All Weblogs Are Not Created Equal: Analyzing What Works

In April 2005, the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden launched its fourth weblog, Botany Photo of the Day. This photograph-driven weblog ("photoblog") is used to promote and interpret the garden's collections; educate and advocate on issues of biodiversity, conservation and science literacy; and blend two traditionally disparate concepts: beauty and science. Botany Photo of the Day can be credited with contributing much of the over 100% increase in monthly unique site visitors to the garden's Web site in a year to year comparison. A number of improvements were made in this iteration of UBC Botanical Garden's experimentation with weblogs, and these techniques and strategies serve as an example that can be used in other institutional weblogs.