Metablog wk 15

I had completely forgotten about this last blog till a friend reminded me last night. And that would have been a serious kick in the teeth losing like 30% of marks. So here it is, my last blog, finally.

My first semester of university has been a pretty quick one. Began a double degree of international studies and media arts and production. In that had 2 different media classes, an international studies one and a japanese class. Did pretty good overall i reckon. Probably because after two years out of finishing college my brain just wanted to learn something.

So as i began this course of networked media i knew very little. The content we got taught has showed me how large the media world really is and how much technology has been advancing while i havent been paying attention. For starters i didnt even know what a blog was. I had heard of it and probably been on many but never really knew that so many people use these web logs to ramble on about stuff. Although now i know that through networking they can be really useful if you maintain one as you can subscribe to other blogs and sites through RRS (really simple syndication) to keep updated with things that interest you, possibly even make some coin by putting on advertising.

This course has definitely broadened my technical skills too. I made a website out of HTML and CSS. It was so stressful but in the end i look at what i learnt and just nod my head. Although id rather never do it again there is satisfaction from doing it.

SO the content in my blog...cant really remember everything but im pretty sure i talked about the lectures and classes of this unit. I expressed my own struggle in areas that were killing me and noted on things i found quite interesting. So basically it was like a small revision session for me so i would actually remember what i had been taught. Occasionally i talked about something not releveant to uni but considering i had to blog each week i didnt really feel like blogging more than that. After reading other peoples blogs and blogs Michael Honey recommended we should suss i found that everyone has some kind of writing style. I dont exactly know which is best but some peoples styles i think help with getting peoples attention. As i fresh blogger i think your writing style probably develops over time and maybe when you know people are interested in your work.

When starting my blog i didnt really think about a specific audience i wanted to write to. Just the fellow students in my class really if anyone. Otherwise i was still set on blogging because of the requirement. So my audience is pretty much anyone. Things could change though if i feel like continuing my blog.

When making our blogs we were told to link to other peoples blogroll. So i did and i have like 9 other people from my class on my own blogroll. The blogroll is very handy too letting me easily see my classmates blogs and what they are thinking about. There is also another part on the blog which states followers. I have a massive total of one follower..yay.. and its one of my friends from my class. I dont know how everyone else went with their followers but i didnt care too much and forgot about it until now. I know i didnt bother really connecting to others like this because i found it easier to just look at their post when on my blog roll it said a new post had been done. Besides everyone usually did their blogs on wednesday, thursday of friday when i did mine so i didnt really have any urge to check every day.

Now the topic of traffic that my blog got. Well...i told my sister and some friends about my blog and they had a look at it some times. Hopefully some people in class did too. And i ended up with 32 views. Exciting. Well actually im pretty sure lots of those were me logging on so really i probably got about 14. I know my sister liked it becasue she lives in America and doesnt get to talk to me too often so its a way in which she can see how im doing. But the friends i told, one lives down the street from me and we see each other enough so i can just talk to them. Or the others we just talk through facebook, which seems easier and is waaay more popular that blogs i feel. Especially for people around my age at uni. I honestly find facebook and my phone a better means for talking to people. I dont really have any content that was most popular due to my awesome view count. I had one comment on my first post from a guy in the class and that was it. I commented on someone elses blog once or twice giving them some advice on an assignment but that was really it. I cant say i payed much attention to other peoples blogs in the end. Being swamped with assignments and all i didnt really see it as a priority.

throughout the other posts i have done i scattered some links through them. As i dont have all the knowledge in the world its much easier to let a viewer branch off to another site if they are interested. I didnt really put in many pictures or videos in my blog posts. Michael said just text is sometimes better. However im more of a visual learner so i find pics and vids more interesting. Perhaps i should have just included some anyways. Maybe i could have got 6 more views. I linked my flickr profile to my blog in hope to get some views on them too as another one of my social media sites. Also in my assignments i linked my blog and/or flickr to them just because linking is probably the best way to get attention. Just waiting for someone to stumble across my blog.

In the end it was a pretty fun semester. Great class and tutor. Really helped me get into the groove of university happily. Seeing as my blog is made i may venture back onto it later. I found the layout on some blogger template downloading site to make it interesting enough for people to go '...cool'. and i like it. I wouldnt say its the end of my blogging. Now that its not a requirement i can now make it what i want and talk about things i want to talk about. I would most likely subscribe on RSS to some music sites and band sites as well as some anime update sites. I wouldnt say im much of a person to ramble on about world issues but i do love my music so maybe thats the direction my blog could take. Its only the beginning really. I can now build the audience i want. I knew i shouldnt expect much for one semester worth of blogging. Many things took a long time to become popular like twitter. As long as i fill my page with links to other interesting things and respond to topics people find interesting my traffic could increase significantly. Or i could just tag everyword in my blog so people stumble across it when they are bored on google and are on like the 94th page of searching 'metablog' or something else haha.

Anyways here are my three nominated blog posts:

How to meet ladies

Feelin Good

Back to Business

Now i must study for a huge Japanese exam and then onwards to semester 2! After a beautiful 11 week break. Snow here i come!