Hey, fellow pet lovers!
Today’s post is a positive one, in which I celebrate two years since going live with my little pet wellness & nutrition blog. I plan to talk about my blogging journey so far and touch on some personal stuff. As well as talking about epoch.pet as a brand and what it stands for? Lastly, where I see it going?
Let’s jump straight into today’s post! 🎊
Today marks two years since I went live with epoch.pet and so much has happened in that short amount of time. There have been many highs and some severe lows since going live, but I wouldn’t have my blogging journey any other way. During this pandemic and lockdown, I’ve had more time to think about the last few years and what epoch.pet has given me? Which is a lot!
I’m not going to lie there have been times, along the way, where I have lost all motivation for blogging. And I’ve thought to myself, what am I doing this for? Especially since starting university back in September and having to juggle my time between learning three subjects, maintaining my everyday life and my blogging responsibilities. However, those low moments do not outweigh the highs that I’ve experienced, and in today’s post, I hope to condense some of those highs and lows; allowing you a more in-depth insight into epoch.pet.
April 20th 2018
This time two years ago, I went live with epoch.pet, and that feeling was one in which I’ll never forget. After months of slaving away, alone in my little office, thinking about pressing the publish button, it was finally time to do so. If you’re a frequent visitor to epoch.pet and have been for some time, then you will already know the little comical story of my mess up when initially going live. But if you’re not, then I’m about to tell you. So back in 2018, my mum wasn’t well and was at the end of her life, suffering from COPD, during this period, I was going back and forth to her flat, helping care for her. On this day back in 2018, I’d published the site early in the morning. Then got on my BMX, and rode over to her home.
After arriving, cleaning and making her some food, I thought I’d Google the blog and show her what I had been working on for the last few months; as I’d used my Christmas money, she had given me, to purchase my WordPress premium site and my logo. But, when I searched for epoch.pet and clicked on the site, only one page came up, my About page. I panicked and was confused because I thought I’d published my entire website, and everything should have worked. However, after about ten minutes of having what I can now look back on, and safely can call a mini-mental breakdown, it dawned on me, that I’d published my About page, but everything else was set to private.
Silly me! 😐
My irrational mindset quickly kicked in and I honestly, felt devastated, this was my big day, a day that I’d thought about regularly over those few months. People were coming on the blog, only to find that they couldn’t get access to the pages. To make matters worse, I wasn’t logged on WordPress on my phone, which meant I was unable to change to the status of the pages to the public until I got home later that night. As soon as I arrived back, I rushed into the office and updated the status of the remaining pages to public; crisis averted!
This story sounds funny now, but at the time, it felt far from it… 😤
I went live with epoch.pet on the 20th of April 2018 and started posting twice a week, one post on Tuesday and another on Saturday; and this was something I managed to maintain for about a year and a half. I remember the first time I missed a post, I was ill with a terrible head cold, and it really got to me. I felt like I was not only letting myself down but also my readers, which was an awful feeling!
Now I aim to post twice a month, which is something I’ve unfortunately not managed to stick to so far this year. As, I’ve only managed to publish two posts this year, which is relatively shocking in comparison to when I first started! I was hoping to get a post published called, why I haven’t been posting lately? Before sharing today’s article with you guys, however, this is something I’ll be sharing next week instead, as I wanted to post today’s post on epoch.pet’s birthday. Though, to briefly answer the question as to why I haven’t been able to maintain my original posting schedule? The answer Is pretty simple.
Some of you will already know that I started university back in September and continuing my original posting schedule was just, too much. I had to decide what was more important? And since university was something I chose to do and I have hopes that it will allow me to graduate with a reasonable degree and result in me getting a good career, though I have no clue what I want to do just yet. I had to prioritise my studies over blogging. If you’d like to learn more about my reasons as to why I haven’t been posting, subscribe to the blog as you can find out more in next weeks post.
Why April 20th? ❤️
Another insight into epoch.pet, which is quite a personal one, is about the date I choose to go live. April the 20th was my dad’s birthday. My extraordinary dad raised myself and my two older brothers without my mum’s help. He was one of the bravest men I ever knew, and he never once showed his battle scars with cancer while raising me. My father fought this disease which plagued his whole body by the end, along with other health problems throughout my entire childhood; but I didn’t notice beyond the odd hospital trip, as I was far too young to piece a story together. However, on the 14th of December, 2009, he passed away, and I was 11. So the reason I went live with epoch.pet on April the 20th, is because it was his birthday and I wanted something that I knew was going to mean a lot to me, to have that personal touch.
So Happy Birthday dad, as well as epoch.pet! 🎂
epoch.pet Timeline 🐾
November 2017 – Created my WordPress account
Sunday 1st April 2018 – Logo Design Ready
Friday 20th April 2018 – epoch.pet went live
Saturday 21st April 2018 – Published The reasons behind epoch.pet
April Monthly Stats – 89 Visitors, 985 Views (Views so high because of my mess-up with pages being set to private!)
May 1st 2018 – 100 likes on Facebook
Saturday 21st July 2018 – Published Recap on why I started epoch.pet?
June 20th 2018 – Registered as Self-employed
June 25th 2018 – 300 likes on Facebook
October 11th 2018 – Business meeting to create eCommerce store
November 23-26th 2018 – Attended Boost your Business Course
2018 Total Stats – 1132 Visitors, 3083 Views, 135 Likes, 13 Comments
Monday 7th January 2019 – Xdog shared a photo of Lily in her vest (700+ likes)
April 9th 2019 – 100 Posts on epoch.pet
April 2oth 2019 – Published epoch.pet, One Year Today!
November 29th 2019 – 500 likes on Facebook
2019 Total Stats – 4068 Visitors, 6079 Views, 71 Likes, 7 Comments
April 20th 2020 – Published today’s post! ❤️
April 20th 2020 Visitors & Views (so far) – 805 Visitors & 1148 views
Above is a small timeline, with a mixture of my blogging milestones. I’ve missed a lot out, but I think I’ve provided a broad scope of the various achievements which epoch.pet has had over the last two years. One of the best results this year for epoch.pet is the increase in our visitors and views. For any fellow bloggers out there who are used to getting 1000+ Visitors each month, that must be a wonderful feeling!
And, I’m super pleased to say that I think this month will be the one in which epoch.pet will hit over 1000 visitors, and it’s all down to organic growth. In fact, since going live, I’ve spent a total of £27 on advertising. Since decreasing my monthly posts due to time constraints and university, I thought I’d see a reduction in my stats, but that has not been the case. And I hope epoch.pet’s stats continue to increase as it truly inspires me to know that pet parents are finding the content on the blog useful. If you’re new here, then be sure to check out some of our top ten posts in the sidebar.
epoch.pet & What the future holds?
Where do I see epoch.pet going?
Unfortunately, for you guys, I don’t have a definitive answer to this question. I plan to continue blogging and growing the brand while I study my undergrad, and afterwards, I will be in a better place to decide what to do with it. One of the reasons I’m studying business is that I’d love to turn it into a much-loved pet brand and maybe create some products, epoch.pet t-shirts are on my to-do list. I’d also like to give some of the proceeds to charity and get more involved with animal rights and animal campaigns; something that I believe needs scrapped is Breed Specific Legislation, which you can learn more about in a previous post by following the link.
My options are somewhat endless when it comes to the blog, and one thing I’ve learned from setting up epoch.pet is that things don’t usually pan out how you think they will. I thought I’d create epoch.pet and in my crazy head, be able to create a full-time blogging career from the get-go, oh, how nieve I was! Then I decided to create a business plan, got a fantastic business advisor and almost applied for funding to set up an eCommerce store to go alongside the blog. However, this didn’t feel right, so I then decided to go back to university and study. Then I decided…?
Who knows what the next year will bring, especially during these chaotic times ahead for us all. However, I know that epoch.pet will continue to be an essential part of my life. Reminiscing on the past to write this post has been wonderful! I’ve met marvellous people because of epoch.pet, even made some fantastic friendships along the way. I’ve gone to some incredible events and got of my comfort zone, all because I decided to set up this little blog. I can safely say that if you want to do something creative but don’t feel like you have to confidence to make the jump; just go for it!
Blogging has provided me with so much more than I initially thought it would and the creative process, as tough as it can be; is worth every moment of struggle! Believe in yourself, take that leap of faith and love the process. Another lesson I’ve learned over the last two years is that you can be your own worst enemy; so chose to be your best friend instead. I’m currently in the process of setting up a personal blog called The Savvy Stoic, where I’ll write about classics, philosophy and business, so be sure to check it out when I go live later this year if that sounds like something you’d be interested in. Head over to my Twitter account and give me a follow for updates.
What epoch.pet stands for?
I want to touch on what epoch.pet stands for briefly? This crazed pet blog stands for many things; but most importantly, it is here to help myself, as well as the many other fantastic pet parents out there, be the best they can be. Having pets is a difficult task, and I hope to create content that will help you give your canine or feline friend a healthy and happy life. My girls mean the world to me and no doubt your lovely companions will too! Below is a small list of what epoch.pet stands for:
- Promoting healthy, natural diets for our canine & feline friends
- Creating a caring community for pet lovers worldwide
- Promoting responsible pet ownership
- Promoting the adoption of pets in need
- Creating content to help you optimise your pets life for the better
- Appreciating the time we have with our pets & extending their short lives however possible
I have written various posts on epoch.pet over the past two years, that go into a lot more detail about the reasons why I started the blog and what it stands for? So be sure to check them out if you’d like to learn more:
- epoch.pet, Six Months On
- epoch.pet, 2018 Yearly Review
- epoch.pet, One Year Today!
- epoch.pet’s milestones & Future Plans
We should all commit ourselves to the highest level of care we can provide for our companion animals, as they look to us for all of their needs and their health and wellbeing is in our hands. Being fit and healthy improves the quality of your experience of life, and the same said for our four-legged companions.
The purpose of epoch.pet is to enrich this experience and create an even stronger bond between you and your pet by optimising the time you spend together through play, fitness and nutrition. All while pushing the boundaries of the standard of care. I want to create a blog where people feel like they are in a community that all shares one thing, never-ending love for our four-legged companions. Whether you own a cat or a dog, or both like myself; you’re welcome to be a part of epoch.pet.
Thank you all! 🙏
Finally, I wanted to end today’s celebratory post, by saying a massive; THANK YOU! ❤️
Whether you’re a frequent visitor to epoch.pet and have been here since day one, or whether this is the first post you’ve read, I’m incredibly grateful to have you here. Without you guys, none of this would be possible, and every day I continue to be amazed at the fantastic pet parents out there! I aim to continue to produce content that helps to strengthen the bond between pet owner and pet. As well as creating this blog to help you give your canine and feline friends a better life, I hope to do the same. epoch.pet was designed to help myself be the best pet parent possible alongside you guys, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the chance to write about my gorgeous girls Nia, Lily and Pooss.
I love you guys & so do my beautiful girls! ❤️
Stay safe, take care, and appreciate your life. Spend this time wisely, create that dream that you don’t think is possible. Why? Because, the truth is, you do not know where any of it will take you. I’m in the happiest place I’ve ever been, and I can trace it all back to deciding to go live with epoch.pet. Thanks again, Katie. 🙌
epoch.pet 