Want to add even more depth to your business and find new, creative ways to share your dog grooming expertise with the public? Start your very own blog and add it to your professional website!

Not sure where to begin? No problem! We’re going to show you exactly how to get the ball rolling and start your very own grooming blog!

Dog grooming blog article, Apr 23 2021, in-post image, Golden Retriever lying on owner while owner is on laptop

5 Steps for Building Your Dog Grooming Blog

Step 1: What’s your brand?

Before you build your blog, you’ll need to have a clear idea of the kind of vibe you want it to give off. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

  • Do you have any favorite colors that you’d like to be your business’s aesthetic going forward?
  • Are there any aspects of your personality that you want to be associated with your brand?
  • Do you want your brand to target specific dog grooming niches? Etc.

Basically, when people think of your blog, how do you want them to perceive YOU? If your future readers were asked to describe what you, your blog, and your business are all about, what would you want to say?

When you figure out all of these questions, you’ll be developing the essence of your brand. Moreover, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how to achieve this brand.

Now, if you can’t think of a unique angle for your blog, that’s totally fine! Maybe your writing itself is what you’ll become known for. The beauty about having a blog is that it can be appreciated for a multitude of reasons. The point is: don’t hesitate to think outside the box!

If you do it well (and do it constantly), ANY brand can have an audience.

Fun fact: Despite what you might think, you don’t actually need millions of subscribers in order to make money off of your dog grooming blog. You can achieve these goals by becoming a micro-influencer – someone with several hundred to several thousand fans.

Brand identity on laptop

Step 2: What’s in a name?

You probably already know that it’s important to pick the right name for your dog grooming business. What you might not know is that it’s just as critical to select the perfect name for your blog. So, don’t start writing until you know what you want to call it!

After all, your blog’s name will be the reader’s very first impression of you. This is why it’s crucial to make that first impression count! A bad name can turn a potential follower away in seconds.

(Whoa… No pressure, right?)

Don’t let this intimidate you, though. While an important step, it doesn’t need to be nearly as difficult as it may sound.

While you absolutely need to give this step the proper time and consideration, it also doesn’t have to be as difficult as you’ll make it out to be. Luckily, there are tons of resources out there to help you create your blog name. For example, you can look up popular dog grooming keywords. You might wish to incorporate one of those keywords directly within your blog’s name.

Another idea is to get help from third party generators, like the Business Name Generator. If you’d prefer to stay away from name generator, you could always draw inspiration from the different trends of today’s generation. For instance, a lot of people tend to go bananas over witty puns and/or catchy alliterations!

Pro Tip: If you’ve already got a website for your dog grooming business, host your blog on that same site. This will help you with SEO! If you don’t already have a business website and want to start your blog from scratch, just make sure that whatever name you pick is available. If it is, jump on it right away and purchase it as a website domain name! But if the name isn’t available, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

dog on bed, watching owner type on laptop

Step 3: Building your dog grooming blog

One of the most popular blog platforms in the world – and the one that we use here at QC Pet Studies – is WordPress. This is what we personally recommend. There are tons of reasons to choose WordPress to host your dog grooming blog. But in our humble opinion, its most attractive features are that:

  • It’s free;
  • WordPress has tons of templates to choose from;
  • And it’s simple to customize. Thus, even a beginner will have no trouble getting set up!

Ultimately, though, the choice is yours. There may be a different free platform you’d prefer instead. The only way to find out is to research your options and decide which one speaks most to you. From there, you can start building your blog!

Step 4: Post/share original, quality content

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need an expensive camera or the writing skills of an English major to create strong, engaging content for your readers. So long as your knowledge of the dog grooming industry always shines through, and your smart phone’s pictures aren’t the quality of a potato, you’ll be fine.

What’s really important are two factors:

Dog grooming article, Apr 23 2021, in-post image, dog doing a blep next to laptop on desk

1. You post blog articles frequently

No one likes being ghosted – and this applies even to your blog readers. A blogger isn’t all that useful if they only emerge once from their cave every other month, throw up an article, and then retreat back to the shadows. If you want to gain notoriety, you’ll have to stay relevant. This means posting regularly – even if you’re sleeping!

“Wait, what?”

That’s right; you heard me. First of all, many of your blog’s subscribers will be located in different time zones. If you only post content with your time zone in mind, you could be missing out on a lot of prime times for readers all around the world. Secondly, you also need to have your own life. You might want to take a vacation, or (understandably) not post outside of work hours.

But regular content is still a priority, whether you’re working or taking time off. So, sometimes this means you’ll need to strategize and plan ahead! This is a big reason why the best bloggers are masters of time-management. Whenever you have more time to spare, see if you can write multiple articles at once. Plenty of blogging platforms will then allow you to schedule your articles in advance.

“But what if the quality of my writing begins to suffer?” you may be wondering. “I don’t want to start prioritizing quantity over quality!”

Good point! Yes, posting blog content on a regular basis is part of any successful blogger’s job description. That being said, QUALITY is still more valuable. There might be times when your brain hits a creative wall and you can’t seem to write anything you’re happy with. We’ve all been there. In this case, the safest option is to not force it.

If you experience writer’s block, try going back through your blog archive. See if there are any articles you can edit, revamp, or repost. When you’re struggling to come up with a brand-new, organic idea, editing can sometimes feel like a far easier task. When it comes to running a blog, there is wiggle room. So long as you post as much evergreen material as you can (a.k.a. stuff that’ll stay relevant for a long time), you’ll be set up for success!

2. You share your blog content on social media

When it comes to marketing and distributing your blog content, social media will be your best friend! If you wanted to go one step further, you could even start a YouTube channel and vlog about your dog grooming knowledge, expertise, and industry experience.

The biggest bloggers tend to operate on different media platforms. This helps them promote their business to a much larger audience – and it can help YOU do the same! Social media (and the smart marketing decisions you make with it) will be your greatest tool for increasing your business’s exposure!

owner taking photo of Jack Russell Terrier on smart phone, to post on social media

Much like with your blog articles, there are apps you can use to schedule your social media content in bulk – and in advance. Moreover, these apps can also share everything for you. Here at QC Pet Studies, we use Later and Hootsuite. However, there are tons of options to choose from!

A strong social media presence shows your audience that you’re there and you care. Everyone loves an industry expert who’s passionate about what they do. Your successful journey can be what inspires other aspiring dog groomers to begin their own journeys!

That being said, there’s a fine line between staying relevant and shoving yourself too much into other people’s faces. Just remember to listen to that little voice inside of you. If it’s warning you that you might be posting too excessively or going over the top, heed its advice.

Step 5: Your dog grooming knowledge is power

Whether you’ve been dog grooming for years, or you’re just starting out, you’ll benefit from exploring different grooming schools and taking classes.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Why would I need training if I already know what I’m doing?”

Just because someone has a blog about dog grooming doesn’t mean they know everything about the craft. The people who think they know everything are usually the ones who don’t. You might as well call them Jon Snow and leave their page. But you? You’re a true professional, and true professionals understand that they’ll never know everything there is to know about their passion… But that will never stop them from trying to learn!

Online dog grooming schools like QC Pet Studies are the perfect solution! Let’s look at QC, as a quick example. On top of our comprehensive Dog Grooming Course, our programs also touch on other popular areas of grooming, such as First Aid for groomers and breed styling.

If you really want to be a successful groomer and stand out from the competition, you need to be humble enough to accept that there’ll always be things you can learn and ways you can improve. In fact, you might just discover that doing so will only continue to grow your blog!

Dog being groomed by owner at home

So, now that you’re basically an expert at getting a blog started, my question to you is: what are you waiting for? There’s a whole world of people waiting to hear your dog grooming expertise. Make today the day you start writing – and share your knowledge with the masses!

Complete your dog grooming certification training in less than one year by enrolling with QC Pet Studies!

Join the discussion 2 Comments

Leave a Reply