Today I’m taking part in the Third Annual Pet Blogger Challenge Blog Hop, created and hosted by Go Pet Friendly.  I found out about this challenge too late to participate last year, so this is the virgin tour folks.  My very first time. 🙂

Here are the first timer questions.

1. When did you begin your blog?

December 1, 2010

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?

I originally started the blog to gain an online presence.  To have enough people interested in what I had to say, to make myself and my children’s book desirable to an agent/publisher.

3. Is your current purpose the same?

I’m pretty sure it’s not.  I’m pretty sure (at least for the moment) I want to focus on my blog.

If not, what’s different?

First I feel like the book isn’t really that good and second I think maybe I’m not cut out to write a book.

If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?

4. How often do you post?

I post every day.

5. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?

I’ll start a post when the spirit moves, but sometimes it will sit in the dashboard for months before I finally finish it.

If you publish on a schedule, why? How strict are you about your publishing deadlines? What do you do for inspiration when it feels like you’ve covered every topic?

I’m afraid if I don’t keep to a schedule, I’ll lose interest and not post at all.

I usually write my post the night before, if I love the post, I’ll schedule it for early publication in the morning, if I think it could use a bit of tweaking, I’ll publish later in the morning, but it has to be up by 10:00 am.

When I’m totally lost with nothing to post about there are a number of things I do:

• I sometimes go see what my fellow bloggers are writing about, sometimes one of their posts will inspire me.
• I look through the dashboard to see if there are any posts in there I want to work on.
• I look through pictures of the dogs and see if one of those sparks a story idea.
• I google dogs and see if any stories pop up that resonate with me.

If you don’t publish on a schedule, why? How do you think your decision affects your audience? How do you know when a topic is “post-worthy?”

6. How much time do you spend writing your blog per week?

I spend an enormous amount of time every week working on my blog.  If I had to put it in terms of time I’d probably say two to three hours a day, between thinking about it and actually writing.

How much time visiting other blogs?

I probably spend at least 12 to 15 hours a week visiting other blogs.

Share your  tips for staying on top of it all? 

It’s hard staying on top of it.  I used to respond to every comment that people left on the blog, but lately that has fallen by the wayside. 

I decided if I was going to be serious about blogging then it had to be a priority.  I make the time to blog, it just has to be that way.

As for keeping up with others, I have all of my subscriptions in my google reader.  When I sign in I usually hit my favorites first, then start working my way down.  I’m a very fast reader which helps tremendously, but when I’m really crunched for time there are many days when I don’t comment on a post I’ve read.

7. How do you measure the success of a post and of your blog in general (comments, shares, traffic)?

I’ve never been good at measuring my blog’s success and I will be the first one to tell you I have no idea how all that works.  I will sometimes look at the stats to see how many daily views I had.  I think more often than not I look at the comments.  When a post has a lot of comments, I feel pretty good.

Okay,yesterday I did look at my subscribers and it’s still stuck on 54, even though the stats show at least twice that in terms of views.

Do you look strictly at the numbers, or do you have a way of assessing the quality of those interactions?

Like I said, I’m not big on looking at the numbers.

8. If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one issue you’re having with your blog, what would it be?

What can I do to make this a better blog that would attract more subscribers and sponsors?

9. What goals do you have for your blog in 2013?

I want this to be a great blog, to be one of the first blogs you go to.

Whew, that wasn’t as bad as my first time at certain other things!. 😉

 

Thanks to Go Pet Friendly for hosting this awesome event.  You can hop along using the link below to see what my fellow participants have to say.