I’ve been lucky enough to go to quite a few conferences in the past few years. With each I learn something new. I’ve been to SEO, social media, wiki and technology conferences (I know, I’m a big geek), but BlogPaws was my first blogging conference. What made it all the more interesting is that it was the first conference that The Pet Wiki sponsored.

This might not sound like a big deal to most people, but for me it sure was. It meant that I needed to set up a 6 foot long table. I had never done that before. I don’t have a table cloth with a fancy logo just lying around to throw over a table, like a lot of the other sponsors did (they had obviously done this before). I had to get inventive.

Luckily I was traveling with my family. That’s right, I didn’t come from home, I came directly from a family vacation in Orlando (which was great, by the way). Everything that I needed to do for the conference I had to do on site. It was a bit nerve racking, but I luckily have the most supportive family EVER. They helped me come up with ideas for making the table fun and inviting. I am very thankful to them for helping me out. We pooled our resources and came up with something to be proud of.

The first thing we did was plan a bit ahead. I knew that I wanted to give stuff out at the conference. Since The Pet Wiki is an information and community site, I figured why not give out information? With the help of a very talented graphic artist named Ossa, we had bookmarks printed for “Why Do Dogs Bury Their Bones?” and “How Does Catnip Work?” They came out really nice.

Besides the bookmarks, I felt like doing a bit more. Ossa came through for me again (and on a very tight schedule) to make mini cookbooks for people to take. There are a lot of recipes for pets on the Wiki, so it just seemed like a natural choice. Now I thought of making a poster of what The Pet Wiki is, and how to use it, but instead I decided to put it on the inside cover of the book. I figured that people might pass by and look at the poster for a couple of minutes, but if they were to take the cookbook with them, they’d have the information there to read at their leisure.

I’m not sure if this was a good idea or bad idea, but I just couldn’t help myself. I used half of the book to promote my blog, Vegan Start. Veganism is something that I am passionate about, and I felt that pet people were the type of people that might be interested in alternatives to animal products. It seemed like a natural fit, and I hope that some people walked away with a little more knowledge and some very yummy recipes that they can make for their family.

With the cookbooks and the bookmarks, the table was still way too sparse. My brilliant daughter came up with the idea to let the animals do the talking. She created adorable posters with the animals asking the questions. Luckily she’s had experience in things like this before and knew exactly what to do. We bought poster board and she drew on them, glued them onto foam boards and cut them into interesting shapes to give more life to the table. They came out fabulous.

We also made 5 batches of sugar cookies and the girls decorated them with animal motifs. No two were alike. They came out so cute. At first I wondered why no one was eating them. I finally figured it out. Since it’s a pet conference, people were afraid that they were dog treats. Once we put up a sign that they were for human consumption, they started going. Most of the other tables had food for pets. I think that we were the only ones to have for people, so that threw them off a bit.

And of course we had a computer handy to show off the site. It was so exciting to be able to show off our new homepage. It’s been a work in progress forever. There’s nothing like a deadline for making it happen. I like working with talented people. I enlisted Ari, a very talented webmaster, that I used to work with. It was so nice to have it up and show it off.

I got so much great feedback from the conference. For people that were already familiar with The Pet Wiki, it was so nice to hear that people enjoy using the site. For people that didn’t know about it yet, it was great being able to tell them about it, and about how it can help them.

Besides all that, it was great seeing the people that I know from Facebook, Twitter and blogging. It was a great crowd of wonderful and passionate people. I look forward to doing it again!

On a side note, another great thing that I was able to do was to pick up a painting that I had commissioned from a very talented artist named BZTAT. I’d seen the progress that she’d been making on the painting on Facebook. Seeing it in person for the first time at the conference was amazing. Those pictures on Facebook just didn’t do it justice.

BZTAT spoke at the conference about a project that she is working on to spread awareness of the link between animal abuse and domestic violence. Okey’s Promise has been set up as a public art initiative that will be moved around to six different cities to help make people aware of this connection and what to look for to keep women and children safe. It’s meeting people like BZTAT that makes going to conferences like this so enjoyable and inspiring.

My friend RivkA died on Friday. She was only 44 years old. She died of cancer. A lot of people die of cancer, but what was really special about RivkA is about how she lived with cancer.

RivkA had a very interesting way of dealing with her illness. She would set up chemotherapy dates with her friends. I know that sounds really strange, but she was even able to take a negative like chemotherapy and turn it into something fun. She would enlist friends to join her for a day of shmoozing at her weekly chemo sessions. It was a great way for her to catch up with friends. It’s so true that our lives are so busy that we just don’t make time for the people that are important to us.

It’s unfortunate that it sometimes takes something like cancer for us to make the time. I know that there are a ton of things that I push off until tomorrow or later or indefinitely. I hope that I can learn from RivkA to do things right away. That there is no time like now.

These dates are the source for the title of her blog, Coffee and Chemo, which went way beyond being a blog about cancer. Instead it was a blog about being a person. RivkA didn’t let the cancer rule her life. It’s not that she didn’t do everything medically possible to treat herself, it’s just that it wasn’t the focus of her life. What was important to her was to be a mom, a daughter, and a wife and to help others with their battles as well.

With this whole vegan thing, I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of person I want to be. What do I want my legacy to be? How do I want to leave the world after I’m gone? What contributions do I want to make to be an inspiration for others to follow?

RivkA, it’s hard to believe that you’re really gone. Everyone you touched is lucky. We will all miss you.

JSPCA

I love working on The Pet Wiki. It’s really amazing how much incredible and useful information keeps being added. It’s a lot of fun watching the traffic grow and more users register with the site. It’s far from done, not that a website can ever truly be done, but there are some very major features that still need to be added.

In the course of my work, I’ve met up with some great organizations for helping animals. Although The Pet Wiki has a lot of information about different things that you can do help, it’s not really on the front line of really working with animals.

I recently adopted a dachshund/whippet dog from the JSPCA. Pretzel has been a great addition to our family. He’s the absolute perfect dog for a 3 cat house. He’s just so much fun! While talking to the volunteers at the JSPCA, I realized  that there is so much that I can do to help them.

I’m not physically close to the adoption center, so donating my time there would just not work out for me. I have been known to develop a website or two, so I’ll be spending some of my time getting a new site for them up an running. I find it very exciting.

I really think that it’s important to be involved with a specific cause, as opposed to the general animal welfare that I’ve been working on until now. I feel like I’ve really moved from the sidelines to the front line. I will be helping get pets in Jerusalem adopted.

This is something that is a bit new to me. I’ll be working on a platform that I’ve never tried before. I’m leaning towards Drupal to manage all their content. I’ve interviewed people to find out what features they need to make the site successful. It’s really cool. I feel like I’m on a new journey. I’ll make sure to let you know how it goes.

T-shirts

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The more people that I deal with, the more that I realize that people are good.

I’ve been running a T-shirt giveaway for The Pet Wiki for the last couple of weeks. The only thing that I ask of people is that they post a picture of themselves wearing the shirt, with their pet, to facebook. I figure it’s a win-win situation. Fans of The Pet Wiki get shirts, and I get a little (hopefully viral) publicity.

The thing that gets me about all this is how amazing people are. Instead of people asking for Ts and not committing to send a picture, people have gone out of their way to tell me about their pets and how they can’t wait for their fur babies to be in the spotlight. I even have someone who is going to make sure to get pictures of landmarks in Australia into her pictures. Wow, The Pet Wiki really gets around . I am so pysched!

Most of the people that are getting shirts are people with whom I’ve had a relationship on Twitter. I know them. Although we’ve never met in person, we’ve had real conversations. I’ve been able to make great friends all over the world. It’s fun to think that my Ts will be worn in places like London, Sydney and even Croatia (and all over the US and Canada).

Talking about how good people are, another thing that really suprises me is foursquare. Foursquare is a service that allows you to let your friends know where you are. When I originally heard about foursquare, my initial reaction was that if I broadcast where I am all the time, people would be able to know where I am and break into my house. What does that say about me? Not that I’d break into anyone’s house, but it was something that did concern me. I’m cool with it now. Foursquare gives me the opportunity to meet great people, where ever I am.

The same is true of twitter. Have a question? Need an answer? Just ask and there is sure to be someone out there on the web who can help. It’s not just that they can help, they want to help. In the words of Guy Kawasaki “it’s a beautiful thing.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there will be people that will take advantage of others, but the positive, by far, outweighs the negative.

This Passover has been a very interesting experience. After working in an office for so many years, working at home has been a real treat. I was much more relaxed than ever before about getting everything that needed to get done, done. There’s always a ton to do before the holiday. With a lot of help from my family, everything got done a bit early, and we were able to enjoy ourselves before the holiday started.

While sitting at the Seder, I spent a lot of time thinking about freedom, and what it really meant to me. It’s not that my work on The Pet Wiki is the only awe inspiring, interesting and exciting work that I’ve ever done. I’ve been in jobs in which I’ve felt inspired and needed before. But working for yourself is different. I truly feel free.

What does that mean? I am free from a regular scheduled work day. I don’t look at the clock. I know what needs to be done, and I work to get it done. That’s it. I still work crazy hours and I’m logged in from early morning until late at night. I have the freedom to prioritize and create great things.

I am free from boredom. True, there are some tasks that I need to do which are less than stimulating, but there is so much to do that I can switch off and do more interesting things. I’ll go back and do what I need to – I won’t just blow it off.  I just have the power to mix it up. It is all mine to choose.

I am free to be me. I don’t have to worry about company politics and bureaucracy. I’m a nice person in general, so being me is a good thing. I can express myself however I like without worrying about what trouble I might get into. I get to come up with outlandish ideas, and even get to work on them.

I would have thought that not having a steady paycheck would have had the opposite effect on me, that I’d be constantly worried about how to make ends meet, but it’s done the exact opposite. I now realize how much clutter and junk that I had in my life, and how used to rule my decisions. Simplicity is truly freeing.

Snoopy, living the good life.

I love animals. I have all my life. I’ve had dogs, birds, rabbits, fish turtles, gerbils – you name it – but the animals that most speaks to my soul are cats. Yes, I’m one of those cat people that you’ve heard about. I am lucky to share my home with three of these precious creatures. I’m even luckier to share my home with a non-pet person who understands my passion. I think he may be coming around. He thinks he’d be happier if the cats limited themselves to one side of his bed and let him get a good night’s sleep. He’ll get over it.

Here are a few things that I think we can learn from our feline friends. They are very good at what they do, so it just makes sense to try to emulate them.

• Focus – Have you ever seen a cat try to attack a toy? They will strut and look at it from every angle. They will find the best place from which to leap. They will wait for the perfect moment, and then they will spring on their victim. That’s how you should attack all problems. Look at them from every angle, and then pounce on the most effective solution.
• Landing on your feet – Although this isn’t 100% accurate, it’s pretty close. Cats will take leaps that others are afraid to, and they make it out OK, most of the time. If there is something that you feel is a bit out of your grasp, make the leap. It will give you an opportunity to grow. Sometimes you may not land on your feet, but you’ll never grow without trying.
• Be independent – Cats are very much their own animals. You may think that you have some control over them, when they let you think that. Be your own person. Take control over your own life.
• Be curious - I know, that’s what they say kills them. I don’t think that I’ve actually ever heard of a real case where curiosity killed the cat. Cats are curious because they are always looking for something interesting. Whether it’s that little thing flitting around the house, or if they want to see what is in the very far back of the closet, they won’t stop until they get it. Have the desire to learn more about everything.
• Do what you want – Cats have no inhibitions. If they see something, it’s theirs. If they want to walk on the curtain rod, they will. They don’t care what anyone says. They live the life that they want to live. You should too.
• Stay clean – Cats spend countless hours a day cleaning themselves. They take time out to care about themselves. It’s important to care about yourself and your worth. Make sure to put your best paw forward.
• Take naps – Cats sleep 17 hours a day. I’m not sure what life lesson you can learn from this one, but it does seem like a good idea.

I’m sure that there’s a ton more that we can learn from our furry friends. Let me know if you have any more.

No, this post is not about another get rich scheme. I was recently at a conference where the discussion of making money on Twitter came up. What I got out of it was that there was basically no way to make money directly through social media. At least not short term money. That just ain’t so.

Every month, without fail, my anipals, led by in infamous Romeo the Cat, throws a paw pawty on Twitter. Firstgiving.com helps out by giving a secure way to donate to the causes voted on by animals all over the internet. Every month I’m amazed at the generosity that is shown by people all over the world for different animal causes.

These pawties are always themed. The one that took place this weekend happened to be Olympic themed, but I’ve been to others that have been Las Vegas, Farm and Beach themed. There’s even been a wedding between pets on different continents. There’s always a DJ, and there’s always a bartender (who else is going to server the virtual meowmosas?)

These aren’t just a few fancy hash tags that are thrown up on Twitter that people hope get a bit of attention. There is organization involved with the whole movement. People who sign up to keep the drinks flowing and the music going. There is support day and night – the whole length of the pawty. Gifts are donated and prizes are given for quizzes that need answers. It’s a ton of fun.

The problem with making immediate money on Twitter is not that it can’t be done. It takes some work, but it’s really possible – my anipals have taught me that. The problem is that these amazing (dare I say it) people, are doing it selflessly. They are doing it for a higher purpose. And doesn’t everyone want to be involved with that?

While that’s all fine and good, why would I bring that up in my blog? Because I was expecting totally different user behavior for The Pet Wiki on Superbowl Sunday than I got. Instead of the number of visitors being down for Sunday, it was up. I had incorrectly assumed that people would be too busy getting their game on to pay any attention to their pets. I guess I was wrong.

What surprises me more than just being high traffic for a Sunday was the fact that I didn’t really do all that much to drive it. I’ve been working at creating internal links on pages to make the pages easier to navigate and to make it more friendly for SEO for the last few days – nothing that would have impacted this past Sunday, and spent very little time on Social Media. I’ve spent more time tweeting other people’s pages than my own. While that may build trust in the long run, which leads to brand loyalty, which leads to traffic, I have no idea what went on this past Sunday.

Even when I look at the pages that got the most traffic, I don’t notice anything strange. If there were a spike in a certain page that could help explain it away, I could understand, but the percentages were still the same for the most popular pages.

Don’t get me wrong, I like traffic, both explained and unexplained. The problem is that the unexplained type is really hard to reproduce. Since I’m kind of new to the pet content field, maybe I just don’t realize that this is the norm instead of the exception. I know that I was also pleasantly surprised on Thanksgiving to see a growth in traffic. Christmas and New Years were down, as expected.

I take the numbers that I see very seriously. I try to correlate what I do with what effect it has on the site, but sometimes I’m just left wondering.

They say that the job of the future will be in statistical analysis. With the ability to collect so much information, the need for people to make sense of it all will be way up there.

Maybe what I need to learn from this is that football really is a very animalistic sport. Maybe because the Colts are a pet, it made more people think about their pets and they went on the site more. (Sarcasm – I don’t really believe this.) I guess that I’ll wait until next year and check out the numbers again before I draw any conclusions.

What kind of numbers did you see on Super Bowl Sunday? Hopefully better than Peyton’s.

Last week was a bit of a frustrating week for me. I cut my leg pretty badly and spent most of the time in bed. Luckily, I have a laptop, so I was able to push on with work. At least that’s what I thought I’d do.

I am a huge fan of the MediaWiki and a huge fan of adding plugins to any MediaWiki site. Most of the time all you need to do is upload some files and make a few changes in your settings, and then you are good to go. That is not always the case. Sometimes you need to get a bit down and dirty with the code. Although I may not feel comfortable writing an extension from scratch, playing with existing extensions is usually right up my alley.

I want to add a rating system to the pages on The Pet Wiki. There were two extension candidates to choose from. After trying repeatedly to get each of them working, spending many man hours on it, I decided to call it quits.

Some of the things that calling it quits did for me:

• I can’t do it all. I am totally cool with that. The Pet Wiki is a project of love. I made some great progress in a relatively short amount of time, and then set my expectations really high for being able to get everything done. Life doesn’t work that way. If this is something that is really important to me, I can always go to outside help to get it accomplished.
• Long hours do not equal high productivity. I could have spent another few days trying to figure out why the extension thought that I wasn’t using JavaScript, even though I was. The more time that I threw at the problem, the less I got out of it.
• Prioritize what else needs to be done. I thought that it was going to take me half a day to get it up and running, but after 3 days I realized that there were things that I wasn’t doing that needed to get done. If adding a rating system were all that mattered to my site there might be something to talk about. But since this is a nice to have, and things like editing the new content that has been added, and maintaining the homepage are more important, there is no way that I could take the luxury to play. You need to know how to get down to business.
• Evaluate the feature. A feature that takes half a day to install is very different than a feature that takes a week. Sometimes a feature is so important that it is worth working on for months to get it done right. In those cases, spending time that is needed is crucial to the advancement of your site. That is time well spent and a real investment into what you are doing. Spending 3 days and not making any significant improvements on something that should take half a day is not. Each feature should be evaluated for what it is.
• Don’t be afraid to say it’s a no-go. Just because I invested a lot of my time trying to get it right does not mean that I have to make it work or all that time is lost. It’s important to not let your pride come in the way of other progress that you can make. The time is lost anyway. There’s no way to get it back. It’s time to cut losses.
• Shelve it. I still think that it would be great to have a rating system in place. It is something that I’d like to get done and I think it will be a boost to usability. But it can wait. When I can schedule more time to play with it, I will. I didn’t give up, I’m putting it away until it is the most important thing for me to do for my site.

Although this was a frustrating week, it was still a good one. It helped me reflect on how much stuff I usually do get done. The fact that I didn’t win this battle is okay. There are a lot more fronts and a lot more wins ahead of me.

My daughter Shira and her Chanukiah displayed outside the Old City of Jerusalem

There’s something that I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while, but was afraid to discourage potential entrepreneurs from digging their heels in and getting into this new exciting world of  going it on your own. There is no vacation. When you are a salaried employee of someone else they pay you to take time off. That’s kind of cool.

I thought that I should mention that, because I got practically nothing done last week and if I were working for someone else, at least I’d have the excuse that I was on vacation. No such luck.

Why was last week such a distraction? Well the kids were home on Chanukah vacation and we went out to see family and had them over as well. (The Chanukiah in the picture was something that my daughter and her class worked on and was displayed in the Mamila Mall, just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Of course I’m very proud of her, and I obviously had to take time off to go see it.) My husband took a couple of days off and got paid for it. While he relaxed, I just felt guilty about all the things that I have to get done but that I’m not doing. That’s a real bummer.

I think that one of the big problems with working from home is that people don’t actually believe that you are working. The image of people who work from home is that they bask in the sun and eat bon-bons all day. Only when the whim hits them do they actually decide to do work. In case anyone is curious, this is NOT TRUE.

I believe in what I do and I’m having fun doing it, but there is so much to do and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done. My husband says that I need to have more realistic expectations. What does he know? When he wants, all he needs to do is take a personal day. And get this, when he gets sick, he gets to take a sick day.

I was a mom before I was an entrepreneur, so I know the drill. The same way that there is no vacation from your kids (at least not until they leave the house) there’s no way to take a break from what you are doing for your endeavor. I guess it’s just like bringing up a baby. So perhaps motherhood is a perfect stepping stone for any one who wants to start something all their own.