The Dog Marketing Blog

One of my goals during this period of unemployment is to develop a “Plan B” income stream, so I’m working on developing my web analytics skills. I’ve talked a couple friends into letting me code and analyze their sites with Google Analytics and so far I’m working on the Key-Lore Kennels and Plaza Veterinary Hospital sites, I’ve got a few more I can add as well.  I never thought of my own dog site Nuance Bull Terriers had that much traffic, but it actually compares favorably to these two businesses. At least for now, if I nail this analytics stuff and give them some good SEO (search engine optimization) tips hopefully they’ll leave my site full of judge lists, brags and dog photos in the dust.   It’s good to have something concrete to work on as I read and re-read Web Analytics An Hour a Day and Google Analytics Short Cuts and work through the examples with real data.

Today’s Adrants newsletter included a story about what I think is a grossly inappropriate ad for the Columbian dog food brand Nutrecan Senior.  From a marketing standpoint, I think it’s telling that most of the items on the first page of a Google search for the brand were about this ad, which featured a blow-up doll adult toy in the shape of a dog.  The message “for adults only” is not even accurate, senior dog food is generally recommended for dogs over 7 years of age, while any dog over 12 months is considered a candidate for adult formula foods.

I finally finished reading Pet Food Politics by Marion Nestle I delayed starting the book to read one of her earlier books, Food Politics which details the forces behind US food agencies and policies. Pet Food Politics details the the story behind the pet food recall of 2007 which was ultimately traced to deliberate melamine contamination of ingredients sold as wheat gluten to North American animal feed manufacturers. It’s a very scary tale with many many players in a not so well regulated or inspected world of international food supply.  The recent Chinese tainted baby formula scandal involves the same ingredient, added I’m sure for exactly the same reason, to inflate apparent  protein levels for a cost less than using the correct ingredients.  The book is fairly short and an easy read, but when you realize how inadequate the safeguards are for food in this country, not to mention the world, it’s an unsettling tale. My dog Marley has quite a few food allergies and one of the few meats she can eat is duck. I’ve been using duck jerky imported from China as a treat and just wonder how safe and how accurate the label is on that product.

Hard to believe I hadn’t heard of this vertical ad network until I read this article in MediaPost today.  The DogTime Media site claims they have 180 high quality pet site partners; the MediaPost article mentions another 130 bloggers.  The network claims to reach more than 10 million visitors a month and enables content sharing across the sites. The advertisers mentioned in the article about a new chat application include the usual suspects: pet food, big box and cleaning machine manufacturers.