Friday @ Google!
Hey folks, so Friday the big day. We’re going to Google!
Please be there NO LATER than 12:45 so we can get through their security and be ready to go at 1:00.
I will be bringing a Mac laptop with Keynote and Powerpoint on it, if you need them.
Here’s where we’re headed:
SEE YOU AT 12:45!!
Analytics, Affiliates, and other Monetization Ideas
Analytics: Understanding Where they’re coming from
Google Analytics
Beginning Analytics video
Analytics basics
Google Analytics for WordPress Plug-in
Make Modest Money: Simple ad programs
Google Adsense
iTunes Affiliates
Amazon Associates
Raise Money
Kickstarter
Presentations & Report for 4-29
As we approach the end of class, it’s important that we check in on your site as you prepare to populate it with content (or, in the case of the content that’s already there, evaluate its value). It is also a time to strongly consider the presentation of the site itself, and to fine-tune the look & feel, because content is only as good as the site that showcases it. And it’s also crucial, of course, that you consider audience at every juncture as well.
The format for this presentation will be similar to our last, with slides and a group presentation. However at this point you should also be able to walk us through various aspects of your site itself, and be able to answer questions about the content and the look/feel of the site overall. Because of this, we will reserve the end of your presentation for a walkthrough of the site–the actual site itself, NOT a prototype. Prepare one of your team members to “drive” this walkthrough, taking over the projection computer. Map out what it is you want to talk about and highlight, however, so that your presentation remains professional and succinct.
As with last time, you will give both a presentation and hand in a report, signed by all group members.
presentation & report
The Site Idea and its Relationship to Content
–Be as succinct and clear as possible. Start with a one or two-sentence description of the site.
–Succinctly, how does content fulfill that mission?
–In other words: why are you featuring what you’re featuring?
The Content Itself
–What types of content do you see regularly appearing on your site? And why?
–What kinds of media will you employ for this content?
–Social media: What’s your strategy? Why? How?
–How do you plan on grouping the various content types?
–In other words, what are the various sections or categories on your site?
–How do these categories work to clearly state at a hierarchical level what your site is all about?
–Give seven specific examples of content currently on your site and ten specific examples of content still to come.
Content and its Relationship to Audience
This is important, so I will bold it: invite five members of your targeted audience to preview your site. Get as much feedback as you can from them regarding the content. For this section include bios/info about the people you talked with for the report and give their specific feedback there. In your presentation include photographs of these people interacting with your site.
–Who is the audience you are targeting and why? BE SPECIFIC.
–What content do you think they are looking for online, and why would they come to you to get it?
–How did you come to this conclusion?
–When you previewed your site to audience members, what was their reaction to the content?
–How did they feel it could improve?
–What other content did they feel could go in the site?
–What other feedback did they get?
Look & Feel
–Why does your site look the way it does?
–How does your site classify and display content?
–What are the calls to action for your site?
–How can a user access the various pieces of content–is there a menu system that makes sense?
–How does the way your site looks compliment the content?
Walkthrough
The walkthrough of your site should highlight the following:
–demonstrate the way that a user would access various content types
–highlight some of the unique ways your site is presenting its content
–show off your site’s look & feel and explain why it works the way it does
–demonstrate the categories your content falls into
Slides
Your slides should correspond to the major sections of your presentation. Create as many as you see fit.
Your presentation should be no longer than 8 minutes, including the walkthrough.
Lecture Links 4-22-11
Calls to Action
Creating effective calls to action
37Signals tests calls to action
Flickr’s clear calls to action
37 Signals answers basic questions fast
Culinary Culture makes the sale
User-Centered Design
I love that there is a government website about this.
Compare & Contrast
Google vs Yahoo
The Bold Italic vs SF Weekly
Ask yourself: What do these sites want me to do?
Lecture Links 4-15-11
Quick Review: PageRank
How Google Works
Page Rank Checker
Sites with the Page Rank of 10
Writing for the Web
Writing Persuasive Content
Search Engine Optimization
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Writing for Search Engine Optimization
Creating the Curious/Known combo headline
An excellent critique of the SEO “industry”
For next week: Kill “hello world” with REAL content
So you’ve all been given the keys to the WordPress car, and just enough gas to get you rolling. So roll! You need to accomplish a few things next week:
1) Kill the default settings: get a theme that works for your site installed, kill the “just another wordpress blog,” switch the view over to a static page if that makes more sense for your content (it probably does), install plugins that flesh out your page. Tweak CSS. Make things happen.
2) Kill the default content with REAL CONTENT for your site. Starting this week and rolling through the next few weeks, you’re required to produce FOUR pieces of content for your site a week (that’s for groups of 3… our lone group of 4, you needs FIVE pieces).
Group Work: Data & Audience reports
All three of these sites live and die by the data they can collect. Whether it’s suburban bars, urban hair salons, or dance audition locations, there is data and information that is crucial to your audience. How are you going to collect that data, in a way that’s going to be sustainable and achievable? What methods can you use? Where can you turn online? Where can you turn in the real world? Explain what your primary data is, what it consists of, and how you collect it and maintain it.
Also, all of your sites facilitate the obsessions of your users, but in different ways. You need to be able to engage with them in a way that will keep them coming back and will create the core discussions you want to foster. Who are the people that are coming to your site–-no more ifs, who are they really and what do they do when they get on there, how do they interact with each other, and what value do they add to the site and does the site add for them? What keeps them engaged and coming back?
Answer these two questions fully and completely in a report to be turned in next week. All of your team members must sign this report.
PS. Don’t forget your Twitter report is due next week
Welcome to WordPress!
The demo site we used in class.
WordPress’s extensive documentation
Browse through plugins
And themes
Your sites:
Group One
Group Two
Group Three
Coding Assignment For Next Week
Next week you need to flesh out your hand-coded bio page. Be sure that you:
1) Use CSS positioning to build a sidebar.
2) Use CSS to make boxes.
3) Bring in dynamic web content in the form of widgets (linked in a below post).
Once you’ve got your page working the way you want it to, copy the HTML code from your editor and paste it into a Pastie page, so you can get a unique URL to your code.
Paste that Pastie link into the comments of this post.
See you next week!
PS. For reference here’s a Pastie of the page I built in class today.
PRESENTATION & REPORTS NEXT WEEK
NEXT WEEK is our first of two graded check-ins on your group site. This check-in will accomplish two things: introduce the idea and the audience/community for your site, and demonstrate a hi-rez prototype of some elements of the site. These presentations will be to your classmates and to an invited panel of industry experts.
You will give a presentation to the panel and turn in a report to me. Your report and your presentation should encompass:
presentation & report
Who is the audience you’re targeting?
— what age/gender/etc are they?
— what do they do, both for a living and also for fun?
— what are their hopes/dreams?
— why are they interested in the things they’re interested in?
— where do they go? (both in real life and online)
— why are they a part of the community(ies) they are a part of?
— what will they gain by visiting your site?
Give three specific examples of real people, complete with photo documentation. For your written report, write a short profile of each person.
Where is the community that already exists around your site’s topic?
— where do they go online?
— where do they go in the real world?
— what do they do when they’re there?
For both locations, please cite three specific examples of each (both virtual and real), explain the motivation your audience/community has in going to those places, their activities once they are there and what you can learn from these things to apply to your site. For the real-world place, please include photo documentation of your visit there: show us your community “in the wild”.
What sites are working in a similar space?
— how are you different?
— what are they doing right?
— what are they doing wrong?
— how do you plan to work with and among those sites?
Bring it all together
With all this information about your audience/community, explain how you will reach them and engage them with your site.
— three specific online examples
— two specific real-world ideas
Your report will be handed in, be sure that every member of your team signs the report.
Slides
Your slides need to cover:
- Intro to your site with a one-sentence description
- Your audience defined, with photos
- Their community defined, with images of them in the locations you identified
- Other sites in your space
- A slide for your conclusion
Your slides can contain as much information as you want (though remember our discussion in class today: less is often more, you will be talking along with them), but need to cover these five points.
Walkthrough
In addition, you will also present a guided walkthrough of a high-rez prototype of your site. Similar to your work in the Student Communications project, you should craft a mockup of your site in a presentation program of your choosing, with enough detail to get the site idea across, and enough active links to be able to show us some basic functionality.
Presentation specific notes
–Your group’s presentation should not last longer than 10 minutes, that will leave plenty of time for questions from the class and our panelists. If I had to offer a breakdown, that would be probably 7 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for the walkthrough. But that’s just an estimate–your time is your own.
–Plan your presentation and walkthrough out in advance, and make sure everyone’s practiced it as well. Rambling doesn’t help anyone. Neither does going long.
–Be prepared to answer questions with further detail about your site and your strategy. Prepare also to hear criticism. Being argumentative does not help you in any way, shape, or form. Criticism at this stage is crucial to building a viable site.
Online Journalism: Spring 2011 