Pet Bloggers Challenge 2012

Today I am taking The Pet Bloggers Challenge hosted by Go Pet Friendly and Will My Dog Hate Me.
The Pet Bloggers Challenge is a way for bloggers to take a look at their blogging practices and goals.
It’s a great way to take a look back at last year and see what you have accomplished as far as your blog, and it’s a great way to set goals for the new year. It is also a way for you to see what other bloggers have been up to and how many of us struggle with the same issues as pet bloggers.

Since we participated in the challenge last year, I am considered a repeat offender, so here it goes!

1. Provide a link to your post from last year’s Pet Blogger Challenge.
Here you go https://www.mybrownnewfies.com/2011/01/pet-bloggers-challenge.html. Enjoy.

2. What do you consider the most important goals you set out in last years post?
Both goals that I spoke of last year were of equal importance, dog showing and pet health.

3. Have you made progress towards those goals, or have your goals changed over the past year?
Honestly? I do not think I made enough progress towards these goals. As far as dog showing went, we really didn’t do as many shows as I was hoping for and the posts that I did write were adequate. What I would like to do different this year is give you a more “behind the scenes” look at dog showing. So many people are unfamiliar with what it takes to have a show dog, it’s not just a beauty contest you know. There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into this . (ok maybe not blood, but there is whole lot of sweat and tears). Being an amateur at this sport I am still learning what it takes to go the distance in the show world and I want to share our story with you as we attempt to go the distance with Leroy.
As for pet health, I feel like I barely touched on this last year. I will do my best to make up for it this year. I already have some topics in the works.

4. Has your opinion on blogging on a schedule or as the spirit moves you changed?
Which are you doing now?

I still try to write most of my posts on Sunday evening, which gives me more time to visit other blogs. However, I am not as faithful with this as I was last year. It all depends on how I manage my time. For instance if I start writing my posts while the kids are still awake, not much is going to get accomplished and there are going to be a lot of typos. At best I like to get started on some of the posts for the week and then go back and add to them or edit as I have time. This way I at least have a foundation.
Lately I have become so overloaded with posts for events, topics, giveaways, and sponsored posts that I had to make a list of what goes where during the week. This doesn’t include any crazy events that take place during the week that have to go up while the stories are still fresh in my head. When this happens it just screws the whole list up and posts are pushed to the following week. This can be quite frustrating for an individual who is trying to be organized but in all reality is anything but. (Just a note, I am one of the most unorganized person that there is. Just ask my husband….or look in my cupboards. )
This year I will be interested to see just what happens since I am about to throw even more onto my already full plate. Operation Leroy (which will be explained shortly) Working more hours to pay for Operation Leroy. Travel baseball. Soccer, and anything else that decides to fall from the sky.

Do you still worry about lost traffic, momentum, etc?
I admit I was a stat worrier at first but not so much anymore. I will check my stats every few months just so I can update my Advertising Page, but to be honest, their is no time to worry about this. If I worry about it, it stresses me out. If I stress out I can’t write. If I can’t write there are no posts. If there are no posts there are no readers. End of story.

5. Are you generating income from your blog?
Yes, but believe me I will not be quitting my day job anytime soon to fulfill a full time job of blogging. I blog because I like it and if I do it too much it starts to feel like work and then I don’t enjoy it as much. If I TRY to make money off this blog, it gets stressful. If I just happen to make money without trying, well then that’s just fun!

Has this changed since last year?
Yes. Last year I did not generate any income from my blog. ZERO. Zilch. Nada.

If you currently are generating income, how?
I have tried a few different roads here. Publishing networks, sponsored posts, affiliated ads, and
selling ad space on my sidebar. I have weeded out the ones that don’t work well for me and I am still in the process of trying out some others. This is a learning process for me and at this time I don’t have any solid evidence of which one I prefer more.

6. Have your likes and dislikes about blogging changed since last year?
The thing that I like most about blogging is still getting to meet new and exciting people. I love to read comments on my posts from other bloggers. I love learning new things from other bloggers. Over the last year I have had opportunities that I never would of had if it wasn’t for this blog.
One thing that I did experience this year a few times was “blog burnout”. As you know, blogging can be very time consuming and there was a few times over the year where I just needed to step away and regroup.

7. Overall are you pleased with the progress you made in 2011?
Yes and No. I definitely think that this blog grew over the last year, but I think that there is a lot of work to be done and more I would like to share.

8. How do you see you blog changing/growing in 2012?
Hmmm…… I have struggled with transferring this blog from Blogger over to WordPress for at least 8 months. I even have a blog set up in WordPress, I just am unsure if WordPress is the route that I want go. It scares me. I know that I DO NOT, under any circumstances, want to do the transfer myself. That just terrifies me.
I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.
I have no idea what else 2012 has in store for MyBrownNewfies. All I can hope for is that it will be an adventure.

Alright, so that’s it. This concludes our Second Annual Pet Blogger’s Challenge. Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting us, and thank you for letting me blog with you!

Thank you so much to Amy from Go Pet Friendly and Edie from Will My Dog Hate Me for hosting the 2nd Annual Pet Blogger’s Challenge. This is an event that we now look forward to each year and can’t wait for the next one!