ADOPT A DALLAS PET - 2007 in Review

Well, 2007 has been a very busy year for ADOPT A DALLAS PET.

I have had a slow but steady increase of online traffic to the site. This year alone, AADP has had over 10,600 hits. Of course, this is worldwide, so not each hit can lead to a potential adoption, but it is still encouraging.

I have refocused my blog to concentrate almost exclusively on pet adoption, and I have greatly increased the number of links to local shelters, rescue groups, spay/neuter resources, lost & found resources, and adopt-a-pet events.

I have added four featured sections that spotlight pets for a month at a time. They are Black is Beautiful, for black animals; Special Needs Pets; Golden Oldies, for seniors; VIPs: Very Impatient Pets, for animals looking for a home for longer than 1 year; and the Pit Bull Corner.

I have also added a subscription service so people can receive each post in their inbox, and a Google Calendar that lists the dates and locations of local adopt-a-pets.

Last spring I started submitting either a PET OF THE WEEK or PET OF THE MONTH ad to local papers, including The Turtle Creek News, NeighborsGo (Park Cities Ed.), Sports Page Weekly, and Generations. An e-newsletter called The Gayborhood, which reaches approximately 400 email address in the North Texas area, has also started including a POTW ad in each newsletter. This added exposure means that each featured pet has a much greater opportunity for finding a new home.

Last summer I also began a new publication, ADOPT A DALLAS PET print edition, which features many of the pets that appear on my blog. With each edition I have increased the number printed, and four hundred copies of Issue Number 4 were distributed to local pet-related businesses at the start of this month.

The AADP Yahoo!Group has continued to grow as well, and I currently have 74 members.

I have also created AADP pages on several websites, a few of which receive the feed from the AADP blog, thereby increasing the potential number of people who may see each pet. They include:

Facebook (no unique URL)
LiveJournal (http://adoptadallaspet.livejournal.com)
YouTube (www.youtube.com/adoptadallaspet)
MySpace (www.myspace.com/adoptadallaspet)
NeighborsGo.com (www.neighborsgo.com/adoptadallaspet)
Tribe.net (http://people.tribe.net/adoptadallaspet)
MyFoxDFW.com (http://community.myfoxdfw.com/blogs/adoptadallaspet) AADP is one of the most viewed blogs on the site, with over 700 hits compared to the average of 70 hits for other blogs.

To the primary AADP blog, I have added donation buttons for several groups, a little information on puppy mills, and links to featured quotes, videos, books, DVDs, and pet products. (Lower right hand side.)

For 2008, it is my pleasure to announce that J.P. Bonnelly of The Republic of Dog (www.therepublicofdog.com) will be contributing a monthly feature on pet training. Look for the first post just after the first of the year.

I am also looking into having a local veterinarian contribute a monthly “pet health” post as well.

It is my sincerest hope that every subscriber and visitor finds AADP to be a very useful blog, if not your favorite one.

Thank you,

Cary Birdwell
ADOPT A DALLAS PET