Where did the past week go? Time sure flies when you're having fun. There was even a three day weekend (President's Day) and it's gone by already.
Some people might not agree but I think that after over a decade it's safe to think of myself as a writer and photographer. My work has appeared in quite a few publications and I write a regular column so I think it's appropriate to think of myself as a member of the racing media. If you type the search words "dirt track racing" in Google my website comes up at the top. I would expect a good ranking when I include "Minnesota" in the search but to see it come up at the top of the listings when I type in "dirt track racing" is awesome. With all the commercial dirt track sites out there I never expected mine to hit the top of the list. Barry Braun of the Dirtcast.com told me that longevity is a factor and gotomn has been online since 1999 so he makes a good point. I listen to a podcast called "Weekly Web Tools" which focuses on the self taught do-it-yourself web designers like me. They said it's important to have the proper keywords in your META TAGS as well as good text links on your pages. I have always made it a point to try to make navigation simple for visitors so evidently it has paid off in other ways.
I've got some pet peeves about some of the racing websites so I might was well list a few while I'm on the subject. I'm not trying to say mine isn't without fault but there are some things out there that I find especially irritating. One is all the pay sites for dirt track racing that have come online the past few years. If their goal is to make money from the sport (something I find distasteful) they should get enough sponsors so that they can offer free content. I don't know about you but it's important to me to pay my credit card down in this economy. $4.95 per month for this website, $29.95 per season for that website, pretty soon a person could rack up $100 or more just on dirt track sites alone. Add that to my monthly satellite bill and it's just too much to justify for entertainment. The way I look at it is if I can visit streaming online movies and TV shows for free why should I pay $29.95 per season to subscribe to a dirt track site? So I think you hear where I'm coming from, I can watch the NFL, MLB, and NASCAR on network TV for free so where does a little ol' niche sport like dirt track racing come off charging me for content? Some would say to me "there's a simple solution, if you don't like it you don't have to watch." I agree 100%, I don't like it and I don't watch.
With the exception of message boards which I understand have to require registration for security purposes I shouldn't have to sign up with a website to view content. For example, there are driver websites out there that require visitors to setup a user name and password to view the driver's schedule and photo gallery. Let's see now, I've been online since 1996, during that time I have collected a full notebook of user names and passwords to numerous sites. Nope, with all due respect to those drivers I don't have that urgent of a need to know where you're going to race. Certain things on websites like schedules, viewing links pages, and looking through photo galleries should not require registration. When I come across a racing page like that I click out and move onto something else as fast as I can. Don't waste my time making me sign up because all you're doing is farming my personal information. Same goes for tracks and sanctioning bodies, trust me, you tracks and sanctions want to make your information easily accessible. Requiring registration is NOT easily accessible.
Cedar Lake canceled their Sandbox Arena race so I had to remove it from my schedule. Evidently they didn't get enough entrants to justify the expense of building the temporary track. I heard that there's still some issues with the ventilation for the bigger events like the Midgets so that's on hold for the time being. Hopefully they'll be able to resolve the issues but I'm not real optimistic when it comes to spending money on the building right now. For my own selfish reasons I really wasn't looking forward to the Karts and Legends so I'm not too upset by the news. I'd have enjoyed it once I got out there but it's not likely I'd have sold many photos and I'm not into those types of racing so it would have been a lot of time and effort doing something I'm not crazy about. The average fan doesn't see this but when one writes and shoots for publications you're bound to work some events that aren't as high on your list as others. No offense to the participants but it would have been a long weekend. I'm looking forward to the outdoor opener, that's what turns me on, the first two nights of Late Models, Mods, Supers and Midwest Mods on the big track.
Well, that's going to do it for tonight. Next time I post well take a fun look ahead at some of the big special shows this season.
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