Ignoring my own plan

I came at this whole project with the intent of doing things in stages, with x amount of reviews set as a bench mark before moving forward. Yet, I think I have ignored every intention to date.

First, I wanted to write a review for each genre, all on my own, before making the site live and before taking on other reviewers. That didn't happen. I ended up making the site live so when I presented it class it was the real deal. Though, mat the time it was mostly a mock of a site, or a wire model of one, it was live.

I wanted ten reviews posted before launching a Facebook page. I had seven.

I wanted two reviews in each genre before looking into affiliate programs. I think I posted my first advertisement banner two reviews ago. Now granted, that is only one banner, but I will still come up short in the next few weeks as I look into adding a banner to each page for iPage and also other programs.

I wanted to wait to have solid following before I started rocking the boat and complicating reviews. You know, as soon as they start feeling complacent with the same old format throw in some more in depth reviews of things that have crossed more then two media plains. Like, a book that is also a movie, another movie, and a video game.

The thing is, I am way too excited about everything this could be and just don't want to wait. Though I know I should really work on gaining content and establishing the site, my mind is already trying to figure out what to do next, how to get more people involved. So, here are some things I'm looking to get done in this next month (gotta get it all sorted out before school starts.)

Commenting: I haven't had the time to sit down and figure out how to do it on the site directly. Honestly, I never might. This may be something I eventually pay a professional for. However, at the tail end of each article is a link directly to where I share the article on Twenty Four Pages Per Second's Facebook page. It is something somewhere. I just hope the threads start on the page and continue there.

Blog: Heidi B. asked if the reviewers could start writing blog posts, to help with having content more regularly then once ever two months. I, personally, think this is a fabulous idea. How we will manage to execute it, is something that needs to be hammered out, but it;s a safe bet that readers will be getting to know more then just me in the future.

Pictures: If you follow us on Facebook, you'll notice a few pics that reflect reviews to come. I really am hoping that there will be more of this to come. However, it seems we really only have one Photoshop Jedi, and between his reviews for Twenty Four Pages Per Second, his own web site, making College students smarter, and entertaining his girlfriend (that's me) he's a busy man. So I can't predict how often we'll get his photoplasties, maybe the rest of us will have to brave the internet and Gimp. Also, in the near future, I hope to prominently have displayed the heads of all the reviewers on their personal bio walls, and yes, I did mean for that to come out that way.

Affiliates: Once this next bunch of reviews are published, I'm going to go head on with the affiliate program idea. What this means, is that each page will have just a bit more than words and the current five colors. Along with banners for iPage, readers will find ads for books, movies, Kindle, and probably Netflix. With these ads will also be disclosure statements, informing readers that we don't  get paid to advertise, nor do we get paid to write opinions about the products we advertise, but we do get paid every time a reader clicks on an add and then makes a purchase. The reader gets the product they want and we get a small part of what they spent. Commerce. A beautiful thing.

Less Reviews More Frequently: Though this next deadline is going to be exempt, Heidi also mentioned staggering the release of the reviews. This is definitely a possibility. With five reviewers on board and two months between each deadline, it is highly feasible to have enough content to release a review every week or so. Maybe stagger it with a blog post. As much as I like putting it all out there at once, I can try my hand at patience. 

Themes: Okay team, I know I haven't officially run this by you, and hadn't planned to until after Deadline #2, but, sticking to the current Deadline schedule we will have Deadlines that fall in October, December and April. Meaning Halloween, Christmas and April Fools (yes, I know there are other months and holidays but I don't care about them like I do these). I don't necessarily want a Horror-athon for October, but I'd love to see stories that include Halloween, or things we like to dress up as for Halloween. I'd like winter or holiday  stories for December, and some smart-ass shenanigans for April Fools. Jonathan B. threw out the idea of taking a really bad movie that wasn't based on a book, and coming up with a "review" like it was. This would encourage us all to flex those creative muscles.

Harry Potter Gang Bang: This is the working title, okay, it isn't the working title at all actually, but Jonathan thinks it is funny. Anyways. I mentioned earlier how I didn't want to muddy up the basic format of the reviews. Well, this wont do that, Jonathan intends to do that for The Thing for Deadine #3. Instead, it would take the same format and apply it to the same book and movie combo as many times as we have reviewers. We all seem to have an attachment with H. Potter, and who could blame us, and it doesn't seem right to only have one person review it, or to have a person only review one of the books. My suggestion is that we all do it. At the same time. I book every six months. The first review to come out in February. But, that's just an idea.

Notes and Stuff

The first deadline for reviews was this past Friday. I am thoroughly impressed that everyone, besides myself, made it. In the future I will not plan deadlines so close to all day outings with school children, that was rough. Still waiting on a few corrections and then all the reviews will be posted. The best part about the first deadline was seeing what I communicated well and not so well to my contributors, not to mention how quickly answers and corrections are made.

A few notes going forward.

Each of the reviews are numbered versus named. Take a look at the URL for each and you will see what I mean. The first number is the number of the review over all, the second is the number in that particular genre. I am keeping  a spread sheet if this information, it also includes the title, date it is posted and the reviewer name. There is a small error with this. Because my spread sheet wasn't pulled all the way to the right, I mixed up the column I use to see which number line I am on with the ones that are preset in the program. So number seven is actually number six and when I get to posting the real number seven it will be labeled six. This information is really for any nerds that are paying attention. And just so it is clear, I use the term lovingly.

My next note is this: It is kind of hard to write a review about a book and movie when you don't have them next to you to reference. My last review was Jumanji. I had borrowed both the book and movie from the library and then tried to do a review after returning them. This was silly. Not that having them in front of me at the time would have added a whole lot of detail to the review, but there is a line or two that may not have been so vague. This is something I will make sure to keep in mind for future reviews. Nothing like just running the movie in the background on my computer and being able to stop/pause or rewind/fast-forward, as often as needed.

Come the end of the week I hope to have Watchmen done, and V for Vendetta is lying in wait to be the second Comic entry, though I need to finish True Grit first. Myself and my fellow reviewers will have to be busy little bees for the following month, I'd like two reviews in each genre before I start affiliate programs. This is a deadline for myself, just so there is a wide range of content available. The next deadline is August 5th and I'm excited to see how much more content can be filled between then and now.

Some Changes

I've made some changes to the first three reviews on the site. Before the changes each review had "by: (reviewer name)" changed it to Reviewed by: (reviewer name) and I added the authors name to the title. This will be carried out through the rest of the reviews posted. Not sure why I didn't include the authors name during the first run, probably just an over sight, but it is fixed now. Also, I will be sure to start adding the year the movie came out to each review. This will be especially important for titles like True Grit which came out in 1969 and 2010, both based on the same book.

I will be playing around with appearance over summer, adjust font and font size, mostly with titles, headings, and author names, not really a fan of them currently, but I'm still trying to muddle through the basics. Also, I'll be looking into how I can integrate links right into the reviews without it throwing off the format. This little issue is why the url to the blog is posted in full instead of a quick link. It would be great to be able to reference another source in a review and give the reader direct access, a lot like what Cracked does within its articles, or this blog for that matter.

I will be playing around with the blog as well. I'd like to incorporate the banner from the web site here to create some continuity, and also adjust the color scheme, at least for the links which seem to want to show up light gray and almost to light to read. I'm also thinking of doing screen shots of the web site and posting them here, mostly to document the progression it has taken, though honestly, a lot has already changed since it was beta (yeah, I'm calling it beta.) I just expect it to change a lot more in the coming months and it would be nice to look back and see what it once was.

So much to write on so little time...

There is no small selection of materials to choose from. There are so many titles and genres that I am surprised my head isn't spinning with all that I want to undertake. Currently, I have True Grit and Watchmen in the works, and I am planning to head on over to the library to commandeer Jumanji for a quick Children's post for the weekend. As much as I want to sit down and start producing content for the site, my mind keeps drifting to other thoughts and ideas, and my time is still taken up with two "real" jobs.

June 15th is the first deadline for submissions and it wont get here fast enough. I am impatiently waiting to read the reviews for The Mist, The Secret Life of Bees and Fight Club, and start rounding out my content. By this deadline I plan to have posted at least two more reviews myself, so Jumanji and either of the other two I am working on.

Then there are the titles that reviewers have taken "dibs" on, like: The Princes Diaries (myself) or Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events and Ella Enchanted (Rachel T.) Bubba Ho-Tep and The Prestige (Jonathan B.). I even got word that there could be a fifth reviewer who would like to take on Les Miserables! As for Heidi B. (wow, there are a lot of B's working on this project, I assure you, we aren't related) though I haven't received anything in regards to titles she wants to do, she has declared her works will be mostly in the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres, but I would like to note, I have interest to do The Shinning. I'm hoping to see some, if not all, of these reviews by the August 5th deadline. Also, I'll have to squeeze in some romance novels, possibly A Walk to Remember and The Notebook.

This is just a sampling of what is to come in the next two months.

Oh wow, just two months?

I better get reading.

Hi! So glad you found your way here.

Hi.

So this is the blog for the web site Twenty Four Pages Per Second. I'm glad that somehow you have found yourself here. Maybe you'll find yourself there (at the web site) and you'll enjoy what we have to offer, or are hoping to offer in the future. Maybe you are already a fan of the site and that is why you are here in the first place, welcome!

For those that are already familiar with the site, you may want to skim if not skip this part, because it will be mostly redundant, then again, maybe you want to revel in my excitement and read on with enthusiasm, just as I keep eating, sleeping, and breathing what I am trying to accomplish here.   

It is thoroughly argued that books are better than movies, and where this is true in a lot of cases, there are plenty of exceptions. Twenty Four Pages Per Second will be a site dedicated to reviewing books, plays, and video games along side all of their movie adaptions. IMDb boasts over 29,000 titles when you use the key words based-on-novel, making the idea for my site no small undertaking. Now granted, that number probably includes a lot of movies that have been made and remade, and titles that aren't printed in English (for now, we are that limited) but that doesn't put a big dent in what is out there to read/play and watch.

Luckily I am not a team of one. Though I had no doubt my partner in crime, Jonathan, would want to participate, I really didn't think I would garner any outside interest to contribute until well after the site was up and running and full of content. However, right out of the gate I had two lovely ladies declare their desire to participate. I am happy to have them both and look forward to seeing what they choose to review and what medium they felt was the better portrayal of the story.

There are a few desires that went into this idea:

First, I want to do something I love. Who doesn't? I can't think of too many better ways to spend my time other than reading, watching movies, or writing. There is just nothing better than escaping into another world, whether I do all the heavy lifting or let the "experts" in Hollywood do it for me. Even better than the reading and watching is discussing it, and I find that I am much more eloquent when I take pen to paper (or in this case fingers to a keyboard.) The only problem with the later is not a whole lot of people can see it, and thus lacks discussion. So this is good opportunity to do all the things I love with as a big of an audience as possible.

Second, I wanted to design my own web site. Everything about the site is my own doing except the logo and background image, those I thank Kim Z. for. The color, font, layout, navigation, content decisions all me. Though the site is up and fully operational, it by no means reflects the work of an expert. However, as this project moves forward I hope to expand my html and css skills and slowly give the site a more polished look.

Third, I wanted to create a thing, a piece of something in this vast world that will be shared with more than my family and friends. Maybe, that is as far as this will ever go. Just a thing that a few people and myself worked on at some point in our lives, but I really hope this will go far beyond me and those on my personal Facebook page.

Looking back to the discussion part of my efforts: At this time there is no place for discussion on the site. This is done for two reasons. Number one being that I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I know that my web host offers software to do it, but eventually I may want to take on the challenge of figuring it out on my own. The number two reason, and really in importance should be number one, I have a life and would like to not have it wasted on taking care of trolls. There will be plenty of people that will post just to press buttons or to spam, and honestly I don't have the time to police the site. This is where the blog and social networking sites come in. Each have their own systems to keep users in check, and as long as those services are free I will be taking advantage of them.

Eventually the site will have advertisements. I will make sure that there is nothing so annoying as the pop-out ones that take over your whole screen because you had the audacity to inadvertently move your mouse over it. I'd also like to point out that these aren't ads that I am being paid up front for. The only way Twenty Four Pages Per Second will be making any revenue is if readers click on the advertisement and make a purchase with one of the companies the site is affiliated with. If you are a fan of the site I'd urge you to remember our links when you do your on-line shopping. Not only will you be getting product that you already intended to buy, but you will be contributing to the longevity of the site and the potential success of Twenty Four Pages Per Second as a brand.

As for the blog, I wanted a better way to interact with any readers that come this way. I place to keep them informed on what is to come. To walk through some of the thought processes behind the site, or the reviews, and to get feedback from those willing to give it. There is still a lot that I am trying to figure out about the site and for now Blogger lets me accomplish one more thing without too much work on my part. Considering how much reading and movie watching I need to start doing, who's going to begrudge me an easy button for the time being?