What You Don’t Know About BlogPaws
"Now that the BlogPaws conference is over for 2012, I guess BlogPaws won’t be doing much until planning the next conference, right?"
“I didn’t come to the BlogPaws conference so I guess I’ll have to wait until May of 2013, true, correct?"
No and no. Quite the opposite. Yes, we’re planning for the 2013 Conference but BlogPaws is more than a conference. Do you know about BlogPaws the Media Company and BlogPaws the Community…and BlogPaws the ad network, and well, a lot more. Read on.
If you came to Salt Lake City and pine to network with your blog buddies, the brands, the sponsors you want, and just to continue the shared sense of camaraderie, here’s how:
Community
Join the Year-Round Community: With almost 1,500 members, the BlogPaws community is a forum where you can ask questions, get advice, network, chat about animals, blogging, and meet people doing the same. There are many “groups” in the community so navigating is easy. Right now we’re chatting about how to find time to get everything done, avoid social media “drift,” BlogPaws Change and how to help animals in need, protecting photos from being lifted, and more.
Click the BlogPaws Community link, sign up, wait for the approval to come through, and start 
Bonus: Get Noticed: Twice a month we feature a pet from the community and a blogger in the network. This piece of prime real estate helps bloggers and their pets get noticed. (Noticed = traffic; traffic = followers and LIKES; Followers and LIKES = growth, brands perking their ears your way, etc.)
The second Tuesday of every month, connect with #blogpawschat on Twitter. Using the hashtag, #blogpawschat, from 8 to 9 p.m. EST. BlogPaws staff is on hand, too. More to come in the near future, so stay tuned.
Ad Network
Are you in the BlogPaws ad network? Did you know BlogPaws HAS an ad network? Members of the community can request to join. Let us know in the community and we’ll get you started. Oh, and it’s easy, without the need for an advanced degree in HTML coding.
Media Connections
We connect with media on television, radio, print, and online year-round. We talk about blogging, microbloggers, our members, the significance and importance of bloggers in this ever-changing electronic age. We call upon our community as expert sources of information with the media. We attend events on behalf of BlogPaws and its members.
Brands work with BlogPaws year-round to engage with pet bloggers. When the lights shut off on the final day of our yearly conference, we’re already planning our next steps. Brands look to BlogPaws for bloggers that want to engage and be a part of their year-round planning. If monetizing is on your agenda, these are the types of things we do year-round.
BlogPaws Change
BlogPaws encourages giving back. In fact, in four conferences, we’ve donated over $45,000 in products, goods, and cash to shelters and rescues in need. Do you want to be a part of the change? Join the network, monetize, and do whatever you please with the money you make: including donating it to a shelter or rescue of your choice. Our Special Projects Manager, Kristin Dewey, can assist in guiding you through and getting started.
We have several things on the horizon and will be revealing those in the weeks and months to come. BlogPaws launched in 2009, we’ve got four conferences under our belt, er leash, and we’ve only just begun. You’ve seen our BlogPaws 2013 Conference announcement, right? We’re planning that, too…stay tuned and stay in touch.
You know, I signed up with Blogpaws a while back and I quite often when I stop by the website I get the feeling I’m in a big group of people who are all talking at once and i have no idea where to start or what to look at or talk to first. I so love the idea, I love the articles I do find via twitter or FB, but honestly I feel like I need a BlogPaws for Dummies..
Take my hand, walk me around, introduce me to the different aspects etc..
and yes, I know I’m being silly, but I do often feel lost.
Hi Connie, Thanks for stopping by. Your idea is stellar and one we’ve been chatting about. We have some things in the works, but for now, start with the BlogPaws community. The tab is right at the top of the screen. We have groups there and you can scroll through, see what interests you, read, peek around and when you feel ready, comment away. I promise we won’t talk over you, but we will interact, network, and help out however we can.
You are not silly at all. BlogPaws has much to offer and we want you, and everyone, else, to know about it all. Stay tuned, come network with us meantime.
Hi Connie, Yvonne here. We live to help our bloggers so if you have any specific questions, I’ll do my best to answer them. I love your idea of a BlogPaws for Dummies… stay tuned! We’ll work on that for you and all the other folk who are still wondering, “what is BlogPaws, really?”
I would like to add to this comment train with a perspective of a totally new visitor to your site. I recieved an email inviting me to join this site, yet found it extremely difficult to understand the purpose of the site and to navigate through the site. I have spent quite a bit if time on this site trying to make sense of it and understand how and what i should do to get benefit from it and i am still dumbfounded.
I love the idea of connecting with other pet bloggers but since i am in Australia I am not interested in attending a conference and that seems to be the main focus of the site – at least on the surface.
I write these comments as contribution to you in the hope that you can simplifly the site and make it more user friendly and therefore attract more members.
I would be happy to discuss this further with you….
Hi everyone!!
This is wonderful feedback…I often make it a point to welcome new members (when I am aware that they have joined) and I am also available to help wherever needed.
Many Websites can be daunting at first but in this site you will always find warm, welcoming, knowledgeable people who are more than willing to help!
Feel free to “friend” me on the site!! Caren Gittleman