So we built it, did they come?

It’s hard to believe Semester One is all over bar the assessment. In the last week or so, we’ve been busy tweaking the web site design and trying to link in with other book lovers and relevant organisations and companies.

Our starting point was giving our family and friends with the URL and pleas to visit the site and provide feedback. I’ve also emailed the Society of Editors about letting members know about the site and asked  the course co-ordinator for Publishing and Editing to email the relevant students and lecturers. There’s a few industry organisations that we could contact as well – Vic Writers Centre, Australian Society of Authors, Wheeler Centre, to name a few.

Social media newtorking sites have been very useful for letting people know the site exists and what it offers. We’ve had a Facebook page for a few weeks and gained about 17 fans. So, I set up a  ‘friend’ account and have acquired 98 ‘friends’ in just over 24 hours. Not bad going, if I do say so! The majority of these are people who I have assumed are in our demographic as Melburnians interested in books – from fan pages for the Melb Writers Festival, the Wheeler Centre etc. Need to be very careful not to contravene spamming protocol though – I guess if people don’t want to accept the friend request, they can ignore it. Hmmm…

We also have a Twitter account which has a decent-sized following and it’s really only taken a week to gain 73 followers but it’s harder to find people and organisations on Twitter. Time for further investigation of Tweet Deck I guess.

Pretty good results, all told. Most of our traffic is coming from the social media sites at this point. The URL has been submitted to several search engines but that will take a while to come into effect.

I’m also focussing on improving the presentation of the events posts so they’re easier to read and not just a mass of text on the page.

We’re still a work-in-progress and that’s the beauty of having a website – it’s easy to change and build on the foundations in the early stages.

Number 41?

It was hard to miss WordPress (via the home page) patting four of its bloggers on the back for getting the thumbs-up in The Times’ ‘Bloggers Who Count’ article.

Four out of 40 blogs named ain’t bad and now I’m wondering if our uni. group blog has the potential to capture the world’s, or even just a Melbourne suburb’s, attention.

There’s no real indication (aside from popularity in part) how The Times decided these blogs counted but it’s worth noting most of them were about fashion, food and celebrity gossip. Only one blog was about books – Maud Newton -and this blog has been around for seven years. Not really a fan of Maud’s writing style – it’s a bit clumsy and hard to follow on first read. Mind you, I could have a case of the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black because, when it comes down to time limits, my writing isn’t always clear. Kudos to Maud for the hard work and staying power though – it’s not easy for mere mortals to make their mark on the net.

I’m not interested in chasing accolades but I think a close examination of the blogs discussed in the article will be necessary in the very near future.

In the meantime, our website has been ‘live’ for nearly two weeks and everyone in the group has continued coming up with content for the site. I’ve been doing the events section, and in the last five days, also focussing on getting traffic to the site. I’ve spread the word to friends, family and professional contacts in order to get people on the site and provide feedback.

I’m also trying to harness the power of Facebook, Twitter and Brizzly to raise traffic and awareness. The results so far haven’t been overwhelming but that only means looking at our strategy and being patient. A bucketload of money thrown into it wouldn’t hurt but that’s not something our group has the ability to do. That said, if we want to commercialise the site, then an advertising strategy would be essential.

I’ve also set up a free web analysis widget on the site StatsCounter which has lots of stats available that aren’t supplied in WordPress blogs. It’s an alternative to Google Analytics, at least.

All booked up and so many places to go…

Open Book Melbourne is almost ready to launch and the group is feverishly working on creating content for the site. We still have plenty to incorporate into the site but we have the foundations of the end product set in stone. It’s helped that we have completed our second assignment – commissioned feature articles – and received some feedback from our lecturer.

Houston, we have a…

PROTOTYPE!! This is a very exciting milestone and I must take my hat off to Briony who took wordpress by the horns and created the prototype for the site. She’s done a great job and it’s fantastic to see our group’s ‘brainstorming’ come to fruition on the screen. We’ve set our launch date for Monday 10th May so we’ve also delegated and organised who will be writing what for the first four weeks from the launch. In the meantime, we’re all beavering away on our second assignments as well which is to commission a feature article, and be commissioned to write a feature article, for our site.

Chugging along nicely…

The website project is moving full steam ahead as the launch deadline gets closer. The group has decided on a name, hosting method and to do a blog each weekday on a particular topic. We’re still discussing our target audience as well which we generally agree on. I reckon our goal needs some fine tuning so we have a clear strategy for content and design. Our web proposal assignments helped this process and we’re all conscious of the short time frame in which we’re working. That said, we’re all pretty motivated and committed to the project so am sure we will reach a consensus soon. We’re generally like-minded which makes the process pretty smooth. Will be interesting to see where we are this time next week!

Good Friday, Good Week

Our group website project is gaining momentum – we’re getting closer to making the big decisions such as a domain name, a content managment system and the purpose, content and design of the site. A few of us seem keen on the idea of commercialising the site. We’re all very conscious of not creating too much work for ourselves too. Rome wasn’t built in a day and I bet Google wasn’t either!
Some of the research I’ve been doing on the net is promising in terms of the site filling a gap in the market. This will help my web proposal assignment but is also a long overdue and necessary first step in deciding if the idea is worth pursuing. Granted, everyone else probably knew this already but it doesn’t hurt to confirm it for yourself!

Books R Us

We’re well and truly in the thick of developing our website project and ideas in the group are buzzing left, right and centre. I’m part of a group which is going to build a site giving Melburnians information about local bookstores and literary events. A major benefit of working as a group is being able to pool our resources and share our research, experience and knowledge.
Wordpress is a much easier beasty to use than Dreamweaver – see ‘Technofear’ blog. In fairness to ‘weaver, I might as well be comparing apples and oranges. Or maybe it’s a roundabout way of admitting my own skills deficit when it comes to learning and using internet code. Ahem.

Technofear

This week, it was confirmed for me why using web software with built-in code is so much easier than html, xtml etc. We were introduced to Dreamweaver and it was challenging due to my limited familiarity with Mac navigation. But we all plodded through and at least got a taste of how to use it. I’m hoping WordPress is kinder to us!:D
Have found a group in class for the website project which is pretty exciting! Not before time – our first assigment, a website treatment, is due soon so all the more reason to get cracking.
Here’s an interesting article: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-10/cnn-s-klein-says-he-fears-social-networking-competition-not-tv.html
Guess we could consider harnessing the power of social networks too!

Money, money, money

Lately, I’ve been thinking about whether it’s a good idea to commercialise our web project.

I haven’t come up with an answer but would be interested in hearing my classmates’ ideas.

My main question is at what point we ‘d need to make a decision.

From a design perspective, we’d probably need a plan from the outset. Major site changes after launch are time-consuming for publishers and annoying for surfers.

However, if commercialisation means advertising then site traffic needs to be substantial. Doesn’t it?

Looking at successful sites like Google is useful. Scott Karp has written some interesting articles for Publishing 2.0.

It’s also worth checking out what Alertbox says about how surfers ignore some forms of advertising.

Luke, I’m not your blogger…

DISCLAIMER

Let me be clear from the outset: this blog has nothing to do with the ‘Star Wars’ films. Granted, the url contains ‘stormtrooper’.

But this is the result of a labourious quest for an original wordpress name. And being a little tired of reading other worthy names exist already.

How disappointing to discover my ‘unique’ ideas are actually pedestrian!

So, apologies to the lightsaber-wielding visitors hungry for gossip and insights about “a galaxy far, far away”.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other places on the internet which cater for you.

INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to brainstormtrooper!

Please be gentle with me. This is my very first blog and will definitely be a journey of trial and error.

I’ve joined the blogger ranks as a learning and assessment tool for an online publishing subject at university.

My lecturer will be reading the blog. So, knock yourselves out with lots of praise for whatever you read in these pages!

Please keep your comments nice and the language clean. Dame Edna didn’t become a megastar without good manners, poise and clean underwear in case of a road accident.

Similarly, I won’t tolerate any discriminatory comments relating to race, nationality, gender, religious belief, sexual preference, marital status, ability (physical or mental) or political opinion/belief.

Sorry to get heavy so early but best to get my expectations, hopes and dreams out in the open now.

If you believe this limits your right to free speech or is ‘politically correct’, whatever that means, then be my guest and Google away until you arrive at your spiritual home.

Of course I’m assuming, with a large dose of beginner’s enthusiasm, people will be reading and commenting on my blog posts!

That’s the formalities out of the way…

THE GROUP PROJECT

Okay, I admit it: in a flurry of free word association, ‘storm’ did make me think of ‘trooper’.

However, I’m hereby re-claiming it by whacking ‘brain’ in front and defining brainstormtrooper as my blogging alter ego.

“Why?” I hear my hypothetical readers ask.

For one, our first seminar ended in a brainstorm session with a group of my classmates.

We’ll be working together to build our own website. In 12 weeks. No time like the present!

I hope everyone enjoyed the discussion as much as I did. Plenty of great ideas emerged from our chat.

Our website, whatever form it takes, will be the result of lots more brainstorming.

My blog is also a brainstorming session of sorts.

I’ll be sharing information about useful websites with my classmates and anyone one else who cares to read.

It will serve as one journal – the others being my classmates’ – documenting the road to building a viable website.

THE NET: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

I don’t really think a net novice like myself can fully answer this question and in a few hundred words to boot. Humour me anyway.

I am definitely a fan of the internet. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

But do we give it too much power and importance? Do we assume everyone has access and knows what to do with it?

Yes and no.

I did the majority of my  tertiary studies during the 1990s. Students went to lectures and tutorials. They took notes.

Occasionally an analogue recorder appeared on the lectern. Good luck to whoever had several hours of transcribing ahead.

And yes, we had computers, colour television and CDs 15 years ago.

No, we didn’t have iPods, iPhones, iTunes or iPads. We just had eyes.

I’d receive a letter in the mail about enrolment.

I took public transport from Mitcham to Bundoora; and spent at least two hours enrolling and paying my general service fee. I returned home on two buses and a train.

Such a relief this has all changed.

My backside didn’t shift from my chair when I enrolled this year. It was all online.

However, my humour shifted in the first week of uni.

At my first seminar, I heard about the LMS (Learning Management System), the SIS (Student Information System), student portal and student email.

Vital information about our subjects (reading materials etc.) are in the student portals on the uni. website which require a username and password.

It took a few working days to get access to all of this, but in the meantime, I was almost completely cut off from essential tools and knowledge as a functioning student.

The consequences weren’t dire or a major inconvenience.

But what if I was blind, deaf or in a wheelchair?

“And what’s your point, for crying out loud?” from the imaginary hordes.

Well,  the experience re-inforced how the internet is a poor substitute for human interaction.

Furthermore, when we create our own website, we will need to take into account not just what the site content is and how we present it, but also the consequences for people relying on this information.

There’s some useful guidelines on the HREOC website.

I’ve had a squiz at Margaret Simons’ blog The Content Makers. Her articles on ‘The Death of Newspapers’ are worth reading.

I remember this topic coming up in my journalism course 12 years ago – the media pundits weren’t sure at that point whether the internet would have much of an impact on traditional media.

In the US, evidence is growing that the internet has started to nudge newspapers off their perch.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this blog to gain an understanding of where online publishing sits, where it’s headed and what this means for me, my classmates and society as a whole.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM THE INTERWEBS THIS WEEK?

Accidentally type ‘wordpredd.com’ in your browser and an actual website, similar to wordpress, pops up.

Seems taking French instead of touch typing at school might have paid off. Zuts alors! Meanwhile, ‘rodpress.com’ isn’t a site: just a frustrating detour.

Check out the website and compare it to wordpress.

It’s not news that web publishers use little tricks to attract traffic.

Some are useful for both publisher and surfer alike. Others are just a way to get traffic but probably won’t encourage repeat visits.

Now I’m wondering – how do we choose a domain name for our site? It may be jumping the gun after one discussion and no decision about the web content.

But it’s one of the most important decisions we’ll make.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox has ten basic tips for web creation starting with picking a domain name.

I’ve also consulted the oracle Google for advice on how to choose a domain name. The consensus is it needs to short, reflect the site’s purpose and be a popular keyword.

Also check out: http://www.austdomains.com.au/cheap_australian_domain_name.htm