Official blog of Clark's Blogging for Journalists class, Mass Communication department

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Evaluation Assignments

Today, post on your blog, and below, up to five sentences about what you learned from "State of the Blogosphere" on Technorati that affects your blogging?
 For Tuesday, (To be posted on your blog, and as comments at the end of this posti) by noon, Monday)
1. What area of your blog do you need to work on to improve?
2. What would make your blog more interesting?
3. Be prepared to have your blog projected and discussed
4. Be prepared to show the blog you're following, and list one strength and one place it could be improved, with a one-sentence explanation.

15 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Some important lessons that came up were more of the "common sense" variety but it's amazing how you sometimes overlook the little things that seem so ritualized.

    1. Post. And post often. 95% of blogs that are started are never posted to or are never updated with anything resembling regularity.

    2. Keep your content fresh and constantly evolving.

    3. Research the different methods of gaining advertising revenue. There is more than one way to make a buck while blogging and, while it doesn't come fast, persistence is the key.

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  3. The most interesting piece of information conveyed in the "State of the Blogosphere" is the disconnect between the content providers (bloggers) and the content readers. Surprisingly, the most sought after content on the web had a small presence in the blogging community. Taking this into consideration, it seems a wise strategy for blogging would be to go about it in a manner similar to any other business: listen to what the consumer wants and deliver it.

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  4. Blogs are growing increasingly attractive to advertisers. Growing, loyal audiences are being attracted to blogs and marketers are aware of this fact. There are so many different types of bloggers. I happen to be a hobbyist. A large enough market being reached can make a blogger money for his/her posts. If I intend to keep my readers, I need to post more often than not. Make sure what is being posted is interesting, unique, and worth reading.

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  5. While Keep Our Beer Grand began as a class project, I believe the brewing future in Oklahoma is bright and deserving of my attention.

    After reviewing the State of the Blogosphere 2011, I was taken aback by the percentage of people who do not trust traditional journalism. While this blog is anything but traditional, I still feel the cornerstones of journalism -- objectivity, timeliness, proximity, impact -- are all vital to a blog.

    60% of bloggers are hobbyists. I hope that this blog can rise to a professional level.

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  6. 1. I think I need to make people more aware that my blog exists. I could make more interesting content and spend more time making my blog better.
    2. I think my blog would be more interesting if I had more content and was more organized with my blog.
    3. I am ready to have my blog discussed.
    4. I think my blog has a great subject to be discussed. Almost everyone dreams at night and people love talking about their dreams. I could improve my blog by generating more ideas to gain readers and be more creative.

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  7. 1. I think that one thing that can constantly be improved on my blog is consistency and making sure that I am talking about things that are in the "now" to get readers attention.

    2. Showing more examples on my blog that apply to various people could make my blog more interesting.

    Jordan Harris

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  8. Well just to name a few

    1.) The fact that there are more male bloggers ages 25-34 living in the US who are currently blogging than in any other place in the world.

    2.) I learned that most bloggers are merely musing and to not come to expect a high level of success if I continue to only blog for my own personal satisfaction and not that of my readers.

    3.) Do not reply to criticism if you haven't put the necessary amount of time into your blog.

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  9. Obviously my blog is still a baby blog so I am sure there are tons of improvements I could make. First my picture quality is terrible! I shoot all the pictures of my food and crafts with my cell phone. I know I could have much better pictures with an actual camera. My layout is still a little off to me as well but I think I can fix that in time once I get more comfortable with the blogger site.
    How do I make it more interesting? I already think it is interesting! Ha! But if I HAD to make something up I could do a weekly feature. Maybe every Tuesday do my own version of a recipe by a famous chef or a Pinterest craft Sunday. We will see if those ever come about but I could see them happening in the future!

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  10. Today, camera is considered a necessity. I hope my readers would be people ranging from someone who wants to learn photography to someone who is already an experienced photographer. I learned from the State of Blogosphere 2011 that a hobbyist blog like mine has the potential of making it into an entrepreneur blog. I wish I'll have that kind of opportunity.

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  11. Just as people need direction so does my blog. That is exactly what it is lacking, I set out to create a blog of manly skills and although it is still fresh in the runnings I have yet to take one step in that direction. With that being said I am going to start a short series of posts on shaving with a straight razor, it will discuss the pros and cons and the how to.

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  12. 1. According to Technorati's "State of the Blogosphere 2011," 60 percent of bloggers are hobbyists, and 61 percent measure the success of their blog by personal satisfaction. I think this is the category I most identify with because I am not currently maintaining this blog for profit. One good tip I pulled from this address is to use labels and tag words to attract readers from your specific audience. Technorati lists the top 30 tag words (or labels) that were used in 2011, including news, business, politics, entertainment, and video. Another tip I learned was to incorporate more photos, videos, and music into my blog, since these are the majority of bloggers are using these mediums.

    2. What area of your blog do you need to work on to improve?

    I think I need to work on the layout of my blog because the background picture is hard to see and the header is awfully bulky.

    3. What would make your blog more interesting?

    To increase the level of interest on my blog, I will start incorporating more intricate and interactive features on my blog, creating a well-balanced mix of pictures, links, videos and text.

    4. Show the blog you're following. List one strength and one place it could be improved.

    I have chosen to follow Ree Drummond's blog, The Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com), specifically the cooking section, The Pioneer Woman Cooks! (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking).
    One strength about this blog is that it includes great pictures that are of high quality and that are relevant to the topic of the post.
    One improvement that could be made to the blog is a lot of de-cluttering. This is obviously a blog that makes money because there are many advertisements; however, this clutters up the blog and makes it much more difficult to focus on the actual content of the blog.

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  13. 1. What area of your blog do you need to work on to improve?
    I need to improve my profile and the layout of my blog, including the darn background. I really feel that my site is not portraying the personality I would like it to. Do to my poor technological skills I am having a difficult time getting my page to be what I want it to be.

    2. What would make your blog more interesting?
    I feel that just the layout being more organized and more "me" the blog will keep readers on the page long enough for them to want to start reading my posts. Then of course having interesting posts no here.

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  14. 1. The one area I could Improve with my blog is consistency. Consistently get a post out a day or work on material that I could work on for the blog.

    2. Maybe just working on the site a little more to make it more eye catching. That might be a way to get it more noticed. Something a little more different than other blogs.

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  15. 1. I was surprised to find that the majority of bloggers are actually male. Its not a stereotype to say that i thought women would be more into blogging, its just that, in my experience, girls seem to be the one's more interested in finding emotional outlets. ;) i.e blogging.As you can see, my thought wasn't completely outrageous. Girls dominate the social world aside from only one: blogging.
    2. Post more often and more consistently.
    3. Keep material fresh and always entertaining

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