This week’s mini assignment asked of us to create a gif. I wanted to create something is fun and relatable in relation to my blog and its topic.
So without further ado, here is my gif!
When someone says, “But I have a(n) *insert skin colour/ethnicity here* friend! I can’t be racist!”
With plenty of media outlets in the world today, there is without a doubt plenty of ways to implement transmedia integration to your site. As described by Henry Jenkins, transmedia storytelling, “represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” (Jenkins 2007). This can be highly beneficial in enhancing the experience for users on the site and the possible objectives and message that you envision.
Luckily for my site, I already have one form of transmedia integration added, which is through the use of Soundcloud playlists on my “Let’s Listen” posts. This form of transmedia integration helps enhance the entertainment experience whilst aligning with my message for Here, There in terms of representing diversity within the arts and entertainment industry. This media integration also connects with my target audience of artistic individuals who have an appreciation for music and who are interested in discovering diverse artists. An additional benefit of including Soundcloud playlists would be the option to implement audience recommendations, both to increase engagement, but to also make full use of this type of transmedia integration.
Another way of adding transmedia integration for the future development of my blog could be through YouTube videos. As a blog that focuses on the arts, but also societal issues of race, gender, and sexuality, there are many opportunities to have visual and auditory media implemented. Possibly, having my own Buzzfeed or Cut style videos could help enhance the entertainment experience, in addition to videos posted that are partnered with, or directly connected to my site. This can help build relationships with other artists and individuals, help develop the blog and its audience, and enhance my message and objective.
Inspired by sites like Them. who provide subscription emails for important posts and issues, my blog could also implement this form of transmedia integration. As Henry Jenkins notes, the use of dispersing elements systematically across multiple channels can be beneficial in spreading a message. Having an option to subscribe through an email may not only offer a means of engagement and audience retention, but also spread awareness of my website and of important topics and issues.
Lastly, an additional transmedia integration for my site would be including multiple social media accounts. Nowadays, it is a given that most businesses, organizations, sites, and individuals use multiple social media accounts. The use of social media for my site would be a core element as it would not only link my Instagram (in order to establish a personality behind my blog), but also link a specific Instagram for Here, There. Photos would fit a certain aesthetic that relates to my blog, but also highlight diverse people, events, artists, shows, and current events. Additional social media integration would include a Facebook page and Twitter account, in which there would be specific posts on events and key topics discussed. These accounts would also create an additional place for engagement between the audience and my blog and hopefully maintain a welcoming and communicative space.
Many websites have options implemented to help the publisher or developer obtain some form of income from it – whether it is through advertisements or the actual selling of a product. For this week’s process post, we were to think of whether or not we would monetize our site and if so, how we would go about this. As my blog focuses on societal issues, similar to that of a nonprofit organization, it is a little challenging to think of monetization so as not to diverge from the message and objective of Here, There. It would be key to not become driven by monetary means and risk diverging from the core meaning and value of what my blog entails. However, there could be a few ways in which monetization can be implemented for the site and how it could be altered so that it would be beneficial.
The first way that Here, There could be monetized is if there are advertisements implemented. These would not just be random advertisements, but carefully reviewed advertisements that align with the focus for the blog. It would be key to have advertisements that would relate to issues regarding race, gender, and sexuality so that it not only fits my site aesthetically but also provides further ways to explore the ways to challenge the norms within society.
Another option for monetizing my site would be adding affiliate links to other sites. This could also work in terms of partnering with other groups, organizations, or sites that have a similar objective. Affiliate links that could be posted on a “Let’s Listen” playlist could direct my users to albums, artist’s sites, concerts and live shows, in addition to possible organizations that the artists themselves have started or are a part of. Affiliate links within a “Let’s Talk” post could direct users to something I am either discussing, such as a book or talk, or to an organization that may have partnered with my site in order to help a cause. Lastly, there could also be a donation option on my site where the proceeds would go towards a new organization every month.
Apart from the online ways of monetizing my site, I could also implement more physical means such as going to events and being a representative for, Here, There, and possibly making connections and getting partnerships. Another way I could help monetize my site is creating merchandise, such as tote bags, T-shirts, posters, or phone cases. I would go about this by having my header image on every merchandise in order to have Here, There recognizable and to help bring new visitors to the site (and hopefully purchase merchandise as well). This would also connect with my target audience of artistic individuals and hopefully would help engage new and old users.
All in all, it is key to note that much of the monetization for my site would go towards specific causes. The majority of money that is gained from the site would go towards specific organizations (a new one every month as mentioned earlier) in hopes that this would increase audience engagement with the knowledge that their actions would have a positive impact.
Google Analytics is the plugin that I installed in order to understand the aspect of the visitors who visit my website. I was quite impressed with the statistics by Google Analytics. I easily observed the number of visitors every day on the dashboard of the WordPress. 
I found the interesting fact that the most top visitor number was on November 1st when I published my website address on the Instagram account. I realized that displaying the website address on my social network actually increased the number of visitors.
Although I have such a small number of followers, it definitely affected on my website by simply displaying the website address.
The Google Analytic web provides more detail information on my website. 
The most audience is from Canada, but I was surprised that I even had audiences from Germany and Ukraine.
Almost 70% of visitors have accessed my website from a desktop, and the percentage of mobile visitors are 30% which is higher than my expectation. The busiest time is from 10 am to 6 pm.
I really impressed with the page views, and it was funny that I made page value which is $0.20.
Google Analytics is so detail which it tells me where the audiences are accessing my website from.
The most audiences are directly from the website address, and rest of audiences are from Instagram, posiel, and even other student’s websites who were my peer review partners.
Generally, I found that Google Analytics is extremely useful especially if I would like to know about my audience. According to the audience’s favor, I might need to fix some components on my website.
While I was painting the traditional portrait of Antoinette, I also painted three conceptual portraits of Antoinette. It was also parts of the summer Antoinette project which I spent three months to finish. The reference of portrait images are the portrait sculptures of Antoinette. I chose three plaster sculptures of Antoinette.
The surface of the plaster gives a feeling of coldness because of the absence of color. It naturally provides a monochromic sense without any photoshop effect, and it is different from a black and white photograph.
Here are the conceptual images of the painting before I start.
I used oil painting in this work, but I also added one more material, sand. I chose sand because it creates a relationship with a plaster. Although plaster and sand are different materials, I found common sense from two material, and I decided to use sand. 
I painted the background with sand. To create a sandy painting, I mixed sand with gel medium. The gel medium is a clear acrylic substance that is sometimes mixed with acrylic paint to express a thickness or a different texture. The half of the canvas is painted with a red oil painting, and it provides a modernistic expression.
Unlike the traditional portrait that I painted, I covered the eyes with colors. Antoinette, a French Queen, is a symbol of extravagance who is famous for saying “If the people have no bread, let them eat cake”. The covered eyes symbolized a different perspective of the Queen. The queen looks through colored glasses. The painting talks about prejudice.
I carefully chose which color has a better harmony with the painting in terms of a color balance
. 
The summer Antoinette project was definitely pleasing, and I thanksfully enjoyed 3 months project period. The beautiful memories remained along with the paintings.
Continuing from the second peer review, my review partner blog is Karl’s blog.
Wow. I immediately realized a critical change in the front page of the website. The header image is changed, and it is absolutely stunning.
It was a colorful and bright header image before, and as I mentioned, it was a little hard to read the name of the homepage. The changed image is a monochromic image in which the title of the website distinguishable from the header image. I definitely love the choice that he made. The header image almost inspires me to try an anime. However, one thing that I think the website needs to be fixed is the front page contents. It is an anime review website, but it shows the posiel contents on the front page in which the expected audience would not want to see. It could probably be fixed by a plugin call WP HIDE POST. Install the plugin and activate it. Then you will see Post Visibility on the bottom when you upload the post
.
By simply check “Hide on the front page”, it will be disappeared from the front page. In terms of the marketability, it will be much attractive anime review blog if those posiel contents disappear from the front page.
The intended audience is people who are interested in Japanese anime or people who would like to know about Japanese anime. However, just like my website, Karl’s blog is not interested in marketing. The blog does not include any advertisement and marketing sources. When I googled Japanese anime review, Karl’s blog is not showing up, and I had to type “Karl’s blog Japanese anime reviews”. 
How could this website possibly do the marketing? I was thinking about to add an advertisement for an enterprise such as Amazon. I see many other websites include Amazon advertisement, and I think this website could possibly put Japanese anime product from Amazon. 
Yes, Amazon has tons of Japanese anime products, so it is reasonably beneficial for both Karl’s blog and Amazon if the website includes an advertisement.
The second marketing is youtube. I researched a YouTuber who does Japanese Anime contents. One of the famous youtuber is The Anime man who has over 150k subscribers
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Since Japanese anime is extremely popular, and the anime culture is well developed, this blog has positive potential in terms of the marketability. I really enjoyed Karl’s blog how it is changing better and better, and I am excited to see more.
Karl’s blog http://kaleukl.com/
Suzanne Norman. 2015 “Trying not to drop breadcrumbs in Amazon’s store.” http://publishing.sfu.ca/2016/03/breadcrumbs-of-data/
Youtuber, The Anime man. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAn1meMan
Amazon. www.amazon.ca
The Nordic Graphic Design have now been active around ten weeks, and in those weeks the blog have evolved to a kind of network. My intentions with the blog when creating it was to spread the word about the amazing female graphic designers in Sweden, and for my own sake, to learn more about the branch itself. According to this, I have tried to accomplish a some what platform for the designers to be recognised, a chance for them to been seen and heard by others. regarding that intention, my transmedia will follow this intention: to give people a chance to be seen.
I like the forum where people have a shot to be heard, therefor Twitter makes sense to use. But the problem with Twitter is the lack of focus on images and, of course, the limitation of how many words you can use. The designers need pictures to show their work, portfolio, and words to describe their choices: Twitter will not work for my cause. My focus will be on Instagram just as many of my fellow interviewed designers have chosen to use.
Something else that would be a great thong for my blog would be the use of an email subscribe list. To get people to sign up for the subscription, I will use give aways as an attraction. I will also spread the word on linkedIn, where future employers for the partaking designers can sign up for a weekly suggestion for a new designer to hire.
PLAN: INSTAGRAM
1. Use the platform as a gallery instead of post-to-post updates.
2. Let one designer use the account once every week to spread their design.
3. Three posts per day, all connected.
4. The images for each day/designer will be color coloured.
For my peer review, I am reviewing Jenella’s blog titled Taking Life by the Love Handles.
A quick glance of her homepage, I know why she chooses this theme. The pink tones and colorful photos of food are welcoming. The white is a nice contrast to highlight her blog content and it helps accentuate the colors of her photos. It’s appealing and easy on the eyes. It compels me to read more!
As you scroll down her homepage, her social media pages are easily available. To me, this is showing that she markets her personality with her blog. They go hand in hand and I believe she includes her own ‘self’ into her content. Where she eats tells something a little bit more about herself.
Food is the center of her brand, and she makes it clear. On her About page, she explains why she loves food and why it’s important to her. This idea and how she presents it is creating a space where she expresses herself and why she writes about food. She even addresses this when she shares her personal experience on doing something other than food on her Food and Friends blog.
These ideas are present and explained danah boyd’s It’s Complicated where she writes about the feeling of togetherness and through networked publics, communities can be connected through technology. For Jenella, she is creating this blog of togetherness. Almost all her times eating out are with friends! She shares her physical experiences through this network and her other channels.
She does a great job showcasing this physical space too. With her social media presence and her appealing photos, she is spreading wide on multiple channels. The pictures serve as a tangible step to a purely networked space. As seen in the Youtube stars’ trend on publishing books, it’s good to have a balance of online and offline content. Her blog posts have a balance of media and text. It’s a bonus that she takes great photos!
I do want to suggest a way to have these ideas better presented in her blog. I feel that she has a lot to say, and it doesn’t have to sacrifice the content she already writes.
Hot Ones is one of my favorite web series because it brings a fresh take on interviews; eating very spicy wings and talking. What I want to highlight for Jenella’s blog is the fact that some guests do a great job conversing about the wings and about their careers well that it becomes an interview for both. Alton Brown comes to mind. Each restaurant she goes to does not necessarily need a ‘deep’ or ‘introspective’ conversation with her friends, but I see her as being part of the content too. I’m curious to see why she chooses this restaurant or what is exciting or familiar about this restaurant? These elements would give more ‘food’ to the readers about who she is and exemplify the reasons she loves the food.
Phoebe Robinson’s You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain is hilarious, well written and extremely apropos. Not only does she have the ability to encapsulate complex and complicated life experiences into a few concise paragraphs, Robinson has an apt simile or metaphor to go with every one. One of my favourites:
“… I can explain why sometimes a black lady may straighten her hair. If she is anything like me, her natural hair has special shape-shifting qualities of epic T-1000 proportions, which means it has a mind of its own. For instance, when I sport an Afro, I may want to relax by sitting on my bed and leading my head against the wall. When I get up from that spot, my hair has assumed the shape of said wall… Yep. What was once a light, airy and fluffy Afro has turned into a condensed mass of tightly coiled locks that resembles fiberglass insulation used on House Hunters Renovation. Forgive me for not having the exact wording down for this particular scientific phenomenon, but I believe it’s called: That’s Some Damn Bullshit… I reach the limit of my fierceness when, while relaxing in the comfort of my own home, my hair is twisting into itself until it’s knotted like a pile of tangled iPhone earphones.”
Jokes aside, Robinson goes on to illustrate so beautifully the often fraught relationship that black women have with their hair and the ways in which their “hair journeys” marked with frustration, patience and learning to love often mirrors their own journeys of self-love. Robinson identifies her “natural hair” as “the most controversial signifiers of [her] blackness” and thus summarizes the reason for this complicated relationship: a white supremacist society will react to signifiers of blackness (78). Robinson discusses, not only that she felt less beautiful because her hair did not fit into Eurocentric standards of beauty, but a common lived experience for people of colour is that in order to be eligible for a job, hairstyles that explicitly indicate blackness (natural hair or dreads, for example) are out of bounds.
If this text had a thesis it would be: representation matters. Robinson’s memoir is crowned with the penultimate chapter titled “Letters to Olivia”, in which she provides a list to her niece – who is biracial – of all of the powerful biracial people she admires. While Robinson makes a habit of calling out society’s oppressive structures, she also, with even more zeal, calls attention to the rich and exquisite identity women of colour continue to maintain. Not surprisingly, the comedy world is one in which Robinson routinely calls out for being explicitly sexist and, you know, sexist in that banal, everyday sort of way. Because she lives it, Robinson has a myriad of exemplar comments from male comedians at the ready: “Women need to be pretty when they perform” and “Why do some women wear makeup on stage? Comedy is not about looks” (512). Or, “This girl’s a prude because she doesn’t bang any of the comics” and “She has sex with all the comics” (513). While this constant reminder of how unwelcoming the entertainment industry is to funny women is tiresome, it also seems to at once light a fire under Robinson; she meets this resistance with the radical audacity to be herself. After all, if Louis CK can perform a five minute bit gyrating while talking about an experience he had masturbating once, she should be able to say the word vagina without the (male) audience having a fit. Robinson points again to representation as a powerful force that helps to form and reform sense of self: “So much of comedy is about us all realizing, Hey maybe I’m not such a weirdo after all/Oh my God! You do that thing, too?/ Holy crap you just said everything I ever wanted to say, but didn’t have the tools to do so. The joy of seeing yourself in another is pertinent not just to stand-up comedy but to being alive” (515-516). And this is why I read. And this is why I write.
So I made a trip down to Guangzhou, China Mid-November and this had to be my favourite dish. I know this is not in Vancouver, but if you guys ever travel down there you NEED to give this a try.
We also god sweet potatoes (look how purple they are!!) — very soft and very creamy not dry at all. It complemented well with the oily chicken and the starch soaked up most of the grease.
Aesthetics: 5/5
Taste: 4/5
Price: (((forgot cause I did not pay 
)) — probably less than $1
THE DIRT BAKED CHICKEN!
So this was how people baked their chickens back in the day when ovens did not exist. They would dig a hole in the ground and then bake it for 4-5 hours. This is probably not foodsafe in Canada, but trust me it was soooo good. I have never had such tender chicken in my life! Be sure to wear gloves and eat it with your hands for the full experience!
It is wrapped in tin foil which contacts the dirt and then leaves to keep the chicken juices in place. Be sanitary and enjoyyyyy!
Aesthetics: 5/5 — looks messy but thats the traditional way
Taste: 5/5 — can I give this a 6/5 ?
Price: Also not sure but probably less than $12 for a WHOLE chicken
Yes. The Analytic such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is one of the most important valuable tools for building the audience. If I know where my audiences are coming from, I could develop the website based on the visitor’s taste. I think my website is especially dependent on the audience since it is an artist’s website. The audience has own artistic taste, and it would be beneficial to know what artistic color the audiences have.
I added my website address on my Instagram account a few weeks ago. It definitely increased the visitor numbers, and it gives me an idea that I could make some kind of connection between my website and the social network. I upload my artworks on Instagram, and I only provide small pieces of information such as the title and the date. Since most of my artworks are conceptual works, it is challenging to understand the idea behind the work. The audiences have to know an artist’s cultural background and personal interests.
The Instagram platform has a limitation on the explanation, and I think I could provide the full information through my website. Therefore, those Instagram audience who are willing to know my artwork is my expected audience.
I don’t worry about privacy. Although the website is connected to my personal social network, I do not post any personal information on my Instagram account. My Instagram account does not reflect my identity, but it only represents my artworks.
Understanding the audience, it is much clear to develop the direction of the website. It allows me to create much creative posts on my website, and the expected audience would be much pleased with the selected posts.
For my final peer review, I will be reviewing my classmate Quentin’s blog. His blog is called Assiduous Aesthetic, and it showcases his graphic design skills in the form of soccer jerseys for international, professional teams. Assiduous Aesthetic has a very clear motivation in terms of design. Quentin has made good use of his chosen blog theme to show who he is and his purpose behind the blog.
Considering the content on Assiduous Aesthetic, the general audience for this blog would be jersey designers, graphic designers, and soccer fans. Quentin has done a great job at choosing a niche that is specific enough to generate a targeted audience, which allows for lots of potential for marketing. His series, “My World Cup Redesign”, offers two redesigned uniforms for each soccer team in the world cup. He outlines his reasoning and rationale behind his design choices, and offers pictures of both the current uniforms and his newly designed uniforms. This content could be marketed towards those who are interested in the design of soccer uniforms. In general, the marketability of the content on Assiduous Aesthetic is high, especially around the time of FIFA. Being one of the most watched sports events in the world, Assiduous Aesthetic has the potential to have a lot of traffic driven to it. Mary Meeker (2018) points out that as the digitized world strives towards more creation, the competition will breed commercialism. The jerseys that Quentin has created have the potential to be monetized and marketed not only to international teams, but also to local soccer teams looking to redesign their jerseys.
The design of Assiduous Aesthetics provides clear calls to action regarding its content. On the homepage, there are three buttons that each call for the website user to explore deeper into the content that the blog offers. The first one says “Explore what happens when I fuse together soccer and graphic design,” the second one says, “Find out more about me and why I’m taking this project on,” and the third one says, “Take a look at my other work for Publishing 101.” Each of these calls to action not only works as a helpful guide through Quentin’s site, but also gives a quick snapshot to what his site is really about. Below this, Quentin provides a few links to his work. This gives users an easy way to explore his content without having to go through the hassle of navigating the site. Josh Constine (2016) wrote about how Facebook Messenger climbed its way to obtaining one billion users. He wrote that people were drawn to Messenger as it became easier and more convenient to use (Constine, 2016). Because Facebook values improving the day to day lives of its users, it prioritizes making their app easy to use, therefore attracting crowds (Constine, 2016). Similarly, Quentin has prioritized making his blog extremely clear and easy to navigate, which will attract and retain readers of his content.
Pulling from advice given by Travis Gertz (2015), I think that it is important for Quentin to take risks in the design aspect of his site. Not letting metrics and a need for high traffic produce a desire for normalization is essential for presenting content in new and innovative ways (Gertz, 2015). Although Assiduous Aesthetics is easy to navigate, it remains simple. Simplicity is not necessarily a bad characteristic, however, I think there is opportunity for Quentin to incorporate his love for design into the fabric of his blog. A unique design will allow for marketing opportunities on social media that catch the eyes of his potential audience.
Altogether, Quentin’s blog seems to have a clear direction in terms of content, and a solid audience. Reaching past a simplistic design approach will really give Assiduous Aesthetics the ability to market his designs in a unique way.
I remember seeing the Internet.org advertisements on the bus stops. They were everywhere. It was a call to have internet for all. I remember the ad wanted to give voice to areas that didn’t have internet. It wanted to connect the great minds and make it an equal field for the passionate ones. Until I read Mike Elgan’s The surprising truth about Facebook’s Internet.org for the class this week that I was reminded of that advertisement and, knowing Facebook’s reputation, I’m not surprised to find out the truth.
Internet.org, instead of connecting people with harder access of the internet, is actually just bringing in more people to sign up to their platform. They’re not interested in connecting people. They’re interested in the data that’s being surrendered. Now called Free Basics, Facebook targets countries that charge internet by the minute. They also take these users away and put them in Facebook’s own servers as a way to ‘save data usage’. They keep the users in Facebook in disguise of connecting them because they want to take complete control of their internet use and box them in using Facebook services. I like the metaphor that Elgan uses. It’s like giving a poor person a free sesame seed and claiming credit for giving them a free Big Mac.
This is important to speak about because these are multi billion dollar companies playing with user information. There’s no reason to fully trust these companies because they’re in for the business. If they claim some altruistic interest, it’s probably going to earn them money. Social networks have been controlled by capital and it will continue to take advantage of our use if we don’t question it. When I read this article, I consciously forgot the good and hope I felt when I saw the advertisement. I needed to be critical and realize that the ad played on my emotions and feel goodness. It just wanted to take my information. And by being critical and aware, I remember the ad for what it is, not what it was selling to me.
The #1 thing that surprised me about the analytics or engagements was from Instagram. I was really surprised that some accounts reposted my pictures and followed me back. Some well-known food places even followed me first like Tacofino, Buro coffee, Clickdishes, Ebisu, etc.
Above: Reel Mac and Cheese and Crab Park Chowdery followed me back and also reposted my image which helped with my engagement as well because they also tagged me in their post.
When I hit my peak, I had around 120-150 people visit my account per week. My posts generally averaged around 30-50 likes. I was also glad that most of my viewers were from Vancouver (on both my WordPress blog and Instagram because that was my intended audience from the beginning.
As for my blog, many of them were new visitors — so one thing I would like to work on is to increase the % of my returning visitors and hopefully create a better connection with them. My peak on my WordPress blog was in the month of October with 39 unique users and 117 page views in total!
Another thing I would like to improve after looking at my statistics on Google Analytics would be the bounce rate.
I would like to try and have my audience stay on my page longer instead of clicking away so fast.
For the last peer review, I have been given the opportunity to review Cherie Lau’s website. Cherie has a wide variety of content about women’s beauty. Ranging from makeup to skincare. When I open her website there is a large header with aesthetically pleasing cursive writing saying Cherie Lau. Underneath, there is a subheading “Share my small obsession with all things beauty”. From this I am quickly able to understand that this is a website about women’s beauty.
(Cherie’s menu bar and header)
Something that I find when scrolling through Cherie’s website, is the wide variety of topics. This isn’t ideal when finding a focussed audience. One criticism I have about Cherie’s website is her menu bar. Currently there is: Makeup, Skincare, Travel and PUB 101. What I don’t understand is why there is a travel button. This confuses the audience because above she tells us her website is about beauty; however, travelling has no correlation with women’s beauty. Also, when I click on the travel menu I am directed to a blank page. I suggest scratching the travelling part from your website and focus on women’s beauty. Having a wide variety of topics to discuss does decrease the marketability of your website. Reading through Cherie’s articles I find that there is a very broad range in topics. For example, in her skincare menu some of the topics Cherie writes about are: Would I Repurchase, Is your skincare working and Skincare Products I’m enjoying. I believe it would be easier for the audience to navigate through her website and be able to find what they want to learn if she added menus like, product reviews, how to apply products and my routine.
As I read some of Cherie’s posts I see that she has built a strong online persona. She has done this by telling her audience her personal opinions and some of her personal stories. My impression of Cherie is the she is someone that is passionate about beauty and knows her stuff. If I was into makeup I would like to read her interesting blog posts. This is a very effective way in getting an audience to come back to her website. Cherie has also shared her Email, Youtube and Instagram accounts that appear on every page. This is a great way to connect with her audience even more. Both social medias allow Cherie to better market herself.
(Cherie connecting with her audience)
I am encouraged by the fact that 33.3% of visitors are returning readers. That makes me think that it is becoming routine for some readers. In the location section of 
Google Analytics, I was informed that most of my users are in the US and Canada, which is not surprising – save for one user in Malaysia, which could be a bot.
Something that has become quite clear to me in looking further into analytics is that I need to be posting something more than once a week to keep my views up. Or, as an alternative, do a midweek post on my Instagram to call attention to the reviews for people who have the intention of reading, but haven’t. I have had a few interactions recently in which I have a face to face conversation with someone about my site and they say something along the lines of: “Oh, I keep forgetting to look at your site! I’ve been meaning to read the reviews.” So, a reminder in some form would be helpful. At this point, there is a spike of views on the day that I post and then a steady decline throughout the week when I am less active on the site.
Last week, I posted my review on Men Explain Things to Me on the November 5th, and page views were double what they became five days later.
Regarding conversion, because I don’t have a product that I’m selling, I need to think of ways to get readers involved without necessarily buying anything. I am thinking that an email sign-up option would be a good way to facilitate conversion on my site. It is possible also that users will be more likely to revisit site content if it is in their inboxes, rather than having to revisit the site altogether. This week I will be exploring ways to do that.
Mariah Craig’s website Street Stories: Perspectives of the Vulnerable is an online storytelling space that seeks to shed light on the beauty and pain present in a marginalized neighbourhood in Surrey. Currently, Mariah is in the process of completing a series of three interviews with those employed by Nightshift Ministries, the context of her work.
There seems to be a disconnect for me between the site’s goal to tell the stories of the marginalized and displaced in Surrey and what it is currently doing. The organization, Nightshift itself, appears to be the main focus of the website at this moment in time. I imagine that as Mariah becomes more familiar with those in the community that the focus will shift to the site’s intended focus: the stories of those who are served by the organization.
Further, I am not certain who Mariah’s intended audience is. Possible future volunteers or donors for the organization? Friends who want to stay updated on her new experiences as a volunteer? In any case, making the exploration possibilities more obvious for users would benefit Mariah’s site. Victor Kaptelinin discusses the importance of affordances in design, explaining their purpose: “to denote action possibilities provided to the actor by the environment”. I found myself wanting to organize the information that was coming at me at first glance of Mariah’s site. The posts on Mariah’s home page are an assortment of interviews with Nightshift workers, a post about her first volunteer experience with Nightshift, and an essay about Humans of New York, a storytelling project that her site is largely inspired by. The overload of information on the first page did not make the “possible uses [of the site] immediately obvious” (Kaptelinin). Mariah’s site would benefit from separate pages to aid in categorizing the assortment of material on Mariah’s site. For example, explicitly informational pages that seek to foreground Mariah herself and Nightshift Ministries could be separate pages instead of one among many posts.
Mariah’s site might also benefit from a social media platform that is directly linked to her work at Nightshift. At the moment, her personal Instagram account is linked to her site and has no direct intersection with the theme of her site.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the interviews that Mariah conducted. I really got the sense that those being interviewed have a real heart for the people suffering from addiction and homelessness in Surrey. In this sense, Mariah is capturing moving stories for her readers. One thing I wondered about, however, is the format in which they are being represented. The typical interview style is not being deployed here, in which the interviewer asks a question and the reader is able to see verbatim the reply given by the person being interviewed. I find that approach much clearer and easier to follow. My recommendation would be to use that format as a foundation and then have Mariah write freely discussing the way that the interview affected her after the initial interview.
As we integrate our everyday lives with technology, there are undeniably limitless marketing/business opportunities. Creation, curation, and dissemination of free content comes with advertising opportunities, and as we’ve learnt, there are multiple channels to do so. I think that this is another fantastic way to engage with my audience, to establish my brand as a publisher. Furthermore it offers me an opportunity to think about putting advertisements on my blog to monetize this process. In my opinion, one of the channels with the most potential would be social media, especially Snapchat and Instagram. These two apps are perfect for my blog because of the target audience it can reach. According to Statista, Snapchat is a social media with one of the most pre-teens/ teenage users, with 23% of users being between the ages of 13-17 years old. This is perfect for my blog because my target audience would be gamers, and most teens/pre-teens game.
With the knowledge that social media is a profitable channel for my blog, I think my next course of action would be to create a Snapchat, and create more content on social media that would attract more users to my blog.
Links:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/326452/snapchat-age-group-usa/
I have narrowed the media channels for my blog down to three, specifically, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Currently, I am using Twitter and Instagram to share new posts that are on my blog. I have also started to experiment with tweeting during hockey games in hopes of viewers engaging with my tweets and viewing my profile which promotes my blog.
Recently during a Canucks game, I tweeted about a goal that Elias Pettersson scored and how it was reminiscent of Daniel Sedin. In a matter of minutes, this tweet garnered a lot of interest. However, the 5000+ impressions and 50+ likes only translated into a few viewers checking out my profile but I did engage in a brief conversation with a few people regarding my tweet. Through this experiment, I realized that I should tweet more often during hockey games to lift my Twitter profile to get more interest from hockey fans. After all many teams and fans are on Twitter.
Similarly, on Instagram, I am contemplating “going live” and doing reaction videos to hockey games and certain plays. While this can be done on both Instagram and YouTube, I have a larger following on Instagram compared to both Twitter and YouTube, so it would be more efficient in reaching my imagined audience which is active on all three of my current media channels. However, I do not want to neglect my YouTube channel. I am considering transitioning to more video posts than written content as it will enable me to increase the output of my content in less time as I find video editing easier and faster than proofreading. The content would be hosted on YouTube and embedded into my blog. This would enable me to provide content to both viewers of my blog and YouTube channel.
Although I am active in three media channels and have plans to further enhance my transmedia integration on them by increasing activity during peak times, there are many fans and teams on Facebook too. I am planning to create a page from my blog to increase brand awareness. I will likely post content similar to what I am posting on Twitter and Instagram. Essentially, I am currently active on three of four platforms primarily used by hockey fans and teams. I have plans to increase my activity on these platforms in addition to adding another platform to the mix.
