Now Introducing: Finley Racing

For the first time in a year I have launched an all new website from the ground up. Okay, I’ve worked on a handful of smaller, niche sites in the interim but those are fairly limited in scope as I wrote a handful of html pages and uploaded them. My newest site, Finley Racing, uses WordPress for its content management system though I’ll be managing it more as an information portal than as a blog.

Making Something Out Of An Abandoned Domain Name

The name Finley Racing actually belongs to a real life race car family who developed the site in 2003. Apparently, they abandoned the domain name and went with something else, which I found to be a curious move. I snapped up the name when I found it on GoDaddy for next to nothing.

Regardless, my site has nothing to do with Team Finley but I thought that the name sounded cool. Besides, an aged domain looks good even though I’ve sat on it for the better part of the last year. Think SEO!

Right now, I’m covering NASCAR related topics for the simple reason that my motorsports knowledge is fairly limited. Admittedly, I have yet to take in a NASCAR race, but since I now live in North Carolina (I moved here in 2004) I don’t really have an excuse not to go. Of course, being given tickets to the pricey Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte later this month would be nice. You hear that Coke?

When It Comes To Car Sites, Three Is A Charm

Finley Racing represents my third major automotive site following The Auto Writer (launched February 2006) and Auto Trends (launched April 2008) as car sites I know manage. I’m still writing automotive articles for one customer and I have a monthly automotive column that appears in 435 South Magazine (Overland Park, KS) as well a bi-monthly column in Wisconsin Golfer.

Let’s just say that I have found my niche and I enjoy covering cars from many different angles — i.e., by manufacturer, car parts, accessories, automotive trends, sporting, you name it.

Speaking of niche, I have several small sites I plan on launching over the coming few weeks (probably months) basically activating a number of domains I have held onto for the past several years. I’m of the mind that a small, tightly knit network of sites can be beneficial, a good way to share links as well as to bring in traffic for new business.

Stay tuned!

Chicks Really Do Dig This Blog!

This just in: women really enjoy reading The Article Writer blog. At least women here in the U.S. do.

All right, perhaps I’m interpreting something different about the survey released by BlogHer/Compass Partners, the people who conducted the 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study. But the survey reveals several things about American women and the way that they approach the blogosphere: they like it a lot.

According to the survey, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week with 15% posting an article to a blog at least once each week and 21% reading and commenting to blogs weekly. Most interesting of all, more than 40% of the women surveyed consider blogs to offer a reliable source of information and advice for them. Shockingly, when it comes to things that women would give up for blogging, 20% would give up chocolate to keep up with blogging (can this be true?!)

The survey cited an increasing lack of trust in established institutions as one reason why women enjoy the blogosphere. Many women distrust the government, corporations, and the media and enjoy blogging to discuss topics that are important to them including which household products to choose, the presidential candidates, and the ungrateful guys in their lives (I threw that one in ). The study has shown that blogging is all about relationships — for women participants, in this case.

As far as us guys go, we weren’t surveyed but I know that there are a few things that we would never give up for blogging. I’m thinking about NASCAR — what did you have on your mind?

Photo Credit Matthew Bowden.