Monetize

This week we are going to be looking at ways to make money by blogging.  There are people out there earning a living as bloggers, and even more supplementing thier income. Of course, we know there are companies that use blogs as a way of promoting their product but I am focusing here on individuals who succeed in creating income - money or in kind - from their own blog. So - here are some strategies you might be able to utilize.

Collaborate with other companies 
This blogger has such a following that target has collaborated with her several times to design
products to be sold in Target.
http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/dlf-lugggage-giveaway/#comment-1840240

A common method is for a company to collaborate with bloggers writing about their product area.  Often multiple bloggers writing about the same topics will be involved.
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2017/03/how-to-display-a-sea-glass-collection.html 

Ads
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/truth-chickens-die/

Sponsored posts 
https://www.designertrapped.com/diy-pipe-desk/

Use your blog to promote other items you sell 
http://inspiralized.com/curried-cauliflower-and-lentil-salad-with-carrot-noodles-and-honey-
cumin-dressing/

http://www.livesweetblog.com/bunny-rompers/ 

Affiliate links 
http://www.mrsplantintexas.com/2017/03/the-cheese-trap-herbed-cheese-ball.html 

Reviews (get free stuff!) 
https://prettyprintsandpaper.com/2017/03/06/review-chalkola-chalk-pens-discount-code/

Blog leads to opportunities
This blogger had a niche food blog which led to a publisher giving her a book deal. She now uses
the blog to promote the book. (And look at how she adds links to other blogs that promote her
book. Collaboration!)
http://thefirstmess.com/2017/03/08/hot-pink-smoothie-cheers/

From the mouths of bloggers 
http://www.carrieonliving.com/blogger-bytes-how-do-i-make-money/

http://www.carrieonliving.com/how-to-get-sponsored-content/

Media Literacy and Fake News

I have talked in class about the importance of understanding and recognizing fake news.  The comic at the right does a great job of explaining it as well. Below are some links on fake news and some on teaching about fake news.  The latter might be helpful in your Public Education Activity.

https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-fall-for-fake-news-69829

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/business/media/comet-ping-pong-pizza-shooting-fake-news-consequences.html?

_r=0&referer=http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/combatting-digital-polarization/63315?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=d1e1266fea2542b5a183d5b496548c03&elq=151de43c242b40deb09520b242169fc6&elqaid=11895&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4770

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sandy-hook-conspiracy-20170203-story.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/kfile-gorka-on-fake-news/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html?utm_term=.339f548c39a0

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2017/03/12/lies-damned-lies-and-press-releases/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=c9da2a7cb8fb4d73b33fe9999cd1a8de&elq=3788fe29a7c541858b68560d9b76c6d5&elqaid=12917&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5325

http://www.readingmytealeaves.com/2017/02/habit-shift-pay-for-real-news.html

http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Professor-Once-Targeted-by/238742?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=90cc345026ba437c959fc461dc3e6df9&elq=640eeeb615bb4211a1472fcde55c7d7c&elqaid=11917&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4788

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2017/01/18-cartoon-videos-about-web-safety-for.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/12/media_literacy_courses_help_high_school_students_spot_fake_news.html

https://www.edutopia.org/article/battling-fake-news-classroom-mary-beth-hertz

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/12/media-literacy-fake-news-lesson-plan.html

Image from
http://www.robot-hugs.com/comics/2016-10-18-outrage.png

Up Your Game part two

Hello class. This week we continue to work on improving the quality of our social media presence. Here are some examples of the kinds of things that we talked about in class. Please read all the blog post. Your WRR will be on these posts.

Collaborate

A private Facebook page is one way to build a community. The sense of scarcity makes followers feel special, you can offer things to just those followers, and your followers end up creating much of the content. 

http://inspiralized.com/pot-sticker-bowls-with-spiralized-rutabaga/

This blog regularly features interviews with other bloggers and real life business people. It is an opportunity for mutual promotion.  The blog gets content and the guests get free advertising 

http://howyouglow.com/jordan-younger-the-balanced-blonde/#

Self promotion

Look at all the ways this blogger promotes herself throughout the post. Particularly the links to other posts the reader might be interested in. 

http://travelfashiongirl.com/how-to-avoid-checking-luggage/

Using your blog to promote readers to follow your other social media

http://www.amynewnostalgia.com/what-i-learned-winter-edition/

http://www.lilblueboo.com/2017/03/sixty-one-park-a-farmhouse-restoration.html

Use one social media post as part of another

http://www.lilblueboo.com/2017/02/ditto-lays-egg.html

Look how she provides an easy to pin image to encourage people to link to her post through Pinterest

http://travelfashiongirl.com/what-to-wear-in-kyrgyzstan/

Another example of making it easy to pin 

http://www.livesweetblog.com/finns-cake-smash/

Look at all the ways she connects to her other social media AND promotes her product. A product that she was able to create because of the blog. 

http://detoxinista.com/2017/03/what-i-ate-3/

Using a hashtag to get your readers to promote your blog (and create community)

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2017/03/colorful-happy-home.html

Easy Ways To Make Good Posts

This blogger has this post theme every week. Knowing she has this, she can be collecting content easily during the week and put it together easily. Notice how at the end, she lists links to other blogs. This is also quick and easy content style that a lot of bloggers employ either as part of a post or its own post. If your reading other blogs in your area, it should be easy to put together a few links to other quality posts. 

http://www.readingmytealeaves.com/2017/03/my-week-in-objects-mostly-139.html

Take a blog post idea and develop it over more than one post. 

http://abeautifulmess.com/2017/02/part-2-red-wine-soaked-gummy-bears.html

Here's another sample of how providing a link to another bloggers post you like, can make a
quick, quality post for you.
http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/happy-monday/

Here is another themed post that this blogger uses regularly but would be easy to create.
http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/happy-pictures/

And another (she takes a photo and makes a sign inspired by it)
http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/hand-drawn-love-73/

Another theme post
http://abeautifulmess.com/2017/03/10-things-i-love-sunday-3.html

Collaborate with others
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2017/03/great-ideas-early-easter-ideas.html 

http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/happy-monday/

Here is another themed post that this blogger uses regularly but would be easy to create. 

http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/happy-pictures/

And another (she takes a photo and makes a sign inspired by it)

http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/hand-drawn-love-73/

Another theme post

http://abeautifulmess.com/2017/03/10-things-i-love-sunday-3.html

Collaborate with others

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2017/03/great-ideas-early-easter-ideas.html

Up Your Game

Hello peeps -
This week is about taking your social media presence to a new level. You have been creating your social media, and hopefully getting the hang of it, for about six weeks.  Now that you've gotten your feet wet, it's time to focus on increasing your quality.

 Instead of a lecture this week, I've curated a series of blog posts for you to read. These focus on different ares of social media and how to improve them. So please read through all of these and think about how you can apply these ideas to your own social media.

Preparing Content
http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2017/01/blog-qa-how-long-does-it-take-to-draft-content.html

https://coschedule.com/blog/plan-a-blog-schedule/

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/11/9-lessons-learned-through-nine-years-of.html



Photography

http://rowanmade.com/tips-for-curatingyour-instagram-feed/

https://later.com/blog/how-to-take-good-instagram-photo-with-your-phone/

http://besottedblog.com/photographer-finder


Vlogs
What are they -
http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/What_is_Video_Blogging

Why do them -
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/tips-for-a-successful-video-blog
https://www.business.com/articles/say-hello-to-vlogging-why-you-should-be-video-blogging/

How to improve your vlogs -
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/guest-posts/video-4-mistakes-you-make-when-posting-video-on-your-blog/

Give your readers a reason to come back

In class, we discussed ways to increase the traffic and loyalty or connection with your audience. One of those ways is through giveaways and incentives. Here are links to some blogs who are doing just that.  And they are all using different kinds.  So there are lots of ideas!


Giveaways And Incentives

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/apollo-personalized-learning/

http://www.designlovefest.com/2017/03/iphone-dlf-case-giveaway/

http://www.marcandangel.com/2017/03/12/one-thing-real-love-never-does-to-you/

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2017/03/easter-bunny-spring-printable-tags-signs.html

http://thebloggess.com/2017/03/02/its-world-book-day/

What makes your social media good?

Hello my bloggers -
So we have finished the section of the class where we examine how social media works with other areas of communications like P.R. and journalism.  Next we are going to take a look at ways to make our social media even better.  We will start with exploring what constitutes "best practices" in social media. So, please read chapter 11 in the book thus week.

Going a little crazy??

A bonus post! 

I’ve read through all the responses to the course and the most common challenge facing people is time management.  I totally understand.  I am facing the same challenge. Social Media is time consuming.  If you learn nothing else in this class, you will have learned how much time social media takes up and why it is a full time job at some companies!

That being said, there are some things you can do to make it easier.

One is utilize some social media tool to help streamline your process.

1.     If you can use an RSS feed like Feedly for reading blogs (most of them anyway), that make following the blogs a little easier.

2.     Using the hash tag #4Dracam should also help us follow one another more easily.

3.     Using a tool such as HootSuite to manage your posting can also help.

4.     We will be covering some approaches to your posts that can help save time in the next week or so as we discuss quality posting (and moneymaking J)

Your organizational approach to your social media can also make a big difference.  Be sure you are organized. Have a place, either digital on your phone or pad or physical on a notebook you have with you, and write down ideas for posts when they come to you.  You should also keep you posting schedule here. Plan ahead on your posts so you are not creating them at the same time you are posting them. Try to plan your posts at least a month at a time. There are some tools that will let you write them up and then publish them when you say to! 

Finally, mental attitude can be a major help or hindrance.  If you feel overwhelmed and out of control with your social media or the course assignments, that is going to stress you out, make it harder, and make it less fun. This isn’t really that hard.

Each week

1.     You follow the posting schedule YOU created.  If it’s too much (many people underestimate how much time it takes which is why there are scheduled times to reassess your schedule), change it!

2.     You have a reading, which you read and write up a short report on.

3.     You follow other people media and make some comments. (You do not have to comment on every dingle one).

4.     You let me know when you did these things.

5.     You create plans to put what we are studying into practice.

Keep in mind you do not have to do all of the assignments!!!!!  There are more assignments than there are points needed. This is intentional so you can pick the ones that appeal the most to you. Don’t freak yourself out thinking you have to do every single thing. Do the math. Be strategic.

Remember that this is a blended class. That means you get a class period a week, at a time of your choosing, to do all the social media following.  You should be spending two hours per week per hour in class on homework. So that’s 4 hours a week on homework.  With the added “Wednesday class,” that’s 5 hours a week to do this and it is totally doable in that time.  But not if you just try to squeeze it in here and there. You need a planner and a schedule.

I know this can be a lot of work but communications is hard and time consuming.  It’s also fun.  Don’t lose the fun in the stress.