First, all the blogs I do frequent are dog related, either directly or indirectly. And in truth I don’t read very many blogs. Partly it’s just a lack of time. I don’t know that I have ever searched for blogs, about dogs or any other subject. I have searched for forums when a particular concern arises, like a border collie forum and a dog behavior forum.

Usually, I wind up at a blog just like I wound up here – a link from another blog.

For me, content and photos are the main attractions. I check everything from a computer rather than a cell phone so I love pictures and if there is one thing that will make me browse a site even if the content isn’t at the top of my list, it is photos.

Content is extremely important to me though. And humor is nice but not required. I frequent Coyote Crossing for example (http://www.faultline.org/) where the content is often quite serious but the writing is exceptional. What might not be obvious about that blog is that it was a dog who brought me there (Zeke).

Compelling writing about a subject that interests me and/or compelling images will bring me back to a blog.

Seems that you have received many great and useful comments thus far! I agree that humor in blogs is so necessary; dry technical material rarely gets too far. There has to be a hook. You have it with Frankie and with your flair for the humorous. Being able to poke fun without being horribly offensive is another talent you have; keep using that. I would advise erring on the side of not being so opinionated as to become offensive; anyone can do that. Yes to more color in the set-up, more Frankie (pics from his day to day activities with humorous captions would be good) , the more links you make available to everywhere the better. The buttons for sharing need to be large and strategically placed too. Yes, I am learning all these things too as I go along with a blog still in it`s infancy. Identifying what readers really want to hear about is important too. Can you look at your stats from blog topics to get a sense of what posts have garnered the most activity? I think it is important to review stats and use them. From my perspective, people seem to keep returning to my face book training page and commenting on the pics and stories I post about goofy Bridget! The personal touches are nice. People feel like they are included.
Good luck and keep up the great work.

Similarly, I often read the NYT on my cell phone if I awake at 3 a.m., and if I happen to see it in on sale somewhere later, I’ll marvel at the photos I hadn’t realized I’d missed.

So, if photos are important to the story, then by all means they have a place, but pictures that have no informational value don’t seem to be what this blog is really about, (it seems to me), so the main thing is, I wouldn’t drive myself nuts trying to provide new ones if they weren’t at hand. The main strength of the blog is the word content, so that’s where I’d put my time and energy. I don’t have a problem with the visual appearance of this site either, it’s nice and clean with plenty of white space, and easy to read.

Posts where you have asked people to send in photos seem to be well-received, though. Maybe I am missing the point here. Is the underlying question, how do I increase traffic, or how do I keep my loyal base coming back for more, or both?

All I know is that in my limited experience starting this year, I send 100 contacts my word posts copied and pasted into the body of an email, with no attachment, and then also provide a link to click on in the hopes that they will go to my website and see the related photos I’ve posted there. I will get 60 or more responses by email, and maybe 10 comments on the site.

So, I just wanted to supply a differing opinion here. But everyone’s comments have been very informative.

First, contrary to what many of your other readers have said, I would always counsel to keep it short, keep it simple. Nothing puts the modern reader off more than a great slab of text with no paragraphs.

I was taught copywriting by a man who once published a book in which no sentence was longer than seven words, to make his point!

Second, I agree on the photos. People love to see something, especially the adorable Frankie, with which they can identify. It immediately gives authority to what you are writing about.

Third, plenty of humour. Ask any teacher, they will tell you if you can make your pupils laugh, they’ll remember the lesson.

Finally, I don’t blog with my work hat on, too busy doing it for other people. But my current and previous dog both had/have their own blogs, which seem to be well received. If anyone’s interested, they are welcome to have a look.

http://meicsblog.blogspot.com/

http://theworldaccordingtoci.blogspot.com/

Best wishes and good luck with future blogs and remember – KISS! (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

I’m a writer, so I’m partial to content. I’ll leave the techie stuff to those more technologically inclined.
Your blog is fun, funny, simple to navigate, concise, all pluses in my book. I can get frustrated when I’m sent hither, thither, and yon.

If I was to want anything more, it would be a bit more Frankie,who is so friggin’ cute that he’s almost as cute as my Ellie (shameless plug). Better yet-you and Frankie. I know it’s hard to get that kind of picture. I have a friend with whom I share ‘photoshoots’ and we make an hour or two of it and snap away. She takes hundreds of pics, and then I have them on a cd for later use.

Heh. I think we live not too far, maybe we ought to set up a playdate/photoshoot sometime.

Be well, be not boring,
j

CONTENT.
I like your conversational style of writing – it’s something I aim for on my blog. I imagine a stream of conscious writing lets readers better understand why you’re writing what you’re writing. For me, writing a travel-with-your-pets blog, I want readers to feel like they are really there with me … so they can see how fun and easy it is to travel with pets … so more people will take pets on errands, short trips, and vacations.

As others have suggested – more pix. People want to see what you’re doing with Frankie. I use a lot of pictures in my travel posts with a lot of snarky comments by the dogs – almost like a comic strip.

I like interesting and opinionated (but that’s me). If you have something to say, have the guts to say it. Sometimes people need to be grabbed and shaken … dogs not so much

Agree with Pat – too many About pages, but I did learn a lot about you!

Don’t know if you need a Categories archive? I like that you don’t have a counter in your monthly archives.

TECHNOLOGY.
MY wife and I are recovering accountants. We started GoPetFriendly.com with little concept about html, CSS, website hosting, WordPress themes, etc. While I am climbing the learning curve, I have relied on a consultant help me implement what I consider to be “best practices” for my blog. And I think that’s really important for you to consider … how do you want to engage your readers and how do you imagine they want to engage with you. So that said, here are some things I noted about your layout.

I will have a new blog layout launching, hopefully, next week. As Rebecca recommended, I will be using the Thesis theme from WordPress. I am a big fan of Zen Habits minimalist style, and that’s why I chose thesis. Paraphrasing a quote I read: Perfection is not achieve when you can’t add any more. It’s achieved when you can’t take away any more. But again, what do your readers want/expect.

Why is your RSS feed buttons all the way at the bottom? On this post, with all these comments, look how far you have to scroll down to find the feed button. I am talking to my guru about having a separate feed button for posts and comments … I don’t get it since it extends my list in Google Reader.

Some people still like to get posts via email – don’t see an option for that.

Did not see a Twitter button – did I miss it.

Do you have a Facebook fan page? You should. I put a note out on FB when I post, and a lot of my blog traffic comes from that. Then put a button on your blog so people can automatically become a fan of WMDHM.

I am considering putting that last few tweets on my blog.

How about a reader poll/survey module?