The design and layout is all new as is the content. When Don moved from the Strip to Lawrenceville he didn’t just change the address! He changed the website too!

It goes without saying that theknot.com is a HUGE wedding resource. They themselves claim that 80% of brides turn to them for information which makes them the industry’s equivalent to Walmart. If 80% of the consumers are using them, even for just a small percentage of their planning, shopping, and other wedding prep needs then it should be a no-brainier for most wedding vendors who want to gain more clients – the knot is probably where you can find them.

That being said I recently discovered how ruthless, manipulative, and deceptive they are in their marketing, advertising, and vendor relations. As you’ll read below I sent the regional sales rep, Sara Brunner, a message expressing my feelings about their deceptive practices and asked them to change their ways. I’m not holding my breath but what I am doing though is this – blogging about it in the hopes that you my dear reader will avoid using them in favor of other, more organic, more truly local resources.

The Backstory

While I was doing some research this week into search engine optimization I saw that, (as expected), theknot.com has a huge local market share in the search engine results. They’re not the top listing for Pittsburgh photographers, (and I’m already listed on the site that is), but they are one of the biggest.
Knowing what I know about SEO I decided I’d see if they have free or minimally priced listing (like a great many vendor listing websites do). As it turns out they don’t. No big surprise, and really no big deal because let’s face it – they are the top dog, (according to their own statistics). So they ask for just under $200/per month for advertising which isn’t unreasonable considering that if I add one more wedding a month (or 12 more a year) I could, without any price increases, cover that and not have it even make a mark on my bottom line.

Exploring theKnot

I was seriously considering paying for an advertisement on theknot.com when in the course of my research I checked the local listings page and saw that they have some curious, (i.e. deceptive), language. They have the ads for the type of vendor for the area and then they have below these ads a list of links to all the other folks who have paid for ad space but that don’t fit on the first page. It really is smart from an SEO standpoint as these folks are still listed on the first page of the vendor listings and then listed again with their ad but I digress.

Knotted Up

Where the problem lies is that they have this list under the heading: Complete List of [local area] [vendor type]

So for the list of all of the paying photographers from Pittsburgh it reads: Complete List of Pittsburgh Photographers

Now I’m not an idiot, I understand marketing but “complete list” really? No, not really. I’m not on there. I know a number of other established, well known, busy, and profitable wedding photographers that are not in this “complete list” of photographers. In fact some of the biggest names in the Pittsburgh wedding photography business are NOT listed in this list.

Tightening theKnot

So this is the part where I share with you dear reader the message I sent Sara, the sales rep. Here is the body of the message:

Good morning,
I see on your site that under the local vendor lists you have a section titled: Complete List of [local area name] [vendor specialty]

This is a little disingenuous isn’t it? I mean, honestly, I’m a Pittsburgh wedding photographer and I’m not on the “complete list of Pittsburgh photographers”. I know others that I don’t see on the list either so it can’t truly be “complete” now can it?

I could understand you using the wording “Complete list of The Knot’s (approved/favorite/paying/whatever) [local area name] [vendor specialty].

Don’t get me wrong here, I’d like to pick up some extra clients and the knot could possibly deliver them but with such disingenuous and manipulative language on your site I’m not so sure that I would want to support your business when your website seems to be less than truthful.
Now, I’m not an idiot, I understand marketing and I understand playing hard ball. I also understand the difference between being aggressive and being outright assholes and I’m sorry to have to say this but your company seems to be leaning towards the later.
I’ll make you a deal though – you clean that up and I’ll consider buying an add. I’ll also be posting this letter, as an open letter to the knot on my wedding blog.
Thank you for your time!
W. Donald Orkoskey

Untie The Knot

Like I said before – theknot.com is a huge resource for brides and wedding couples. Again though they are deceptive in their business practices and I encourage everyone to see them for what they are. Digging deeper I found some interesting information about a lawsuit back in 2000 that was the result of them trying to back out of and dishonor contracts with franchise owners of Weddingpages which they bought-out that year. I’ve not found the results of the suit but they were clearly interested in maximizing profits at the expense of small business owners. Read more about the suit here.

One thing that strikes me is that companies that do business like this encourage others to do the same. That’s not to say that all of the vendors listed on theknot.com are in any way as corrupt, morally depraved, and money-hungry as they are. In fact the majority are just trying to survive in a business that can be a little difficult to do so in. That being said the chances of coming across a vendor that will do anything to make a buck and that will deliver a less than desirable product or service are much higher with a website such as theknot.com over a locally ran site or vendor collective that polices it’s members and knows them personally.
In trying to find a way to reach them to discuss the issue I came across the following very interesting post from this February on the Fred Miranda message boards. The post is about theknot.com providing a vendor dashboard. Two of the respondents say that the knot lost their business already and  one reported that a representative told him his business would fail if he didn’t advertise with them. Fail? Really?

This god-complex is the same that I’ve encountered from people in other high pressure sales positions. One SEO salesman told me that he’d pray for me since I was going to be on welfare soon since I opted not to pay his company $1,000 per month to have my business be the only one listed on Google’s front-page. He told me they’d find another local photographer willing to take that offer and that I’d loose my business, my house, my car, my wife, my dog, and so on if I didn’t buy what he was selling.

To think that a sales-person would be driven that hard to feel the need to threaten people is insane and shows just how profit driven and/or unnecessary the company they work for is.  I truly hope that the folks at theknot.com will fix their deceptive wording. If they do I’ll honestly consider buying advertising from them.

I’m meeting with Maya today at Espresso A Mano to go over the proof of her and Ryder’s wedding album.

It’s taken a little longer than I’d normally like to get it together and get them to sign off on it but I know that in the end it will be worth it because it’s going to be a beautiful book. They were married in October and we’ve had one review already now that we’ve made some big changes I’m sure that they are going to love it!

I got Sarah involved a bit more with the album process this time and taught her how I put them together. I think she was a little scared at first but she did a bang-up job. I can’t wait until Maya sees what we’ve got for her!

It must be time for spring cleaning because we’ve finally updated the portfolio and added some photos from a few more recent weddings. We’ve included photos from Matthew and Heather, Maya and Ryder, Wendy and Aaron, and Amanda and Fred. The last update we did was more than a year ago.

We still have dates open in 2011 so after checking out the portfolio be sure to contact us to see if we have your date open.

Be sure to call or email soon before your date is booked.

I seem to be on a Matt kick lately. Actually I’ve been friends with Matt here for years and when he finally popped the question he and Zahava came to me and asked if I would photograph their wedding. Matt was the best man in my wedding so clearly I was happy they asked me to be their photographer but was saddened to learn that they had selected a date that I already had booked. As a consolation, and a wedding gift I did their engagement photos.

Typically I take my couples outside and we go to either Frick Park, the Strip District, or some other very cool location. In fact I don’t think that I’ve ever done engagement photos in the studio but they requested it so we did it. It was a lot of fun! I usually don’t get to shoot tethered, (which is with my camera attached to my laptop), I like shooting this way because I can instantly show the couple their raws.

We spent about 30 to 45 minutes posing and shooting and in the end we came out with a few great shots. Another thing that is funny these days is that many of the couples I work with don’t publish their engagement photos in the newspaper but Matt and Zahava have chosen to do so which is great! The photo above is the one they are publishing.

I wish you both so much luck in your lives together and am so happy for you. I know you two are perfect for each other, I’m so glad that we’re friends and only wish I could have been there to photograph your wedding.

Matthew and Heather were married on May 1st at the Mattress Factory on Pittsburgh’s Northside. We took a walk to Allegheny Commons Park to do their formal portraits. It was a beautiful day, it was warm, the sun was shinning, and people were out all over the park.

There were two additional wedding parties that showed up when we were doing their portraits and since it was prom season there were prom photos happening too! Add to all of that the folks that were out with their dogs or just laying about reading and it made it a bit of a challenge to get photos of the happy couple without getting other people in the photos. We managed though and ended up getting a handful of great shots. It helps when you have a great couple to work with and Matthew and Heather made it really easy.

Matthew and Heather live on the Northside and are very involved in their community (just one other thing that makes them awesome). They’ve become great friends with the shaved ice vendor that has sold his tasty treats next to the park longer than anyone can remember.

Their wedding photos wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to their friend. The line was long and it took us a few minutes extra but it was a lot of fun talking to all the people and seeing the crowd smile at Matthew and Heather – everyone loves weddings!

In the end Matthew bought a shaved ice and gave it to the girl in line behind them. I guess nobody in the wedding party wanted to stain their dresses or tuxes.

As I mentioned Heather is a very talented musician. We took some photos of her playing and some photos of their rings on her violin.

By the end of the night the happy couple was still all smiles and we sneaked away to the top of the stairs at the Mattress Factory to snap a shot of them with the city in the background. This shot was tougher than it looks because there was absolutely NO light in the stairway to focus with.

We were able to sneak out there because Matthew and Heather had work in the Gestures show which opened the week after their wedding and goes through June 20th.

Thank you Matthew and Heather for choosing us as your wedding photographers, Sarah and I had a great time!

We should have it back up by late tomorrow morning.

In the mean time please contact us via this site if you have any questions.

We will be uploading a new portfolio in the next few days. As of right now we do apologies as some of the photos are not loading and at least one is corrupt.

We’d love to hear what you think of the new site. We’re excited to introduce it in a Blog format which will allow us to update the site more frequently. Primarily Don will be doing the updating but we look to have a guest blogger or two when we can. We may not find time to blog about each wedding that we do but will do our best. In between weddings we hope to add information about other events that we are shooting and so on.

Thanks everyone who has already contacted us to let us know what they think about the redesign!

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