Week 5: Social Media Site

My choice: Pinterest.com

I choose pinterest because I have a lot of friends that use it and I was curious what all the hype was about.   Pinterest describes itself as a virtual pinboard.  People can post images and articles to themed board that they have created. 

One of the most interesting things about pinterest is that you have to be invited to join the site. You can request an invite from the site, but that can take a long time or you can get an invitation from someone who is already a user.  You would think this would turn people off to the site but exclusivity almost makes it more exciting and it helps to get the word out to people.

Since I started pinning I already have multiple boards for fashion, food, places I want to visit, drink, diy projects and more.

For what I have seen so far you just browse through images and you can repin them to a board you created, so you can have your own collection of themed pictures.  You can also follow other pinners who pin stuff that match your interests.  When you log into the website the first pins you will see are the pinners that you follow.  It makes it faster to see things that match your interests or taste.

During my research I found an article that kind of startled me concerning copyright laws regarding pinterest.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-28/tech/31106641_1_repinning-copyright-entire-image

Shontell, Alyson. "A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her pinterest Boards Out Of Fear." Business Insider. 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-28/tech/31106641_1_repinning-copyright-entire-image>.

This makes me think twice about using pinterest, but I have become such a fan.  I'm not ready to delete yet.  I have already tried some awesome recipes I found using pinterest.

Another article I read about pinterest was about ways you could boost your business.  I never thought of the possible business uses of pinterest, but when you think about it what a perfect way to get your products out there.  As a consumer I have seen things on pinterest and I wish I could buy whatever it I saw.  You would already have a built in customer base and along as people were repinning your products. The article below gives tips to jump start your business with pinterest.

http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/9-tips-boost-your-business-pinterest.html

Brandon, John. "9 Tips: Boost Your Business With Pinterest." Inc.com. 20 Dec. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/9-tips-boost-your-business-pinterest.html>.

Week 4: Podcasts

So this week we are really getting into our podcasts.  My teams podcast is on craigslist and lucky for us one of my team member is really familar with audio recording and even has his own studio set up, so I'm really looking forward to making our podcast.

I also wanted to play around with audacity myself even though it is not going to be the program that we record our podcast with.   I went home and tried some of the things that we did in class on my macbook.  I recorded myself and than deleted parts and added some background music too.

http://www.voices.com/podcasting/plan-your-podcast

The website above was really helpful.  There are multiple pages that are related to podcasting.

The first page I looked at was planning your podcast.  It gives you a blueprint of how a successful podcast runs by keeping topics brief and interesting, adding guests and music, and using and making clear transitions so the show is easy to follow.

It helps you to write as script and with the style of your voice.
They discuss a more professional approach to pod casting and a freestyle approach.  Depending on what your podcast is for you should choose between these two approaches before you record.

This site also has a section on branding your podcast.
http://www.voices.com/podcasting/brand-your-podcast

It discusses identifying the theme of your recording, selecting a name, creating logos, choosing colors,and music and sound effects.

Week 3: Layout and Design

The Assignment: 

For this week's post, you'll need to do some research on basic layout and design principles.

We discussed C.R.A.P. (see my lecture/powerpoint for more info) in class this week. For your weekly blog entry, find several sites (minimum 3) that will help you better understand basic layout and design. Discuss how the information you learn will help you out with your individual website. 

Don't forget to cite those sources!

Ron Weibe wrote:

• The simple rules of basic design are:

• Capture your reader’s attention using emphasis.

• Keep your reader on the page using rhythm and harmony.

• Deliver your message through the style of the design, appropriate selection of type and sound textual information.

Read more on layout and design at Suite101:

http://www.suite101.com/content/page-layout-design-tips-a222904

My Assignment:

"Basic Web Design and Layout - Interactive Media Center Tutorial." University at Albany Libraries.              Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://library.albany.edu/imc/webdesign/>.

Shannon, Ross. "HTML Source : HTML Tutorials." Basic Web Design. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/myfirstsite/basicwebdesign.html>.

"Basic Web Design Principles." University of Michigan. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://www.umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html>.

Johnson, Joshua. "Design Shack - Web Design Showcase, CSS Tutorials and Web Standards." 10 Rock Solid Website Layout Examples. 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://designshack.net/articles/layouts/10-rock-solid-website-layout-examples>.

Advice I liked from these sites:

From 10 Rock Solid website layout examples I loved the featured graphic.  I like the way it looks clean and simple, yet still artistic and attention grabbing all at the same time.  I plan to use this a lot on my site.  He says this is good to use when you don't have enough content for a full page and you want to showcase one graphic.

I also really love anyone that tells me to keep it simple when it come to web design because simple is all I really know how to do yet.

From the article Basic Web Design everything is really basic.  Use light colors,  because I guess according to this sight bright primary colors are uncomfortable to look at it, which I didn't know, so I'll take the experts word for it.    Structure your page into blocks using either: tables, layers or frames.

Tables: Pretty much exactly what I pictured when I read the word table.  

Layers: What happened when CSS came along, you can have layers instead of tables.

Frames: Not the best for beginners because they can be hard to use and implement.

Those two articles were by far the best, the other two were somewhat of a dull read and covered a lot of   things I've read on other tutorial sites.

Week 2: Photoshop & Dreamweaver

Week 2: Photoshop and Dreamweaver

So the assignment this week is on photoshop, but in our last class we bought our domain name and began learning about dreamweaver a program I have never used.  The basics of the program seem simple enough.  I'm excited to learn more and start using dreamweaver more in depth, but anyways back to photoshop the focus of this weeks post.

Fortunately for me I have some experience with photoshop.  It is very minimal, but I have used the program before, years ago in high school yearbook.  I'm hoping that I will be able to recall what I learned, but I doubt it will be like riding a bike.

I started looking at some photoshop tutuorial websites using google and a lot of what I found was stuff that I don't think I would ever use, but one website I found has a lot of simple techniques to better photographs that seemed useful to me.

This site has tutorials on:
-Selective coloring effects on photos
-Fold and creases effects on photos
-Blending textures on photos
-Darkening overexposed photos
-Brightening underexposed photos

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/

"Adobe Photoshop Tutorials and Training." Photoshop Tutorials. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. <http://www.photoshopessentials.com/>.


The second site I looked at was also very helpful and once again for beginners.  There was a little bit of overlap between the two sites, but both very informative.

http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/12-beginner-tutorials-for-getting-started-with-photoshop/

"Featured in Social Media." Mashable. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. <http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/12-beginner-tutorials-for-getting-started-with-photoshop/>.





Youtube Photoshop Tutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-u-OYz2qaU
This first tutorial is pretty long, but informative.  It covers the basics, which is definitely what I need.  Photoshop is a step by step process and I discovered that missing a few steps can get you lost very quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EooYoYYTQ
This second tutorial is on layers, which I understand at the beginning.  As I continued to work on my photo I got a little more confused all of a sudden I had a ton of layers and I didn't know which layer was what.  This video helps to give you a basic run through of layers and how to use them.