Pet Blogger Challenge – Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I’m taking the Pet Blogger Challenge this year 2015. This is my first year doing this challenge, I looked at the questions and one of them was about a blogging goal that I accomplished so I wanted to complete this challenge.

Glory

Here are this years questions:

1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about. I’ve been blogging for just over 3 years. My blog is about my 3 Chesapeakes (Nellie, Gambler & Glory) that are alive, 1 Chesapeake Norman what is a furangle and sometimes the cat MK gets a post or two. I breed my Chesapeakes so this is a blog about our adventures in breeding, participating in retriever and other competitions, training for hunt tests, conformation, dock diving and what ever else comes along.

2. Tell us one thing that you accomplished on your blog during 2014 that made you proud. In Jan 2014 I made a goal to have a blog post everyday. I succeeded at that goal as it is hard to find time some days to blog. I am very proud that I met this goal and that I actually did two posts on some days.

3. What lessons have you learned this year – from other blogs, or through your own experience – that could help us all with our own blogs? Lessons I learned is I need to resize my photo’s before I upload them as I really burned through my free WP space. I am now using photobucket and still don’t resize like I should. Just another thing that takes time and I don’t take the time.

4. What have you found to be the most successful way to bring traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content? Having my blog linked to social media sites, most of my views were from people on Facebook.

5. What was your most popular blog post this year? Did it surprise you that it was your most popular? My most popular blog post was the post I did about my cat MK needing hernia surgery. You can view it here. This really did surprise me, since I write mostly about my dogs I thought it would be one of the posts about them.

Nellie

6. What was your favorite blog post to write this year? This is a hard question as so many are my favorites. The one that held the most meaning and touched others was a spur of the moment See Beautiful post about us doing therapy work and on one of our visits. You can view it here. Another favorite one of mine is a See Beautiful post again. It was on the ending of my hunt test season called A successful Hunt Test Season. You can view it here. It reminds me no matter what happens wins or loss we can’t loss site of the big picture and why I do what I do. It’s all for the love of my dogs and being with them.

7. Has your policy on product reviews and/or giveaways changed this year? I really don’t have a policy but would like to do a few more this next year.

If you do reviews, what do you find works best, and what doesn’t work at all? What works best for me is to pick a product that I can easily get props for my dogs and have fun doing the photo shoot.

If you don’t do reviews, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?

8. What’s your best piece of advice for other bloggers? Don’t be afraid to ask others for advice, weather it through comments, pm’s, email or other social media sites. I’ve asked for help and the blogville community is so helpful. I’ve gotten some really nice friendships through blogging and for that I thank this great community.

9. What goals do you have for your blog in 2014? When I made the goal of posting a blog post each day I spent more time writing posts and not much time commenting on my followers posts. I would like to change that this year and take the time to respond to my comments.

10. If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be? The pro’s and con’s of self hosted. I’m still struggling with if I should do it. Haven’t convinced myself yet that paying each month is beneficial.