Unleashed! Notes from Dogster HQ

We are looking for a pet- and animal-loving, fun-loving, online media-savvy intern who can help generate additional traffic to the Dogster and Catster sites and the Dogster/Catster family of blogs by:

Assisting Dogster/Catster, Inc. in the instigation of viral distribution strategies of Dogster/Catster blog posts and articles, utilizing social bookmarking tools such as Digg, Stumble Upon, Facebook and Twitter, among others. Communicating with and responding to blog readers and fans of the sites, both by responding to comments and through timely responses made via Twitter.

In addition to having an interest in and knowledge of social networking and social bookmarking services, you will be aware of the latest pet- and animal-related memes and trends, and will be able to capitalize on current jargon and lingo in order to communicate effectively and efficiently with our users and followers, in attempt to further promote and distribute Dogster and Catster content. Dogster, Inc., manages and operates the largest online entertainment and information destination for dog and cat lovers.

Expectations

You are not only self-motivated and driven, but disciplined as well. In-depth knowledge of the “pet and animal meme” universe is critical, as awareness of currents popular trends and Internet phenomenons will be a significant factor in being able to select the appropriate social bookmarking audience for our audience. The right candidate is also an animal-loving person and/or a pet owner.

You are familiar with social media tools in general and are able to implement micro-blogging tools along with online community and social networking features so as to be able to cultivate, encourage, and expand our reader base.

You are sensitive to and aware of the Dogster.com and Catster.com communities and can tailor updates (and writing style, in general) to appeal to the particular needs and desires of our Dogster and Catster members. You want to learn more about social networking, social bookmarking, blogging and micro-blogging, and want to learn it from an innovative company like Dogster, Inc., a long-time player and current leader in the world of online social networking.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will understand how our reader-targeted communication efforts impact the greater web marketplace. He or she will demonstrate the ability to think creatively and work well independently. He or she will be familiar with the entire family of Dogster.com blogs, and will communicate openly and regularly with the Dogster, Inc., team, offering ideas, suggesting material, and cross promotional support when appropriate.

The ideal candidate lives in or around the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is a non-paying position. We are happy to negotiate intern or university course credit for the the chosen candidate, if desired. To apply, please send an e-mail with the subject line "Social Media Intern" to Nam [at] dogster.com.

Howdy, Dogsters! Starting next month we'll be putting out a shiny new monthly newsletter that highlights the very best pet pages, groups and activities on Dogster.com. You don't want to miss out, so be sure to update your newsletter and e-mail preferences. It's easy as pie. Here's how:

1. Visit your account by clickin' "My Account" on the top navigation bar.

2. When your main account page pops up, scroll down to item #5 Newsletter and Email Preferences and click "Modify Now."

3. Check off the box for the Dogster Community Newsletter. (Feel free to add the Catster Community Newsletter too if you're curious to see what your feline friends are up to.)

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click submit.

That's it! Thanks for loving Dogster, we love you right back.

Warm woofs,

Your Pals at HQ

Starting today we have enabled letting people use Facebook Connect to create new accounts and also let people with existing accounts that are also use Facebook to connect those two accounts.

Why This is Helpful if You Already have a Dogster Account?
If you are already a happy Dogster member and if you are also a happy user of Facebook there are some very nice benefits. Each time you add a new pet or post a new diary entry you can optionally have that item posted directly to your Facebook Wall. In the future we will be adding many more items you can push to Facebook such as photos, comment and forums, etc. We'll leave it up to you if you want to post items. Also in the near future we'll make it easy to see who on Facebook you are already friends with on Dogster and vice versa!

Why This is Helpful if You Do Not Already Have a Dogster Account?
Becuase it's the fastest, safest way to make an account. Facebook let us know you are who you say you are and we can create your account in half the number of steps and about 1/3rd the time.

Here are some more answers to common questions

Help! I made a new account using Facebook Connect and my pets aren't in it.
It sounds like Facebook Connect created you a new account. Did you get an email welcoming you to your new account? When you go to My Account do you not see your pet(s) and is the email in your human profile different than what you normal use? If so, and if you do not want this new account, this is not a problem. Simply go to My Account, then 'modify' your Facebook settings. Click the link under 'Permanently disconnect Facebook.' Once that is done follow the directions below about how to associate an existing Dogster account with Facebook.

How to Associate an Existing Dogster Account with Facebook.
This is easy. login to our site as you normally would. Once logged in go to My Account and click the Facebook button where it says 'Activate 1-click log in'. Follow the directions and your accounts will be connected.

How Do I Know if I'm Logged in Regularly, or if my Login is Connected to Facebook
If you are logged in with just a Dogster account you will see your email in the upper left corner, below out logo. If you are logged in and also connected to Facebook you'll see a small 'f' and your first name as you have it on Facebook

Was Does it Mean to Give Permission to Post to Facebook.
It means that when there's an option to share something you've done on Dogster we'll prompt you and ask you if you want to share it with your friends on Facebook. If you do it will show up on your Wall and your Newsfeed with links back to what you just created on Dogster. The one exception is when you add a new pet. Here we do not prompt you as we automatically post that info to your Facebook account.

Can I Change My Posting Permissions for Facebook After I Set Them
Yes, just go to My Account, and 'modify' your Facebook settings. From there you will see links and directions on how to disallow posting and allow posting. It's entirely your decision to control at all times.

Help? I connected My Dogster Account with Facebook, but When I'm Logged in My Items Don't Post to Facebook and I Don't See the 'f' in the Upper Left, I see my Email.
If you always want your Dogster login to be Facebook Connected the easiest way to ensure that is to not use your traditional email and password to login. As long as you've connected your account from that point on just click a Facebook connect button and then we'll log you into both.

When I'm Facebook Connected and I Write a Diary Entry I Don't Get Prompted to Post to My Wall
Are you using Internet Explorer? There's a problem and they don't submit, we're working on. We're very sorry. If you're using a different browser let us know.

If You Do Use Facebook, Fan Us!

Woofs everypaw!

Now introducing: a tool a colorize the top buttons on your dog or group home pages.

Today's update is very special because it marks the first time a feature has gone live on the site that was made by a member. The one and only Alice Billman, pawrent of (Callie Jean and PJ) who has helped hundreds if not thousands of members decorate their pet and group pages thanks to her amazing javascript and design abilities she shares on Pawsome Pages has started making features that we can embed directly into our site.

It hit us, why should we try and replicate what she has already perfected and it's been a great getting to work together.

Our first joint effort is a new version of a tool she made so you can pick what color you want your dog's or group page buttons to be. We streamlined the process to only require you copy and paste and tiny snippet of code, and we tried to do it in such a way that when we have to change the buttons to modernize the site, hopefully we can handle keeping your button colors without you having to do anything.

At the moment the best way to get to the new button tool is to click this link, but feel free to repost in your forums or groups, bookmark or whatever!

We're going to be rolling this out slowly, but it's open for anyone to use now. If you use, please feel free to give a comment and let us know how it goes.

Finally, a note to anyone already using custom button color code on their pages that it would be best to either delete your current button HTML/CSS from your pet bio/ group HTML field, or simple make sure that the new code you generate is the last HTML in the last field.

Screenshot:

Hi everypaw,

We love the Internet so we couldn't help but make an iPhone application. It's called Dog Park and if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch we very much hope you'll install and try out. We made it so people could talk and meet other dog people on the go. You make a profile for you or your dog and then can see other people nearby or online and chat with them.

A screen shot of who is online in the Dog Park

A screen shot of a chat conversations I've had

You earn free points to give gifts to other dogs simply by using the app

Update: This position has been filled.

We are looking for a dog-loving, fun-loving, social media-savvy writer who can add to the Dogster family of blogs by writing pawesome dog-related posts for Dogster.com's For The Love of Dog blog.

In addition to contributing up-to-date, educational and member-serving posts, you will build and maintain a community of readers and guest contributors so as to further enhance Dogster.com's presence as a leading online social networking site.

Expectations:

* You are not only self-motivated and driven, but disciplined as well - able to write 15-20 posts per week and cover a variety of dog-related topics with a good balance of cute and fuzzy photo-centric posts and hard-hitting dog news.
* You are able to surf the Internet and find interesting, dog-related articles and material that you can then paraphrase and make available to your readers.
* In-depth knowledge of the dog universe is critical, as is a general awareness of dog food recalls, dog health and animal rescue/shelter issues. The right candidate will be a dog person through and through.
* You are familiar with the blogging platform in general and are able to implement micro-blogging tools, online community and social networking features so as to be able to cultivate, encourage, and expand your reader base.
* You are a social media maven and avid self-promoter and are already active on sites like digg, stumble upon, reddit, yahoo buzz, facebook and twitter. (Do send links to your profiles in your application.)
* You understand the importance of tapping into the blogger network and developing relationships with other online publishers for cross promotion and support.
* You have a general understanding of basic HTML code and can produce polished blog entries that are visually appealing and include source images and quotes from cited articles.
* You are sensitive to and aware of the Dogster.com community and can tailor your posts (and writing style, in general) to appeal to the particular needs and desires of our Dogster members.
* You want more out of a gig than just a paycheck.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will understand how our reader-targeted communication efforts impact the greater web marketplace. He or she will demonstrate the ability to think creatively and work well independently. Qualified candidates have at least 3-5 years experience as a writer and an excellent command of the English language. They will be familiar with the entire family of Dogster.com blogs, and will communicate openly and regularly with the other bloggers, offering ideas, suggesting material, and cross promoting when appropriate.

Send your resume and cover letter to: jobs@dogster.com - and please put "Dog Blogger" in the subject line.

This is a part-time paid position.

Entries and voting in the World’s Coolest Dog & Cat Show is cruising along!

The prizes page has just been posted! Check'em out.

Here’s how it will work:

Cast between 500 and 999 total votes, and you’ll earn 10 Zealies.

Cast between 1,000 and 1,999 total votes, and you’ll earn 30 Zealies!

Cast between 2,000 and 3,499 total votes, and you’ll earn 50 Zealies!

Cast between 3,500 and 4,999 total votes, and you’ll earn 70 Zealies!!

Cast more than 5,000 total votes, and you’ll earn 100 Zealies!!!!!

So best luck to all contestants and have a ball out there everyone.

**UPDATE!!**
The new color codes are now available and you can go here and get them!

ALSO - PLEASE MAKE SURE that your style sheets are CSS3 compatible!!

****************************************************************************

We are very happy to announce that we upgraded our top navigation bar today! As you can see, the far left button now allows you to go straight to our new photo galleries, the pet profiles and the option to add a pet. We think that you'll really like this new improvement.

BUT, we know that some of you use custom color buttons, and the new upgraded code enhancement was not backwards compatible, so that means that the code that you were using to customize the colors no longer works and may be causing your page to load improperly.

SO, super star member allybill will be updating her button custom color page shortly, so you can just remove the code from your style sheet and replace it with the new codes when they are up. I will update this blog post when that happens.

If you can't wait and want to get going on making those changes now, you can...

• copy and past the code below into your style sheet
• replace all instances of "darks/rust" with the "category/color" that you want (see allybill's site for those)
• save your style sheet
• if you view your pet page afterward and the change has not taken place, please give your pet a treat and the cache will clear, so the change should be noticeable

Otherwise, just remove that section of code from your style sheet and the default tool bar will reappear. And then just check back here to find out when allybill's site is updateed, and then just swing by her site and get the new codes!

Thanks for your patience!

Woofs!
#navigation LI { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_middle.gif); COLOR: rgb(255, 255, 255)! important; } #navigation LI.spacer { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_divider.gif); } #navigation LI.first { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_left.gif); } #navigation LI.last { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_right.gif); } #navigation LI A:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_middle_over.gif); } #navigation LI.first a:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_left_over.gif); } #navigation LI.last a:hover { BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z100/catsterpals/buttonbar/darks/rust_right_over.gif); }

Do you use Digg? Stumble Upon? Do you want to?

If you're a Digg user and would like to join our Dogster Digg Crew, send an email to us at diggers[AT]dogster.com with your Digg username and a link to your Digg profile page. We'll visit your page and befriend you - that way we can see the items that you find interesting and Digg them as well. And, we'll also email you hot Dogster posts that we'd like for you to Digg, so that you can help us get all of our best posts out there for the world to see. Want to check out our Digg profile page and friend us up right away? It's right here.

And if you use Stumble Upon, and would like to join our Stumbling crew, send an email to stumblers[AT]dogster.com with your Stumble Upon username and a link to your Stumble Upon profile page. That way we can be friends and share/promote stories together with Stumble Upon as well! Want to go straight to our Stumble Upon page and be friends right now? It's right here.

Not sure what we're barking about? Both Digg and Stumble Upon are social bookmarking services that allow online friends the chance to share, promote and read articles and blog posts that are of interest to them. It's like a customizable news feed, since you decide what you want to read and how you want to read it. If you like pets, for example (and we sorta think you do), you can go to specific areas of both Digg Pets and Stumble Upon Pets to get your pet news/photo fix.

We've been using both Digg and Stumble Upon and we love it! We've been enjoying the feedback that we get from our Digg account followers and our Stumble account followers, and really love sharing pet-related images, videos and articles with other like-minded surfers. It's really proven to be a great way to get a VIP pass to the hottest dog and cat stuff on the Internet. We're big fans of these cool social bookmarking sites and are curious to find out if you are, too.

To read more about Digg, go here; to read more about Stumble Upon, go here. And then come back here and join the Dogster Click Corps!

Woofs!

Just in case you missed it, a few days ago we shot up over

That's a lot o' dogs. And a lot o' love.

Our special thanks to all of the pooches out there who have joined Dogster over the last five years! You're BY FAR our favorite group of a half-million pooches EVER!