This week I would like to share some of the blogs created by my students in PRT 5460/6460 Electronic Marketing.  Their first assignment was to evaluate a website using AIDA (attention-interest-desire-action). The majority of the students in this class will be graduating in May 2013.  If you are looking for a capable employee with knowledge of electronic marketing, then check out these blogs:

• Zac E Marketing Blog
• Nick's Electronic Marketing Blog
• Elsa Si Chen's E-marketing Blog
• Canada Clawson's eMarketing Blog
• Anastasia's Blog
• Justin Cowan's E-Marketing Blog
• Michael Cumming's E-Marketing Blog
• Alex Degnan's E-Marketing Blog
• Rob Dela Cruz's Blog
• Elliot Doe's EMarketing Blog
• Creighton Frost's eMarketing Blog
• Siqi Gao's eMarketing Blog
• Mandy's Blog
• Harrison Kanarick's eMarketing Blog
• Ninja Peach eMarketing Blog
• Dmytro Mamedov's Electronic Marketing Blog
• Nick Mostyn's eMarketing Blog
• Murdock Landscaping Blog
• Scott Neuenschwander's Blog
• Caleb Redington's Blog
• Jenny Reichhold's Blog
• Colton Reinholtz's E-marketing Blog
• Ling Sha's eMarketing Blog
• Nik's E-Marketing Blog
• Brian's Blog
• Ben's E-Marketing Blog
• E-marketing with Eric
• Ash's Electronic Marketing 101 Blog
• Qingqing's eMarketing Blog
• Lori Taylor's Portfolio

It seems that in my busy schedule of teaching, I never have sufficient time to blog. I am always writing a lecture, evaluating assignments, grading quizzes, etc.  Yet I love sharing tips for effective electronic marketing with my students at the University of Utah.  I discovered a great blog today (J6Design.com.au) with some basic ideas and a great infographic.  Excellent timing since I need to get back into the swing of blogging in preparation for teaching social media this fall. So I will test out the suggested 8 secrets to writing faster blog posts beginning here and now!

1.  Assign a time frame & deadline... & stick to it.  I am going to try and blog once a week for the balance of the fall semester. . . once a week with something about electronic marketing.

2.  Create a content calendar:  This is an easy one if I simply follow the outline of topics covered in my electronic  marketing class.

3.  Keep a topic list:  Sounds logical . . . again I will focus on topics I cover in my electronic marketing course at the University of Utah.  So in the coming weeks there will be (hear that tone of determination as I strike those keys) blogs on Basic Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Social media, HTML 5/CSS,    The power of photography and photo editing, and Flash as a tool to capture attention and generate interest.

4. Remove all distractions.  Nearly  impossible since I am always multi-tasking . . . but it seems that Monday afternoon might work to close off the majority of the world. Teddy (my blind Pomeranian can sleep on my desk while I work) and I will turn off all the other sound devices to minimize distractions.

5. Start at the end. As a teacher, this is the heart of the lesson . . . the desired learning outcomes. For example, in this blog post I hope students will learn that even they can find some time to post a blog message.

6. Write don’t edit.  Impossible.  My fingers edit before my head even knows what is happening . . . but I will attempt to minimize the editing.

7. Keep the flow.  I will do my research before beginning the draft of the post.  Start with an outline and then let the magic happen.  
 
8.  You are story telling: J6Design.com.au suggests that you should read your blog out loud when you have finished drafting the blog.  I do this all the time when I write my PowerPoint slides for a lecture.  This is very helpful when I record my lectures for delivery online on the web.  I find it is so much easier if I take the time to read it out loud a couple of times so that I can feel more conversational rather than rattling off facts for my students.

Well tune in next week to see what happens to my plan to implement this in my time plan.  See you next Monday.

A recent article I found on SEOMOZ reviewed some key aspects that every blogger should consider in order to make their blogs more effective.  I will highlight a few of the recommendations. Bloggers should ensure that they make every effort to avoid making these errors that will decrease the effectiveness of your blog:

1. Crafting cute, clever or confusing headlines (or really bad ones) - Remember that this is the key aspect of generating interest in your blog.  Make sure you make the headline interesting to attract attention. In my electronic marketing course, I teach the use of AIDA.  A=Attention (the headline is essential to gaining attention), I=Interest (the description appearing on the search engine results will generate interest), D=Desire (create a desire for further information by supporting your blog with links to other sources), and A=Action (provide an opportunity for readers to follow-up on your blog with an RSS Feed or Twitter Posts).
2. Never linking to old posts. . . Previous posts provide support and further details for your current post.
3. Never linking to other bloggers . . . Again, providing links to other bloggers and articles generate interest and encourage dialogue between your readers and other bloggers.
4. Forgetting to fill out your page title and description fields . . . again, the page title and description are critical for SEO.  Search engines use this information when indexing your page and the use of the title and description provides valuable attention for potential readers on the search engine results.
5. Plagiarizing other bloggers . . . Whereas, you may feel it is a quick way to boost your blogging frequency, make sure you are ethical and provide valuable insight for your readers.  If in the case of a blog (such as, this particular post) reflects on material previously posted on another blog, quote the previous blog and provide a hyperlink to the original post.  More importantly, ADD further information and insight. As noted on item 1, provide a greater information to ensure that your readers want to read your blog rather than just link to another person's blog.
6. Writing big blocks of copy . . . use short paragraphs with sub-headings.  I know I am guilty of this error.  When I first started blogging while on sabbatical in China, I used my blog as a travel journal.  Writing in a journal is not the same as blogging.  I have learned over time that most people do not want to read pages and pages of copy.  Keep it short and interesting.

It seems that this is a perfect place to end this post . . . If you are interested in learning more, check out the original blog at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/12-things-that-will-kill-your-blog-post-every-time