English 106 Blog AssignmentThis assignment has a number of components: The Proposal, the Blog Itself, the Google Adsense Application Process, and the Final Project Report on the blog's effectiveness. The ProposalThe proposal needs to identify the overall topic (or category) of the blog, and how this topic will be narrowed down and focused for your specific audience. In general, the narrower and more focused, the better for your topic! A good blog topic should be: Unique. This doesn't just mean you haven't plagiarized. It also means that there are not a million blogs already out there with exactly the same kinds of content. The same category of topic is ok, as long as you can differentiate yourself in some way with your unique content. (Your unique take on things, your unique angle, your unique focus, etc.) Relevant. Consider these questions: Why would an internet user want to read your blog (instead of somebody else)? Why are they searching for this topic in the first place? What exactly are you giving them that will be useful to them? If you have a clear and solid answer to these questions, then chances are good that your topic is relevant. Relevant content means it's useful and relevant to someone else. If someone is searching on the web and they come to your blog, you want their search to end at your page! This happens when you're giving them something of relevance and substance that is immediately useful to them. Targeted. This means aimed directly at a specific kind of internet user. A good blog is reader-centric, which means that it clearly and immediately delivers on your readers' expectations or desires in some way. The clearer you can picture your readers (your "target audience"), the easier it is to focus and narrow your topic to hit this target. You'll also need to think about your audience in detail, and about yourself in detail. Ten Required Elements of the Proposal:Topic:What is the general category of topic that your blog will address? How will you narrow this down to a topic that is focused and distinctive? What will you call your blog? (Put a lot of thought into this after answering the first two). Explain in detail the rationale for your choice of blog name. Audience:Provide a detailed description of who your target audience is for this blog. Provide a detailed description of what your target audience will be searching for when they find your blog. (Why are they looking? What do they want to do?) Is your targeted audience broad or narrow (or broad in some ways but narrow in others)? Briefly explain your rationale for focusing your target audience in the way you have. Author:What makes you qualified to write about this topic? What additional work or research will you need to do to write the best content you can about your topic? How does your topic relate to a possible future career choice for you? Briefly explain your interest in (and passion for) this topic. (Note: Don't BS on this last one! I genuinely want to help you find a topic that interests you a lot! Your interest level in your topic will make the difference between an awesome semester and a tedious one!) A complete, printed rough draft of your Proposal is due in class on Friday, January 24. Email the final draft to me by the start of class time on Monday, January 27. Please consider the class reading "Effective Document Design" when deciding on the appropriate format and layout of this document. The design of this document will be part of its grade The Blog ItselfClass blogs will generally be created on Google's Blogger
platform. This is very easy, and integrates well with other
Google products. If a student desires to go beyond this
(register a domain name, find a host, use a CMS program, create a
website, etc) that should probably be ok. Check with me if
you would like to use a different platform. Number of Blog Posts:At the bare minimum you will need at least two blog
posts each week once you start your blog in Week 3, although
for a successful blog, you will really want to aim for more than
that. Some experts recommend a new post every day, since
visitors are more likely to bookmark your site if they know they
will be greeted with fresh content each time they come back.
Some experts say every other day. Length of Blog Posts:This is a tough one to nail down, since the optimal length for
your posts will depend a lot on your topic, readership, etc.
Also, it can be quite healthy to have post lengths that vary from
post to post. A short post might just be a paragraph or
two, and a longer post might be longer and require some
scrolling. Occasionally, it might be fine to have a really
short post, like a linked or embedded Youtube video and some text
that explains why this link is relevant to your specific
readership. But too much of that can be a problem.
Remember, you want to attract readers to your site because of
your quality content, not send them away to other sites because
they have quality content! Each blog post should have a rationale or "mission." This is the reason why you are putting it on your site in the first place, and the reason why you think your targeted reader will benefit from it. Is the post long enough to accomplish its mission? Each blog post should be able to stand alone. Remember that a search engine might send a visitor directly to an individual blog post, bypassing the front page of your blog. Is the blog post complete and self-standing? Will a visitor feel fulfilled and satisfied by this post, or will they feel cheated? Will a returning reader (who bookmarked your blog) feel fulfilled and satisfied by this post, or will they feel cheated? I’ll review your posts with you in our weekly one-on-one meetings. A Note About Work-Load:This will seem like a lot of work. Here are some things that will make it more manageable: Most of the assignments in class will be constructed in such a way that you will be able to recycle them as posts to your blog. Case 1, 2, and 3 specifically will be directly linked to posts to your blog. Spread your blogging out for sanity. Writing a single blog post can be a fun, easy, and spontaneous activity, and it needn't take longer than an hour. In this case, slow and steady will win the race. If your normal work habit is to procrastinate for long periods of time and then try to do everything at once, you might consider trying to make a schedule. Choose a topic you love, and an audience you can relate to. The Google AdSense Appliation ProcessApplying for AdSense, and lising ads on your site, is an easy, built-in function of Blogger. You can read about it here. Once your ads are on your page, you will want to come up with a coherent strategy for displaying them, and you will need to be able to articulate the reasons behind this strategy. The Final Project ReportAt the end of the semester, you will using tools like Google
Analytics to do analysis of the traffic to, through, and from
your blog. You will also be analyzing the effectiveness of
different posts or posting styles. You will also be
experimenting with and analyzing different strategies of
promoting your blog, generating back-links, retaining return
visitors, etc. What your blog is. What strategies did you use to identify a market and refine or develop your focus? Did the focus change from the start of the semester to the end? How is your blog unique, relevant, and targeted? Show some information that you got from Google Analytics about your blog traffic. What did the numbers tell you? How did you act on what the numbers told you to improve your blog's performance? What strategies have you used to promote or increase traffic to your blog? How have you tested these strategies? What have you learned? Other tips or tricks you can share with your classmates that you have learned in this process? Stepping back from the blog itself, what have you learned about "Content Engineering" (as opposed to just "Writing") from this experience? How might you apply this in your future career? Feel free to incorporate the material you generated for Case 2 and Case 3 directly into this final report! Both of these cases were designed to let you do this: They both asked you to analyze your blog with different methods, and use that data to improve your blog. Although be aware that your final report needs to go beyond these two cases. |