Sunday, January 10, 2021

2021 Bloggers Journey - Our Answers

 A heartfelt thanks to Colby once again of the Puppy in Training blog for picking up the ball and getting the 2021 Pet Bloggers Journey rolling. I am looking forward to reading a bout  everyone's challenges, accomplishments & activities this year and share my own. Colby posed 10 blogger questions to answer and these are my answers. Hope some of you will enter & post yours too!


1.  WHEN DID YOU FIRST BEGIN YOUR BLOG AND FOR THOSE STOPPING BY FOR THE FIRST TIME, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING & WHAT IS YOUR MAIN TOPIC?


This is our sixth year.  Our blog is humorous & entertaining featuring the adventures of Peaches & Paprika, my two quirky tiger-calico sisters, originally rescue kitties who survived three shelters & a  narrow escape with death row. There are three main parts of our blog: holidays, slideshows and cat adventures.

a) Holidays for Cats:  We focus on celebrating "fun" untraditional holidays - such
as National Brownie Day, International Beer Day, Day of the Cowboy hoedown, National Ice Cream Day, Rose Day, Best Furriends Day, Hairball day, Pick a Flower Day...well you get the idea.   Our readers are entertained by learning about little known holidays while enjoying Peaches & Paprika's cavorting about in crazy costumes, backdrops and poses.

b Slideshows:  We also host slideshow celebrations for special events in which any bloggers (as well as our lively Facebook readers) participate-- such as Independence Day, Catmas, St. Catrick's Day and more.  Our slideshows are fun for all and build community amongst bloggers and readers.

c. Peaches & Paprika adventures:  
Of course we also feature the day to day "adventures" of Peaches & Paprika, stars of our blog, who have  experiences common to many pet owners.  As an example, in 2020 they were subjected to RELOCATION to a new home , every cat's worst nightmare...and on top of that, a noisy RENOVATION...well you get the picture.  We narrate these down to earth events with realistic photo cartoons and slideshows, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant  to entertain our readers but also to share our experiences.

2.  NAME ONE THING ABOUT YOUR BLOG OR ONE BLOGGING GOAL YOU ACCOMPLISHED DURING 2020 THAT MADE YOU PROUD:

A. I GOT AN AWARD FOR MY BLOG & OTHER CWA AWARDS


Our blog won the CWA Certificate of Excellence award and we were also honored to have 5 additional Certifications of Excellence awards - two for photography and  photographic art, two for videos and also a Social Media award for our Facebook page.

MUSE AWARDS

Two Videos also won coveted CWA MUSEs awards: Bloggers' Catriotic Slideshow on July 4, as well as Bloggers 3rd Annual Rainbow Memorial Show in May: a slideshow honoring pets who crossed the bridge.  I believe both events meant a lot - in different ways - to those involved.


B. I PUBLISHED 3 BOOKS TO AMAZON
    
I'd written them last year.  But didn't know what to do after that. Book 1 entitled Our First Year in Connecticut was about Peaches & Paprika's journey and Book 2 was about Peaches' & Paprika's celebration of 100 holidays in photo cartoons. Book 2 got really long, so I divided it into 4 seasonal books & named the series Celebrations.  The Autumn & Winter Celebrations books (about 60 pages each)

have been published and the spring & summer books are scheduled for later this year.  I also have an "all in one" book entitled Peaches & Paprika: Celebrating All Year Long.



3.  WHICH OF YOUR 2020 POSTS WAS MOST POPULAR WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?  WHY DO YOU THINK IT DOES OS WELL?

A) "Paprika's Outrageous Behavior With Dinner Guests"had a great response.  It was just funny.

B) "Relocation from a Cat's Point of View" - I think this has a universal appeal!


4.  WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST BLOGGING CHALLENGE YOU FACED IN 2020 AND HOW DID YOU TACKLE IT?  Though I wrote the books I didn't know what to do after that to format them & get them on Amazon. I managed to navigate all that technical stuff & got the books up there though paying a publishing company. Not easy for picture books. I did my own  covers to save $, next time around might get professional help.  It was fun, though. And the "Celebrating All Year Long" book in December ended up  getting the Kindle #1 New Release ribbon in two large categories for a few weeks and getting 32 positive reviews as of today


6.  TELL US ONE THING YOU LEARNED IN 2020 THAT CAN HELP US ALL BECOME BETTER BLOGGERS.

If you really want to do it, there is a way.

7. IN THE PERFECT WORLD, WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND YOUR BLOG 1 YEAR FROM NOW?

Using my blog as a base for a pet portrait business and continuing to write books.

8.  IF YOU HAD $1,000 TO SPEND ON YOUR BLOG, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT?

I'd pay someone to change over my blogger blog to Wordpress because I'm really chafing under all the blogger restrictions re formatting, etc.

9  WHAT IS ONE SKILL YOU'D LIKE TO LEARN OR IMPROVE IN 2021

I'd like to learn TOPAZ, a photo editing software program that's somewhat complicated so I can go further with my photo editing skills.

10.  IF YOU COULD ASK THE PET BLOGGING COMMUNITY FOR HELP WITH ONE CHALLENGE YOU'RE HAVING WITH YOUR BLOG, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It's more a challenge with my social media account, my Facebook page specifically.  I now have 12500+ followers, with daily active engagement of 100-400 on my posts.  I keep my readers engaged with fresh content, well-photographed photo cartoons of my cats, holiday celebrations they've never heard of. More importantly, I involve them and their cats in monthly or special themed slideshows in which their cats participate (that's my specialty).  Some have been with me 2-3 years.  There must be a way to generate a revenue stream with all these engaged readers but I  have really not figured out how to make that happen.  Thought they'd be big purchasers of my book but only a few bought it. It was suggested to me to start a pet portrait business where I do the same kind of editing I've done for free: enhancing their cats...portraits, special occasions, etc.  Any feedback or other suggestions appreciated.  if there are 12k followers there must be a way to generate income.  

Thanks in advance and if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading about my journey.

We are joining Puppy's in Training 2021 blog journey as well as The Cat On  My Head Sunday Hop today.













27 comments:

  1. Great answers! You've got great goals!!!

    The Florida Furkids

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  2. Those were all good answers, you've had quite the year!

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  3. I am impressed by how many books you released in 2020. I am going to buy one. I have a 15 year old tabby cat named Scout. I mostly write about dogs but I love cats too! I just followed you on Facebook and I do think that promoting a pet portrait business is a good idea to try and promote there. I get frustrated with Facebook and struggle with what to do there myself. If you're not also doing dog portraits, I think people would like that too.

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    1. Hi Lindsay! You're in luck, there is a free download today on one of my books. Good till 12M. I'll put it at the end of this reply. And yes, I will definitely be doing cats AND dogs!
      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FZX5VYS

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  4. What great answers! And what a year! You have been busy. And concatulations on your awards! Have a Happy Day!

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  5. Congratulations! You have had a busy and successful year.

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  6. You all accomplish so much in one year, it is amazing. Congratulations on all the wonderful things you have done this year.

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    1. That you! I had to do something to keep sane during the isolation of the pandemic. Connecting with my Facebook fans and writing the books got me there!

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  7. Quite a productive year! Congratulations on all your accomplishments!

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  8. Thanks for all the help with promoting the Pet Bloggers Journey. I really appreciate it.

    That's amazing you were able to write and publish multiple books to Amazon this year. If I ever decide to publish I might come knocking :)

    I too would love to know the formula for generating revenue with my Facebook page. I think part of the solution might be to use FB paid ads since FB seems to limit how much exposure posts get. Also, understanding exactly what your audience wants. You might just try asking what they want in a post. Anyhow, as I said I haven't cracked that nut yet.

    Thanks again for all your help. All the best to you in 2021!

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  9. Wowy, you've done so-o many positive things and achieved a number of milestones. Mom and I knew of some of them, but we learned of others by reading this post. Grrr-eat job!

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    1. Thank you. It's good to make lemonade out of a lemon (ie., the pandemic solitary stuff...)

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  10. I am just SO PROUD of your Muse® Medallions for the beautiful work. The slideshows are amazinf. I hope you get your tuition for Topaz too!

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    1. Thank you so much! I am honored to receive the MUSE Medallions!

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  11. Wow that is amazing what you have been able to accomplish this year! Your slide shows are so adorable and really make you smile! Congrats on everything you have achieved. I am really impressed on how many follower you have on Facebook. That is one thing that has been challenging with me this year with my Pet Frenzy Community Page. Have you ever thought of doing personalized stories with others pets as the main character? I know I was searching for personalized books this year. Have you added a store on Facebook? Also have you thought of using Fiverr or Freelancer to contract someone to make your bloggers blog to WordPress? I am fairly new to the pet blogging community and not sure how to help in that way! I do think your going to do very well in 2021 and really enjoyed reading your journey! I absolutely love your motivation. I can't wait to see what this new year will bring you! Thank you for bringing much needed laughter and smiles during this crazy year!

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    1. Thank you for your so kind comments. I'm not familiar with personalized stories and will have to look into it. Thanx for the other helpful suggestion. You mentioned you were new to blogging community. Your name was posted as "unknown." What IS your name??

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  12. You did so very much and we all LOVED your books. I think it is hard to monetize a book without some kind of national or world wide exposure (think Bob's books which are really great.) Thanks for those two favorite posts we did not see the one with the dinner guests and loved it. Purrs friends

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    1. Thank U, TT! Love your reviews and am very thankful.

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  13. Congratulations on your books! And the tech part is my weakest part so I don't have any advise there other than I'm sure there is someone out there that can do it all for you.

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    1. Thank you for your reply! Since the books are already published, I'm past that step for now, but KDP was wonderful in providing technical hep via there software, etc. That's how I got the book done, really, with their help! (and it didn't cost me anything)

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  14. Congrats on your 3 new books! Very nice job. I got 2 new ebooks out in 2020, although I have to say that the content of one of them was mostly re-used from a well-performing blog post.

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  15. You've done a lot this year, and have much to be proud of with all those awards and your books. See if you can find a way to get your facebook followers onto your email list. As you know, I luv your slideshows. They are awesome!!

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    1. Though I do have some followers who converted to my mailing list, they are a much smaller group than I anticipated. I'm stuck there. It's a VERY ncescessary step though. I t think final time-expenditure portrait give-away might do the trick.

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  16. Wow! Your 2020 has been power packed... with The books and the awards, you have so much to be proud of! I think the pet portraits idea is pretty cool. Consider using Pinterest to promote your portraits as that's a good platform for the art niche. You'd get a lot of engagement. I'm a dog trainer and a blogger (wagabondong.com) and I have a cat too. I'd love to get a portrait of hers. I wish you good luck on your future endeavors.

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  17. Thank you very much for the pinterest suggestion. I am just now investigating sites so I will definitely check it out! When I'm all set up I'll let you know!

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  18. You have accomplished some great things and I can't to see what's to come. I love the idea of sharing all the different unconventional holidays, that would definitely have captured my attention before even coming to understand the world of pet blogging and wanting to support other bloggers. That and your pet comics/antics are just too funny not to love!

    For your Facebook question - I think that the pet portrait idea is a great one as you already have an established audience of people that love your work. I'm sure if you were to start advertising using your Facebook page, they would be more than willing to help you spread the word.

    That being said, another avenue that you may want to consider for monetizing a Facebook page is to find affiliates that you connect with. I wouldn't say just jump on any company willing to pay, you have loyal followers and they are going to know if you're being fake. However, take a look at the brands that you personally use and love the most and see which are offering affiliate options. Apply to those that do. If you REALLY love a brand and they don't currently have an affiliate program, consider reaching out and pitching the idea to them. This will give you the chance to share the products that you love and trust with cat lovers that may be looking for a solution for their own cats while also making some money in the process - a win/win for everyone! Having a community of loyal followers means that you've already established that level of trust, which means that they are more likely to consider your recommendations when looking for products themselves.

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