“How to Start a Successful Blog Today” | The Minimalists.” The Minimalists. N.p., 11 Apr. 2011. Web. Nov. 2015.

The Minimalists are bloggers Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus who write about “living a meaningful life with less stuff”. Their work has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, TODAY, NPR, TIME, Forbes, The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Post. This essay speaks on what it to create a successful blog.

Some of the tips included in the post are how to decide if you are creating the blog for the right reasons (none of them being money, notoriety, and viewer traffic) and recommendations on how to start and maintain a blog. The most helpful information pertained to being transparent while still being interesting.

“The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012. Web. Nov. 2015.

The Forbes article touches on the foundation of personal branding in the professional world. Employers will Google someone before the interview and the digital footprint left is a key part in personal branding. This article focuses on creating and maintaining the best footprint possible.

Some of the ley takeaways are self-promotion and becoming an expert in the field that is being explored. These are some questions that were posed in the article:

• How do I make people feel?
• How do people benefit by working with me?
• What words do others use to describe me?

Cohen, James & Kenny, Thomas. “The Online Personal Brand.” Cohen, James & Kenny, Thomas. Producing New and Digital Media. Burlington: Focal Press, 2016. 220-228. Print.

“The Online Personal Brand” by Cohen and Kenny gives a thorough view on the creation and maintenance of a personal brand. The chapter provides examples using successful blogs and vlogs across different platforms. The entire chapter gives information that will help with the advancement of this project.

The general idea that is given throughout is to be genuine, transparent, and to pay attention to the image that is being promoted. In the particular section about the digital footprint, there will be much emphasis on this information throughout the development of the project.

“26 Tips to Strengthen Your Social Media Marketing.” Social Media Examiner RSS. N.p., 24 Nov. 2014. Web. Nov. 2015.

This particular piece goes into detail on having a strong social media presence. Key points included describing the brand in a way that adds value to the viewers, boosting visibility with plugins, and encouraging blog comments.

This article will be critical in the integration into an already developed community. Getting the blog to my ideal point will require using every tip that was in this piece. While some of the other articles said the same thing, there was little to take from regarding social media.

Reflection:

Going through articles and preparing to dive into the project gave many different prospective into how a brand, blog or any online presence can be elevated. The information available was slightly repetitive but allowed me to shift through everything to get what works best with my particular project. Going forward I will be paying close attention to details being that that is a key point that is stressed throughout.

I will be paying close attention to critical thinking as I go forward because there are many places to fall short in the early stages of this project. This was a good experience and I will be adding more research as I go forward.