Bang for Your Buck or Time

I learned a long time ago as a classroom teacher and web developer...there is no since in wasting time on a media that does not offer a return. So you are probably wondering what I mean by this. If you are spending time as an educator building a classroom website, podcast or vodcast, make sure your time is well spent. You need data to support the hours you invest in one of these tools. If you are spending hours updating your classroom website, but only one or two parents or students are using it...is it worth your time? The same goes for a podcast or vodcast. Both of these tools require large amounts of time from pre-production to the final broadcast. Again, if you only have a few listeners, is it worth it. I don't want to forget to mention that there are hosting costs involved with both of these medias...so you need to know if you are getting your bang for your buck (and time).

Here are two great tips to help you with the process of collecting this data. The first tip is to add Google Analytics to your website. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track information about the visitors that come to your site and how they interact with it. You will not only get the number of visit each day, but where they are from, how long they are on your site and much, much more. In fact, I still don't think I have really taken advantage of all of the features Google Analytics has to offer.

The second tip is to use a podcast hosting service that offers you statistics. Some important features to look for are total all time downloads, daily and monthly downloads, and the download by platform (Where are your listeners getting your podcast/vodcast).

If you would like more information about these tips, please feel free to contact me.