Tag Archives: Posiel
Peer Review 3: Taking Life by the Love Handles
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.
PEER REVIEW #3
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.
Week 10: Internet For All
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.
Analytics
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.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS – Process Post #10
Acquisition
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.
Behaviour
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.
Conversion
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.
Mini-Assignment #6 – GIF
Process Post Week #11 – Transmedia Integration
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.
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.
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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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
INFOGRAPHIC
layout done by me, vectors from freepik
PROCESS POST: Week Ten — Peer Review #3
Grace in Adulting
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.
Process Post Week #10 – Google Analytics
This past week I spent an extensive amount of time on Google Analytics and was surprised by the amount and variety of data being tracked from my blog.
While viewing real-time reports I did not see any data as nobody was viewing my blog at that time. To see these reports in action I decided to share my blog’s link with family and friends. Within a matter of seconds, I saw a spike in the number of active users and so I began to view the real-time reports. The location and traffic sources reports were not very helpful as I already knew the location of viewers and how they had accessed my blog. However, the content report was interesting as it enabled me to see what was being read and how many people were viewing my content.
This week I set up a goal to see how many readers view a series which I recently started. I have assumed the role of a general manager and I am attempting to lead my team to the Stanley Cup. I was ecstatic when I saw success in the real-time conversions report which showed that people were reading this series. I have found that setting up goals is a useful way to track certain aspects of my blog. I believe that this is something that I will continue doing to further enhance my blog. For instance, as mentioned in last week’s process post if I pursue sponsorships to monetize my blog, I will track those specific posts to see how readers engage with the content.
Moreover, most of my audience seems to be situated in the lower mainland, however, one reader is from Poland. I am hoping to expand readership by growing my brand on social media. Furthermore, I was surprised to see that I have more new visitors compared to returning visitors. I believe that this will be beneficial as I continue to grow my blog, but I hope that these new visitors will return in the future. Again, analytics will assist in this regard.
I was fascinated by the user explorer report as it provided a detailed analysis of a device’s path on my blog. The ability to track which pages are viewed the most is very helpful as it shows me what viewers are reading and which content I should be publishing more of or less. Also, due to the ability to track browsers, operating systems, devices, and their screen resolutions I will now be able to optimize my blog for these specific viewers.
The user flow report provided me with an overview of how users navigate my blog. Where they go first, what they do next and where they drop off. Understanding these elements will be beneficial to potentially re-organize my content. If viewers are flocking to a particular order when they view content, I believe that this could be a sign to re-order my blog to their convenience.
After diving into the analytics of my blog I look forward to spending more time viewing reports of interactions with my blog and hope to continue improving it by making it more interesting and engaging for readers.
Process Post – 7
This week, I’ve been trying to set up the Google Analytics plugin for my blog. By installing Google Analytics, it can help me look at different user statistics on my blog. This will allow me to identify demographics on my website, user behavior on different pages (how long people stay), and adjust my site functionality accordingly. That being said, I had trouble setting up the Google Analytics plugin, because somehow it wouldn’t let me authenticate my google account. Thus, I tried using an alternative produced by Monster Insights, which also produces Google Analytics but simply an alternative plugin. I was able to authenticate my Google account for this plugin, however, it seems to be malfunctioning because it wouldn’t display any user activity (page views and sessions show 0). This means that there’s definitely some malfunction because I’ve visited the sites myself, my classmate has visited it, and my TA Ellen has also viewed it.
In conclusion, I will be focusing on setting up and troubleshooting Google Analytics plugin in the following week. Perhaps I will look at more forums and videos as guides.
Montreal Canadiens Rebuild Part 3
All images are from NHL 19.
Welcome to part three of the Montreal Canadiens rebuild in NHL 19’s Franchise Mode. Click here to catch up on part one and part two. As mentioned last week, this week’s post will entail a lineup reveal, captaincy announcement, season simulation and more!
Lineup:
Forwards
First Line: The first line features Forsberg and Domi who are being centered by Pettersson. While Forsberg has established himself as a first line player, I have decided to push Pettersson and Domi to play on the first line even though they are better suited for the second line. While splitting up this trio would create more balance within the lineup, we currently lack players who could fill the void on the first line.
Second Line: The second line includes Shaw, Cammalleri, and Jurco. Hopefully, Shaw will benefit from the increased ice-time which will make trading him away more viable. While Cammalleri is listed as a winger he has exceptional faceoff stats, so he will be the second line centre for the upcoming season. I believe that Jurco has some untapped potential and can still grow as a player. The opportunity on the second line may help in this regard.
Third Line: The third line features Lehkonen, Kotkaniemi, and Hudon. This line could have easily been our second line for the upcoming season, but I felt the need to shelter these players since they do not have as much experience. However, the door is not shut for them to move up. If they continually improve as the season progresses a promotion is likely.
Fourth Line: The fourth line includes Upshall, Vermette, and Jokinen. These three players are currently filling the holes in our roster.
Defence
First Pairing: The first pairing features Murray and Ouellet. While Murray is a top-four defenceman I am hoping that he will benefit from first pairing minutes so that he can become a bonafide top-four defender. Similar to Jurco, I am hoping to see some growth in Ouellet’s play as the season progresses.
Second Pairing: The second pairing includes Reilly and Bieksa. This pairing has been designed similar to the fourth line which has players who are filling holes in the roster.
Third Pairing: The third pairing features Fleury and Mete. Similar to the third line these two players are being sheltered and will move up in the lineup as they improve.
Goalies
After playing behind Bobrovsky for a few seasons, Korpisalo now has the opportunity to assume the starting role. But Mason has been brought in to ensure some friendly competition between the two players.
Captaincy Announcement
As a rebuilding club that is headed in a new direction, the Montreal Canadiens would like to announce that we will not name a captain for the upcoming season. However, we will have a leadership group of three assistant captains which include Pettersson, Forsberg, and Murray.
Season Simulation
I planned to simulate the game until the trade deadline and then take a look at how well our team is doing and potential trades. However, the simulation was interrupted at the end of January as Wotherspoon had been placed on waivers by the St. Louis Blues. I decided to place a claim as he would some defensive depth to the team. Now at the trade deadline, an offer came from the LA Kings for Stoner. They offered a 6th round pick in 2019. Since we had picked up Wotherspoon, Stoner had become expendable and the trade was accepted. Moreover, I attempted to locate a trade partner to take on Shaw’s contract, however, I did not find any takers. Furthermore, I also noted that Lehtonen was still a free agent and was being pursued by the Toronto Maple Leafs. It seemed that they were looking to add some goaltending depth for a playoff run. So, I viewed their trading block and traded Mason for Scott and two draft picks in the 2019 draft. This enabled us to acquire a legitimate goaltending prospect, but we were now left with a void behind Korpisalo. I offered Lehtonen a one-year $5-million-dollar contract to backup Korpisalo and he accepted.
The team finished the season with a record of 39-38-5 and 83 points. We were 7th in the division, 12th in the conference and 23rd in the league. Although the team performed poorly, Pettersson won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the most proficient first-year player in the NHL. Although we did not make the playoffs, the Stanley Cup returned to Canada as the Toronto Maple Leafs won it in five games against the Dallas Stars.
Tune in next week for the results of the draft lottery, the draft itself, the re-sign phase, and, of course, free agency. Also, if you have any comments and/or suggestions please share them below in the comments.
Peer Review #3 – Piece of Cake
I had the opportunity to review Anissa’s blog, Piece of Cake. The name of the blog is very clever as it fits well with the content. I applaud her on taking this commonly used phrase and making it meaningful by creating relevant content.
I would suggest adjusting the tagline so that it states “tips and tricks for event planning on a budget” instead of “tips and tricks to party planning on a budget” since the content encompasses more than just parties as it includes birthdays, weddings and holidays. With the adjusted the tagline, it would create a transitional flow with the about me section as the tagline and the first paragraph of this section would be more connected. The remainder of the about me section provides a personal perspective as to why she has chosen this topic for her blog. It is evident that she is passionate about and has a strong interest for event planning. This passion is essential in marketing her blog to her intended audience since this is what separates her blog from others. Unlike Toast which did not have a clear mission statement, Anissa’s tagline acts as a mission statement as it lets readers know what the objective of her blog is (Carpenter, 2016).
Moreover, consider removing the home category since clicking on the name of the blog, Piece of Cake, directs readers back to the homepage. Also, the usage of three different shades of grey on the homepage makes the page seem busy. I would suggest using two consistent shades, a light, and dark grey so that this ensures what Mauve Pagé called unity through colour consistency (Pagé, 2018). Furthermore, the aqua on the homepage seems out of place since it was only used once. I would suggest incorporating more of this colour so that it creates what Mauve Pagé called rhythm (Pagé, 2018). Changing the colour of the “subscribe to newsletter” button from grey to aqua when a viewer is hovering over it would be a subtle yet effective way to accomplish this.
The ability to let readers subscribe to a newsletter is great. I would suggest adding a brief description of what the newsletter will entail so that potential subscribers know what they are signing up for. I applaud Anissa on setting this up as it is a great way to establish readership of her blog. Additionally, it will strengthen her relationship with her audience (Nederkoorn, n.d.). Although it is a rare commodity to see someone actually read a privacy policy, I did not see a way to access it on Anissa’s blog; this may deter readers from subscribing.
A social media presence is a great way for people to discover and share Anissa’s blog, however, since the accounts are not very active, they are taking up valuable real estate on her homepage. If she decides to keep these icons, I suggest moving them closer to the about me section so that after reading about her users are more inclined to visit and follow her on social media. Currently, the icons are situated in a spot where they seem out of place with a large amount of white space above and to the right of them.
Moreover, I enjoyed the content posted on Anissa’s blog as I found the post about Pumpkin Carving Stencils to be very useful as I had never considered poking small holes and using a stencil to carve my pumpkin. I wish that I had viewed her blog earlier so that I could have implemented this a few weeks ago for Halloween, but I will definitely keep this in mind for next year. Additionally, there was a post which seemed to be missing as I received a page not found error; this was the Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe. However, the Perfect Pumpkin Pie Recipe reminded me of an article which dealt with the legalities of copyright for a recipe book (Henein, 2015).
Overall, I found the content to be clear and concise; this is very helpful because when you are planning an event there are many things to do in preparation of it, so time is of the essence. I believe that it is very helpful to have the content structured in this manner so that readers know exactly what they need to do and still have ample time to prepare.
In Anissa’s process post from week six, she mentioned that her intended audience is young and middle-aged women. However, I think that her intended audience encompasses many more people especially since there is a variety in the content which she is publishing. I believe that her intended audience and entails anyone who is planning on celebrating a birthday, wedding or holiday and is looking for tips and tricks. Regardless, the content is relevant to her audience.
When it comes to the usability of the blog, I recalled Mauve Pagé’s presentation where she mentioned that a seamless experience across all platforms holds high importance for viewers (Pagé, 2018). With this in mind, I viewed Anissa’s blog on my phone and noted that her entire blog was well optimized for mobile devices. Additionally, it features quick loading times which also holds value for viewers. Lastly, I would suggest adding a site icon so that when viewers pin the blog to their browser it is easier for them to identify the blog.
Ultimately, Anissa’s blog has been designed in a way which makes the content appealing for her audience. If you are interested in reading more, click here!
References
Carpenter, S. (2016, May 13). The Toast Is Toast: Literary Humor Site Shuts Down Over Ad Revenue Woes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelbycarpenter/2016/05/13/the-toast-is-toast-and-its-devastating/#2845909a48f6
Henein, P. (2015, October 27). You Say “Tomaydo”, I Say No Copyright Infringement: Recipe Book Not An Original Compilation. Retrieved from https://www.casselsbrock.com/CBNewsletter/You_Say__Tomaydo___I_Say_No_Copyright_Infringement__Recipe_Book_Not_An_Original_Compilation
Pagé, M. (2018, October 2). Mauve Pagé. Presentation, Simon Fraser University Vancouver.
Nederkoorn, C. (n.d.). Should you write blog posts or email newsletters? Retrieved from https://customer.io/blog/blog-post-or-newsletter-content-marketing/
Week 9- Process Post
This weeks process post was to talk about analytics and in particular the analytics of your blog. Firstly I had to download Monster-A
As you can see from the screenshots of my analytic page, this is the overview of viewers I have had so far on my blog. Most of my viewers come from Canda, whereas eight others come from the US and then two from Hungary and one from India and Turkey. I found it interesting that someone in Tukey is viewing my blog, and without observing the analytic page I would have never noticed it.
As you can see in this image below this is where it shows most of the analytics, starting with sessions which is the browsing session of a single user, then we move towards, pageviews which is pretty straightforward, then moving on to average session duration, (which I hope to be a little higher). Finally, bounce rate which means it is the number of visits a person leaves your page.
After viewing my analytics, I have taken some steps in furthering my blog to make it more desirable and hope that more people will want to stay on it longer than 3 minutes and 3 seconds.
