Blogging has evolved so much since Daddy, and I, first began to write on his first blog, in 2002.
Platforms, books, techniques, tools, communities, and more, present so much for bloggers, old, and new, to absorb, and learn from, that it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming.
The world of Critter Blogging, alone, has grown so much, giving birth to offspring seemingly as fast as many of the animals doing the blogging, or being blogged about! ;-D
Most of us don't have the time, resources, connections, and traffic, that writers in other blog genres have (News, and Politics, to name just 2 such genres.), yet we continue to plug along because we love our subject, and have a lot to share, and small, but growing, and loyal, readerships.
When Daddy & this outspoken Cat with a love of the camera (Daddy's Musings Blog was our 2nd blog together, and allowed for a major expansion of my own blogging efforts!) discovered The Cat Blogosphere website, and Community, a few years ago, it blew us away.
Eventually I began to host various weekly/Monthly blog post sharing festivals for Cat Bloggers, and exploring the work of my fellows.
I'm even an Offishul Repurrter for The Cat Blogosphere!
Last January Daddy had an idea, one that we both now realize that he should have enacted years ago!
He set me up, here, with my own blog! ;-D
Doing so allowed me to expand my sidebar (I believe it may be unique in Critter Blogging, hee, hee!), my reach, and my audience (Even if that audience remains extremely small), and allowed me to be more creative, and opinionated, in so many wonderful ways (Aside from my long history of poetry/songs, and photos, I've now even dabbled in Videos for YouTube, and am even on Twitter!).
I'm an Opinionated Pussycat...
Professor of the Nikita Institute of Feline Studies: The Most Opinionated Cat in America, With Talent on Loan from THE CEILING CAT! ;-D
In recent months a newcommer to the Critter Blogging Community has come on the scene, called Blog Paws, and it calls itself "A gathering of Pet Bloggers for Networking, Learning, and Fun!":
An online resource for pet bloggers to help you be a better blogger, whatever "being a better blogger" means to YOU.
There are many terrific resources to help bloggers build traffic and network with likeminded people, but nothing specific to the pet community - until now.
We're in the process of developing the site, which will cover topics like increasing traffic to your blog, strategies for content development, photography tips, SEO, networking, using social media channels, giving back to your community and much more!
In addition to providing an online resource, we are thrilled to be hosting our second event, BlogPaws 2010 West, which follows on the heels of the first-ever pet blogger conference we held in April 2010.
The first event was so fun, so inspiring and so educational that we wanted to do it again!
The Critters, and their Humans, behind this important effort are off to a wonderful start, and Daddy is so disappointed he could not attend the first BlogPaws, and won't be able to attend round 2.
However, there is hope for attending in the future because, in the past Daddy has, with planning ahead of time, went on a 10 day vacation, and to a 4 day Genealogy Conference, and I survived his absence, both times, quite nicely thank you very much! ;-D
In the meantime there are other ways to learn from what the Blog Paws Website has to offer, and that is what I want to encourage you, dear reader, to do.
There is a great 3 part series of posts, recently written, that is a very cool effort to help Critter Bloggers learn new ways to attract readers, and comments, and reach out, especially locally, to businesses, and organizations, to let them know you are there ready to spread the word about news, and events.
Some of these things are familiar to long time bloggers such as myself, and Daddy, and are things we have done, yet we found ourselves looking at them in new ways, and other points are things we never thought to try, or knew much about.
Daddy just got a new 4-in-1 Black/White Laser Printer, and I gave it its first workout by printing out the 3 posts in this series. ;-D
The 3 posts:
1. 15 Ways To Get Readers To Comment on Your Blog: Caroline's Top 5
2. 15 Ways To Get Readers To Comment On Your Blog: Yvonne DiVita's Top 5
3. 15 Ways To Get Readers To Comment On Your Blog: Tom Collins' Top 5
Reading these the first step Daddy, and I, took was to take a risk.
For years we moderated all comments, and trackbacks.
We did so because, in the early years of The Blogosphere, Spam Commenting, and TB's were rampant, and the ability to fight back was limited, and time consuming.
It can still be time consuming, if you get alot of spam, but the tools to combat the problem have evolved.
As of yesterday we have set things up, using tools offered by Typepad, our Blogging Platform (and the one used by Blog Paws, as well.), to make it easy for readers to comment, and trackback, and see their comments immediately.
While this may mean spam will appear for a few hours, until we can find the time to kick them out, we are willing to try openness again on both our blogs, especailly because of the nearly 500 great comments THIS blog has received in its first 5 months (We have been blown away by the interest, and encouragement, that this indicates!).
It is my hope that this post, and those it links to, will give readers food for thought.
***UPDATE - 6/8/10 - 7AM***
Nikita, your kind of enthusiasm, and friendliness, should be added to the list of ways to get readers and comments for your blog!
Of course, being opinionated doesn't hurt, either. ;-D
You can read the rest of the comment from Tom, and check out his Twitter, below.
Nikita (I'd post a picture of me blushing at his kind compliment but, being a dark colored Kitty, the effect might be lost!)
***END UPDATE***
***UPDATE -6/9/10***
Do you Tweet? Blog Paws has some thoughts on the subject. (I'm Nikita_TwitPuss) On twitter, you have a fabulous opportunity to connect with a wide variety of people, including people passionate about pets. You can also connect to brands. And small businesses like yours. Here are some suggestions for making sure you are getting the most you can out of twitter: ***END UPDATE***
We just noticed your email address. We like it!
Hope your dad is feeling okay.
Posted by: jansfunnyfarm | June 07, 2010 at 01:04 AM
What a great article!
We're in NZ, and we were thinking it'd be cool to have a Blog Paws out this way!
Posted by: D'Artagnan Rumblepurr | June 07, 2010 at 02:47 AM
Good advice!
Posted by: Harry Spotter | June 07, 2010 at 06:04 PM
Hi, and thanks again, Nikita.
Your kind of enthusiasm, and friendliness, should be added to the list of ways to get readers and comments for your blog!
Of course, being opinionated doesn't hurt, either. ;-D
We're sorry Daddy (and you) won't be able to be at BlogPaws 2010 West in September, but sure hope we'll get to meet at the next one in 2011.
Hope Daddy's feeling all better by then.
Who knows, maybe we can also figure out how to accept D'Artagnan's invitation and take the fun to New Zealand!
Tom
Posted by: twitter.com/Tom_Collins | June 08, 2010 at 08:21 AM