Cara Vacchiano: Small Business Blog Interview
by Brian Brown (follow me on Twitter): June 16, 2006Pajama Market: How has the blog impacted your company?
Cara Vacchiano: Aside from the presence it gives us when people search Google for a positive dog trainer in Austin, I like that people have a way to see what our methods and training beliefs are. I frequently see clients now who say they read the blog and decided to use us because they agreed with our methods. It's also great to get emails from people who have read the blog and wanted to say hello or tell me they liked a particular story or tip. Sometimes those people are in Austin and other times they're across the country.
PJ: What has the response been from your customers/clients?
CV: I'm always surprised to hear that so many of them have been reading it. They seem to like getting to hear about other cases we're working on and I know it sets new clients at ease to read about a success case that is similar to the problem they're having with their own dog.
PJ: What types of things about your work day inspire you to write a post on your blog?
CV: It's often a question someone has asked me or an experience with one of the dogs I'm working with. Other times, an interesting discussion on one of the email lists for dog trainers and behaviorists will inspire a post. It can be frustrating sometimes, though, because I often have ideas for posts but don't have the time to do the thorough job I know it needs. For example, I really want to write a more in-depth post on dominance and social hierarchies but there is so much more research I want to do before I write it. It's frustrating that I don't have the time to get things like that done. It can definitely be hard to keep up with the blog when you want to include high quality information!
PJ: What have been the biggest surprises with your blog so far?
CV: Being able to see what terms people searched to get to my blog - there are always interesting search terms and I'm happy to see people are visiting it and, hopefully, getting the answers they need to their dog training problems.
PJ: What blogging program do you use for the blog? Did you create this blog yourself? How do you like the program?
CV: I use Typepad and I love it! It's very easy to work with and I've even been able to figure out some things I never thought I'd get.
PJ: Is there anything else you would like to share about your blogging experience?
CV: We'll have more pictures coming soon! I am currently looking for space to open a dog training center in Austin (we are presently teaching austin dog owners privately in their own homes). Once we get the center up and running, we'll have community events and groups classes that will provide lots of opportunities to take pictures for the blog. I'm hoping to do some "before" and "after" cases where we video the dog before we begin training and then get another video to post after the dog and owner make progress. We have a few clients that I wish we had thought to put on tape before we began because the transformations have been amazing!
Tags: austin dog trainer, texas dog trainer, dog training, obedience training, buddy's chance, buddys chance, buddy's chance dog training, cara vacchiano
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As always Brian, great insights when you share these interview questions. One thing to note though with Cara's business blog ...
If she were using WordPress or otherwise self-hosting her blog she would certainly be in the top ten, if not top five of Google search results for the term dog trainer Austin instead of at #19.
The passion and knowledge that Cara shares in her business blog deserves the higher positioning that she can easily gain with some simple SEO strategies.
Keep up the great reviews. :)
Posted by: John Paul Micek | June 16, 2006 at 06:04 PM
Hi John Paul. Just curious...is this true of ALL Typepad sites (like this one)? If so, can you site some sort of data that further supports this theory.
I don't ask you this to challenge you, I ask you this because I really want to know. Your site (Advanced Business Blogging) looks very cool, btw.
Posted by: Brian Brown | June 16, 2006 at 06:19 PM
I'd love to hear more about this too! How does it differ with Wordpress? I guess if I were to switch now, I'd have to go through all of the blog directories I'm in and switch my information with them, correct? I wonder if that would be worthwhile or not?
Posted by: Cara, Austin Dog Trainer | June 17, 2006 at 02:36 PM