Hello, fellow pet bloggers! We’re excited to join the annual blog hop for the 2017 Pet Blogger Challenge.
If you’ve never heard of this challenge before, visit GoPetFriendly’s blog post for the full details. We’re going to answer a series of questions posed to us about this blog, so fasten your seatbelts!
1) When did you start your blog and, for anyone who is just seeing it for first time, please provide a description of your site. Would you say your blog focuses more on sharing stories with your readers, or providing a resource for your audience?
Agh, I can’t remember the specific date, but I believe it was sometime in August. The Meow Place is a cat blog dedicated to simplifying cat care. I’ve noticed a lot of blog posts that use ‘technical’, more complicated terms that a first-time pet owner would squint at, and I wanted a blog for people like me who had to learn the hard way.
I would say that most of the blog posts here are informational with helpful resources, but I do like to add a story or two about Misha and Tippy occasionally.
2) What was your proudest blogging moment of 2016?
Starting this blog! I’ve always been a crazy cat lady who loves animals, and I finally found something that I want to make my full-time job. I love being able to help pet owners who are struggling to figure out how best to care for their cat (not that I’m right all the time!).
3) Which of your blog posts was your favorite this year and why?
My favorite subject to blog about is cool cat products. My 2016 Christmas Gift Guide For Cats (And Cat Lovers!) was by far my favorite to write. I focused on products that were both high quality and affordable. Like myself, a lot of pet owners don’t have the money to shell out for designer products.
I love every single product that I blog about. I may not have personally tried all of them, but they’re definitely items I’d love to have. I’m in love with Dr. Catsby’s Whisker Relief Cat Bowl – Misha and Tippy are excited to use theirs!
4) Year after year, one goal that we all seem to share is that we want to reach more people. What one tool did you use or action did you take this year that had the most impact on increasing traffic to your blog?
Fridays are dedicated to our weekly Frisky Feline Feature. Although all of our features so far have been Instagram cats, we’re open to featuring any aspiring meowdel who wants to get posted on our blog. It’s one of the things that has helped us achieve the number of social media followers we have, though we’re still a very small blog.
You can check out all of our features when you click the category link on our front page.
5) Which of your blog posts got the most traffic this year? Have you noticed any themes across your most popular posts?
As mentioned in the above answer, our Frisky Feline Features have been a hit! The most popular one was our first where we featured Instagram stars Izzy & Willow. They have over 19,000 followers! They’ve also been super supportive of our blog, and we’re happy to call them fur-iends.
6) What blog do you find most inspirational and how has it influenced your blog?
The very first pet blog I read before starting The Meow Place was I Have Cat. Tamar’s quirky sense of humor inspired me to start my own blog. She has a massive following, and this past year she managed to publish a best-selling book Shop Cats of New York.
Tamar’s blog design is very simple and clean, which I love. She has managed to provide a humbling amount of resources in an organized fashion that I aspire to be able to do someday. I’m still getting the hang of this blogging thing!
7) What is one thing your readers don’t know about you or your pets that would surprise them?
Unless you’ve been following this blog’s comments, you haven’t heard too much about my cat Rascal. He is no longer with us, sadly. Rascal was a black male cat I had since his first tiny weeks. I raised him from a kitten and had him for close to ten years or so.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know then what I know now, and neither did my family. Rascal developed issues (unbeknownst to me) in his paws after his declawing that caused behavioral problems. Instead of taking him to the vet, my dad banished him to the entryway, where he remained for several years. Years.
I won’t go into details, but he lived a miserable life, isolated and alone. He finally found another home that was willing to work with his behavioral and health issues thanks to my best friend. I regret what happened to him every single day. Memories of my time with him have inspired me to take the best possible care of my cats Misha and Tippy, no matter what the cost.
8) What is something you’ve learned this year that could help other bloggers?
Pinterest and Instagram are a blogger’s best friend. Twitter is more for socializing and making connections, and Facebook’s algorithm isn’t ideal for promoting your blog. It’s basically a “for fun” thing, but still necessary. Use visuals to engage your audience and build a social media following. Invest in blog graphics – you’ll thank me later!
9) What would you like to accomplish on your blog in 2017?
My goal is to fully monetize my blog while maintaining the integrity of my blog posts. I want this blog to allow me to dedicate all of my time to helping pet owners. In order to do that, I need to build a community around this blog. This means investing time in building relationships with other pet bloggers and pet owners.
10) Now it’s your turn! You have the attention of the pet blogging community – is there a question you’d like answered, or an aspect of your blog that you’d like input on?
I’ve been having trouble with gaining followers for this blog. I feel like something’s missing, something that pet parents are looking for but not finding on this website.
- What would you like to see added to this blog that would make you want to follow along?
- What do you think of the blog design? Is it easy to read/appealing/functional?
- What blog topics do you want to read more of?
Hi! It’s so nice to meet you. We did not know about your blog, but we will make sure to follow it now.
Thank you so much, Lola! I would love to check out your blog as well. I love finding new cat bloggers. 🙂
Congratulations on starting the blog! I think getting it started and clicking the publish button is one of the most difficult parts of blogging. You mentioned Instagram as one of blogger’s best friends. One thing I’ve noticed in my Instagram account is I’ve had a bit of difficulty with engagement and getting people to visit my blog. Do you have any tips on Instagram you’re willing to share? Even though I’m a puppy blogger I’ve always enjoyed reading product reviews and gift guides especially around the holidays. Here’s to a great 2017!
Thank you! My advice for Instagram would be to spend time researching relevant hashtags that have gotten other people noticed. Checking popular accounts and seeing what hashtags they’re using is one way to do it that’s super easy. 🙂 Make sure to use those hashtags every time you post! The best way to do that is to post the hashtags as a comment after you’ve posted the picture so that your caption doesn’t get cluttered up, but you still get the views. Hope this helps!
Congrats on starting your blog! This is my first visit to your site but I think the design looks great and is very clean!
Good for you for making Pinterest and Instagram work for you. I do a bunch with Instagram, but haven’t been successful getting folks to click over to my blog.
Instagram is a tough one! The new algorithm displays posts based on their popularity, not their post date. Make hashtags work to your advantage by researching popular ones related to your niche. Thank you for the visit! I hope to see you again!
Congratulations on launching your blog, Amber, and thank you for joining the Challenge! It’s very brave to share what happened with your cat, Rascal. Growing up, my family kept our dogs chained outside. Now that I know what I know, I find it heartbreaking – but it motivates me to help people include their pets in their lives. We’re both using those lessons to make the world better, and I think that’s all we can expect of ourselves.
I think you blog looks great! My recommendation is to be patient. It takes time for your blog to build credibility and improve your page rank in Google. Keep up the good work, and I’m sure 2107 will be a great year for you!
Thank you. 🙂 Being patient is difficult! I really love cats and blogging about pet care, so it’s frustrating that I don’t have that big of an audience yet. Hopefully more traffic will come along, and my community of cat lovers will grow!
Congrats on starting this blog! You are on a very fun and educational journey. I’m sorry to hear about your kitty, Rascal. My mom had a cat, Tootsie, that had behavioral problems after declawing too. It is good that your new knowledge is pushing you to do good things rather than be depressed. The world gets better because of passionate people who understand why it should change. I’m not really familiar with your blog yet, so it is hard to say what you should add to get people to follow. In my experience it just takes time and repeatedly visiting other blogs and sharing in social media. When you keep pushing it, it grows slowly at first and then it starts to gain speed. Just be persistent and keep creating the best content that you can create. Content is king. You are right about people loving images too. Video is becoming big as well. As far as the design, I am on mobile at the moment and it looks great. It is clean and easy to follow. I think you are doing great! Keep being pawsome and you will succeed for sure.
I’m so sorry to hear about your cat and I’m glad that he’s with a new family. I have one cat and I worry that I don’t give him enough attention. He spends most of his days on our second floor because the dogs are downstairs. I now hang out with him and we chat about my day. He’s pretty adorable and super healthy thanks to several cat bloggers.
When it comes to building traffic, I found that when I provide an answer to a question, people come. It doesn’t always happen right away, but it does happen. So I focus on always providing that value and folding my personal stories into those blog posts.
Aw, is your cat afraid of the dogs, or do you have to keep them separate? I think that all you can do is your best. Cats should have at least two 10 minute play sessions a day to stay stimulated, so I think if you do that and spend some time with him that he should be alright.
Thanks for the advice! I try to be as helpful of a resource as I can and answer questions. 🙂
Welcome to the world of pet blogging! I fell in love with it too when I started 6 years ago. I ended up leaving my job and going back to school for digital communications. Now I have my own social media consulting business, in addition to making some money from my blog. I love your enthusiasm and just wanted you to know that turning a blog into your full-time job is possible. However, almost all of us have several revenue streams (freelance writing, consulting, authoring books, etc.) in order to make it work. Good luck!
Thank you for such a kind welcome. 🙂 I’m also a freelance writer, and I’ve had to depend on that for income as of late. I left my retail job, and I’ve never looked back! Hopefully I can make this work!
Welcome to our world blogger maker. I hope that you will be continue inspiring the other people.
Thank you!