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THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 🍲 Dog food review site sells for $9M

• 🤝 Communities for dog owners

• 🩺 The viral vet

🍲 DOG FOOD REVIEW SITE SELLS FOR $9M

Let’s take a trip back to 2008, when blogging was all of the rage, memes just started to surface the internet, and “Low” by Flo Rida and T-Pain was at the top of the Billboard music charts.

Ranking in Google was also as easy as pie (sort of). It was much easier to “game” the algorithm to get your site to the top of the search results.

A man by the name of Mike Sagman had the grand idea of launching a site , Dog Food Advisor, which was crafted to research and review various dog food products to further examine recall history and safety practices.

The site receives well over +1M hits a month.

Let’s take a peak at some of the keyword searches they rank number 1 in Google for👇

To say they’ve dominated the dog food space on the internet would be an understatement. Google loves an aged domain name such as this one, which now sits at 15 years old.

The web design is still a bit dated and only recently changed (still dated).

They don’t really have to do much updating to the site because quite frankly it doesn’t matter — they still rank at the top for most searches surrounding dog food, whether the site is pretty, modern or not.

This consistent level of free traffic from millions of dog owners over the past decade or so has finally caught the eye of Wag! who saw this site as a perfect opportunity to jump into the pet food space.

They acquired Dog Food Advisor for $9M.

Wag!'s CEO, Garrett Smallwood, viewed this acquisition as an opportunity to expand their offerings and become a holistic partner for pet parents.

With their existing services like dog walking, pet sitting, and wellness plans, combined with Dog Food Advisor's extensive reach and credibility, Wag! is poised to offer more personalized pet food and treat options.

Credibility, you say?

Well Dog Food advisor has caught a lot of flack from inquiring minds around the web.

A quick Google search will show you what people are skeptical of Mike’s credentials (he’s a dentist) and they claim that he receives a commission for referring users to certain dog food brands site, which he does not disclose.

Either way, this goes to show you the power of blogging is still palpable today. There’s nothing proprietary about Mike’s site, it’s just one of the largest reviewed databases of dog food (+5,300 products).

This a perfect example of a time and place business.

Meaning, at the time dog owners were experiencing the pain point of not having enough info about potential dog foods outside of their vet and a local pet store provided.

Then Mike created a simple website that directly addressed these concerns.

 🤝 COMMUNITIES FOR DOG OWNERS

Our mission at Dogonomist is to help readers become more educated on the health, science, and business of owning a dog.

However, we realize that we alone aren't enough of a resource to do this!

Well who else is!?

You are!

That's right, dog owners are often the best place to get advice or knowledge.

There are a lot of them, many have the same breed as you, many have tried the same products you are thinking about, and many can give first hand experiences and feedback that you won't get from product pages or vets.

What works for a bulldog may not work for a boxer, so where better to get ideas than other owners?

So to help facilitate, we are going to do some research on good dog communities out there to hopefully expose you all to more dog owners like yourself.

This week we are going to talk about the social media platform Reddit.

Reddit for Dog Owners

Reddit is a wild place.

Dubbed "the front page of the internet" it's got a LOOOOOT of rabbit holes and junk.

But one thing it also has are very engaged users around niche topics.

Reddit is organized around "subreddits", or areas around specific topics that users can join.

So while there is of course one for "dogs" (which has 2.6m members), there is also one for "homemade dog food.”

This list here links to a few hundred dog based subreddits for you to peruse. To dig in a little more, here are some interesting subreddits we picked out:

It is of course at this time that we must caveat that YOU SHOULD ALWAYS consult your vet or health professional with any health issues or big changes you are making.

The internet has a lot of good information, but it also has a lot of BAD information.

Don't just take user /Thisisstuped55's advice on why feeding your dog soylent is a good idea.

Like we've mentioned before, we really like online communities because it often gets you the perspective of other owners more similar to you, which is something you can't get just through your vet or online guides.

Plus, where else are you going to find a group dedicated to dogswearinghats?

🩺 THE VIRAL VET

Dr. Hunter Finn's approach to connecting with pet owners looks a little different than most veterinarians.

That's because instead of finding him at the office, you'll find him on Tik Tok.

That's right, even doctors are on social. Let's dig in a little more to learn about what goes into becoming a viral vet 👇

Getting Started ✏️

Finn was introduced to Tik Tok by a friend in 2020. He had used social media in conjunction with his day job in the past, but had found it kind of stressful to try and create "polished" content.

Tik Tok appealed to him because of its more informal style and as a way to connect w/ younger pet owners.

He started by sharing answers to questions asked by his actual clients (he runs a clinic in McKinney, TX called Pet Method), and was surprised by how much engagement he was getting.

He posted pretty regularly (averages a post a day) and slowly saw his followers grow.

One morning he woke up after posting about 5 toxic things for pets and discovered that he had racked up 3 million views!

From there on out his follower count grew rapidly and so did his reach.

As time has gone on, Finn has found a good balance of informative but casual content, and doesn't shy away from being silly.

He also often co-stars with his 3 dogs, Asher, Sadie, and Rugby.

Stats and Posts 📊

Finn's following has grown to be pretty massive and his posts garner a ton of engagement:

• Tik Tok followers = 2.1 million

• Instagram followers = 516k

• Tik Tok likes = 51.1 million

• Tik Tok videos = 1,053

• Average post stats 👇

Here are some higher engagement posts he's done recently:

• 5 fruits your dog can enjoy this summer

• No no’s for pet parents

• Why sniffing is so important for dogs

Why This Works 🤔

We think Finn has hit on something for a few reasons.

The biggest one being we believe that there is a hunger by owners for trustworthy dog info online.

The majority of what we find when searching for info seems to be there to serve us ads.

While there is good content online, you have to wade through a lot of crap to find it.

On the flip side, you can't just go to your vet each week to ask them questions (or have them teach you new info). So finding a vet who does teach you fits a need.

Also, Finn hits a great tone in his videos.

He's not overly complex on his explanations and he doesn't take himself too serious (he's not above dancing or sharing funny "day in the life" type content). The videos are short and informal.

Lastly, pet ownership has grown a ton in the younger generations (millenial, gen z) and he's gone to the platforms that more of them frequent.

We definitely think this opportunity is out there for more pet professionals.

Finn has found that people enjoy and understand pet content more when it's presented as entertainment, and Tik Tok is a great platform for that.

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: BITCOIN

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• 🐄 Farmer rates all of their dog’s herding abilities: A farmer put together a hilarious and adorable montage of all of their herding dog’s abilities to round up cattle.

• 💃 Collie does interpretive dance: Watch this collie do an interpretive dance number with their owner like it’s a walk in the park.

• 🛥️ Cattle dog races a boat: This cattle dog has some series get up and go as it races its’ owner’s boat on a shoreline.

DOGGY B-DAY

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $PETQ - PetIQ: Pet health products and medicines

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as, walking, training, etc.