Sunday 18 January 2009

Day 2 - A 'First time Reader' Audit

My husband is going on a business trip tomorrow, yet he found some time to look at my blog.
He first looked at the sidebar. He read the About Me column and, though he didn't say much, I think he liked it. He said he would have prefered the sidebar on the left, but since it would mean changing the template, he agreed that I should leave everything as it is (he likes the colours). Yet, he insisted that I should tidy the sidebar (and he is absolutely right). He wondered about the purpose of the Voki. I explained that everyone had one, so I decided to get one as well.
Next, he moved to the main body of the blog. He started from the top and scrolled down. I have to admit that this wasn't his first visit to my blog and he had read some of the posts before, but now he was looking at them in his new role of the critic. He asked whether the posts were supposed to be this long. When I started blogging, I wrote very long posts which took me a long time to write, but I believed that was the right way to do it. Since then, I have blogged less often, but I have spent a lot of time reading other people's blogs and I can see what he means - we are all very busy and there is a greater chance that someone will read a short post than a long one.
I asked him who he thought I wrote the blog for (i.e. who my target audience was) and he said I wrote it for myself. Again he was right. He knows me, you see. I write this blog for myself, because I enjoy the process of writing and it really helps me think.
Just watching my husband fidgeting in front of the screen while his suitcase was open in the other room made me realise that was what a typical blog reader looked like. A blog is not a novel, you don't spend the whole evening reading it. You are there for a few minutes and that's it. If the blogger grabs your attention with something, good. If not, you'll move on.
P.S. If anyone else would like to do an audit on my blog, I'll find your comments very useful.


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Day 5 - Conduct an 'About Page' Audit


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2 comments:

Digi e-Learners said...

Tena koe Natasa

Nice to know that our hubbies can be useful and give feedback at this time. I chuckled about the Voki since I have the same thought sometimes. My intention as part of the Day 10 task (declutter your side bar) is that I will either spice my Voki up, change the audio or even get rid of it altogether.

I have used blogspot once as a space for a project I completed with parents at Putauaki Primary and found it not as user-friendly for me. I could not add pages and I so love my moving images which don't work in blogspot posts. I like the idea of two sidebars as well however with edublogs I have to become a supporter (at a cost) to have the advertising removed.

As for wikispaces, well that's free and I am using that space for school blogs. I'm trying a few places out to cover all bases.

Thanks so much for the on-going feedback. I do value your comments. It's nice to know someone with similar likes and interests. Do you have skype?

Yours in cyberspace...

Natasa said...

Hi my cyber friend,
I also value your comments and support. Our minds seem to work in a similar way.
Maybe I should try other blogging spaces as well and see what works best for me.
My Skype is grojici.banjica

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