Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Blog clean up - what I've been up to lately

Some of you may have noticed that I've played around with the look of the Embrace Pet Insurance blog.

No, I haven't changed the mast head, although that's on the list for a future distraction, but I suddenly noticed that my blog had a case of tweak-itis. You know - a tweak here, a tweak there, and all of a sudden, you wind up with a bunch of clutter that distracts from the scintillating topic at hand (that being pet health insurance of course!) 

So, I've done a bit of a spring cleaning (says she, up to her armpits in snow) and focused on minimalism for now - until I tweek it again of course :).

For those of you looking, the list of all the pet insurance companies in the US, Canada, UK and rest of the world are in the Useful Pet Insurance Resources section.

For the other interesting sites, go to the Useful Pet-Related Resources page.

They are both highlighted in the left hand menus.

Cheers!

Funny searches that reach my blog

I always marvel at how people get to my blog - check these out:

1. plastic surgery procedures gone deadly wrong (in google images - ew!)- wow, that made my heart quicken until I clicked on it and discovered a cute picture of Lily my cat - very bizarre!
2. why would a cat sneeze - probably the same reason the chicken crossed the road
3. pet insurance stocks - can't wait for us to go public :)
4. fun facts about an actuary - see, someone thinks actuaries are fun!
5. my mom told me to type in vet insurance - quite right too
6. why is it illegal to spay your pet in norway - I did not know that
7. who bought a stake in southampton f c - not me
8. koi pet insurance - I think we'll stick with cats and dogs for now
9. hamster fun facts - what's not fun about a hamster?
   
   and the most surprising of all...
10. hottub black girls (also google images) - likely the searcher would be very disappointed to find the cutest picture of Calvin the Labrador Retriever in the hot tub!

Ah, Friday fun!!! Gotta love it.

Competition for bloggers

If you aren't a blogger, you can just skip this message.

And for the bloggers, do I have the biggest and bestest competition for you! Problogger is having it's $54,000 Problogger Birthday Bash competition with all sorts of prizes to be won over the coming week.

Make sure to pop over there to see what's happening - you might even win something awesome.

Let's see some comments folks!

Some bloggers were lamenting that there seem to be fewer people commenting on blogs these days and of course, decided to take some action - hence The Great Mofo Delurk 2007 day. The idea is to stop lurking and show your favorite blogs some love by commenting. What an awesome idea!

So today I'm pledging to comment on ten blogs (meaningful comments, not just "Yo man - what a great entry" or something uninspiring like that) - what are you planning to do?

(and if you are reading this the day after through the email subscription, go comment anyway - it's still the same day for you!)

I'll post the blogs I commented on by the end of the day. Have fun!

Blogs commented on today are:

1. Average Jane
2. Church of the Customer
3. Pet Connection
4. Embrace Pet Community
5. Re:invention
6. Carissa Blog
7. Money Rules, Debt Stinks
8. I Quit for LIJIT
9. The Chocolate Dog Blog
10. Itchmo
11. Hola Isabel (OK, I couldn't stop at 10)
12. Pet Connection (again)

OK, done for the moment. I'm sure I'll add a few more comments as the day progresses. How are your comments coming along?

Terrier Man gets provocative on pet insurance

One of the things I spend much too much time doing every day is browsing my RSS blog reader (I use Sharpreader if anyone cares). I tend to graze through the 100+ blogs I subscribe to, picking up themes, memes, and goodies along the way. I love the contrast that the different perspectives throw up at me.

Take for example Simply Recipes and Future Memes (two blogs I discovered from Blogher 2007) - one is eye candy for a foodie (along with very good recipes and chit chat to go with it - the total drool package) and the other is an intellectual exploration of futuristic themes. They are right next to each other and they make my brain spin (in a good way).

In my pet category, I have just as much diversity with Invisible Voices at one end (written by a vegan) and Terrier Man (a blog about working terriers). As you can imagine, they don't quite go together as is demonstrated by the following excerpt from one of these blogs (guess which one!):

...An office mate found this clip on YouTube, and apparently it was shot just up the road in Sterling, Virginia. The groundhog appears to have been caught above ground in a trash pile by a pretty well-fed and not too experienced Jack Russell who is having a lot of fun. Music by Offspring. For those who find this gruesome, my best advice is to get over it. This is how groundhogs die when caught by coyotes, and how rabbits die when caught by a fox. What, you mean fox and coyote eat . . . meat? I though they were vegans! As for groundhogs, they are an agricultural pest, and are around in such huge numbers that it is open season, unlimited take in this state.

Diversity rules!

But I digress... I encourage you to go over to Terrierman's blog post about pet insurance:

Pet Insurance:
With insurance, the big print always seems to provide coverage, but the little print always seems to limit that coverage or void it altogether. Now consider pet insurance. When a pet insurance company denies your claim or pays out only fragmentary coverage, your only option is to hire a $10,000 lawyer in order to litigate a $2,000 claim. Not likely. So what do you do? You pay the vet, walk away bruised, and the Pet Insurance company pockets your premums and laughs all the way to the bank. Don't believe that's what happens most of the time? Then read what people with pet insurance have to say. Has anyone ever had a good experience with pet insurance? If so, tell us in the comments section (and sign it!).

So please do go comment on Terrierman's blog about your experiences with pet insurance - good and bad (and sign it!). I'm sure there will be a number of horror stories but there are pet insurance companies that pay out what they promised and there are happy policyholders (check out www.petinsurancereview.com to find a few).

After all, why would over 600,000 (and growing) cats and dogs be insured in the US? Are their pet parents just masochists? Oblivous? What do you think?

Related Posts on Invisible Voices
Invisible Voices blog entries on pet insurance
Evangelism at its best
"Mo’s How-to guide on getting the most out of pet insurance" on Invisible Voices
If you have a cat...

Hello Bloghers!

My my! Wasn't Blogher 2007 quite the event?! I'm totally worn out and trying to get my mind back to pet insurance. It's nice to have a day or two on something else for a change.

What did I learn when I was there? Apart from some nifty ideas for my blog (you might see me experimenting over the next week or so), here are a few observations from the event:

• the Blogher July event is more for personal blogging than for business blogging. That doesn't mean it wasn't worth it for me, quite the contrary, but I had to adjust my approach and expectations pretty quickly. I've found out there's a Blogher Business event in March so I'll have to see if I can go but it's pretty expensive. Maybe I'll speak if they'll have me.
• even though I am a mom, I had no idea of the power of the mommy blog. There are many many smart, passionate, and/or crazy women blogging in all ways about being a mom. It's a whole other world I had no idea about.
• many women, including those that write mommy blogs, are really into the technology behind the blogs. I'm in the middle of the pack being a reasonably advanced Typepad user.
• You can meet Wharton MBA grads anywhere - such as Melanie, who runs her own hedge fund and her own futurist consulting firm. I knew there was more to her when she asked me all sorts of questions that I usually get from someone who has read our business plan. Thanks Melanie for the drink ticket and the church sign you made during one of the sessions.
• I was delighted and surprised to see my friend Devin with Mindermast, a company devoted to mental fitness and preventing Alzheimers. I had no idea she was going to be one of the vendors at Blogher; I'd previously met her out in San Francisco at an Astia event earlier this year. If you are interested in keeping your mind healthy in a fun way, sign up for the Mindermast newsletter that they are launching this coming week. The product is based on a casual gaming platform that's going to be so fun. I think you'll want to tell all your friends over 40 :).
• next time, I'll take my laptop so I can type away during all the presentations like everyone else (the one I have is quite the beast so maybe I'll have something a bit smaller next year). This post would have been done yesterday for sure!
• thanks to Tara for the Lijit t-shirt - your photo does not do you justice. The geeks in my office are going to be jealous...
• and a big thank you to Liza for inviting me to dinner with the cool gang on Friday; I'm so glad you did

The rest of it I'll keep to myself. You'll just have to go yourself next year.

Make sure to leave me a comment if you are a Blogher gal.

Blogher conference 2007: woohoo!

I've finally hit the blogging big time - I'm off to the Blogher Conference that's coming up this weekend. I arrive at an outrageously early hour on Friday (like 6:30am - ouch!) and have to leave during the final reception on Saturday but I'm free the rest of the time.

Sure I'm looking forward to learning lots of new blogging techniques - I can always use some new tricks. But I'm really going to meet new people and to meet people who I've lived vicariously through by reading their blogs over the years. I can't wait.

Are you going? Give me a call at 216 272 8898 if you want to coordinate a drink or three. Or email me - I'll have my laptop :) Actually, I decided I am going to leave my computer behind - ironic for a blogger conference don't you think?! I want to be unencumbered when I meet my gurus :)

Best pet health blogs

I was interested to see Pet Connection and Doolittler listed in the top ten list of best pet health blogs. They are my favorite pet health blogs because of their no BS and intelligent content. And besides, it's good to see that Wharton MBAs can do something other than consulting or Wall Street (as in the case Doolitler's super-cool Dr. Patty Khuly)

I did notice that a couple of the blogs listed have not been very active recently although I think Vet Tech must have felt a bit guilty and Christie and Nancy posted a few articles after some light blogging over the summer. Christie gets double representation as a contributor to the Pet Connection blog so she's forgiven for not posting fully on every blog she contributes to - she's everywhere!

I'm going to have to find some more underground pet health blogs though. Somehow, finding my favorite blogs on a Fox News list is a bit disconcerting... so mainstream, so not niche.

Got any good ones you'd suggest? Let's make our own list.

Embrace Pet Insurance Blog Interview at Blog Interviewer

A while back, I did an interview for BlogInterviewer on my blog (who hasn't!). Here's the Embrace Pet Insurance link if you are interested.

Best of all, you can also rate the blog too so go to town!

Invisible Voices blog entries on pet insurance

Deb is a vegan with a cat who cares a lot about the rights of animals and she writes about opinions in her blog "Invisible Voices - A Voice for the Voiceless".

I came across Deb's blog because of her series of insightful posts about pet insurance, which was started with a question by a friend, “does anyone know of a good health insurance for pets in the states?"

I've really enjoyed reading Deb's entries. As the CEO of a pet insurance company, it's hard to get feedback about what is working and what is not about our products and service so I appreciate her insight into Embrace and our competition.

In particular though, I am fascinated by the comments from her readers. Some of them have been quite eye opening and even quite shocking (hard to believe that pet insurance can be quite shocking but you'll see) - I'll let you go read them for yourself if you are interested. At the very least, I have to wonder if one of the commenters got "dooced" from her employer for her comment. All I can say is wow.

Here is the link to the series summary and here are the articles. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

“Pet” Insurance, Part 1
“Pet” Insurance, Part 2 - Money
“Pet” Insurance, Part 3 - Companies and Options
“Pet” Insurance, Part 4 - Reviews
“Pet” Insurance, Part 5 - two additional companies, overview

PS. Deb also has some awesome photos on her blog. It's worth going to just for them. The photos above are all hers.

Related Posts on Invisible Voices
"Mo’s How-to guide on getting the most out of pet insurance" on Invisible Voices
Evangelism at its best
Terrier Man gets provocative on pet insurance
If you have a cat...