Friday, February 19, 2021

My To Zoo List

About a week and a half ago, Eliot got a call from his sister Elissa.  He asked her what was up, and she wanted to talk to me about her idea to start a blog.  She figured I'd be the perfect person to ask since she knew I've had this blog for years.  Flash forward to today, she's got her logo created and her blog all set up, she's set up Facebook and Instagram accounts, and she's already written and published her first post!

Elissa's idea was to write a blog that would encompass her love of animals, zoos and conservation.  Her main idea was to review zoos that she goes to and her experiences while there.  This would also give her a platform to educate people about zoos and how they help animals.  Over the past few years, zoos and aquariums have gotten a really bad rap from animal activists and different documentaries.  Elissa loves animals more than anything, and that's why she wants to work for a zoo and wants to educate people about why that's simply not true.  As she says, there are good zoos and bad zoos and people should know how to tell the differences between them.

Along with that idea, Elissa wanted to have a place to educate people about animals they might not encounter in everyday life.  In addition to that, she wanted to write about conservation and about how we can help the planet.  That first night she called, Elissa, Eliot and I spent quite a bit of time bouncing ideas off of each other.  I also suggested that she make segments on her blog where she could dive into each of the topics she's chosen.  Over the past year, I've found that has helped me organize my thoughts, my blog and everything I want to write about- so it might help to guide her too.

The following days, Elissa and I spent a lot more time on the phone... late into the night in most cases.  She decided on a name, My To Zoo List, and Eliot and I both thought it was perfect.  That Friday night, we spent about three and a half hours on the phone together working on setting the blog up.  Elissa did all of the heavy lifting as I couldn't set it up from Maine while she was in California, but thankfully we had my blog to use as a bit of a guide.  When Eliot finally got home late that night, he also helped us with a few things.  By the end of our long phone call that night, she was happy with the overall design and ready to dive into writing her first post that weekend.

It's been a lot of fun for me to see her blog go from a concept and idea to a reality.  Not only have I enjoyed spending time talking on the phone with Elissa, but it's been fun to work on the aspect of setting her blog up.  It's been so long since I started my blog that I'd forgotten about a lot of the design parts.  Plus, working with her has given me a newfound confidence in my own mission to rebrand and redesign my blog.

If you'd like to check it out, you can read My To Zoo List at that hyperlink.  You can also follow along with her on both Facebook and Instagram.  (I'll also be adding a link on the side of my blog for easy accessibility- and to give a shameless plug for it too!)

I am so proud of Elissa for beginning this new adventure.  I hope you'll join her on this journey!  I can't wait to learn more about zoos, animals and conservation!  °o°

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much! I literally could not have done any of this without you! I know how busy y'all are and I appreciate you taking the time to help me, and occasionally listen to me swear at the programming of the website <3

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    1. You're welcome!!! I had so much fun helping you and it's given me the motivation to get my blog updated! So we really just helped each other! Eliot and I are so proud of you! We can wait to read more on your blog! Hopefully sometime we'll be able to go to a zoo with you again! And I hear you on getting frustrated with the website programming... hehe. ;-)

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