pet blogging – Singing Dogs

Wordless Wednesday: Beautiful Pictures of Cody and Sierra

I was looking for some good pictures of Cody and Sierra for this Wordless Wednesday BlogHop and dug up these gems I took awhile ago with our Canon Rebel with a standard 50mm lens. I think it shows what that quality camera equipment really makes all the difference when taking pictures.

If you are thinking of investing in a better point-and-shoot or DSLR (Digital Single Len Reflex) camera I would highly recommend spend the money. Your smartphone pictures might come out ok and I've taken plenty of good ones, but you can't compare that with the quality you get from better camera equipment in my opinion.

What do professional and amateur photographers think? Do you get annoyed when people think their smartphones can do the job? How do you convince you friends, family, neighbors, etc. that you've got the good equipment?

9 Reasons I Need to Attend BarkWorld 2013

If you are a pet blogger than I am sure you have heard of BarkWorld, a blog and social media conference. BarkWorld is now going strong in it's fourth year and BarkWorld 2013 is just around the corner in August. I would really like to attend BarkWorld 2013… but unfortunately I find myself a bit light on cash at the moment.

Thankfully Pruven, 3M's pet division, is going to sponsor one lucky pet blogger's trip to BarkWorld 2013. This pet blogger doesn't want to go but needs to go BarkWorld.

10 Reasons I Need to Attend BarkWorld 2013

Improve Social Media Skills: Honestly my social media skills are not that impressive. I understand Twitter and I am a TweetDeck user. However, I can't seem to crack how to get a lot of followers and could use some. Having recently attended BlogPaws 2013 I felt a came up a bit short talking with the so-called “Social Media Gurus.” I found they offered no advice I hadn't heard before and didn't give me clear answers to many of my questions. If I attend BarkWorld I know I will pick-up some better skills from speakers and other bloggers there.
New People and New Connections: For anyone that has attended a blog conference before you know all the great people you meet and connections you make. Making friends in the real world translates to good friends online which can really help catapult a blog. I'd love to meet make connections with pet companies, brand, rescue groups, and other bloggers so that the Singing Dogs are more well known.
Take Blogging to the Next Level: I already feel like my blogging and writing skills are pretty good. You should never stop learning and gaining new skills especially if you are competing online. Attending blog conferences, such as BarkWorld 2013, will really up my blogging game and take it to the next level. I need to be successful online since I really don't want to get a real job. You know, since real jobs kinda suck.
Help Rescue Groups: Every since I discovered Sierra and Cody's singing talents I have hoped that I could use it to raise money for animal groups and shelters. In addition I have hoped that I could use it to raise awareness about animal abuse. I haven't quite figured out how to do this and I know attending BarkWorld 2013 I could talk with rescue groups and organizations about any ideas. (Sierra and Cody are divas when performing live and we can't use pop songs due to copyright issues.) I'd love to help animals in need since that is why Singing Dogs was started.
I can Teach: Having attended other blog conferences I know I can teach other bloggers a lot. I truly believe the value you get out of these events is not only learning but giving back to others who need help. It pleases me when I show people resources or tools they have never heard of before. Having bloggers willing to teach others makes the a blog conference better in my opinion.
My Session Summaries: My BlogPaws 2013 Pro Session summary was as detailed and comprehensive as you can get. (If anyone can find a more detailed summary of the talks shoot me an email.) If I attended BarkWorld I would write a similar summary of my various thoughts about the talks and sessions. This not only helps other bloggers and potential attendees asses how useful BarkWorld is but would also make future BarkWorld conferences even better.
I am a Dude: There seems to be a lot more female pet bloggers out there than guys. Therefore a lot more women will be attending BarkWorld than guys, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I need to go to BarkWorld to make sure that everyone is aware that guys also love animals too even if we don't show it quite as much by starting a blog about it. Of course I did.
Visit Atlanta: I think Atlanta is a great city and would love to visit again. Quite honestly it is much cleaner than Baltimore and I don't mind not having to worry about crime all the time. It is also dog friendly.
Cody and Sierra Assume I am Going: My dogs already think I am heading to BarkWorld. Would you want to disappoint them? 🙂

Hopefully the generous, smart, and attractive (I can only assume) people from Pruven will agree with all my points here. I know there are a lot of people vying for the BarkWorld free trip but I truly hope I am at least considered with this blog post.

BarkWorld 2013 is set for August 22-24th in Atlanta, Georgia. Tickets are $129 if you purchase before July 31st and at-the-door tickets are $169. (There are additional fees too.) That is reasonable pricing for a blog conference since most are $500+ for a weekend not including hotel and airlines expenses.

Even though BarkWorld 2013 is a reasonably priced I could use help in getting my way paid. Hopefully we will but I will be ok if we don't win too.

BlogPaws 2013 an Amazing Experience

The Singing Dogs spent the last couple of days at BlogPaws 2013 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. The crazy filled 3 days of BlogPaws was a lot of fun (but tiring) for all of us. We met new pet people, made great connections with other bloggers and writers, and got to learn a lot.

If you were to ask me what I learned most at BlogPaws it would be just how big the pet blogging industry is. I mean… Wow! There were over 500+ people that came to BlogPaws 2013 and the organizers oversold. It was quite a spectacle seeing all the people and pets that came out to this blog and social media conference. Some people traveled quite far to attend and god only knows that traveling with pets can be a real pain even with so many products out on the market. (A lot of those products were on display at BlogPaws.) The majority came without pets though as lets be honest that made attending the conference sessions a lot easier.

What surprised me at the conferences was that even some of the pro sessions seemed like they were geared toward people just getting started with blogging and running their own websites. I taught and told people about some cool sites and resouces they didn't know about which felt great. I realized the main value from these conferences is not learning but growing your connections and network. I got a lot more out of BlogPaws 2013 from meeting new people rather than learning new skills. That's fine with me though as taking away knowledge and giving it away is what it is all about.

I will be blogging more about BlogPaws over the next few days sharing experiences, tips, and my general thoughts about the whole event. Kudos to the entire BlogPaws and Pet360 Media team that helped make the conference a success for everyone that attended.

Next year's BlogPaws will be in Las Vegas and I will definitely try to go. Flights out there are inexpensive since Casinos subsidize the flights to get people out there to gamble your money away. Hopefully next year I will be meeting new people and seeing others I connected with this past BlogPaws. Without losing all my money of course.

We’re heading to BlogPaws 2013!

Just to let all of our friends, fans, and followers know, Cody, Sierra, and I are heading to BlogPaws 2013. (If you don't know what BlogPaws it is a pet blogging and social media conference.) We are very excited to be attending this year since this is the first time we are going to go to BlogPaws or have gotten a chance to go to any sort of pet conferences or events.

Since BlogPaws 2013 taking place in Tysons Corner, VA (just outside Washington DC) and we live in Baltimore attending means we will not have to travel far. We are going to be driving back and forth to the hotel where the conference is taking place which will be a bit of a pain but people drive into DC all the time for work. I figure I can do it a couple days if people do it 5 days a week.

We hope to get a lot out of BlogPaws networking with other dog lovers, pet brands, bloggers, writers, social media gurus, SEO gurus, and generally anyone who loves pets as much as we do. We also hope to meet some of the Singing Dogs fans at BlogPaws 2013 as I know there are a lot of our followers out there that want to meet us and are attending this year. We are just as excited to meet you in person too by the way!

I will be in attendance all 3 days but we are still unsure about bringing Cody and Sierra for all of BlogPaws 2013. We think it would better to bring them 1 day and then to get more out of the conference leave them home so we can takes notes from speakers and talk with people more. Sierra can be a bit whiny in the car since she is a “Dog Diva' and Cody is usually good but will probably get bored if we are just sitting around doing “boring” people stuff most of the day. (He'd rather be playing Chuckit!) If you have any thoughts or advice about bringing pets to BlogPaws I would appreciate it if you left a comment and let us know your experiences.

Anyway, we have new slick business cards to give out, gave the dogs a bath and are preparing ourselves for BlogPaws 2013. I hope to see you there and please let us know if you are going and if we should keep an eye out for you at BlogPaws.