Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery blog Wine and winery related adventures in Eastern Pennsylvania – visit us and stay overnight at our luxury Inn and Spa PowerPoint and voice presentation Drexel University – Summer Term 2009 Electronic Publishing COM 335-950 Professor Evangelista

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Selection of Blog Software Selected a hosted blog service. It is my intent to migrate to a non-hosted blog service over time, however, since this is my preliminary attempt at blogging, gaining familiarity with the important aspects of blog writing and basic design was of primary importance presently. Chose WordPress.com, which is free, has options for attractive templates, allows for tags and categories, allows for photo, video and music uploading, offers basic tracking and statistics capabilities, has spam protection through ASKIMET, and offers some basic customization. WordPress.com auto-saves as the blogger is writing, which saved me significant time and effort more than once as I navigated away from the blog posting page. WordPress.con provides complete XML export of all posts and comments which makes migrating my blog to a third party software program more convenient.

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery General Design Focus Naming the Blog and the URL consistently and with meaningful, memorable terms Professional appearance, natural colors, simple design, clean fonts Interesting, high quality content based upon anticipated target audience of wine enthusiasts, people who entertain, and regional adventurers Easy primary and secondary navigation Build confidence and credibility No advertising (at least initially) Use of images or photographs to enhance communication of moods and concepts with readers

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Significant Sections of the Blog Header: including navigation, tag line, RSS feed subscription Content Area: including images, font, headings, links, comments Sidebar/Widgets Footer: to be added at a future date, perhaps with secondary navigation links to popular posts, recent posts, additional contact links and so forth. Currently, I have not be able to edit the HTML on the template I am using, and therefore, could not find a way to add HTML to customize the footer. Advertisements: elected to avoid advertisements at this time. Possible sponsored posts in the future, or product offerings from our own product line, or high quality products which are related to wines and entertaining in the future.

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery The Overall Appearance of My Blog – Home Page

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Header Considerations Verbal identification of the business/blog name Pictorial depiction of business theme intended to evoke an emotion and interest in the reader Easy access to RSS feed subscriptions for posts and/or comments Easy Navigation tabs allowing for expansion over time Readily accessible Search bar for secondary navigation Tag line with brief description about the nature of the business behind the blog Visually appealing Clean, uncluttered appearance

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Content Area Considerations Easy to read Minimal distractions Clear Blog Post headings matching color scheme of the main header Photograph or image to provide visual marker and interest and to evoke a mood which may further interest the viewer to read the post White background with minimal colors to focus on words and images

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Content Area Considerations Link colors are consistent with Header and Headings so that they pop out but are not distracting Comments box opens for easy reply, and commentator has the option to indicate an interest in being notified by email in the case of follow-up comments Another RSS subscription option for comments

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Sidebar Area Considerations Gravatar with light and friendly introduction to the blogger and a photo to evoke an emotion. The photograph selected shows our proximity to a notable topographic and geographic landmark, the Delaware Water Gap BlogRoll listing out interesting blogs or related blogs. This list will grow over time and the goal is for my blog to be added to other peoples’ BlogRolls Recent Posts to allow for quick overview by readers of most recent posts Archives are also listed to provide for future searchability Flexibility to add more sidebar widgets at a later date

Stonehenge Vineyard and Winery Conclusions Current Blog design is adequate in terms of appearance and widgets and accomplishes my initial goals as it relates to professional appearance, ease of use and basic functionality. I already see some of the shortcomings associated with “canned” templates. There are other templates that allow for greater customization, but overall, I anticipate moving my blog to another host, perhaps WordPress.org, to achieve greater flexibility. Lots of work left in terms of customization, expanding BlogRoll, focusing on incoming links, upgrading quality of content, and improving writing style before major efforts to improve the following on my blog. I would like to introduce advertising at a later date, but may limit advertising to sponsored posts or selling products and items from “our own store” rather than from third parties.