Thoughts on my new blog? Ideas please

05 May 07 4:25 am

Thoughts on my new blog? Ideas please

I have mentioned before on the forum that I am looking at putting up some Greek themed blogs. The first of these will be a free Greek Language site, unlike any of the others out there in that it is an absolute primer. The Greek alphabet will not be taught by rote but will be learned indirectly through exposure to Greek words that have close English derivatives or which closely approximate the sound of the English word. For example the English transliteration of the Greek word for 'pen' is 'penna'.

Research to date has revealed that though the niche is fairly small it is rather targeted. It's really just a matter of 'giving it a go' and seeing where it leads to.

The general idea is have students up to speed on about 300 words and fully conversant with the alphabet before I make recommendations on more advanced fully structured paid language sites. As an affiliate I would receive a commission on signups to these sites and I'd also have my blog Adsense optimized.

I intend acquiring a new domain and hosting in on my existing Baby Hostgator account. The blog would be set up as either a subdomain or an appendage to a subdomain, probably the latter; as I will be extending my feelers out to other aspects of Greek culture.

I am looking to structure the blog as follows:

- Main page. This provides a general introduction to the course and explains how the material has been well tested and proved effective in tutoring out two young sons, whose mother is Greek. It also develops the premise that Greek can be most easily learned by starting of with similar-sounding English words.
The page will be enhanced by a couple of Greek scenic shots to develop the mood and keywords will be monetized, ie have links to Greek language sites. That means those who don't opt for the primer will perhaps click on one of my affiliate links anyway and sign up on one of the other courses.

I would also like to have a demo audio/visual available on the page, something along the lines of that on the main page of this site ...

http://www.unforgettablelanguages.com/frames_a15.html

with similar format but of course different content.
Taking the word 'pen' for example the English transliteration of the Greek 'penna' would be shown and the word spoken aloud, for as many times as the student wants to repeat the exercise. When they click on the 'Next' button the transliteration would be replaced by the actual Greek word 'πεννα'. Ι have not bothered here with accents. Again - the Greek word can be repeated for as long as the student wants. You can see here that the ' ε' is very similar to the English 'e' and the 'α' is the same as in English. One doesn't need to be too bright to see what the other Greek letters are in English. This is the basis of learning both the alphabet and the new words.

Sorry this post is such a long one ... your thoughts please on what I've written so far and especially on the audio/visual set-up. I have just downloaded FreeSWF audio but don't know yet if it will fit the bill. Does anyone else have any other suggestions? Free software if at all possible.
On the 'Lessons' pages I will probably also have a graphic where possible depicting the word spoken ... Clipart or whatever.

If someone could give me some feedback it would be much appreciated. I will summarize the rest of the proposed site layout in my next post.

Thanks ...

Cheers

Dale