Tag Archives: BlogPaws2011

BlogPaws Episode 7: This is the end

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When last we saw our intrepid heroine, she had just finished lunch on the last day of BlogPaws.  What adventures await her in this installment?

After lunch, it was time to head to my final session.  I chose one entitled “Copyright Basics for Bloggers & Staying Out of Trouble with the FTC.”  Obviously, I’m not here to give you legal advice, but I am happy to share some resources so you can learn about copyright, product reviews and contests.  These sites will provide you with some handy information:

  • To learn more about copyright law, visit the U.S. Copyright Office.  There are a few angles to consider here, including learning the basics about when your work is copyrighted and protecting your own work.  There’s also a handy page intended to help you unravel the mysteries of copyright law, whether you’re the creator of the content or wondering how and when you can use someone else’s content on your site.  (On a related note, I love a government agency with a sense of humor – this FAQ was my favorite.)
  • Speaking of using content you didn’t create, you may want to check out the Creative Commons website.  You can search this site for creative works that you may be able to use on your blog – visit here to learn about how content is licensed and how you can use it.  You can also find some Creative Commons work on Flickr.
  • Before you do any product reviews on your site, it’s important to know the rules of the road, especially if you’re receiving free products to review on your site.  Visit the FTC website to find out more.
  • If you want to run a sweepstakes or contest on your blog, there may be legal issues related to running a promotion.  For an overview of the issues, take a look at this article.
  • Finally, for a wealth of info, you can also check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers.

After this session, I finally managed to meet Sharon from Grouchy Puppy, thanks to some help from my pal Kim over at This One Wild  Life.  Sharon was on my must-meet list, but we hadn’t managed to make it happen yet.  While I chatted with a few bloggers, including Sharon and Diane from To Dog With Love, we were treated to a special presentation:

No offense to anyone else, but I’m pretty sure that Cosmo was the cutest speaker at the conference.

After this adorable presentation, Sharon, Diane and I did what many bloggers do with downtime – we had a photo shoot!  Sharon (and Cleo’s proxy) posed for a few shots with Cosmo.  This shot was my favorite:

Sadly, the end of our photo shoot also meant the end of my BlogPaws adventure.  Irene was fast approaching, so I headed home to spend the evening hanging out with Bella and hoping my power wouldn’t go out.  (Spoiler alert: my power did go out.  However, it went out at 2:30 A.M. and was back before 10 A.M., so I won’t complain.  I don’t think Bella even noticed.)

Well… that’s all, folks.  (I’m at a bit of a loss – what will I ramble about now that this series is done?)  I had a great time at the conference and met some absolutely wonderful people.  I hope you enjoyed these recaps – if you want to read or revisit any of my BlogPaws 2011 coverage, you can do so by clicking here. 

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BlogPaws Episode 6: Community & camera capers

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My series of posts on BlogPaws has more episodes than some TV shows… apparently I had quite a bit to say!

Anyway, it’s time to recap Day 2.  I was running a tad behind, but I managed to grab some breakfast and slip in just as the keynote speaker was getting started.  The morning began with a talk by Heidi Ganahl, the Top Dog at Camp Bow-Wow, which sounds like a pretty fun place for a pup to spend a day or an evening.

Heidi is quite the impressive entrepreneur as well as a philanthropist.  Her speech was quite inspirational; she shared the experience of losing her husband at the age of 27 and the journey that eventually led to the creation of Camp Bow-Wow.

For more on Heidi, check out her website and then read this pre-BlogPaws interview that Grouchy Puppy did with Heidi.  If you’re interested in finding out if there’s a Camp Bow-Wow near you, check here.  You can also check out the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation, a nonprofit arm that is involved in some great causes.

After listening to Heidi, I should have gone to a breakout session. I planned to – and from what I heard, the offerings in the first time slot were great.  However, I ended up hanging out with Diane and Cosmo from To Dog With Love and a few other bloggers, including Tamar from I Have Cat and Donna (and her pup Yaxley) from Raising a Super Dog.

Cosmo
Yaxley

I got so distracted by talking (and by cute puppies and that adorable kitten Tamar is holding in the photo above) that I completely missed the first session.  The dangers of being chatty, I suppose.

I got back on track in time for the second session of the day.  There were a few I was interested in, but I’m very happy with the one I chose, entitled “No Blog is an Island: Tools to Build Traffic & Community.”  The session was presented by Felissa Elfenbein from Two Little Cavaliers and Neil Brogan from Life with Dogs.  Neil was unable to make it in person.  However, thanks to the wonders of technology, he joined us via phone. While waiting for the session to start, I talked it up with Lisa the Pet Book Lady.  So glad I got to meet her!

The session began with an absolutely awesome video.  Seriously.  Go watch it.  I’ll still be here when you’re done.

Now that you’re back, a few notes about the session itself.  We had a great discussion of the concept of community, which led to last week’s Pay it Forward Blog Hop.  (I still plan to find some great guests posts from you from the hop… my to do list is just taking longer than I thought!  However, one of the lessons I took from the session was that guest posting is a great way for us to build on each others’ ideas within the greater community.) 

A few other highlights:

  • If you have the choice, go for threaded rather than flat comments.  (If you’re like me, “threaded comments” was a new phrase. However, you know how on some blogs you can reply to specific comments rather than just replying at the end of the discussion?  Those are threaded comments – discussions rather than just a linear list.  Blogger doesn’t offer this option.)
  • Follow the Golden Rule – deal with troublemakers quickly.  Consider posting rules for behavior so that your readers know your comment policy.  Don’t spend time arguing with your community members.
  • Don’t be the loudest voice in the conversation.
  • If you would consider it SPAM, don’t do it to your followers.

After that interesting session (complete with Felissa’s retelling of the Stone Soup folk story – a timeless classic in my book), I headed to lunch.  While eating, we were treated to a special presentation from BZTAT (a.k.a. Vicky Boatright).  She teamed up with Miah from Start the Change for a very moving performance.  Go visit BZTAT’s website to learn more about Okey’s Promise. I also recommend this great post about Okey’s Promise over at Bocci’s Beefs.

Oh, and did I mention that Saturday morning was when my fun photo shoot with Pamela and Honey from Something Wagging this Way Comes took place?  It was a good time!

Up next… one last session, finally meeting up with the fabulous lady behind Grouchy Puppy, and some closing thoughts.  We’re in the home stretch!

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BlogPaws Episode 5: Blogging with the stars

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Previously… I ate some cheesecake and finished the educational portion of Day 1.

After learning about various bloggy things, the first day of sessions was over.  It was time to head back out into that big lobby and chat it up once again before our screening of Spooky Buddies.  Luckily, I quickly encountered Kim from This One Wild Life, who was kind enough to allow me to be her wingwoman (wingblogger?) for the evening.

We grabbed a glass of wine (farewell to my final drink ticket) and some popcorn (in my book, wine goes with anything) while we waited for the evening’s festivities to get underway.

After mingling for a bit, the doors opened and we headed inside.  We picked up some movie snacks and grabbed a seat a few rows from the front.  Little did we know that the rows in front of us would later be removed and we’d be in the very first row… not that I’m complaining, but it was somewhat unexpected.  Anyway, Kim and I chatted for a while about this and that – it was like hanging out with an old friend.  (Kim, feel free to correct me in the comments if you thought it was more like hanging out with an annoying person who won’t go away… I kid, I kid.)

Here’s the coolest part… not long before the movie began, Kim and I checked our Twitter feeds (hey, it’s a blogging conference) to find out the results of the Petties (it’s like the Oscars, but for pet blogs).  Be the Change for Animals (which Kim co-founded) won for Best Cause Blog!  It was a pretty amazing moment – and fortunately, the BlogPaws photographer happened to swing by at the perfect time and get it on camera.

(Check out her acceptance speech – Be the Change for Animals donated its $1,000 to Best Friends Animal Society.  Pretty great, huh?)

Not long after that, it was time for the movie premiere of Spooky Buddies – BlogPaws was the first press screening in the country.  I’ll admit, I’ve never seen any of the other movies in the franchise, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

The basic story – the five main characters (a.k.a the Buddies, a group of five adorable Golden Retriever puppies) encounter the legend of the Howl-oween Hound and must stop Warwick the Warlock’s evil plan before it’s too late.

The movie was cute… not necessarily one I would have sought out on my own, but I definitely think kids would like it.  I actually enjoyed it – there was something about the crowd (including dogs barking at the screen) that just made it a fun experience.  Here’s the trailer:

Obviously, I’m not the only blogger writing up her thoughts on her Spooky Buddies experience these days.  For a few more, go visit Bocci’s Beefs (and find out how many stand-ins each puppy had on set), My Tail Hurts from Wagging So Much (for an interview with the director), and The Chronicles of Cardigan (for a firsthand account of what it was like to watch the movie with your pups). 

After the movie, it was time for a Q&A session with the director.  I have to imagine that working with kids and puppies is quite the challenge, but he really seemed to enjoy it.

Once the Q&A ended, we had the opportunity to get our photo taken
with one of the stars – an adorable puppy dressed in a bunny costume. 
The photographer wasn’t very quick on the draw – which didn’t work so
well when a tired puppy was involved.

In the interest of getting these
photos done quickly so that the pup could get out of his duds and take a
nap, Kim and I did our photo as a duo.  Once I have a copy, I’ll
definitely share it here.

Once that was all done, Kim invited me to crash a Greenies happy hour that she was invited to attend at the hotel bar.  I was a bit hesitant, but I’m glad I let her talk me into it.  I had a fantastic time chatting with Doreen from Doggies and Stuff, Jess from Indy Dog Blog (a party crasher like me), and others.

Eventually, it was time for me to say goodnight and head home.  After I got home, I snuggled with Bella and caught up on Project Runway.

One day down, one more to go.  I was able to attend the second day, but I did end up ducking out a bit early due to the hurricane. Never fear, I still have lots to tell you.

Up next?  More sessions, some great speakers, a photo shoot or two, and meeting up with some more of my favorite bloggers.

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BlogPaws Episode 4: I’m off to meet the widgets

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Now, where was I?  Oh, yes… cheesecake.  Good stuff, right?  Anyway, after thoroughly enjoying that cheesecake and chatting with a few others during the break, it was time for afternoon sessions.  During each time slot, there were four breakout sessions to choose from.  Sometimes, it was a tough choice.  At other times, I didn’t have to think twice.  You will probably not be surprised to learn that the title of this next session called to me like a siren to a sailor.

A punny title?  Pop culture references?  How could I say no?

This session was presented by Lauren Spencer from Fetching Communications.  We learned about various widgets (stand-alone applications that you can embed on your blog to create a more dynamic and interactive experience for your readers – check out Something Wagging This Way Comes for list of the links we got from Lauren that day).  It seems like there are widgets for everything – including Facebook (so readers can like your page… hint, hint), Twitter, and YouTube.  You can even create polls and surveys for your site.

Just make sure not to engage in widget overload – too many widgets and your page begins to look like Times Square.  Your reader won’t even know where to start.

Anyway, there was one widget in particular that piqued my interest: embedding a slideshow from Flickr.  Lauren showed us how to do this using Flickr’s own app, as well as third-party applications from Flickr’s App Garden.  I made the one below using pictobrowser:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer


The Chronicles of Cardigan meets Something Wagging

Cool, right?  I have a feeling I’ll be using this tool a lot in the future – I was wondering how to create slideshows on the blog, but was a bit too lazy to figure it out myself.  So thank goodness for punny sessions. The session even came with an unexpected bonus: I finally got to meet Elizabeth, Jon Farleigh and Dewi from The Chronicles of Cardigan!

Now that my brain was playing songs from The Wizard of Oz on a permanent loop, it was time to head to yet another session – the last one of the day, in fact.  For this final session, I chose to attend “StumbleUpon: How to Create, Share and Discover Great Content.”  I’d heard about StumbleUpon but wasn’t really familiar with how it works.

Apparently part of the concept is based on “unexpected relevance,” which I thought was interesting.  According to our presenter (from StumbleUpon, of course), it’s the second biggest social media referrer online in North America.  So you know… kind of a big deal, I suppose.  This was yet another technical session – there are a variety of free tools and widgets (as well as paid ones) available.  If you’re interested, you can check them out here.  Any of you use it?  What do you think?

That closes the book on the sessions from Day 1.  However, the day wasn’t over yet… up next, I’ll tell you all about my evening.  It included popcorn, candy, a movie, puppies, and new friends.  After that, I’ll give you a recap of Day 2, and finally some closing thoughts.  The end is in sight!

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BlogPaws Episode 3: Dynasty, cheesecake & slap bracelets

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I’ve told you about my initial impressions of BlogPaws, and about some of the tough guys I encountered along the way.  I wasn’t quite sure what to tackle next.  When all else fails, I tend to default to chronological order.  So, for argument’s sake, let’s just say that all else failed…

After listening to the Rescue Ink guys, it was time to attend my first actual session.  You know, where I’d go to learn stuff.  I had a hard time deciding what to attend – I ended up choosing one called “Demystifying Search Engine Optimization.”  I didn’t have the foggiest idea what that was, so I figured I could use the demystification.

I’m not going to lie… at the time, I thought I had a basic grasp of SEO.  Looking back at my notes a week later, I’m not so sure.  I scribbled something about keywords, improving my search engine ranking  – and a bunch of technical things that I need to revisit in more detail.  I’m not really qualified to advise any of you on this one!  Luckily, the folks over at BlogPaws recently had a great post about SEO for paw bloggers, so I’ll let them do the heavy lifting.

Paris & John from DogTipper.com

During the break between sessions, I met a few more fun bloggers, including Carrie from All Things Dog Blog; Paris & John from DogTipper.com; and Missy from Dogs for the Paws.

Missy wins the prize for best business card – a slap bracelet!  That thing was awesome – I wore it for the rest of the day, and it’s currently still decorating my camera bag.

Up next, I headed to a session called “Reach. Relevance. Design. Presentation.”  I was excited to hear the presenter, Dino Dogan (the creator of Triberr).  This one was more up my alley (and it was also the session where Tango decided his nose was cold).  I really enjoyed this session.  Some of the choice quotes/concepts I jotted down:

  • On reach: “Attention is the commodity and we only have so much of it.”  Dino described reach as “fishing with dynamite.”
  • On relevance: “There’s no motion without emotion.”  Relevance is like shooting with a laser. Seventy-five percent of writing time should be spent on the headline. In general, short is better than long, and emotional is better than non-emotional.  Think about the person you’re trying to attract and their state of mind. One method is to create a customer avatar – an image of your ideal customer.
  • On design:  The consensus here seems to be that Blogger kind of sucks.  (If I took one lesson away from the weekend – this was it.  It came up in several sessions.)  Many seem to prefer having a self-hosted WordPress site.  Dino also talked about logo design and colors.  Have you ever noticed that many of the major sites – like Facebook and Twitter – use blue?  I’ve definitely been paying more attention to the colors used on various blogs since this session and thinking about what kind of mood they evoke.
  • On presentation: You should aim to become a content presenter instead of focusing on being a content creator.  (Cesar Milan is – unfortunately – a good example here.  I think his methods suck, but I can’t argue that he’s managed to draw people in with his presentation.)  Be a better writer than the next guy – make your reader feel that if he doesn’t click on your headline, he’s going to miss something.  My favorite quote:  to improve your writing, “read like a madman, write like a mental institution escapee.”  Think about visitors who will view your site on their smartphones – do you have mobile browsing enabled?
  • Finally, model yourself on Dynasty… create some cliffhangers!

I could write a lot more about this session – I think it was the kick I needed to start thinking about my own blog in a more analytical way.  I’ll be doing some self-evaluation in the coming months and you may see some changes as a result.  However, first I need to find the time for all of that virtual navel gazing…

Anyway, after that session, it was time for lunch.  I was in for a pleasant surprise – the speakers during lunch were from the rescue group where I adopted Bella!  The group is called Homeless Animals Rescue Team (aka HART), and they operate in the Northern Virginia area.

Also a pleasant surprise? Cheesecake. I love cheesecake.

Anyway, after I inhaled that cheesecake, it was time for my next session.  I chose it based on its delightfully punny name.  I’ll tell you all about it my next installment…

(I told you that recapping BlogPaws would take me a while.  I wasn’t kidding.  When you’re as wordy as I am, these things take time.  Hang in there.)

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Pay it forward: Pets of the Homeless

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Last weekend at BlogPaws, I attended a great session by Felissa from Two Little Cavaliers and Neil from Life with Dogs.  I’ll be posting a bit more about the session in another post – I have a few more BlogPaws recaps in the queue, after all.

However, at that session we discussed the idea of community – what the word meant and how we as a community could help each other raise awareness and share each other’s causes.  From that discussion came the inspiration for today’s Pay if Forward Blog Hop.  Today, pet bloggers are sharing one (or more) of the causes that they are passionate about and adding it to the blog hop.  Then, those participating in the blog hop or reading through the posts can offer to help out with causes they are interested in or even solicit some guest posts for their blogs.  I will definitely be checking out the other causes, and I may approach a few bloggers about doing some guests posts to share their causes with you.  I’ve included the list for the blog hop at the end of this post – so I hope you’ll also take a moment to see what everyone is talking about today.

Today, I’m sharing a cause I’ve written about before.  I’d like to tell you about a group called Pets of the Homeless.  This nonprofit organization provides pet food and veterinary care to the homeless and less fortunate in local communities across the United States and Canada. For my last birthday, I told all of my friends not to buy me gifts.  If they absolutely felt the need to bring something, I asked that they bring a bag of dog food instead.  I then donated this dog food to Pets of the Homeless.  I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday gift – the chance to make a difference for pets (and their people) in need.

Imagine, if you will, that due to circumstances beyond your control, you find yourself homeless.  What do you do with your pet?  Your pet gets sick.  You can’t afford veterinary care.  Where do you go?  Or, let’s say you are currently homeless and encounter a stray dog who becomes your companion.  The nearest homeless shelter doesn’t allow pets.  Do you go to the shelter and leave your companion to fend for himself? 

These are tough choices.  Choices that I hope none of us ever have to make.  However, many people do have to make these choices on a regular basis.  Pets of the Homeless notes that the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that as many as 3.5 million Americans are homeless.  Between 5 to10 percent of homeless people have dogs or cats – in some areas that number may be as high as 24 percent.

There are many reasons people end up homeless, including foreclosure, poverty, domestic violence, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and declining public assistance.  The demographics of the homeless population show that anyone can be affected – young, old, and in between.  The homeless population is not just one ethnicity, gender, or age.  Their homes may have been destroyed by a hurricane or a tornado.  They are veterans, victims of domestic violence, the unemployed, families with children… and so many others.

Pets of the Homeless aims to help this population in many ways.  It has established collection sites to accept donated pet food.  This food is distributed through partnerships with homeless shelters, soup
kitchens, and other entities.  The organization also makes two types of grants:
one to veterinarians that go to where the homeless congregate and
provide veterinary care such as vaccines, spay/neuter and other needed
treatments; the other to homeless shelters looking for ways to allow
pets sanctuary with their owners.  

Want to know how you can help? If there is a collection site near you, donate pet food and supplies.  (If there’s no collection site near you, find out how to become one.) Pets of the Homeless also provides a list of other ways that you can donate your time (like volunteering at a distribution site) or money to this worthy cause.  You can also help by spreading the word about Pets of the Homeless to bring awareness to this cause.

If you have tissues handy, I urge you to read some of the success stories and view the touching photos on the Pets of the Homeless website. I hope you’ll check out this great organization as well as some of the others being highlighted in today’s blog hop:

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If you’re confused, just tilt your head

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It’s a three-day weekend!  I could not be happier to have an extra day off.  That being said… it’s time for some Friday linkage!

  1. This week’s punny goodness is inspired by a fantastic book I just finished.   In honor of the entertainment she provided during my brief hurricane-induced power outage, I give you… Catty Griffin.
  2. I would like to request that all sheet music do this from now on… not too much to ask, right?
  3. The face on this Corgi reminded me of Bella.
  4. Remember Edward Peanutbutterhead? Well, it appears that he has some competition.
  5. Eating peanut butter is one thing, but I wouldn’t recommend stealing it from the trash.  You might end up like this guy.
  6. You know I’ve had BlogPaws on the brain lately.  You may enjoy seeing these cute pets who were in attendance.
  7. Speaking of… there have been some pretty fun BlogPaws post over at Something Wagging This Way Comes this week.  Check them out!
  8. If you just can’t get enough BlogPaws (and can’t wait for my posts… they’re coming, I promise), then I have the link for you. Might I suggest you start with this great post from This One Wild Life about the ACES Pet Rescue Workshop?

Finally, just because it’s Friday… have some head tilts, or as we like to call it at my house: “making the puppy face.”



(via Cute Overload)

Happy Friday!

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BlogPaws Episode 2: Say hello to my not-so-little friends

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After the welcome reception on Thursday evening, I was feeling pretty good about returning to BlogPaws on Friday.  I wasn’t disappointed.  The day started out with a pretty great keynote speaker.  Or, more accurately, a duo of speakers:

Meet the men of Rescue Ink.  These are some pretty tough customers from Queens. If you’re looking for peaceful conflict resolution, they may not be your guys.  (Although I have a feeling they’re the type that can solve problems without knocking heads together if the situation allows it.)

In any event, they’re tough customers who care about animal welfare, as the dedication on their website makes clear.  They’re extremely committed to stopping animal abuse – you could really feel the emotion behind their words and their passion for this cause was evident.  That commitment was inspiring.

Rescue Ink is an international animal welfare organization dedicated to defending the defenseless.  (They joked that their lawyers wouldn’t let them go into too much detail about how they actually do that.)  Our two speakers are actually two of the founding members of the group.

Joe Panz (bio)
Big Ant (bio)

Rather than give you an exhaustive recap of their speech, I just wanted to share a few of the quotes I jotted down during the keynote:

  • “A rescue isn’t a rescue until you take it out of a bad situation and find it a better home.”
  • “You don’t send Boy Scouts to get rid of bad guys.  You’re gonna run out of Boy Scouts real quick.”
  • “They say that animals don’t have a voice.  We don’t mind speaking for them.”
  • “It takes 5 puppy mill puppies for one to survive long enough to make it to the pet store.”
  • “Money shouldn’t get between you and your animal.  Your animal is family.”
  • “We defend those that can’t defend themselves.”

You can learn more about the guys from Rescue Ink at their website, including some of their success stories.  I also recommend checking out this post at Kahuna’s K9s – Eryka did a great interview with them after their speech.  This recap at the Pet Health Care Gazette is also fantastic and perfectly describes how I felt listening to these two.  Finally, here’s a video of the interview that Miah from Start the Change did with Joe and Big Ant.

A shot of their logo on the big screen at BlogPaws

Up next: the sessions begin, I learn some stuff, more friends are made, and a puppy movie is screened.  In short… good times.

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It’s okay to sleep in class if you’re adorable

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One of the (many) fun things about BlogPaws was the mix of human and animal attendees at the sessions.  Sometimes a well-timed bark would make everyone laugh.  Other times, it was just fun to look around and see a cute pup.  I’ve always said that school would be so much better with puppies.  I stand by it.

I love this photo of Tango (who attended BlogPaws with Laurie from Smart Dog).  This photo op occurred during one of our sessions.  Note the well-covered nose… it could get cold in the rooms, so I think Tango had the right idea.

Happy Wednesday!

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