Shakespeare's all-aboard the blogging express.

Module Notes/Topics to Cover

Week 1 – Introduction

The introductory class will be based around topic selection and delineating personal goals for blogging, whether they be focused on actually building a reader/viewership or simply creating an extended expository for personal use or resume building. In addition, students will network with other students, perhaps forming blogging groups based on topic. Those with more niche-oriented focuses will be less in need of joining a group, but those with more general topics would benefit from connecting with like-minded bloggers. In addition, all students will register a WordPress.com blog in the interest of uniformity. Some might be prepared to take on their own domain, and will ultimately be given this opportunity later in the semester. However, a homogenous class platform will allow instructors to teach specific aspects of WordPress. Once registered, students will start blogging with minimum requirement of 500 words per week, with grades based primarily on quality of posts.

Week 2 – Business Plans and Blogging Etiquette

Building on the stated goals in week one, students will write a more detailed agenda for the rest of the of the semester in the form of a “business plan.” As part of this document, students will identify potential partners and competitors in the blogosphere, begin posting on topic-appropriate forums and message boards, and pitch a guest post to blogs with an established audience. They will also register a Twitter account and create a Facebook page for their blogs, and will be encouraged to join/follow other classmates on said networks. In addition, week 2 will address ethical issues and standard protocol – linking, appropriate citation, “Google ganking,” crediting photos, etc. Moreover, this week will cover common technical problems and the corresponding troubleshooting solutions.

Week 3 – Analytics, Audiences, and Traffic

Lessons will primarily focus on audience analysis and traffic driving techniques. For week 3, students must track hits using at least two different plug-ins or widgets, as discussion will revolve around the similarities and differences, pros and cons of each method. Lectures will address the major traffic analysis programs like Google Analytics, Stat Counter, Woopra Analytics, Google Pagerank, GoingUp! and WordPress Stats, with an emphasis on how potential readers are getting to the site and how to get them to stay. Moreover, students will learn to appropriately tag posts, begin searching for potential blogroll candidates, and experiment with post presentation (linking key words, embedding audio and video, creating list-based posts, etc.). Further instruction will compare and contrast various site hosts, like GoDaddy, InMotion, iPage, FatCow and the like.

Week 4 – Utilizing Hypertext, Business Plan Revision

As students continue blogging, they will take notes on which posts are the most successful and discuss reasons behind these successes. By week four, they should have a more accurate grasp for their blogs’ potential and will adjust their “business plans” accordingly. Students will also create a blogroll with the requirement that at least two sites apart from those of their classmates must be added to this roll (and reciprocated with an incoming link, as is standard protocol). Lessons will focus on trackbacks, pinging, linking and syndication, with emphasis both how these processes work and how to utilize them to grow an audience. Discussion will focus on the methodology behind how search engines rank pages (and touch on spam, splogs, ad farms, etc.), and will give an overview of Technorati and services like Ping-O-Matic.

Week 5 – “Dolla Dolla Bills, Y’all!”: Advertising and Online Entrepreneurism 

Though generating income might not be a reasonable expectations for most students, this course would be incomplete without an overview of the possible revenue streams available to bloggers. Teaching will center primarily on Google’s AdSense, OpenAds, PayPal, donation buttons and various advice sites like ProBlogger.net, but students will be asked to do their own research as well. In addition, students will be asked to prepare a proposal to solicit advertising from a local business. They will also be asked to develop an ad for said potential advertiser a program like PhotoShop. In this way, students will hone entrepreneurial skills. While attempts at material monetary gain will ultimately be fruitless for the fast majority of students, the very possibility of making money and the entrepreneurial bent to the lesson plans will ultimately keep students engaged. You can think of week five as the course’s pyramid scheme – it will motivate students by tricking them into thinking they can make money.

Week 6 – Domains and Hosting: An Overview of Pay-Per Blogging Services

Hopefully, students have yet to realize that they won’t make any money on this project. This module, then, will capitalize on their temporary enthusiasm by comparing and contrasting the different blogging platforms and hosting services. Lessons will emphasize cost-benefit analysis and try to come to conclusions on which hosts and sites are the most appropriate for different blogging purposes. One might counter that this module should be moved to the beginning of the course, but discussion will benefit from the fact that students have been using various sites all along. They will thus be able to bring their experiences to the table and offer suggestions and feedback to other classmates. In addition, part of this lesson plan will teach specifically the pros and cons of WordPress.com vs. WordPress. Students on .com will be given the opportunity to make the switch should they feel limited by their platforms capabilities (Note: I like the idea of allowing students to use different platforms because I have found that my novice experiences with WordPress.com have taught me the basics of blogging – growing an audience from scratch, networking, the importance of keywords, SEO, etc. Moreover, I think that at this point in the semester, students will have a handle on blogging in general, as well as a good feel for their site’s “ceiling.” With my site, for instance, I feel that I am ready to make the leap from WP.com to WP.org, but would only do so if I was given time to make the switch. To this point, I would not have felt comfortable registering for .org right off the bat. I know the transition is not as easy as it sounds, but only six weeks in, definitely doable.)

Week 7 – Roles in Journalism

Because this is indeed a journalism class, week seven lessons will focus on blogging’s various roles in journalism. This module will look at the rise of civic journalism and it’s history, as well as blogging’s functions in “old media” companies like the New York Times. By comparing different types of journalism-related web-writing, students will get a feel not only for the relationship between old media and new media (for instance, how ESPN blogs tap into cross-platform synergies), but also learn appropriate online “manners” so to speak – appropriate language, the difference between newspaper writing/blogging and the like. “Blog Wars” by David Perlmutter would be appropriate reading should this class delve into assigned reading (and worse, actual paper books!). Though the book primarily examines political blogging, it does a great job of showing where blogs came from and where they are going. It’s also a good discussion piece – Perlmutter is of the opinion that blogs are the “Fifth Estate” to mainstream journalism’s “Fourth Estate.” Are blogs indeed a media watchdog? What other roles do they fill?

Week 8 – Social Networking: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Google Buzz

These modules will give a basic overview of the major social networking sites with a specific emphasis on Tweeting, Digging, and Buzzing to create an audience. Facebook fan pages and ads will be explored, too, and will focus on Facebook Insights statistics as well as the pros and cons of FB advertising. As students will be asked to begin Tweeting, one lesson will look solely at how to build a following through Tweet tagging, retweeting, using the @ feature, tracking trends and choosing people to follow. In addition, modules will focus on the synergies between the networking platforms and explore site integration for the sake of traffic-driving. For instance, students will learn how to post a Tweet from a Facebook fan page, install social networking widgets on their blogs, and have blog content posted automatically to Twitter and Facebook. Students will be given a participation grade based on Twitter and FB fan page interactions, but will have the opportunity to earn extra points by actually growing a Twitter following. Moreover, students will track their own performance based on number of fans/followers added. 

Week 9 – Images and Photography for the Web

These modules will center primarily around Photoshop basics, like banner creation, optimization for the web, photo adjustment, and text creation. In addition, lessons will give an overview to introductory photography theory – specifically, the rule of thirds and basic shooting principles – as well as touch on color theory. Students will be asked to post five Photoshopped/optimized pictures to their blog and create a custom banner. Potential resources for lessons include “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design” by Jason Beaird, Lynda.com (on which students will be required to register) and “Visual Explanations” by Edward Tufte. In addition, students will critically examine how popular blogs and Web sites present images and record their findings in a class wiki.

Week 10 – Coding

To get the most out of the WordPress format and blogging in general, students will need to know basic coding. These lesson will teach the rudimentary aspects of XHTML and CSS, such as changing color schemes, meta tags for display in search engines, and image properties. Instruction will follow these guidelines, and will also utilize “HTML, XHTML & CSS” by Elizabeth Castro. Additionally, modules will delve into the essentials of page layout, looking specifically at sites like 960.gs, CSS Zen Garden, and the Web Style Guide. 

Week 11 – Audio and Video

Though not a core lesson plan, basic instruction of Audacity’s audio editing capabilities as well as Windows Moviemaker and iMovie are essential to developing a well-rounded online journalist. Students will learn how to create a podcast in Audacity and post it both to their blogs and iTunes. This week will also give an overview of audio and video capturing techniques – such as microphone position and what to look for in a camera shot. Students will also learn how to post videos to YouTube and Google Video.

Week 12 – Building a Brand

The sendoff module will look at ways of building a coherent Web presence. The lessons here primarily serve to recap and emphasize what students have been working up to all along – namely, create their own online brand. Students will develop both a slogan and a logo for their blog. They will also propose potential memes, looking specifically at ways to unify content and establish coherent themes (ideas for running posts, for instance). Students will be asked to read passages from “Be The Media” and, finally, draw conclusions along the “what did I learn?” lines. 

Widgets and Plugins

Verbs: this “chunk” will help students 1) develop a presence in the blogosphere 2) recognize potential benefits and drawbacks of different blogging platforms 3) monetize a blog 4) connect with potential readers and like-minded bloggers and 5) realistically evaluate monetary potential

Target Audience: This learning module is aimed at undergraduate college students – ages 18-22 – who are computer literate, but have not yet made forays into the blogosphere. Those engaging in this course must have a working knowledge of the Internet, be familiar with basic social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and above all, must possess the basic skills that allow one to function in a digital environment. In this sense, it is not imperative for students to be of a certain age or working background, but only that they have the ability to navigate Web browser, type, etc. The ideal pupil, however, is one that has an interest in growing his or her web presence, monetizing this web presence, and is an avid writer. Moreover, those that gain the most from this module will be ones that optimize a combination of visual and do-it-yourself learning. 

Resources

This is pretty basic explanation of the benefits of WordPress.org over WordPress.com. It gives a skeletal outline of how to make conversion and approximates the costs of doing so.

Convert Your WordPress.com Blog to Something You Can Actually Make Money From

A really good breakdown of the pro and cons of WP.org vs. WP.com. The post above seemed to gloss over the drawbacks of the latter. Yes, you can customize the CSS and add all the plug-ins in the world, but it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain. For instance, you need to download your own spam blockers. Nasty.

What’s The Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? 

This is an entire site dedicated to monetizing your blog. Some of it’s kind of gimmicky/scam-oriented, but there’s some beneficial information about different social networking techniques and platforms. Stumblupon, for instance, is a plugin that allows people to rate your content and then pass it on to others.

MonetizeBlog.net

Here’s a really cool post from Cats Who Blog ranking the top ten revenue-generating WordPress.org plugins. It gives a brief overview of programs like ClickBank, iTunes Link Generator, AmazonSimpleAdmin and the like, and includes download links for each one.

Top 10 WordPress Plugins to Monetize Your Blog

The following video from Marketing Professor explains another WordPress plugin that allows you to automatically turn keywords into revenue-generating affiliate links. It also provides some general tips about linking that help you engage readers and connect to relevant content.

And here’s the link to a page that gives a rundown of Ninja Affiliate, the plugin described in the video. You do have to pay for the widget, but the potential business outweighs the costs should your blog reach a certain amount of traffic.

Ninja Affiliate at Max Blogs

This is a series of internet marketing video podcasts that focuses on maximizing search engine rankings and blogging with WordPress.

Shared Video

DailyBlogTips put together this collaborative tip sheet from successful bloggers about ways to generate traffic. Some of the ideas are lacking – the CarnivalBlogs isn’t the most productive endeavor in my experience – but for the most part, the suggestions are worthwhile. Many users, for instance, emphasize the important of commenting on other blogs. And it’s nice to get first hand advice from people with real experience. 

Blog Project: 30 Traffic Generation Tips

I’ve found that DoshDosh provides some strong content when it comes to “semi-pro” blogging and web advice in general. This article focuses on the positives and negatives of monetizing a blog from the get-go and also gives a rundown of Google’s AdSense.

Don’t Make the Mistake of Monetizing Your Blog Too Early

RotorBlog is more or less a running commentary on social networking applications, and though it focuses heavily on Twitter, it also highlights some of the sites/apps that have yet to break into the mainstream. It is here that I first read about Google Buzz, which is a lot like Digg, but with force-of-god that is Google backing it. The RotorBlog post for Feb. 12 focuses on this application as a widget for WordPress.

RotorBlog.com

And this is the video for Google Buzz. It’s Google’s official video, so take it with a grain of salt, but it does seem like the ultimate social networking application. Buzz allows you to easily share content (videos, pictures, texts, etc.), comment on content, provide status updates, etc. In addition, it synchs up with Twitter, Facebook and GMail… It will probably replace the human race at some point, so look out for that.

Paul Stamitiou is a big shot blogger and web designer who, a while back (2005), put together this really great step-by-step of how to start blogging from scratch. What I most enjoyed about this post is the Technorati for dummies registration how-to, but he also provides some functional tips on how to track readers and gives advice on specific blogging rings. The post was published almost 5 years ago, and it’s still getting constant comments – 546 to be exact. Good stuff.

HOW TO: Boost Your Blog Traffic by Paul Stamitiou 

Online Social Networking is an all-encompassing site that posts regularly on how to maximize web presence. They cover search engine optimization, present the pros and cons of various social networking applications, review different blogging widgets, emphasize community building, etc. They also comment on different digital media trends and continually offer advice on how to create and grow a personalized web brand. Larry Brauner, a marketing and business analysis, is the site’s main author.

Online Social Networking

The following article examines the tradeoffs of using WordPress versus using Blogger. It gives a pretty detailed rundown of template formats, customization and search engine optimization. Like most of the articles that I have read, it seems to favor WordPress, both for its ease of use and attractive visual components. 

WordPress vs. Blogger: Which Should You Use for Your Professional Blog?

Here’s a a video I found on YouTube comparing Blogger with self-hosted WordPress. It examines some of the upkeep implications as well as the traffic and advertising considerations. It’s a little lengthy, but does a good job of utilizing screen shots… I think my “chunk” could end up being an updated, sleeker version of this, except with a slightly different focus.

This is another informative Blogger vs. WordPress debate by profressional blogger Mert Erkal. Again, like most others, he seems to favor WordPress, but does spend a good deal of space discussing the difficulties associated with advertising via WordPress. He also discusses content ownership and copyrights. I just learned that Google actually owns all of Blogger’s content… Good to know!

Blogging Wars – WordPress vs. Blogger 

Here’s a comprehensive site that covers the full spectrum when it comes to professional bloggging. Like most of the other resources I’ve seen, ProBlogger emphasizes the “Top 10 Ways to X” format, but a lot of the posts are really helpful. They discuss everything from starting from scratch to what exactly it would take to make $30,000 a year from different ad schemes. In addition, most of the articles generate a lot of conversation among the blogging community – so you don’t just get the initial post, you get a full-on round table from a community of pro and wannabe bloggers. 

ProBlogger

And here’s an example of the multimedia ProBlogger does. This one focuses on how to engage potential readers by asking pertinent questions. Again, one of the emphases of this module is help students maximize readership and web presence. I think videos like this definitely point in the right direction.

BloggingGuy gives some valuable information about reader habits (glance –> data screen –> browse –> read) and linking. This post, like many others I’ve read, is in the “2o Best Ways…” format, but the blogger fleshes out the ideas and explores their implications for traffic generation. I do take issue, though, with the blogging communities relative obsession with “carnivals,” which are basically just grouped clusters of related blog posts. I find them to be a totally worthless long shot, and a waste of time to boot. Linking to Facebook pages on the other hand…

25 Ways To Boost Blog Traffic

SocialeBlog has its figurative, disembodied finger on the pulse of social media, social software and social networking sites. It chronicles daily the newest trends in these areas with thorough reviews and suggestions on how to take advantage of the latest online movements. If, for instance, I was researching the adoption of Google Buzz, this would be one of the places I turn first.

SocialeBlog.com 

- Robbie