Writing a Cat-tastic Bio

Writing about yourself can feel challenging and maybe even a little awkward, but your bio is an important opportunity to introduce yourself to prospective cat parents and share what you bring to the table. Read our tips below on best practices, what to include, and what to avoid so you can put your best paw forward when writing your bio!

It's About You!

The best way to make your profile stand out from the crowd is to write an engaging and informative bio that is purrsonal to you. This is your chance to share a little about what makes you you, and a lot about your love of cats! Your bio helps prospective cat parents learn more about your cat-related or transfurrable skills, how well your schedule and area might fit their needs, and if your purrsonalities might be a good match!

The most important thing to do in your bio is to be honest. Are you looking to gain more experience with cats after having only casually cat-sat for family and friends? Great! Have you always wanted to meet as many cats as possible because they’re simply the best? Us too!

It’s okay if you do not have professional cat experience or many years of volunteering at a shelter under your belt. What we all have in common is wanting to make sure our kitties get the best care! Your bio helps cat parents see what you bring to the table in achieving that.

Best Practices

• Use spell check. While it can’t catch everything, it can help with some things that are easy to miss when you’re so focused on creating excellent content!
• Ask a trusted friend or colleague to read it over - Fresh eyes often see things we might have missed after staring at our own work for a while. Ask someone you trust to read it over; they might catch an error or have a suggestion on how to include more of your purrsonality since they know you well!
• Aim for 300 words! Our top-performing sitters typically have bios that are 300 words or longer. Why? Because writing a detailed and keyword-rich bio gives your listing an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) boost, meaning it's more likely to appear at the top of search results when cat parents are searching for the purrfect sitter. An SEO boost means more visibility and more visibility means more potential bookings!
• Break your bio into paragraphs, or use bullet points. We all get overwhelmed when we see a huge chunk of text, so help yourself and your readers by breaking it down.

How to Start

If you’re feeling at a wall with how to begin, start with writing about your own cats! Tell us about their names, their personalities, and how you give them the best care - then you’re off to the races and already showing us some awesome insight into you!

What to Include

• Your professional goals as a Meowtel sitter – This is where you can help prospective cat parents learn about what makes you so excited to cat-sit and what you love most about cats (OK, we realize that last point might put you over the 300-word goal by A LOT, so try to keep your love for cats contained within a paw-ful of sentences).
• Your approach to meeting new cats
• Your experience as a cat sitter, shelter or humane society volunteer (if any)
• Your cat medication experience (ointments, eye/ear drops, oral medications, insulin injections, sub Q fluids)
• Your ability to meet client's expectations
• Your schedule availability AND limitations
• The areas you serve (specific neighborhoods or metro areas within your service radius)
• Your COVID/illness precautions and cleanliness practices within clients’ homes
• Your purrsonality – This is where you can give cat parents a glimpse into what makes you you! You can share your hobbies, interests, background, or fun facts about yourself. Be creative!

What to Avoid

• Offering boarding, kenneling, grooming, bathing, nail trimming, or any other service we do not offer
• Promoting other products or services you might sell
• Cross-referencing competitors’ websites or offering non-cat-related services
• Listing unaffiliated testimonials or reviews of your services from other sites
• Including social media handles, excessive use of social media abbreviations and emojis, or any links to individual content such as but not limited to blog posts, YouTube channels, personal websites, etc.
• Including personal contact information like your email address or phone number
• Detailed descriptions of cat loss or illness. It’s totally OK to mention how the cats you’ve loved have informed your kitty care, your medication experience, and your possible motivations to cat-sit. Since pet loss is a painful topic for all of us, we just recommend keeping your bio as paw-sitive as possible.

It’s Not About Purrfection - It’s About Trust

Writing a bio is about creating an authentic representation of yourself to prospective cat parents, so it’s OK if you aren’t purrfect (only our cats are 😻). As cat parents, we want to know that you’re reliable, professional, and communicative! As human beings, we want to see that you’re a unique individual who we feel we can get to know. So don’t stress; start writing, and tell us about what a cool cat you are!

Picture by calicodesign from Pixabay