Feed Pets in Need with One Click A Day

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The Animal Rescue SiteA friend alerted me to the Animal Rescue site this morning - and what a great idea!

At The Animal Rescue Site all you have to do to help feed animals in need is to click on the button on their website once a day to raise enough money for 0.6 bowls of food per click. Today as I write this post they have already raised enough money for 150,265 bowls of food.  

Seems too easy right - you’re wondering how this works? The trick is that when you click you are shown a page with ads from their sponsors. The amount that these sponsors pay for these ads depends on how much traffic is brought to this page via clicks.  100% of sponsorship payments are used to support animals in rescues and sanctuaries. Of course we are not obligated to make any purchases - but some of the cute products tempted me! Of course a percentage of any purchase that you do make on their site also goes to help their charity.

The money raised goes directly to their partners - Petfinder, The Fund for Animals, and North Shore Animal League.

They also have a page which gives you some other free ways that you can help - suggestions include subscribing to their newsletter, helping to spread the word by sending e-cards to your friends, and finding new sponsors for their site.

Drop by their site today and click to feed more animals - www.theanimalrescuesite.com

If you have other great ideas or products suggestions to help donate to animal causes please share it with us by leaving a comment.

Celebrity Apprentice Follow-Up - Pedigree Dog Adoption Drive

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Celebrity Apprentice DogWell - I did make a point to watch the Celebrity Apprentice episode on Thursday night, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. It was very dramatized and they spent less than 1/2 of the show actually working on the assignment.

They did have 2 teams - they had all men on one team and all women on the other - and each team was given the task to create a 30 minute commercial for the Pedigree Dog Adoption drive. The men were lead by Gene Simmons from Kiss and women were lead by Nely Galan - a TV executive. Each team had 8 hours to tape the ad and edit.

It was interesting to see the teams go about the task very differently - the women spent time planning and speaking with the Pedigree rep to find out their vision for the campaign. The men dived right in to making the video with no planning and didn’t bother to speak with Pedigree. The women worked as a team, getting everyone a task to complete. The men chose a director, Stephen Baldwin, and Gene and Stephen went ahead and completed the ad without much help from the rest of the team - they even sent the others home!

The learnings that I did take away from the show were that vital elements to a publicity campaign are to:

1) Appeal to your audience’s emotions

2) Make it real

3) Make good use of storytelling

4) Use star power / celebrity

Both the teams showed good dogs in bad situations that were given a good home and became members of the family. They used realism, storytelling and emotion - but the men got the upper hand and won the challenge through their choice to use Lennox Lewis (heavyweight fighter) as lead actor in their commerical.

To really do a better job I felt that they needed more time to research or at least discuss the demographics of pet owner or pet adopter market.

If you have any other learnings or comments please let us know by leaving a comment with this thread.

Celebrity Apprentice Teams Create Homeless Dog Awareness Campaign

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Celebrity DogThis month Donald Trump is back on NBC with a new series of the Apprentice with a cast of business-savy celebrities. A great opportunity to see some celebrities left out in the cold you could say but how does that relate to working with pets?

This week on the January 10th show his star apprentices are helping to raise awareness of the 4 million homeless dogs in shelters across the USA. The cast will split into two teams and compete to create the best community awareness campaign for “Pedigree Food for Dogs” annual Adoption Drive that is officially launched on February 7th.

As part of the show each team will visit an animal shelter and review campaigns from previous adoption events.

The winning community service announcement will be aired during the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on February 11th and 12th.

So why should you tune in to the Apprentice on January 10th?

1 ) to pick up tips that you can apply to marketing your pet business in your community with press releases

2) to learn the strategies that are used to get the attention of pet lovers

3) to gain knowledge that you can apply to help your local pet rescue groups get more exposure and more publicity for their community events.

I’ll get back to you with a review later this week - but tune in yourself on the 10th at 9pm EST / 8pm CT on NBC and let me know what you think!

Pet Cancer Awareness Month - Warning Signs to Look for in Your Pets

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Animal Cancer FoundationThis month VPI Pet Insurance is holding it’s third annual pet cancer awareness month to benefit the Animal Cancer Foundation (ACF). ACF devel0p and support research to advance the prevention and treatment of cancer in pets and people. They give pets that are not responding to conventional therapy opportunities to take part in clinical trials that could save them or extend their lives.

This month VPI are selling dog collars with the cancer society lavender ribbon logo and donating all proceeds to ACF. Click here to view the 4 different sizes available.

Approximately half of all pets over the age of ten die of cancer. Here are some warning signs you should be aware of so that you can detect cancer early :

A growing sore or lump that won’t heal

Discharge or bleeding from any body opening

Weight loss despite normal appetite and activity

Going more than a day or two without eating

Demonstrating an unusually excessive appetite

An overconsumption of water, followed by frequent urination

Difficulty in chewing or swallowing

Unusually bad smell coming from your pet

Tiring easily and unwillingness to exercise

The best defense against cancer in your pets is to detect it early and seek treatment immediately. Help the Animal Cancer Foundation to find a cure for cancer by supporting them either by purchasing a collar through VPI or donating directly to Animal Cancer Foundation at their website by mail or by using Paypal.

Marketing Your Pet Business at Local Pet Events

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Community pet events are one of the best ways to get your business name in front of local pet owners.  You have your target audience gathered in one place ready to talk about their pets! Some examples of pet events that you can look for are pet parades, dog parks events, annual rescue fundraising events, and local festivals that have fun dog races (our Octoberfest has dachund races). 

 Dani and TannerLast Saturday I was invited to be a vendor at an event called “Dog Splash Day” at a small local water park organized by the city of Bedford, Texas.  Here I am with my dog Tanner - he enjoyed the day out, got plenty of attention and met lots of doggie pals. It was a blast - about 80 dogs - most off leash - all splashing around with their owners in the pools and fountains around the park.  The city opens the water park on the last day of the season for this event and has animal control monitor that all dogs are current on their rabies vaccinations.  Owners pay just $5 per dog entrance fee and they have competitions and events for the dogs and door prize give aways throughout the afternoon.

Initially I planned to get tennis balls or frisbees imprinted with my business logo as giveaways but I left organizing them until the last minute and found that the expedited shipping fees were way out of my budget!

So at the last minute I was scrambling for ideas that I could use for my table. On the Friday I was able to get 2 t-shirts made at an embroidery booth at the local mall with my pet sitting business name “Claws Paws & Jaws Pet Sitters” (only $20 each including the shirts). You can see from the photo that I wore one and Tanner wore the other - they worked out great - Tanner advertised for me everywhere he roamed and I was always able to pick him out and keep track of him easily.  Amazingly it didn’t seem to bother him wearing it either.

Banner AdvertisingMy second dilemma was to find some signage so that people would see me from a distance and be able to see that I run a pet sitting business.  I knew getting one from a signage store would be expensive so I looked around at the local craft store to see if I could get creative and put one together myself. I found an excellent and easy way to create a banner using “Foamies” products.  You can see my finished product here on the left. I used a black “Foamies” banner and then a couple of boxes of “Foamies” stick on letters to create the banner in about 1/2 hour.  The soft foam was very durable and waterproof and I didn’t need to have much artistic flair to get the lettering stuck onto the mat.  Each letter had a peel off backing so I could layout the words and then peel each letter and stick down. If you are looking for a banner in a hurry this is a super option to look for at the craft store - it cost around $25 for the banner and letters.

I also put together a doggie gift basket with a dog bowl, 2-3 toys, tennis balls, and some assorted treats - all of which I picked up at Petco.  I held a free raffle for the basket and had around 25 people enter for the drawing which was announced at the end of the event. The winner of the basket was thrilled and she picked up fliers and sent me a thankyou email too! The raffle is an effective way to draw people to your table and collect names and phone numbers. 

On the table I put out some flyers about my pet sitting services that I copied and had folded at my local Kinkos, and also some informational sheets with pre-travel checklists for pet owners.  I put out a bowl of dog bones that owners could collect and a water bowl for the pooches.  Finally, I also donated a gift certificate for 3 pet sitting visits to the organizers as a door prize.

Throughout the day I had many pet owners stop by the table and pick up treats for their dogs and my busines flyers.  I asked them about their dogs and they usually stopped to pet my dog Tanner.  Everyone had a fun day and hopefully they will remember me next time they are travelling and need someone to sit for their pets.

Look in community guides or city websites to check for upcoming pet events in your community.  Keep track of annual events on a calendar so that you can check back with the organizers and make sure that you secure a table or booth for the next year.  Many events will charge you for a table or booth but you may be lucky and find that rescues and city organized events will give away tables for free.  Promoting your business at events doesn’t have to be expensive and is is a super way to have fun with your pets and meet local pet owners.

Here is a photo of the dogs at play…

Dog Splash Day

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