diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a0e5c4b..ddb365e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
 
 - add docstrings to `Bot`
 - change `KILL_REPLY` and `RESTART_REPLY` to be optional in `Bot`
-- fix echobot example
 - fix imports
+- update echobot example to newest version
+- update example gitignore to newest version
 
 ## 1.1.3 (2019-04-19)
 
diff --git a/examples/echo/.gitignore b/examples/echo/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f69b963
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/echo/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# python stuff
+__pycache__/
+
+# venv stuff
+bin/
+include/
+lib/
+lib64
+pyvenv.cfg
+
+# bot stuff
+#
+# These files are ignored because they may contain sensitive information you
+# wouldn't want in your repo. If you need to have a config file in your repo,
+# store a bot.conf.default with default settings.
+*.conf
+*.cookie
diff --git a/examples/echo/bot.conf b/examples/echo/bot.conf.default
similarity index 100%
rename from examples/echo/bot.conf
rename to examples/echo/bot.conf.default
diff --git a/examples/gitignore_with_venv b/examples/gitignore_with_venv
index 191feb7..f69b963 100644
--- a/examples/gitignore_with_venv
+++ b/examples/gitignore_with_venv
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ lib/
 lib64
 pyvenv.cfg
 
-# config files
+# bot stuff
+#
+# These files are ignored because they may contain sensitive information you
+# wouldn't want in your repo. If you need to have a config file in your repo,
+# store a bot.conf.default with default settings.
 *.conf
-cookie_jar
+*.cookie