Blog Development Plan
March 16th, 2008To take Infectious Disease Blog to the next level, I’ve come up with a multi-platform strategy to increase readership while still maintaining the loyal readers I gained throughout this quarter.
1. PARTNERSHIP
I’d like to link to science publications to increase my traffic. I freelance for C
COSMOS is the biggest-selling Australian science magazine. Cosmos Online publishes stories from the magazine and has a high proportion of original content. As
Sara Phillips, former Deputy Editor of COSMOS and the editor of G magazine, once told me that COSMOS is a “friendly publication.” With that phrase she meant that COSMOS tries to write articles that anyone could understand. It’s something the general public can understand.
Phillips’ words echoed through my head when I started writing this blog. I wanted to write in a “friendly” style so that anyone from a research scientist to a family member could understand what I had to say. I think I’ve stayed with this mission, and will continue with my general public-appeal so as not to exclude my readers without a scientific background.
I think my approach has worked thus far. One survey respondent, a female science buff in her 50s, said:
“I really enjoy reading your site because it is simplified in a way I can understand. Good work!”
2. EDITORIAL CHANGES
When I began this blog, I focused mostly on disease outbreaks, emerging infectious diseases and advancements in research. However, as I monitored my online performance with Google Analytics, I observed that news about events and people in the scientific community generated the most page views. Also, information about weird, rare diseases enticed readers to leave comments.
In the survey, one male science student in his 20s said:
“I’m really big on the weird diseases and the ones that could destroy humanity. I’m not so interested, though, in the diseases that are already overhyped in the media such as MRSA and avian flu.”
I examined my categories of blog posts. In the survey, I asked readers to rank the categories in which they were most interested. Here are the most popular categories:
- Influenza
- Outbreaks
- Weird Diseases
When I asked my survey respondents to tell me what they would like to read more about, almost every person said they’d like to read more about outbreaks. Closely behind in second place, readers also wanted to read more about prevention measures.
As one reader, a female infectious disease patient in her 50s, said in the survey:
“Prevention is the only cure for most of these new re-emerging diseases, anything that will inform the public is great.”
As mentioned in my overview, here’s a list of new topics my readers would like to learn about, according to the results of my survey:
- Ongoing research of particular diseases that appear to be close to a cure
- Breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals
- Foodborne illnesses
- Ebola
- Encephalitis
- Dengue fever
3. ORIGINAL CONTENT AND MULTIMEDIA
After I posted my audio interview with an expert and later my how-to video, I noticed a marked increase in page views. While most of my blog posts link to outside content and analyze articles and blog posts, I’d like to create more original content.
Presenting my original material in the form of multimedia could be a great way to attract new readers. The data from my survey backs this up:
- 71 percent readers want to see more interviews with experts
- 57 percent would like to watch more videos
- 43 percent would like to hear more audio clips
I’d like to meet this goal by producing at least one video and one audio interview with an expert per month. In the beginning, I could make a video one week, then two weeks later I could post an audio interview. Once I get into the groove of this, I hope produce multimedia at a greater rate. Depending on how readers respond to my original multimedia projects, I may produce multimedia a couple times a week.
4. ONLINE DISCUSSION
While people have commented on my blog, I haven’t been able to generate an ongoing discussion. Part of the problem is that there’s nowhere to do that, unless if people post comments back and forth.
To facilitate a running conversation, I’d like to add forums where readers can exchange ideas. I’d like the forums to match the categories I blog about. I think the prevention forum would generate a lot of discussion, as that’s a topic readers expressed interest in when they filled out my survey. Another forum could be for patients and survivors of infectious diseases. I realize that some of my readers have the diseases that I write about, so I’d like to give them a place to discuss issues they may have. I hope that this will encourage more infectious disease patients to participate in my blog community.
5. FACEBOOK
Looking to another social networking community, such as Facebook, may be an effective way for me to gain readers. I’ve gotten a handful of referrals to my site from Facebook. With all the new applications popping up on Facebook, there’s got to be one that applies to infectious diseases.
Sure enough, a Facebook application called iVaccinated was started by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to Facebook:
iVaccinated is an Official Facebook Application brought to you by the CDC to help spread awareness regarding the flu.
Add this application and spread the word. Let friends, family and everyone know the importance of getting the flu vaccine this season. For more information check out the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
If this application were to provide links to helpful influenza Web sites, I could try to get Infectious Disease Blog added to the list. Influenza is one of the topics I write most about. iVaccinated members could click on my blog to catch up on the news surrounding influenza and the latest vaccine updates.