Pet Blogger Challenge

We're joining the Pet Blogger Challenge.  This is our first time doing it.  I wasn't that interested doing it before as sometimes I just go anti-social, but I felt like this year I'd like to join in.

I've been blogging for three and half years.  My husband Mark kept talking about blogging and making money.  I didn't see how it could happen, nor was I interested after all the criticizing I got on the dog forums I used to go on.  The last thing I wanted to do was write about my two packs of hardly socialized  dogs, a litter of puppies we had two years prior, a male and female who weren't neutered or spayed (and still aren't) and an aggressive dog with every bad dog behavior possible.  And being a rather private person, I wasn't comfortable just throwing that out for the world to see.  But eventually curiosity got the better of me and after starting my own personal blog, I finally created the 24 Paws of Love blog and was hooked.  And now I write about everything that I feared and have never gotten any negative comments or criticism, always just the opposite, support, encouragement, or no comment.

We started with the intentions of making money as well.  We signed up for Google Adsense and Amazon, but the ads took over the blog and eventually I only left one ad for Google Adsense up.  I did everything to customize the ads towards dog related issues and when an ad for "Boob Cream" showed up I got rid of Google Ads as well.  After three years and making $50 on Google that I can't get, (you have to make $100 to receive a check) we'd given up on the money issue long before and making money became a last priority.  It was all about the dogs!

I've done some reviews for treats and toys for the dogs.  It nice getting the free stuff, but I felt like the reviews just took up my valuable space.  And this year I decided I'm not doing reviews either.  Again I just want this to be about the dogs, our lives together and sharing our experience that dogs are more than just dogs.  Which has been our only goal since we wrote our first post back on June 30, 2010.

I think the thing I've gained is confidence in myself while blogging.  It can be stressful for me at times, especially when I have writer's block and I can't get myself out.  That's when I recently turned to vlogging.  Which has opened up a whole other avenue.  Considering I don't like being on camera, talking out loud or the fact that anyone will see me, it has been quite liberating.  And since my fear of being on camera, I don't have any video or very few pictures with the dogs and I together, so these will be great keepers for when the dogs are gone.

Don't do much with social media except we do have a FB page.  I would like to do more, but really this is my husband's area.  We are hoping for him to come on board real soon.  He has so many ideas and crazy things he's like to do with the dogs.  I keep telling him FB is his place!

So anyways, that's how we started and got to where we are now.  I think the idea of making money threw me off in another direction, it stopped being fun and that's what I want is to enjoy what I'm doing and without selling my soul to do it.  It isn't worth it.  Now I'm doing things they way I want to and in a way the dogs would love it if they were online too.  At least I think and hope they would be proud too.