UPDATE:

Here's my updated home page as of today (May 12), with all changes circled in red. Let me know what you think! I put my explanations below.

Click Watch Write - Recaps, Reviews, Rants, and Raves from an Internet TV Glutton - image 1 - student project

Header -- I updated my header to make the title more prominent. I'm not in love with it visually right now, but it's a work in progress. I have to find a way to make it look cleaner, while maintaining the prominence of both the blog's title and the logo. Suggestions welcome! I also added my social media contacts to the header as an experiment to see if it would get me more traction on FB and Twitter. It hasn't worked so far, and I find it kind of visually intrusive, so I think I'll be deleting that.

I also added my social media links as a sidebar menu. Previously, I only had them listed on the "About" page, which I realized was way too hidden.

Sidebar Menus and floating "share" buttons -- In his video (in part 1 of the syllabus), Tim Ferris recommends having a "most popular posts" menu on the homepage of your blog, as a way to direct people to content they're likely to enjoy. If people think something's already popular, they're more likely to give it a shot, right? At least, I know this works for me on the blogs I read.

Ferris also suggested to use apps like Digg Digg to add "share" buttons beside your content, since you want to make it as easy as possible for people to proliferate your posts. This floating menu only appears inside the posts, not on the homepage -- I just showed it here to prove it exists, heh!

Other things I did because of this class:

-I asked to be included on the blogroll of one of my favourite blogs (though most of the blogs I read are too big/commercial to have blogrolls)

-I requested to join the 20 Something Bloggers site

-I actually started using Twitter! I'm following relevant people and tweeting/retweeting relevant and hopefully interesting stuff

Click Watch Write - Recaps, Reviews, Rants, and Raves from an Internet TV Glutton - image 2 - student project

This is what my homepage looks like now. With my current (free) Wordpress theme, the homepage is not dedicated, and is rather just my most recent posts. Not sure if this is a good idea, of if I should switch to a theme with a dedicated homepage. However, most of the blogs I read on the regular have homepages that jump right into content, so it's what I'm used to seeing.

I have an original logo now, which is an improvement over the more generic, "unbranded" header I was using before. I'm happy with the logo, though I'm open to any opinions on the subject.

What I write about: I write about all matters related to TV, with a particular focus on online TV: content available online, the online viewing experience, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and issues surrounding pirating.

Why I write: I'm obsessed with TV. I watch, like, a LOT of it, and I love to talk about what I watch. But no one in my life is an interested in it as I am. So instead of boring my real life friends with all my TV talk, I decided to write about it instead. I'm opinionated about TV, and often quite ornery; contemporary programming gives me a lot of complain about.

Who I think my audience is: Hopefully, other people who care about TV as much as I do, whether they watch a little or a lot. People who want to keep relatively up-to-date about new pilots, cancellations, and other TV news. Also, people looking for TV recommendations and reviews of new series. I've had people tell me that they enjoy reading my posts even if they haven't seen the show I'm writing about, so my audience doesn't necessarily have to watch what I'm watching. I think my audience needs to have a sense of humour. It also heps if they have equally strong opinions about Honey Boo Boo (I'm pro-Boo Boo, but I love to debate the haters).

What I hope to accomplish: According to Counterize, my readership has been growing since I started this experiment back in December '12, but it's started to level off. I'd like to see it keep growing. I want to keep producing quality posts, keep exploring new series, and retain my opnionated, casual voice.

I'd also like to grow my presence on social media. I've got a Facebook page now (facebook.com/clickwatchwrite), but would like to see that grow. I'd like to get a Twitter started. However, even though I'm a Millennial, I know basically nothing about Twitter. So I'm looking for advice on that! (@ClickWatchWrite exists, but now how do I get started and gain followers? What should I be posting there that I can't do on my blog or on FB?)

Anyway, that's where I stand now. Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated!

Hannah McIlveen

Blogger and Freelancer

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