Hi Everybody,
With the semester winding down and finals popping up it time for me to reflect on my experience over this past semester in the world of blogging. And let me tell you what a strange and wondrous journey this has been. My whole life I have been the quiet type, the observer in the crowd. I am not a person who typically likes to bring attention to myself. However, I have always wanted to blog and bring my voice out there into the world. When I began taking Fundamentals of Digital and Online Media(FDOM) this semester one of the requirements for the class was that we had to create and keep up with a blog for the semester. And I have enjoyed every moment of writing and creating my content for the world to enjoy, and I plan to continue blogging for the years to come.
- Which tools were effective?
- Which tools weren’t?
When blogging you have to be aware of the tools in your arsenal when you use them right you can have a popular blog or post, however if you underuse your tools you are either left with a blog nobody has heard of. I believe I fall in the middle of underusing and the right amount when it came to promoting my blog. I loved promoting my blog through Twitter and being able to connect my blog to my twitter so that when I made a new post it would automatically be posted on my Twitter dash, making promoting my blog a lot easier for me in the long run. However, promotion is only one part of an excellent blog. I would say an ineffective tool to use while blogging, is not putting tags on your post to make them more search engine friendly. As well as under promoting my blog as well, as I only used Twitter to promote my post when I could easily have included Facebook and Tumblr, as these are two other social media platforms I have a presence on.
- What would you want to improve or include within the blog?
In the future of the blog I hope to add more regular post and daily content, such as during this summer, as I will have few distrancat that would prevent me from posting, as well as post review of new movies. I also want to include more just plan discussion post and possibly less top fives, because while I love my list, I want to drive in deep into the subject at hand.
- In what ways could the experience benefit you in the future?
- Discuss how you might implement these tools professionally in the future, in a job or an entrepreneurial endeavor.
I feel blogging is a great way of letting your emotions out while also connecting with the rest of the world. I have enjoyed knowing that I have a voice to speak with when it comes to the things I love and I what to continue to use this platform to allow my voice to be heard. Through blogging, I am better prepared for deadline assignments that a work environment would bring me and create content that audiences can enjoy. I now have to tools to actively promote myself in the workplace, as well as a digital portfolio of the work I have produced and the audience I have. Just having a digital footprint with this blog will allow employers and co-workers to see the work I involve myself in outside of the workplace and a blog is a fantastic way to try out new tools before implementing them into a long term project or goal.
Now it is time for my favorite part of the review, the blog stats.
- Which was your most popular week, and how many views and visitors did you get that week?
My most popular week was March 14, 2016, to March 21, 2016, has I had ten views and five visitors that week.
- Which was your most popular post of the year? How many views did it get? Why do you think it was the most popular?
My most popular post of the year was my blog review of Maria’s Cinematic Universe at six views. I believe that it was popular because people love reading reviews of what other people blogs are about as it is a great way of knowing whether or not you should start reading what they post.
- In all of the Site Stats data, was anything surprising to you?
What was most surprising to me was the number of visitors I had from other countries. I was only really expecting to have an America audience, but while reading my stats for this post, I discovered over the course of the semester I have had three visitors from Australia alone and one visit each from Ukraine, Russia, and Costa Rica. I am still amazed that I could reach and have a global audience, as well as have an audience at all. I want to thank all of your for taking the time and visiting. You guys are awesome.
- Do you have any Twitter, Facebook or other social media stats you want to share?
Over the course of the semester, I have had referrers to my site and my post from six visitors clicking the link on my Twitter post. I have had four visitors who found my blog while searching on Google, which is frankly really cool. And I had two visitors come to my blog from other WordPress users.
Once again, I want to thank everybody who has read my blog, and I want to thank FDOM for giving me that only the courage to create a blog but to stick with it. I hope you all have a great summer and stay for what I will be posting in the next couple of months.
Thanks Again,
Erin O’Donnell