Tag Archives: pub 101

Process Post #10: Bingo Cards As Transmedia

“Transmedia storytelling is the ideal aesthetic form for an era of collective intelligence,” — Kevin Britteny Lauren

Some of the ways that I hope to incorporate more transmedia integration for my site is by creating interactive engagement activities, such as this movie night bingo card, and by posting inspirational quotes from movies and TV shows on Instagram stories at least once a week to foster engagement.

In his blog post, Kevin Britteny Lauren wrote about Pokemon as an example of transmedia storytelling back in 2013. In his post, he stated that “transmedia storytelling is a process. Elements of a fiction get dispersed across multiple media for the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience,” (Lauren, 2013). By incorporating mini games, puzzles, and activities such as a “movie night” bingo card, I can attempt to facilitate engagement and (hopefully) encourage others to take part in a unique experience that can be enjoyed in their own way and on their own time. 

Other ways that I have thought about for incorporating more transmedia integration for my website is by utilizing the website’s social media channels more (currently, I am only posting on Instagram while I continue to grow my website’s readership). To do this, I could adjust the description format that I use for sharing/promoting my blog posts by taking it one step further. The general description format that I have been using for posts has been simply the “blog’s title” and “read more on www.thehouseholdboxoffice.com.” Going forward, I plan to start formatting my Instagram posts to include shortened and or summarizations of my blog posts’ content as sneak peaks or excerpts of the blog posts. By doing so, this may incentives my readers/followers to visit my site to read the full review or to learn/find more information or film reviews.

References

Lauren, B., K. (2013). Pokemon as transmedia storytelling. Retrieved from https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/

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Peer Review #3

Happy Monday, everyone! This week, I’m taking some time to review another class peer’s blog/website. Unlike my last reviews where we talked about movies and fashion, we will be talking about all things in the fast lane! That’s right, we’re talking cars. I will be reviewing and providing feedback for Christian at http://christianwilliams.ca. In this post, I will be writing directly to Christian.

Hi Christian, I hope you find some of these comments and feedback helpful.

Website Marketability 

The type of niche market/audience that you have established for your site is clearly indicated within the type of posts you generate. Your posts go into detailed encounters and experiences from various topics, such as buying a vehicle and getting it detailed. Although your website is about cars, your readers do not need to be car and or automative experts to follow along in your posts. This makes it very inviting for both automative and non-automative enthusiasts. The type of niche market/audience that your website is intended for works well for beginner and current automative enthusiasts, but also for casual viewers too who may be interested in learning more about cars and other automative topics.

Just have a few suggestions for you to make your website more marketable for your audience/readers. One of them is to have a few more photos, such as maybe a gallery of photos of your favourite vehicles either as a post or somewhere on the homepage as a click-through gallery. My final suggestion would be to display your social media handles on your homepage, or either at the top or bottom of your website’s page. I noticed that your social media handles are only visible on your “about” section page. By making them more visible on your website, this may help to increase reader-traffic to your website, offer other ways of engagement with your readers/audience, and help improve your website’s visibility.

Design

I really like your website’s main header/logo. It does very well to visually represent your website and without reading the site’s title, it automatically indicates to readers what your website is about. When I look at the image, it makes me want to go for a drive with friends or take a road trip up to Whistler with my family. The mountains, the lake, and the trees all work together to illustrate the “adventures” part of your title. In addition, the visualization of the car and the park sign help to place your images, as well as create a personal, geographical connection to yourself as the creator of the website. Also, the dawn setting of your photograph creates a relaxed and tranquil tone overall, for which further illustrates the laid back and friendly environment of your website for your readers. All together, they contribute nicely to your website’s title “Christian’s Automative Adventures.” 

The minimalistic approach you used for your website’s design creates a clear and concise layout, for which allows your readers/visitors easily access and navigate the site throughout. I like how you used two tones for your website layout, which are white and grey. The white background works to highlight your blog post content, while the grey background behind your posts allows for greater contrast, especially in terms of your posts readability. In addition, I like the incorporation of different sidebar headings, such as “archives,” “recent posts,” and “categories.” This neatly organizes all your work and content that makes for a very clean and professional appeal. Great job!

Content

As someone who does not know much about cars/automatives, I like how none of your posts are car jargon heavy because it allows for non-car/automotive enthusiasts to comprehend and enjoy your posts. My favourite blog posts are your “purchasing a vehicle from another province” and “superhero guest appearance.”

Your content clearly reflects how you have been developing your website in terms of its’ cyber-frastructure, particularly in your first blog post where you discussed the importance of cars in your life. This helped demonstrate to your readers for why you choose this particular subject for your blog/website, and further elevates it in conjunction to your “about” section. However, I noticed the little disclaimer you have at the top of your “about” section that says, “not finalized yet.” I look forward to seeing the final edit for that page. One suggestion that I have for that page would be to link it to your first blog post where you talked about why cars are important to you and your life. By doing so, you can keep your “about” section brief by linking it to that blog post for people to find out more about your site, as well as help to more strongly prompt readers to your blog posts section. 

Overall, great work and I look forward to seeing the rest of it come together!

The post Peer Review #3 first appeared on The Household Box Office.

Process Post #9: Improving Website Noticeability – The “SEO” Plan

During last week’s lecture, we talked about improving our website’s noticeability by using something called SEO. In this post, I will be talking about what SEO is, how it works, and why it is an important tool/practice for getting your website (including my own) noticed by more people. So to start us off, let’s begin by answering one very important question:

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and it is a set of practices designed to help improve the appearance and positioning of your website in order to rank higher on search engine results, thereby generating more readership/viewership to your website.

How does it work?

To track my website’s noticeability, I installed the Google Analytics and Monster Insights plug-ins to track the engagement, impression, and reader/viewer traffic rates for my website.

What have I noticed about my website’s statistics and insights?

Majority of my website’s readership/viewership traffic comes from my classmates, particularly the ones who have been peer reviewing my site (shoutout to them, my course prof and TA). Other than that, the biggest viewer/reader of the site, is myself (prior to filtering out my own IP address). So why is that? I was not practicing using SEO, but also, I was not posting on social media as frequently as I was posting my blogs on my website. In some ways, this has been okay for me because one of the things that I have enjoyed about this course are posting reviews/content for myself. However, going forward, I have been considering continuing posting on my website. Part of my plan going forward is to generate more traffic to my website for other potential film enthusiasts to check out and enjoy or be entertained by my website’s content. As I have started considering this, I have been brainstorming ways to improve my SEO and how to generate more traffic to my site.

As it was mentioned in class, as well as frequently seen on social media, is the popular trend of posting inspirational quotes on our website’s social media channels. This could be a potential method to experiment with for the purpose of increasing my website’s noticeability, such as by participating #MondayMotivation and or something similar for posting inspirational quotes. This may drive more readers/viewers to see where the full post/image came from, therefore, guide them to my website’s social channel and (hopefully), they will briefly check out what the account is about and then visit my website if interested/intrigued. To remain consistent with my website’s theme/topic, I am hoping to post inspirational quotes from movies and TV shows on Instagram stories at least once a week to foster engagement and testing out various hashtags such as #MondayMotivation or simple #quote. I love writing down my favourite film quotes whenever I am watching something, and a particular line or lines of dialogue stick out for me. This would also be an opportunity to share those quotes with others and maybe inspire them or strike up certain emotions in them as they do for myself. So, although this experiment may not work to improve my website’s noticeability, it will be a fun activity regardless.

References

Moz.com. (2022). What is SEO? Online website. Retrieved from www. https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo

Norman, S. (2022). Week 10 Lecture: data and SEO. Retrieved from posiel.com

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Essay #2

Before taking PUB 101 I thought publishing was different types of decisions about what to post on your blog. Now I think that publishing is very important because people want to share, show what they like and read about other people’s lives. Now I know that publishing takes a lot of time. This is because it takes responsibility to think of what we post in public.  

For this course, I created a blog about myself as a person and my life. My blog name is THLife because it represents my name and last name. I created this blog in January 2021. I would like to use the blog to meet people who share my interest. My imagined audience would be people who share the topics of my interests. I also believe my classmates would be some of my audience. My blog is for all ages. Maybe people who have interest in video games. At first, I thought people would interact more with the blog and send their reactions. I am thinking maybe advertisements would help. Before I used to think that advertisement was trash or links that sent you to nowhere. I think advertisements should be genuine. They should have specific questions or details about age. 

Online Presence

An online presence is a relationship that connects with social media. I haven’t started any business as of yet. In the future I could use THLife as a business idea. I plan on sharing my artwork. This way people get to know me and my art better. I am still thinking about this because in the blog I have not disclosed my name. So far, No one has contacted me on my social media or haven’t gotten any emails from me.

Audience

I addressed my audience through the theme selection. What I did is I chose the theme first because the theme is important and editing the colors. If I were to create advertising for my blog, I would use south park phone destroyer. This advertisement would be for mobile game users. I think this would be a great idea to reach and audience that likes videogames. 

So far no one hasn’t commented on my site yet, probably some people couldn’t understand what my blog could be. I have shared the links with my friends but people seem to be shy commenting. Looking forward, my goal is to keep checking my blog for two weeks or make changes as possible. I will keep checking my blog everyday for more updates. Looking back, I learned a lot about WordPress. One thing that really changed me is the wordpress guide on how to set up a blog. I liked the editing, and choosing a theme for your blog.

Changes

First, I had some trouble accessing reclaim hosting. When I started this blog, I started editing the different pages of the blog. First thing I did was choose a theme. Then I edited the pages from the theme to organize them with my ideas. At this point I started visiting my classmate’s blogs to learn about what they were doing. In this process, I learned that there were themes with a variety of colors. I noticed some classmates added cool images, while others wrote great paragraphs. I realized that many classmates made the blog personal by writing about their hobbies and what they liked. I feel like I did the same thing. 

Some of the changes I made is that I learned how to edit the text color. I did this as I could tell it was hard for my audience to see some of the text in my blog. I realized that by changing the color it would be easier to see. 

Inspiration

One blog that inspired me is Daily Hive. The main website was created in a Canadian source in 2008. The co-founders are Karm Sumal and Manny Bahia. The channels they use are facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin and youtube. Their content is organized in the following categories: DH news, dished, listed, urbanized, venture, offside, mapped, grow and curated. Each article has a topic and is organized on one of the different categories.  

I like that Daily Hive is a specific website from Canada, I follow them on Instagram. I like that Daily hive has really neat articles that they post. They post events, scenery and other types of content. I think their design is very pretty and nice. One of my favourite posts is when they used cherry blossoms to announce the beginning of spring. I liked it because it makes reference to a very important tradition too. I’d like to explore what is behind the scene, or how is daily hive invented when they post media. What Daily Hive is doing is they are mostly talking about different topics. I found out on their page they have different statements that mark what they believe in as an organization. 

PUB 101

I really enjoyed doing the peer review. For this assignment, we got to react to the blog of our classmates. I really liked the process of receiving feedback from peers. For this assignment I did not have any dislikes. On a personal note, I disliked having negative thoughts about my blog. With this assignment I enjoyed receiving positive feedback on what to improve. 

Another thing I learned about in the course was website resources. I learned about lots of websites I was not familiar with. What I found is there are some helpful websites I found that support others. I really enjoyed the Matthew Stadler video on vimeo. He was talking about how publication works, he says that it can be any topic you discuss about your blog. He mentions that publication is the host’s responsibility for the audience to know what are the needs. He also mentions that topics could be found in books and conversations as this can relate to your audience. When he said making a blog should be an easy thing, In my words I thought making a blog is supposed to be simple. Another thing that in my mind is he has his own words to express why publications are created. Publications are a main source on the internet. I think. When I think of this video, I realized he described how publications work. What is different from my side of the reflection is that my topic is not related to what he was talking about. Another difference is that after going through the process I believe making a blog is not an easy thing to do. I relate to this phrase because building my blog was not easy. 

My favorite weekly topic was Designing yourself on week 5. I liked that we had a guest speaker who showed a lot of examples on how to modify formatting within your blog. During her presentation she showed us really creative ideas. Some of those I tried to add to my blog. In this course, I’ve learned that making a wordpress account takes time to make your blog. 

Another concept I really enjoyed was when we talked about digital breadcrumbs. This podcast included an example of how a girl used her phone and left a trail behind. It answered questions like “Why do we leave trails? and Where do the breadcrumbs come for? It also talked about how people find our knowledge to chase the trail that is leading. This podcast relates to my blog because the connection between podcasts and presentations are quite similar. Now that I realize this i’ve noticed how when to communicate on media it’s just like your in an interview. I learned from the podcast that spreading bread crumbs can be seen and followed on the internet. How does the article relate to the vimeo video? This article relates to the video on the purpose Matthew Stadler was talking about. He said that websites are created and invented by the internet and everyone around the world is watching.

The course was really great, I enjoyed the experiences on learning how a blog works. This helped me a lot to understand how the internet works and how to create content. I liked the guidance and help on how to make changes step by step. Tutorials were quite helpful as our TA brought great questions to guide the discussion. I thought publishing was going to be challenging at first, but I realized that I could relate what I know into how I can publish a post.  I think the course was a great experience although it was my first time trying to make a blog in person. I will check with my blog later on. However right now I want to take a break from staring at the computer all the time. Taking a break from the blog would really help me in being less stressed for assignments. I think I can start looking at blog posting in a different way. 

Digital breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us [Television series episode]. (2016, May 3). Retrieved April 16, 2021, from http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/

Publication Studio (Producer). (2010, September 11). What is Publication? A talk by Matthew stadler [Video file]. Retrieved April 1, 2021, from https://vimeo.com/14888791

Process post wk 12

A community guideline Is like a strict rule. I like to watch videos on Youtube a lot, their community guidelines are :

–   Spam and deceptive practices

–   Fake engagement

–   Impersonation

–   Scams

–   External link Policy

The most important one is violent or dangerous content. This means that something that could evolve into violence. Now Youtube has implemented Covid 19 guidelines, people are not allowed to spread misinformation about Covid 19. If you are on Youtube your channel could get terminated at any moment if a user behaves outside the community guidelines. This means that they lose access to their account. I have seen very harsh pranks and Youtube sometimes tells the author to take the video down.

For TH life I would like readers to be careful with what they are posting. I would like for my audience to have more of an understanding of my page. I am thinking of sharing more communications. An important community guideline in TH Life would be:

  • Find more evidence about the information posted
  • Users would have to be respectful with one another
  • Each should be responsible with their language and what they post. 

The Experience Of Creating An Online Publication

Week 12: Process Post / Essay #2

Featured Image Credit: Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Introduction

Throughout the course I have learned a lot about publication, and how to present myself online. In this essay I will be reflecting on course content, what I have learned, and my thoughts and experiences with online publication. The essay will be split into three parts; in the first part I will discuss my thoughts around online publication, then I will discuss what my goals are for my online self, and my overall experience with being an online publisher and how I will continue to expand my website. Secondly, I will discuss who my website is for, who my public is, and I will address the editorial and design decisions I made regarding my audience. Lastly, I will look at what I have learned from my audience, the course, google analytics, and WordPress.

Experience & Goals

            When I started this course, I had a basic understanding on what online publication is, and how to run a website. However, throughout the course I have learned the importance of audiences and how to cater content to them through your design and editorial choices. Throughout the course I have learned that every detail matters in regard to design and editorial choices as this helps attract audiences, and how it is necessary to become familiar with a software program like WordPress.

            The overall experience of being an online publisher has been stressful and exciting. Although my content has primarily only been seen by my classmates and instructors, it was still stressful to produce content that would be available for public consumption. I say this because, there is more pressure to ensure that the information is correct, appropriate, and falls with the values of your website. It is difficult to please everyone online and even if you do everything right, people can still be cruel online. This relates back to John Suler’s reading, The Online Disinhibition Effect, which discusses concepts like “dissociative anonymity (Suler, 2004, p.322)” and “invisibility (Suler, 2004, p.322).” It discusses how since people can’t always be seen online, they have more courage to say and do what they want, because they are unknown to the online world and don’t have to deal with the consequences of what they say (Suler, 2004, p.322). This relates back to what I am saying, because that pressure and stress I refer to is triggered by this anxiety that users online may say negative things towards my content, and I do not even know who they are.

            However, it was also very exciting to build an online presence where I can discuss my passion which is music. In many process posts I discussed that I would want my website to be a portfolio for jobs in the music industry; as the website would show my knowledge and interest in music, and possibly throughout time if I were able to gain an audience, that would indicate that I have interesting content. I enjoyed the experience of combining my passion of music and writing with an academic class. In Campbell’s reading titled, A Personal Cyberinfrastructure it was discussed how higher education often fails to utilize these online tools like creating websites and allowing students to explore their imaginations while doing academic work (Campbell, 2009, para.5). However, in this course I enjoyed combining technology and my imagination with academic work.

            I will continue to expand my website as I have many goals and plans. Firstly I would like to change the theme and overall design; my process posts from week 6 to 11, discuss the changes I want to make. I will use social media to help expand my website, starting off with an Instagram account that will deal with shorter posts to engage interest, and prompt users to go read the full posts on the website. I have already started Blue Bedroom Playlists, which is playlists I have created through Spotify, and I would like to continue to expand this with the website and other social media platforms.

My Public & Editorial and Design Decisions

            I have imagined a public that is users who are between the ages of 15-30 (Music Gateway Team, 2016, para.1), who would be visiting and engaging with my website. Since my website focuses on many topics like album reviews, new artists and deals with all genres, it was difficult to narrow down an audience. However, through my knowledge and understanding of who uses social media platforms and views music blogs, I had assumed that this age group would most likely be my public or audience.

            This audience informed my editorial decisions because I find that younger audiences want fast and engaging information through things like Instagram stories and GIFS. So, for my website I started to incorporate videos and Spotify playlists into the blog posts, to make them shorter and more interesting. My audience informed my design decisions because I find that younger audiences enjoy a familiar design, so I am trying to do that with a blue color scheme which I have continued to progress throughout the semester.

What I Have Learned

            Throughout the essay I had discussed different things I have learned throughout the course. However, I had also gained knowledge on, linking out, google analytics, and WordPress which I will now discuss. I learned that linking out in posts is very important, as it helps you connect with other platforms and helps to bring viewers to your website. Through google analytics I learned that I can monitor how many people come to my website, and what pages are viewed and more; this helps me understand what I need to improve on my website or what is working. Lastly from WordPress I learned that it is crucial to understand the software and to explore outside of it as well, as coding is essential in building a website.

Conclusion

            Throughout the course I have learned a lot and have advanced my skills in online publication and building a website. This essay explored course content, my experiences, what I have learned and more. As time progresses, I will continue to expand my website and use information that I learned from this course to help further my website.

Bibliography

Gardner Campbell, W. (2009). “A Personal Cyberinfrastructure.” EDUCAUSE Review 44 (5). http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Music Gateway Team. (2016). How is Music Marketed to Different Age Groups? Retrieved from Music Gateway: https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/how-to/how-is-music-marketed-to-different-age-groups

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

The Journey of Creating JaapsFilm

JaapsFilm is a blog dedicated to the unheard stories behind film photos. It was derived from PUB 101 where I got the opportunity to create my own publishing domain on WordPress.’Publication of Self in Everyday Life 101′ has been a wonderful experience for me. It has been a source of creativity and opportunity where my ideas flourished. My blog is based on a diverse range of interests and passions such as photography, storytelling combined with my lifestyle. I knew I wanted to make my blog personal in order to connect with my audience at a profound level. JaapsFilm was developed with the plan in mind to create a blog that I would personally want to read and be interested in. Looking back, I vividly remember the anxiety I had at the beginning of the semester from the uncertainty about the future of JaapsFilm. I was so worried about the big picture that the process of creating JaapsFilm became overwhelming. My experience as an online publisher has definitely been a constant learning experience but I can say that JaapsFilm has bought my visions and ideas to life.

I’ve always been passionate about taking film pictures from a young age and I’m grateful that I finally had a space to share my work with others. JaapsFilm is all about engaging my viewers with informative yet enthralling content while personalizing each blog post because after all, my website is a lifestyle blog. The core focus was to create a space where everyone is welcomed despite their age, race, gender identity, etc. My design and editorial decisions have been heavily based on my perception of my imagined audience. I tried to make everything super accessible but primarily, my goal has always been to capture the attention of my audience with breathtaking photos. In an effort to cultivate my digital garden of different ideas, interests, and passions that I had learned throughout my life I knew that I needed to provide original content.

My idea of publication has profusely evolved from what it was at the beginning of the semester. Originally, I had thought online publishers create content and share it online which I was not wrong about however, there is so much more to online publishing than that. Online publishers need to take into account numerous factors before producing original content. These factors will be subsequently discussed as you proceed in the essay. Additionally, I had learned that my creative process was linked to Tanya Basu’s week four reading, “Digital gardens let you grow your own little bit of the internet” (Basu, 2020).

Creating an online presence and expanding it is a difficult task. In order to do this, it is crucial to plan strategies, build a social media presence, and most importantly develop an audience base. To be quite frank, I am still not where I had envisioned to be in terms of reaching my targeted audience online. However, I was able to identify who my public is and I believe that is the first step in establishing a strong audience presence. This was done through google analytics, connecting with my viewers, using social media, and producing content that intrigued my viewers. Through google analytics, I was able to find insight into my viewer’s usage, behavior, background, and that has assisted me in improving the experience of my visitors. Knowing the exact number of visitors on my site, where they are coming from, which device they are using has been critical for Jaapsfilm (Akhtar, 2020). As of now, I know through google analytics that my audience is primarily from Canada, 63% are returning to view my site, an average viewers session on my site lasts for about four minutes, etc. Moreover, when my viewers comment on my posts I am able to connect with them on a deeper level and I then use that information to produce better content. These comments help me adapt to the needs, wants, and understand the reactions of my audience which has significantly aided me in staying relevant. Recently, I had added social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook to my site after learning that in order to generate the maximum amount of engagement, a story must reach consumers across all the devices and platforms they use (Heyes, 2019). On the other hand, my imagined public has been individuals who are interested in the stories I share about the photos I have taken. Since I truly believe that a single photo has the ability to ignite a powerful emotion that can make one feel connected to the moment that was captured.

The ultimate purpose of JaapsFilm is to give something of value to my readers to hold on to. I believe that could be accomplished if one is truly passionate about something. In my case, I deliver value to my readers through photography as I create a space for my readers to build a connection with a past moment despite them being present in that specific instance or not.

Looking forward, I want to significantly expand my social media presence on various platforms. I want to take JaapsFilm to the next level and work towards my big goal which is to give my audience valuable content. I believe trusting the process and moving forward one step at a time will lead me to my envisioned digital garden. After all, digital gardens are adjusted and modified on a regular basis to reflect growth and learning (Basu, 2020).

References

Akhtar, A. (2020, December 8). How Does Google Analytics Work? Complete Beginners Guide [Updated]. MonsterInsights. https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-does-google-analytics-work-beginners-guide/

Basu, T. (2020, September 3). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Heyes, S. (2019b, November 13). Transmedia Storytelling & Digital Marketing – 8MS Blog. 8 Million Stories (8MS). https://8ms.com/blog/transmedia-storytelling-importance-digital-marketing/#:%7E:text=In%20order%20to%20generate%20the,why%20transmedia%20storytelling %20is%20important.

Zenmedia_Admin. (2020, October 16). The Importance of Connecting With Your Audience in Marketing. Zen Media. https://zenmedia.com/blog/the-importance-of-connecting-with-your-audience-in-marketing/#:%7E:text=Connecting%20to%20your%20audience%20will,in%20order%20to%20stay%20. relevant.

Essay #2

Over the last semester, I have gotten to build and grow my website, Brooke Reads Books. This was a really interesting experience for me, as I have always wanted to try blogging but never made the leap. Although there is so much back-end customization that goes into a website, it’s not as scary as it seems, and the most important thing is to start sharing content. I’ve enjoyed getting to cultivate a “digital garden”, a space of my own on the Internet (Basu, 2020, para. 3). 

My website is for book lovers or for people who are wanting to get into reading books. I decided to do a mix of blog posts, some being book reviews and other being articles relating to books, such as new releases for 2021 or gifts for book lovers. I thought this would be a good way to reach an audience that wants book reviews or who wants book related content but aren’t completely interested in the books I have reviewed. Gifts for book lovers could also potentially reach an audience that doesn’t usually read but was wanting to buy something for someone else, and then potentially while on the site they could have found a book they might have been interested in themselves. 

I hope that an audience would find value in my website for all things books. For book reviews, I would be going up against Goodreads which someone might first turn to for a book review, but hopefully they would find value in my blog posts as well. I’ve also linked all the book titles to go directly to the book on Indigo so they could purchase it easily if they wanted to. I hope my other articles are also useful to an audience to find book related information that may be more effort for them to search for, such as gift ideas or upcoming releases. I was inspired by the Digital Garden reading for this, stating that my site can be not “the definitive source, just a source” (Basu, 2020, para. 8). I hope that book readers looking for different opinions and reviews on books may find mine helpful, even though it is just my personal opinion.

Over the last month in Google Analytics, I have had 66 users come to my site. I thought this would mostly be clicks from other Pub 101 students, but I had 17 Canadian users and 48 Americans on my site. I would be interested in continuing to track this long term and learning more about my audience. I wasn’t able to collect enough data to see the age or gender statistics. I think tracking this longer term would be very interesting to get a sense of who my audience actually is. For my imagined audience, I figured that most would be girls, as the books I am reviewing are usually marketed towards girls, as well as my website having a “girly” theme. I think the age range of my imagined audience would be teen girls to young women, in the 15-29 age range. This is because that is also the age range for most of the books I am reviewing. 

I think that the past 13 weeks of creating this website has been a really interesting challenge. I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to create a website, design elements that are important, search engine optimization, and other little things I wouldn’t have thought about for creating a website, like the importance of linking out and how important fonts are. I’d like to continue to learn more about SEO and Google Analytics for the future. Since I focused most of this class on making my blog look how I wanted it to and creating content I thought was important, I would like to explore more of how to promote and market it in the future. A goal of mine would be to get my blog posts into the first page of Google search results. Currently I have found that one of my blog posts is at the top of the second page on Google results, I would be interested in learning in-depth about search engine optimization and applying it to my blog post to get it to the front page. Hollingsworth (2018) states that the first three positions on the front-page result in 40 percent of click-throughs, while up to 30 percent after that will not get clicked at all (para. 54). I need to focus on SEO in order to rank higher on google search results, so I can get more organic website viewers. 

Creating a website and posting on it weekly is a great learning lesson, and I think it would benefit any student to do this, not just one that is planning on a career in publishing or communications. Campbell (2009), lists some of the benefits to students having a personal cyberinfrastructure, such as technical skills, multimodal writing, social networking, and more (para. 7). Learning to be a digital citizen is very important for students, and I think this has been a very beneficial class. This has prepared me for “creative and responsible leadership” for my future (para. 9). 

Having a website domain is a great way for students to create a portfolio to take with them. When their assignments are posted on their own website, they are able to take the work with them and carry it through their education and future work experience (Watters, 2015, para. 6). It can show the progression of a student’s learning progress, rather than just grades locked in a school system (para. 19). As a communications student, it is very important for me to have a portfolio of writing and design work I have done. I think creating a website is a great way to carry this with me and has been a great opportunity to practice writing samples and get experience with WordPress and Google Analytics. 

 I think I would like to continue to blog, but I may change it up slightly. I think the book reading niche was a great way to get started and to create for this class, but I would be interested in writing different content in the future, maybe on a separate website. The freedom to write and create whatever I want is something I liked the most about this class, it is my own personal digital garden that doesn’t follow any rules (Basu, 2020, para. 6). I will definitely be taking the knowledge I have learned from this class and using it in some sort of digital garden somewhere in the future. 

References:

Basu, T. (2020, September 03). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Campbell, G. (2009, September 4). A personal cyberinfrastructure. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Hollingsworth, S. (2018, April 13). 12 reasons why your business absolutely NEEDS SEO. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Watters, A. (2015, July 15). The web we need to give students. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713#.4d7j8rs6x

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Process Post #12

Prompt: Develop community guidelines for your site. Why are those the right guidelines for you? How will you implement them?

Guidelines:

Be polite and respectful: No rude, defamatory, offensive, and threatening posts will be allowed. Comments with offensive or hatred material on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, age, or disability will be allowed.

No links: Links will not be allowed in posts in case they lead to spam or inappropriate material.

No self promotions: No self-promotions or promotions of others will be allowed.

Be Helpful and Relevant: Keep on topic, don’t comment irrelevant information.

No Doxxing: Sharing personal information is not allowed.

I think these guidelines are good to have for this site. I don’t anticipate my target audience posting anything like this, but trolls might. These would be implemented through monitoring of posts, and immediate removal of anything that breaks these rules. For larger sites, there may be a community manager in charge of reading through all posts are making sure they all fit into the guidelines, but for my site I would be able to manage them alone.

The most important rules on this list are the first and last ones. The first, to be polite and respectful is important because trolling and offensive behaviour will never be allowed on this site. The last one, no doxxing, is an important safety feature to make sure private information is not being posted. The other guidelines aren’t as important, but instead are there to ensure there is no spam and to keep comments and posts running smoothly.

I think it’s important to set guidelines, so anyone who comments knows the rules right away. This way there can’t be any complaints, as it was clearly laid out. Guidelines help keep the posts as a safe place, which is welcoming to anyone who wants to join the site.

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My Site’s Community Guidelines

Process Post #12

The community guidelines for my blog site aren’t going to be much different from the guidelines on other online platforms. It is important for me to respect the views of my audience and vice versa. Jaapsfilm’s community guidelines strive to create a safe and fun space for all. It is expected that these guidelines are being followed by everyone. With that being said here are my community guidelines:

Respect other’s viewpoints
Respect the privacy and personal details on this site Do not defame others Do not plagiarize No hateful, unlawful, abusive, vulgar, racist, sexist, threatful, etc comments Communicate politely and respectfully. Always be thoughtful of others Treat others online as you would treat them in real life

I believe that the guidelines above are suitable for my blog site. The guidelines that I have created are not anything unknown or completely different from the basics. I had looked over at Instagram and facebook’s community guidelines for inspiration and direction before creating my own. They are just simple courtesy rules on how one should behave especially in public. They aim to create a safe online space for all individuals while giving my viewer the freedom to express their opinion. Now comes the question of how will these community guidelines be implemented? I will create a special section in my menu bar on my site in the coming weeks to access these guidelines. This way my viewer will be aware of the rules and regulations of my site.

References

The Instagram Team. (2021). Facebook – Meld je aan of registreer je. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser

Process Post #11

Prompt: Make a plan for incorporating more transmedia integration into your online publication. What channels will you focus on? Why?

Transmedia storytelling is dispersing content “across multiple media for the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience” (para. 5). For a blog, this would mean creating content across multiple different platforms. In addition to blogs, many people utilize YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and other platforms as well.

As this website is a book blog, there are many different ways I could use transmedia integration. One is Instagram. This would be quite similar to the blog content I have, except the main focus would be the photo. Then there would be a shorter write up about the book I am featuring in the caption. It is more photo focused, rather than word focused like this blog.

The second one is YouTube. Many book bloggers use YouTube to do longer (10-15 minute) sit down videos, talking in depth about one book or even multiple books. These could be collections such as recently read books, books in a certain genre, or books by an author. The creator will focus mostly on their spoken words, maybe with a couple pictures or showing off the cover of a book. These could be compared to blog posts as being a spoken and visual version.

The third platform is Tik Tok. These videos are much shorter, in the 15 second to 1 minute range. These may have the creator speaking during it, or may just have a few written words on the screen about each book, such as a simple yes or no for whether they would recommend it or what their rating of the book would be.

For me, I get most of my book recommendations now from Tik Tok. “BookTok”, the name of the genre of videos on the platform has been a great source for book suggestions. The algorithm on Tik Tok also makes it much easier for videos to be seen than on other platforms. If I were to be expanding into transmedia content in addition to this blog, I would focus on making short-form videos on Tik Tok as well.

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Incorporating More Transmedia Integration

Process Post #11

This week I will be talking about my plan to incorporate more transmedia in my blog site. This will include producing content for various outlets for my blog. Many content creators use platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter to reach more audiences. It is of utmost importance to note that, in order to generate the maximum amount of engagement, a story must reach consumers across all the devices and platforms they use (Heyes, 2019).

In today’s day and age, transmedia integration is crucial as it “forces people to tell stories with as much gusto as they can muster, using images, videos, animated GIFs, cinemagraphs, sounds, maps, and words” (Heyes, 2019, para.9). For a while now, I have been planning on turning my photography Instagram account into a platform for Jaapsfilm. This will work as both platforms are photography related and the content I post on 5jab_ is very much relevant to Jaapsfilm. I want to start off by posting more content on my 5jab_ accounts Instagram page and then I will slowly expand my audience base by hopping on Tik Tok, Twitter, and Pinterest. Gaining more audience is not an overnight job, it takes time and patience. I need to be consistent with producing content for my Instagram account and blog site!

For an audience that expects to be entertained at all times, online engagement is becoming increasingly difficult (Heyes, 2019). The best strategy for achieving that engagement might be to tell good stories that are genuine, factual, and elicit emotion (Heyes, 2019).

References

Heyes, S. (2019, November 13). Transmedia Storytelling & Digital Marketing – 8MS Blog. 8 Million Stories (8MS). https://8ms.com/blog/transmedia-storytelling-importance-digital-marketing/

Multiple Channels

Week 11: Process Post

Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash

Unfortunately, I was sick and could not attend this week’s lecture on Multiple Channels and Multiple Media, and the link to the lecture slides was not working, so I had to do some research on the definition of transmedia. From the website Target Internet, I found out that transmedia deals with telling stories or producing content across multiple media platforms.

In this process post I will be discussing how I plan to integrate more transmedia into my website and what channels I will be focusing on. YouTube and Spotify will be the two channels I connect with the most. I know there is an argument around whether Spotify is considered a social media channel but for now I will count it as one. Through Spotify I have already created an account called Blue Bedroom Playlists, and I would like to continue to develop that account while getting more followers who enjoy the playlists I create. Through Spotify I would create a specific playlist for DKT MUSIC, so that users could find my website. As for the website users can find the playlists by clicking on the menu option that is titled Blue Bedroom Playlists, and this would connect them to Spotify. I have also linked out to Spotify and integrated the Spotify playlists into my posts.

YouTube would be another channel I would work with. I have also been linking out to YouTube and have integrated videos from the channel onto my site. I think through YouTube I could create playlists and a channel that reviews albums, just as I do on my site. In this way through YouTube I could link my website.

Instagram is another channel which I have been thinking about. I think if I create an account that incorporates the playlists and is an extension of my website that this would help to integrate more transmedia. Through Instagram I could gain followers with shorter posts and if they are interested, they could go to the website for more in-depth posts. Similar with the playlists this could introduce users to the playlists which could lead them to follow my account on Spotify.

The reason I would focus on these three platforms specifically is because I use them the most and they make sense with my website. Spotify and YouTube are both music platforms that I can use to further engage people in the music community. Instagram is a popular social media platform and I find that people like content that is short and quick, for example Instagram stories. So I could engage audiences in this way which could initially lead them to my website.

Link to the definition of transmedia from Target Internet: https://www.targetinternet.com/transmedia-storytelling-in-2021/#:~:text=Transmedia%20storytelling%20is%20the%20practice,blog%20entries%2C%20radio%20and%20advertisements

Peer review 3

Today I am going to be introducing the blog of my classmate Kim. The blog is titled Kim’s Eureka http://kimseureka.com/ and is full of Aha moments and adventures Kim shares with her readers. 

First thoughts 🤔

When you enter Kim’s blog you land on her hello page. From this page, I can see she has a great understanding of the topics of her blog: yoga, wellness and spirituality. When Kim addresses her readers she is honest and gives you details about who she is and the purpose of her blog. I like that this Hello page was neat, clear and modern. Kim added a picture of herself to the right. She uses bolded works to highlight text and the spacing is great for reading.  

Design 🤍

The design of her top banner of her page is very nice and modern. I liked that she used a shadowing picture of a yoga pose, it visually gives insight into what the blog is about. She has a link to her Linkedin account, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube channel in the menu bar. Kim uses a grayish palette combined with colorful undertones. She has two main sections in her menu or navigation bar. The Eureka section is aligned with the categories she created for the blog posts. It seems like she took time to also color code the sections in her blog either gold or silver. She creates images for each blog post that gives the overall blog a consistent look. I liked how she links up videos, audios, photos and even posts within her blog to share basic examples. At the bottom of her page she added a calendar and a sign up section for a newsletter. Kim also included a section where you can use tags to help you navigate the content of her blog. I would recommend trying to change the lighter color of the text and/or size; at times it was difficult to read. When navigating Kim’s Eureka I learned a lot from external links. 

Content 😌

Her content often includes screenshots and details. She keeps a casual tone when writing but makes great connections with class content, discussion and readings. She also summarizes her takeaways from each week of class which was very helpful to see. Kim is very careful with her grammar and has a great vocabulary, I had to google some of the words she used. I really enjoyed when she used emojis within her text. I would recommend creating a section where she gives readers some recommended ways to navigate the website. Maybe creating a page that outlines what will be found in each tag or section of the blog and how to better find the content the reader wants. 

Audience and Advertising 👏

Kim’s intended audience is folks who are interested in fitness, yoga and wellness. I am learning about yoga just now, so I wouldn’t know which channels to recommend. Maybe post ads on yoga studios websites, like Oxygen Yoga and Fitness. I would recommend using both text based simple ads and other ads with pictures to reach a wider audience. 

I think Kim made great connections in her blog. I really liked the yoga tips. The image selection was beautiful. Kim’s website shows she dedicated a lot of effort and time into her page. 

Namaste! 🙏

process post wk 10

When hearing the word analytics I think about donations. I think about how a website is supported. 

what is the cost?

It costs mostly a dollar shown by users who support the website. Users give their attention and participation to websites by commenting and watching. They can also click adds. However, the cost is leaving evidence or data breadcrumbs behind. The downside is that this data can be tracked down.

what is my opinion about data trails?

My thoughts are “where’s the data trails coming from?” I haven’t got any expectations that users can attract other websites. Before our lecture on privacy I did not know that data trails existed and that this information was being collected. When browsing online, I have not gotten a chance to browse what my data footprint can be. 

Is there hope?

I have not given up on preserving my data online. Although I just learned about this I want to continue learning about this and how to have a more private online browsing experience.  I think we have an opportunity to use this for good. For example websites like change.org we can use our online power to giving money, finding missing pets or starting petitions for a topic of your choice. 

Last Peer Review Feedback

Week 10: Process Post

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

This week I will discuss the feedback I had received from my classmate Alyssa. I really appreciate her comments on how I color coordinated my website because that is something I struggled with in the beginning of the semester, but I’m glad she liked these changes. As mentioned before I do hope to redesign this whole website after the semester is over, so I am also looking forward to that.

Alyssa also suggested to add more hyperlinks in my posts and I completely agree. I had received this feedback in tutorials and now in this peer review. I will be going through all my posts next week and adding hyperlinks.

I also appreciate her positive comments on my about me section, and the marketability of my site. I feel like there is still a lot I need to do to make my website more marketable, but Alyssa pointed out things I did not even notice. She mentioned how my song of the week makes my website feel “current” and adds to the marketability, so that is something I will definitely keep when redesigning my website.

I loved the suggestion she had made for my new artist’s section. Alyssa had mentioned that I should “showcase a new Vancouver-born artist every week” and that this will “increase marketability to local Vancouverites.” I love this idea and will definitely be looking into more Vancouver artists. I think that is a great way to showcase local talent and gain more attraction for my website. I also think that this would allow me to network with people in the music industry.

 I have started to look at labels. Monstercat is a Canadian independent music label and it is based in Vancouver. Although all artists on this label may not be from Vancouver, I think it is a great place to start looking for new local artists. I have also searched on google for local Vancouver artists and many websites came up, so I will be looking further into those.

Lastly, I really liked that she had taken a look at my Blue Bedroom Playlists section, because this is separate content from the blog and process posts, and I’m glad that she not only took the time to view it but enjoyed it.

I thank Alyssa for her suggestions and great ideas as they were helpful.  

Checkout Alyssa’s website Loafs by Lyss to learn how to make sourdough bread and more!

Process Post #10

Peer Review 3 Response:

For this process post I will be reflecting on Hayden’s peer review of my blog.

The first piece of advice she suggested is to change up my featured photos for process posts, mini assignments, peer reviews, and essays. Right now they are all the same pink with a blue border and blue text (as shown in the featured photo for this post). She suggested to make each category a different photo. I really like this idea, and I was thinking I could play around with maybe having some with a blue background with a pink border and pink text, and maybe also switching up some other elements. This would keep them cohesive, but also different to each other and stand out for a user scrolling through my blog.

The second piece of advice would be to add more widgets that are also similar, such as Instagram, Pinterest, or something else book related. I really like this idea and want to implement it to add a little something extra. I currently have a widget of my book reading challenge for 2021 on my home page, but GoodReads also has more options, such as books I’ve recently reviewed, recently read, or in a specific collection. I currently don’t have an Instagram or Pinterest page for Brooke Reads Books, but if I did I think that would be a great addition to the page in the form of widgets.

Overall, I think Hayden had some really great advice to make my website better. Thanks for the peer review!

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