Week 4

This week, Juliette’s suggestion of selling advertorial spaces to bookstores is exactly what I have been thinking over the past few weeks. Because I think we are mainly targeting at local book lovers, putting ads on our website will sound more cost-effective to bookstore owners.
Moreover, I really like the website AddThis, which Christine shared with us. It generates sharing code that we can post on our web pages so that user can share the content elsewhere. It’s really easy to use and totally free of charge. I think I have been seeing those buttons everywhere, and finally I know where they come from.
Christine also brought us another wonderful news that she may be able to get us free hosting. We will only need to pay for the domain name. Hopefully, we will have opportunity to discuss this together next week.

Week 3 Calendar test

Week 3

My research results for our group project this week are as follows.

• Localbookshops.co.uk

uI think this website is similar with the one we are going to build, although we are not going to sell books as this site does.

uI really like the search engines that help users to look for the nearest bookstores and events.

uOn the left side of the homepage, the link under “love your local” directs users to a sub-site highlighting events and activities within independent bookstores across UK. I think the calendar application is really convenient but I’m not sure whether we will be able to build a similar one.

uSpeaking of independent bookstores, we can actually get their locations and other contact details from Leading Edge Books, which is the website of Australia's Leading Buying Group of Independent Booksellers.

uThe bookstore reviews from this site are probably too short and too ad-like for this subject. We certainly need to write better reviews.

uI found a bookstore review article here, worth checking out.

• http://torontoreads.wordpress.com/category/book-launches-author-events/

uThe “Book Launches & Author Events” section looks like what we are going to do as part of our project.

• The using of Google Map

uI would highly recommend using something like Google map in this project.

uGoogle map allows us to tag a particular location, write reviews and publish the map on our own website. Such service is very easy to use and totally free.

Week 2

Our initial idea for the project was to build a website for book clubs in Australia. After this week’s discussion, we decided to shift the theme to a website reviewing local bookstores around Melbourne. Also, we will have a calendar that allows users to check out the upcoming literary events in Melbourne.
This bookstore-reviewing site will cater the interests of the local book lovers and provide people with an easily accessible guide on where to look for books on particular subjects. So far, there is no such website available so our site is going to be unique in the market.

Week 1

As a requirement of Advanced Editing for Digital Media, I will be working with several other fellow students to construct a website and send it live at the end of this semester. In first week’s class, we looked at three websites constructed by students from previous years—UpUrAlley: Lygon Street, Chocrocks, and Melbin Noir.

I personally am mostly impressed by UpUrAlley, which I think is more commercialised than the other two.

UpUrAlley is targeting specifically at people who are interested in life on Lygon Street, Melbourne. Basically, the site functions like a local newspaper publishing information including local news, job vacancies, and entertainment guide.

I really like their idea of encouraging local businesses to buy advertorial spaces. The local businesses would know their ads could reach exactly their potential local customers and hence their ads will be more cost-effective.

Their using of TweetGrid is another thing I would like to praise, because such function allows browsers to interact and contribute to UpUrAlley in real time.

Chocrocks obviously has more beautiful page design and more informative contents. I really like the navigation bar on the right side. Although I think it could be shorter so that users do not have to scroll down to see the whole page. Making a simple drop-down menu should do the trick.