Pet Blogger Challenge 2013

I'm so glad to be participating in the Third Annual Pet Blogger Challenge! This is my first time participating in the Pet Blogger Challenge sponsored by Go Pet Friendly.  It's a wonderful way to get to know other pet bloggers and share information about improving our blogs, and inspire each other. 

With no further ado, here are my responses to the questions for first timers.

I first began my blog in November 2007.  The truth is that I began blogging because "everyone" said that if you had a business, you needed a blog.  So, I guess you could say I began blogging to check that off my business plan list!

It wasn't long before I realized that I had more to say about dogs than I did about my dog jewelry!  I found it was a good way to share events, adoptable pets, and highlight pet causes of interest to my readers (the majority of which are my customers and definitely dog lovers.)

In addition, though I do love working in my studio creating jewelry, I do not really enjoy the hours (and hours) of computer time essential to my business.  EXCEPT for blogging!  Most of the time, I wish I had more time to devote to my blog because it is just plain fun and gives me a feeling of satisfaction.

For the past three years I've blogged daily, sometimes posting twice a day.  I do have a bit of a schedule.  Every Wednesday, I do a Wordless Wednesday post of photograph(s) and now participate in BlogPaws pet blogger hop that day.  Every Saturday is Dog Song Saturday at Talking Dogs, when I feature dog music videos.  Every Sunday, I feature an adoptable dog.  If I'm reviewing a dog treat or we've tried a new dog treat recipe, I publish those posts on Tuesday in order to participate in the Tasty Tuesday blog hop.

For me, time is a four letter word.  There's never enough of it.  My dream would be to better plan and focus my blog, to clean up my blog pages and add pr/review information, and to visit other blogs more often and leave comments. These are my goals for 2013.

How much time to I spend writing my blog per week?  Too much, yet not enough.  There's never, ever enough time to visit all the other blogs I follow.  I allot two hours in the early morning to do social media:  Twitter, Facebook, Triberr, and others, plus try to visit blogs I follow in my Google reader.  More often than not, I don't have time to follow up on reader comments.

I measure my success by the traffic to my blog, the emails I receive from my readers and, yes, the phone calls.  For some reason Dog Song Saturday generates telephone calls and, in the past, posts I did on Missouri puppy mills generated quite a bit of email and telephone calls.  

If I could ask the pet blogging community for help with one issue, it would be regarding time management.  How do you do all that you do?!


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