3.Criteria of Good Blogs

Blogging has become very popular over the last decade and therefore has made it a very competitive market. In order to be a successful blogger, you should:

Make Memorable Headers/Titles

• Enticing
• Identify what the reader will find within the blog
• Fun, ironic, bold, expressive, unique
• Clear and present

User Friendly Design

• Readability: background and foreground colors
• Font of text is good size for all readers
• Easy to find content/posts
• Strong navigation design
• Organize pages

Comments Section:

• This shows your readers you care about their thoughts/comment
• Invite readers to share their ideas
• Have a discussion forum

Make Blog Unique

• Find your voice- good blogs give voice
• Tell a story
• Make people want to read your blogs/posts
• Show creativeness through writing and designs

Content Should Always Be Fresh

• Give users a reason to come back to your site
• Write on readers level- do not belittle the
• Give examples and don’t be too “preachy”
• Diversify content

Use of Effective Visuals

• Make visuals meaningful to readers
• Put them within text
• Have visuals relate to text

Please watch this clip and review the following sites for more ideas on how to create a successful blog: 

IncomeDiary: Retrieved from                                                  http://www.incomediary.com/30-best-designed-blogs-2011/

Daniel Scocco. Blog Setup: 20 Practical Tips  Retrieved from  http://www.dailyblogtips.com/blog-setup-40-practical-tips/

Reliable Writers. (2011). What Makes A Great Blog?  Retrieved from:  http://www.webtrafficroi.com/what-makes-a-great-blog/

Merlin Mann. (2008). What Makes for a Good Blog? Retrieved from:  http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/19/good-blogs

Now that you know what it takes to make a good blog, we must look at what makes a good site to host your blog: Please watch this clip to review what features a good web hosting site should have (the most important information is given within the first 50 seconds, the rest is promoting a specific site, so please focus on the features/criteria this site is suggesting good web hosts will have, which again will be shown within the first 50 seconds).

Criteria for Blogs: 

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Content & Ideas	The site has a well-stated clear purpose and theme that is carried out throughout the site. The created has many original ideas and expresses them in a creative way	The site has a clearly stated purpose and theme, but may have one or two elements that do not seem to be related to it.	The purpose and theme of the site is somewhat muddy or vague.	The site lacks a purpose and theme.
Design	The Web site has an exceptionally attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements. Visuals are in appropriate places. White space, graphic elements and/or alignment are used effectively to organize material.	The Web pages have an attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements.	The Web pages have a usable layout, but may appear busy or boring. It is easy to locate most of the important elements.	The Web pages are cluttered looking or confusing. It is often difficult to locate important elements.
Interest	The author has made an exceptional attempt to make the content of this Web site interesting and fresh to the people for whom it is intended.	The author has tried to make the content of this Web site interesting to the people for whom it is intended.	The author has put lots of information in the Web site but there is little evidence that the person tried to present the information in an interesting way.	The author has provided only the minimum amount of information and has not transformed the information to make it more interesting to the audience (e.g., has only provided a list of links to the content of others).
Writing Quality	Posts are well- written, and are characterized by elements of a strong writing style. The content demonstrates that the student is well read, synthesizes learned content and constructs new meaning.	Posts show above average writing style. The content demonstrates that the student reads moderately, and attempts to synthesize information and form new meaning	Posts show a below average, overly casual writing style with a lack of attention to style. Students pay little attention to other reading and mostly regurgitate previous personal views.	Posts are of very poor quality. There is little to no evidence of reading other information in order to form new meaning of the topics at-hand.

Now that you have a better understanding of what makes a good blog, please go to Day 3: Q & A for discussion.  Be sure to add any other points to be made about this topic in our Wiki for Week 7.

References:

Rubistar: Powered by 4Teachers.org                                                                                      http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Daniel Scocco. Blog Setup: 20 Practical Tips  Retrieved from                          http://www.dailyblogtips.com/blog-setup-40-practical-tips/

Reliable Writers. (2011). What Makes A Great Blog?  Retrieved from:          http://www.webtrafficroi.com/what-makes-a-great-blog/

Merlin Mann. (2008). What Makes for a Good Blog? Retrieved from:  http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/19/good-blogs