Wordless Wednesday: The Vet Visit

 

Have A Chittering Good Day,

 

Jo

Woozel Wednesday : 8 Days

Can you believe it? Only 8 more days until a mob of pet owned hoomans gather just outside of Las Vegas.

The woozels are getting their own groove on by being themselves.

Marylin: Learning the art of the Diva Stink Eye (DSE) as I dared to snap a photo when some hairs were out of place

Technorati Tags: 2014,blog hop,blogging,BlogPaws,Manny,Marcuz,Marylin,Diva,Curioustiy,Sleeping,Naptime,Woozel Wednesday,Wordless Wednesday,Photos,Ferrets,Hooman

Marcuz: Being the nosy part of the business

Manny: Knows the need to be well rested before getting to Blog Paws 

 

then there is me the hooman that seems to be going a mile a minute *chitters*

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Countdown

 

 

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Jo

 

Wordless Wednesday: Iz Luvz Youz Hooman

 

 

have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: What's This?

 

 

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

Hooman Iz Bored

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Diz Iz Mine!

 

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Smilez

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

 

Jo

 

Wordless Wednesday: The Ferret's Cat Edition

      

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

 

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Play/Bored

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

Pet Blogger's Challenge Repeat offender *chitters*

1. How long have you been blogging? Please tell us why you started blogging, and, for anyone stopping by for the first time, give us a quick description of what your blog is about. I’ve been blogging since 2009 and here is last year’s post.

2. Name one thing about your blog, or one blogging goal that you accomplished during 2013, that made you most proud. I’ve gotten to work with a few companies that I wanted to work with but I didn’t meet most of my goals last year.

3. When you look at the post you wrote for last year’s Pet Blogger Challenge, or just think back over the past year, what about blogging has changed the most for you? That I need to make realistic goals that I can manage now that I am back to working outside the home

4. What lessons have you learned this year – from other blogs, or through your own experience – that could help us all with our own sites? Don’t get stuck in concrete. I mean if you need to take a break do so but at the same time don’t burnout rule you.

If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be? More followers/comments. I set a really high goal of 400 readers and then fell off the face of the Blogosphere. But not getting one comment can put a damper on things too. Just a simple “Hi” is all that is needed sometimes.

5. What have you found to be the best ways to bring more traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content? Word of mouth mostly

6. How much time to do you spend publicizing your blog, and do you think you should spend more or less in the coming year? Last year I didn’t do a lot of publicizing my blog and it showed so this year I will be publicizing it more.

7. How do you gauge whether or not what you’re writing is appealing to your audience? I try not to gauge my writing as I tend to get overly critical about it and then I don’t post anything.

How do you know when it’s time to let go of a feature or theme that you’ve been writing about for a while? That is the hardest thing to do. I try to keep with what is current and write updates as they are needed.

8. When you’re visiting other blogs, what inspires you to comment on a post rather than just reading and moving on? It depends on the post and the reason I am reading it. Sometimes it is because someone left a comment on my blog so I let them know I followed their link back to their blog. Other times the subject means a lot to me or I have learned something new.

9. Do you do product reviews and/or giveaways? Yes

If so, what do you find works best, and what doesn’t work at all? I stay away from Raffelcopter as it has too many glitches for my liking and all reviews are my opinion no matter what the outcome. But I need to get several more done that should have been done last year.

If not, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?

10. When writer’s block strikes and you’re feeling dog-tired, how do you recharge? Last year I had writer’s block and blog burnout not a good combination as I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of it that is until November when I do this thing called Nanowrimo. Where you have to write 50,000 words. I used word association and basically jump started several blog posts that will be showing up this year. Another thing I use is a site called write or die a great motivator.

11. Have you ever taken a break from your blog? How did that go? Yes, I did last year and I felt like I was letting my readers down

Have you ever thought about quitting your blog altogether? What makes you stay? Yes last year I really thought about it. The fact is that there really isn’t any other ferret bloggers.

12. What goals do you have for your blog in 2014?

To post at least one real post a week and one wordless Wednesday post. To reach 100 followers and to let my personal life show through many of my posts this year.

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Snow Day

 

 

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Private Meeting

 

 

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Walking

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Wordless Wednesday: Napping Ferret Style

 

How many ferrets do you see?

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

 

 

Are you sure there is only 2? Check out the photo after it has been lightened some.

The Real Pet blog challenge: Repeat Offenders

 

Thanks to a comment left on my Monday post I was directed to the right link for the Pet Blog Challenge and was able to get the correct questions to answer.

While this is only my second year doing the challenge I have found that doing both posts I’ve percolated my goals down into something very obtainable. So onward to the post

1. How long have you been blogging and provide a link to your post from last year’s Pet Blogger Challenge so we can refresh our memories.

I’ve been blogging since 2009 and here is last years post.

2. What do you consider the most important goals you set out in last year’s post?

Acquiring more followers and doing interviews with people about ferrets

3. Have you made progress toward those goals, or have your goals changed over the past year?

Yes, I have made some progress with getting more followers but not the full hundred I wanted. As for the interviews, I got them but it wasn’t me doing the interviewing it was the other way around. A completely new adventure for me.

4. How often do you post?

I try for three times a week but it seems that towards the end of the year I slow down to only a few posts a month.

5. Has your opinion of blogging on a schedule or as the spirit moves you changed? I think that my opinion is basically the same but how I go about it is changing as I learn more about myself and where I want to take Enlightened Ferret.

If you publish on a schedule why? I find that having a schedule lessens the amount of stress I am under but it also makes me feel boxed in at the same time.

How strict are you about your publishing deadlines? I allow for a little give way but find that if I miss a deadline I feel like I’ve let myself down.

What do you do for inspiration when it feels like you’ve covered every topic? I ask people what they would like to know on some of the social media sites and sometimes I revisit past posts and rewrite them.

If you don’t publish on a schedule, why?

How do you think your decision affects your audience? I am not sure how it affects my readers.

How do you know when a topic is “post-worthy?” Most of the time “post-worthy” topics are the ones I feel new ferret owners need to know or strikes a chord within me.

6. How much time do you spend writing your blog per week? Depends on the topic and how much research I need to do on the topic. Can range anywhere from twenty minutes to three days or more.

How much time visiting other blogs? This is where I feel like I need to improve as I don’t spend a lot of time reading other blogs.

Share your tips for staying on top of it all. Having an editorial calendar with a keyword listed for the day helps along with keeping a list of what “special” day/month might be happening and making a list of topics that are related to that event and ferrets.

7. How do you measure the success of a post and of your blog in general (comments, shares, traffic)? I have Google ad sense and it shows me the number of page views as I don’t often get many comments. The other thing is when I met people and they tell me about a blog post they’ve read and it just happens to be my blog.

Do you look strictly at the numbers, or do you have a way of assessing the quality of those interactions? I think I for the most part still in the mindset that I am blogging just to get the information out there and to educate people. Therefore, the numbers while nice don’t have a huge impact on me.

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

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

To have 400 followers by the end of the year.

To open communication with companies that mostly with dogs and cats and show them another animal that might benefit from the products/services they offer.

To earn an income that would take care of my ferrets comfortably.

To move Enlightened Ferret from blogger to my own hosted site.

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo