Dogster

People who love their dogs really enjoy sharing everything about their dogs, from pretending to be their dog's "persona" to posting hundreds of photos to pampering their canine friends endlessly.<br /> <br /> I've done some research into this field on behalf of a client and there is a thriving market here. A community for dog lovers is a great place to market pet products, since they are motivated, eager, and even willing ... More >>

People who love their dogs really enjoy sharing everything about their dogs, from pretending to be their dog's "persona" to posting hundreds of photos to pampering their canine friends endlessly.<br /> <br /> I've done some research into this field on behalf of a client and there is a thriving market here. A community for dog lovers is a great place to market pet products, since they are motivated, eager, and even willing to hear about your products & services.<br /> <br /> However, the features and UI of Dogster are outdated and in desperate need of an overhaul. The forums are difficult to use, the navigation is overwhelming, and the collection of community features (forums vs groups vs answers) are a awkward.<br /> <br /> Dogster suffers from trying to do too much. Not only are they a social network, but they offer a vast selection of canine information, from a dog manual to breed information to videos to adoption listings. This content isn't bad; it is just overwhelming.<br /> <br /> But that is part of their value offering - to be a one-stop shop for dog owners. Aside from the social network, community features, and general information, there is also a diversified revenue stream of: local listings, profile "gifts," dog supplies (through a partnership with Dog.com), display advertising, and sponsorships. Despite a cluttered product, this business strategy has worked. Dogster was launched in January 2004 and became profitable only after 18 months.<br /> <br /> With all of this content & service offerings, they have cornered the market. Competitors like MyDogSpace.com have struggled against them. While I feel Dogster's core product are lackluster, their business model is sound and I have no doubt they'll continue to be around for a while.<br /> <br /> (At least, until a significantly better product with a strong niche strategy comes along, like what MySpace & Facebook did to Friendster.) << Less

My first reaction on hearing about a Social Networking site like Dogster for pets and their owners was like \"Gosh! What a worthless and crazy idea!\". Though it is a well known fact that people love their pets very much, but joining a social community for their pets sounds insane to me. The question that struck my mind was that how can such a network gain popularity as in what will motivate users to join such a community. But on close... More >>

My first reaction on hearing about a Social Networking site like Dogster for pets and their owners was like \"Gosh! What a worthless and crazy idea!\". Though it is a well known fact that people love their pets very much, but joining a social community for their pets sounds insane to me. The question that struck my mind was that how can such a network gain popularity as in what will motivate users to join such a community. But on closer look at the website and further analysis of this startup, I realized that Dogster is a place where you get to know a lot about dogs, can interact with other people having dogs, and also talk to veterinarians discussing various health problems that your dog might be suffering from. It provides numerous cool features like blogs, forums, lot of information for different breeds of dogs, Dogster\'s own merchandize for your pets, etc – all in one place.<br /> An impressive strategy which Dogster followed was to create an avalanche of new and interesting features and then wait and watch what works and what doesn\'t and if something\'s broke fix it on the fly. \"So, instead of working on a feature for months trying to get it perfect,\" Rheingold , Dogster\'s founder says, \"we work on something for two weeks and then spend two or three days listening to users and fine-tuning it\" and this makes perfect sense according to me. In today\'s market, its hard to keep your user\'s attention as something new would soon be there and take him away from you. In such a scenario, a website that showers new and cool features on its users all the time sounds like a winner to me. Dudes at dogster attribute their success to having been continuously vigilant of what\'s holding the user\'s attention RIGHT NOW and then focusing on developing new features precisely in that area. This has kept users for Dogster. So what if the features you roll out might not turn out right at the first go, atleast you are getting closer to what will turn out right eventually. Dogster was initally poised as a weak competitor to Pets.com but today Pets.com is \"sniffing around\" for customers, while Dogster just reported a $ 1 million revenue, quite converse to what was expected of it. With this insight of its founder, today Dogster is a mere 17 employee company with close to 250,000 members and 30,000 visits a day. Due to its success they were able to engage in collaborations with \"Userplane\" for its instant messaging service which is cool. Their second partnership was with \"VideoEgg\" which allows people to upload videos of their pets on Dogster site by using a very simple drag and drop feature.<br /> Where old-economy giants once boasted of running \"zero defects\" operations, today\'s successful Internet businesses embrace defects as a way to get things right. Some management consultants even advise their clients to \"get good\" at screwing up. \"Failure is the enemy of efficiency, but it\'s the best way to learn\". << Less

<br /> When I first began to browse this site I thought it was crazy. I understand that people love their pet and especially their dogs but their dog's own personal webpage, that is just a little insane and that this website is completely pointless until I took a closer look.<br /> This page is not just for crazy people to give oodle their lovable poodle a personal webpage and possibly hook them up with their mate but it was a ... More >>

<br /> When I first began to browse this site I thought it was crazy. I understand that people love their pet and especially their dogs but their dog's own personal webpage, that is just a little insane and that this website is completely pointless until I took a closer look.<br /> This page is not just for crazy people to give oodle their lovable poodle a personal webpage and possibly hook them up with their mate but it was a place for dog owners to learn and understand how to take care of their dog. There are blogs that discuss different problems that dogs are going through, why they may be acting a certain way and what to do. It is a place for dog owners to help out others with their experiences and it is not such a bad idea. Just in case viewer does not think that someone elses personal experience may not be "right" they have veterinarians' advice as well. <br /> Dogster.com is not such a crazy idea after all and I can see it doing pretty well for itself. It gives a place for people to find out and understand how to take care of their dog. In case people are thinking about becoming dog owners they have a section where they can look at adoptable puppies that are available. The only suggestion that I may have is to take down the dog's personal website, lets be real for a moment I think a dog's priority in finding a soul mate may come right after chasing its tail. <br /> << Less