How we use Trello & TwoBrightLights to manage our editorial calendar

The process of publishing a blog post or an album looks easy on the surface but behind everything is a meticulous procedure that allows for us to be an active site but still maintaining efficiency. We’re a blog that cares for every people involved – from the photographers, bride and grooms, vendors and readers and this process allows the quality and quantity of our deliverable to be far from mediocre.

We receive at least 10-20 album submissions daily thru email, our websites and Two Bright Lights. Ranging from weddings, engagements, and styled shoots.

We then thoroughly review each and every one with regards to the pictures and details. We usually look for albums that provides a significant amount of pictures that has artistic factor and some sort of utility for our readers – brides & brides-to-be

After which, we send an email to the photographer and bride/groom asking them to answer our questionnaire.  Many photographers & vendors wonder why we go through this step. The reason is simply because we receive dozens of photo submissions every day and we have a team of 3 bloggers that spend time putting everything together, pictures, stories, social hashtags who spend hours per single post writing a better story. Our aim is to inspire our readers and present their work in the best possible light.  This is exactly why we go the extra mile and ask for additional questions.

We’ve seen that only photographers and wedding vendors that share our vision of inspiring the new brides (& grooms)-to-be do take the time to complete the survey and give us worthy information that we can share with the thousands of readers brides that visit us every day.  As much as I’d love to speed things up but when it comes to love stories, it’s not about efficiency as much as it is about the story itself.

If the submission is from Two Bright Lights. We usually put the album “On Hold” while we wait for a response.

If (usually) a month has passed after sending the emails and we still haven’t received any form submissions from the clients, we would just base the decision on the album and album story itself.

The email, as seen above, will provide photographers & their clients the link to the Submission Form. It will be an extensive list of questions which they could answer and this will provide readers information that are interesting and useful for wedding planning.

Our editors then get notified about a new ansewer submited in our questionarrie waiting to be processed

 The information provided here would then be the final basis on whether or not we will Accept the album. Once we deem an entry and album as both fitting for our blog, we then make an entry in Trello, a task management program that helps us keep track of features and deadlines. This is what it looks like on the surface.

The cards inside the lists would open up to the following checklist. This process helps us identify what to do next and what hasn’t been done yet. It provides us efficiency and reduces the risk of neglecting an important part of the process

This card would then be scheduled accordingly. Here is a look on what our calendar looks like

The date wherein we scheduled this Trello card would be the same estimated publication date we would input back in Two Bright Lights once we finally Accept the album to be featured.

After the initial processing, this is now how we work on drafts:

We download first the album and pick out the best photos – depending on the details, artistic qualities and utility for the planning bride-to-be.

 

After which, we write a short summary regarding the photos and the n paste the photographer and/or the bride’s form response to the bottom of the post.

The vendors list, which is an essential part of the feature, would serve as the closing part of the post.

We would then schedule it accordingly to the estimated publication date, file it under corresponding categories, and then choose the relevant Tags either according to what the photographer indicated* or by initial inspection of the editor.

 

*

Once the scheduled date arrives and the post goes live on our website, it will also be visible on the rest of the blog’s social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

We would then need to send an email, both to the photographer and/or the bride & groom, that their story is published so they can shares with their friends