Review your blog and your Storify for visual impact. Is the layout clean and easy to read? Have you
used headings in a way that attracts attention to key points? Is white space used appropriately? Reflect on this on your blog.
Headings - Kind of a sore point with this template. I started off using headings to differentiate text but the headings were in different sizes and fonts and instead of enhancing my writing, they made it look amateurish.
This is normal text
As you can see, the main heading is the smallest while the minor heading is the largest with the different coloured font. However, when I am typing in the draft mode, this is what it looks like to me:
Then when it is published it looks like this:
Confusing and frustrating. So what I did to combat this was not use the formatting provided by the blogger template and instead made bold what I wanted to bring attention to.
I believe I have used white space effectively. There is a clear distinction between my blog posts and they are laid out in so the reader can easily find each week (Ames, 2014).
Photos and graphics are essential to enticing an internet following. It is the graphic and the heading that draws the reader to a blog in the first place. Use of images are a valuable tool (Ames, 2014).
A good example of this is in the blog I used to make some money on a year or so ago. I was creating in-game coins for a game on Facebook and offering them free to the players. Yes, with the game owners permission. So each day when these were posted, the same image would be used, and the title would be similar:
The balloons and the text may change colour, and sometimes there may be a different game character embossed into the coin but basically the image would be the same so that users could quickly know that these were the free coins. This ensures familiarity (Ames 2014).
Keywords, search descriptions and tagging were used heavily on that blog so users who had not found our Facebook page or group could still find us using a Google search. I have since closed this blog but there are still over 1000 visitors to it per day, just from Google searches alone, thanks to the tools that were incorporated when the site was designed (Kritzinger & Weideman, 2013).
This blog incorporated ADSENSE and this, I believe, helped me to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to font choices and layout. Because, without readership I would not have made the money I did from the blog.
References
used headings in a way that attracts attention to key points? Is white space used appropriately? Reflect on this on your blog.
- Words - I have tried to use simple and easy to understand language on this blog.
- Logos - While I have not incorporated a LOGO (this blog does not call for that type of standard) I have included a favicon that replaces the standard blogger favicon (B). I did this so that readers could distinguish between my blog, and another's. The symbol represents a spirit breaking free.
Trademarks- Colour - I have used simple colours so as not to distract the reader.
- Font - Described below are the struggles I had with Fonts and Headings and the solution deployed.
- Photos/Graphics - are used when necessary to help make a point.
- File size of photos and graphics - I understand these need to be kept to a minimum when uploading to servers to keep the amount of space used down. Blogger helps with this by adjusting the sizes for you. The Photo Essay on this blog demonstrates my knowledge of file and image size because as you can see, the image fits perfectly across the blog. When I created this in Photoshop I designed it based on the pixel dimensions of the blog.
- White space - has been used throughout this blog to give the eye a break and aid in reading.
- Balance - Considering this is an academic blog, and because of this it is somewhat text heavy, there is still good use of images where necessary.
- Use of sound - There is only one sound file on this blog. I only added it to lighten the mood of the post. It can be found here (Ames, 2014).
Headings - Kind of a sore point with this template. I started off using headings to differentiate text but the headings were in different sizes and fonts and instead of enhancing my writing, they made it look amateurish.
This is a heading
This is a sub heading
This is a minor heading
This is normal text
As you can see, the main heading is the smallest while the minor heading is the largest with the different coloured font. However, when I am typing in the draft mode, this is what it looks like to me:
Then when it is published it looks like this:
Confusing and frustrating. So what I did to combat this was not use the formatting provided by the blogger template and instead made bold what I wanted to bring attention to.
I believe I have used white space effectively. There is a clear distinction between my blog posts and they are laid out in so the reader can easily find each week (Ames, 2014).
Photos and graphics are essential to enticing an internet following. It is the graphic and the heading that draws the reader to a blog in the first place. Use of images are a valuable tool (Ames, 2014).
A good example of this is in the blog I used to make some money on a year or so ago. I was creating in-game coins for a game on Facebook and offering them free to the players. Yes, with the game owners permission. So each day when these were posted, the same image would be used, and the title would be similar:
$10,000 FREE COINS
Bubble Witch Saga, All Coins
Click here to claim >>>
(Here would be a bitly link to the blog post that housed the coins)
The balloons and the text may change colour, and sometimes there may be a different game character embossed into the coin but basically the image would be the same so that users could quickly know that these were the free coins. This ensures familiarity (Ames 2014).
Keywords, search descriptions and tagging were used heavily on that blog so users who had not found our Facebook page or group could still find us using a Google search. I have since closed this blog but there are still over 1000 visitors to it per day, just from Google searches alone, thanks to the tools that were incorporated when the site was designed (Kritzinger & Weideman, 2013).
This blog incorporated ADSENSE and this, I believe, helped me to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to font choices and layout. Because, without readership I would not have made the money I did from the blog.
References
Ames, K., 2014. Week 10 - Impact of design, Course notes, COMM 11007 Media Writing: CQUniversity e-courses, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/.
Google Adsense, 2011, Make Money on Blogger with Google AdSense, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32VknlEnYgc
Kritzinger, W. & Weideman, M., 2013. Search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing strategies. Journal of organizational computing and electronic commerce, III(23), pp. 273-286.
Google Adsense, 2011, Make Money on Blogger with Google AdSense, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32VknlEnYgc
Kritzinger, W. & Weideman, M., 2013. Search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing strategies. Journal of organizational computing and electronic commerce, III(23), pp. 273-286.
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