Week 1 of the module focused on the world of blogging, in the lecture we looked at various type of blogs and identifyed some of the software used to make blogs possible. The idea of a blog is great, it effectively allows people to share their thoughts with everyone around the world, they can publish their work they way they want to and not have to go through the strict editing process within news providers. Blogs can also prove to be very lucrative, as we found out in the lecture and the lab. In the lab specifically we looked at sites which will pay you money to write, sites like Pay Per Post or Technorati. These sites show you ways to make the most of your blogging activities, the idea is the more of an audience you have the more they will pay to advertise of your blog.
One of the most famous examples of someone making money from a blog is the LA celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton he started blogging about celebrities in LA and people started reading. As his readership has grown over the years, so too has his bank balance and his fame. Although this is a very 'tabloid' based blog with very little content worth viewing, it is a good example of the potential returns blogging can provide.
The business applications of blogging were discussed during the lab and it seems to be that blogging is a good way for management to communicate to the rest of the staff, they are able to put forward the main points and the staff are then able to comment on the blog and ask any questions or give their opinions. This is known as an internal blog and as such the company has most control over this type of blog. Business's also use blogging as a marketing tool, a way to communicate ideas to the public and receive feedback.One example I found of this was Virgin CEO, Richard Branson's Blog. In this blog he discusses many different and diverse topics, rather than focusing on selling products he blogs about his activities and his thoughts on current affairs etc. This is used as an extension of his current strategy to sell himself as part of the brand and through that sell the Virgin brand.
I learned a lot this week, of course I went into the lecture knowing a lot about blogs, what they were, what they were used for etc. However I did find that I learned more about the business applications of blogs and the financial gains people can make from blogging. The lectures were well structured although I did feel we could have spent more time looking at the software which allows blogs to be created rather than going over the information most people in 2012 already know.
The lab work could have been more successful, again that's more down to teething problems and Google's security protocol's. All in all I would say it was a good week.
Please feel free to leave any comments on how the blog is written, what you would like to see or even your own blogging experiences.
Next time on "Web Innovation Today" we will be looking at collaborative writing through Wiki's. Make sure you click in!
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