money order 2 weeks so there is time to clear........can't believe you got stiffed for 850 bucks!!! Crazy that people would do that!!!

Just one thing to stay aware of about wedding message boards in general...If you know of boards that brides from your area post comments or vendor reviews on regularly (the knot, brides.com, weddingwire, etc) it's a good idea to check them on a regular basis. I lurk on a lot of wedding boards to see if anyone's talking about me. Up to this point I've only gotten good feedback (knock wood) but I've seen other vendors get disgruntled brides posting nasty things about them. I'll then find out the rest of the story from the vendor, but since vendors don't post on the boards the brides have pretty much carte blanche to say anything they want on there. I know that I've seen other vendors put up fake posts about themselves, and while that's pretty obvious and people catch on fast, all it takes is one person putting something nasty up there to start all kinds of trouble for you. One reception site here had a bride who would come back about once a month and post all kinds of stuff, and the venue owner had to get the knot to take the posts down each time. It's just something to be aware of.

The $850 bride bought a wedding package and the check bounced over 2 months prior to the wedding date. I used to take checks up until 14 days prior to the wedding date, now it has to be 30+ days prior. The couple promised payment right up until a few days prior to the wedding, when I told them their time was up, they went to the new bakery a mile away from me & told them I had just cancelled their wedding cake because I recieved a huge order that paid more and gave them their money back and left them high & dry without a cake. She believed them, took their check, delivered the cake and found out a week later the check was on a closed account. I only lost the accessories they needed for the ceremony, the other bakery actually delivered the cake. I took it to court to see if my contract would hold up legally and I was awarded the entire amount of the contract based on the fact that just like a function hall, dj, etc, I could not have reasonably rebooked that date for another order. I have gone to court on the bakery's behalf to show this was not the first vendor this couple stiffed, and we have found out we were not the only ones she did this to. This girl actually still emails me every couple of weeks saying she is going to pay off the balance and she wants her info off of our web site, but of course she has never paid any of the vendors and I doubt she ever will.

LOL, cfao! i love your wall of shame!

As others have mentioned, it is REALLY dependent upon where you're located for whether or not it's worth advertising.

For this area (MSP), for cakes, it's not worth it... but florists, I haven't heard a one of them complain about advertising there. Pretty much every baker I know that has paid for advertising there says "not worth it"...

I agree that even though vendors can't post there, it's still worth keeping up with both the local for your area and national cake boards there . The reason is also because they're candid about what they're REALLY getting charged from your competition, but also because it helps keep you more current with what the wedding trends are for your area. I think it goes in trends for where brides are going. A lot around here seem to be hitting the big box people lately (Super Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam's).. OTOH, "they're going to get EXACTLY what they AREN'T paying for" (someone to deliver it and set it up - which many sites won't accept because they require it to be a licensed vendor delivering the cake, not someone who picked it up from the grocery store because a food manager wasn't in control of the cake from point A to B)

my area is a metro area, and it is worth it.

gues it is just where you are

I talked to a rep yesterday and she said it is $150 a month for 6 months and they are running a special for April to give 3 additional photos at no cost. I just wish I knew if it would pay off before I committed to this amount of expense for 6 months. I really think it would considering the season. But I am trying to get a better website and more photos first. Maybe next year. Anyone in the Northeast Georgia try it and like it?

Well, maybe that will work out then. Hopefully that will give me enough time to get a more professional looking website and a better photo book. Thanks for the input.

I started my "legal business" last year. I have done wedding cakes on and off for 15 years for family and friends. Last year, almost exactly a year ago, I started advertising via my website.
I debated advertising on the knot and decided it was too much money each month. I decided I would do it after my first year.
Well, I'm getting ready to come to my 1 year anniversary and have booked (and now completed almost half) 26 wedding cakes. (I don't do birthday cakes...only for my kids).
MOST of those came from the knot. But, I've never advertised on there. All it took was a couple Brides talking about the experiences they've had with me. Then more would email, call and then come for a tasting...and then they would recommend me. Then they would put their completed cake pictures in their BIO's with a link to my website. It has been amazing!! A few days ago I noticed a bride whom I've never had contact with recommending me just on what she has heard from other brides. That made me smile a little. Anyways... that's my experience. The Brides speak for you. Of course for some decorators that may not be enough cakes for the year to provide an income. But, for me it's the perfect amount...it keeps me busy but, not so busy that I'm working every weekend, it gives me an outlet for my baking and creating and it pays for things like vacations, Christmas and other things that may be harder to afford without the income.