Today we’re excited to take part in the Pet Blogger Challenge, a project by WillMyDogHateMe.com and GoPetFriendly.com. The new year is always a good time to look at where you’ve been and where you’re going, and that includes businesses and blogs, too. Here’s a look at our business here at DogTipper and where we hope to go in 2011:
1. When did you begin your blog?
August 2008
2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
We have been operating several websites since 2000 but all in the field of travel (primarily Lovetripper.com about romantic travel and DogGoneTexas.com about Texas travel with dogs). In 2008, seeing the economy negatively impact the travel industry and quickly growing tired of air travel, we started trying to think of a blog topic closer to home.
That same year, we adopted two young shelter dogs and soon we had our topic: tips to help you optimize your life with your dog with a special emphasis on adoption and rescue.
3. Is your current purpose the same?
Yes and no. Our emphasis remains on improving your life with your dog and on adoption and rescue but we’re now using a more personal approach to the whole topic. During the launch of DogTipper, we never mentioned ourselves or our dogs, taking a more journalistic approach. Now we write more about our experiences with our dogs and dog products, and we use photos of our dogs throughout the site.
Also, since the launch of the site, we’ve added a second emphasis: saving money on your dog’s care. With the economy hitting pets and shelters so hard, we’ve looked for ways people can save money on their dog’s care while at the same time providing their dog the best possible life.
If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?
We think we’ve helped bring some attention to the fact that there are so many great dogs in shelters just waiting for a home and, besides saving a life, you’re also saving yourself money in the process by turning to a shelter or rescue rather than a breeder or pet store.
4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?
We blog on schedule with updates every day. Since we’ve been writing full-time for so long, we have a routine and, with its launch, DogTipper just became part of that routine. After our morning dog walk, both of us start writing. We try to get our most serious writing done in the morning since those are the most productive hours for us. In the afternoon, we continue work but often work on photographs for the posts and promotional efforts for the sites. We stop work for the evening dog walk and dinner then in the evenings we work on social media and promotion.
If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it?
We update daily and usually several times each day, seven days a week (although not as much on the weekends). It’s pretty much just part of our work routine. Since it’s our job, it’s fairly easy to stay motivated…we just glance over at the stack of bills to be paid!
5. Are you generating income from your blog?
Yes, the majority of our household income is from our sites. We started the sites to supplement our guidebook income but, around 2005 or so, the tables turned and the guidebooks became a supplement to our blog income.
If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)?
The majority of our income is via advertising, primarily through advertising networks (which, on DogTipper, are DogTime Media, ValueClick, and Google AdSense). We sell a limited amount of direct advertising (we really don’t have the personalities to get out and hustle for ads, though, so we haven’t pursued this much on any of our sites.) We also sell BuySellAds.com button ads on DogTipper.
Also, we sell our books on our sites. On DogTipper, we sell our Barkonomics: Tips for Frugal Fidos book both through Amazon and directly. On TexasTripper.com, we sell our Texas guidebooks through Amazon. On Lovetripper.com, we sell our travel guidebooks through Amazon and we also sell e-books through Clickbank.com. We receive a small percentage of each Amazon sale through its Amazon Associates program; we receive a much larger percentage of the sales price through Clickbank.com.
6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?
We love the ability to try new ideas immediately rather than querying publishers and waiting for a go-ahead. It’s so nice to be able to immediately follow up on an idea and expand things that work and drop the ideas that don’t work.
We also love getting to know our readers. With our books, we might occasionally receive an email or a letter but with DogTipper we have so much more interaction with readers through their emails, through social media, and through photos they send us. It’s really nice to get such immediate feedback on our work and to feel like we’re writing to a particular audience rather than to someone who might pick up our books in the store.
Financially, we love the daily statistics we get on DogTipper and our other sites in terms of advertising and sales. We know the day of the month we’ll be paid for advertising and we also receive monthly checks from Amazon (and twice-monthly from Clickbank) which is far different than the semi-annual royalty payments we receive on our guidebooks.
7. What do you like least?
The hardest part of our blogs is the fact that they’re never done. That was the toughest switch for us in moving from books and magazine assignments to our sites–and it’s still a problem. With a book or article, we had a strict deadline, met the deadline, went through editing, then we were done. With our sites, we’re always thinking up new features and posts to add–which is great–but at the same time we never get the feeling we’re finished. One of our goals for this year is to plan each day’s work better and then stop when that day’s work is done. (Of course, this is all closely tied to that previously mentioned pile of bills…)
8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2011?
We plan to expand DogTipper this year, including more permanent resources as well as daily posts. We’ve recently added a stock photo library featuring some of our dog and cat photos; it’s free for bloggers to use and a part of the special section for pet bloggers we’ve added. We’ve got hundreds (thousands?) of additional photos to size and categorize so we’ll be adding to that collection all year. We also just launched the Pet Blog Directory, a resource featuring dog, cat, and other pet blogs.
We also plan to add an extensive section on dog breeds with information to help people select the dog breed that’s best for their lifestyle–but all tied to rescue with contact information for breed-specific rescues. And, of course, we want to do more to encourage mixed breed adoption since that’s where our hearts lie; our dogs Tiki and Irie are both mixes of mixes and are the best dogs we could ever ask for…after all, they’ve led us, and our careers, down this incredible path.
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