Today we’re taking part in the Pet Blogger Challenge, an annual event hosted by Will My Dog Hate Me and GoPetFriendly.com. We participated in last year’s inaugural Challenge (here’s last year’s post), a chance to look at the progress we’d made and the route we planned to take in the coming year. In these first days of 2012, we’re happy for the opportunity to chart a path for the new year for DogTipper and our careers.
What do you consider the most important goals you set out in last year’s post?
Our most important goals last year were to continue introducing readers to the joy of dog adoption and helping readers improve their life with their dog, whether that’s through training tips, new products that address specific issues and needs, or saving money while at the same time providing their dog with a healthy lifestyle.
Have you made progress toward those goals, or have your goals changed over the past year?
We have made progress toward these goals. Last year we were featuring adoptable dogs once a week; we now feature an Adoptable Dog of the Day every weekday. We’ve also expanded the size of the site so we can cover more tips and more products. This year (at the urging of our four cats) we also launched CatTipper.com and have been enjoying that site. We’re looking forward to expanding it in 2012.
Has your opinion of blogging on a schedule or as the spirit moves you changed? Which are you doing now? Do you still worry about lost traffic, momentum, etc?
We continue to blog daily, updating from five to ten times per day. As full-time professional bloggers, we work on a pretty strict schedule. One of our goals for 2012 is to *try* to stop working a little earlier every day, leaving the laptops in the office at night. This was one of our goals last year but it hasn’t happened…but we’re still hopeful!
Are you generating income from your blog? Has this changed since last year? If you are generating income, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)? If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?
Yes, we earn our living through our blogs (including two travel blogs as well) and, to a lesser degree, from freelance writing and guidebooks. On DogTipper, we generate income from advertising as well as ambassadorships, and we are working on building more affiliate relationships.
We’re hoping to expand this year into more ambassadorships and sponsorships. With Paris’ background in Economics and our Barkonomics: Tips for Frugal Fidos book, we’re hoping to work with companies that would like to reach out to consumers who are watching their budget but want to provide a healthy, happy lifestyle for their pets by purchasing products that are a good value.
Have your likes and dislikes about blogging changed since last year?
Yes, the aspects of the blogging world that we liked in 2011 remain much the same in 2012: we love the interaction with readers, the accessibility of statistics (and with a much faster turnaround than statistics we receive from book sales), and the ability to take an idea and run with it. We’d now add that we also enjoy the ability to reach readers in a variety of platforms, whether that’s by video, on the blog, or on a social media site like Twitter or Facebook.
Our dislikes are also much the same: we still get the feeling that we’re never done at the end of the day. We each work about 70 hours per week and the largest share of that time is spent on DogTipper. We’re really hoping to reach a level where we can either expand and hire some virtual help or cut back on our hours.
Overall, are you pleased with the progress you made in 2011?
Yes and no. DogTipper has passed the three year mark now and has attracted a lot of attention from the pet world, and we’re very happy about that. We’re extremely proud of the fact that we’ve helped shine a positive light on the joy of dog adoption and on mixed breed dogs and that through our work with major brands we’ve been able to contribute to shelters. We’ve very happy that we still have a great time working on the site and can’t wait to start work every morning.
We’re less pleased with the progress in terms of finances. We’re working on ways to change that in 2012! Reviews will always be free but we’re hoping to better monetize other areas of the site in some fashion.
How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2012?
We’re planning to continue with all our most popular areas, and we’re hoping to add some new features as well such as Tuesday’s Rover’s Reviews blog hop, an expanded Recipes section, our new 365 Photo Project, more giveaways, and more video reviews.
We’re also enjoying our association with Event Barkers and working alongside AllThingsDogBlog.com hosting several Twitter parties which have been a lot of fun; we’re presently working on a #SuperDogSunday project with all proceeds to benefit Petfinder Foundation. We used Petfinder before adopting Tiki, Irie, and Inca so we’re very excited about this opportunity to assist their foundation.
We love working with brands and hope to attend several professional conferences and trade shows this year to meet brand representatives and learn what’s new on the market. Our goals are to once again attend BlogPaws and BarkWorld Expo plus we would like to attend at least one pet trade show such as Global Pet Expo. DogTipper now features numerous gift guides throughout the year so we’re hoping to stay up with all that’s new for dog lovers.
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