As part of the Pet Blogger Challenge, co-hosted by Edie Jarolim of Will My Dog Hate Me? and Amy Burkert of Go Pet Friendly, I am looking back and forward on my blog today. My blog was new in 2011 so I am answering the newbie questions.
1 . When did you begin your blog?
May 2011. But I had a big gap from July to November with no posts due to personal stuff (including moving house and changing role at work) so I think it is fair to say that it has only really got going in the last couple of months.
2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
I am a TTouch practitioner/trainer and will be taking it from a very part-time activity to full-time later this year. I started the blog as a way of building my online profile and of connecting with people interested in TTouch and the services I would be offering. I also wanted to explore some new ideas around coaching and dog training which might lead to new services or a book.
3. Is your current purpose the same?
If not, what’s different?
If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?
In general, yes, these still hold but I am also now just enjoying writing and am starting to see my blog as much as a place to explore ideas and get feedback on them as anything else.
It is rather early to say whether I have met my goals. I do feel I have developed my online profile from where I started (through this and Twitter) but that’s not hard from a standing start! I have quite recently made the goal of connecting with interested people more focused and now have a small but steadily growing mailing list. But so far things have been quite sporadic so my next goal is to develop a more regular pattern for posting and interacting (see answer to question 4!).
4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?
If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it?
If the latter, do you worry about… well, whatever you might worry about (e.g. losing traffic, losing momentum)?
I haven’t been using a schedule but I am going to do so. I have only been tracking traffic for a couple of months but there are clear peaks when I post something and publicise it via Twitter etc. (fairly obvious really!) so I want to see if regular postings will increase traffic overall. My plan is to use a posting calendar (built into WordPress) and to begin with posts twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. The plan starts this week so we’ll see if I can stick to it! I may include additional posts if something is time-critical but my intention is to use extra posts I write to “get ahead”, using the calendar to schedule them. I do worry about not being able to sustain this, which is why I am starting out with a modest plan of twice a week. If this goes well I will increase to three posts a week.
5. Are you generating income from your blog?
If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)?
If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?
No direct income at the moment. The blog is part of my website, which does bring in some clients, but I don’t know if the blog itself is drawing them in. I do use Amazon affiliate links but only if I am recommending a book in a post anyway. I haven’t made anything from them as yet and am not really interested in developing this side. What I would like is for visitors to enjoy my blog and subscribe to the blog or mailing list, and that some of these will, in future, be interested in or recommend the book and e-courses that I am working on or the local services that I offer. But if they just enjoy the blog, that’s fine too.
6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?
I like the fact that you can say whatever you like! I like to be able to explore new ideas and get feedback. I like the fact that writing about TTouch and coaching makes me think very specifically and clearly about what I actually do. I love it when people comment and the day that I had nearly 200 visitors was a huge buzz! I’d like more of those!
What do I like particularly about my blog? I like that it looks at issues that I think are important in a thoughtful way. I like that it also gives practical help in applying techniques that may be unfamiliar to people and that it has encouraged people to try TTouch. One or two articles have been picked up to be used in TTouch training by others. I loved that.
7. What do you like least?
Writing something you are really proud of and then having very few visitors or comments is a bit demoralising! The pressure of realising that you haven’t posted for ages is bad…
8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2012?
I am about to start a regular slot talking about how I am working with my own dogs. This is as much to help me focus and be consistent with what I am doing as anything but I hope it will be interesting and useful to others too. Both dogs are reactive in different situations, so I will be using TTouch combined with other reward-based training to work with them. I am also going to do regular “how to do it” posts for TTouch techniques and explore in more depth how coaching can help us as dog owners. I would like to start making videos and I’ll be including more pictures – all a bit “wordy” at the moment!
I hope that I can increase the traffic to the blog in the next year. At the moment I am averaging 650 visits a month*, so not a huge number. To be honest I am not sure what is realistic to aim for but perhaps seeing those numbers double this year? More importantly though, I would like to have more interaction on the blog. I would definitely opt for fewer visitors, who get involved in real discussions and conversations, than lots of people just passing through.
*Edited to add: Yikes – just reading some of the posts on the blog hop and seeing so many folk getting that many visits a day – would like to achieve that for next year but have no idea how!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
“Writing something you are really proud of and then having very few visitors or comments is a bit demoralising!” – Ain’t that true! Luckily, some how, my posts often end up quite high up there in Google search results (for example, my Belyaev fox experiment posts come up on the first page when you search ‘Belyaev’ and my post on ‘non-associative learning’ comes up 3rd when searched – how this happened, I don’t know!). So, even though I don’t get comments right away, sometimes I will get them in a few weeks or months time as I get Google hits. A strange, but welcome, phenomena.
Thanks Tegan – that’s encouraging!
We have some challenges with reactivity with our dogs, Buster and Ty, too. Your series on what you’re working on with your dogs and some tips for those of us dealing with similar issues sounds really interesting to me. I’ve read very little about TTouch, but I’m always interested in exploring ways to help the boys. Thanks for participating in the challenge – this was my first visit, but I’ll be back!
Thanks for visiting. Good to hear you might find this series useful – hope to have a chance to chat more about what you have done with your dogs too. TTouch is worth checking out if your dogs have challenges with reactivity – can really help to calm and refocus them. Am now inspired to press on with both the training and “how-to” series – thank you! And thanks for running the challenge – really helpful to reflect on what I’m doing!
My little Gretel needs some confidence building. We will back to check out your blog for sure.
Thanks for dropping by Jessica and hope you will visit again. Will be covering techniques for confidence-building for sure as both of mine lack confidence in different ways.
Very nice to meet you – glad you participated in the Challenge! I don’t know a lot about TTouch, but it sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to read more.
Thank you. Great to meet you too. Check out some of the earlier posts on TTouch (e.g. 5 things I like best about TTouch) if you want to know a little more – and I will be doing some “how to” posts with video – if I can work out how to do the video!!
Nice to meet you, your blogs and your dogs! We’ve done some minimal work with TTouch -very minimal – but found that it works wonders with out hyper hound. He goes from 60 to 0 and melts into a puddle on the floor when we think to use what we’ve learned. I look forward to learning more. Thanks for sharing and cheers to a successful 2012!
Great to hear your hound loves TTouch! I love seeing them come back down and chill out with it. I’ll be posting some more “how to” articles for different TTouch techniques over the next few months which I hope you’ll find helpful.
Thanks for taking part in the Challenge! I’ve long been interested in TTouch and I think it’s a great idea to have a blog devoted to a practice that many pet bloggers/readers would find compatible if they knew more about it.
Thanks Edie – and thanks for hosting the challenge – has been really helpful. Hope the blog can do a little to share more widely how much TTouch can help our animals!
Don’t get discouraged about the low numbers. It takes time to build up. And your blog is a means to an end so the stats may not be the best thing to concentrate on.
I am a fan of TTouch and believe it’s a great technique. That said, I still laugh every time I hear Linda T-Jones use the phrase “clouded leopard.”
BTW, you have such a beautifully designed blog. And I think your tag phrase is wonderful. It has great keywords and it’s really descriptive of how you’re trying to help dogs and their people.
Thank you Pamela for your kind words. I really appreciate it
. Have decided not to get hung up on numbers and just concentrate on writing and reading – making these a habit again.
TTouch is great isn’t it? There are times when the way it is talked about can be counter-productive I think. The other day someone on Twitter was asking if it was some wacky thing because they had heard it described as “magical”. Of course the results can sometimes seem that way (metaphorically speaking) but it can be a barrier if people think that it is all rather “fey”. The animal names are a very memorable short-hand to help us talk about the touches – but they can sometimes contribute to that sense I think! In reality, TTouch is, of course, very grounded in the well-understood relationship between physical, emotional and behavioural aspects of life.