It’s time for the annual Pet Blogger’s clearing house and setting goals. If you’re not a blogger, you might want to skip on over to another post, whatever catches your fancy. Fellow bloggers, I’m in this again, determined to clarify what I have here and what I aim to do with it. And to post a new photo of CindyLu and me. That last one’s crucial, isn’t it?
Hosted by Amy of GoPetFriendly.com, the Pet Blogger Challenge is an annual event which encourages bloggers to take a good look at what they’ve been working on during the past year, formulate their goals for the year ahead, and in general define and describe their reason for blogging. A gargantuan task, and a very worthy one.
There are questions Amy has posed for us to use as guidelines. Phew…the ADD so many of us bloggers suffer from would have us roaming the globe for stuff to talk about in this post, if she didn’t provide us with some boundaries! So, thank you, Amy!
And now on to the questions:
1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about.
I began blogging in August of 2010. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long! CindyLu’s Muse is a site that provides stories, reviews and giveaways, and general information pet owners might be interested in.
We also have a bit of an advocacy streak in us, and often highlight people, causes, or organizations that involve the welfare of animals – pets in particular.
2. Tell us one thing that you accomplished on your blog during 2014 that made you proud.
2014 was, for the most part, a lousy year for the blog. I didn’t write much, I had too many other things going on and the blog suffered. But…I’m really proud of having switched over to WordPress from Blogger – and created my own self-hosted website. That’s huge!
Kim takes a bow
3. What lessons have you learned this year – from other blogs, or through your own experience – that could help us all with our own blogs?
Be yourself. Be authentic. Be vulnerable.
Write about what moves you the most, don’t worry about what’s in the headlines or what’s popular.
Care. Care about your subject. Care about your readers. Care about your fellow writers.
You’re important and you make a difference. No matter what you write about, and no matter how small or large your audience is – you matter. Your words are important.
4. What have you found to be the most successful way to bring traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content?
Triberr is a fantastic tool for sharing, particularly on Twitter. Social media in general, whichever your favorite avenue is, but especially Facebook. For all its flaws, it’s still the place where everyday people congregate.
And of course, the very foundation: quality content.
5. What was your most popular blog post this year? Did it surprise you that it was your most popular?
My most popular blog post this year was by far one I did over a year ago about how to make a sweater for your small dog out of an old sweatshirt. Surprise me? Knocked my socks off! I couldn’t believe how popular it’s been. And it still is, I regularly get visits to that page. It’s a great idea, and CindyLu still wears that lil’ ol’ piece of handywork of mine – but wow, it’s been quite a surprise.
6. What was your favorite blog post to write this year?
I have a couple, actually – one I wrote about our rescue organization taking in a bunch of dogs from an Indian reservation in desperate straits involved some fascinating research. Then there was the happy day I was able to report that Puppy Parlor was closed. That was the pet store my friends of CAPS had diligently protested every day for over a year.
There’ve been some exciting things happening in the world of animal welfare this year – and some great news!
7. Has your policy on product reviews and/or giveaways changed this year?
Yes and no. I’m still insisting on a minimum of product provided for both my personal review, and for a giveaway. I won’t do a review without a giveaway. And I won’t publish a review if I don’t have positive things to say about the product.
However, I’d rather get into some more serious business deals, I’m just working on my traffic numbers first. They were severely crushed by moving my site – but I have full confidence I’ll not only return to those numbers, but far exceed them this year.
If you do reviews, what do you find works best, and what doesn’t work at all?
I have found that reviews on their own seem to simply help add to the search engine results for the manufacturer. Incorporating a giveaway with a review gets much more traction, both for the product and for my blog. And provides my readers with a “gift” of sorts for reading the review.
I do enjoy letting my readers know about things I find that are really great – but I absolutely would not do a review if it were not a positive one. I don’t want to be writing negative stuff, and I don’t want to give the impression I’d recommend a product I don’t find to be in the above-average to stellar range.
If you don’t do reviews, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?
(We can skip this one!)
8. What’s your best piece of advice for other bloggers?
Don’t worry about what others are doing. Do what comes naturally for you, and write about what’s important to you.
9. What goals do you have for your blog in 2015?
Oh lordy, as always – too many. Hah! Let’s see…
- Write more often
- Finish redoing the blog – notice the About Page and some others are not redone?
- Increase traffic numbers
- Increase subscribers
- Increase communities on social media
- Seek out sponsorships
- Keep spreading the word about issues and telling the stories that are important to pet loving people
10. If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be?
Help! I’ve worked diligently at providing great material, shared regularly, on my social media sites. Still…my numbers aren’t great, the following is minimal. How do you best increase your followers on Facebook (without paying ahem), Twitter, G+, Pinterest, and Instagram??
I love “Be yourself. Be authentic. Be vulnerable.” It’s so easy to get caught up in SEO and other blogging tips – which end up making the content – well, dull. The blogs I find myself connecting to are the ones where I can feel what the blogger is trying to get across, it’s clear that they care, and they’re not afraid to open up, admit mistakes, and be vulnerable. I don’t have a big following but the one thing that really helped me on Pinterest was becoming a member of other people’s groups. There’s a lot of big pet boards out there, I’d try reaching out and becoming a member – it’s a great way to have your pins seen by a whole new set of people.
Really? Lots of pet boards on Pinterest? Hmm…I had no clue. I am in one, I’ll have to check out others as well. Thank you!
I love your blog, your advocacy, and seeing both of your cute faces. I wish I had the answer to getting more eyeballs on your fantastic website… I hope that someone else will be able to provide some help here, because you definitely deserve to be seen! Your content is definitely quality and your commitment to change is inspirational, my friend.
And kudos on switching to self-hosting! That’s huge and you are awesome. 🙂
No, you’re awesome! LOL We’ve been connected since I first started blogging…I have always admired your site, so this is truly flattering compliments here from you – Thank you, AJ!!
Great job on the transition to self hosted. I know from experience that it rarely goes smoothly! Your site is looking great!
Getting more traffic seems to be the most common goal for 2015. We all put a lot of work into our blogs and it can be discouraging when not as many people as we would like actually see the content! I think consistency is key however and the traffic always builds slowly!
Thank you! Consistency sure does seem to be a crucial component. Happy 2015!
Hi Y’all,
This post and link up should really help people who lost you to find you again.
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
I sure hope so! Great to “see” you, Hawk!
Hi there! We were following you via twitter but now we are following via ALL of your social media accounts. Look forward to reading more of your blog in 2015! Great answers, btw!
Hi, great to meet you Rama’s Mama! And I’m now following all of yours as well – thanks for the love!
Hi! Nice to meet you and thank you for stopping by my blog!! I’m looking forward to getting to know you more this year! 😀 Getting followers on social media has been really hard for me, too! I find that sharing other people’s pages has helped a lot. Blatantly asking people to do a share for a share is not my favorite thing to do.. I actually really hate it but it does work. For instragram, liking other people’s pictures and following them and using hashtags has helped me. Instagram is my second largest following, I have a little bit over 400 people now. LOL
Wow! 400 Instagram followers? You’ve been busy, girl! It’s great to meet you, too – and this year’s going to be awesome, we’ll tackle it together!
I so agree about being yourself and not chasing the popular topics and what others are doing. Congrats on moving your blog! Impressive! As for your question, gosh, the only thing I can think is to really try to write interesting titles. I know I don’t have time to visit all the blogs I’d like to, so sometimes I only have time to visit a few and I’m drawn to the ones i see in my feed or on Triberr that have the most intriguing titles. All the best on achieving those 2015 goals!
That’s an interesting suggest, Jackie! I’ll have to test it out, see if it’ll work for me. Thank you, and best to you in 2015, too!!
Yes, yes, YES to #3. You articulated it so perfectly!! I don’t have any good advice for increasing social – I’m working on that myself – but I think Amy’s point is really good about posing questions and getting the community involved. I do Friday photo challenges once/month, and those always bring me new folks I think because of the engagement.
LOL…Maggie, you made me scroll up to see what #3 was! Amy does offer a fantastic piece of advice on engagement/followers – and it sounds like the idea is already working for you. Time to stew on some new ideas here… Thanks, Maggie, and Happy New Year!
Loved your advice to other bloggers!
Thank you, Taryn!
I enjoyed reading your answers and look forward to more posts so I can get to know you more, too. Will I see you in May in Nashville?
Thank you, Carol! (and ditto!) I won’t be attending Nashville, though. We’ll have to meet some other way!
I never really used Triberr although I did start an account. Maybe I’ll have to look at it again in the coming days. My Facebook page appeared on a “suggested pages” area of Facebook after people “liked” similar pages. I did run an ad on Facebook, but this phenomenon started after I shut down my ad and continued for more than a year. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure how you get your page in this position, but if you can figure it out you will get a windfall of followers. Good luck in 2015!
That’s really interesting how that worked for you, Colby! We’ll have to dig some more about it, see what that’s all about. Facebook can be so tricky sometimes! And yes, definitely get involved in Triberr, it’s a great way to easily get more exposure, and add to your posts in Twitter! Good luck to you, too, my friend!
If you ever want to talk about that little Facebook phenomena please feel free to shoot me an email. At this point I just chalk it up to the Facebook Gods smiling on me for a short while.