Monday, January 12, 2015

5th Annual Pet Blogger Challenge

Most popular Wordless Wednesday
Every year Go Pet Friendly, a premiere web site for pet travel, challenges pet bloggers to look back and forward. Kudos and hugs to Buster and Ty's mom for this annual challenge! GPF questions and my answers follow.

1. How long have you been blogging? Give a quick description of your blog.
• Since 2011. It's primarily my photos of animals that I pet sit.

2. What is one thing you accomplished on your blog during 2014 that made you proud?
• Baby's first giveaway! See #7, below.

3. What lessons have you learned last year—from other blogs or through your own experiences—that could help us all with our blogs?
• Blogging is hard work. Bloggers that rock are creative. They're good writers and photographers. They follow a schedule, do arduous research, and are accurate. They interact with their fans on social media. And their love for animals is bone deep—Milk Bone deep.

4. What have you found to be the most successful way to bring traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content?
• Blogpaws' Wordless Wednesday brings in traffic if I have a compelling photo like this one. It helps to Tweet about a blogpost more than once.

5. What was your most popular blog post last year? Did it surprise you that it was your most popular?
• The 2014 Pet Blogger Challenge.

6. What was your favorite blog post to write this year?
• The most meaningful was about Lori Huston, who passed away.

My first giveaway!
7. Has your policy on product reviews or giveaways changed this year?
• Yes! At Blogpaws I won $50 from the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) to give to a reader to visit an AAHA vet. When I posted about the giveaway, I asked readers to comment. Because I wasn't comfortable with Rafflecopter, each reader's comment was their entry. I numbered the comments. Then I numbered pieces of paper. The first paper that my hamster, Winnie, chewed, was the winner. I thought that Rafflecopter was the only way to go, but this worked!


8. What's your best piece of advice for other bloggers?
• You have to love it. You have to work hard.

9. What goals do you have for your blog in 2015?
• Right this minute I don't have any. My main focus is decluttering my apartment and moving across the country, and on pet sitting.

10. If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you're having with your blog, what would it be?
• I won a private visit at BlogPaws with SEO expert Matt Beswick. He explained how I could gather everything I needed to put online under one umbrella. "EmmyScammahorn.com" will allow people to hire me, learn about me, link to my blog, and whatever comes up in the future. I'm a pet sitter, writer, editor, photographer, and have been taking classes in holistic animal healing. Pet bloggers, do you have suggestions for designers for a web site? Who should host? In the corporate word I've worked on web sites, but never done my own. Help!!

8 comments:

  1. I love that Winnie helped with your giveaway. That's adorable.

    I don't know much about blogger so I can't recommend designers who work with it. But I've scouted out info about designers by checking out the template/designer information at the bottom of blogs I like.

    Maybe that would lead you in the right direction?

    Good luck!

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  2. Pamela, what a great idea! I'll do that. Winnie is such a cutie; I love her so much.

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  3. I'm actually on the look out for a new host. I first hosted my blog with BlueHost, but after my traffic hit a certain level they shut it down and wouldn't bring it back online until I moved to a new hosting company. After that debacle I moved to HostGator and while they haven't been terrible there seems to be quite a bit of downtime considering the amount of money I'm paying. Right now I'm looking at Rackspace and Web Synthesis.

    I'm not sure about the best place to find a designer. In the past I've scoured 99Designs for ideas, but most often I'll just tweak my current theme on my own which runs on the Genesis Framework .

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    1. Thanks for the information. I look forward to checking out your blog.

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  4. Great post, Emmy! It's so interesting that the Blogger's Challenge was your most popular 2014 post. Blogging definitely is hard work! Thanks for sharing your story.
    Love & Biscuits,
    Cathy, Isis & Phoebe
    www.dogsluvusandweluvthem.blogspot.com

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    1. It's ironic, isn't it? I look forward to seeing your blog.

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  5. Hello Emmy, and thanks for taking the Challenge! Of course, I found your whole post interesting ... but I'm particularly excited by the little tidbit that you're planning to move. WOOHOO!!!! This is surely be an exciting year for you and I can't wait to follow along on your adventures.

    As for your question, I use MediaTemple to host the blog and I've found them easy to work with and reliable. And I'd talk to Julie Melfi (Leg Up Creative) about website design. She's helped a few bloggers and the work she does is fantastic. I'm wishing you the very best of everything in what will no doubt be a very exciting year for you, Emmy. Have fun, my friend!

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  6. i really appreciate it, you are doing some great work here. love it Lost and found

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