This is my First Pet Bloggers Journey for 2020 I have participated in. I am a new blogger who has started my own blogging journey in September of 2019. And was so excited to join in on this amazing opportunity. The opportunity to learn from other bloggers. And all the challenges they have overcome this year.
I would like to start by thanking Colby Morita of Puppy In Training for hosting this amazing event. And everyone participating.
The Pet Bloggers Journey 2020 Questions
The questions that were posted are below are from the Puppy In Training website. I would love to hear your thoughts and wisdom.
Question #1
When did you begin your blog? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about.
Answer
I started my blog in September of 2019 called Pet Frenzy Community. My blog is a place I share information and posts on Pet Care, Animal Rights in Canada, Product and Service Reviews. And Pet Blogging Tips. Most of my posts are to support new pet owners that have adopted a rescue. Providing them the information they need to help with the common issues of adopting a new pet and what to expect. Also, I wanted to help raise awareness and occasional funds for non-profit organizations.
Question #2
Name one thing about your blog, or one blogging goal that you accomplished during 2019, that made you most proud.
Answer
The most important blogging goal I accomplished this year was getting my site up and going without hiring anyone to help me. I had lost not only my two senior dogs by my mother as well during a two year period. I myself struggled through some serious health issues that made me decide to dedicate myself to this full time and create even just a part-time income blogging. Trying to be unique has been challenging. However, I realize now that every pet blog out there has something different to offer. And working together in the pet blogging community can really offer the support you need to succeed.
Question #3
Which of your 2019 blog posts was your favorite and why? (Please include a link.)
Answer
My favorite post this year was a product review on a company that was local. I was so nervous and wanted to be as professional as possible to establish my blog. I reached out to them and asked them if they would like ar review on their product? They were Training Treats for Dogs With Sensitive Tummies.
She was a young lady that was absolutely amazing and so friendly, easy to work with. Although she didn’t have a website of her own. I referred everyone to her Facebook page. By doing this she was able to get her product into her local pet food store. I was amazed at how much this helped her to build the confidence she needed to succeed and at the same time I was gaining my confidence in doing more blog posts. Since then I have done 3 more. I feel they are getting better each time I do one.
Question #4
What was the biggest blogging challenge you faced in 2019, and how did you tackle it?
Answer
The biggest challenge I had this year was learning everything on how to improve my SEO and Webpage Performance. I think the first time I checked my SEO my website was at 49% I have it up to 87-88% now.
My speed was another factor. I discovered that having a server from the USA when I lived in Canada made my page quite slow. So I learned how to improve the site speed by using Cloudflare and other features. My performance is 92% and climbing daily. I never gave up, I took a few courses from Udemy to help me. My goal is to get to 100% or as close as I possibly can.
I can honestly say that increasing traffic and domain authority has been the most challenging for me this year.
Question #5
One goal that we all seem to share is we want to reach more people. What is your #1 tip for bringing more traffic to your blog?
Answer
My number one tip is that I noticed my traffic growing when I did a few posts on product reviews. Not only was I sharing them, but they were also too. I try and keep my posts a minimum of 1000 words. Another great way I found to grow my traffic was to make sure your SEO is as good as you can get it.
As for my final suggestion so far I highly recommend you join the blogging networks in your niche. Or participating in things like the Pet Bloggers Journey 2019. I can honestly say that has helped me the most. Learning from others can be very valuable in driving traffic to your site.
Question #6
Do you do sponsored posts/reviews? If so, what do you find works best and how do you determine what to charge for a blog post, social media shares, etc.? If not, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?
Answer
I do offer both sponsored posts and reviews. And being new I am working with budgets mostly. I have had a few inquiries and working on that this current time. I took a look around at what other blogs were charging for a sponsored post and tried to stay competitive.
You don’t want to be too low and you want to stay within a reasonable amount others are charging. I would love to do sponsored posts. It not only can earn my site some money, but it also gives my site more valuable content. I am very picky about what I put on my site. I want to stay suitable for all ages. And I try to keep them within my niche.
Question #7
Looking forward to 2020, if you accomplish only one thing through your blog, what do you hope it is?
Answer
To be honest, if I could accomplish one thing it would be to monetize my website from a part-time to a full-time income. I would love to create one post that has thousands of views. Or even make it in the top-ranked search results for a specific topic.
The funniest thing happened…
Just as I was writing this I did a post that finally made it to the top search result in Google. (About a week ago now) It was a very proud moment for me. A feeling of accomplishment that I cannot even describe. Although, the search volume was almost next to nil. It took me 4 months to finally do a good one that ranked high. HOWEVER, I only stayed there for only a few days. Once I get the hang of this completely. I will be sharing how I did it on my blog in 2020. I am still determined.
Question #8
What steps are you planning to take to ensure you reach your goal?
Answer
I am learning to use keywords and plan to use this to reach my goals. It is all a learning process right now for me. I want my posts to have a strong medium – low competition. Also, I don’t compete with short Keywords. I plan on using more long-tailed keywords to get my content on the first page on a search. By building a higher domain authority will help me as well. That I am still learning to do.
Question #9
The blogging landscape is constantly changing. What changes in blogging do you see coming in 2020 and beyond? What plans do you have to evolve?
Answer
I see a lot of changes in the future for blogging. I think longer posts are now becoming a trend. If you check the top-ranking pages they usually have a post anywhere from 1500-over 3000 words. Shorter blogs are going to have more competition in the search results.
Having well-organized content and a good linking structure will help in the future. I plan to work on my content and the link structure of my site. Sharing all the posts on your social media platforms and video content which seems to be on the rise.
Question #10
If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be?
Answer
One thing I would love help with is learning how to increase my Domain Authority. I know being new is a big factor. But would love any suggestions or would love to hear how others have built up a high domain authority website being a new website.
A Final Note
Thank you for the opportunity to share my experience on my Pet Bloggers Journey for 2020. I hope this will help others and help me learn from others’ journeys. I can’t wait to read all your posts! And I encourage All Pet Bloggers to join in and tell us your Journey!! It’s how we all learn and get to where we need to be. Helping each other.
My inspiration for starting my blog is my precious Princess Jasmine. We adopted Jasmine in February of 2019 from our local Humane Society after seeing a Facebook post. She had severe fear aggression and would normally be a dog that is overlooked for that reason. We hired the professionals and was able to transform this sweet girl into the biggest love bug ever! You can read more about her journey on our About Us page.
The links to all the participants on our LinkyTools has expired, however, Feel free to share your experience with all of us in the comments below!
Congratulations on starting your blog in 2019! I think getting started and clicking publish for the first time might be the most difficult part.
That’s super cool you were able to help a local business with your first product review. You should see if she will write you a testimonial that you can use on your site.
It looks like you already have a pretty good grasp of SEO. Getting to the top of search in your first few months is no easy task. As far as increasing your Domain Authority I believe it mostly has to do with getting backlinks to your blog. You might look into articles on how to build backlinks.
Thanks for joining the Pet Bloggers Journey! I hope you have a great 2020!
Thank you so much Colby for your kind words. I am so grateful you hosted the Pet Bloggers Journey. It is such a great learning experience for me. And a great place to meet some great people doing the same thing I love doing. And your definitely right pushing the publish button was so hard. Again thank you for the amazing opportunity. I definitely will keep up the research on backlinks.
Hi Bren!
I love how you helped Kuhl Pup Treats get their product into local pet stores. That’s fantastic and I’m a big believer in Karma. That kind of positive boost will come back around to someone who’s working as hard as you are. Pet bloggers are incredibly supportive of one another and I definitely feel like the community is a positive one. Glad you joined in to spread your passion! Cheers! Irene
Thank you very much Irene for the warm welcome. Your words are very inspiring and I absolutely loved reading your journey as well. I agree the pet blogging community has some amazingly supportive bloggers! We all seem to have such big hearts. I appreciate you stopping in and looking forward to seeing you and everyone grow their blogs in 2020. Cheers to us for being part of such a great community of pet bloggers!
It was nice to get to know you through this post Bren.
The thing you mentioned about being in Canada and having a US server making your site slow made me wonder. My site is kind of slow too, even after having a lot of expensive work done on it. I’m in the US but have a Canadian server. I wonder if that is slowing it down.
Thank you so much for stopping by Cathy, It very well could be, However, You can fix that without having to change servers. Do you use Cloudflare? By using Cloudflare you can improve your websites with 155 data centers around the world, Cloudflare works by caching a version of a customer’s website and any static resources, then delivering it to visitors based on their location. That ensures the least amount of distance between a visitor and a website, which reduces latency, bandwidth and page load times. I haven’t changed my server but I did sign up for Cloudflare, it’s absolutely free to use.
If you do a google search for “how to set up Cloudflare on your server” there are some great videos on Utube to walk you through it. I was able to navigate my way through to set it up myself. And it increased my page loading speed quite a bit. I hope that helps. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
This is such a good way of reflecting on your blogging!
Thank you Sydney we appreciate you stopping by. It has been an amazing experience sharing the journey with others. As well as learning from other Pet Bloggers Journeys. I am so glad you enjoyed it.
For having started your blog only a few months back you are doing brilliantly! Good work!
Thank you Jenny for the kind words. Its comments like yours that keep me going! Thanks for stopping by and reading about my journey.
Thank you for sharing your journey Bren. I am amazed at your experience level just being in the first year of blogging! I am so glad I can read about others’ experiences and challenges. You have done an enormous amount in a short time and looks like you have direction and purpose! That was a sweet photo of your love bug, btw!
Thank you, Carol, I appreciate you stopping by with such kind words. I am glad you were able to check out the other journeys as well. I checked out your website peachesandpaprkika.com and your kitties are absolutely adorable. Their story is amazing to read as well. With only 3 days left, I hope you can join in and share your journey with us. Its been a long road of hard work and researching but again It is comments like these that keep us all going and growing. I just love how the pet blogging community supports one another.
I love that you started a pet bloggers journal this is awesome!
Thank you, Jen, Glad you stopped in to read about my Journey. It can help many bloggers like yourself even if you’re in a different niche. Puppy’s In Training is the one that hosted the event this year. I appreciate your support and kind words. Cheers!
As a brand new blogger, this was very encouraging to me! To see your confidence and perseverance helps me stay focused on my goal of monetizing my blog.
Thank You, Hannah! Big Welcome to the Blogging World. I am so happy I could offer you some encouragement. With good research and finding a niche, there are so many ways to monetarize a website. It helps to know that others have started the same way we have and to be able to learn from their experiences can be so valuable. Wishing you the Best in Blogging in 2020! Thank you again for stopping by.
Hi Bren! Welcome to the pet blogging community. I think guest posting helped a lot for me when it came to domain authority, I’m also thinking of putting out at least one press release this year, even if it’s just about a giveaway – things like that!
Great Ideas Lindsay, Thank you for stopping in and sharing that. I will definitely be giving that a go this year. Your Journey was amazing to read and I appreciate the warm welcome into the pet blogging community. Thank you so much again for all the great advice! It really does help.
Hi, Canada! Ex-pat here, trying to survive life in the U.S. and new to this wonderful pet blogging community. (Found your Facebook page!)
I’m so sorry to read about the losses you endured in 2019. Regaining our strength and purpose is so difficult in times of sorrow but you seem to be doing OK.
I recently wrote a post on how to take better pics of your dog with your cellphone if you’re interested in repurposing it as a guest post for your blog.
I look forward to reading more of your stuff,
As for improving your domain authority, you’re off to a good start by getting backlinks from this Journey Challenge. That is the hardest part of SEO, along with the patience required … of which I have none. Ha!
Hi Angela, thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my Facebook page! I would love to take you up on that opportunity! Just PM message me or I can email you and we can work something out. I had to giggle because I feel the same way when it comes to patience and SEO. I feel you on that one! Thanks again for the great comment and looking forward to chatting more.
Congrats on launching your blog this year! It takes time to gain traction and increase your domain authority. Colby is right, backlinks will help with this too. Just keep writing great content and it will come all together in time.
Thank you so much Debi, I loved your story! I actually think what your doing is such a great thing for rescue dogs and trying to reach the audience before the adoption is so important. Do keep up the fantastic work. and I couldn’t agree more on good content is the key. I appreciate the tips and your stopping by!
Welcome to the blogging world. I’ve been here for over 10 years and I still love it. It’s interesting to learn about blogging from the perspective of someone who is brand new. I’m impressed with how you jumped in and tackled SEO, Keyword Research, Site Speed. This is something that I didn’t approach for years.
Well done. It’ll be impressive to see where you are a year from now.
Wow, thank you so much, Kimberly, what a compliment coming from such an experienced blogger. I have been doing a lot of research on the changes in the algorithms for 2020. I guess having an accounting background does take part in the fascination I have with algorithms. It really means a lot to hear this from a professional I absolutely loved your journey and all the challenges that you overcame. You’re very inspiring to those with the same struggles. And I cannot wait to see what you have in store also for the new year as well. Again thank you so much for stopping by! Feel free to message me anytime If I can be of any help.
Congratulations on starting your blog. And seeing how far you have come and the great work you’re doing here, it doesn’t look like you’re just starting. Wishing you more wins on your blogging journey
Thank you so much for stopping by and such kind words and support. It has been a long road of hard work and a lot of research. I have dedicated myself to full time the last few months which I think has helped a lot. I find the challenges the most fun and I can’t wait to see what the new year will bring either.
Congratulations on your new blog already ranking. That is a wonderful accomplishment. With SEO as a solid foundation you will go far. I feel like I’m still learning it lol. So nice to meet you through the Blog Hop and here’s to a wonderful 2020.
Thank you, Hannah! Very nice to get to know you too through the Blog Hop as well. I appreciate the kind words. I guess I seem a bit obsessed with the SEO thing right now. Being new can be a struggle. I mean we all can agree we want people to stay on our site and read our posts. So I am sure it’s going to be an ongoing process for me as well but worth it. We all have such unique things to offer. I absolutely loved reading your journey and right now I think I am going through the bouncing phase, trying to find ways to implement the direction I am aiming to go in. Thank you for that! You really gave some great advice and Looking forward to seeing what you have coming this new year.
Hi Bren, welcome to the wonderful world of blogging 🙂 It’s pretty impressive what you’ve already achieved in such a short amount of time! You’ll go far if you produce consistent, quality content that’s helpful to readers.
Thank you Barbara for the great advice! And the kind words and warm welcome. Great Point, I really think that is going to be the most important thing for pet bloggers this year with the growing trends. I am still in a bouncy stage right now. But it really helps to hear these things from experienced bloggers. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know you through the blog hop. And your journey has been very inspiring to me as well. It has been the most amazing learning experience for me. Best wishes in this new upcoming year!
Welcome to the pet blogosphere!
You’ve done great with your site! I’m a DIYer with my site too! It can be frustrating, but I feel proud of what I’ve done. What courses do you use for setting up CloudFlare? I’ve been considering it, but have been a bit afraid to try and set it up. I did get WP Rocket for Black Friday and am happy with how it speeds up my site.
Thank you, Dawn! I agree I am definitely a DIYer like you. So nice to get to know you through the blog hop. Did you know WP Rocket is totally compatible and complementary with Cloudflare? You can easily activate it by using the add on feature in WP Rocket. They have a great tutorial and video on how to set it up at https://docs.wp-rocket.me/article/18-using-wp-rocket-with-cloudflare. I hope that may help a bit. I appreciate you stopping by and the kind words. Your journey was so similar to mine but in the end, that is what has given us the determination and strength to do it on our own. Thank you again for the warm welcome! You can message me anytime if you need any help with setting up Cloudflare.
Looks like we both started blogging in September this year, how funny! How did you check your SEO percentage? I’ve been using the Yoast SEO plugin, but I don’t have a good measurement from it!
Hi Erin, thank you for stopping by! When I first started my site I found myself using https://www.seobility.net it gave me a rough idea of where I was at. I also use Moz to measure my performance. I found another really good one the other day.https://seositecheckup.com This report can offer you ways to fix the problems to increase your score. Yoast is great. I use it all the time. I always make sure that I see those Green happy faces. If you want to know more about Yoast I do have a tutorial on my website, creating pages and posts in WordPress.
But I recommend starting with the ones I mentioned for SEO. They are free to use. They really helped me a lot to be honest. It was a pleasure to have gotten to know you through your journey and I think you’re really doing great so far. I can see you will be very successful this coming year. Feel free to message me anytime if you need some newbie help, I am still learning being new myself, but I will always offer a hand to my pet blogging community in any way I can!
Hi There,
Congratulations. This will be a good start for 2020. Quality and informative content really boost up this Pet blog.
Thank you so much, Dr. Carl! I appreciate you stopping in and for the kind words. I agree Quality and informative content is definitely important. I spend hours researching and networking. But I know it will pay off in the end when I can produce the content my readers want to see.
Congratulations.
It seems this blog is worth to drop by and read articles. Adding the best keywords relevant to the topic using the keyword planner tool from Google to have more impact also ( just sharing). Dr Carl is right, it will be a good start for 2020. Good luck
Thank you so much CanadaVet for the kind words! I have been really using the Keyword planner quite a bit. I am still learning how to use it to its full potential. That is really great advice if want to increase your traffic and produce well researched and good quality content. I appreciate you stopping by!
Hi Pet Frenzy Community.
I found this link that may help you https://neilpatel.com/blog/a-step-by-step-guide-to-integrating-long-tail-keywords-within-blog-posts/ .. I hope this helps
Google Keyword Planner will help you in terms of the average searches per month and your competitor for certain keywords.
Thank you so much! I hadn’t read this one yet! But Wow, They have a ton of information and a great video. That is such a big help, especially learning to use keywords in a natural manner. Great article! I was, however, curious though when researching keywords on the Google Planner do you think being a new site is better off competing with low volume competition rather than high? I know if you don’t use the keywords right Google will penalize you. So I am trying to come up with keywords that have a natural flow relating to the topic and contents of my posts. This article is really going to help with that! I appreciate you stopping by again to give me the link.
Hi Pet Frenzy Community,
Google will penalize you if you put too many repetitive keywords in your blog (search for keyword stuffing). In my opinion, long-tail keywords are the best keywords for your blog. They may have low competition but specific.
Yes, Canada Vet that is very true about keyword stuffing. I will definitely stick to long-tail keywords. Thank you for the response. I feel much more confident now using low competition. I really appreciate all your advice.
Cloudflare is something I am looking into it’s great you give it a thumbs up for the speed aspect. Nice to know.
I know that my best posts are all around the 2,500 word mark so I need to do more of those!
Thank you for stopping by. Cloudflare is something I can recommend for sure. I am definitely going to work on adding to my older posts and keeping my words up this year as well. I appreciate your stopping in and wishing you the best for 2020 as well.
Welcome to the pet blogosphere! Congratulations on getting your blog up and running. It looks great. Sounds like you have a good handle on SEO.
Thank you, Emilia, for the warm welcome! It was a struggle getting going, however, now that my SEO is up I will be able to focus more on writing this year. Thanks for stopping by! And I am looking forward to seeing us all achieve our goals this year.