Tag Archives: peer review 3

Just in Time for Spring: Ryn’s Reprised Thoughts on Eleena’s Thoughts

Eleena’s Eleena’s Thoughts is the blog I am revisiting for this peer review, and one that has had some significant renovations since I’ve last posted about it. It is described as a “document” of the writer’s “journey to improve [their] mental and physical health in the new year”, and as such has the intended audience of similarly minded young people – particularly women – on health journeys. As Michael Warner suggests in his article “Publics and Counterpublics”, the public for this blog, or the audience of readership it pulls, would be defined by a simultaneous interpersonal and personal experience with the blog. Indeed, the solitary experience of viewing the blog in one’s own time in conjunction with the shared experience with Eleena herself, who places her person at the centre of her blog content by nature of it being a Personal Blog, makes Eleena’s Thoughts a page that generates a specific or intended public through its content but also through the nature of a website.

As such, it is pertinent to understand how this blog accommodates this public, and what marketing techniques it employs to help generate interest from its intended audience. One thing that Eleena does well in terms of marketability to her intended public is the balance of formal and content-based elements on her home page. By this, I mean having things like her pinterest linked at the bottom of the page allows for visitors to glimpse an immediate image of her interests and vibes, specifically in a way that is cultivated by herself. Additionally, I think posts like “3 Things I’m Doing to Start 2023 Right” aligns very well with her about page, which states her intention of being a self-care and growth-focused blog. 

Tanya Basu posits in her article “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet” that digital gardens are websites on the internet that “are more collage-like and artsy”, and “explore a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning”. This, to me, perfectly describes Eleena’s blog, a place focused on self improvement, growth and learning, with a collage-like homepage, splicing together recent posts, images and social media pages like Pinterest. All of these elements make for a page that caters to Eleena’s intended public of people looking to work on their self-improvement, and, perhaps a little meta-contextually, one that’s growth echoes and reflects Eleena’s own betterment journey. A garden, after all, relies on an abundance of growth.

Peer Review #3

Self-Presentation in Social Media: Review and Research Opportunities | Review of Communication Research (rcommunicationr.org)

For my peer review, I was paired with Ainah. As I followed her link and landed on her website, I was pleased by all the work she has put into her website. It is well laid out, she has put a lot of effort into her website, and it is paying off because it looks impressive. I love that you have created a space to post as you please and share your love for skin-care products, makeup, and places you have explored. The content you have already created is top-notch, and I hope you follow your dreams and become one of the best content creators/content managers.

In the article “Searching for a public of their own.” Written by Danah Boyd mentions that people go out and capture what they are doing and share it online, and others can view the content they have created through the comfort of their own space. I believe you are making public where people can put their trust in you and try out skincare products you have reviewed, coffee shops you have enjoyed, and restaurants you have been to, all while trusting what you have. Even for myself, I want to purchase some of the things you have reviewed, especially the skin care products you enjoy. I am currently into skincare products and have been using “The Ordinary” and the blush you recommend by Rare Beauty #teamselena, lol!

Overall, the content you create is very pleasing, and the marketing you do for skin care is. Makeup, cafe shops, and how to care for yourself while at University are well advertised. So much so that I will take in what you are saying and try out some of the brands you like, and I also enjoyed the tips you shared because sometimes people need a reminder to care for themself. Students often focus on their classes and forget to put themselves first. This is your very own “Digital Garden” where you can let others know how you feel about products, and they can reach out and connect with you about things you have reviewed and reach out about places they have found interesting as well. Keep up the excellent work; one day, you will have everything you hope and pray for.

Reference:

Boyd, Danah. 2014 “Searching for a public of their own.” It’s Complicated. pp 213-227

Basu, Tanya. September 5, 2020. “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet” MIT Technology Review.

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Peer Review #3

Peer Review # 3 This week I am reviewing “MY LIFESTYLE” by Ziqi Qin (Bonnie). 

Direct Link: http://ziqiqin13.com/blog/ 

Screenshot of Ziqi Qin's main page of her website
Screenshot: Ziqi Qin’s main page of her website

First impression: At first glance, Bonnie’s website has beautiful artwork of a sunset over a nature scape that is used as her banner, it gives a feeling of warmth and calmness. The title of her website is called “MY LIFESTYLE”, it is in bold, large lettering that stands out and has contrast against the artwork she chose. This makes her main page appealing and accessible to readers. I like the pink tones throughout her page, it compliments the artwork well. I really love the palm tree in the left top corner, you can click on it on any page to get back to the main page. Her menu tabs pop out and are easy to navigate. You get a sense that it is a personal blog about what she finds interesting to write about. Her vibe isn’t to become viral but more of a personal blog to share amongst peers. As mentioned in John Suler’s (2004) article “The Online Disinhibition Effect” Bonnie uses the “We’re Equals (minimizing authority)” technique because her interaction with the reader feels like a peer relationship that is based on mutual experience and story-sharing. I would suggest adding an accessibility plug-in to her website to help those that have certain visual abilities and that could benefit from the variations of text and contrast. The plug-in called One-Click is an example that is easy to add to your website that comes with a variety of settings to help accommodate all readers.

Content: I love the content posts on travel and her ragdoll cat. I like that her contact info is in the contact section and that you can leave her a message in the provided fields. I would remove or change the generic contact info from the bottom of the pages. It would be nice to see more content within her posts along with adding enticing headlines.

screenshot of blog talking about her ragdoll cat
Screenshot: Ziqi Qin’s content post about her cat Quiana

Audience: Bonnie mentions in one of her Process Posts that her intended audience is her classmates and friends. I think if she wanted to, she could expand her public further if she used social media links on her website, but that is a personal choice.

It would also be helpful for Bonnie to incorporate SEOs in her posts such as adding keywords to her blog posts, adding videos from YouTube, and including related hyperlinks to her content posts to increase engagement and increase her google search credibility. As Sam Hollingsworth (2021) mentions in “15 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO,” using SEOs will ensure a good user experience and increase the chances that more people will read Bonnie’s content. Implementing these strategies could help Bonnie grow her public numbers.

Website’s Marketability: I think for marketability Bonnie could have an opportunity to try some monetization techniques. There is the option of adding ads to her site; Google Analytics has AdSense that you can add to your website. Also, using affiliates is another option, like for cat food or cat supplies or promoting hotels or travel, since she likes to write about her beautiful ragdoll cat and the trips she takes with friends, however, she would have to focus on creating a larger public first. Christina Newberry (2022) says “affiliate marketing is a way for content creators to earn commissions by referring customers to brands.” So you can use affiliate codes or links on your content website and every time someone clicks on that link and purchases that item you can make a commission. 

Screenshot: Ziqi Qin’s content post about tips for new cat owners. A chance to use affiliate marketing with brands.

Overall Bonnie’s website looks professional, is aesthetically appealing, and is well-designed. With some effort and planned direction, her website has the possibility to become more marketable.

References

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 9). 15 reasons why your business absolutely needs seo. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Newberry, C. (2022, February 22). Using social media for affiliate marketing: 4 tips to get started. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/affiliate-marketing/

Suler, J. (2004). Psychology of cyberspace – the online disinhibition effect. Retrieved from https://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html 

Peer Review #3: Knitting After Hours

Knitting After Hours is a fantastic blog by Lily that is centered around the creator’s interests such as cooking and knitting. The About Me page eloquently captures the tone and subject matter of the titular blog. However, one aspect I would like to pay great attention to is the personal anecdotes Lily articulates. These personal details are a great touch that effectively conveys the personality behind the Knitting After Hours blog to the audience. Additionally, this personal approach lends credence to the assertions of Tom Critchlow in regard to digital gardening. For example, as cited in our Tanya Basu course reading: “with blogging, you’re talking to a large audience,” he says. “With digital gardening, you’re talking to yourself. You focus on what you want to cultivate over time” (Basu, 2020). Knitting After Hours captures the sense of a digital garden that Lily is fostering for both them and their larger audience. This is exemplified on the About Me page when Lily outlines how cooking and knitting helps them stay focused when conducting their academic responsibilities. It can be inferred that Lily wants to strive to achieve a better schoolwork ethic since it is mentioned on their About Me page that they “put off” assignments and readings. Thus cooking and knitting are great outlets to promote a better work ethic. This instance showcases how these interests help instill balance in their life. Therefore, Knitting After Hours serves as a digital garden that Lily can use to help cultivate better improvements in their life.

Basu, T. (2020). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Peer Review #3: amandasadventures.ca

First off, I would like to start off with my apology that this Peer Review #3 is posted late. I have been fighting a throat, ear, and skull infection the past 2 weeks. It has been hard to stay awake and focus on school work but I am here now for Amanda’s peer review!

Amanda’s home page is very welcoming. The title “Amanda’s Adventures” with the pale pink background and photo collage adds a beautiful start to the adventure we are about to have on her blog. 

As she writes in a personal journal style, I believe her intended audience would be friends, family, classmates, and people who generally like to follow along with others lives and lear new things. Like me!

Audrey Watters states: “Having one’s own domain means that students have much more say over what they present to the world, in terms of their public profiles, professional portfolios, and digital identities. Students have control over the look and feel of their own sites, including what’s shared publicly.” (Watters, 2015). 

This quote reflects with Amanda as she envisions her audience. Amanda is presenting her true authentic self through her posts and creating a digital identity that her viewers will see. She shares personal stories that can resonate with others. 

Amanda definitely does not have the “You Don’t Know Me” effect in “The Online Disinhibition” John Suler describes. Amanda makes it clear who she is to her audience and opens herself up to them.

Some of Amanda’s tags include “adventure”, “democratic”, “awareness”, and “SFU.” These are great navigations when exploring her blog and finding exactly what we may be looking for. 

This was all I have learned based on her home page alone. So let’s dive into her pages!

Her about me is also very welcoming as she lets her audience know she is an English major and potential REM minor. This relates back to my review of how her audience may potentially be other students looking for others to go through this journey of university. 

A few of her hobbies include reading, writing, and listening to music and she also emphasis’ her passion to travel. These could reach a wider audience as the travel community is huge and people of all age groups are interested in music and reading. 

“Follow me on my journey as I experience the ordinary, extraordinary and everything in between.”  

I clicked on her article “Reflecting on a Year Gone By” and felt connected to her passion for travel. This feels like a true travel journal and could be marketed as such.

Her article “Girls Night Out!” and “Why Tuesday’s Are My Favourite Day” are so wholesome and reminded me a lot of what my former blog was all about and the adventures my friends and I had in the 11th and 12th grade. The simpler times, before university took over our lives. 

I believe her marketing to her audience would include, as mentioned earlier, people interested in more personal and travel posts. If she posts pictures on her Instagram relating to her traveling posts, I feel she could get a lot of traffic from there!

She linked her Instagram and icons below to find her on social media and e-mail which helps when connecting to her audience.

I noticed through her loading page, the pink and purple stripe that sways back and forth, occasionally caused pages to load slower on a mobile device. Using the lab computers worked fine! I believe this was made with Elementor and potentially can be the cause; which is common. Overall, it adds a cute and friendly look! Just potentially changing something in terms of loading speed could help but that is only a minor critique. 

Overall, my general impression of Amanda’s blog is that it reminded me a lot of why I started writing. I have to admit, I have been in a very big creative block lately and have not felt inspired to write. This blog was like a breath of fresh air and I cannot wait to continue reading in the future! And fangirl over Ariana Grande together!

♡♡♡

Audrey Watters. 2015. “The Web We Need to Give to Students.” https://medium.com/bright/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713#.4d7j8rs6x

Suler, John. 2004. “The Online Disinhibition Effect.” Available from: Cyberpsychology & behavior 7.3 (2004): 321-326. http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Featured Image Reference: Tumblr User

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Nishita’s Blog

Nishita’s Blog
Here’s a little bit of me!

*The above image was taken from Nishita’s Blog.

A peer review on audience and channels

Nishita’s Blog is vibrant and eclectic gallery of multi-media art. The overall aesthetics are consistent, easy to navigate, and convey a style that seems to be very reflective of Nishita herself: on her about page Nishita shares her love of hip hop, which is ever-present in the style and colours for this blog. The pages themselves are purposely monochromatic: the dark background acts as the perfect wall, drawing all attention to the images of art. As Travis Gerts explains in his article Design Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse, “nothing makes a drop of colour brighter than when it’s set against a wall of grey”. Most of the images are vibrant, and bright pieces of art, contrasting well against the simple and dark theme. With this in mind, I find the title of her blog really hard to read against the busy background – changing the font colour from black to white, or even to the same red as the paper garland would allow for the title of the blog to pop, and become a lot more legible.

While navigating Nishita’s website, the first noticeable graphics were the large Instagram icons on the right, under the blog tab. There is a main instagram page that is private, as well as public art page While this is a wonderful way of building a following and audience, I would recommend linking your blog to your Instagram, which would allow for a stronger use of this cross-promotion. In addition, I would recommend making the main page public to allow for greater audience and reach – especially as it is labeled main, which leaves me to assume that traffic would be preferably diverted here as opposed to the accompanying art page. If this is not the case, I would remove the main link altogether. This seesaw between personal blog and art blog speaks to the multidisciplinary qualities of social media, and the undefined rules of online networks, which are “bringing change to all forms of information” (Kissane).

The mixed modes of art is really wonderful: this blog truly highlights Nishita’s talent and versatility. When it comes to videos, however, I could be cautious with the auto-play. For example, the blog tab automatically plays the last video at the bottom of the page – a vibrant alleyway filled with colourful street art and vendors. At first, its hard to say where the sound is coming: I check all my other tabs to see if there might be an add somewhere, or a video that popped up. We’ve all seen those people I class, in a café, or in a library, who interrupt the silence with an unexpected video, and panic trying to turn the sound off. Similarly, I often find myself browsing websites in a public space, and exit the website immediately as opposed to taking time to find the source of the sound. Keeping this in mind, especially if this blog is looking at retention, lower bounce rate, and overall keeping track of the analytics. If the auto-play function is something particularly desired, perhaps the blog could have a pop up muted video, like in Lonely Planet’s landing page, so the user immediately knows where the sound is coming from.  Similarly, having a preview of the post as opposed to the entire post would allow for reduced scrolling, and potentially more retention: the easier it is to find what you need, the better the experience for the user, which means a higher chance of returning to the blog.

These simple suggestions could help elevate the blog to the next level, creating a stronger sense of legitimacy, and foster a strong following. Overall, Nishita does a beautiful job of curating her website to best highlight her art. If you’re an art enthusiast, or an artist yourself, I recommend you check out her work here!