Have you decided to gain a certain number of new clients? Or make this the year you hire pet sitters to join your team?

No matter what your focus going forward, you will always need to keep your website in tip top shape.

One of my biggest passions has always been helping pet sitters grow by improving business skills and improving your website presence.

Here are my Top 12 tips for getting your website in great shape in 2012.

1: Title Tag

This is possibly the most important element when it comes to SEO and landing in Google for your chosen search terms. Make sure each of your pages has a different title tag geared towards what you want that specific page to rank for. Place your important keywords near the beginning of your title tag, and the less important terms near the end. Use approximately 70 characters max.

Example of a good title tag:
<title>New York City Pet Sitting | Dog Boarding | Cat Sitting | Dog Walking | by Alitia's Animals </title>

2: Phone Number

Make sure your contact phone number is listed at least once on the page (twice is good, too). Once at the top, once at the bottom. Make sure it is prominent and visible.

3: State your State

Do not take for granted that your visitors (or Google) know in which State you provide service. Columbus, for example, can be in Ohio, Georgia or Texas. Spell out the name of your state in at least one location on your site.

4: Use Your Business Email Address

If you are listing an email address on your website, why not list your domain name business address instead of a free one like hotmail, comcast, verizon, or even gmail? If you are using your own domain name, you are able to set up an email account that forwards to your current one (IE. info@my-pet-biz.com)

5: Show a Picture

People connect with people, not with websites. And since we are in the service industry, your visitors want to see you before they feel comfortable getting in touch. And they especially want to see you before they invite you over for the meet-n-greet. Do not hide behind your website with no picture of yourself. Help build the bond and trust during their first visit to your website by adding a nice image of you (with or without a pet).

6: Contact Form

Place a contact form in the sidebar of every page to increase the number of visitors who will get in touch with you. This makes it so easy for them to get the ball rolling. And that’s exactly what we want every single visitor to do.

7: Google Analytics

In order to know how effective your current website is, you need a way to track and view visitor activity. The free Google Analytics will give you plenty of insight to your website visitors and will paint the entire picture. You’ll see how many visits per day, how long each visitor remains on your site, what keywords they typed in to find your site, and much more.

8: Use Testimonials

Potential clients want to know that other pet owners have placed their trust in you before. Include a page of reviews and testimonials for your visitors to read.

9: Add a Call to Action

A call to action is simply an action that you instruct your visitor to take. For example, “Call us now” “Email us to get the ball rolling” and “Fill out this form to begin the quick process” are examples of good calls to action. Place one near the bottom of every page on your website so your visitors will always know what to do next.

10: Take nothing for granted

Do not assume that everything is clearly stated on your pages. Spell everything out. Remember that more often than not, your visitor is just learning about the pet sitting option for the first time. Create your content with that in mind. You and I know how it works and what the process is, but your visitors have no idea. Plus, Google will value your page more with more helpful content on it.

11: Include Affiliation Logos

Proudly displaying the fact that you are a member of a professional pet sitting association, or that you are trained in pet CPR and first aid, adds a level of trust that your visitor will be pleased to discover. Always remember to link the image to the website so your visitor can get the full picture.

12: Add Video

If you haven’t yet noticed, video is everywhere. And it is only going to become more and more popular. Jump on that band wagon now and start including video on your website. It’s easier than ever to record a short clip from your phone and upload to Youtube (then to your website). Record your entrance to your favorite client’s house to show how wonderfully excited and happy the pup is at your arrival.

Also, don’t be afraid to add funny, entertaining, and interesting animal-related videos from Youtube on your website. Your visitors will enjoy all of it.

Wrapping It Up

Improving your pet sitting business through your website is an ongoing process. It is something I have focused on from the very beginning in my own pet sitting business and is what’s responsible for turning Alitia’s Animals into a six figure company.

These 12 rules are identical to what I focus on everyday. If you follow these, you will see improvement.

Want Much of This Work Done For You?

You may already have heard that Laura Roeder and I are about to launch the perfect website for pet sitters.

In fact, what we have created is a WordPress-powered theme (template) for pet sitters to use that already has all the elements in place for you. No guessing, no difficulty, no stress.

Plus, you get to make all the edits, additions and adjustments anytime you want. (You do not have to rely on a web designer to make each little change for you.)

We give you the tools, education and ongoing training you need to master your powerful, successful pet sitting website.

And the best part? We need more pet sitters to jump in and give us feedback on what we have so far.

A small handful of pet sitters are already on board, and we are now looking for 12 more.

If you want the opportunity to help us test drive this system, please fill out this brief survey (some of you may have already filled it out).

In a few days we will hand select a dozen pet sitters to get in on this WordPress-powered setup. We think you’ll be quite excited at what we have in store for you!

Let’s work together to make 2012 the best year yet.

Related posts:

1. Here’s Why This Pet Sitting Website Gets Lots of Clients
2. The Simple Way To Stop Confusing Your Website Visitors and Start Helping Them
3. Why You Absolutely Must Have A Pet Sitting Website

Having spent a few years in San Antonio where it rarely falls below 60 degrees this time of year, I am now back on the East coast, able to enjoy and experience one of my favorite seasons: Autumn.

The leaves change color. Fireplace smoke is in the air. And Holiday music is upon us.

Although, oddly enough, it did reach over 60 degrees a few days this weekend here in New Jersey.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it’s time to look forward and focus on the upcoming holiday.

As pet sitters (and therefor small business owners), we have the opportunity to land new clients, service current clients, and have one of our best months all year.

Want to see something I rarely show anybody?

Alitia and I, with the help, of course, from our team of pet sitters, brought in a total of $22,308.50 in pet sitting services during the very first December we were in business with Alitia’s Animals.

Granted, we worked practically 24 hours a day to keep things going, but the hard work surely paid off.

Here is a screenshot of our Dec. 2008 bank statement – Click for full size.

So, How Did We Do It?

First of all, let me just say that I understand if you are a solo pet sitter, or even have just a few pet sitters on your team, it might be difficult to reach that figure during one month.

What I am saying, however, is that no matter where you currently are in your pet sitting business, there is ALWAYS opportunity to increase your client-base and grow as big as you wish.

So, what’s the secret to growing month after month?

The bottom line is that we simply knew we had to position ourselves in the most professional way possible.

You’d be surprised how often potential clients will jump at the chance to hire you simply because you APPEAR to be the most professional, most reliable, most trustworthy, and most capable – even before they ever make contact with you.

We understood early on that our website had to be professional. Our emails and phone conversations had to be professional. Every interaction from first phone call to Welcome Home email had to be professional.

(Notice SEO – search engine optimization – or landing in the search engines was not mentioned. Too many pet sitters only focus on landing in Google and disregard the important elements once a visitor finds your site!)

Improving Your First Impression

I talk plenty about how to optimize your web pages and how best to land in Google. That’s not what this note is about.

In order to gain more clients, you must make the best impression possible once they arrive on your website.

And what’s often the first thing about your website that a visitor sees?

That’s right, your logo.

Your logo speaks loudly about who you are and what you stand for.

Is your logo making the best first impression?

First, Consider Your Own Surfing Habits

Think about how you yourself go about making a new purchase online. You might start with a general search like, “buy ipad.” Naturally, you’ll come across the big guys like Amazon, ebay and Apple.

Chances are you’ve made several purchases in the past with all these companies, but let’s say money is tight and you’re a savvy shopper and know that a better deal is out there somewhere.

You go back to your search results and come across another site. Would you buy from (trust) a website that looked like the one here?

Now, Consider Your Potential Pet Sitting Clients

When a potential client is searching around for the best pet sitter, she’ll have to consider the same sort of things you consider when making a new purchase.

Of course you are professional, responsible and trustworthy, but if a visitor can not get past her initial first impression, you’ll never get the chance to prove it.

Take a moment to view your website with fresh eyes from a new visitor’s point of view.

Here Is My Holiday Gift Offer To Help You Succeed

You know those websites you visit this time of year that have a modified version of their logo to include a holiday theme with snow and Santa?

Why do they do that? For one thing, it helps put their visitors in a buying mood. It also grabs the visitor’s attention and looks professional.

I recently started making some holiday-themed additions to a few pet sitter logos by adding a Santa hat, snow and a snowman and the response was amazing!

I decided to offer it to all pet sitters at a crazy, affordable, ‘OMG this is a no-brainer’ price.

I want you to have a successful December, and this is one way to help you out.

Check out the examples and submit your logo for me to make holiday-themed today.

(I can only do so many of these.)

Visit http://petsittingology.com/blog/holiday-logo/ right now.

And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve this industry.

No related posts.

What I’m most comfortable treating myself to is the quick and easy chocolate goodness provided by Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake – yes, right out of the box.

For my money, there’s nothing much simpler than following the directions:

Step 1 – Preheat oven.

Step 2 – Blend ingredients.

Step 3 – Bake 30 minutes.

That’s all there is to it. And the outcome greatly outweighs the skill involved to achieve the result.

But, What If…?

Baking a cake from a box is admittedly a simple process. Follow a few steps and wait a bit and you’ve got yourself a delicious cake.

But let’s not take the step by step process for granted. Because whether you realize it or not, most everything we look to accomplish in our day to day life is the direct result of following small, specific steps to reach the desired goal.

For example, what would happen if you didn’t follow the cake direction steps in order, and decided to ‘bake for 30 minutes’ before blending all the ingredients?

Or what if you looked for a shortcut and instead of baking at 375, you baked at 575?

Clearly the results in both cases would not yield the result you are looking for.

A Simple Example Makes The Case

The cake example may sound ridiculous because we know that no one would alter such a basic recipe and expect good results.

Yet, in our pet sitting business the danger is a bit less obvious.

Think back to the last new client that you successfully landed. What was the process like?

Contact was made either by email or phone. Communication was established. Questions were answered. Stories were shared. Information was exchanged. Appointments were set up. Forms were sent, filled out and returned. Payment was accepted.

Those are steps. If you could replicate the exact steps you took with the last new client you successfully brought on board each time contact is made, you’ll have a much higher ‘new client’ ratio.

The biggest problem we face as pet sitting business owners is one of two things:

1) We either wing it each time a potential new client comes on board and wind up missing some integral steps in the process.

Or 2) We subconsciously veer slightly from what we know works and the entire outcome is compromised.

Yes, This Can Be Learned

The whole thing is an art and science that can be learned and perfected.

And once you learn and perfect the process of converting more potential clients into new clients, you will certainly grow your pet sitting business as big as wish.

Do you want to know what the best part of all this is?

The steps you want to master are as easy as that Dunkan Hines cake recipe. No joke.

To prove this point, I asked my good friend and fellow pet sitting business owner, Bella Vasta, to share with us her 7 basic steps that she follows each and every time she speaks to a new pet owner.

It literally goes back to the basics and is responsible for year after year growth in Bella’s business.

PetSittingOlogy readers are invited to attend my upcoming webinar with Bella at no cost whatsoever to discover these 7 basic steps that will lead to more new clients.

Here are the details. There are only a few dozen more spots available, so register now.

Live Webinar Details

7 Ways to Give Yourself a 20% Raise This Year Simply By Going Back To The Basics!

Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Time: 8:00pm Eastern / 7:00pm Central / 6:00pm Mountain / 5:00pm Pacific

Bella will spell out in detail each of the 7 BASIC steps that you must follow to land more gigs, close more sales, and live happier!

As she told me, it’s the exact plan she uses herself to continually increase her income year after year.

Space is limited to a first come (those who sign up) first served basis. Won’t you join us?

Sign up right now to reserve your seat:

–> https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/992738798

And please leave your thoughts, questions or comments for Bella or me in the comments below.

See you on the webinar soon…

Photo Credit: texascooking

Related posts:

1. The Simple Way To Stop Confusing Your Website Visitors and Start Helping Them
2. 13 Best Places To Get Business Cards For Your Pet Sitting Business
3. Fully SEO Your Pet Sitting Website – Look Beyond Keywords [Video]

Besides enjoying the obvious lead, I love getting to learn more about how my website is actually performing.

Here’s what I mean. I recently received an email that said the following:

“I wanted to inquire about pricing info for in-home boarding. Your site was very informative and I wanted to look into this option further.”

It’s no secret that I take pride in my pet sitting website and work hard to make sure it converts as many visitors as possible into leads (which could become potential new clients).

When I read the statement about how informative my site was, I knew what I always thought was correct:

Every visitor arrives on your website with certain questions in mind. The better you help answer those questions, the more likely the visitor will take action and get in touch with you.

Is your pet sitting website helping or confusing your visitors?

You’ve probably already heard that content is king. Simply put, the more relevant content you have on your website, the more your visitors – and Google – will love you.

Below are 9 questions that your visitors need to know the answers to before they will even consider getting in touch with you. (It’s also a perfect way to add more content to your site.)

Side Note: #4 is my favorite secret weapon. Focus on that one alone and you’ll see results.

1) How much does your service cost?

Whether you choose to list specific prices or list a ‘call for quote’ option, your potential client needs to know how the fee is calculated.

If you choose not to list specific prices, at least make them aware why specific prices are not listed (unique to each pet’s needs, based on a variety of factors, etc).

2) What service area do you cover?

Obviously, your potential client will want to know if in fact you serve her area. One thing I have found good success with is offering a list of neighborhoods we serve followed by the statement: “This is just a partial list of the areas we serve. If your area is not listed, please call us to see if we can accommodate.

This accomplishes a few things.

It allows us to decide on a case by case basis if we want to make an exception for certain areas based on service, time of year, availability, etc.

I’d hate to lose a potential client who did not see her area listed because we refer to it as two different names or it was just outside the limit.

3) What services do you offer?

A dog owner looking for mid-day walks. A cat owner going on vacation for 2-weeks. A new puppy owner looking for boarding and training.

Each of these potential clients are desperately trying to discover if you offer the exact service for their specific situation.

Do you make it blatantly clear on your website all the services you offer? Make sure you target the market that you serve.

4) How does all this work?

It would help more than you know to approach every aspect of your pet sitting website with this one motto:

“I must assume that every visitor to my website has never used a pet sitter before and has no idea what I do, how I do it, and what this is all about.”

Trust me. If you build your website pages (content) with that thought in mind, Google will love you, and your potential visitors will love you even more.

Don’t be afraid to spell out and break down how every part of the process works and why it’s in place. Explain in detail why the services you offer are better than every other option the pet owner can choose (kennels, friends, boarding houses).

Walk her through what the first phone call is like, what she can expect, what happens on the meet-n-greet, what forms she’ll fill out to make sure you can take the best care possible, how you send text message (or email or phone) updates during the job, etc.

5) Can I see some references?

Testimonials and reviews are something you should clearly offer on your website (most of us already do).

If you haven’t yet been asked directly to provide some references, assume that every visitor is thinking about it.

How comforting would it be to list prominently on your site something like: “If you’d like to be put directly in touch with some of our happy clients, please get in touch with me and I’d be happy to connect you!”

Guess what that does? It shows your visitor that you are more than willing to get others to vouch for you. It says you have a history of happy clients that you are confident with. And it encourages the visitor to get in touch with you (and isn’t that, afterall, what we are after?!).

6) How does payment work and what payment methods do you offer?

Do I have to pay up front? Can I pay afterwards? Do you bill me or send me invoices? Do you accept Paypal? Can I write you a check? Do you take credit cards?

Give your visitor the peace of mind of knowing how the crucial aspect of payment is handled.

If you are in fact flexible with your payment methods, promote a ‘what ever is simplest for you’ attitude.

For example, you could write “We aim to accommodate each of our client’s personal payment preferences. We happily accept cash, check or paypal (credit cards) for your convenience.”

More content, more questions answers, more understanding.

The more your potential client understands about the entire process from first contact to new client, the more likely she will get in touch with you.

Remember, spell everything out in as much detail for her as you possibly can on your website.

7) Will you keep in touch and keep me informed during/after each job?

Reassurance. It’s one more thing your potential client wants from you before fully committing.

She wants to know she can trust (and believe) you are the best one for the job.

Let her know up front that you will leave a report card after each visit. Or that you will follow up each visit with a text message and a pic of her pooch having a blast.

You may even decide to display an actual report card or update as an example.

8) What experience do you have?

Growing up with animals, or loving pets is not impressive experience. Sure, it’s nice for the visitor to know, but go a step further and highlight your skills, talents and abilities.

Focus on things that will assure your potential client that what ever happens, what ever could possibly go wrong, you have the ability and capacity to handle it professionally and make the right decisions in the blink of an eye.

All your visitor ever wants is to know that she made the right choice by choosing you, and that you will not let her down.

9) Finally, can I really trust you?

If you haven’t tied everything together yet, TRUST is really all it comes down to.

Whether a potential client (your visitor) trusts you or not from the short time spent on your website is what will dictate the level of success you reach.

All of these questions bring you a step closer to achieving trust between your visitor and you.

The more content (and transparency) that you provide, the more understanding you shine on the process, the more you reveal about yourself and business practices, the more happy clients you will discover fighting to hire you.

Action Step:

Take just one of the questions above that you think is not fully (or clearly) answered on your pet sitting website and add one page answering the question for your visitors.

They will literally thank you for it.

Leave a comment below with a link to your website so we can all celebrate your progress.

Related posts:

1. Here’s Why This Pet Sitting Website Gets Lots of Clients
2. Is Your Pet Sitting Website A Magnet For New Visitors?
3. 6 Ways To Turn More Of Your Website Visitors Into Pet Sitting Clients

Call me a website nerd, geek or junkie but I have a passion for doing just that. And pretty often, too.

Especially when it comes to pet sitter websites. As you know, I love all things website, and focus on that as the main topic of my teachings.

Put another way, turning more of your website visitors into happy clients is not something that happens by accident.

When creating my own pet sitting business website a few years back, I was certain to place specific elements on the page that would strategically increase the chances of a visitor taking action by getting in touch with us.

This effectively turned visitors into leads, and turned those leads into clients.

Here’s A Pet Sitting Website That Got It Right: A Case Study

I came across the website DogsLoveRunning.com recently that contained 7 strong sections that I would recommend to any pet sitter. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Big Bold Headlines

We are bombarded with dozens of different websites throughout our day. Nobody reads every word on every site. Instead, we learn to scan pages before making a full commitment to stay in the hopes of getting a general idea of what’s offered and how we feel about the site.

All this literally happens in a matter of seconds, and usually on the subconscious level.

So, how do site owners combat this? By making your website easy to read and scan-able. One of the best ways to achieve high scan-ability is to utilize big, bold headlines that instantly speak to your visitor, letting them know exactly what your site stands for.

2. Testimonial From Reputable Source

It’s no surprise that testimonials and reviews work to help establish your credibility to a brand new visitor. Whether purchasing a product or service, consumers want to know that others have bought here before and were happy with that decision.

It’s all human nature. While most pet sitters have reviews or testimonials on a page on their site, how many have a glowing quote front and center for the potential client to see shortly after arriving?

Try finding a glowing sentence or two that a past client has raved, and add it to the top part of your web page.

3. Social Media Icons

Yes, we’re all on Facebook and Twitter these days. But did you know that placing a link to your Facebook or Twitter profiles can have a big impact on building trust with your visitors?

How? Through social accountability. When a potential client visits your site, simply knowing that you are connected publicly through social media will give them a sigh of relief that you are accountable to a bigger group.

Whether you actually participate in any of these communities is a different story, but the psychology behind the icons on your site remains the same.

4. Tip Sheet for New Clients

Whenever a potential client lands on your site, they are coming with a few key questions they need answered. Any good pet sitting website will naturally answer these questions through the course of their pages, but offering a downloadable tip sheet for new clients will do a world of good.

First, it makes the process of answering their questions completely easy and stress-free. Next, it shows you are professional and understand your clients’ needs. And finally, it acts as a lead capture by requesting their email address in exchange for the tip sheet.

5. Video

Video works. It’s become the norm on many media websites and Youtube is growing at an astounding rate.

We love video. And you don’t need to be a filmmaker or editing genious to pull it off. There are plenty of inexpensive and free tools to create visually appealling video.

Or, you can simply fire up your computer’s webcam and create a compelling video that way. Dont’ like that idea? Then capture your furry clients doing what it is they do best and your in business.

Whichever path you choose, highly consider adding video to your website. Many pet sitters already have.

6. Clear Photos of Owners

Pictures and photos are one of the quickest ways to connect with your visitors and establish trust between the two of you. Without a photo of you on your website, your potential client has no real way of connecting.

You do not need professional photos taken. Any candid, clear and direct shot of you will work fine. If you do not have a picture (or pictures) of you with and without pets, I highly recommend adding one to your homepage.

It will personalize the whole experience for your visitors and will get you more calls.

7. Free Trial!

This is truly something you do not commonly see in the pet sitting industry. DLR offers any person who requests it a free trial of their service. How’s it work exactly? Simply schedule an initial consultation with them, and directly after the meeting, they will take your pooch on a complimentary 15-minute walk (or run)! How many of those consults do you think are going to look elsewhere?!

How Does Your Current Website Compare?

There you have it. After reviewing your own pet sitting website, leave in the comments below how many of the 7 elements above you already use on your site, and which you might consider adding.

Speaking of adding, you’ll notice the DogsLoveRunning.com site has gotten pretty successful that they recently sold their first dog walking franchise.

Related posts:

1. The Simple Way To Stop Confusing Your Website Visitors and Start Helping Them
2. 6 Ways To Turn More Of Your Website Visitors Into Pet Sitting Clients
3. The Easiest Way To Gain Many More Pet Sitting Clients

Typically, a call or email comes in, you connect with the potential client, you spend time discussing all options.

Then you would set up a mutually convenient time to meet, receive the keys, get forms and agreements signed, work out payment, and the ball is rolling.

But what happens when a potential client contacts you in dire need for your services NOW?

As in right now. Like, tonight.

“Help! I forgot to book…”

That’s exactly what happened to me recently. I received an email from a woman who needed to drop off her cat that night. Well, actually, it was her bosses cat, and, as she puts it, “My boss forgot to book a sitter…”

↓ Listen Here to the Email I Received

What Do YOU Do?

Now, in all fairness, while this particular email admits that service is needed ASAP because of forgetfulness, what about last minute trips, or family emergencies?

And would your personal decision change because in this situation it was forgotten about?

We all know life happens. So, how do you handle these really last minute bookings? Do you pass altogether? Do you impose an additional fee? How do you properly set up the meet-n-greet, or get the keys, or get the forms signed?

Leave your comments below so we can continue to learn from each other!

Related posts:

1. Do Pet Sitters Adjust Fees Based On Client Circumstance? [video]
2. The Top 3 Methods to Paying Your Pet Sitters [Video]
3. All About The Pet Sitter In-Home Consultation [video]

There are truly many ways to go from the first phone call with a potential client to the first day of service.

Many details need to be worked out including receiving payment – do you collect before, during or after the consult?

Do you get the keys at the consultation? Or do you have to make a second trip for them?

How and when does the client fill out your service agreement and forms? Is it on paper, or a digital copy on your computer?

(It’s all about efficiency and streamlining your day-to-day business operations.)

Inside this video, I show you the way my pet sitting business handles the initial in-home consultation.

I first lay out the OLD way we used to do things (which became draining on our resources) versus our new way that literally requires a paid deposit to show good faith.

Watch this video, and let’s compare…

Have You Perfected Your Process?

Is your Point A (the very first chat with a potential client) to Point B (the first day of service) working as planned? Share your secrets.

Or do you find yourself struggling to make one of the many steps in between work?

What questions do you have for other pet sitters about how to best handle all the small details?

Please comment below.

Related posts:

1. Pet Sitter Independent Contractor Tool Box – See Full Video Here!
2. How Do Pet Sitters Respond to Last Minute Bookings? [video]
3. Video: 5 Virtues of the Professional Pet Sitter

When you hear the word WordPress, what comes to mind?

For some, it’s complete dread, confusion and frustration. For others, it’s a time-saving platform that is used to power their entire pet sitting website.

I’ve been using and recommending WordPress for many years now, with its power and flexibility only continuing to grow.

As we move forward, there is plenty we’ll be covering in regards to the major benefits of using WordPress for your pet sitting website, but this article is all about the WordPress Plugin.

What Exactly Is A WordPress Plugin?

If you’ve been using WordPress for any length of time, you know there are thousands (if not more) of free plugins to choose from.

A plugin is simply a piece of code written by a third party that, once installed, will quickly add various functionality to your WordPress blog.

You can find plugins that will add a contact form to your site, create social media or Facebook Like buttons, assist with SEO, add polls, automatically back up your files and so much more.

The WordPress Plugin directory has over 15,000 plugins to search.

The Bad Side of Plugins

You can usually install a plugin in about 45 seconds with just a few clicks. That’s what makes them great.

But that’s also what makes them dangerous.

Every new WordPress user – myself included – falls victim to the “Going Plugin Happy” syndrome.

This is when you stumble across yet another plugin that you think will be so helpful, cool or perfect to install on your pet sitting website.

While that may in fact be the case, you do need to ask yourself this question before installing any new plugin: Do I really, absolutely need it?

What Does It Hurt Any?

The ability to install plugins is, in part, what makes WordPress so wonderful. So, it’s not about removing every plugin you already have, it’s more about knowing what potential effect this can have on your visitor experience.

1: Every plugin adds code (often lots of it) to your pages and this slows down the way it shows to your visitor.

2: Plugins are written by (random) third party individuals and there is no guarantee that the plugin will work, is safe, or will still function with the next release of WordPress.

3: Plugin creators sometimes abandon their plugin support and no longer update the version to stay compatible with new WordPress versions and browser versions.

4: Some plugins can conflict with each other if they are not written with integrity and cause your site to act in unfavorable ways.

What Can You Do?

1: Remove The Unnecessary. Deactivate or delete any plugin you do not really need – even though you might think it’s the greatest thing ever. Ask yourself if it’s truly adding to the user experience and inline with your site goal.

2: Reputation Counts. Look through the WP plugin directory and choose a plugin in a category that looks reputable, is actively maintained by the author and has positive feedback.

3: Stay Current. See how recent the current version of the plugin has been updated. See how many Stars its received and see how the forum posts look.

Coming Up Next…

Discover the exact plugins that we use on our this PetSittingOlogy blog and the Association of Pet Sitting Excellence (APSE) blog.

For now, if you’re using WordPress, leave a comment with the number of current plugins you currently use.

No related posts.

Pop Quiz: What do you think is the absolute best thing you can do for your competition (and the worst thing you can do for yourself)?

Give bad service? Under appreciate your clients? Destroy their personal property?

While all those are obviously bad, there is something even worse.

And the reason this other thing is worse for you and better for your competition is simply because it can easily happen without your knowledge or ability to prevent it before the damage is done.

Answer: The best thing you can do for your competition is to hire poorly.

Whether you have IC’s or Employees, the interview is a critical skill that every business owner must conquer if the ever want to grow their business.

Pet Sitters all around the country are expressing their frustrations with their new hires not working out and thinking that it is impossible to make work.

I have a successful pet sitting business with employees who work hard, are honest and go above and beyond for me and their clients.

This is no accident.

There are specific ways to find and attract the right pet sitter for your team.

For example, this is why I am so blessed!

Recently I asked one of my pet sitters, Meghan, to help me out.

I’ve always known how awesome she is, and she gets a ton of compliments (along with $tips) from clients all the time.

So much in fact that I wanted to know first hand what exactly she believes makes a great pet sitter employee.

I asked her to outline what she does to make her client’s experience with our company so over the top. Below, is a portion of what she came back with.

How amazing?! I simply asked her to jot down a few things so I could better understand what she’s doing and she gave me an entire top 10 list of things (only 5 are listed above).

I am adding this to my employee handbook. Very detailed. Very relevant. I am so happy to have her working for me and not the competition! :)

Think about this… Meghan had a choice of what pet sitting company she wanted to work with. If I wasn’t able to woo her over to my team, my competition would have!

See what I mean by ‘The best thing you can do for your competition is to hire poorly?’

Whether you have IC’s or Employee’s, the hiring process for pet sitters can be a real tough-y. Don’t do it alone. Don’t make the mistakes others did when they first started.

Let’s Get YOUR Questions – and Challenges – Answered

I’ve been down the hiring road many times over (and actually have come to enjoy it).

It won’t help you much for me to address how I personally overcame the potential challenges listed above since you probably have your own set of specific challenges.

That’s exactly why I personally invite you to join Josh Cary and me for…

A live Q&A call dedicated exclusively to answering YOUR questions on the topic of hiring!

The live call is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 7pm EST, and will allow for a maximum of 15 pet sitters on the call.

Absolutely no more than 15. That way, we can be sure to properly and completely answer your specific question for you.

There will also be at least 30 minutes left at the end for follow up questions to be asked.

So, reserve your space now and you’ll be able to submit your question for us to answer.

How much to attend?

How’s $15?! That’s it. Just a one-time investment of $15 to get your hiring question answered and attend our live call.

Related posts:

1. The Easiest Way To Gain Many More Pet Sitting Clients
2. Is Your Facebook Fan Page Hurting Your Pet Sitting Business?

You’ve worked long and hard to get your pet sitting website to the top of the search engines.

Your site ranks high for excellent search terms (for example, when someone searches for ‘pet sitter [your town]‘)

Visitors are on your site, impressed with your services and the emails come in and the phone keeps ringing.

Then Nothing. It All Just Stops.

But all of a sudden, the emails aren’t coming in quite as often, and the phone isn’t ringing nearly enough.

It’s almost as if someone pulled the plug on your website.

You visit your own website and confirm it’s still online. You test your contact form and email address, and everything works.

So what’s the problem?

You wonder if your search engine ranking has dropped (which could easily explain the lack of new leads coming in).

You head over to Yahoo and type in ‘pet sitter [your town]‘ to see where you currently stand.

You were always in the top 1 or 2 position, and interestingly enough, you still are.

However, there is one big difference with your search result – It now looks like this:

Quick Backstory

I recently starting working with a new pet sitter client to re-design her current website. We’re still getting her new site design laid out behind the scenes and haven’t touched anything with her current site.

She emailed me recently to ask what might be causing this warning that Yahoo is displaying.

I did some investigating and found something disturbing.

Watch this video to learn why this happened to her, how to avoid it and what you can do if it happens to you.

Again, make sure you have a solid web host, secure passwords and keep your WordPress (or other site building software) installations up to date.

So, what do you make of this? Do you have someone on your team that could assist in a situation like this? How would you react to discovering this with your own pet sitting website?

Related posts:

1. Video: How Do I Get My Pet Sitting Website In The Search Engines?
2. Fully SEO Your Pet Sitting Website – Look Beyond Keywords [Video]
3. Get Better Search Engine Rankings By Tomorrow [Video]