We are looking for volunteers to be a part of the blog/web team. Note: You do not need to be centrally located to be part of this team. Particularly if you live far away (such as Tarpon Springs or Sarasota), this might be a good way to participate more fully in the chapter.

We need about 8 members on this team. The positions are broken down as follows:

Blogger authors (4 needed)

Blogger authors post content relevant to technical writing on a regular basis. Anyone in the chapter can post content, but we need some dedicated blogger authors to post content regularly, meaning one post a week. The post can be about anything — an interesting article you read, a question you have, a technical tip, some innovative thoughts, the latest news from the STC, and so on. The key is to be able to start conversations and keep the site current with information relevant to technical writers. We need 4 dedicated blogger authors.

Information Hierarchy Specialist

Organizing the information on a website is a challenge, especially with blogs because the information pours in at such a rapid rate. Information overload can clutter a site and make it impossible to find the right content. As the information hierarchy specialist, your job will be to analyze the best layout for the site, helping present the information intuitively and in easy-to-find ways. You do not have to do any coding — just analysis.

Article Aggregator

The article aggregator will be responsible for pulling in the most relevant tech writing content in the field. The article aggregator keeps on top of selected newsletters from other chapters, online magazines, STC news, forum postings, and RSS feeds from other tech writer blogs. When you find an article you think would be of interest to chapter members, you post a link to it along with a brief excerpt (or repost the content entirely, with permission). As the article aggregator, you should post at least once a week.

Listserv Manager

The listserv manager ensures all chapter members have their current emails on the listserv. You monitor bounces, delivered messages, and ensure that the confirmation message is informative and helpful. You create separate listservs for the different chapter teams, and develop a deeper understanding of how the listserv software works.

Hit Tracker

The hit tracker looks at what users are hitting the site, where, and how. Through several hit tracking tools — Google Analytics, StatCounter, and Performancing — you will analyze the site’s hit traffic and determine what pages are most popular on the site, what pages are “exit” and “entrance” pages, and analyze keyword hits. By analyzing the site traffic, you will make suggestions on fine tuning the site according to hit popularity.

*If you are interested in volunteering for any of these positions, even tentatively, send me an e-mail at thj@tampabay.rr.com.