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.
Gambler
Thanks to go pet friendly for hosting this great event.
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we are winners even when we lose (yes, I know how to lose LOL).
I ponder about a selfhosted blog too, or to go pro with WordPress. Think without WP I could lose a lot of readers :o(
Thank you Easy, we are all winners and loosers. They both have there time and place.
Great insights for a fellow WP blogger, especially about photo resizing! I will go self-hosted once the site is earning enough to pay for it, that’s my philosophy. There may be some benefit to having a flashier design, but in large part I think your biggest traffic comes from good content and strong, genuine networking. Keep up the good work! * wags * – Gilligan from wagsahoy.com
thanks Gilly, I might have to message you about your comment about your blog making enough money to pay for it. I need to learn how to do this as I don’t get paid for anything and don’t know how to go about it.
I have always been self hosted, and I think there are definite advantages. I pay for hosting once a year. That’s it. I am paying for 3 blogs, so probably one blog would be even cheaper. And resize in Lightroom. One click and you resize to the right dimensions and watermark at the same time.
Thank you Mary. I have a very easy resizer program on my puter I just for get to use it but I will have to check out Lightroom if you can do two steps easily then it might be faster. Thank you for your comments.
Wow – a post every day and sometimes two – that’s a real goal and congrats on making. Reading about the SS crew and viewing all your great photos is one of our favorite thins.
Thank you guys, I’m glad I got to know you and your gang also.
We’ve been self hosted for almost two years now, it was a scary leap, but so worth it. Finally we can do what we want on our blog. It isn’t much to do, under $100 a year many hosting sites. You really should resize your photos. If you are already editing them it only takes another few seconds. For us, sorting, editing, and resizing photos takes up the most of our time, but it is worth it.
Thank you Emma, I now add borders to all the photos and that adds so much time too.
A blog a day, that’s quite an accomplishment. Congrats.
Thank you so much.
Wow – that is super impressive that you blogged every day! I could never manage that. I can’t help with the question since I’m just on freebie blogger, and happy to stay there. 🙂
Free is good!
In case you don’t see my answer over on P.S., yes, I just had to pay for the domain name. I don’t remember exactly what it cost but I remember it being pretty cheap – I paid for a few years in advance and i think it worked out to less than $2/month.
It’s funny that both of our questions concern changing host sites. I’m still on Blogger and I guess that is where I will stay for now. I was interested in M.K.’s surgery, because I think she is so cool living with all of your dogs. Plus, she has my initials, so we are probably destined to be friends. ☺ Your blog is one of my favorite places.
You and MK are destined to be friends, one day!
Hi Y’all,
Time. It’s all about time. I refuse to give up my time with my Humans. I go nowhere without my Human at my side. So with them working from before daylight ’til long after dark, or traveling and attending meetings…My Human doesn’t even edit the photos she takes of me. If she doesn’t get the settings changed right on the camera…well, you get the picture.
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
I love how your human doesn’t edit pictures, it does take a lot of time and I think it adds character to your blog, it is you!
Wow, what an incredible accomplishment, posting every day for an entire year! Good for you! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much! I hope to.
That’s amazing that you were able to post everyday – I admire your ambition and dedication, not only to the blog but to your dogs. Before I started blogging I didn’t know much about real working dogs, and it’s really awesome stuff. I can’t imagine a better life for a canine, being able to do what they were bred to do. As far as setting up hosting there’s pros and cons. I really love bluehost and it’s 3.95 a month. But then again it’s an added expense that isn’t necessary to blog. I guess it depends on really weighing out the benefits – I don’t know if wordpress.com has any limits on storage or any of that technical stuff you’re not happy with. Keep up the amazing work.
Thank you so much. Bluehost at 3.95 isn’t much at all for that price I could pay that a month. I’ve been seen prices like 20.00 a month and I can’t pay that as I already pay for my business sand spring chesapeakes website. WP does have limits on picture storage with the free one which I reached at the professional level I don’t think there is a limit.
I’m impressed that you posted everyday! That is awesome! I wish I could find the time to post everyday, but it seems like there just aren’t enough hours in the day! I too wish I could find more time to comment on other blogger’s posts. I need to be more organized!!!! But I don’t even know if that would help!
Thank you, luckly I work part time but still feel like I don’t have enough time. And to think I do all this and don’t make any money on it.
I’ve been self hosted from the beginning, because that’s what I read to do when I started out. What I read basically said that I’d end up wanting to do that anyway, so you might as well do it from the start. But so I don’t really have anything to compare it to.
That was really a great accomplishment to post every day! I’d notice the days you even posted twice, and think to myself “she’s really an overachiever!”… LOL. Especially with all the things you do with your dogs as well, I don’t know how you manage it all. Great job!
Wow, posting every day! That’s really impressive. Congratulations!
I started out on WordPress and went self-hosted after less than a year. If you make the change, you will lose some followers. And people won’t automatically be redirected from your WordPress hosted site to your own site unless you pay $13 a year to WordPress. There’s probably another way to do it but it’s beyond my tech skills.
The only reason I can think of to move to self hosted WordPress is if you want to make money from your blog.
Hopefully this helps your thinking. Drop me a line through my blog if you have specific questions. I’d be glad to help if I can.
Great post! That is really interesting that the post about MK is the the most popular. It looks like you and I have a lot of similar blog issues. The advantages of having a self hosted blog are: you can use javascript, you can sell things/post advertisements on your blog (this is against WordPress.com’s policies and they can shut down you blog), and you have control over every little thing on your blog. The disadvantages are: you have to have some technical knowledge (though WordPress.org’s interface is very user friendly), it costs a lot more, and the servers go down occasionally.
Aww we love your blog!! and we loved all of your answers. Goodness, I didn’t realise you had blogged every day and sometimes twice… I guess that must be a good thing though? It means ll your posts were as fresh as a daisy, right? Seriously though, that’s a great achievement. I could NEVER manage that lol.
I have questions around hosting too, but … nooo time to think about them properly! So long as we get to see you, I don’t think many of us care where you are 😀
Hugs, Carrie & Pups x
Congrats on three years of blogging. The two biggest things for me regarding to self-hosted WordPress was 1) I could customize the design of my site to my hearts content and 2) I was free to monetize my blog by doing reviews and advertisements as I saw fit (advertisements are against the terms of service of free WordPress). Also, like what you post on Facebook, you don’t technically own the content when you post on WordPress.com. They could shut your blog down at any moment if they saw fit or promote your posts as they wanted (although I have never seen then up to no good). For me, it was a no brainer. The extra cost certainly is something to consider though.
Congratulations on accomplishing your goal of blogging every day. That is truly amazing. We did it for just the 12 days of Christmas. It was fun but slightly overwhelming. 🙂 And I really, really loved your See Beautiful post on your therapy work. That was beautiful!
So great to learn more about your blogging, and goals.
Congrats on blogging every day btw! That is wonderful!!!
I have asked a lot of questions about self hosted things too, and I found a lot of people told me that it can be worth it some ways, and a waste in some other ways, so i’m not sure I can be much help there. I am sticking to blogger!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thank you.
Wow! What a goal you accomplished this year! That is amazing and congratulations! I was super happy when I made the move to self hosted but I know of a lot of bloggers who have switched and then went back. There’s pros and cons of each but I like freedom that I have with self hosted.
Congrats on a great year. I am happy so far with being self hosted. There is more freedom of design and content. I have just started accepting some sponsored posts and product promos to cover the cost of the blog. I don’t want to go totally to sponsored posts or to add advertisements to my blog so I am going to try this route and see how it goes. The other thing that spurred me to self hosted was that wordpress was sticking ads on my blog for non-wordpress readers and I would have to pay to get rid of them. That was my final nudge to jump to self hosted.
Good point on resizing images. After moving to our new home I’ve learned that not everyone has high speed internet. We had some slow connections for a while and downloading large image files can lead to unread blog posts.
Congrats on posting everyday! That’s an incredible accomplishment! I hope to at least get back on a reasonable schedule this year.
Best of luck to you in 2015!
Thank you so much for stopping by. Yes resize, they burn up space. I’m glad you took something away from my post.
Better images in general including image resizing, watermarking, and better photography are all on my to do list this year.
It’s a great to do list. JoAnn StancerN8767 Larson RdCambria, WI 53923920-948-7738 http://www.sandspringchesapeakes.com Follow Sand Spring chesapeakes on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandspring.chesapeakes?fref=ts
Follow Gambler J Stancer on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GamblerJStancer?fref=ts My Blog:https://sandspringchesapeakes.com Don’t take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here. Sign your drivers license and become a organ donor.
It was nice to “meet” you. Best of luck with your goals in 2015.
Thank you, nice to meet you too. Have a great night.
Wow! Blogging every day is a fantastic accomplishment! I don’t think I could do it. And, resizing the photos is something I don’t do, either. I know I should, but taking those extra few minutes to do it takes time away from my dogs … and they’re more important.
Thank you so much for participating in the Challenge. It was great to meet you and I wish you all the best in 2015!