Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
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For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
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Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
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Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
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For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
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Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
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Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
The Rhetoric of Blogging 
Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Balancing college life with full-time work – horses.
2. Best dessert places in Ann Arbor/Birmingham/Detroit – where to find good eats, on a budget.
3. Coffee places in Detroit/Ann Arbor/Birmingham – where to find the best coffee in the best environment.
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. There are a lot of blogs on horses and on college life, but I couldn’t find any that relate to this. It would be about me balancing my life in college with a full time passion/job and how I was able to financially continue my love for horses without my parent’s support.
2. There are hundreds of blogs about desserts and dessert places, but none focused in exclusively on these areas. I could center my blog not only on places, but also on easy recipes for both the decadent lover of chocolate and for those who prefer a healthy alternative.
3. What college student doesn’t love coffee? Again, there are numerous blogs dealing with this topic, but my focus would be on places in these cities (which there are plenty of).
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. The horse and college topic. It would be more of a personal blog, and I would like to do this because as college is coming to a close for me, I feel like I have a lot of advice I can give on how I’ve dealt with this, and how I believe I can continue my hobby for horses while I pick up work in the professional world. While it’s very much a niche, I believe there would still be a lot of readers for this blog, as it also pertains to anyone who has a hobby that takes up a large portion of time and money and finding creative ways to be able to continue your passion when it can’t become (at least at the moment) a full time career.
2. Desserts – something I have always loved and am constantly trying to find new places where I can satisfy my sweet tooth. It would also give me an excuse to try out new dessert places a few times a week, something I would really enjoy doing.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. For the horse/personal blog, I would focus on dealing with a difficult boss who demands a lot. My boss is a character, and I feel like everyone would get a good laugh out of it and would be able to identify with having to deal with a difficult personality.
2. For the sweets blog, I would focus on not only places that are dedicated to sweets, but also restaurants that serve good desserts. For me, picking a place to eat is largely dominated by the desserts they serve, so I feel like this would be an interesting topic.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. I would need a camera and a video camera, as well as the permission of my boss to write on the topic! Other than that, it is my daily life so I wouldn’t need much.
2. I would need a camera (my phone), and money to spend on the desserts themselves. Luckily, I would probably eat the desserts and go out dinner regardless of making the blog (as I do now) so it wouldn’t be much of an added expense or added time to my schedule.
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. Coffee, Chocolate, Cowboys
2. Noble Companion
3. Cantering Through College
4. Heels Down
5. Riding Through College
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
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I. Possible Blog Topics
1. Traveling
2. Cooking/Restaurants
3. Service Industry Secrets
II. Competition
1. Traveling:
– The Blonde Abroad (https://theblondeabroad.com/) – the writer of this blog talks about her international journeys after she quit her job and started traveling full time; it seems like a general travel guide that includes fashion and photography aspects as well
– Leave Your Daily Hell (https://leaveyourdailyhell.com/) – this seems like a pretty sophisticated blog by a man who travels the world and also offers travel support and guidance as well as a Travel Coaching service
2. Cooking/Restaurants:
– The Year in Food (http://theyearinfood.com/) – this blog offers recipes based around seasonal fruits and vegetables and what is available during the specific time of year
– 100 Days of Real Food (https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/) – Follows a family’s journey of 100 days of eating all unprocessed, real food; also includes a lot of recipes with no processed food
3. Service Industry Secrets:
– The Waitress Confessions (https://thewaitressconfessions.wordpress.com/) – this blog talks about what it’s like to be a server in relation to other aspects of life; she also has a section that speaks to diners (how to tip/how to treat your server etc)
– The Bitchy Waiter (http://thebitchywaiter.com/) – this blog focusses on a man who has been serving since 1990 in many different large cities; he talks about situations he’s encountered as a way to release some frustration with his profession; funny
III. 2 Remaining Topics
1. Cooking/Restaurants – I think although there are a lot of recipe/guidance blogs regarding food and restaurants, I think that I could maybe add an interesting twist
2. Service Industry Secrets – Everyone’s stories about their professions are unique and different, and I think being a full-time student AND server could make my blog unique; I also might have a unique perspective because I’m the youngest amongst my coworkers and have been in the bar/restaurant scene since I was 16
IV. Blog Uniqueness
1. Cooking/Restaurants – I could make my blog like a comparison between restaurants meals versus cooking them at home; I could visit different restaurants and try certain dishes and then go home and try to recreate it to the best of my ability and blog about my experience/the process etc.
2. Service Industry Secrets – I could talk about my experiences as a student and a server while adding an interesting twist because I’m rather young for the field; I could discuss how being a part of this industry at a young age (under 21 especially) has really altered and shaped my world view
V. Materials Needed
1. Cooking/Restaurants – I would need basic cooking supplies and ingredients as well as a camera to document my experience
2. Service Industry Secrets – I don’t think at this point I would really need any supplies for this blog, it would be more of a retelling of past experiences
VI. Possible Blog Titles for a Cooking/Restaurant Blog
1. Expectation vs. Reality – Home-cooked meals
2. Recreating the Flavor
3. Restaurant Meals Made at Home
4. The Reality of Professional Style Cooking
5. Cooking for One – Restaurant Style
VII. Final Title: Expectation vs. Reality – Home-cooked meals
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Possible Ideas
1. Senior Year/ Transition into Adulthood (My Life)
2. Traveling/ Going Abroad
3. Cooking in College
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. GradGuard
a. Not completely dedicated to senior/ post graduate life, but more about college in general. There is a category for Student Life and a separate one for Post Grad Life.
2. The Blonde Abroad
a. She is similar to my age so easy to relate. Website is bright fun and easy to use.
3. Budget Bytes
a. Recipes and shopping lists targeted at people who live on a budget but shows you can still incorporate delicious and healthy food.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Senior Year/ Becoming an Adult
a. Since I am currently going through the process of applying to jobs, doing my ‘lasts’ in my college town, preparing for graduation I feel like I could have a recent perspective people could identify with.
2. Traveling
a. I enjoy talking about my experience abroad and think I could contribute a lot to the discussion around going abroad. There are things I wish I knew, where I wish I could have traveled and things I wish I did. I feel like being able to learn from someone’s experiences is an important part of life.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. The graduation blogs I saw were mainly tips about what you should be doing, but sometimes these things can be really unrealistic. I think I could bring a more realistic, easier to grasp perspective and ideas to the conversation because it is currently my life.
2. Like I said before, there are a lot of things about my personal abroad experience that I would want to share with others in order to better their experiences. I also feel like planning more trips through a blog, with hopefully other people contributing their experiences to my travels would be a fun and interactive idea.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. For a transition into adulthood blog I would definitely want pictures, which can easily be taken on my iPhone. I don’t think expenses would be a huge factor exactly. Maybe when I want to go out and try new restaurants, but not much else. There would definitely be a time factor that would be associated with this topic.
2. For a travel blog I would definitely want a camera, more than just my iPhone, a budget would be a must because there would be definite expenses and there would definitely be a time factor involved.
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. My Life As… (a graduate, someone looking for a job, change it as I go)
2. One Step at a Time
3. Time to Takeoff
4. Kickoff Time Out here
5. Kidding Myself
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Blog Ideas:
1. Music/ Undiscovered Artists Blog
2. Creative Writing Blog
3. Politics
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. Music
-Indie is Not a Genre (https://www.indieisnotagenre.com/new-albums-2018/)- This blog is a collaborative site that has a wide variety of music related posts by people age 18+. INAG includes album reviews, festival lineups/predictions, interviews with up and coming artists, live performance reviews, (with that band’s upcoming tour schedule underneath) and much more. My favorite addition is the spotify playlist that is linked on the side of the screen. This then gives readers an extremely easy link to follow up on artists that they have just read about. In essence, this exactly the kind of blog that I envision myself creating. The audience is most definitely more alternative type of listeners. I think it would be a little hard to differentiate myself, other than that of myself being the only writer. Perhaps I could hone in on one centralized topic, such as just reviews.
2. Creative Writing Blog
-50-Word Stories (http://fiftywordstories.com/)- This blog is extremly self explanatory, it posts *50 word stories* at least once a day by any person who submits one. There is also a tab that has different topics such as adventure stories, love stories, and so forth, making anything one is interested available. Moreover they have stories of the week, and a hall of fame. I think this is a perfect way to utilize a blog for creative writing as the posts are obviously quite brief, yet still incredibly intriguing. The audience is anyone interested in creative writing, specifically poetic-esque blog posts. I think I could emulate this type of writing style by posting short samples of my own writing.
3. Politics
-DailyKos (https://www.dailykos.com/)- I actually found this site before I read the readings, which isn’t that much of a shock because if you just simply type “political blog,” almost every suggestion is DailyKos. This site is extremely interesting, the top has a list of hashtags which lean both sides. They have a recommended list on the side of site with popular blogs, they even have a comic section which is really cool for an online political website. The intended audience is for anyone that wants to read more opinionated pieces by writers who aren’t necessarily journalist. I think I can create a different political blog by focusing on women in politics only, which might be a bit harder, but I think could really be interesting.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Music Blog- I think that any type of music blog could be different than what everyone else is writing about, purely because everyone has different music taste. I could include very different artists than what I see being written about because I go to a lot of small concerts within the Michigan area.
2. Creative Blog- I think again, that this blog could be different than what it already out there because it would only be my own writing. I would focus on one specific type of writing, either poetry or short stories. I would probably implement a theme and perhaps make them each correlate. I disregarded the political blog because I already am apart of a newspaper, and I really want to expand the type of writing that I do.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. I would angle my blog to be more centered around the Michigan alternative music scene. I have a few friends that are in bands that tour pretty often, so I could interview a few of their mutual acquaintances. I also could attend events at The Blind Pig, and other local venues.
2. For my creative writing blog I was thinking about taking graffiti from around bathroom stalls and then expanding them into poems. Each week I could have a different topic for the poem, and a different location from where I found the writing.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. Time to attend concerts, it might be tricky because a lot of them are over the weekend.
2. I would need probably a good camera to take pictures of the graffiti because I tried on my phone and it was kind of hard to read.
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. The Wonder Wall
2. Off the Wall
3. Toilet Talk
4. Toilet Thoughts
5. If Walls Could Talk
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Productivity
2. Music
3. Personal thoughts/opinions
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. Some productivity blogs seem to tend towards the more hardcore mentality of being like a machine. On the other hand, the productivity blogs that tend towards the self-care side of things. There is also a tendency to focus on how to execute specific methods of productivity and task management which can in themselves make more hassle and complexity in a busy person’s life. I see productivity blogs as something that I like to read to get advice, but not so much something that I want to devote a lot of mental capacity toward. I study productivity methods so I don’t have to worry so much about struggling to stay productive.
2. All of the music blogs that I could find through my google search were more like music critic blogs, talking about songs and new releases by various bands and artists. I am not interested in writing a music review blog. Instead, I would like to use a blog as a platform to showcase my own music and creative process.
3. There are a lot of young people who write diary-style blogs. I have noticed that a lot of these seem to be about specific experiences and life stages, like traveling and being in college. I am currently in a sort of in-between of life stages. I am on my way out of college and on my way into the real world. Something that I like to do when thinking about things in my life is to make new connections and think of things in an original philosophical way.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Music. I would really like to find a way to use blogging as inspiration to create more music and develop my creative process.
2. Personal thoughts/diary. I would like to use blogging as a way to reflect and track the things that are going on in my life.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. I could combine my two interests to make a blog that will inspire me to create more music and provide an outlet for my personal musings.
2. Instead of just confining myself to creating music, I could broaden the category to other pieces of art as well (painting, sculpture, photography, poetry, etc.)
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. I already have a good microphone to record my music, but there would definitely be a need for time to write the music or create whatever art I was making that week.
2. I already have supplies for painting. I have a decent camera on my phone that I could use for taking photos. If I wanted to create a model or sculpture, I would definitely need to purchase the materials for that and set aside the time to construct it.
Which of the two remaining topics are you leaning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. My Life as The Arts
2. Creator in Progress
3. Music and Other Musings
4. A Work a Week
5. Here’s My Piece
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I. Possible topics
1. Fitness/healthy living
2. Traveling
3. Navigating the world as a young, 20-something woman
II. Competition
1. Fit Bottomed Girls: More of a body-positive blog that focuses on being fun, happy, and fit, instead of dieting and losing weight. Has posts about everything from workouts to playlists to reviews. I think this is more geared to older women, especially moms, and not a college/just out of college audience.
2. Young Adventuress: Solo Female travel blog about Liz Carlson’s misadventures while traveling. She studied abroad, then lived abroad, and now basically travels for a living. I, on the other hand, plan to travel only when I can, so will be more a destination blog then a personal blog.
3. The Confused Millennial: Written by a woman who was fired twice in one month, this blog is about learning from your mistakes and learning to grow. Rachel has been out of college for a while, so she has more life experiences and focuses more on starting a second career.
III. 2 Remaining topics
1. I chose to stick with fitness/healthy living and navigating the world as a young, 20-something woman. I decided not to do travel because all though I’ve traveled a lot, I have only really lived abroad for 2 months and I don’t think I can turn this experience into a whole blog. Fitness is a big part of my life so I would have a lot of content and navigating the world as a young, 20-something woman would literally be about my life and facing life after graduation.
IV. Uniqueness
1. A lot of the fitness blogs that I’ve seen focus on being fit while working, being a mom, etc. I would focus more on fitness and healthy living in college and how I have found success while balancing those things with school, work, and clubs, while also being honest about the challenges.
2. Along with the fitness blogs, the young women blogs are usually written by women who have been in a career for sometime and have either been really successful or have had some failures. I would focus more about being in the scary yet exciting transition from college to the real world with a full time job, which I think is a different perspective.
V. Materials
1. I definitely would need to make time to plan out workouts and meals. This also might require me to spend more money than usual
2. No additional materials
VI. Possible blog titles
1. Young, Dumb, and Thriving
2. Work in Progress
3. Lost in Transition
4. Don’t Quote Me on This
5. Person in Training
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog.
1. Experiences as second-generation immigrant
2. Humanities student in a neoliberal world
3. Reflecting on university and student life
Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. Other college students seem to be writing about the guilt towards their parents they feel as second-generation immigrants
2. The audiences seem like other young adults; mostly millennials and Gen Y. Recent college graduates
3. I think I could differentiate myself from other blogs by focusing more on the intersection between class and immigrant experience
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Experiences as second-generation immigrants
2. Humanities student in a neoliberal world
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. I could try to style my blog posts where each are based on a conversation I have with another student or friend who has something meaningful to speak on the topic
2. I want to talk about very mundane issues or conversations that provide meaningful insight on something bigger picture
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. Expenses in terms of conversations over coffee with friends
2. Camera (possibly just through my phone)
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. Imposter Syndrome
2. Bamboo Words
3. Immigrant Bargain
4. One Dragon Rises
5. An Auspicious Son
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Three possible topics:
1. Advertising Insights
2. Linguistic peeves
3. Cooking at home
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. There are some blogs about advertising, but most of them are for business purposes and generating vast professional contents. I want to start a personalized blog on advertising including my own views and collections from a perspective of a college student who has been intrigued. Here are some examples:
1) Ads of the World (http://www.adsoftheworld.com/)
The simplicity and clarity of this site allow me to take a deep breath amid the claustrophobic jungle of the Internet. Visiting the Ads of the World blog is like visiting an advertising museum, with quite possibly the most comprehensive archive of ads anywhere. Even their search menu speaks to the endless possibilities for inspiration (but hopefully not imitation) with drop-down search fields that invite: “Any media. Any country. Any industry.”
2) The Inspiration Room (http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/)
With a compelling image and a single tight paragraph, The Inspiration Room offers bite-sized morsels of collaborative genius from the world of media. Established in 2006 by Stephen Molloy, the site is clean, well cataloged, and easy to search, with genres like film, design, audio, television, photography, and design at your fingertips.
2. I have read some language blogs before to assist with my English study and then I started to dig more into it. If I am going to do this topic, I will write from a non-native English speaker’s perspective. Here are some blogs I used to read.
1) Language Log (http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/)
Language Log is a collaborative language blog maintained by Mark Liberman, a phonetician at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the posts focus on language use in the media and in popular culture. Text available through Google Search frequently serves as a corpus to test hypotheses about language. Other popular topics include the descriptivism/prescriptivism debate, and linguistics-related news items. The site has occasionally held contests in which visitors attempt to identify an obscure language.
2) All Things Linguistic (http://allthingslinguistic.com/about)
It is a daily linguistics blog by Gretchen McCulloch. Daily updates via rss, tumblr, twitter, facebook, or google+; monthly summaries via email/wordpress.
3. My roommate and I always cook at home and we are both from Beijing, China. Sometimes we buy materials from Aisan markets and try to make some hometown dishes at our apartment. Surprisingly, they do taste delicious!
1) Playful Cooking (http://www.playfulcooking.com/dessert/baked-persimmon-crisp/)
A food blog created by Kankana and this is her culinary space, where she shares her love for food and photography.
2) Seven Spoon (http://sevenspoons.net/?offset=1369054813966)
Tara O’Brady started this blog in May 2015, to save her recipe file and to keep track of things as I built a life with her boyfriend. The site was nominated for best photography, best writing and best recipes for the 2010 Candian Food Blog Awards, winning in writing and recipes.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Advertising Insights – This has always been the topic that I want to explore, and marketing/advertising is my the career path that I am currently pursuing. I have been fascinated by so many talented designs, creative campaigns and successful marketing strategies. I would like to use this platform to keep track of them and build a small unique “Museum of Advertisements”.
2. Linguistic Peeves – I found this is an interesting topic when I was talking with my friends about everybody’s peeves, such as overuse of “literally”, “like” and some commonly misused words. There are plenty of examples in our everyday conversations, but mostly we do not notice them.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. I want to make it more like a journal, probably including the evolution of different brands, success or failure in past campagins, as well as personal or popular views towards those advertising movements. And maybe interview some friends around me for their opinions on such issues.
2. Those unnoticed linguistic phenomena are an interesting topic to me, especially as a non-native English speaker. We use language every day to achieve our goals, to communicate with others and exchange our feelings. Language peeve is actually not simply a mistake people made over time, but a product of language development.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. camera for interviews; time to watch and analysis ads
2. interviewing people to discover their language peeves; time to do some research
Which of the two remaining topics are you leaning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. The evolution of xx brand’s logos
2. A successful campaign
3. A failed campaign
4. Top 5 greatest marketing strategies
5. Top 5 Super Bowl advertisements
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. a filter/topic blog about self-care and motivation/productivity
2. a personal blog about navigating college and life as a “one and a half generation” immigrant
3. a personal/topic blog about navigating a long distance relationship
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. (http://reflectionsfromaredhead.com/) There seem to be a lot of blogs out there about motivation and self-care. There audiences seem to be primarily young millennials. The topics that I see are commonly covered are gratitude, mindfulness, making time for self, and other lists/ideas for self-care. While I really like this style of blogs, I find that sometimes they can sound preachy, and sometimes lack substance/real-life experiences. I could distinguish myself from these blogs by adding more personal detail rather than simply listing “reasons why… etc”
2. I really couldn’t find any personal blogs about immigrants who immigrated to a country at a young age. They are mostly either about those who immigrated as adults, or who were born and raised in the country that thair parents immigranted to.
3. (https://charliestarblogs.com/) A lot of long-distance blogs include tips on how to navigate a long distance relationship as part of a personal blog, or a topic-based blog on ideas on activities long-distance couples can do. It’s primarily written by women in LDRs for couples in LDRs. I think I can differentiate myself from these blogs is once again, giving more personal anecdotes rather than simply listing out ideas.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
The topics that I am sticking with are navigating life as a 1.5 generation immigrant in America and navigating long distance relationships because I was not able to come up with a lot of results for these two topics when I searched for them, and think that the ones that currently exist lack a more personal perspective. I think there’s a lack of representation for people like me in the blogosphere, and so I would hope that writing about these topics can help other people who can relate to me.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. The problem with most blogs about LDRs is that for the most part, I don’t find them to be helpful because you can’t fit a relationship into a cookie-cutter. As someone who has always loved the storytelling aspect of writing, I think it would be fun to share personal anecdotes about LDRs and/or life as a 1.5gen immigrant via. drawing (although I am terrible at it)
2. I didn’t think about this until now, but a blog following a girl’s journey on learning how to draw/sketch in a certain amount of days, where I draw/sketch something everyday. I have always wanted to practice drawing. This is similar to the “365 days of photos or 52 weeks of photos” that many photographers do, and that I have done in the past. I love this idea because it’s so neat to see the growth in your ability to do said skill from day one to the last day. Perhaps a “12 weeks of sketches” blog incorporating funny anecdotes and experiences from my life.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
Camera for taking photos of the sketches, sketchbook or paper, pencils/drawing utensils
Which of the two remaining topics are you leaning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. Color My Life
2. Transatlantic Girl
3. Coffee & Sketches
4. From Across the Universe
5. A Pixelated Love
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
http://www.thetransatlanticgirl.wordpress.com
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Sports and Sports Culture
2. Food in Ann Arbor
3. Puns
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. SB Nation, Deadspin, Barstool Sports – men, from middle age (late 30s-50s) to young adults (18-29), who are sports fans. These blogs often support a single team, but my unique angle would be a broader look at sports and sports culture, something many fans identify with.
2. Ann Arbor Bites, Ann Arbor Foodie, Suburban Detroit Foodie – Ann Arbor and local area residents are the main target, with families and mothers being subtargets. My unique angle would be looking at food from a college budget, or certain ethnicities of food
3. Are We Having Pun Yet? Pun Me, Know Pun Intended – pun lovers of any age are the audience, maybe more millennials? My unique angle would mainly be just better puns.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Sports and Sports Culture – although there are lots of voices, there are no major unifying voices behind sports culture.
2. Puns – pun blogs are unique and just plain funny, lots of uncharted territroy.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. Taking a broad look at sports culture, as well as the college experience, and how they are intertwined.
2. Unique puns, and potentially long stories that end in puns.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. Camera, game tickets, field access? merchandise?
2. Humor, and lots of puns
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Sports! Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. 814 Sports
2. South Forest Sports
3. Sports U
4. The Wave Sports
5. Last Fan Standing
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Athleisure and sports fashion
2. Positive mental health awareness
3. Cooking in College
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
Athleisure and Sports Fashion: there are a lot of blogs out there that already focus on this type of clientele but I am seeing that most of these blog focus more on the act of working out rather than the fashion behind it. There seem to be a variety of audiences depending on who is writing the blog, but many of the audiences are primarily made up of females. I think that my blog could be a little different because it would focus more on the fashion aspect of fitness and less on the actual workout, so then maybe bloggers could reference me and such.
Positive Mental Health Awareness: Although there is a lot of blogging appearing these days about mental health, many of the blogs tend to focus on specific aspects of mental health such as meditation or mindfulness. Many of these bloggers appear to be expertly trained in this topic so that makes me a little hesitant to go into this blogging environment. But, it appears that their audiences are very varied so I could take the route of being a college aged mindfulness practice if I wanted!
Cooking in College: This is a very popular blogging topic and even microblogging topic! In just my google search a ton of local michigan bloggers came up and even a lot of college bloggers did too! I think that since there is such a wide audience for this subject that there a lot of possibilities to take this type of blog and that I could make my blog stand out by being goofy and unique!
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
Athleisure and Sports Fashion: I think that this is a type of blog that I personally wish that there were more of since I am huge fan of this type of clothing and in general this type of lifestyle.
Cooking in College: Even though I will be graduating in the spring, I think that I have a lot to offer in terms of advice for college students since I am a very weird cooker. For example, I tend to use very weird and small amounts of ingredients so I think that this a very specific idea that people might find interesting
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1.Athleisure and Sports Fashion: I think that I could make my blog stick out among the other fitness blogs by mainly devoting my time towards reviewing certain aspect of clothes, similar to the way that people review classes!
2. Cooking in College: I think that I could do more of a collaborative effort with many other bloggers in college and do more of a comparison among different universities rather than just being a recipe book.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1.Athleisure and Sports Fashion: I would need to mainly invest in some new clothing, but other than that most of the materials I already have such as a camera and a computer!
2. Cooking in College: I would need to invest in buying food and getting in touch with a lot of other bloggers. So I think this would require a lot more time and energy than the first idea.
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. An Off Brand Life
2. Living in My Leggings
3. Feel Good, Look Better
4. When Runaway meets Sweat
5. Detox in Style
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
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Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Scared S***less
2. Tapping through Tea Rooms
3. The Dirty D Donuts
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. Bloody Disgusting, horror fans all over the world. I could write about horror stories specifically from MI.
2. Tap Dance Man, specifically for tap dancers. I could make my blog be tap related but relate to other things too, and allow any dancer to enjoy the content. I could also make it something funny like tap dancing in random places.
3. Donut Digest is mostly based on the East Coast but also reviews all USA donut shops. My donut blog would be specifically reviews of donuts found in Detroit only.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Horror because there is a plethora of horror stories and everyone has their own, so it would be cool to focus on Michigan’s horror stories and haunted places.
2. Tap Dancing because it’s something that not a ton of people can say they do, and it would be fun to go around to different tea rooms tap dancing and reviewing the best tea they have.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. I would try more personal stories of people I know, who haven’t had their story told through any form of mass media. Also, many of the horror blogs are based on urban legends or they have written their own fictional stories. My blog would be personal stories, and it’s up to the reader to decide if they think it’s fiction or not . . .
2. Instead of just doing a basic review of a tea room, I would do a review while tap dancing.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. A collection of people’s stories, and I could acquire them by posting on different social media platforms.
2. I would need a camera, money to buy tea, and my tap shoes.
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. Scared S**tless
2. Mystical Michigan
3. Myths of Michigan
4. The Satanic Spartan
5. The WoooOOOlverine
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
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I. Use the results of your in-class brainstorming exercise to develop three possible topics for your blog. To get started, you might select any one answer from your list and turn it into a blog idea. For example, if the places you want to visit in Ann Arbor are all burger joints, you might create something like Michigan Burger Boys. You might also combine any ideas from your list to develop something new. For example, if your hobby is cooking and you also love archival research, you might create something like Cooking in the Archives.
1. Travel experiences I have, tips and tricks, and log of them
2. Food in Ann Arbor/near Ann Arbor – what places have the best deals and value
3. Health and fitness, my personal experience for people to follow along
II. For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. There are a lot of travel blogs out there that talk about the bloggers’ experiences and some include the different. I would try to differentiate my blog by talking about my personal experiences and stories more compared to a guide to traveling.
2. Food blogs are also very popular but most are cooking blogs with recipes, whereas not many are restaurants of a certain area, more specifically Ann Arbor, Michigan. I want to make my blog different by talking about the many restaurants we have here and what type of deals they have. I want to inform the happy hour deals they have and what ways to get the most food for your money.
3. Eating healthy and staying fit is always a struggle, but it is even harder on a college campus. I know there are plenty of health and fitness blogs, but not many are geared toward college students on a budget.
III. Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Restaurant/Food blog – I think that this topic for a blog would be something a lot of people can relate and would like to read, but it is also specifically geared toward students on the college campus.
2. Eating Healthy/Fitness – As a college student, it is easier to relate to other students. Most fitness blogs are targeted toward as many people as possible. It seems as though most of their recipes are hard to obtain the ingredients if you do not have regular access to the grocery store. I want to tailor it to all college students trying to eat healthier and be more fit.
IV. Of the two remaining topics, how could you make your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. As a student, it is hard to cook all the time so many people eat out consistently, eating out also costs a lot of money.
2. I want to be able to share the best places to get bang for your buck and also share events with free food.
V. For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. I would mainly just need to take time to attend events, checking out restaurants
2. And my phone camera to take photos to add
3. Expenses to check out the restaurants
VI. Which of the two remaining topics are you leaning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. Free Food?
2. Bang for your Buck
3. Happy Hour, Happy Life
4. Restaurant Week
5. DIY
Pick your favorite site title and check to see if it is available on WordPress. If not, try a few different versions until you find a title you like. Then create your site and start blogging!
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1. Cooking desserts
2. Seeing movies
3. Travel
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
1. Smitten Kitchen- the author wrote it while pregnant and I think I could put more of a college student spin on things
2. Oh! That Film Blog writes great reviews of popular movies- but they’re long and I think mine can be more concise/focused on one aspect of each movie
3. Pix to Words- this blog fuses photos and poetry and I love it. I think I’d use more personal anecdotes to share information about my photographs than poetry!
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
1. Cooking
2. and Movies. I think these two are great because they’re everyday things that we all experience but can be viewed so uniquely. And they’re alomost more interesting because more people can relate and have their own thoughts on the topics, rather than travel where readers may not have been to the exact places you describe.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
1. Cooking- I think it would be great to go from an angle of a poor college kid just trying to make her friends and roommates happy. Including their reactions and input might be kind of funny and cute.
2. Movies- I think being able to explain my own background relative to the subject of each film.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
1. Recipes, food, camera
2. Time, money for tickets, snacks 🙂
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
Movies!
1. Theater Thoughts
2. Steph’s Scenes
3. Movie Magic
4. Pass the Popcorn
5. Extra Butter Please
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Writing 201: The Rhetoric of Blogging Reflection 1
Three topics:
1 Humor in showing everyday life after death
2 Showing the crevices in living a life after a death and how you cannot even remember even living
before it.
3 Showcasing the 1 st few years after a death, all the bureaucracies and, feelings that come with it.
For Each of Your Three Ideas showcase the competition:
1) Still Standing- This is written by a group of people who have lost their children. Whether the
children were not born yet (infertility) or by tragic accident. My blog would be different because
I will be writing as an individual and not as a group. I also have not lost any children.
2) Hello Grief- This is run by a company and the primary audience is teens. Teens can have a
journal entry page on this website as well as have interactive memorials of their loved ones. My
will not have places where people can have journals and memorials- so it will not be a
blog/website where people can have shared accounts. I will post about myself and my
experience- as well as with knowledge that I run into (books/movies) and post them. People will
hopefully learn about themselves through resonation with me.
3) Story of a Widower- This one is about a husband who has lost his wife at the age of 41 and is
figuring out how to go on with life with his two sons. The audience here is slightly older than me
and one potentially filled with significant others. But, I did connect with this blogger because he
does discuss intimate loss and how to live life in the presence of loss
Now that you have looked at the competition Which two topics are you sticking with and why:
1 Humor in showing everyday life after death. None of the blogs I have looked at have this component
weaved into their entries.
2 Showcasing the 1 st few years after a death, all the bureaucracies and feelings that come with it. None
of the other blogs discuss dealing with bureaucracy after death- which is huge for many of us.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera. Expenses, time to attend
events.)?
1) Picture, so a camera or a new smartphone solely for pictures would be useful.
2) Figuring out how to do a podcast/uploading interviews which deal with death/bureaucracy of
death would be beneficial– – so maybe recording equipment.
Which of the two remaining topics are you leaning toward? That take topic and develop five possible
blog titles:
1) Life After a Death: Bunnies, McDonald’s, and Estates
2) Life in the Shadow of Death
3) My Peri-Mortal Experience
4) No Time to Grieve: Life as An Only Child Executor
5) The Sea: Navigating the sea of bureaucracy, heartache, and personalities post a parent’s death
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Possible Topics
1. Ann Arbor Food Critiques
2. Exercise Routines
3. Plant Based Dessert Recipes – Low Sugar & Low Fat
For each of your three ideas, do a quick Google search to identify your competition/colleagues. Who else is writing about your topic? Who are their audiences? How could you differentiate yourself from their blogs?
The Detroiter https://detroit.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-ann-arbor, https://www.visitannarbor.org/eat These are two “blogs” that speak to ann arbors food scene. I have identified a barrier to entry here as there are no blog results for “Ann Arbor Food Reviews” surprisingly.
http://fitnesstestlab.com/ – https://www.kaylaitsines.com/blogs/news I would distinguish myself by formatting the content of each workout in an aesthetically pleasing design.
https://cleanfooddirtygirl.com , http://www.theglowingfridge.com/ – I would distinguish myself by only focusing on plant based desserts that were low fat AND low sugar.
Now that you have looked at the competition, toss out the topic that seems most thickly covered. Which two topics are you sticking with, and why?
-Ann Arbor Food Critics – no one has created a video talking about what they thought of the local food around campus. These restaurants are not getting the marketing attention they need. By creating my food rating scale and unique content, I will be able to differentiate myself from other established websites like http://www.visitannarbor.org by specializing in this field.
– Either: creating aesthetically workout formats or the topic of why it’s so important to be able to laugh at yourself.
Of the two remaining topics, how could you make a your blog stick out? What new angles haven’t been tried?
My blog would stick out by creating this: A sharable platform that allows others to comment their food thoughts after finishing a meal. Theoretically, this foodie platform would contribute to an algorithm on the site that ranks the best dishes in the area (win-win approach). Realistically, I would take a new angle on this by forming a “scale” I would explain to my readers and demonstrate how I “rate” my own food. This is a new angle behind food reviews other competitors haven’t tried. For example, Yelp does a poor job of organizing food reviews by dish. Food reviews are out of order. I have to search through many photos to find 1) what the dish even looks like 2) any piece of helpful advice of what it’s going to taste like. The foodie world needs a platform that is both visual and informative at the same time. It needs a platform that can make other foodies feel like their voice actually counts and help gain local restaurants gain more exposure. My blog would speak to this need and try to come up with helpful content to prevent gaps between foodies and restaurants.
For the topic of why it’s so important to laugh at yourself, I would want to take a different angle than just writing an article by coming up a list of daily “fails” that most people experience and create memes or stories out of them. Such as tripping over outselves, tupperware avalanching on top of you in the kitchen, or running into something on accident, burning something. These are things that often frustrate us. My posts would encourage others to actually try to laugh at themselves. I would make these memes and package it together with a blurb about the power positivity. I would ask people to share their funny daily struggles, and what made them laugh about it.
For each of these two blogs, what materials would you need (camera, expenses, time to attend events…)?
Camera
2. Not sure yet
Which of the two remaining topics are you learning toward? Take that topic and develop five possible blog titles:
1. The Failproof Foodie Critic: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Ann Arbor
2. The Top 5 Dishes in Ann Arbor You Never thought existed
3. Three Ann Arbor Restaurants that are a Waste of Money.
4. Vegan Weightloss Dessert Guide
5. Top Ten Health Food Products You Probably Don’t Need
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