I’ve gone through quite a bit of growth in my website this year. I started my business in December 2008 and I think I’ve grown and learned so much about Internet Enterprise in this year. This is primarily thanks to seller forums, fellow bloggers, and magazines.
The growth in 2009 has been plentiful but I have so much more growing to do in 2010. I have…
- changed the store name to be less exclusive to dogs but include cat merchandise as well.
- closed my cat focused store in the process. I wasn’t able to give it the focus it needed so I think I’m much better off with the two pet types together in one store. So many people have a cat and a dog that now people can shop from one store when they are looking for both pets.
- changed my blog over from blogger to wordpress. I still need to switch it to be hosted by godaddy so I can install the awesome plug-ins. That’s on my list of goals for next year.
- became more active in the blogger community.
- started blogging more consistently once I moved over the Wordpress.
- set up a fan page on Facebook.
- joined various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, digg.com, ning.com
- given Amazon.com a shot with the store.
- Increased inventory in the store.
- Advertised on Facebook and MySpace.
- Ran a contest online.
- Tried advertising a bit on other sites.
- Submitted my site to search engines.
- Decided to remove link partnerships from my store’s website.
- Started using stock photos in my blog.
I will post goals for 2010 sometime soon. I’d love to hear anyone else’s goals for 2010! How did you do in 2009… about what you expected, above expectations, below expectations? Do you know why you did well or not so well?
I’ve started adding pictures to my blog. I love this feature of my blog… and others’ blogs. Before I started a blog, I didn’t think about it but I’m betting that I am more likely to read a blog if it has a picture. At least on a boring page. And since I can’t install plug-ins yet, I think this is a great way to liven up the site. The first site I’ve been using that allows you to download and use their photos on your own site is Stock Exchng. There are many others if you just enter ‘blog free photos.’ There are MANY free sites out there offering free membership and free photos. Stock Exchng is one such company. Sign up for a FREE account. After verifying your email you are good to begin downloading pictures immediately. There are some pictures on the site that have a translucent logo on top of the picture. Those I haven’t used and I don’t think I will. It just doesn’t look professional in my opinion.
Do YOU use pictures on your blog? What site do you use? What is your first impression of sites that use pictures in their blog… does it impact your opinion at all?
As I was working on the wordpress conversion I spoke about yesterday I was on godaddy.com I noticed I had credits for advertising on google.com, facebook, and myspace. Does myspace still exist?? OK maybe I shouldn’t knock them. Anyhow, I set up adds for all 3. Not a smooth road with Google though. I go through setting up my add. Then they tell me I will be charged a NON-REFUNDABLE $5 to start up my account. OK whatever. BS but I’ll do it. So I click “next” or whatever. Then I’m asked to enter my coupon code. Note I already gave them the NON-REFUNDABLE $5. THEN I find out my coupon code I got from godaddy is useless because I’ve had my google account too long. OK granted it may have said something about that in some terms somewhere, but it’s google… what kind of terms could they have that I don’t agree with? I click ok to the terms early on without reading them. So now I’m not advertising on expensive Google and $5 has gone up in flames. I did successfully use my coupon codes on Myspace and Facebook so HA to Google. Still irritates me. You know they do that intentionally to “get” people like me. Go BING!
For the past few days I’ve been trying to get my .com over to .org being hosted by godaddy.com. So I think I’m half way through the process. I have been using tutorials throughout the internet. Some help more than others. These instructions are in blogs. What I find fascinating is I seem to be the only one with a problem converting. Ugh! I really want to be able to install plug-ins but I am STUCK. And I was looking at a plug-in installation process and that doesn’t seem all that easy either. So I think I’ll just take a couple days away from trying. Then I can come back to it with a fresh mind.
Dog Slippers for Humans
In the mean time I’ve been filling lots of orders over at Your Pet Store With More. Customers LOVE the dog slippers for humans that I have. They are awesome! They are adorable AND are so comfortable. Check out the features…
* Nylon Tricot (which the foot rests on )
* Eva Foam
* Polyurethane foam
* Polyester Tricot
* Stippled PVC dots on the bottom of each slipper to provide traction.
On top of all that… the heads turn around. They are just too cute. EVERYONE needs slippers at Christmas time right? Why not these adorable slippers?
So I’ve been looking through the blogosphere to find interesting blog articles that I can learn from. I came upon Beginner Blogger who talks about being accountable for your blogging. He posed interesting questions that I thought would make a great post here on Your Pet Store Blog.
- So how do you keep yourself under pressure in the blogging world to make sure you get things done?
In the back of my mind I know my blog won’t be noticed if I don’t keep it updated. Google won’t care about it and people won’t subscribe. I’m using the blog to help my business and with that I would LOVE to become a stay-at-home mom. That very desire is what motivates so much of what I do in life.
- Are you currently working ‘for the man’?
I am currently working ‘for the man’ and would love to be working for myself and more importantly my 2 children. I want to create a warm loving home where my kids can know I’ll be home when they come home from school. I want them to remember that about me… not that dad picked up mom from work everyday.
- How much time do you get to spend on your blog?
Writing a blog, I’ll probably spend 3 hours a week on my blog. If you mean writing and marketing the blog, I would say 6 hours. That extra time is spent looking at other people’s blogs, commenting, and hoping they do the same for me.
I enjoy blogging and plan to stay accountable. What about you?
I hope everyone had an outstanding Thanksgiving holiday! The holiday shopping season has officially begun. Christmas sure is coming up fast! Sales have picked up a bit in Your Pet Store With More as well which is always a pleasure to see.
I’ve been pretty busy posting new products on the website and finding new resources to help us all better our business.
I’ve been using the Google blog finder to find interesting blogs and it has led to reading a lot of great blogs AND getting great resources from those blogs. The most recent is from Ms. Ileane Speaks. I really can’t say enough about this blog. She always has great resources and even does video demos. The most recent find by Ileane was Blog Engage. This is a community of bloggers. A great place to find great blogs. How does it work?
- I joined last night, added one article link and already increased my blog hits today. What you do is one by one submit your blog articles by entering a brief description and the URL for the article.
- People will click on your blog link if your description entices them to do so. The link will open in a new window.
- When the person is done reading the article your hope is that they vote for you and/or leave a comment. Comments are great in terms of increasing your presence on the internet.
- Read and comment on others blog articles. This will help you find other resources that may benefit your business, allow you to get a meaningful links out there for your website, and help others that may in turn reciprocate.
There are some other notable features:
- Click on the Story tab at the top of any page and you’ll receive a list of the most popular tags. There you can choose a topic you’d like to check out. I used this feature because I wanted to see what was out there. Maybe something I hadn’t thought to look for but would love to read about.
- You can also enter a search phrase in the search box if there is a particular topic you know you want to read about.
- The Live Feeds tab shows you the new blogs being submitted. So if you’d like to review more current submissions that would be the place to stop.
- Your Groups allows you to join like minded groups to share ideas with.
- There is a Make Money tab but to be honest with you I’m not interested in that tab so you’ll have to check that out if you want to make money with your blog.
- Cool Sites tab… you can add your site here. Just need to follow three really easy steps.
Of course I can’t mention all of the features here, but I hope I’ve made enough points for you to give Blog Engage a try.
