FRIDAY MAY 13, 2009

Greeting class. This week we'll have a quick mid-term exam, then we'll review our blogging lesson, and discuss using photos with your multi-media projects.

I just want to make sure that everyone is keeping up with the information from the class exercises.

Please Take the test now.

Blogging Review

If you're interested in starting a blog what are some best practices to keep in mind?

1. Your blog's subject. Think of a niche, a topic that not a lot of other bloggers are covering. If you find a great subject you could build a great following.

2. Think about your blog's title. It should relate to your blogging topic.

3. After you start a blog, remember to link to other blogs that you like, and start a blog roll. When you link to other blogs, they will link back to you.

4. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed. What is RSS? It stands for really simple syndication. It is way to quickly and easily subscribe to a website. When the content is updated, the story will be sent to you. There are RSS readers that allow you to do this, or you can receive the updates in your e-mail.

5. This may be the most important of all of these items, but watch your grammar and spelling. When you start your blog your info is in the public sphere.

6. Tag your posts. Tags are words that search engines look for when a person searches for something online. People will be able to find your blog through your tags. Tags are used for YouTube videos, blog posts, basically any information that is searchable.



PHOTOS

Photos can be a great way to visually tell your story if you don't want to use video.
You have a couple of options. You can take the photos yourself, or you can find pictures on the Internet.

For example if your project is about fashion, you may want to search for fashion photos.

How to search for photos:

http://images.google.com/
Type in a tag word for the kind of image you'd like to use.

Search for keywords related to your business.

Once you find a pic you like hit "control" and click the mouse > Save image > this will save the image to a folder on your desk top.

Photo Sharing sites

Photo sharing sites allow you to save, and share your photos, and create slideshows.

The most popular photo sharing site is Flickr.

My favorite site is Photobucket.

Start an account on Photobucket and login.

Upload the pics you've saved to your Photobucket account.

Now create a slideshow, and post it to your blog.

Now that you have several pics saved related your project save it to your flash drive, and make sure you remember what drive it's on.