The Correlation Between Search Engine Optimization and Page Views

Page views are important in the world of online writing. Page views account for a large amount of my income being an internet writer. It is to my advantage to utilize search engine optimization (SEO) as much as I can to drive traffic to my articles. SEO also strokes my humble ego. I get a thrill every time I do a search engine search and one of articles appears near the top. Search engines send more readers to my article the closer to the top my article is found on search engines. When more readers read my articles I get more page views. More page views for my articles mean more money in my pocket. The correlation completes a circle as more page views an article receives, the higher the article appears in the search engines.

Interesting link

The NBA Draft

So many choices of what to write about with a lot going on. Even in the NBA, there is he Lakers winning the Championship, Manute Bol passing away which is very sad he was only 47. However, I will stick with the NBA Draft and throw in some suggested plugs to help your draft day.

First I didn't think Washington would get the first round pick when I wrote this article. So, the Wizards have a new owner, the first, the 30th, and 35th picks in the 2010 draft. Welcome to your new team Washington. They might select John Wall, okay they probably will.

DeMarcus Cousins will he be a star or will he flop? He will need some coaches. A top pick but not a safe pick. It should be an interesting draft.

Press Passes

Today I am going to the Brunswick Music Festival, I have been granted Press Passes for the event. Another first for my writing career. Writing career might be a stretch, but it is heading towards that direction. It has definitely moved up from the hobby stretch, and might just the below the part time job, but right about at the right spot to rescue me from some bill or another.

To me it is not all about the money anyway. I am pretty lucky I do get to write about what I want to for the most part. Sometimes it is about the money and I take an assignment for a bigger payout. This year I am making more money with it, but at the same time I am writing a lot more. It is nice to be named a featured contributor, I was named to three this year. It wasn't cool to be rejected, but it made being named one more special because then I knew they weren't automatic and were more of an achievement. It was a big deal when I interviewed Jay A.Turner. Why? Because it was the first time I had interviewed someone. I was able to write something different. I even wrote some poetry, yes they were short Haiku. However, to me that was getting back to where I started writing a long time ago, when I first was published, a writing I didn't share very much since to me it was more personal.

So yes, I know to most journalist getting press passes to an event is no big deal. It is old hat they get them all the time. However, I don't so it is a big deal even if the artists are more regional. However, it is very diverse group a blues band from South Carolina Chocolate Thunder, some old time music, some blue glass, a regional funky blues band in the Kelly Bell Band. Regardless it should be a fun time, if I can avoid heat stroke and frying in the sun as it suppose to be hot and humid.

Beau Torbert Update: June 13, 2010

The Sioux Falls Pheasants are in first pace with a 19-9 record. Beau Torbert leads the American Association in batting average with a  .393 batting average. Beau is third in the league with 9 home runs  and second in RBIs with 31. Beau is second in the Northern Division with a .705 slugging percentage, Beau leads the division in hits with 44, and is third in the division with a .452 on base percentage. All stats are from Pointstreak.com.

Beau is healthy and has not committed an error in 28 games. Beau has 16 put outs and one assist for the season in fielding stats. If Beau keeps this up he should be a contender for another MVP season as long as he stays healthy. Right now his numbers are dominating the league. Will post another Beau update soon.

World Cup Soccer

I didn't get into all the hype for the USA soccer team in the 2010 World Cup. However, a tie with England is huge for the U.S. Team. However, team USA still needs to take care of business against the rest of the teams in their group. Yes. team USA will be favored to do so, however being favored and actually taking care of business is two different things. England was favored against team USA, however England didn't take care of business. That being said all is not bleak for England. England did not lose and is still favored to advance.

I did write a few World Cup related articles recently. One was on Lionel Messi who I heard one expert on the radio call one of the best players in international soccer if not the best. You can read my article on Messi here.

In a related article I wrote about the rich soccer history of Messi's team Argentina you can read that article here.

I also review the rich soccer, or football history of two more power houses. One was Brazil which can be read here. The other one was Italy which you can read here.

Hope you enjoy the World Cup action and I will blog about something else next time.

Les Paul

My mind wanders off to the gulf after each horrible headline I read, or it could wander to my unknown economic gloom. Instead, I will write about something else. No shameless self promotion either, I haven't done that in a while.

Yes, I wanted to see Jeff Beck in concert last Monday. Money is tight and I went to the Blues Fest for fre the weekend before. However, the concert I wanted to see was Tuesday and Wednesday at the  Iridium Jazz Club in New York. Jeff Beck and friends played a couple of shows as a tribute to the late great Les Paul, who I blogged about his passing last year. I did enter a contest to win tickets but I didn't win.

However, the shows were outstanding here is a link to one review.

On occasion I do plug other writers work. Disclaimer I don't know this writer, I just wish I was at t he show.

A bit on John Wooden

I'd be liar to say I remember John Wooden who passed away this month at the ripe age of 99. He coached his last game in the Spring of 1975 as UCLA won a championship. He left coaching as a champion. He won 10 of those in 12 seasons which is quite an achievement. He coached an amazing four 30-0 teams. he compiled a 664-162 record as a coach.

Wooden new basketball and he knew how to win. Through this he became great, was able to write or co-write several books and probably made more money in speaking engagements than he ever did as a coach. One could learn a lot about life, winning, and coaching from Wooden. He also stood up for what he believed was right. I could right a longer appreciation about him, but better ones have already been written and things said by people who knew him such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge his passing since I do write about sports. His life does deserve a moment of appreciation.

Observations

There is so much I could I blog about. So much has happened since my last post. I usually try to blog for Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. I missed blogging on Memorial Day. However, I would like to touch on that subject now. Over the weekend I attended a Blues Festival. The music was fantastic and I could blog for days just on the different blues act. However, something besides the music stayed with me from the weekend.

I have seen amputees before. However, last weekend I saw more amputees in one day than I had seen in my entire life at this festival. The first one I saw was on Friday. The man was in a wheel chair missing a leg. He appeared to be happy. He was enjoying the festival with his wife and son. He was obviously one of the few, one of the proud Marines. I gathered that by the Marine baseball hat he was wearing. I assumed he lost his leg being a proud Marine in Iraq or Afghanistan. Part of me wanted to go over and tell him thanks.I wanted to ask him if he lost his leg in action. The introverted part of me won out and I never did ask him. I didn't want to upset his happy vibe. I was thinking he probably didn't want to talk about how he lost his leg.

There was another gentleman at the festival who had the look like he was a former military person. He had lost both legs. The loss of his legs barely slowed him down and every time I saw him he appeared to be hustling off here or there.

I volunteered at this festival, on Saturday one of the session musicians entered a gate I was watching. The horn player, wanted to make sure he could park there and showed his artificial leg. He stated he lost his leg in Afghanistan.

I saw a couple who appeared to have peg legs. I thought to myself they must of lost their legs in an accident. The lady always managed to smile. The couple seamed to help one another and they appeared to be a loving a couple. My mind wandered to the terror the two had faced together.

The writer in me, saw stories in each of them. The war hero with his family, the war hero turned musician, the story unknown from the other amputee, and  the pegged legged couple. I never asked for the story but the story was there..

Any way the amputees did bring the latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan back home to me. The first gulf war was more my generation. I was lucky the people I know made it home in one piece. My friends just went away for a long time. I know people died and I know people were wounded. The people I saw over the weekend brought home the war. Yes I know people paid the ultimate sacrifice in these wars.However, the folks who will live the rest of their lives missing a leg or two while serving for us in our military. They deserve our respect and our thanks regardless of politics.