Your Pet Business Launchpad
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The Very First Bark Chat Interview is LIVE – Welcome Pup.com!
Jun 25th
After about 2 weeks of learning audio editing software, putting up a seperate blog for The Bark Chat, putting together questions, a Call In Line, scheduling, and timing with a 5 year old and a 2 year old the First Interview from The Bark Chat project is Live.
Thanks so much to Bonnie Sweebe of Welcome Pup.com for participating and sharing her Petpreneur story with me. It came out pretty good for a first go, so spend about 18 minutes and hear her story. Comment or ask her a question to show some love!
More Bark Chat interviews are already lined up, and coming soon. If you’d like to be featured or sponsor an interview please contact me here!
Thanks for reading and listening! Click the ‘Interviews’ tab up above!
Love to Talk About…You? Perfect!
Jun 10th
Who doesn’t like to talk about themselves. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy and like you’re important…at least I like to think so anyway. But I also have this thing for listening to people and wanting to fiercely learn everything I can from anyone who has made the crazy commitment to be their own boss.
Crazy you say? Yes CRAZY…because if you’re in the category that I too am in…you’ve got to be just a tad bit crazy…and then you probably also have crazy, awesome stories you can share with others, who may just want to come join your crazy train.
Welcome to The Bark Chat…the newest brain child from Bark Business aka…me 
While the Bark Chat project gets underway, I’ll need victims er eh hem featured guests to come take a quick journey with me (actually 20-30 minutes) to talk about your petpreneurial journey. This is the good, bad, and the ridiculous…let’s put it all out there….
So here’s your official Casting Call —> Calling all Pet People who have just launched, or are seasonsed business owners. I need you to help make The Bark Chat a colorful and vibrant spot where other pet people will gather to listen in to your amazing story! Contact Me if you’re interested!
Now in addition to my guests we’ll need people actually listening to the conversations….yup it’s true good stories aren’t really that good unless others get to experience them too. So help me get the word out with letting others know that THE go to source for smashing pet people business interviews will be right here err actually at The Bark Chat blog
Ready….Break!
Now off and contact me and spread the good news!
New Featured Post: Rexy’s Random Awesome-ness
Jun 10th
I’m all over the web. Often I find new cool pet people goodies and because I love to share what I find, I wanted to include them here at Bark Business. Here’s my tribute to those randomly awesome stuff me and Rexy sniff out. So can you do me a favor, If you like what we find, comment and say so, Tweet about it or facebook it…cause we all love finding random awesomeness!
Show some petpreneurs some Wuuv!
First up: Teddy the Dog
–> Super cool simple website…love it
–>Super cool stuff for the people of pets
–>Check out their awesome Plush Beds Too.
I’ll See You At The Top…of Google that is
May 20th
Now being in the small business and in the pet industry I’m sure you’ve seen and heard a lot of ‘experts yappin a lot about SEO, and getting your organic listing at the top of major search engines, right? But are they showing you how it’s done? Are they taking you step by step and guiding you to really understand it so when you want to replicate it you can…on your own?
Because as you know ‘pay per click’ ads…well ‘Add’ up fast. And if you’ve ever given this method a shot you’ve probably witnessed first hand how quickly your advertising budget does a disappearing act. My personal experience with Google adwords was horrifying. I spent around $300 for my first ‘run’ only to get tons of clicks and no customers! Arrrghh! Talk about disappointment and being jaded…I was fed up and frustrated.
But here’s the good news. The good news is that I’m putting together a sure-fire, no fail video/tutorial on how YOU can inch your way (or even start) at the top of Google for your favorite keyword phrase or search. And get this, once you implement this sure-fire 
tactic…you could be showing up on Google within hours! Not days, weeks or months…yes Hours! How’s that for turnaround?
Now at this point you might be saying a few quips… ‘how is that possible?”, “does that involve spam, or fake blog posting?” or is this gonna be one of those ‘Try my system bits for $900 and you’ll be a pet-anaire!’ No my pet friends…this is none of
that.This just my effort to share with you a little bit I learned and want to pass it along.
I will tell you it won’t be free simply because I’m spending some time to put the whole bit together for you and I want it to be something worth paying for. Your pet business is worth it and your success is worth it
And one more thing I’ll mention. Just in case you do purchase my Sure Fire Top ‘o Google Strategy and after you think…Man that may take longer than I have to spare…I’ll be discounting my Sure Fire Service for you since you already purchased the Strategy…for like 50% off! Because that’s how I like to show you some love.
If you’d like to be some of the first to know about the Sure Fire Top ‘o Google Strategy please be so kind as to leave me your email and name below. This will tell me that you’re really ready for the SFTGS! Woo HooT!
Questions, comments…those little comment links aren’t there to look pretty…use ‘em!
Hey You Made It!
Apr 17th
Welcome to the spot I like to call Bark Business! I’ve just made the big switch to WordPress and am improving the features, and resources you’ll find and utilize here! Commenting & Sharing is encouraged and I’m always open for blog features, or if I can help you plug your pet business just email me!
*Glad you’re here!
Are you ready to Ghost Out your Socializing?
Apr 17th
Social media and marketing is quickly becoming the ‘norm’ to stay competitive, grow your business, and reach new customers and clients. But did you also know that there is a whole new sector forming to assist you with these time-squeezing strategies? Or course you do that’s why you’re reading this post right….Right! (No…just nod you’re head and stay with me
According to a new study done by Ad-ology small business owners are starting to realize that they need to engage their customers in new ways that are socially derived. And the study also found that more business owners plan on spending more time online, to connect with their customers, find out what they want and need, and reach out to new customers.
But listen running a business is a pretty time-consuming event in and by itself. So I get it if you’re saying ‘look I would like to spend more time online, but I have a business to run’. I hear ya, that’s why it may be time to ‘ghost out’ that part of your marketing mix. What do I mean by ‘ghost it’ out? Basically hiring a company or freelancer to ghost your socializing for you. This is a whole new sack of potatoes for many business owners and I get that too.
Are you that pet business owner, where you’re business is humming along, gaining new customers or clients, growing each month and you’re running yourself ragged because you’re trying to organically socialize too? Don’t beat yourself up about not having the energy or time to do it and still have fun. If you can ‘do it all’ great write a book about it because I know you’d have a gaggle of readers. But if you aren’t that business owner, no worries because there is help.
Are you blogging, Tweeting, Facebookin’ and Linkin In? Well maybe doing all of that is stretching a bit, but you should at least be doing one of them. Let’s quickly go over if you’re pet business is a good fit for Ghosting Out:
*You’re super busy maintaining your daily business activities, but still have growth goals to meet.
*You would like to beef up your online presence and reach out to attract more customers and clients.
*You’re able to send quick emails, texts, or calls to your Ghost to report what you want to say.
*You have an advertising and/or marketing budget that is under-performing or not turning a good return.
*Expect to pay for this premium service – if you need 4 blog posts a week, 15 Tweets a week, personalized @ replies, and social monitoring you should not expect your Ghost to accept your $200 a month bid. – in addition to the maintenance, you’re paying for their time as well.
–>Let’s look at what to expect from your Ghost:
*They have proven online capabilities. – um yeah they need to be online, and pretty Internet savvy.
*They can show you their socializing style by sending you to their blog, website, Twitter account etc. – you want to hire who is similar to your creative style or who can at least provide it.
*You can easily and quickly get a hold of them – no sense in hiring someone who is never available or hard to reach.
*They’re knowledgeable on the latest social media strategies, and tactics.
Now you’re all set to hire your first Ghost. This is an industry still in its infancy but growing more and more, as small to medium sized-businesses grow and still need to have a dedicated online presence.
***Guest Blog Post from Pink Spring Media – Your Web 2.0 Creative Consultants***
Doing something for nothing
Apr 5th
Give away something of value this week, and expect nothing in return. You’ll be amazed at how you feel, and how you’re grow.
The Bounce is Mandatory!
Mar 28th
So if you’re a petpreneur or you’re thinking of launching a business designed around your passion of animals or your pet, there are some traits that you may or may not be aware that you need.
One trait that I’ve personally learned along my entrepreneurial journey is the ability to bounce. There have been days, spats, weeks where I look at my journey and wonder what in sam’s garden am I doing here? Where am I going and on what train will I get there?
But then I remember that I have goals, dreams and people looking up to me (read my two boys:) and I was meant to do this and do it well. So I take the situation with a grain of salt, sometimes a minor tantrum and I Bounce back!
Because while you’re launching, starting and running any business you’re gonna find that some days everything will not go as planned, and unexpected ‘uh oh’s’ are gonna happen.
The question is do you have the Bounce to get back to business the next day, or next week? Will you be able to bounce back when it feels like your business is taking over your life?
Will you have the bounce to keep going when you don’t have enough customers yet?
Well if you’re gonna run a business, or start a business you better make sure you have the bounce! Because it’s a bumpy ride my friends…but so very worth it!
4 tips to increase your search engine rankings
Mar 28th
Close to 85% of pet parents look to the internet search engines to find what they need for their furry children. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. So the question I’d like to ask you is, where do you rank when you type in ‘San Diego pet sitter’ or ‘healthy wheat-free dog treats’ or ‘cute dog collars’. Not sure..well go and check real quick….I’ll wait.
Were you on page 1 before the fold of any of the major search engines? Yeah? Fabulous. This post ends right here for you, Way to Go! Or did you answer ‘No’. Well read on my friend for some quick tips;
–>#1 Include important keywords in the title bar, and your company name.
That bar at the top of the webpage, or the tabs that tell you where you are. Go through all your links and pages, each and every
title bar should include important keywords again. Be careful to not include long strings of keywords though keep them under 6 words. And avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title.
–> #2 Rethink your copy/content
The words and information on your website must contain the most important keywords that your customers will be looking for. So while cutesy words may seem fun, if you’re looking for customers to find you, leave those for brochures and hand out cards if you have to. For your website stick to keywords and terms your pet parents will be using to find what you offer.
–>#3 Links in Links Out
Link popularity is very important since search engines look to see where you link to and who important links to you. If where you’re linking to, is visited by thousands a day, this is a good place to start. Personally I’ve started to reconsider link pages on my websites simply because I’d like my customers and clients to stay with me..I mean stay on my pages not lurk elsewhere. But where you may still use this is on your blog, since blogs are to inform and entertain it could be ok to let them stray a bit, since they’re likely to come back to see what you offer later for content and links.
–>#4 Blog, Blog, Blog
And my last tip for increasing your search engine rankings is to blog, blog and blog some more. Search engines love blogs and all the juicy content within them. Done correctly, ie utilizing great keyword content and awesome blog post titles will put you up the ranks quicker than you think. I can tell you for my other gig Stick Me Designs, my blog shows up in most cases quicker than my website does on the first page of the major search engines. And in all honesty I post about twice a month if that. But because of the content it keeps ranking rather well. So if you haven’t yet taken the blog plunge, please jump in and do it! It’s easy with blogging sites such as WordPress, and Blogger and you can be up and blogging in a matter of minutes.
While it may seem like a bit much as first, the easiest way to tackle it is maybe one task every couple of weeks. Literally write it down on the ‘to do’ list. #update website content, #start a blog, #check toolbar titles. One step at a time, and before you know it you’ll ranking like the best of ‘em.
{Need some help with any of it? I can and would absolutely love to help, just shoot me an email at info[at]bark-business.com and let’s get you started!}
Hey there and welcome to Bark Business, I'm Rickina and I'll be your blogger for your visit today. My mission for Bark Business is to share wonderful pet businesses with you. The ones you may not have heard of, but that should be on your pet-radar. I wanna feature you, got a fabulous pet-inspired product, shoot me an email to be considered. 