The Pet Blogger Challenge: State of the Pawion
Under the wire as usual, I forgot about the Pet Blogger Challenge from Will My Dog Hate Me and Go Pet Friendly until today when all the posts started showing up! I call this “stream of consciousness blogging.”
1. When did you begin your blog?
February 2, 2009. Shoot, our anniversary is coming up! I better plan something! Got any ideas?
2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?
I’ve been blogging on LiveJournal for years, so this was just a logical next step. I was kind of goal-less other than the idea that I like to blab, so why not blab out loud.
I was encouraged to start the site by my husband and our friend Kevin Workman, who filmed a series of videocasts that we are trying to find and resurrect as a historical artifact.
3. Is your current purpose the same?
I like to think I have accomplished something positive from the blog other than just directionless blather, but it varies from day to day. I’ve been energized by the opportunities presented to effect change out in the world, and that is where I would like to continue to move. Punctuated by directionless blather.
I’ve learned, and that is a story in and of itself, that one must be careful when posting about your life’s work. It is fraught with peril. For that reason, despite the smokescreens and subterfuge and creative alterations, I’ve found posting about office life so challenging that it’s easier to focus on other aspects of life with pets.
4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?
I blog Monday through Friday. The most surprising thing is how easy it is for me. I guess I am blessed with the inscrutable gift of the lack of ability to notice when no one is listening to me babble anymore. Grocery store trips, the gym, going for a walk with the dog, I’ll post about anything.
I don’t always post well, but I post often. Look at someone like Hyperbole and a Half, who posts brilliantly, but not frequently. I could never concentrate long enough to create that kind of masterpiece. What I lack in quality I make up for in quantity.
5. Are you generating income from your blog?
No. I have ads, which bring in pocket change, but compared to the investment we made in designing the blog, I’m about 25 years away from making a profit.
It’s an oft-repeated adage and one I think every newbie blogger needs to put on a stickie by their computer: “I will not get rich blogging. I will not get rich blogging.” That way if you do, it will be a pleasant surprise. I’d just like to not be in the hole!
6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular?
- The community. I love the people who come to read my blog. The support and positivity out there is, at times, overwhelming. I started my blog one month after losing a dog, and several months later my second one developed lymphoma, and going through that with the support of so many others made a terrible time just that much easier. I feel so fortunate to be able to share this experience with people I consider friends.
- The camaraderie. My immediate circle tolerates my animal-insanity but they don’t, I think, really get it. My husband’s lack of enthusiasm for, say, the newest REI dog hiking vest can be grounding, but also deflating. I like having others who get excited by the same dorky things.
- The niceness. Have you ever read the comments on a news story (any news story)? It’s like one sincere comment for every 5 trolly ones of people trying to out-snark each other. I have none of that here. My hate mail is very, very rare and even that tends to be more of “mild rebuke” than “full on haterade”. It is a Utopia here. Pawcurian Petopia. I swim in carob pools and bask in the eternal sunshine of my compatriots on this site.
7. What do you like least?
- People who don’t have a sense of humor. I sometimes feel this pressure to censor myself out of fear of offending someone, and every time you let that happen, you lose a bit of what makes you you. You can’t go through life being dour all the time. At least I can’t.
- The behind the scenes stuff. Ads. SEO. WordPress updates. I don’t know any of it. If my husband divorces me, I am SO SCREWED.
- The damn guinea pig picture. I put a picture from G Force up on a blog about the class hamster. I labeled it “hamster” since it ended up being in a hamster post despite the fact that the cartoon was depicting a guinea pig-sometimes a post changes direction while I’m writing it- then promptly forgot about it. Of course Google cached it and it now comes up very high on the list when you google for images of “hamster”. Of the small amount of hate mail I get, most of it is to point out this error.
8. How do you see your blog changing or growing in 2011?
It will grow. I am going to update the blog in the next few months to make it even sweeter than it is. Don’t ask me for details because I haven’t figured them out yet. It’s a mystery, even to me.
I also foresee a Boston Terrier in 2011. I’m totally visualizing it. Never gonna happen though.
