RescueGroups.org

Hello all,

It's important to keep your animal information to-to-date on the adoption listing sites. It's also really important to keep your organization information up-to-date!

Through your RescueGroups.org service you can update your organization contact information, website address and adoption process.

Here's an example of the information stored in your RescueGroups.org service:

Phone number, email address
Website URL
Facebook URL (NEW)
Your services
Your adoption process
Where the public can meet your pets

You can login to the RescueGroups.org Management website to update the information above and much more. To do so, please do the following:

Go to https://manage.rescuegroups.org
Login with your RescueGroups.org account (Site Admin permission required)
Click on Admin (top right)
Click Contact Information
Update the information and click Save Organization Information

Many websites retrieve the information above through our API, and they will automatically receive your updates. However, the following three websites do not receive updates automatically: Adopt a Pet, Pets 911, Petfinder. You need to login to your account on those three websites and update this information in addition to updating it on your RescueGroups.org service.

Of course, please let us know if we can help.

Thank you!

RescueGroups.org

The new year is really starting off with a bang! We're pushing harder than ever to provide the best and most flexible tools possible to help animal shelters and rescues work more effectively.

Read below about...

Website service updates today
Enable DogTime Top Dogs and Cats
Take Control of your Pet Lists
Verify Your Exports (including Petfinder sync)
Bookmark and Subscribe to our Blog

Website service updates today... We released an update to our website and management service today that includes a ton of new features and enhancements specifically for our website service. You can read all about the update on this blog post. Although not listed, the update also included five new layouts!

Enable DogTime Top Dogs and Cats... Our latest update includes access to the DogTime Top Dogs and Top Cats widgets. You can insert them into any web page (website service) by using the Custom Tags button (blue paw) on the HTML editor. You can preview the widgets by going to Website > Widgets and Utilities in the new Manage interface. Also, read about the DogTime Sparky widget... on this blog post. If you need help getting either of these tools working just let us know!

Take Control of your Pet Lists... Read about how you can make your adoptable pet list really work for your organization and your pets. We posted to our blog about why you should use the Pet Adoption Toolkit on your non-RescueGroups.org website.

Verify Your Exports... You should check your exports page on a regular basis to be sure everything is enabled! Also, be sure to read this blog post about getting your automatic Petfinder working again using the Sync App developed by a volunteer! Just let us know if you need help.

Bookmark and Subscribe to our Blog... Now you can subscribe to our blog so that you can receive an email alert when there are updates. Go to our blog and enter your email address under Email Subscription and press Sign me up!

We realize we just sent a newsletter last week, but there are a couple more things we wanted to let you know about. Also, we need your feedback! As you already know, we rely heavily on feedback from our animal welfare partners, so we really appreciate your taking the time to send us your ideas!

Website Service Update Coming Soon

We're adding a lot of new features to our website service. These are mostly features that have been requested by our partners, so keep those ideas coming!

Some of the things we are adding: web page music and backgrounds, HTML in success stories, news, events, and memorials, online forms PDFs, Facebook and Twitter affiliates, and a lot more!

Please visit our blog for a list of the features we're including in the update, and for more information.

Pet Fields

We need your help with some of our pet fields. Right now we track pet information like good with kids, house trained, etc. We want to add additional fields, but only the ones that you would want to see on your own website, in your RescueGroups.org Toolkit, and on the adoption listing websites.

So what fields would you like to see? Maybe fence recommended, or grooming required? Others? Please email us with your ideas.

Pet Exports (and Petfinder Sync App)

Don't forget to check your animal exports page on a regular basis! We recently discovered a group of organizations that didn't know they had disabled some of their exports!

To check your exports from the Pet Adoption Portal click on Exports.

From the Website Service go to Animals > Exports > Exports.

From the Manage website go to Animals > Exports.

Also, don't forget to use the Sync App to update Petfinder if your updates were cutoff last September. If you're not sure if your Petfinder update is currently running please check your Exports page. Check out this blog post for more information about the Sync App.

Please let us know if you need help with any of your exports. We're always here to help!

RescueGroups.org

Website Service Users,

Happy New Year! We wanted to let you know that we've been busy over the holidays preparing some enhancements to our website service.

Here's what we have planned:

Play background music on web pages
Set custom background image on web pages
Print blank online forms PDF
Print completed online forms PDF (with visitor answers)
HTML for Animal Successes
HTML for Events
HTML for Memorials
HTML for News
Success Stories supports custom picture
Custom code snippets in the HTML editor
Templates in the HTML editor
Facebook and Twitter affiliates
Animal detail popover (on animal links)
Save a Dog, Save a Cat and Sparky widgets
Custom sender email address for site messages

We hope to have these updates available for your use by the end of January. We'll be posting more information about the update soon!

RescueGroups.org

Happy New Year!

We have a few updates for you concerning the DogTime.com Sparky Widget and our Voice Mail service.

We'll also be announcing an update to our website service within the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for that!

Thank you for your continued support!

New Sparky Widget Provides Dynamic Content and Videos

Recently we added a new feature to our website service. The Sparky Widget, provided by DogTime.com, provides fresh content to your website, including videos, articles and blogs.

You can see the widget on the left-sidebar of our demo website here (the "media center" about 2/3 the way down the page): http://demo.rescuegroups.org/

Here's how you can enable the widget:

From your RescueGroups.org website go to Look/Feel > Layout Options and enable the option "Display the DogTime.com widget Sparky." OR using the RescueGroups.org Manage website go to Admin > Service Settings > Website and enable the option "Display the DogTime.com widget Sparky."

Note: If you are using a custom layout, please contact us and we will enable the widget for you.

Not only does the DogTime.com Sparky Widget increase the value of your website by providing timely, fresh, and engaging content, but it also raises money for RescueGroups.org through the DogTime Media network.

Save Time, Money with RescueGroups.org's Voice Mail Service!

Most organizations recognize the necessity for having a phone number their community can use to reach them. In most cases, a phone line in a volunteer's home is problematic, and voice mail services from the telephone company can cost $ 30-75/month! Cell phone use introduces even more issues.

Every organization, big or small, should take a look at the RescueGroups.org Voice Mail service. It provides a dedicated local or toll-free number and unlimited incoming calls (voice mail only--no phone line for outgoing calls). It provides 9 mailboxes, each allowing long greetings and storage of 100 messages.

Each mailbox can text or email you when a message is received. You can check your messages via phone, email or web browser.

Our Voice Mail service is surprisingly inexpensive at $ 150/year for a local number. You can even transfer your existing phone number!

So, take a look at our Voice Mail service and just email us if you'd like more information or would like to sign-up. If you're an existing RescueGroups.org Partner you won't be required to fill-out the sign-up form again!

RescueGroups.org

Dear RescueGroups.org Partners,

We are very excited to announce that we have released a new version of our JavaScript Pet Adoption Toolkit.

The Toolkit is designed to give your adoptable pets more exposure, directly on your website! Your visitors stay on your website, and enjoy browsing your pets without advertisements or links to 3rd party websites. It's a tool that works just for you and your pets!

The new version of the Toolkit is completely separate from the previous Toolkit. That means that you can configure, test, and deploy the new Toolkit without affecting your existing Toolkit pages.

To install or update your Toolkit you must use the Pet Adoption Toolkit feature of our new management website. Login to the management website below, and then go to Animals > Pet Adoption Toolkit.

https://manage.rescuegroups.org

You can also download the latest version of the RescueGroups.org Management User Guide which now includes the Pet Adoption Toolkit instructions:

https://www.rescuegroups.org/files/RescueGroupsUserGuide-Beta.pdf

Please contact us if you need help installing or customizing your Toolkit. We'd be happy to help!

Thank you,

RescueGroups.org

Pet Adoption Toolkit Users,

We're happy to announce that we are currently wrapping up a really BIG update to our JavaScript Toolkit! We took all of your suggestions and put them in this release.

The Toolkit has only been around about 7 months, but it's already had a huge impact! The Toolkit is the first time the rescues and shelters have had complete control over the pet lists shown on their own websites, and now we're giving you even more features and control.

We'll be posting more in the near future on how you can use the Toolkit to keep visitors on your organization's website and increase your adoptions.

So, here's the list of updates we're planning for this release:

• A new grid layout that shows more pets on one screen
• Random and Featured pet options!!  < we're really excited about this one!
• Option to use paging (like 10 pets per page, etc.)
• Control of how many pets are shown on each page, each row, etc
• Option to use a popup window instead of the built-in popover
• Next and previous links on the popover (to browse through adoptable pets)
• Toolkit integrated into the new RescueGroups.org Management website

Watch out for more information about the release of the new version!  You'll need to make code changes to your Toolkit implementation to use the new version.

RescueGroups.org

Dear Website Service Users,

One of the unique things about RescueGroups.org is how we are able to implement user suggestions in a very short amount of time. We are planning to release a group of updates to our website service later this month!

We have a list of things we'd like to do, but we need to know what enhancements would provide the most value to you and your pets. Although we're happy to make a note of your new feature and new service ideas, we're really interested in enhancing the features we currently have -- for example, adding the option to set page backgrounds per web page, or being able to use HTML in success stories, events, memorials, etc.

So, what's most important to you right now? Even if we don't implement your ideas right away, we'll add them to our TODO list for later! You can either email us at info@rescuegroups.org or post a message on this blog. We'll contact you if we have any questions regarding your suggestion.

Thank you for your time and support.

RescueGroups.org

The Pet Adoption Tracker seems like a simple idea – consolidate your pet hit/visit information into one location for convenience and reporting power.  But it’s a lot more than just numbers!

The Tracker provides tons of useful reports, as well as ancillary information about how your pets are being viewed on the adoption listing websites.  Our goal is to give you data and graphs that not only shows how your pets are being viewed on the adoption listing websites, but also gives you information you can use to make decisions, like which pets need new pictures, or where you should start holding an adoption event.

The first thing you’ll notice is that your hit information is consolidated into one report.  Your hits from Facebook (Save a Cat and Save a Dog), Adopt-a-pet.com and Pets911, as well as the dozen or so other websites that support the Tracker, will be shown on one report.

The Tracker reports are the only ones that provide charts and graphs of your pet views over time.  Numbers are great, but graphs are a lot easier to read and quickly understand.  You can see graphs for all of your pets, as well as a specific pet or breed.

Knowing which pets are the most popular is good information to have, but knowing the last time a pet was viewed is even more useful.  A pet that hasn’t been viewed in a few days may need to be refreshed – new pictures or even a video.

The Tracker is also the only report that includes the geographical location of your visitors.  You might choose to use this information to decide where you should setup adoption events (the information might surprise you).

The Pet Adoption Tracker provides information on as many of the adoption listing websites as possible.  The Tracker is also automatically included in the RescueGroups.org website service, Pet Adoption Toolkit, the RescueGroups.org iFrames, and can be added to any website (including your organization’s own website).

The Pet Adoption Tracker service has been included with all of the RescueGroups.org services including the free Pet Adoption Portal since February 2009.

We’re planning to increase the reporting and graphing options of the Tracker service in the near future.  If you have ideas on how we can provide actionable information to you, please let us know!

RescueGroups.org