Let Them Eat Cake!

Hey Everyone!

We've recently added new shapes to our barkday cake line and I had the opportunity to decorate two of the new shapes today, so I thought it would be a great chance to post some photos and let everyone know what is now available. By the way, these cakes were all created because someone asked if we could do the shape for their dog. So please, if you have a request, don't be shy about it! We'll always do our best and you may see your idea here in the future.

Along with that note, I should say that we do need at least a day notice to do cakes and if you want something unique, your chances of getting it are better if you give us more notice. :D

Sample of the new shapes

STAR - Deekyn's Cake is a tribute to the fact that he's a Cowboy's fan.

CROWN - Max had his yellow, but we've also done pink or peanut butter.  As always, it's your choice.

DOG BOWL - This cake's two layers, so it feeds a large crowd.  In this case, four lab littermates, plus their mom!

HEART - Great for Valentine's but also for any day you want your dog to feel loved.

And of course, we still offer the ever popular BONE!  And you can have it personalized however you like, as you can with any of the new shapes.

Photos from the Party

Hey Everyone - Rachel posted some great photos she took at our Birthday Party. I think her photos are amazing. If you haven't checked out her website hop over to www.rachelsloanphotography.com. Thanks Rachel for capturing the day for us!

After Three Years....

Wow, three years in business. My how the time flies. As we approach our third year in business, I traditionally write a nostalgic year wrap of whats happened over the last 12 months of Bigwag history, what we've learned, what we've forgotten, how we've grown, and what this year has meant to me.

Being a business owner is definitely a life changing experience. It's definitely been by far one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever taken on. Being a part of the community, seeing all of the testimonials roll in for our Year of Free Treats Contest as today is the deadline to enter from our friends and customers makes me feel good about the work we do at Bigwag. I've always felt like we were more of a health food store for dogs than anything else - even though I think our clothing line is really cute. Uploading all of the photos from our Barkday Cake collection, thinking about how many dogs we have made happy over the last three years.

Lets see, what did I learn this year? I learned that when you do the best you can, run your business with integrity, building a community (Not just being in business, but being a part of the community you do business in) you build lasting relationships with your customers - relationships that can weather a recession.

I learned how to actually get some fans on our Facebook page.

I've learned that you don't spend 7% of your gross sales on marketing and advertising, you spend 7% of what you want your sales to be. That is easier said than done.

I learned that you need a CAPTCH code on your online submission forms or else you get SPAM bots submitting erroneous Pet Calendar entries.

I've learned that Twitter CAN be a viable marketing channel for your business as long as you post interesting content and actually listen and interact with the people online.

People are surprisingly generous even when things are tight. Our Pet Angel tree at Christmas and our Puppy Shower yappie hour this spring were tremendous successes for the Humane Society of Rogers.

Persistence pays off. People may walk by our store 100 times before they come in. Sometimes you just need a flashy LED sign in your window with the right message.

I've learned that I love IPOD. I've resisted for years, but finally broke down - now I rarely leave home without mine. (My wife thinks I'm a goober). This has nothing to do with the business, but it shows that when you really find a quality product you fall in love with, you become a fan. I'm a fan. Our customers are our fans. Thank you.

Baking salmon treats actually smells worse than baking our liver treats. Might be why dogs go crazy over them. They like liver treats too - but holy cow.

I've learned that if you have never designed a logo for a real business you should leave that to the pros. We learned that the hard way. It's been a year since I redesigned our logo, and it has definately made a big difference. I wish I knew then what I know now, as I am still working on getting the logo switched over in various places (Leslie - how can I bribe you to update your website!?!).

They really do make an all natural cleaner that will take stains out of your carpet that are over a year old. It's not a myth. I was amazed and shocked.

OK - that's probably more than anyone will read, so I'll stop here. If you've read this far - thank you. Thank you from the entire Bigwag family. Without you there would not be a dog bakery in Northwest Arkansas!

We've added a new word to the American lexicon!

I doubt this word will ever appear in Merriam-Webster's dictionary anytime soon. Just in case Webster is reading and needs some hints - this is what we put on the back of our T-shirts when we first opened. I think it would make a superb dictionary entry!

No, what I am talking about is Google's suggestions when you search for a term.

When we set out to create Bigwag - we chose a made-up word, partly because we didn't want to blend in with everyone else, partly because we wanted a unique, short URL for our website. We didn't want to be a 2 dog bakery, or another pampered puppy, or a smoochie pooches. Something short and sweet, and we tried to come up with something that was descriptive of what we set out to accomplish with our store and concept. We thought it was simple - a happy dog has a big wag - bigwag.

The pitfall of taking this route over "Arkansas' Dog Bakery" or the "Rogers Dog Bakery" is that every search engine thinks that someone typing this in is making a typo, and tries to correct you with the "Did you mean..." text at the top of their site with some links that will take the searcher away from your site. In our case, Google was forever trying to ask us if we were searching for Bigwig instead of Bigwag.

That has changed as of today. Not only do we bounce around as the number 1 or number 2 result for the generic search term "Dog Bakery", if you search for Bigwag, there are no longer any suggestions.

It's only taken three years as we roll into our third birthday party in July 2009, but it has finally happened. I know this might be a little webophile for most of our customers out there, but this is a huge accomplishment for a little ol' dog bakery in Rogers Arkansas. If you are starting a business and decide to make up a word for your name and URL, be prepared for the long haul before Google accepts your new name or spelling. Personally I had given up thinking we'd never get out of that suggestion. I finally get to check that one off of the to-do list.

(Did you catch that last one Webster? Webophile - you should look at that one too. Call me and I'll help you out)

Bark at the Ballpark

Pant, pant, pant! It was a hot one yesterday at Arvest Ballpark where the Bigwag crew & I enjoyed the Bark at the Ballpark event. Lots of dogs came out to the game including our own Sam, Hannah & Oliver. I really enjoyed seeing the many dogs that were there, big & small. One of my favorite parts was when they rang the doorbell during the game & lots of dogs started barking! Too cute!! The Naturals played the Frisco RoughRiders & beat them 6-5 in the 9th inning. What more could you ask for to kick off summer than some baseball, good food, friends & man's best friend by your side? It was great to be there with my Bigwag crew though we were missing a couple ladies & I hope we can go again soon!

Our 200th Blog Post! - A Top 50 List

As we come to our historic 200th blog post, I thought it might be interesting to see our top 50 blog posts for the last year. I'm very proud of us, and especially Erin, for helping grow our blog to what seems like a genuine "Northwest Arkansas Pet Community" publication. While we are definitely not professional journalists, our intent was just to share news, warm and fuzzys, event recaps, cool products, and the other businesses that make up this wonderful pet community that we live in.

Our most popular article was by far "Exploring Northwest Arkansas' Dog Parks", so we are tentatively planning some follow up pieces with some better photos, so that we can share these great resources with our readers and fans.

OK, so I'm a dork. I do try and take numbers like these to see what people are interested in. I don't imagine this article in itself will be very popular, but I thought some people might be interested to see the back end of a blog that most people don't get to see. If your curiosity is at peaked, take a look below. The "$ Index" column is supposed to be how much money we've made off of our website or particular article. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Maybe if we charged for advertising - but we don't.

334 pages were viewed a total of 5,841 times

Pageviews The total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted. Pageviews 5,841 % of Site Total: 100.00%

Unique Pageviews The number of visits during which one or more of these pages was viewed. Unique Pageviews 4,388 % of Site Total: 100.00%

Avg. Time on Page The average amount of time visitors spent viewing this set of pages or page. Avg. Time on Page 00:03:31 Site Avg: 00:03:31 (0.00%)

Bounce Rate The percentage of single page visits resulting from this set of pages or page. Bounce Rate 72.25% Site Avg: 72.25% (0.00%)

% Exit The percentage of site exits that occurred from this set of pages or page. % Exit 61.07% Site Avg: 61.07% (0.00%)

$ Index The average value of this page or set of pages. $Index is (Ecommerce revenue + Total Goal Value) divided by Pageviews for the page(s). $ Index $81,289.88 Site Avg: $81,289.88 (0.00%)

	Page	Pageviews	Unique Pageviews	Avg. Time on Page	Bounce Rate	% Exit	$ Index
1.	/	1,356	844	00:07:20	65.35%	56.49%	$87,203.79
2.	/2008/06/exploring-northwest-arkansas-dog-parks.html	499	288	00:02:14	57.55%	49.90%	$96,527.78
3.	/2008/09/debate-on-dogs-souls-funny.html	391	334	00:01:31	85.89%	82.61%	$97,604.79
4.	/2008/07/new-rawhide.html	124	102	00:03:07	80.61%	78.23%	$96,078.43
5.	/2008/05/nutro-in-news.html	110	88	00:02:23	79.07%	76.36%	$97,727.27
6.	/2008/06/take-your-dog-to-work-day.html	109	97	00:01:05	81.72%	81.65%	$95,876.29
7.	/2008/05/fayetteville-dogwood-walk-at-gulley.html	99	68	00:01:03	64.29%	53.54%	$82,352.94
8.	/2008/07/bigwag-dog-bakery-press-release.html	90	70	00:01:35	52.31%	47.78%	$92,857.14
9.	/2008/10/solid-gold-tony-tots-recall.html	90	77	00:02:14	86.30%	82.22%	$94,805.19
10.	/2008/08/murphy-dog-park-needs-you-plastic-bags.html	72	59	00:01:36	45.83%	44.44%	$81,355.93
11.	/2008/05/bigwag-will-be-in-ozark-natural-foods.html	69	48	00:01:09	73.33%	65.22%	$93,750.00
12.	/2009/02/mardi-gras-yappie-hour-prize-basket.html	64	46	00:00:59	69.77%	56.25%	$93,478.26
13.	/2007/09/rawhide-is-for-shoes.html	51	45	00:04:51	88.10%	82.35%	$93,333.33
14.	/2008/05/bark-park-walk.html	51	40	00:00:57	43.75%	37.25%	$80,000.00
15.	/2009/02/winner-of-our-mardi-gras-basket.html	50	44	00:02:04	65.85%	64.00%	$93,181.82
16.	/2008/06/facts-and-myths-about-your-dogs-food.html	48	46	00:08:20	93.02%	91.67%	$93,478.26
17.	/2008/07/multimedia-message.html	48	36	00:01:31	67.74%	62.50%	$86,111.11
18.	/2008/06/product-review-happytails-spas-calming.html	45	38	00:01:55	86.49%	80.00%	$97,368.42
19.	/2008/09/strutt-for-mutt-2008.html	45	38	00:02:06	76.67%	68.89%	$78,947.37
20.	/2008/05/more-photos-from-springfest-and-dogwood.html	42	19	00:00:47	37.50%	35.71%	$42,105.26
21.	/2008/04/bigwag-at-springfest.html	41	30	00:01:59	60.71%	53.66%	$93,333.33
22.	/2008/05/springdale-woofy-walk-by-girl-scout.html	41	27	00:01:18	55.00%	46.34%	$74,074.07
23.	/2008/09/bigwag-bright-bites-trial-days-4-5-6.html	39	36	00:05:07	84.85%	82.05%	$91,666.67
24.	/2008/05/does-your-dog-have-licking-problem.html	38	37	00:00:50	100.00%	94.74%	$89,189.19
25.	/2009/01/arkansas-considers-adopting-3-year.html	38	36	00:02:17	94.29%	94.74%	$97,222.22
26.	/2008/06/timberwolf-organics-recalls-two.html	37	34	00:00:41	87.88%	89.19%	$97,058.82
27.	/2008/08/new-razorback-song.html	37	31	00:01:01	89.66%	81.08%	$93,548.39
28.	/2008/03/pictures-from-bunny-hop.html	36	22	00:02:31	75.00%	36.11%	$18,181.82
29.	/2008/06/leash-training-your-dog.html	35	34	00:01:47	90.91%	85.71%	$97,058.82
30.	/2008/07/dog-parks-petition-available-online.html	35	26	00:02:13	50.00%	51.43%	$69,230.77
31.	/2008/07/irresponsible-companies-post-cereals.html	35	33	00:01:03	96.00%	74.29%	$75,757.58
32.	/2009/01/bigwag-introduces-yappie-hour.html	35	30	00:02:47	76.00%	65.71%	$83,333.33
33.	/2009/02/bentonville-bark-park-update.html	34	29	00:01:30	63.16%	55.88%	$65,517.24
34.	/2008/10/getting-started-in-lure-coursing.html	32	28	00:05:07	61.90%	65.62%	$75,000.00
35.	/2008/10/humane-society-angel-trees-2008.html	32	25	00:02:31	72.73%	62.50%	$88,000.00
36.	/2009/02/benton-county-rabies-clinic-dates.html	32	22	00:00:49	73.68%	53.12%	$86,363.64
37.	/2008/07/bentonville-strong-arms-homeless.html	31	28	00:01:29	80.95%	64.52%	$75,000.00
38.	/2008/06/multimedia-message.html	30	19	00:01:19	55.56%	46.67%	$94,736.84
39.	/2008/11/texas-holdem-poker-tournament.html	30	25	00:00:23	82.61%	83.33%	$92,000.00
40.	/2008/08/pictures-from-our-birthday.html	29	20	00:01:24	45.45%	41.38%	$55,000.00
41.	/2008/12/nwa-regional-mobility-authority.html	29	24	00:02:22	52.38%	55.17%	$87,500.00
42.	/2008/05/visiting-three-dog-bakery.html	28	24	00:01:45	68.42%	64.29%	$79,166.67
43.	/2008/10/easy-pill-pockets.html	27	24	00:01:31	81.25%	62.96%	$66,666.67
44.	/2008/11/springdale-animal-shelter-helps-out.html	27	10	00:01:58	100.00%	29.63%	$60,000.00
45.	/2009/02/fayetteville-animal-shelter-offers-free.html	27	20	00:01:12	72.73%	48.15%	$55,000.00
46.	/2008/05/weighing-in-on-flexpets-again.html	26	26	00:00:33	91.67%	88.46%	$92,307.69
47.	/2008/08/camp-bow-wow-grand-opening.html	24	13	00:02:31	60.00%	45.83%	$38,461.54
48.	/2008/11/mars-petcare-expands-their-recall.html	23	21	00:00:25	90.48%	91.30%	$100,000.00
49.	/2008/04/grand-opening-for-5th-time.html	22	15	00:01:21	50.00%	59.09%	$80,000.00
50.	/2008/09/guest-blogger-toni-carter-motormouth.html	22	19	00:02:25	68.75%	54.55%	$84,210.53