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Interview of Daniela Caride

Daniela Caride

Daniela Caride, 36, is the founder and publisher of The Daily Tail (www.TheDailyTail.com) – a daily blog about life with pets. The blog carries pet stories, product reviews, health & training tips as well as fun pet videos and pictures.

Daniela lives in Cambridge, Mass., with three dogs, four cats and with her husband and lifelong friend, Martin. Daniela also meets countless other animals when she volunteers for animal organizations.

When Daniela is not picking up poop, buying pet food, or studying somebody’s training methods, she’s usually writing. She has worked as a journalist for the past 18 years and is pursuing a master’s degree in journalism at Harvard University.

Interview

Q: Welcome to Speakbindas. Tell us since when blogging has been a part of your life. Was there any motive or inspiration as a backbone of it?

I have worked as a journalist (reporter, editor and PR consultant) for the past 18 years. I moved from Brazil to the United States four years ago and, after taking a look at my professional options here, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in journalism as a way to get acquainted with the market. I also started freelancing for several newspapers and magazines in New England, where I live.

After taking a few courses, I noticed every journalist I admired was writing a blog. At that point I had a blog in Portuguese to keep my friends and family updated on my life. I then decided to launch a blog about a subject I was passionate about, so I would be able to show my work unfiltered.

That’s how I ended up founding www.TheDailyTail.com, in January, 2009. And what was supposed to be a venue to show my work soon turned into my full-time occupation.

Q: What is your blog all about? Which topics you cover there? Is that you alone running/maintaining the blog, or have a team?

The Daily Tail is a blog about pets with daily posts that range from personal stories to health, training and safety tips; from product reviews to funny videos and pictures. The blog also carries a “Pet News” session, where I post links to relevant stories I find on the Internet (blogs and traditional news media).

I don’t publish disturbing or graphic content on animal abuse. The goal of The Daily Tail is to be constructive and to inspire. I want to improve people’s lives with their pets by making them smile, laugh and think.

The aspect that I love the most about The Daily Tail is that I use my skills as an editor to help people tell their stories. So anyone interested in publishing a curious, funny or touching story about a personal experience with a pet can send me an e-mail, and we will work on it together.

The Daily Tail has a small staff of contributors. As the publisher, I write most of the posts, monitor comments and e-mails, and decide what will be published.

My husband manages the technical part of the blog and is designing an online store to be launched soon. Together, we strategize about the content and the business side of The Daily Tail, working nights and weekends side by side.

Martin and my friend Jewel (http://www.thedailytail.com/staff/) edit my stories. We are also welcoming one more editor this week – Margarita Persico, a talented reporter and great friend.

Q.: How important is it for the blogger to interact with their readers? Do you respond to all the comments that you receive?

Yes. Blogs have become such a great online medium because people read the news and immediately respond, improving, criticizing and adding to it. So, keeping the conversation alive is vital.

I see my blog as my home. I treat every comment on my blog as part of a conversation taking place in my living room. I feel I have to respond as if those people were here in person.

Q: What are the present statistics for your blog, i.e. number of daily visitors, visitors geographical status etc.?

The Daily Tail has 5,000 to 30,000 hits (page views) per day, depending on the day. Our biggest traffic comes from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Almost 80% of our visitors live in the U.S. Most of our readers are in California, New York, Texas and Florida, respectively.

Q: Is blogging for you just a passion or a medium for earning, too? Does it help you to earn enough cash to quit a 9 to 5 day job?

I make money but not enough to pay the bills. But The Daily Tail will soon bring more revenue. That’s why I have quit my other journalism gigs to concentrate on my blog.

What I have learned from successful bloggers who are making a 6-digit income is that, in general, blogging is not where the money is. You may make some money out of affiliate contracts, advertising or donations, but only offering an exclusive product will bring you the revenues to make you financially independent.

That’s why my husband and I recently founded The Daily Tail, Inc. This corporation will be the umbrella for the blog and many other plans we envision for TheDailyTail.com.

We are launching an online store in April, where we will offer fun, exclusive products that Martin and I developed as well as third-party products that we love and use at home. We will start by selling pet-inspired apparel for people and collars for pets, and will expand according to the growth rate of our business.

Q: Who are your favorite bloggers, whom you read frequently?

I may read 20 different blogs on a regular basis. Some I read because I love; some I read because I have to. Among the ones I like the most are Paw Print Post http://content.usatoday.com/communities/pawprintpost/index, The Conscious Cat, www.consciouscat.net, I Have Cat www.ihavecat.com, Dogster for the Love of Dog, http://dogblog.dogster.com/, The Creative Cat http://portraitsofanimals.wordpress.com/

and Vet Wisdom Cafe http://www.vetwisdomcafe.com/, not necessarily in that order. I would put all of them in first place if I could.

Q: From the secret bucket of your blogging experiences, what tips you would like to share with the fellow bloggers?

  1. Blog about something you really love, and you’ll never run out of material.
  2. Be honest with your readers, revealing your qualities and flaws. People will abandon you if you lie.
  3. Be professional, and people will respect you. Blog consistently and focus on your readers. Think of what they want and need to know. If you want to blog only to talk about yourself, you won’t expand your readership beyond 30 or so friends and family members.
  4. If you don’t care about what people think, blogging is not for you. As I said before, blogging is about building a community around a subject you care enough to discuss ad nauseam.

Daniela Caride

Q: Do you believe that blogging completes you? If yes, tell us how?

Blogging gave me the opportunity to exercise my passion for pets and for journalism, and to explore new ways of communicating with my audience. Now I can write about what my readers want without the filter of traditional editors, who generally dictate what subjects reporters will cover. I can also try new things, such as publishing poetry, fiction and many other stories that would not fit in a traditional newspaper.

Q: What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

Wow. That’s a tough question. I would include my wedding day and the day I adopted each one of my seven pets as some of the best moments of my life.

I also spent one of the happiest days of my life at a nursing home watching two service dogs from Shrewsbury Paws http://webpages.charter.net/spp/SPP.htm interact with the elderly. These people had memory loss problems and surprisingly many of them began telling me stories about their pets. It was beautiful. I drove back home singing out loud, in bliss.

One of the gloomiest moments of my life was to witness cows being loaded into a truck on their way to a slaughterhouse. It felt like I was watching people at a concentration camp being pushed to their deaths. I never ate meat again. Here’s a story I wrote about that day. http://www.thedailytail.com/nonfiction/the-wind/

Q: Say, you are sponsored to travel to 3 world destinations, where you need not to worry about costs for food, hotel or anything. Which destinations would you pick up, and why? Would you like to take someone along with you? If yes, whom?

Any place with lots of nature, a pond or a beach where dogs are allowed off leash would be perfect. I would, of course, invite my husband, my three dogs, my parents and closest friends, and secure a room with an incredible view at the hotel for my cats.

Q: Are you into watching movies? If yes, which fills your list of favorite ones?

Oh, yes. I love movies. I may have watched “Pride and Prejudice” and “As Good as it Gets” (Melvin the dog is the cutest thing ever!) thirty times each. I love romantic movies.

Q: How does the slow Internet speed affect your mind and performance?

The slower the Internet, the slower my life gets.

Q: What would be the one thing you’d change about yourself?

I’d get rid of my sarcasm.

Q: What would you do without Internet?

I would take my dogs for an extra walk and, when I get back home, throw mice toys to my cats until I get connected again. It would be fun if this situation went on for days.

If the Internet ceased to exist, I would look for a job at an animal welfare organization or a newspaper.

Q: What is your deepest fear?

That one day I could wake up and find myself alone in the world. Not fun.

Q: What’s your take on the technological advancement these days? Does it make people’s life simple or complicated?

Much more complex, not complicated. Life became faster, and we became more stressed with the speed. But we are able to learn and accomplish much more by having a richer life.

Q: Any special message you would like to share with your blog readers as well with everyone else?

I would like to thank my readers for loving their animals and caring enough about them to look for information and try to make their lives even better. I would also like to Thank SpeakBindas for this opportunity.

About

Devang Vibhakar is the Founder and Editor of www.SpeakBindas.com. He has interviewed more than 350 people. His effort was recognized by Limca Book of Records, twice. He has been to Scotland as well as Germany as part of vocational & cultural exchange programs and has compiled five books so far. He's passionate about bringing forth interesting stories & interviews of entrepreneurs to avid readers of SpeakBindas. He can be reached here.

One thought on “Interview of Daniela Caride

  1. Previous comments:

    #
    Daniela Caride March 31, 2010 at 6:16 am

    Devang, Thank you for the opportunity to be here at SpeakBindas!
    Daniela Caride´s last blog ..The Daily Tail to launch online store My ComLuv Profile

    [Reply]
    #
    ihavecat March 31, 2010 at 7:16 pm

    I love Daniela’s blog (and not just because I was lucky enough to be named as one of her favorite blogs i promies!). Danela, I enjoyed getting to know you better and look forward to reading your post “The Wind”.
    T

    [Reply]
    #
    Daniela Caride March 31, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    Thank you, Tamar! It’s been a pleasure to meet you, too. i enjoy your blog posts so much!
    🙂 Daniela Caride´s last blog ..The Daily Tail to launch online store My ComLuv Profile

    [Reply]
    #
    lawmacs April 5, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Nice interveiw Daniela i am hoping to become a freelance journalist on day. any recommendations
    lawmacs´s last blog ..Round up From The Web My ComLuv Profile

    [Reply]

    Daniela Caride Reply:
    April 5th, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    Hi, Lawmac

    Thanks for writing to me. The life of a freelance journalist is not easy. The most important thing is to build a relationship with the editors by pitching (and writing) good stories for them. Once you are in, try to get them to tell you what they want, too. This way, ou will have many more article requests.

    Try to specialize in one area – environment? finances? health? This might help find gigs. Try to find something you enjoy writing about and learn everything you can about it.

    When you pitch a story, research the paper’s archives to pitch something they are lacking. Let them know you can solve a problem for them.
    Daniela Caride´s last blog ..Happy Easter with video!

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