Sunday, January 10, 2016

Taking the Pet Blogger Challenge!

 
This is the first year we've participated in the Pet Blogger Challenge, and we're glad to have had input from many of you over the last year and few years that we've had this blog.

Here are our answers for the 2016 Pet Blogger Challenge:
1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone who is visiting for the first time, please give a quick description of the subject of your blog.

 We've been blogging for about 9 years now.  We first started blogging in our diaries on Catster, then created "Furry Tails of the PDX Pride" after a few years when we realized that cat blogging was a "thing".  We blog about our daily lives around the house, which animal visitors we get in our backyard, the feral cats who come by, and Tabby's tales of being an animal-assisted therapy volunteer with Mommy at a nursing home once a month.

2. What is the one thing that you accomplished during 2015, either on your blog or because of it, that made you most proud?

 Because of Tabby's therapy cat tales series, she and Mommy were speakers for the second time at the NW Pet and Companion Fair (a pet expo).  They talked about/demonstrated how to be a therapy cat team and what training is necessary.

3. Which of your blog posts was your favorite this year and why? (Please include a link.)

We have two favorite posts:  one that shows how smart the ferals are and another that shows what Tabby does when she's out and about.  The first one, about ferals Tigress and Little Niss, shows how Tigress treats Niss as her own kitten, even though she never had kittens of her own.  The second, about Tabby, details a typical visit and reactions when she's doing her therapy cat work.

4. A common theme from last year’s challenge was that many of us wanted to increase the size of our audiences. Whether or not we intend to monetize our blogs, it seems we’d all like to reach more people. It feels good to know that we’re connecting with others, sharing a laugh or supporting a cause, and it’s motivating to see those numbers grow! What is one thing you’ve done in the past year that has brought more traffic to your blog?

We did the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the first time this year.  It's not specific to pet blogs, so it brought a varied new audience.  We found some blogs from it that we really liked, too!  Plus, we were blogging every day, so it was a good routine.

5. Which of your blog posts got the most traffic this year? Why do you think it was so popular? (Please include a link.)

Our birthday posts when they came around were high-traffic ones, but we really don't know what made Daddy's Lawnmower Monster so irresistible!  It got 321 views!

6. What is one blog that you read religiously – other than your own – and what makes you such a devoted reader? (Please include a link.)

We love reading SparkleCat, featuring Summer and also Glogirly.  We love the photography and the stories behind the photos!

7. What resources do you rely on to enhance your technical, writing, photography, social media, or other skills that improve your blog?

Mommy uses Picasa to edit the photos she takes of us, and we use NetworkedBlogs to post directly to Mommy's Facebook page (and sometimes Tabby's) as well as let our readers know when we have new posts.

8. What is the best piece of advice you can offer other bloggers?

Write from the heart.  If you don't like what you write, redo it until you like it.  Other people's opinions don't matter as much as your own, so do what you love.

9. What is your vision for your blog in 2016? Do you have specific goals?

Our goals for our blog for 2016 are the same as the last few years':  chronicling our year in words and photos!

10. You have the attention of the pet blogging community – is there one blogging challenge you’d like help with, or one aspect of your blog that you’d like input on?

We would like to know what you like best and don't like about our blog, and what was the most surprising thing we wrote about in the last year.

10 comments:

Christy Paws said...

Im really enjoying this blog hop and learning more about the blogs I follow. Just recently discovered you so I look forward to reading lots more from you in 2016.

Summer said...

Great answers! Especially #8! And thanks for the shout-out! As you know, I love your blog and Tabby is my hero!

Pawesome Cats said...

I love your advice about writing from the heart - that's so important!

The Island Cats said...

We enjoyed reading your answers. We're always interested in your therapy stories.

Collie222 said...

For some reason, we never knew there were therapy cats too!

meowmeowmans said...

We love following your blog, and really enjoyed learning more about you. :)

Fur Everywhere said...

We'd love to see you post more often. But I totally understand that there is much more to do in a day than time allows! I love the therapy cat tales posts. :)

Great advice - if you don't love what you do, then why do it? I think our readers can tell if we like what we've written or not, too.

Deziz World said...

Pawsum posty. Da challenge made us do a lot of thinkin'. We think we musta missed da lawnmower posty. Weez gunna have to read it and ketch up. MOL Hope you have a gweat year bloggin'.

Luv ya'

Dezi and Lexi

Unknown said...

Nice to meet you! I'm a blogger located in Portland so we're neighbors! Loved reading through your posts. www.mylifewithdogspdx.com ~Christy

pilch92 said...

Nice to learn more about you. You have been blogging a long time.