Images

I think that a blog for Habitat for Humanity lends itself toward a more image intensive layout. You would want to include photos of projects that are in progress, and past projects as well. I also envision photos of different work groups, included in posts from these groups. For example, if the local Business Professional Women works on a house, I would imagine that they would take pictures for their own purposes. They could then include these images in their posts about their experiences. Photos taken by the family that building the home would also be a nice addition to the blog.

Blueprints from homes could also be included in the blog. This would allow those who are interested in buying a Habitat home the opportunity to see what other families have done. There could also be calendars showing the progress of projects, and when work is scheduled to take place. I also think that we could include slide shows showing the progression of a home, from ground breaking to handing over the keys. Even video clips could be used, especially if the Noble County Habitat is mentioned in the local news. While I do not have any images from a Noble County Habitat project, here are some examples, culled from other Habitat blogs and websites:

Draft Project Blog URL

http://nchabitatforhumanity.blogspot.com/

Purpose 2

The purpose of this blog is to promote the Noble County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and to inform active participants of the program about upcoming events and work schedules. The blog will have photos and posts from previous projects so that the community at large can see how the program has benefited their fellow citizens, both those who have volunteered and those who have bought homes through the program. The intention is to promote the program and to encourage as many citizens of Noble County as possible to become involved.

This blog will also serve as a source of information for projects that are currently in progress. Volunteers will be able to access work schedules, have a place to sign up for a specific aspect of a project, and communicate with one another. The blog will allow organizers of projects one central location to pass on information and obtain volunteers for projects.

Audience 2

The intended audience for this blog is residents of Noble County, in the state of Indiana, who are both interested in becoming involved in Habitat for Humanity or are already involved in the program. The blog will offer a forum for those who are currently active in Habitat for Humanity to share their experiences, including personal blog posts and pictures from projects. In the same vein, those who are interested in becoming a part of Habitat for Humanity in Noble County will have the opportunity to see what the program has offered others, and how they came become a part of the program.

In addition, residents of Noble County who may benefit from Habitat from Humanity will be another audience. These users will have the opportunity to see how Habitat for Humanity has helped fellow citizens, and how they can become eligible for the program.

Purpose

My project blog will be a blog for the Noble County, Indiana chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The purpose of this blog will be three fold. First, the blog will be a place where local volunteers can find information about local projects that are happening, or are in the works. They will be able to see work schedules, and share information with each other about when groups need to meet and if any information needs to be changed about a project. The second purpose will be to inform the community and perspective volunteers what the Noble County Habitat for Humanity is doing in the area. It will have photos of completed homes and projects in the works. The blog will offer links to the official Habitat site, a link where one can apply to volunteer, and blogs from both people who have volunteered in the past and families who have benefited from the program. The third purpose will be to inform prospective homeowners about how they can become a part of the Habitat process. Again, there will be a link for applying to the program, the link to the official site so they can see how Habitat works, and of course the blogs from other homeowners so that prospective participants can see the advantages and the possible disadvantages of becoming active in the program.

Marketing

I had no idea that marketing ones blog was such an intricate proposition. I knew that getting a link on another site was important, but I had no idea that there was a company you could pay to help you facilitate a connection with like minded sites or blogs. I also was unaware of the system of ranking and how that could affect your site, so I found this information particularly interesting. As a lot of things on the Internet are, the “traffic generators” described by Gary Simpson sounds like a case of too good to be true. Anytime someone tells you they can do something for free, you are usually getting what you paid for. In this case, the generator sounds like one of Dante’s circles of Hell. You have to click on the same banners day after day to build points that are meanwhile being eaten away by the same people clicking on your banner to build their points, etc, etc., etc. This sounds like a lesson in futility.

Ken Mowery had very simple, but very good advice about search engines. You have a lot of options when it comes to naming your blog or website, but if you use a title that is closely related to the actual content, and not something cutesy, than you are going to be more visible in a search engine. Mowery also suggests a banner rotation program that will have banners relevant to your site. For example; I am doing a blog about Habitat for Humanity, so perhaps Lowe’s or Home Depot would be a relevant banner.

TC Thorn also offers advice about how to increase your sites PageRank. I am a computer neophyte, but Thorn made his 3 steps seem easy enough for even me to accomplish. I didn’t know about backlinks, but I will be more aware of this now, and these steps do seem like it would cut down on the time it would take to find links that relate to your site, and would be willing to exchange links.

The most important information about increasing traffic to your blog, at least in my opinion, came from the article by Duncan Riley. Submitting your blog to all of the search engines and posting regularly and often were the bits of advice that I hadn’t seen before, but made the most sense. Even though submitting to all the engines maybe time consuming, you should probably see results, especially if you are posting often. These seem like steps anyone can take, and they are so ridiculously easy I’m not sure why I even needed them pointed out to me.

I would never have thought to edit my posts into articles, as Priya Shah suggests, but this is a great idea, especially for the blog I have in mind. I can easily see how posts about Habitat for Humanity could be made into articles and then submitted to article directories. I also liked Priya’s suggestion to create buzz around your blog. While it may be more of a financial undertaking than some are willing to make, I like the idea of bumper stickers. You can almost imagine a sort of cult following for your blog, but this might work better for something less serious than Habitat for Humanity. However, especially during an election year, I could imagine making noteworthy connections between the working poor and the election.

As for my own blog and marketing, I can see using a couple of these ideas. I would like a link exchange with other Habitat for Humanity sites or blog, especially the local chapters. I could also envision links with the local paper (The Kendallville New Sun) and perhaps a press release to them. Because it is a small community, the paper is always looking for human interest stories to run, and if they do an article about one of the families building a Habitat home, which they often do, then perhaps they could include a link to the blog so that interested readers could find out more. I would also make sure to name the blog something like “Habitat for Humanity Noble County” that way if someone was utilizing a search engine, there are several keywords that may come up and would be relevant.

Church Blog

In the Searching For Paradise blog, there are more images than I have seen in other blogs. In the side bar, Caleb uses images for his links, instead of simply listing the URL, as many others do. By showing the logo of the link, it creates more interest for the viewer, and I think it just makes the blog look more “alive”. I also like the Caleb uses so many images in his posts. On most blogs that I have seen, the posts consist mostly of blocks of text. It is sometimes quite difficult to sustain interest in a post when there is nothing to visually break up the words. Because we have gotten so use to the visual aspect of the Internet, I think people (at least I know that I personally) will simply give up on a post if it seems to “wordy”. Caleb has noted this and used images to visual break up the post, and create interest in his posts. I also liked that he ads so many links in his posts, in order to clarify a point, or to provide the reader with more information.

I hadn’t thought of adding logos in my sidebar, or if I had it seemed like it would get cluttered up. But I see from this blog how well it can be done, so I would like to add this element to my project blog. I also like the addition of images in the posts. I know that my posts tend to get long winded, so adding images would visually break that up. Not only would this be great for my project blog, but I think I might try to do this in my personal blog as well. Not only would it add polish to the project blog, but I think it would add some personality to my personal blog.