The Manaiakalani EHSAS cluster is investigatiung student voice and authentic audience. So a major part of our approach is ensuring that our students DO have an audience for their writing. We have collated and shared some of the things we learned after one year of blogging about how to attract an audience to our students' blogs....

1. Dorothy Burt

2. Les
son
sf
our rom
yea
ra
s
Dorothy Burt

3. Au
di
en
ce
If you want an audience you can’t play hide and seek

4. “Measle Maps”
Live Trafic Feeds
Counters

5. g
n
i
z
a t
m
A n
e
t
n
o
C
Content is king! People will visit if it is of interest to them.

6. Rig
ht
la
tfor
m
Google Blogger? Edublogs? Wordpress?
Wikispaces? Wetpaint? Flickr? Yada yada.....
Choose the best one for your purpose....

7. g
o
l ut
B o
y
a
l
Appealing, readable (think eyesight and NESB readers

8. Ta
g
g
in
g
Use logical and consistent tagging

9. taggalaxy.de

10. Use
TEX
T
Google is not yet searching video and photos. Write something!

11. s
d
r
o
w
y
e
K
Think inverse of searching strategies
What keywords will OTHERS be searching for?

12. Use
standard
English
Gangsta, txt, bebo talk, bad spelling/grammar don’t help

13. Cu
rr
e n
t
What is current in the media at the moment? Capitalise on it!

14. l
at
tn
ii
gr
i
D tp
o
o
F
Leave a link to your blog everywhere you go online

15. Sh
ar
et
Lov he
e
Hyperlinking rulz. Link to others in your posts.

16. r
a
bc
e
d
i i
S f
f
a
r
t
Linking to others from your blog sidebar increases your
OWN audience.

17. Pa
rtic
ipa
te
in
con
ver
sat
ions
leave comments AND subscribe to the comments RSS

18. sig
na t
ure
Email - the old fashioned way - include your URL

19. y
t
i
v
i
t
c
A
Post regularly. If something is happening a crowd soon gathers

20. Tra
cki
ng
Follow the links to your blog. Promote with your students.

21. Poi
nt o
Dif f
fer
enc
e
b ea
pro
ud k
iwi

22. k
ef
ef
Gu
t
s
Don’t be afraid to get geeky!

23. s
s
e
n er
rt
a it
Hw
T
Publicise your updates

24. Replace the red with the URL
you want to direct people to
A HREF=quot;mywebpage.htmlquot;My Web Page/A
Replace the blue with the words
you want people to click on
Learn some really basic HTML - you can do it :)

25. i
t
a
r
o
n
h
c
e
T
Track your own popularity

26. Go
An o
gl
al
e
yt
ic
s
Embed Google Analytics code in your blog
Statistics heaven!

27. ot
he
r

28. e
l
i
f
o
r
p
Who What Where Why
What do people see when they click on your profile?

29. Fire
fox
Avoid Internet Explorer and Safari :(

30. g
n
i
r
e
t
l
i
F
Don’t believe everything you hear about Schoolzone
and Watchdog. Your IT person can sort most stu that
is being blocked. Talk to your principal.

31. Dorothy Burt
Rea
d Mo
Abo re
ut i
t!
I am slowly creating posts expanding on these ideas at
http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com