Image courtesy of Fabiola Medeiros.
I organized the project so that it wouldn’t require large blocks of time… However, there’s still a lot to keep track of!Here are some of the basic daily & weekly tasks:
Report on the previous question (20 minutes/day, 10 hours total)
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Close comments.
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Note the question, site visits, # of responses, and any interesting comments.
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The first 3 weeks, I chose comments arbitrarily and posted a link to the author.
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This last week, I used a “rate this comment” plugin so you could choose the cool comments instead.
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Find interesting links that relate to the topic.
Post a new question (30 minutes/day, 15 hours total)
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Think of a question.
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Create a new post and assign the categories (”significant” or “insignificant” and “questions”).
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Draw a picture or find a photo, upload to site.
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Publish the post.
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Add my own response to the question.
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Edit the post in case links weren’t showing up correctly.
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Contact someone when they’re the first to comment, to get their question for the next day.
Maintain record of visitors (estimated 2 hours total)
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Record daily users & their email addresses.
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Compile a “master list” of email addresses (to be used only for Human Census communication).
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Create & update “contact group” in gmail.
Communicate with users (estimated 5 hours total)
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Contact new users individually when they first comment on the site.
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Send regular emails: 1 intro invitation was sent, and 2 “updates” were sent during Week 1 & 3.
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Create a master email, revise every other week.
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Include new stats & updates.
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Edit email for being spam-like– try to make it an email I wouldn’t mind getting.
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Send a test email to my gmail & hotmail accounts, use”bcc” so email addresses are kept secure.
Marketing Efforts (estimated 15 hours total)
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Posted a blurb on “LinkedIn Question & Answers”.
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Posted the question daily on my FaceBook “posted notes” section (audience of 74) and Twitter (audience of 26).
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Emailed Seth Godin for marketing tips, got a helpful response back.
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Sent email invitation to 40 personal contacts a few days into the project.
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Using images & photos to catch readers’ interest more quickly.
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Vote on your favorite (or most un-favorite!) comments.
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Published secret posts for readers to find.
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The first reader to comment on a question gets to ask the next day’s question.
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Add a HumanCensus Gadget on your iGoogle Homepage.
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Add our RSS feed.
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Get a daily email of the new question
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Included “Know someone with a good answer? Email them this link” in each post.
Setting Up & Maintaining The Site (estimated 10 hours)
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Set up free WordPress blog
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Add blog
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Change permalink structure
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Add widgets
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Delete blogroll & “Hello World!” post
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Add RSS feed
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Move site to humancensus.com
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Change name servers
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Install WordPress on new hosting account
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Export old blog posts
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Import blog posts to the new site
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Set up Google Analytics
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Change RSS Feed
Total Time: 57 hours*
(*This is probably underestimated by about 20-30 hours or so. But it’s close enough. 
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