Business Proposal

Industry: small, up and coming publishing company, with only a handful of best sellers so far.

Proposal:

Dear Boss,

People like to read specific genres nowadays and join blogging communities to discuss the books they’ve read and what they thought about it. It would be in our best interest to create a blog for our company that could advertise the different books that we have available for the public.

For one thing, we can highlight certain books that have not really been selling in order to get them to sell. We can do this by seeing how the best sellers that we have compare to the other non-selling books in plot and characters, and advertise them together.

Also, by getting more popularity, we can encourage other authors to want to publish with us. At the same time, by getting a name for ourselves out there, more people would want to work for us.

Not only would it be beneficial to us to have our own blog, but could then have a social presence on other blogs. This would help us get more readership and business if we feature on blogs that are often read and visited.

While it may take a bit more work to maintain a blog and a presence in the blogosphere, the potential revenue that would increase is priceless.

 

Monetizing My Personal Blog

The way I would choose to monetize my personal blog if I had enough readership would be the sponsored social media posts. That is because my blog is based on talking about Rutgers by giving students tips and sharing personal stories from my experience here. Having sponsored social media posts seems like the best route to go.

Another way to best monetize my blog would be to have an affiliates type blog. There are many different local businesses that need people to come to them in order to keep operating. These businesses especially include all the places on George Street and Easton Avenue, and so forth. By having an affiliates type blog I can get these places the people they need to buy things. For example the NJ Books store. I can put an ad on my blog linking back to their store about the thing students can get there. This is important because college book stores are losing money due to the fact that people would rather buy books of the internet than buying them at the store. However, if I can show my readers how much easier it is to just go to the book store rather than waiting long periods of time to actually get have their books shipped, they may actually overlook the higher prices for immediate results. And if I have a high enough readership, the book store will be the one with a lot more business.

If those two options don’t work, I think I wouldn’t mind doing the pay for impression method for any ads that may feature on my blog. As someone who tries to avoid clicking ads but has no problem refreshing the internet page over and over, this seems like the best option compared to the pay per click option. Most people seem to refresh the page whenever the internet is running slow or if the site stops working all of a sudden. For every time that my blog is refreshed, the ad would be generating money for me. How cool is that?

However, this would only work if I have enough readership. I’ll probably have to make my personal blog more visible first by making sure that I utilize key works for search engines. The site that usually comes up first in any type of search engine, especially Google, whenever you type in something is usually the one that is the most visited. No one has time to sift through the thousands upon thousands sites that pop up.

Nontraditional Blogging

Nontraditional blogs:

• Interviewing people (humansofnewyork.tumblr.com)
• Curating with regard to history
• documenting life (dearscarlet.tumblr.com)
• social justice

Pitfalls:

• invasion of privacy
• people who get caught in the crossfire (ex. snapchat)
• hacking

Anonymous Blogs and Reading

When I read an anonymous blog, I usually get mixed feelings. Mix feelings because I do not know who is writing the things I am reading and because I may agree with what he or she is writing.  I don’t know what type of person is blogging about certain topics, thus creating a large distance. I like to be able to relate to the person who is writing the things that I am reading. It gives me a chance to understand the person and find a reference point. It makes it easier to understand the position being talked about. Meaning that when I know who is writing, implicitly I learn a lot about that person. I can read what he or she says and still get a feel for the personality of the blogger.

On the other hand, reading an anonymous blog gives the chance to get an opinion from someone without letting the actual blogger influence you. When people blog anonymously, they can give more of their point of view and opinions without fearing about the repercussions. While this could be a potential positive and negative, it is still something that I consider when dealing with blogs. These bloggers could find that pressures do not prevent them from stating what is on their minds. However, there is a possibility that they could take it too far. It is when that happens that I feel the most discomfort about reading an anonymous blog. There needs to be a good balance, that no toes get stepped on.

An example that I would like to use about anonymous blogging may not really be about blogging but more anonymous posting. Take the Craig’s List site. One section has to do with missed connections. There countless people talk about the people they see and the situations they saw them in. Some of them are romantic while others are platonic. Either way, they are able to go on a site that allows them to state what they felt about the meetings they had with each other anonymously, and sometimes reach out to the person who they are talking about. Being anonymous in this case is pretty cool.

On the other hand, anonymous blogging to spread hate and slander is not cool in my book at all. I don’t remember the name of the site, but there was one that allowed people to talk about their cheating lovers in whatever way they want, uncensored. More than that, they are allowed to say whatever and post whatever they want, including images. Things like this can affect the person they are talking about on the professional level.

To me anonymous blogging is fine as long as no one’s right to live a comfortable life is threatened. As soon as someone says something that can get a person fired from their job, personal things that have no business being aired out for every one to see, that is when I find anonymous blogging to be very discomforting and appalling to read.

Piscataway Gazette

People of Piscataway:

-mostly commuters, using the trains (Edison Train Station or New Brunswick);

-mostly people who work in the city and/or affiliated with Rutgers (mostly Livingston);

-mix of middle/working class;

-since people have other places to be, kind of lacks the community unity, place to stay but go some where else.

 

Population of Piscataway:

-As of 2010, 56,044 people.

 

Who lives there:

-A good mix of people

-Diverse ethnicities and nationalities

-Mostly families

-Varied ages; senior day-care center, senior communities, Board Ed. building with recreational activities

-Spread out

 

Blog Design:

-Current events (town hall meetings, etc)

-Advertisements

-Rutgers

-Commuter news

-Family orientated news

-Construction page

-Weekly highlights

-Open Forum section

• where people can suggest topics associated with Piscataway and interact with each other
• people can ask questions and get other people of the community to answer it
• spark a community feeling by helping each other and getting each others’ opinions about Piscatway

-Popular places

• Places that should be visited by popular opinion
• Reviews of places in Piscataway

-FAQs

 

**image heavy, so you know what the town looks like.

**Header, no endless scrolling, like the barista blog with the pages on the top.

**User friendly for every age

Live blogging

The existence of live blogging could change the way I think about something that I am passionate about by the fact that I can experience the thing instantaneously second hand. Meaning, if I was too busy or unable to experience an event or pay attention to something, a live blog could help me catch up to what is going on.

A semi recent example I can think about is the Summer Olympics. Despite it being summer and I did not have any classes, I was still very busy and was unable to catch any of what was going on. The five hour time difference from New Jersey, USA and London, Britain, did not help matters in anyway. Therefore, while I was working at my summer job, I had an internet tab open that gave me live-updates about the events that were taking place. It gave me scores, ratings, and placings of the athletes who just performed. Moreover, it gave updated standings as to what country won which medals. Furthermore, even with live blogging, it gave a different perspective to the events that I was unable to see. Since these live blogs had to be under a certain amount of characters, or that they had to be quick in updates so they get the information across while it is still relevant, it gave a different picture than actual live television or radio coverage of the events may have given.

Live blogging possesses both positives and negatives, like much of anything in life. The positives I associate with live blogging can be turned to negatives depending on the way someone looks at it. Also depending on the extent someone may take live blogging and read live blogging to the extreme.

Positives associated with live blogging: get quick updates, get a different point of view of events, additional commentary on something that you are passionate about is present, have a clue as to what is going on in the topic that is being live blogged, etc.

Negatives associated with live blogging: not care to experience the thing being live blogged first hand, being to obsessed with finding out more and more about the thing being live blogged, becomes distracting if reading live blogging posts during school or work time, get misinformed about certain things because of inadequate amount of information, need to keep scrolling if there is a lot being talked about, get bored easily, etc.

An example of a negative consequence during the Summer Olympics was how the place where I was working had its internet down because everyone kept on checking what was going in the events taking place. The people at the business were more involved with wanting to know what was happening than helping the customers that wanted to buy fabric (I was working at a textile company in New York City that summer).

An example of a positive consequence during the Summer Olympics was how I was able to talk to other people who had actually seen the events on television about who won and participate in conversations that had to do with the important details because I had read live blogs about the events.

In conclusion, live blogging to me is a two-sided coin that has both negatives and positives associated with it. However, it can’t be denied that it brings some interest in what is being live blogged, at least in the beginning anyway.

Thoughts on Blogging Networks

As a personal decision, I think I would not mind being part of a blogging network. The positives that are associated with being part of a blogging network seem to really appealing, especially since I am such a new blogger in the blogosphere. I think that by being part of a blogging network, not only will I be able to get myself out there, but I would also be able to learn from the other blogs found on the same blogging network as me.

Since getting hits and being followed is the goal for any blog, being associated with such a blogging network platform makes it easier to get my name across. The only thing is, I would rather be part of a blogging network that would link to my own blog and even highlight some of my other personal posts. That way, if a person comes to read a blog on the blogging network, mine can be read too. I understand that there are other blogs that should also be highlighted, and that is totally fine. I would not mind have a rotational highlighting of different blogs. That way everyone gets chance. Having a blogging network that only highlights the same blogs over and over is not one that I would want to be a part of.

While the examples of blog networks we looked at seemed pretty comprehensive, I did not find that either of them would be able to support my own blog. I really like talking about books and movies, things in the entertainment. Or at least, those are some of the things that I really like talking about. Therefore, a type of blog network that I could see myself contributing to would be one that deals with literature and movies. Like I mentioned in the above paragraph, I would like the blog network that I am part of highlight my posts every now and then. By being highlighted by the blog network, I can get some validation to what I’m writing. That is because the sure fire way to get validation on anything is to know that people are reading and listening to what you are saying.

The way this type of blog network would be helpful is that other people can find a sense of community that they may not have in real life. The people that blog will be able to help others make their blogs better because these people will read other blogs. If they see something that they like in a blog and see that it was highlighted for the week, then that would make another blogger try to emulate it in some way to ensure that theirs will also be highlighted eventually. Not only that, but since there is usually some type of contact information associated with the bloggers on the blog network, bloggers can get in touch with each other and even promote each other on their own private blog posts that are not on the blog network.

Annotated Bibliography #6

Davison, Sharon. “Social Media in Education: 6 positive effects of blogging in kindergarten.” Smart Blogs on Education. N.p., 02 Apr 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <https://smartblogs.com/education/2013/04/02/6-positive-effects-of-blogging-in-kindergarten/&gt;.

 

This article give six reasons as to how blogging had positive effects on a kindergarten class. These six effects included: relationships, feedback, self-esteem, digital citizenship, audience, and communication. The author gives a short explanation for each of the effects and how she saw it displayed by the students in her class.

Annotated bib #5

Barrs, Myra, and Sarah Horrocks. “Educational blogs and their effects on pupils’ writing.” London Connected Learning Center. n. page. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cfbt.com/en-GB/Research/Research-library/2014/r-blogging-2014&gt;.

This article talks about how students felt more encouraged to write with the educational blogs. Students were found to have an increased interest in writing, more awareness of an audience, produced their own voices, and more.

What is Social Media?

To me social media is any form of content that gets information across to a large group of people. While that may seem to include a lot of different things, I feel that social media is more interactive in a way. Interactive meaning that people are able to get the information they can from a source and add to it themselves. Due to the different types of social media platforms there are in the world today, each way an individual can impact or change information transfer in a large variety of ways. Moreover, the fact that individuals can impact or change information transfer in so many different ways is crucial in understanding the importance of social media.

Additionally, that ends up making someone wonder if a blog could be considered as being social media. In my opinion, I feel as though blogging should count as being considered as social media. That is because blogs are visited and read by others, all of whom follow a type of blog for some particular reason. The information presented on these blogs must be important for that individual. At the same time, taking the blogger’s point of view, they are able to get information they want across to a large population of people. Something they would not have been able to do otherwise, or at least not as easily. The transfer of information works smoothly in this case, and the people who blog and the people who read blogs can interact with each other. And since my claim is that social media is any form of content that gets information across to a large group of people in an interactive way, blogging definitely falls under that umbrella.