A day in the life of a pet blogger

My friend Carrie Boyko from All Things Dog Blog asked me to participate in this week’s Mutt Monday Blog Hop. This week’s theme is a day in the life of a pet blogger.

I have been blogging on almost a daily basis since December 2009. It originally started as a hobby and has since turned into somewhat of an obsession.

When I first began blogging I had a full-time job, and I did most of my blogging in the early morning or at night. I’ve been working from home since May 2010, and my life is now a mishmash of online and offline jobs.

My day generally begins around 7 a.m. (sometimes earlier) when my six cats and one dog decide it’s time to get up. No alarm clock for me – my furkids are just as reliable, and I don’t have to worry if the electricity goes out!

I walk Zora (my dog), feed her and give her allergy medication. Then I feed the cats. Having six cats makes feeding them a bit of a chore – each cat has its own bowl in its own location so we don’t have any food fights. Six cats also means six litter boxes, so cleaning the litter boxes is the next chore on my list. When I’m done caring for the animals, I grab a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer.

Once I’m online, I generally go to my blog first to check the comments and the stats. Then I’m ready to think about my blog post for the day. If there is an event of some sort (like a blog hop), I’ll mark it on my calendar.

If nothing is scheduled, I look through various websites for press releases. I also go through my email to see if I’ve received anything interesting from PR reps. I receive several Google alerts focused on pets, and I visit YouTube to see if there is anything I’d like to share.

The focus of my blog is animals and animal-related causes, so I tend to look for stories about helping animals, such as pet adoption events, low-cost spay/neuter programs, etc. But I also like to post videos and stories that I think are interesting, entertaining or informative.

Once I’ve written and published my blog post, I distribute it through various social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and ScoopIt. I also belong to several pet-related tribes on Triberr, which help distribute my blog posts.

All of this takes up the first few hours of my day, and generally by 10 a.m. I’m ready to move on to whatever else is on my calendar. In addition to my own blog, I write for Examiner.com, and I help manage BtC4animals.com. I also work for a local pet-sitting business and may spend the rest of my day working in the office, doing visits or walking dogs.

By the end of the day, I crash into bed – only to get up the next morning and do it all over again. But I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way!