Monthly Archives: November 2018

Montreal Canadiens Rebuild Part 4

All images are from NHL 19.

Welcome to part four of the Montreal Canadiens rebuild in NHL 19’s Franchise Mode. Click here to catch up on part one, part two and part three. As mentioned last week, this week’s post will entail the results of the draft lottery, the draft itself, the re-sign phase, and, of course, free agency.

 

Draft Lottery

And the results are…

Obviously, we did not win the lottery, but luckily, we did not fall either.

 

Draft Day

After a few hours of viewing data on players provided by our scouts, I pinpointed eight players who I believe have elite potential.

I realized there was no player that was intriguing at ninth overall, so I viewed trading blocks around the league. To my surprise, A. Nylander was on the block in Buffalo. The following trade was made to acquire him and the 17th overall selection in this year’s draft.

Since the team had a plethora of picks and only eight players were being targeted, I deferred some late picks to next year’s draft. Luckily, I was able to find trade partners and we selected everyone who we had hoped for.

 

Re-Sign Phase

Korpisalo was inked a two-year $2.925M deal. H. Fleury signed a one-year “prove-it” contract valued at $1.575M. Similarly, R. Murray inked a one-year “prove-it” contract valued at $5.325M.

Olofsson, M. Reilly, N. Scherbak, M. McCarron, A. Lehkonen and C. Hudon signed contract extensions.

I. Scott, S. Walford, J. Tyszka, J. Ylonen, C. Hillis and J. Olofsson signed entry-level contracts.

 

Free Agency

This year’s free agent class featured many high-end players including E. Karlsson. Seeing that players of this caliber were available I decided that it was time to turn this team around and become a legitimate contender. Since the team was swimming in cap space, I offered contracts left, right and center. The most notable signings were E. Karlsson, M. Stone, S. Bobrovsky, A. Duclair, D. Brassard and J. Skinner. This resulted in many players being forced down the depth chart and players such as M. Reilly and C. Lindgren were now expendable and traded for draft picks. Upon reviewing the roster, it was evident that we still required better defenders as Karlsson would not suffice on his own. However, the team was also very close to the cap-ceiling. I explored an A. Shaw trade and was able to make the deal below to dump his contract. Surprisingly, we did not have to retain any salary. Even though we now had the cap space, there were not many quality defenders remaining in free agency. I was forced to sign J. Ryan to fill the void temporarily as options would now have to be considered on the trade front.

 

Tune in next week for a captaincy announcement, season simulation and much more. Also, if you have any comments and/or suggestions please share them below in the comments section.

Peer Review #3 – Red Lasiste

My peer review is on Red Lasiste’s website, Business School Prescriptions which is where he talks about what he has learned in his business education. When I first entered the website I was greeted by a full page photo. At a quick glance the website looks very well put together and shows a lot of work was put into creating it. All of the articles showcased a vast amount of knowledge and were very enjoyable to read. The navigation and design of the website looked to be well thought out and help make the website what it is.

The navigation through the website I would say it is really easy. It is so easy because there are so many tools accessible to help find what they are are looking for. If someone is on a post’s page, there are links on the side to archives which one can choose a certain month, categories on various topics and a list of recent posts. These are all extremely useful and give a user whether new or returning an easy way to get around the website. It’s also super easy to find any of the Publishing 101 work as its just as easy as clicking on “Pub 101” in the bottom right on the home page and it shows the various types of Pub 101 work which can be clicked on. However, the best feature especially for returning users is the search icon up in the top right. Most returning users will either want to come back to an article they have already read or they want to read something new. Well luckily if they are looking for something they have already read before it is as easy as just searching for it. One thing that was a bit confusing when I first got into the website was actually finding an article to read. I was lost until I finally figured out that clicking on the titles that as I scroll through the home page, takes me to the article. A suggestion would to maybe under the title add a little snippet of text from the article under the title to make it a little easier to understand.

As far as the design of the website goes I really enjoy it and think it is very unique. The big full page pictures make the website very unique, and I’ve never seen another website do something like it before. All the photos are really good quality photos and match with the website’s business theme perfectly. I also like the small but nice feature on the website when hovering over a title with the mouse, the titles color turns yellow which catches a reader’s eye and likely will help draw them into that article. When on an articles page the design flows through and definitely does not disappoint. I found when reading the article, “Why Case Competitions Are Crucial to Your Professional Development,” it was super easy to read. For starters, the font, gap between lines and line length are all really good and make it easy to read. Also I thought it was a great idea to bold the topics of each paragraph so a reader can easily see what each paragraph is about and if they want to just read a specific one then can find it and read it. Articles are super easy to read and that is one of the most important parts of any website.

 

Overall, the website looks very professional which fits the business theme because when most people think of business they associate it with being profesional which the website encapsulates. This is a great website and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about business.

The post Peer Review #3 – Red Lasiste appeared first on The World of College Football.

PROCESS POST: Create a goal (week 10)

There’s not much traffic coming through to my blog, so I’m not sure how much weight the statistics that are offered by Google Analytics hold in terms of seeing how my content is being received. From what I can see, my bounce rate is sitting well at just over 26%, and the bulk of my page views (39.08%) sit with my homepage.

I created a goal for my blog conversions called “Time Spent.” I found it kind of funny to make a goal, considering I basically get no traffic to my site. But, maybe one day this goal will be put to good use. I wanted to focus my goal on the duration of time spent on my site because I want to know that people are taking the time to actually read my posts. I set the goal for 3 minutes, because I figured that is a good amount of time for someone to navigate my site, find a post, and read it. Currently, the average amount of time people spend on a page on my site is just over 2 minutes. Although it’s nice to imagine people staying on my site for longer, I am content to start out with the goal of keeping people on my site long enough to read one post. As I get more established with my blog, I would hope that people would engage with my content and explore my posts for longer.  

Process Post Week 10

After looking at my Google Analytics of my website, its kinda sad how few people have seen it. Now I know there are billions of websites on the internet, but I would have expected at least of few people to have miraculously fallen upon my website. Having only had 10 users at the time of writing this it surely makes me think of what I could do to get more people to view my website. Most of those 10 people are probably not even going to the website for the purpose of reading college football. Most likely those 10 are either me, people doing peer reviews or teachers looking in to the website. With this I need to focus on overall just getting people to know of my website.

I might not have the most unique website out there as there are much bigger websites such as theScore, ESPN and Bleacher Report that talk about college football, but I thought with the market being so big I could get a few people to pop by and read. Going forward I need to make sure that my topics in which I talk about are unique and not a copy of something said on one of the big CFB websites in order to make myself stand out. I also need to try market my website better. I could create an Instagram and Facebook account where I post more information on college football. I will have my website linked, so if people want to read more and learn more they can go to my website. Overall, in order for the numbers to go up on my website I need to make more unique content and market it better.

 

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Best Remaining Games This Season

With week 11 in the books and all teams in the top ten winning this week, there are not many big moments to talk about. The best teams stayed dominant and overall the standing are looking the same. With this we are going to look at the top matchups for the remainder of the season.

Image result for yankee stadium notre dame uniforms

Week 12 looks like it can be fairly boring as the only big match up will be between #3 Notre Dame and #13 Syracuse. Even though Syracuse is ranked 13th in the nation Notre Dame is still favoured -9.5 going in to the game and they should have no problem beating Syracuse. This game will also be Notre Dame’s final real test before the playoffs, and if they win this game then they should be set for the playoffs. This game will also be special for another reason, as it will be played in Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame will also be wearing New York Yankee inspired jerseys (as seen above) which in my opinion look very cool and I can’t wait to see them on field.

Image result for will grier

However, as sad as week 12 is, week 13 definitely makes up for it. Week 13 will have a few major matches that will have an affect on the playoff picture. The first match is #6 Oklahoma vs #9 West Virginia. This Big 12 matchup will be very big as they are both one loss teams that both still have a legitimate chance of making the playoff. However, they will need a bit of help from some other teams in order to make the playoffs. Both teams have top of the line quarterbacks in Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and West Virginia’s Will Grier and both will contribute big numbers. This game will definitely be really high scoring and will likely come to a shoot out in the end.

Image result for michigan vs ohio state rivalry

Another big week 13 match will be the the classic Michigan vs Ohio State game. #4 Michigan looks to make their first college football playoff, where as #10 Ohio State looks to hold on to any last hope and have a big win at home. This will be the two team’s 115th meeting dating back all the way to 1897 when the first game took place. Ohio State have won the past 6 meetings and have a good chance at making it 7 in a row in their stadium in 2 weeks.

Week 13 looks will be a great week to sit down and enjoy all the great games and hopefully crazy chaos. Lots of inner state games will also be happening such as Florida vs Florida State and Clemson (located in South Carolina) vs South Carolina. Overall there will be no bigger week then week 13 and who makes the playoff will be decided potentially on this week.

 

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INTERVIEW: Nine — Sara Idberg, Junior Graphic Designer

Sara Idberg

Junior Graphic Designer

  • Age: 21
  • Job situation: I’m currently studying my bachelor in graphic design.
  • Best memory with design: My first semester at university we designed typefaces and I learnt how much I love typography. I could sit for hours just focusing in the details of my typeface, exploring with the curves and so on. I think the best thing about it though is that I can still proudly present a job in my portfolio that I made my very first semester.
  • Favourite font/typeface: Avant Garde Light or in general geometric/circular lightweight sans serifs.

You do a lot of different designs. What would you say is the best/funniest thing to create (logos, applications, etc.)? I would say any type of layout. It could be magazines, books, packages even, as long as it starts with a blank paper and I am supposed to arrange text and images. I can’t draw any better than a five-year-old so logos can be a bit tricky for me.

What is your priority when taking jobs? What is your favourite job to do? Considering my lack of experience, I will try to think as my future self. I would like to think that I will have the opportunity to choose the jobs that I can be proud of ethically and if so, that would be a priority. To solve a problem for a company with good values in a sustainable way. Of course, I would also love being able to do jobs where I can produce nice looking, smart designs where the client trusts my opinion, rather than having to adapt on their bad graphic profile thinking that my design is a total waste of money for the client.

Would you say that the design branch is man dominated of neutral? Why do you think that? I think that the agencies are overall man dominated but my feeling is that it’s getting better and a lot of them are actively searching for more women. It’s kind of surprizing though since the university programs on design are women dominated. I also think that there are more women in the field than we see, maybe there’s more women working freelance or in house? Either way I think that the agency culture has a very strong history of man domination with the “Mad Men”-spirit, when women haven’t been welcomed in.

Want to contact Sara? Comment below and I will connect you!

Peer Review #3

Introduction

For the third peer review of this course, I’ve been assigned to review Joaquin’s blog – Belly Good Food Review. From the about page and the general recent content on his blog, it is apparent that this is a food review blog. I’m going to be categorizing the review of this blog in terms of general user experience (design) and content, relative to the demographic of the blog.

User Experience (Design)

Joaquin’s primary demographic for his blog would be foodies, or other food reviewers. I’ve personally known quite a few foodies myself and from hundreds and thousands of Instagram posts, it is common knowledge that they are famous for their appreciation for art and aesthetics. This brings us to the homepage of Belly Good Food Review, which is in my opinion, fantastic. The background of a picture with a filter of cool colors is complimented by the white texts of the name of this blog and the introductory statement. Further down the page, the background transitions to what looks like wooden panels, overlaid by individual posts with white borders and a picture that’s relevant to the post. The layout of the posts on the homepage is probably one of my favorite aspects to the blog as a user. I appreciate that the sizes of the posts are sufficient to showcase the content with a large picture, but not large enough to become a nuisance to have to scroll through.

The design of this blog is simply aesthetic, and generally a pleasant experience to surf through. That being said, there are some minor tweaks that I would suggest for this blog to make the user experience even better. As I scrolled through the posts, and commuted my way to page 3, I wanted to take a look at the “About” page, however, I could not find a navigation menu. I feel that a navigation menu is critical to help keep your audience oriented on your website, even more so as you add more content. Adding a navigation menu is a means of saving time and hassle for users, though a few seconds to go back to the home page and click on the “About” page might sound insignificant, but in my opinion, I feel that every second is valuable from the user’s perspective.

Content

The first impression of the blog from the homepage that I had was that it was going to be a fun read. This is because the introductory statement showed a sense of humor, that I just haven’t found in other blogs. “Peas to meat you! Orange you glad you discovered this site? Lettuce get right to it and taco ‘bout some gouda food!” word play genuinely brightened my mood, and I feel that it has and will continue to do that for his other viewers as well.

The first impression of the blog from the homepage that I had was that it was going to be a fun read. This is because the introductory statement, and the title from some of the blog posts like “New Design, Who Dis?” showed a sense of humor, that I just haven’t found in other blogs. The word plays in the introductory statement on the homepage “Peas to meat you! Orange you glad you discovered this site? Lettuce get right to it and taco ‘bout some gouda food!” genuinely brightened my mood, and I feel that it has and will continue to that for his other viewers as well.

Conclusion

After reading some of Joaquin’s blog posts, I feel that Belly Good Food Review’s most marketable trait is Joaquin himself. The personality and rapport that’s created on this blog is phenomenal, the light-hearted comedy would be the secondary or even the primary factor that people return to this site. With more functionality that’s based towards the user experience like adding a navigation bar, I feel that this is a website that I’d visit daily, even when I’m not quite a foodie!

 

 

 

Vancouver’s new Overwatch team!

As Inaugural season of the Overwatch League (OWL) came to an end, each of the teams from the Atlantic and Pacific Division has had their fair share of victories and losses (some with 0-40 loss ahem… Shanghai Dragons… ahem). It looks like the OWL has plans of expansion to its original 12 teams, which include:

From the Atlantic Division:

  1. Boston Uprising
  2. Florida Mayhem
  3. Houston Outlaws
  4. London Spitfire
  5. New York Excelsior
  6. Philadelphia Fusion

From the Pacific Division:

  1. Dallas Fuel
  2. Los Angeles Gladiators
  3. Lost Angeles Valiant
  4. San Francisco Shock
  5. Seoul Dynasty
  6. Shanghai Dragons

6 new teams will be added to the original 12. Including 2 teams from China, Chengdu and Hangzhou. 2 teams from Canada, Vancouver and Toronto. One team from Paris, France. And one team from Washington, DC.

Most of these have been announced; Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, Paris Eternals, Toronto Defiant. The remaining teams (Vancouver and Washington DC) has not been announced yet.

However, there’s recently been a “leak” according to some sources on Reddit. A picture of the team name Vancouver Titans, with the skins has surfaced (see image below). Whether this source is credible is uncertain. But either ways this is a very exciting tease!

Links:

VANCOUVER BRAND LEAK: Titans from Competitiveoverwatch

https://www.sportsnet.ca/more/report-vancouver-franchise-coming-overwatch-league/

http://fortune.com/2018/09/08/overwatch-league-2019-new-teams/

Let's talk about Art History 2018-11-13 05:02:09

My name is Ryan Sangha, an eighteen year old boy studying at Simon Fraser University. I am currently enrolled in PUB101 and Let’s talk about Art History is about all about historical art works. Ranging from the year 2000 and back in time. I created this website because in high school I took Art History 12 AP, which i found very interesting. I have always had an artistic background being a photographer and posting my photos on instagram (@westcoastshoots). Recently, I haven’t been creating much art and felt detached from one of my hobbies. This is why I decided to create a blog about art history. In my blog you will find artworks that fascinate me.

Week 10: The Analytical ABC’s and the Editing Blues

After weeks of making small and dramatic design changes to my blog, I finally feel ready to buckle down and start the next massive task: editing all of my posts. I began this tiresome (but necessary) task by going through my movie review posts and adding embedded videos. I wanted to add trailers to my content posts because I wanted to reduce my audience exit rate. Even though I don’t have information about why my audience exits my website, I understand that many people want to watch trailers, not just read reviews. If I did not have trailers available, people would have to leave my website to find them (and there’s no guarantee they’ll come back). Another simple but important change I made to some of my posts was adding links to other articles I’ve written. For example, in my review for Searching, I added a note stating, “If you enjoy mysteries, you may also enjoy the TV series The Five (available on Netflix).” I decided to link to other articles after hearing Monique Sherrett’s lecture on audience and analytics. Monique discussed the importance of user engagement: how long do people spend on each page, how many pages do they view before exiting, how many users return (Sherrett). Linking to other shows and movies users might like can help increase their engagement, and potentially increase their interest in my website.

(An example of the changes I made).

After Monique’s lecture for our class, I also began thinking more critically about goals and objectives for my blog. Monique explained that goals are broad statements about actions we want people to take, whereas objectives are measurable, specific, actionable, and achievable (Sherrett). My first goal is that I want to increase the page views for my TV Reviews category. In order to create a more specific, measurable and actionable objective, I looked at my Google analytics to better understand my viewers’ behaviours. I was surprised to see the TV Reviews category already had over 50 page views because I created this section more than halfway through the course. After checking the views, I created an objective: I want to have more than 100 views for the TV Reviews category on my blog by December 31, 2018.

I looked at the Acquisitions section of my Google analytics in order to create a plan to achieve my objective. The following graph shows the breakdown of how people enter my website:

This chart made me realize that no one is finding my website through social media because I have not linked my blog on my social media accounts. I originally avoiding providing a link to my blog because I felt nervous about my friends and family reading my work, but I’m going to try adding the link to see if this helps to increase the number of people entering my site.

In order to increase the interest in TV Reviews, I’m also going to try posting for this category more often. I focussed on my Movie Reviews for my weekly posts, but once the semester is over I will have more time to post more frequently in both categories. If I post more often, this might result in more viewers returning to see what’s new. I can also try linking more related TV shows to movie reviews. There are many ways to increase views!

 

Work Cited

Sherrett, Monique. SFU Publishing 101, 30 October 2018, Harbour Centre, Vancouver, BC. Guest Lecture.

Process Post 9 (Our Analytics)

This was an interesting week for a process post as we had to focus on the analytics of our website and the data collected. I never had an opportunity to create something where I would be able to look at a detailed analysis of user data. My experience with analytics has only been with my Instagram account, but I was unaware of the amount of information that could be accessed through Google Analytics. Unfortunately, because I have not promoted my site very much (as I was unaware coming into this class that we were going to be working with analytics) the data for my blog was marginal. This did make it a little more challenging to work with.

Audience data (Sept 23 – Nov 11)

Since I have not had experience working with Google Analytics, I must admit that it is quite overwhelming and complex to understand. Luckily, with Monique Sherrett’s presentation, some clarification was made in regards to Google Analytics. However, I will definitely have to continue to take some additional time navigating the site and understanding the data in order to fully grasp what I am looking at. Nevertheless, there was still information that provided insight as to how my audience was interacting with Here, There.

Looking at the basics of what is shown (from the start of syncing Google Analytics to the week of this Process Post), it is apparent that visitors to my site came in waves. I was not surprised by this as it was most likely due to certain moments within the course when we were to edit, observe or look at our peer’s sites. The audience overview shows that most users are new with only a few returning visitors. One aspect that I was most surprised by was seeing that a few users came from outside of Canada, such as the United States and even as far as India; I had to question how people found the blog when it was not publicly advertised.

More detail of users and visitors to site (Sept 23 – Nov 11)

Looking at the acquisitions, what surprised me was the average session duration at around 8:12, which was much longer than I expected. In addition, after adding goals for my conversions (having visitors enter my site), it was apparent that I was meeting them, which is also something that I did not expect given that I was not able to frequently update my blog as much as I intended.

Acquisitions of site (Sept 28 – Nov 11).

Seeing that most users and visitors landed and spent most of the time on the homepage, ways that I could change my online publication is making sure that the homepage is visually appealing and captivating. It would also be important to make sure the content on the homepage will have users continue to navigate and explore my blog, instead of leaving. Overall, having the ability to look at the analytics for my site was an eye-opening experience into how our work can create certain outcomes. It would be interesting to publish and share my blog throughout more media outlets in order to obtain more data and further insight into my audience and visitor engagement.

Monday Blues

Another one of my favourite brands is MondaySuck. They’re a streetwear brand that I stumbled across on Instagram and I love their apparel and accessories. What sucks though is that shipping and converting from USD to CAD really jacks up the price. I always go on their site and put a bunch of stuff in my cart but I never go through with the purchase just because the first time I ordered from them I also got hit with duties. Duties + currency conversion + $20 CAD shipping is not fun. The Lovers Paradise hoodie was worth the amount I paid; I think I paid at least $120 CAD. But I’m okay with it since I wear at least once a week. It’s literally my favourite hoodie. I got the hoodie so long ago I don’t think MondaySuck sells it anymore. They have a similar one, but they don’t have “Lovers Paradise” on the back. Which, to be honest, is the main reason why I bought the hoodie.

I really recommend their apparel. I’m currently eyeing the white quarter-zip with the orange outlined “mondaysuck”. I just can’t get myself to spend another $120 .. black Friday really killed my wallet.

I layered a long white tee under the hoodie so it would peek through the bottom. I’m also wearing my BDG ripped jeans again, champion socks, and continental 80s. It was chilly on that day as well so I wore my Oak+Fort black sherpa jacket from last year.

 

Week 10 – Interesting Fact About Your “Abs”

Photo by Cristian Baron on Unsplash

Abdominis, or people usually say “abs”. It is the part most people adore, the very first thing people define a person finiteness is if they have an abs. Fair enough for people who think that, since the abs is one of the hardest muscle group to show, it required a low fat percentage in the body to show the abs. Normally, abs will be protected by fat tissue that surrounded on waist, only a trained personal could relatively easy to show the abs definition. 

Source from: https://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

Refer to the chart above, average men contain 18-24% fat and women contain 25-31% fat on their body. In order to make the abs visible on the body, normally it needs to cut down to 14% or below for men and 16% or below for women. It is not easy to cut down the body fat percentage to that level.  

Rectus Abdominis, Transverse Abdominus, Obliques

Source: http://www.pilatesfitness.com.sg/important-strong-obliques/

When we talk about abs, people may misunderstand the whole”front waist” part is”abs”. That is not true, in our body, the front waist is composed of three major muscle groups, Rectus Abdominis, Transverse Abdominus, and Obliques. To make a perfect Superman “abs”, it requires a variety of training. The most common exercise, sit-up, can only train the Rectus Abdominis. To build perfect abs, you need to more than just a sit up. (For the abs training, we will discuss in next week training session). Besides the aesthetic purpose, built abs can also protect you from injury. Not only muscles injury but also protect your organs inside the body. Don’t give up on your abs training just because you can’t see it at the moment. It is still secretly protecting you.  #Let’s train today!

Peer Review #3

In the peer review 3, this time I am going to review Joanne Kim website- Joanne Noella. Joanne’s blog is a lifestyle blog, shares her own experience with people. She shares different a variety of content to viewers, from daily saving advice to fashion and health. Many interesting though blended into her lifestyle blog. When I first clicked on the blog, there are a big clean heading media along with the white colour background, it created a clean and soft atmosphere to the blog. On the menu bar, there are eight different categories. It is a clearly separate different section in the blog which could increase the usability to navigate reader to their content. The blog overall produce a young and energetic style to the reader and it is matching up the theme of the blog, a 18 years old school girl lifestyle blog. 

Joanne’s blog is a teenagers lifestyle blog, the target audience of this blog should be around 15 – 23 years old adolescent who is sharing the similar lifestyle and experience. The reason for me choosing intended audience around 15 – 23, because the style of the blog is on teenagers style, from the fashion to the saving advice, all the problems Joanne listed will more likely appear at the age between 15- 23 age group. People who are facing the same problem will more likely to surf the blog to seek advice and help.

This is an interesting blog to take a glance and search for some interesting topic, however, I think the blog is low on marketability. Although the blog contains many different topics and ideas, the blog is not specific enough in one field. To marketing a blog or anything, it is crucial to set up a niche and focus on what you are targeting to market the product. There are too many fields in the same blog, for instance, some posts on the blog are about money saving, some posts are about health and workout exercise, and some posts about personal life and fashion. A wide range of topic no doubt could expand the market, but it will also decrease the marketability. Banner Ads could be one of the solutions for the blog, but it could raise the profit quite and die down in a hot minute. The Toast blog went down is an example. The Toast had no specific mission statement for the blog. They use different ads try to boost up the sale but it did not succeed. The marketing style leads The Toast couldn’t make enough money and struggle to keep it afloat. The same problem is happening in Joanne’s blog. 

To increase the marketability, Joanne’s blog needs to restrict the area of her work. It is not necessary to cut down most of the topic but try to maintain in certain field. For example, try to focus on what teenagers interested the most, like fashion and workout. Combine the money saving and personal experience into those two primary object. It will help to set up a niche and make the blog marketable. 

Google Analytics

What surprised me the most about me analytics was that they were higher than I expected them to be. I was in the process of revamping my theme and I put everything else on hold because my previous theme had some major problems. Even though I just started developing my blog I was getting 9 visitors weekly. It was hard for me to promote myself as I had a fear of posting frequently on Instagram, yeah, I know it’s kind of weird. But it amazed me that those who followed me would even click a link that I put out.

Another metric that surprised me was the number of visitors I had a month. It just seemed unreal to me that people are going to my site and reading content that I have put out. When starting this blog, I didn’t know how I would like it as I am a rather shy person. But putting my stuff out there isn’t as bad as I thought. If Ipost more frequently on Instagram and start tagging my clothes form where I got them and include my URL in the description, I think the number of visitors on my site will rise exponentially. Also, I can utilize the function on Instagram stories where you can swipe up to include a link to give my followers easy access to my blog.

 

 

 

Peer Review #3: “Lessons of a Design Student”

Jason Chung’s blog “Lessons of a Design Student” has the potential for marketing opportunities, but he may need to narrow down his target audience to better understand what type of marketing would be the most appropriate for his website. Currently, Jason hopes to target an audience of all ages, but it is difficult to make a design that appeals to both children and professionals.

(Jason’s current target audience).

Matthew Stadler’s talk on “What is Publication?” could help Jason think about his audience more critically. At 1:20 in the video, Stadler (2010) explains that “publication is the creation of a public.” Stadler does not mean that everyone will be attracted to a website, but rather publication gives people the opportunity to create a certain type of public. Further on in the video at 5:35, Stadler (2010) also reminds viewers that “publication requires relationships and conversations.” In order for Jason to have meaningful conversations on his website (between himself and his readers), he should try targeting a certain age group or a group with a certain level of design competency. Since this blog is written clearly from the perspective of a “design student,” I would expect Jason’s target audience to be 18-25-year-old design students or people considering entering the design field, but it is possible to target a younger or older audience. He could also try looking at his Google Analytics to gain a better understanding of the audience he is already reaching (on Google Analytics, go to Audience, Demographics, Age).

If Jason’s target audience is interested in going into the design field, he will have a wide variety of marketing opportunities. He could potentially place a sponsored advertisement for a university that offers design courses, such as SFU. Jason could also have affiliate advertisements for software such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator (but this may be contradictory to his post “Design Software is Just Another Tool”). He could also have affiliate advertising for design books. If Jason decides to have any form of advertisement, I recommend he puts a disclaimer somewhere on his website that explains how he makes money from these advertisements. As Tom Bleymaier (2013) argues in his critical review on Maria Popvova’s advertising techniques, “it sure seems like [readers] should have all the information at hand to make their own choice.”

While Jason considers monetizing his blog, he should also consider altering his design to better indicate his desired audience. I recommend installing the plugin WP Hide Post. His POSIEL posts are not related to his blog’s topic, so I would recommend using this plugin to hide the process and assignment posts on his homepage. This will help his audience find his design posts faster. Jason should also consider adding colour, a header image, or a background image to give his website more flare. I have only taken one design course, but graphic design is very visual and, as of right now, Jason’s website is more text-heavy.

Beyond the lack of photos, there are lots of other design elements that are working well on Jason’s website. His website has a really strong sense of balance. The content is center-aligned, which leaves a lot of white space on the right and left sides of the screen (both on his homepage and on his blog posts). As Mauvé Page (2018) discussed in her design lecture to our class, white space is important for a variety of reasons. White space makes the page feel less cluttered, and also makes big blocks of texts feel less daunting for readers. Jason’s blog is mostly filled with text, but the white space makes the homepage feel clean and tidy rather than overwhelming or cluttered.

Even though the balance and use of white space are working well on Jason’s blog, he could use more contrast on his homepage and blog posts. Mauvé (2018) recommended “[using] contrast to create emphasis.” Contrast can be created through “colour, texture, size, and shapes” (Mauvé 2018). Jason could create contrast on his homepage by having an interesting header or background image. I noticed that Jason has a post called “Start with Sketching.” When I took IAT102 (Intro to Graphic Design) last summer, the course also emphasized the importance of sketching in graphic design. Since sketching is a big part of design, it might be interesting to have a bunch of different sketches as the background image. Just an idea!

Overall, Jason’s website is coming along nicely. Focusing more on his target audience and contrast on his homepage could help him increase his blog’s marketing potential.

 

Works Cited

  • Bleymaier, Tom. 2013. On Advertising — Maria Popova. http://on-advertising.tumblr.com/
  • Page, Mauvé. October 2018. “Some Considerations for Web Design and Type On Screens.” Lecture at Simon Fraser University for Publishing 101.
  • Stadler, Matthew. 2010. “What is Publication?” Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference, Seattle, WA. May 21, 2010. https://vimeo.com/14888791

Peer Review #3

Welcome to the third and final peer review for Publications 101!

For this peer review, we were asked to focus on audiences and channels and analyze our peer’s marketability of the blog to their intended audience group. For this review, I was paired with Lil Waldegger’s blog, Keeping Up with Recipes. To give a brief breakdown of the blog, Lil focuses on “trying out new and trending recipes”, whether it’s a microwaveable mug recipe or a trending recipe that’s not worth all the hype. As Monique Sherrett from Boxcar Media discussed, two major things to think about when marketing your site or business includes your objectives and understanding who your intended audience is. Keeping Up with Recipes looks to have both of these key ideas – an objective and a clear target audience.

Before entering the site, what caught my attention was the name of the blog, Keeping Up with Recipes, as it reminded me of the popular television series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. I am not entirely sure if this was intentional, but I would argue that this name would catch the attention and do well with a younger demographic who understands the nuances of popular culture. Additionally, the name of the blog also speaks to the current information overload of the online environment – trying to keep up with all the trending and shared recipes definitely poses a problem, but Lil is here to help that. So, users who are both interested in cooking and recipes, plus active users of the Internet seems to be an appropriate audience. In some ways, this blog makes me think the Buzzfeed’s popular posts on trending recipes and sites like, Tasty, all which have that “millennial” audience appeal.

Keeping Up With Recipes Homepage

In regards to the layout of the blog, the intended audience that I also envision for Keeping Up with Recipes are individuals who appreciate a contemporary and minimalistic lifestyle. The header image and the images chosen for Lil’s posts align quite well in evoking a feeling of simplicity and modernity. I myself find the aesthetics of this homepage appealing and it feels like Lil understands what her blog’s objective is and the aesthetic she is aiming for.

After viewing more of Lil’s posts, it is clear that my initial understanding of her intended audience rings true. All the posts and recipes are kept quite simple and to the point, which can help especially in this digital age of skim reading. Alongside each post, there is a meme that relates to the discussed topic, which further exemplifies the younger, more online-centric audience who are familiar with popular media and trends. As Karina Tama from Forbes notes, “memes are engaging to all audiences, especially millennials.”, which is why  I feel that Lil’s implementation of memes adds a more entertaining, youthful, and unique value to the site, whilst drawing attention and engagement from meme-lovers alike.

Take a look at some of the entertaining and relatable memes provided by Lil:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, Lil’s blog, Keeping Up With Recipes, has a marketable element to it, especially towards the younger generation of meme-lovers. Although, apart from the memes, Lil seems to understand other aspects of her targeted audience of those who appreciate simplicity and minimalism. The content of the blog speaks to the current generation of people who enjoy internet trends and keeping life simple and easy. As Travis Gertz explains, designing from the heart is important and being able to speak to a specific audience creates a personality for your blog or business. I can see that Lil has put thought into her target audience and thus, her design and content of her site brings out her personality.

PROCESS POST: Week Ten — Peer Review #3

Grace in Adulting

True tales of a clueless adult 

Grace in Adulting is a beautiful blog that is about Grace, surviving her days in the adult world.  The posts are very personal and told with a lot of humor and warmth. The blog is very sobering and welcoming for everyone that want to have a good time, and also get a feel of recognition. But I would say that the audience group also would be someone in my age, 22, and also have a similar life: the one filled with so much thought, happenings and ideas that the schedule is overflowing. How come that? Because Grace give you just what you need: a feeling that you are not by yourself in that situation.

In the article Internet Trends Report 2018, the activity of the medial footprint is discussed. The internet usage growth is continued solid, but many do think that it is way too high. The dynamics of global competition and innovation are pushing the improvements forward, which are making the usage rise. It just keeps getting better since many of the improvement made are based on data-collected information, recorded when the user made taps, clips, movements on their device. When reading Grace’s blog I keep thinking about that fact, how even my movement here on a friendly and sweet blog will make a mark and will be recorded. maybe not by the blog owner herself but by the owner of the host site. Whatever move I do, someone will know. Continuing with the Internet Trends Report 2018, the discussion keep on with how the internet companies continue to make low-priced services better, in part, from user data. And us, the users, continue to increase time spent on Internet services based on perceived value. When everything keeps getting better, we keep going back even more and more.

I see the value of Grace’s blog, the posts are something that appeal to many and therefor is valuable. I do think that the blog itself could easily be a very popular and highly visited one if Grace keep up the good work. Like its mentioned in the article How Facebook Messenger clawed its way to 1 billion users, the amount of users, on our case viewers/visitors, is extremely important for the value of the site. The article discuss the Facebook application Messenger and how the higher the usage gets, the more attractive will the platform be for others who still might be using something other platform (SMS, email etc) and also brands and developers. So the more Grace will brand her blog and, of course, get more viewer to read it, the higher the value of the marketability will be. I see a bright future for this blog if Grace stay as personal and down to earth as she does know, doing that will make her audience group closely follow her future posts. That will make her blog truly bloom!

Want to read Grace amazing blog? Just click here!

PROCESS POST: Week Ten — Analytics Result

I got curious on what kind of visitors that actually clicked into my blog. I used Google Analytics and checked. Doing that was even more sobering than tracing my own footprint last week. I don’t have a lot of readers, but I have a few that I was actually able to trace. My first guess was that the few readers would be the designers that I interviewed, which looked to be true. But I also had a few others  that hade looked through all my interviews, which made me happy. What does that say about their digital mark on my website? Probably that the people I chose to talk to and publish, is interesting and have a story to tell that people want to know about. But then I had some information that troubled me, people didn’t always stay long enough to actually read the interview.

This new information give me a little boost t make my interviews look even more interesting and intriguing. that is my responsibility to all the amazing designers I interview.  In the future, I must be even more careful with the design and how the interview is presented.

Week 9: My Infographic

I had very little experience with creating infographics. I’m not capable of making one from scratch so I opted for the free ones! Thankfully, I’ve used Piktochart to create mine and it’s very simple. With free software (and limited knowledge of the software), I came up with a very simple one.

my desktop screen

I wasn’t comfortable showing who I am online because I still have this unfamiliarity with blogs. So, I focused on my own online activities and how that represents me.

Discord and Reddit are big time spenders I have online. I like to be on Reddit because I can browse for news and find updates on topics that I follow. I don’t usually engage because I’m content with reading. I occasionally comment, but I prefer to stay anonymous. I use Discord because a few of my close friends are on there, and it’s an easy way to communicate when we play games online. These 2 are part of my online self. I am active in my own circles, but curious in others.

Instagram is the closest platform for me that represents my ideal online. I also want to create content that’s eye catching and interesting. I do have pieces of my personal life on there, but I try to keep it vague. I use it the most often because it’s a good aggregation of content that I want to see (especially the many dog accounts). All this combined represents who I am online, and I kept the theme neutral to focus on these aspects.