DoggieNews.com continues to impress. The traffic just seems to grow month-after-month. Dog blogging seems to be the "sleeper niche" of blogging. There are already hundreds of dog bloggers, but I've yet to see another one that has employed all the tactics and strategies of a commercial blogger. I just hope my company can gain a strong foothold in this genre.

Google AdSense seems to be the most profitable advertising vehicle in this vertical. I tried some of the traditional advertisers like FastClick, but the CPM is paltry, it's actually embarrassing.

Interestingly, I was receiving complaints from the readers of DoggieNews that Google AdSense was serving up ads for puppy mills. I made a genuine attempt to block out every ad from a puppy seller or breeder. But it was just impossible. There are SO many merchants buying AdWords for puppies, that you just can't manage the Ad Filter. So, I had to forget about blocking these ads.

In terms of affiliate programs, the only ones that will give you any decent chance of conversions are PETCO and PETsMART. But blogs are just a poor vehicle for that type of revenue strategy, at least in this vertical. And most Americans buy their pet supplies from a brick-n-mortar store, anyways.

The target audience of a dog blog are those people with a passion for dogs. My initial target, however, was the "average American dog owner". As far as I was concerned, I am the average American dog owner. My dogs are treated better than any of my neighbors' dogs, but I know that there are dog owners across the country that take "humane treatment" into religious extremes.

In reality, the average American dog owner is not passionate about dogs. The dog is simply a "family member" and that's it. I mean, just because you have a sister, doesn't mean you treat her with a passion do you? Take motorcycle owners on the other hand. Every one of them has a passion for motorcycles, either riding them, or customizing them, or maintaining them. My motorcycle blog targets the average American motorcycle owner, and that's exactly who reads it.

But for dog blogs, it's typically those people with a passion for dogs who read them, and those people are not average American dog owners. So, while you can definitely create a large following of readers, it's difficult to monetize those page views. While AdSense seems to be best solution, the problem is that AdSense serves up so many "puppies for sale" ads, and most of the people reading DoggieNews will not click those ads.

The pet industry, however, is a booming industry. All indications show that America is moving towards having a dog in every household. I have some ideas on how to change the focus of DoggieNews so as to target a slightly different audience, and perhaps create better monetization through Google. I won't explain what that strategy is. Most of you who read DoggieNews, will never notice it.