Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class. For our final exam we are writing a series of blogs for a fictional company, Lake Onondaga Vineyard, a new wine company. The following post does not refer to any company past or present, and is entirely fictional.

Lake Onondaga Vineyard would like to off the following online sponsorship opportunities to prospective advertisers.  We are seeking sponsorships from companies with a good reputation in our community and especially those who promote environmental friendly sustainable practices in their businesses.  We will especially focus on working with the entities closest to us (e.g. Destiny USA retailers, the New York State Fair, Amory Square retailers, etc.) to find other high-end business partners that would benefit from an association with us and our products and services. By highlighting the products and events of other nearby shops and attractions, we hope to encourage our customers to extend their stay and visit our French Restaurant and Bed & Breakfast.

1. Banner Advertisements

We would like to offer advertisers the opportunity to purchase impression-based advertisements (a.k.a. banner ads) on our blogsite.  We will accept ads which are in good taste from companies which have a good reputation in our community and offer products and services with a similar reputation.  We offer standard industry sizes banner ads on our website and blog from 300 x 100 up to 300 x 600 on the sides of our web pages, or for an additional fee, a 728 x 90 banner at the top of our site.

2. Sponsored Editorial posts

We would like to offer the opportunity for advertisers to sponsor specific content on our sites.  We will run a monthly “editorial” feature showcasing our products and services in conjunction with other Central New York businesses usually with a discount tie-in.  For example, we would work with a local grocery store to pair one of our wines with a seasonal  meal.  Our editorial could feature recipes for the individual ingredients which make up the meal and we would offer a discount on our wine to those who purchase the meal ingredients at the grocery store featured.  Our bed & breakfast may work with individual stores in “Destiny USA” or Onondaga county to highlight them in our editorial and offer special coupons to those staying with us that month and shopping at the particular store.  Our French restaurant will participate annually in the Taste of Syracuse festival, and we will want to offer them a special editorial for the month of May in order to cross-promote the festival and our presence there. Similarly in August, we should see if the New York State Fair would be willing to sponsor an editorial to align with our sponsorship of a booth at the fair selling our wine and French cuisine.  We should also reach out to the sponsors of other events at the State Fairgrounds (e.g. The Annual Garden Show, Boat Show, RV show, etc.)  In all cases, we will make it clear to our readers that these specific posts were sponsored by the advertiser and we will retain editorial control.  The sponsor will receive a “product placement” in our editorial; their advertisements will appear on the editorial page as well as signage indicating that they are sponsoring this page.

3. Site Sponsorship

We will also allow complete site sponsorship where the advertiser will have a branded skin around the content of our website.  Since this would impact the entire site, we will want to be especially careful by choosing advertisers who have products closely related to ours, but are not direct competitors.  We will also want to work with them to develop additional specialty content and offers that benefit the sales of both companies.  For example, we could work with specialty chocolate and/or cheese companies to use their products at our wine tastings and integrate the advertising of this into the site sponsorship skin.

4.  Online Coupons

Besides the coupons we offer with the tie ins to companies which sponsor editorials or our blogsite above, we will also offer to promote coupons for specific services and products offered by companies who are interested.  For example, a company may not want to pay for sponsoring an editorial or the entire site, but might be willing to allow us to post a coupon that would offer a discount on their product.   We could make this a win-win for them by only taking a commission on customer purchases that use the coupon.  Consequently, it costs them nothing unless a customer actually redeems the coupon.  We should contact other high end retailers which would be interested in this option.  Stores in the destiny usa mall offer a good place to start due to their proximity and the opportunity for customers to use our shuttle bus service to get to and from the mall.  We can advertise  these savings opportunities when they come to our wine tastings, visit our restaurant, and stay at our Bed & Breakfast.

5. Affiliate Program

We want to offer an affiliate program to anyone who will link to our webstore from their websites.  Any purchases which result  in a purchase on our site will earn a commission for the referring site.  Our webstore sells wine delivered to states which allow it, gift cards for our French Restaurant and the Bed & Breakfast, as well as merchandise bearing our corporate logo and wine brands.

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class. For our final exam we are writing a series of blogs for a fictional company, Lake Onondaga Vineyard, a new wine company. The following post does not refer to any company past or present, and is entirely fictional.

*** Our Sincere Apologies to the Dutch Community ***

As you have probably heard, the CEO and owner of Lake Onondaga Vineyard, Brigitte Sarkozy, insulted the Dutch population in an interview published in the Syracuse Daily Tribune today.  We are extremely sorry and apologize profusely for her comments.  She would like to sincerely apologize to the Dutch community in Syracuse and around the world for her remarks.  Within the hour Brigitte will be holding a joint press conference with the President of the Central New York Dutch Benevolent Society to personally apologize to the Dutch community.  In the meantime, she has provided a written apology:

I am truly sorry for the terrible, vulgar remarks that I made yesterday regarding the Dutch.  I apologize to my Dutch friends, neighbors, and acquaintances;  I apologize to the Syracuse Dutch community; I apologize to the global Dutch community for my ignorant and bigoted remarks.  I am sincerely sorry for their hateful message and I will do my best to make up for them.  I have agreed to work with the Central New York Dutch Benevolent Society donating 200 hours of community service to further their causes.  Additionally, I will be making a personal contribution of $20,000 to their scholarship fund which provides annual scholarships to Central New York residents of Dutch descent.  Again, I am truly sorry and ashamed for my spiteful words and ask for your forgiveness as I seek to make amends to the Dutch community in Central New York and at large.

Lake Onondaga Vineyard is an equal opportunity employer.  We do not discriminate based on gender, religion, race, or sexual orientation.  As a company we are also extremely sorry for Brigitte’s remarks and want to work to rebuild our relationship with the Dutch community; consequently, we are taking the following steps:

1. In addition to Brigitte’s personal donation, we will make a matching $20,000 contribution to the Central New York Dutch Benevolent Society’s scholarship fund.  We will also double our match of any employee contributions to the Central New York Dutch Benevolent society for the rest of the year.

2. All members of the Central New York Dutch Benevolent Society will receive 50% off coupons on all products and services offered by Lake Onondaga Vineyard including wine at our vineyard, a meal at our French restaurant, and a stay at our Bed & Breakfast.

Again, we are sincerely sorry and offer our heartfelt apologies to the Dutch community.

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class. For our final exam we are writing a series of blogs for a fictional company, Lake Onondaga Vineyard, a new wine company. The following post does not refer to any company past or present, and is entirely fictional.

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been trading blogposts and comments.  Here’s a chance to get to know me better.  In my video blog I’ll tell you how I became interested in wine and give you my advice on picking the right wine for you.  Please feel free to tell me about your favorite wine and how you discovered it.

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class. For our final exam we are writing a series of blogs for a fictional company, Lake Onondaga Vineyard, a new wine company. The following post does not refer to any company past or present, and is entirely fictional.

August is one of the hottest months of the year, so it’s a good time to sit outside in the shade by the lake and feel the cool breezes wafting over you while you enjoy a cold glass of Lake Onondaga Vineyard wine. Here’s why you should come visit us this month:

1. Our Wine

When the early French settlers came to Lake Onondaga in the 17th century, they brought their wine making expertise with them. Today the remnants of their vineyards are still producing the best grapes and wine in Central New York. At Lake Onondaga Vineyard, we continue the ancient art of fine French wine making, utilizing the same proven techniques used for centuries. We have a variety of fine white and red dry wines as well as select sweet dessert wines.

Our 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is now available for purchase. It tastes like a serious dry red wine from Southern France, yet it’s made right here on the shores of Lake Onondaga.  It has dark intense colors that will tempt your eye and warm aromas of sandalwood, cassis, and black raspberry that will awaken your olfactory glands.  The taste of the black fruits offer a deep sweet richness with stony notes that carry into a long finish. It’s rated 91 Points by the Wine Advocate and retails for under $20. To celebrate there will be a free wine tasting open to the public from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays from now until the end of September.  Mention that you saw it on our blog and we’ll give you $5 off your first bottle.

2. Our French Restaurant, Le Restaurant d’Onondaga de lac

After an afternoon of wine tasting, feel free to join us for dinner at our new French Restaurant, Le Restaurant d’Onondaga de lac. We have indoor and outdoor dining overlooking beautiful Lake Onondaga. Come for dinner and choose from our fabulous menu entrees: Steak au poivre, Blanquette de veau, Coq au vin or one of many others paired with our famous Lake Onondaga wine; stay for dessert and try the Chocolate Souffle or Crème brûlée while watching the sun set over the lake for a beautiful end to your day. Call us at 1-888-LAC-WINE for reservations.  We are offering 2 for 1 dining in August for diners seated prior to 5:30 p.m. who mention this post.

3. Our Bed & Breakfast

After dinner why not stay the night at our cozy, but modern Bed & Breakfast next door? We have comfy beds and more beautiful views of Lake Onondaga out your window. Our French chef will prepare you an amazing breakfast each morning and a complementary bottle of our wine is yours to enjoy during your stay or take home with you. Call us at 1-888-LAC-WINE for reservations and turn your wine tasting trip into an elegant weekend with us.  Mention this blogpost and save $20 a  night off the regular room rate.

4. Destiny USA

With all the money you’ve saved on our special August offers, you’ll have extra money to shop.  The former Carousel Mall has just completed a recent expansion and been renamed “Destiny USA“.  It is now the second largest shopping mall complex in the United States and provides unparalleled shopping, entertainment, and dining for all ages. If you tire of sipping our wine and gazing at the beautiful views of Lake Onondaga, take our complementary shuttle bus over to Destiny USA and you’ll be able to “shop till you drop” and soothe your inner shopper.

5. The New York State Fair (August 23 through September 3, 2012)

The Great New York State Fair runs daily from August 23rd through September 3rd this year and it’s just a mile from Lake Onondaga Vineyard. With any purchase from our wine shop, restaurant, or bed & breakfast, we’ll provide complementary shuttle service to and from the fair. Once there you’ll find entertainment, food, competitions, the midway, and much, much, more.

We want to know why you visit us.  Do you come for the wine? The French Food?  An overnight visit?  Do you have any other nearby attractions you like to take in when you come to visit us?  Leave us a comment below and we’ll enter your name in our drawing for a free bottle of wine.

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class. For our final exam we are writing a series of blogs for a fictional company, Lake Onondaga Vineyard, a new wine company.  The following post does not refer to any company past or present, and is entirely fictional.

Welcome to the Lake Onondaga Vineyard blog!  We’d like to introduce ourselves and get to know you as well.

History

The Central New York Fingerlakes region has always been known for its ability to support the growth of fine vineyards. When the early French settlers came to Lake Onondaga in the 17th century, they brought their wine making expertise with them. Today the remnants of their vineyards are still producing the best grapes and wine in Central New York. At Lake Onondaga Vineyard, we continue the ancient art of fine French wine making, utilizing the same proven techniques used for centuries. We have a variety of fine white and red dry wines as well as select sweet dessert wines. Stop by our vineyard and cellar and try them today!

Location

We are centrally located on the Southern shores of beautiful Lake Onondaga so that anyone in Onondaga County can reach us with less than a 20 minute drive. We’re also just 5 minutes from downtown Syracuse and conveniently located off of I690 Exit 6 near the New York State fairgrounds.  Just turn left on Vineyard drive and proceed west 1/2 mile to the end.

We are proud to announce that our 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is now available for purchase.  It tastes like a serious dry red wine from Southern France.  It’s dark intense colors will tempt the eye and its warm aromas of sandalwood, cassis, and black raspberry will engage your olfactory glands.  The taste of the black fruits will offer a deep sweet richness with stony notes that carry into a long finish.  It’s rated 91 Points by the Wine Advocate.  To celebrate there will be a free wine tasting open to the public from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sundays from now until the end of September.

French Restaurant, Le Restaurant d’Onondaga de lac

After an afternoon of wine tasting, feel free to join us for dinner at our new French Restaurant, Le Restaurant d’Onondaga de lac. We have indoor and outdoor dining overlooking beautiful Lake Onondaga.  Come for dinner and choose from our fabulous menu entrees: Steak au poivre, Blanquette de veau, Coq au vin or one of many others paired with our famous Lake Onondaga wine;  stay for dessert and try the Chocolate Souffle or Crème brûlée  while watching the sun set over the lake for a beautiful end to your day. Call us at 1-888-LAC-WINE for reservations.

Lake Onondaga Bed & Breakfast
After dinner why not stay the night at our cozy, but modern Bed & Breakfast next door?  We have comfy beds and more beautiful views of Lake Onondaga out your window. Our French chef will prepare you an amazing breakfast each morning and a complementary bottle of our wine is yours to enjoy during your stay or take home with you. Call us at 1-888-LAC-WINE for reservations.

If you’ve tried our wine, restaurant, or Bed & Breakfast, we’d like to hear from you. How was your visit and what were your highlights? Is there anything we can improve upon?

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class; the assignment has the following parts: 1) Identify the three statistics that are most important in growing your audience, 2) Identify tools and statistics we will track to improve these numbers, and 3)  Identify one statistic that highlights an issue or problem for our blog’s growth & develop a possible solution.

Identify three statistics that are most important to growing your blog audience.

1. Traffic Stats – Pageviews by Blog post

To me as a beginning blogger, the number of pageviews that I receive for each post is a simple yet important statistic for me.  This statistic allows me to see which of my posts attracted the most views.  I can then analyze that post and see what “lessons learned” I can carry over to future posts in order to attract more traffic.  For example, the post which has attracted the most pageviews so far is my Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe post, but I will need to do some deeper analysis to determine what made this post receive more traffic than the others.  Perhaps, I did a better job of setting up my categories or tags on this post or perhaps it was the specific content of the post.

2. Search Engine Terms

Search engine terms tell me what key words people entered into Google or another search engine site that drove them to my site.  Going back to my Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe post example, I can see that all of the extra “hits” to this post (compared to me other posts) came from people searching on terms similar to “buffalo chicken dip”; consequently, I can tell that people were attracted by the recipe itself and not my introduction recounting the origin of buffalo chicken wings or from my tags which weren’t highly specific.  This might lead me to post other favorite recipes if I can reconcile this type of post with the overall theme of my blog.  Or….. maybe I should start a food blog instead of a running blog.

3. Social Media Shares

The number of social media shares will be an important measurement for me.  Posting a link to my blog via my social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) when I make new blogposts is one of the easiest ways to attract traffic to my blog.  Hopefully, those who come will want to retweet or reshare my posts.  Recommendations from “trusted agents” is one of the key determinants of sales in the social media age; consequently, it’s important to see that my audience appreciates my content enough to share it with others.  If my content isn’t being shared, then I know something is wrong and I need to determine what can be done to make my content valuable enough to share with others.

Identify tools and statistics to track and improve my blog’s numbers.

1. WordPress comes with a built in statistics tool.  It shows most of the basic statistics that a beginner would want to track.  It shows pageviews, referrers, search engine terms, top posts, and categories.  I will be interested in tracking the number of page views per day, and per month to see if I am getting more hits on my site.  I will also be tracking the top posts, so that I can try to determine what types of posts my audience is gravitating toward.  I will be watching the referrals and search engine terms to see how people are getting to my site and where they are coming from.

2. Google Analytics

If I don’t feel I’m getting enough information, I will try another statistics tool such as the Google Analytics which would allow me to build my own custom reports.  There is also a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress which would allow me to see these reports within WordPress.

3. Klout, Twitalyzer, and Peerindex

Klout, Twitalyzer, and Peerindex are tools that attempt to rate a person’s social media influence. Twitalyzer will produce a score based on the number of followers, references and citations of me, how often I’m retweeted, how often I retweet, and the relative frequency of my posts. It can also display my scores from Klout and Peerindex as well. The Klout score attempts to measures my influence across major social media sites. The Peerindex rating is a measure of my online authority or social capital that I have built up on the web.  Although these ratings can be manipulated, and therefore make it difficult to truly compare one user’s influence to another’s, they can be useful in tracking your relative influence over time.  I will use them to track my (hopefully growing) social media influence month by month.

4. Voice of the Customer Tools

OpinionLab, SurveyMonkey, and Zoomerang (now owned by SurveyMonkey) are examples of tools that could be used to survey readers and solicit their opinions on how what types of postings they are interested in and how to improve my blog.  At this point, I  need to focus on increasing the size of my reader base.  I don’t have a large enough reader base to produce a sample size which would ensure reliable survey results; nevertheless, I hope to use this type of tool in the future to directly solicit reader input and improve my blog (and pageviews).

Identify one statistic you see as an issue for your blog and what you can do about it.

Right now just increasing my pageviews is my primary issue. Fortunately, there are lots of things I can do about it.  Here is where I need to start:
1. Post consistently and regularly several times per week.

Anecdotally, my traffic seems to increase if I post regularly several days in a row. A 2011 study by some Standford graduate students who ran regression analysis on 100,000 blogs also showed that this was one of the top three ways to increase pageviews.  Consistently putting out content on a regular schedule encourages readers to expect your posts and encourages them to keep coming back.

2. Write as to encourage comments.

The same Stanford study showed that the best blogs encouraged a dialog with their readers.  This created a back and forth between the blogger and the readers which led to more comments and more page views.  More comments led others to post, creating a virtuous cycle of more comments, followed by more pageviews, and additional comments.

3. Make it easy to follow.

The study also found that making the “follow” widget as visible as possible, made it more likely to be selected.  This led to more return visits and more pageviews.

4. Promote new blogposts on social media.

Once I complete a blogpost there’s no reason not to let others know about it.  Since I already have Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts, I can easily share my posts with people who already know me and would have a potential inclination to read what I write.

Note: This is a blog post for my IST 600 Blogging for Information Professionals class; I have not received a Request For Proposal (RFP) from Apple wanting to advertise on my site although I would be happy to receive one.  In this assignment we are to respond with suggested advertising opportunities on our site.

With a target audience of recreational runners, we are large consumers of music and potentially iBooks.  Although some more “serious” runners may eschew listening to music while running, the recreational runners who are our target audience commonly use smart phones and iPods while running.  A recent survey by RockMyRun, found that of those who run while listening to music, 40% used smart phones and 59% used iPods; consequently, our readers are frequent customers of Apple products.

1. Sponsored technology & running  posts – twice a month

We would like to offer the opportunity for Apple to sponsor content on our sites.  We run a  semi-monthly feature on our site showcasing new technologies that runners may be interested in.  We feel this would be a good fit with Apple products, where we could review a new device or app and point out features of interest to the running community.  We would make it clear to our readers that these specific posts were sponsored by Apple.

2. iBooks tie-in

We are currently working on several iBook titles related to running and technology that we would like to sell through iTunes and your iBooks App.  We believe that these iBooks will be hit with our readers and become “best sellers” for Apple in iTunes as well.  In addition, each month we review a book on running.  We would like to to link to the book in iTunes and have it featured prominently in the iBooks App for our readers.

3. Coupon code for discounts on Nike+ sensor shoes and iPod/iPhones used as personal training devices

We feel that Apple’s partnership with Nike, which sells iPods and iPhones as personal training devices in conjunction with Nike+ running shoes with built in sensors, is a product that our blog’s audience would love to purchase.  On our blogsite, we would like to offer  coupon codes and a link to Apple and Nike’s website stores that would allow our readers to receive $20 off a pair of Nike+ running shoes (with sensors that communicate with Apple devices) or $50 off a purchase of a new Apple device (i.e. iPod, iTouch, or iPhone) when made at the same time as a Nike+ shoe purchase.

4. Banner Advertisements

We would like to offer Apple the opportunity to purchase impression-based advertisements (a.k.a. banner ads) on our blogsite.  We will accept ads for all Apple products.  We offer standard industry sizes from 300 x 100 up to 300 x 600 on the sides of our blog, or for an additional fee, a 728 x 90 banner at the top of our blogsite.

5. iTunes Affiliate Program

We would like to become a member of Apple’s iTunes Affiliate program.  Because our readers are avid music and audio book listeners, we believe we can drive a decent amount of volume to the iTunes store.  Each week we will feature the “running tune” of the week and link our customers to the Apple iTunes site to purchase it.