1. Can Sylvia provide some examples of these newly emerging websites that welcome contributors’ essays, and are any devoted to cats?

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   • Good question. I hope Sylvia answers it. You might like to ask the question in a reply to her comment. You’ll see the reply button. Thanks for commenting Ron.

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2. Good to see this Michael, I remember contacting you for the first time, years ago on Youtube. I found your site by one of the videos you posted about how bad declawing was. I was very happy to contribute writing as I could, and still hope to do so as time permits. I really liked submitting my animal shelter success story on your website. It made my day when you posted that for me on your website. I am inspired by how great you built up your website and involved readers, which I think is a must for success and something a lot of sites over look. I especially am thankful for you helping me start my own blog/website by giving me some pointers on seo and blogging. I tell people about your website all the time :).

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   • Hi Zac. Thanks and I am a fan of you too. You are always welcome here and I wish you the best always.

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3. Hi Michael Congrats on Getting Number 1 on the Cat Site. Should be very Proud of what you have Acheived in 6 Years plus with Input from us Regulars 🙂

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   • The regulars are a very important part of the success. Thanks Kylee.

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     • No Problems. I know Especially the ones that Have been before me too. Its amazing what a Different Point of View can change and help too. Hope you and Charlie are doing better.

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       • Charlie had a s**t this morning! He was constipated to add to his woes. It is the best thing I have seen in a while 😉 He is still ill and I am still waiting for test results.

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         • Well at least he’s possibly on the road to recovery, at least that a good sign. I hope the tests come back positively I guess it takes awhile to find out. Feel for Poor Charlie no good seeing them so sad. 🙁 Hang in there thinking about you all. My Cats send their well wishes and Purrs to Charlie.

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4. Your comment was misleading.

   My computer, for reasons known only to itself, couldn’t pull up this post until today. Which raised questions, in the interim, as to why PoC came in sixth. What did the other five have that nudged you into the background?

   If there was one, it would have been S.H.’s encyclopedic site. But not sure if hers offers a give and take with visitors and regulars, or if she writes everything herself.

   Whatever’s happening w/this computer, come to find out this morning that PoC won FIRST place: that the other five are dog fanciers’ sites!

   Question is, is it first place because it invites reader interaction and keeps its posts brief?

   You’ve driven home time and again that surfers don’t read lengthy posts. While this is true, at least on your site, there’s a shift going on. A ‘sea-change,’ as they say. (Or as Shakespeare said.)

   A new crop of websites is springing up that posts contributors’ essays running to 5,000 words and more, with an average of 3,000. Nor are these sites scaring off readers, if the lengthy & intelligent comments are any indication.

   Am not referring to long-established magazines for serious readers – the magazines going digital – but websites for readers who aren’t bonded to two-minute formats. Which doesn’t imply that your own posts aren’t substantive and varied. They usually are, brief as they are. Could they be more analytical, given the time you have to write them? Hardly. Yet your readership – as you’ve repeatedly pointed out (dogmatically?) – are so homogeneous in their likes, lengthier posts are dead in the water. At least on your site.

   But not on others.

   Are the newer ones – the ones you claim aren’t out there – into esoterica? Quantum mechanics? Not at all. They’re lucid to any lay reader who’s gotten beyond cyberspace flitting: who’s willing to delve – to give ten minutes of his time – to an essay that took quite a bit longer than that to write.

   It’s puzzling PoC leans to bing-bang brevity, bullets and ‘points’ popping up with two-fisted speed. E.B. White, one of America’s most beloved essayists, had a different take. He’d write an essay on world affairs that started out with a rambling portrayal of a mother raccoon on his farm, and how she climbed down the tree from her nest.

   But what matters is that your criteria work. Your website deserves to have garnered first place!

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   • Thanks for your thoughts Sylvie. The truth is the length of an article depends on the subject matter of the article. I have written many very long articles of 2-5,000 words in the early days when the subject matter presented itself. An example is this page:

     https://pictures-of-cats.org/largest-domestic-cat-breed.html

     There are many like that. Today, the subject matter available to me does not lend itself to long articles. If it did I’d do it.

     Also there is the question of SEO. You don’t necessarily need very long articles to get hits. It is about matching reward with effort.

     If you have a subject matter that requires a long article tell me please ;).

     On last point. Sometimes the article is a catalyst for discussion. Few websites have the kind of comments PoC has and they extend the article considerably.

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5. Sixth out of 50 is really good, and top of the pops for cat sites, well done and congrats, that’s some reward for all your hours of hard work.

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6. Top of the cat blogs! yayyy well done Michael.
   PoC is my number one blog of all blogs always 🙂

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   • Thanks Ruth. These things are really done for the person who made the infographic to get a link to their site but it is still nice to get a bit of recognition.

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7. You are the best kitty blog.I know you work hard.Congradulations

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   • Thanks Nancy. You’re too kind.

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8. Congrats Michael! Notice you are the number one cat’s only site! Good for you! I hope this will spur more traffic for you.

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   • Thanks Dan. Well, it is just one organisation who says that but it is nice. PoC used to be bigger than Catster but that website was bought out by a company and a lot of money has been put into it. PoC is still owned by an individual – me and no one else.

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