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A Banner Weekend for the Usable Web Solutions, LLC Suite of Websites

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Not that I want to make a habit out of uploading two entries in a row with comments and stories about Usable Web Solutions, LLC – the small website design and maintenance firm that I started in January 2006. But I thought that I’d put a short comment up here today in a method of celebrating some of what was accomplished over the past weekend. Oh, and I guess it makes sense to comment that the good news which I have to report deals specifically with the suite of websites that are actually owned and operated by Usable Web Solutions, LLC.

If you don’t know, that suite of websites consists of the blog that you are currently reading and a variety of professional wrestling websites. When I was younger, I was a big professional wrestling fan. However, as I was in college and then graduate school, I began to grow apart from watching the sport. Plus, I was a big fan of the old World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion and once it was bought up by Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) group, I gradually stopped watching the shows. Once the wrestler that I hated watching the most married his way into the McMahon family and, essentially, wrote the scripts so that he always won at the end of each feud, I was turned off to professional wrestling completely.

And then this upstart promotion out of Nashville and Orlando started putting out a product. I watched here and there, but my watching habits were nothing worthy of merit. Then about two years ago I started watching that TNA Wrestling promotion more and more and more and you know what? It began to grow on me. It reminded me of the old WCW and the old Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and it was fun to watch. More than that, though, it made me want to get back into the business of professional wrestling websites. When I initially started making websites back in 1996, I was making primarily professional wrestling websites (The Balrog’s Lair, The Brood, and Wrestle Universe were the three wrestling-themed websites that I worked with back on the old GeoCities platform).

But this entry isn’t supposed to be a history lesson, so I’ll get on with it!

These days I own three professional wrestling websites – TBLWrestling.com, XHeadlines.com, and TNAStars.com. Of the three, I actively manage and operate the TNAStars.com website. TBLWrestling.com has been around the longest as it has existed in one incarnation or another since 1996. XHeadlines.com was the next site that I created and I think that, for a long time, it was my best work in terms of laying out the design of a professional wrestling website. However, I began working on TNAStars.com on and off during the summer of 2008. Once it was announced that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were moving to TNA Wrestling during the fall of 2009, I kicked the development of that site into high gear and we went live completely live on January 1, 2010.

On the first day that TNAStars.com was live back in January, it received 2 hits. And believe it or not, that is where this success story begins.

Viewership on the site gradually increased as the news articles were picked up by the various search engines. By the middle to end of January 2010, TNAStars.com was routinely pulling in around 500 hits per day and I was really pleased that the site had a decent presence with less than a month of existence underneath its belt. However, my goal for all of the new websites that I start is for them to be at 1,000 hits per day on a consistent basis – then grow from there. Sometime in March 2010, TNAStars.com began generating 1,000 hits per day, but then the summer months came on and – as has been my experience with professional wrestling websites – the hits began to go down until August, when they started to pick up again.

But I’m always looking for a consistent 1,000+ hits each day and I knew that TNAStars.com was so close. I’m not sure what it took to make the jump, but sometime around the end of September the website began consistently generating 1,000+ hits per day. Then on October 1, 2010, TNAStars.com generated 1,989 hits in a single day – the most in the site’s history. I was very pleased!

Until October 7, 2010 (last Thursday), when the site drew in 3,189 hits in a single day. I was floored at the great response, but knew that hard work always pays off in the end. Last Thursday I began to wonder – how high could this thing go? Then on Friday, the site drew in 3,147 hits – only a small decrease from the day before. But it didn’t stop there…

On Sunday, October 10, 2010, TNAStars.com drew in some 5,017 hits in a single day. Phenomenal! I was convinced that this number was going to be the high mark in the series of banner days for TNAStars.com. Then yesterday came around and wouldn’t you know it, but the website drew in some 8,500 hits in a single day!

Let me put this in perspective and explain why this is significant and worthy of celebration. The most hits that any of my websites ever received in a single day was on June 26, 2007 when TheBalrogsLair.com (which eventually became TBLWrestling.com) received 25,305 hits due to its thorough coverage of the Chris Benoit double murder suicide. Not really something to go screaming around about, but it’s true. The next highest day of hits in the history of my suite of websites? That would be the day before – June 25, 2007 – when the Chris Benoit coverage began. Blech. The story is the same with the third highest day in my suite of websites’ history – June 27, 2007 – Chris Benoit coverage.

You have to go to the fourth highest day in the history of my suite of professional wrestling websites to find a banner day in terms of visitors that were not drawn to the site because of a tragedy! And that day was Monday, March 15, 2004 when TheBalrogsLair.com took in some 7,299 hits in a single day due to its excellent coverage of WrestleMania XX. That was a good day for my professional wrestling websites.

Incidentally, the fifth and sixth highest traffic days in the history of my suite of sites are both Chris Benoit double murder suicide. Annoying.

But all of that changed over this weekend when TNAStars.com’s Bound for Glory 2010 coverage took the number one traffic spot away from the original TBL’s post-WrestleMania XX coverage. And it changed again when the post-Bound for Glory coverage pushed TNAStars.com ahead of one of the Chris Benoit coverage days back on the original TBL.

I hope that the momentum stays with TNAStars.com as it’s a great little website that isn’t bogged down with crap and annoyances. If you’re into professional wrestling, I highly recommend heading over there and seeing what we’ve done. Here’s hoping that the days of growing hits continues for the entire suite of professional wrestling websites that I own!

Random News and Notes From All Over the Place

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Normally, I write these blog entries a day or two in advance and then have them scheduled to automatically upload at a certain time of the day (usually around 11:30am). However, since there are a few random subjects that I’d like to hit on which don’t necessarily require a separate, standalone entry, I thought that I might create a quick, impromptu entry covering a bunch of random stuff.

To begin, at the beginning of January I began teaching for a well-known online/distance learning-based university. After doing this for about a month I have to admit that I’m not impressed. I thought the online teaching setting would give instructors a great deal of resources to utilize for their students to learn the course content – I was wrong. Or at least I was wrong with respect to the place where I’m teaching. I was handed a syllabus and told that I had to follow it. Then I was told that I had to utilize the online-based discussion forums and online submission tools in order to receive assignments. That wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t both filled with glitches that render their usage impossible. All in all, it makes the instructor (me) feel that I do not have much control over the class and its direction. That’s not a good feeling for an educator.

On top of it all, my pay rate (which is the least of my concerns with this arrangement) is a couple of hundred dollars per student enrolled in the course with an enrollment cap of 15. Not a bad pay rate really except that less than 5 students are enrolled in the course. Whoopie.

Two weeks ago, though, I began teaching a brand new course that I designed. This course is being taught at the local college and it has been good so far. I do have some concerns about the real-world preparedness level of the students in that at least half of the class chooses to not hand in assignments on time. I also have some concerns about the students comprehending the information that I give them in class. For example, one assignment asked students to identify a specific type of organization. We talked about these organizations for over an hour in class and two short reading assignments went in depth about the typical characteristics of these organizations. Again, more than half of the class chose groups that were not even remotely close to what the ones they were supposed to identify.

That’s somewhat troubling for the future workforce…

Hey – Lost is back on ABC tonight, huh? That’s pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to the final season of this show if only because I have to get it out of my mind! Does anyone think that all of the Lost fans out there will be completely satisfied with the “answers” that are given this season? I tend to think that the Lost writers have set themselves up for a catastrophic failure if they don’t answer every single question that is out there about the show. I guess that judgment should be reserved until after the season really gets into the swing of things. All I know is that a lot of people have invested a lot of time into watching that show and they better not blow it.

I will hopefully have some more encouraging news about my student loans coming up in the next few days. You can guess what that might be…

If you keep an eye on the market, then I’m sure that you’ve seen how Sirius XM is blowing up all over the place! For those of us that purchased this stock at a dime or two per share, we’re doing pretty good with our investment at this point. Last I checked, share prices were at 0.94. Not bad making 1000% return on an investment, huh?

And just think – if you listened to almost every big internet stock market website out there you would have sold this stock when it was down to a nickel per share. Talk about being shortsighted! That’s why I do my own research on the stocks that I purchase – the internet stock market sites have an agenda and I’m not interested in their garbage.

Oh, and I’ve been doing pretty well with Ford (which the internet stock market sites said I should have sold a year ago) and Barnes & Nobles (same story). The lesson learned here is to do your own research and trust your gut!

Eddie has been doing a fine job with running TBLWrestling.com. Hits are up an incredible percentage and I’m proud of his efforts. Good work, Eddie! I’ve been running TNAStars.com now for about a month and I’m pleased that it has already achieved some level of success. Both of these sites are hobby sites for Eddie and I and we only spend a few minutes each day putting up some updates. With such reduced involvement, I’m glad to know that the people out there like what we’re doing!

I guess that’s about it. See you tomorrow!

A New TBLWrestling.com Revealed

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Yesterday I was proud to unleash a new TBLWrestling.com for all of our great wrestling fans out there. The new site is based off of the same WordPress script that this blog uses and we hope it will encourage greater fan interaction with our staff. Please feel free to head over to the new TBLWrestling.com and let us know what you think about it!

Enjoy!

Exclusive Interview with Jamie Varner

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Eddie T and Justin Travis of TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com, respectively, have snagged another big interview. This time they are talking with “Showtime” Jamie Varner – the reigning WEC Lightweight Champion, and one hell of a fighter (he just successfully defended that title over the past weekend).

This is a great interview and one that fans of mixed martial arts will definitely appreciate. Click here if you want to listen to the interview, but bear in mind that this page takes a minute or two to load and once it loads it will begin playing immediately (you can then pause it after it starts).

Enjoy!

Going to California

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This Tuesday I’m heading out to California for the first time ever. The core purpose of the visit is to attend Sigma Pi Fraternity’s 49th Biennial Convocation (our national convention). It’s exciting – I get to see my fraternal colleagues as well as help advocate on behalf of my New Jersey guys. It’s really fun stuff if you’re as heavily involved as I am!

I’m also looking forward to seeing the great Eddie T – the webmaster of TBLWrestling.com. Eddie and I have formed a great friendship while he’s operated my wrestling website, but I’ve never had the opportunity to actually meet him. I’m looking forward to getting a beer with him on Tuesday.

One of my former New Jersey guys also moved out to California so I’m happy that I get to see him, too!

And, of course, let’s not forget that I’m going to be in Long Beach, California. I’m looking forward to getting some quality beach time and looking at the lovely ladies that I hear so much about!

Anyway, I’ll be back in New Jersey and back blogging again starting the following Tuesday, August 5th. Until then, go back and read some of the archives!

Exclusive Interview with Amir Sadollah

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The seventh season of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter featured a lot of great fighters. However, there can only be one champion. At the end of a pretty intense season, it was Amir Sadollah who became the new Ultimate Fighter. TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com recently had the chance to sit down with Amir for an exclusive phone interview. The discussion covered just about everything from the Ultimate Fighter – from life in the house, to the insanity of the Jesse Taylor situation, and everything in between! Amir shared some great personal inside and viewpoints that are must-hear! Unfortunately the audio quality is horrible in the first few minutes, but stick around and keep listening to this exclusive interview!

Exclusive Interview with the UFC’s C.B. Dollaway

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As some of you may know, JerseySmarts.com is part of a larger network of sites including two wrestling and mixed martial arts sites: XHeadlines.com and TBLWrestling.com. Both of these sites have begun collaborating on interviewing some of the famous faces in the wrestling and MMA world. To that end, please see the interview below – the first of TBL and XH’s exclusive interview series!

July 16, 2008 — C.B. Dollaway made a name for himself as a pretty tough dude on UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter. We recently had the chance to conduct an interview with him discussing his upcoming fight with Jesse Taylor, the show on Spike, and current weight-class talk in MMA, among other topics! Enjoy!

C.B., thanks for joining TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com! We’re talking to the finalist of The Ultimate Fighter Season 7, one hell of a fighter who showcased his ability throughout the season.
What was it like being in the house with 15 other dudes for so long?! From what the cameras didn’t show us, who was it that you got along with most, and who did you have problems with? Who did you
feel, besides yourself, was the best fighter in the house?

The living circumstances were not all that bad. You get used to the cameras and other then the fact that the guy you are befriending could be your opponent. I got along with everyone, Pat Schultz and Matthew Riddle were likely the funniest cast mates. I was actually one of the last people on my team defending Jeremy May. I thought the best fighters were Jesse Taylor, Tim Creduer, Gerald
Harris and Brandon Sene seemed tough.

While on the show, Forrest Griffin noted that he couldn’t stand you because you were “cocky, and you backed it up.” How do you respond to his words?

WOW he noticed me? He really was busy with his team and he and I had little to no interaction. Being first pick somehow made me a favorite and from that people thought I was a jerk. I could not control much on that show.

Speaking of Forrest, what did you make of the two coaches on the show? Rampage Jackson admitted in the beginning of the program that he’s never coached before in his life. Did you learn a lot from Quinton, and how do you feel both coaches did in their roles?

I think Forrest did his homework and the results paid off for him. It is impossible to get 8 guys ready (simultaneously) and not know who they are fighting and when. Our coaches did the best they could and what they could not teach us in the ring they taught us from their
life experiences.

How did you feel about having to fight Amir Sadollah twice? Walk us through your two matches, including your strategy and approach. Were you trying to avoid the submission the second time around?

Initially I knew Amir was durable. I go into these modes where I am moving forward and trying to destroy my opponent. I need to pay more attention to them and what they want to do to me at this level. Amir was tough and hung in to win a tough first fight. Second fight. well he caught me again the same way. I worked on not getting into that position but really it all happened so fast. I am focused on doing what I need to do to get better and put the loss behind me.

C.B., one of the most popular topics of discussion when it comes to the UFC and MMA in general these days is the change in weight-classes that has been proposed and “accepted” by some. Dana White has made it clear that the UFC does not support the newly-proposed weight classes. How do you feel about the proposed changes verses what the UFC does?

I leave that stuff up to smarter men then me. I am a fighter and if Dana and my management want me to put on a few pounds and fight at a higher weight I will. I want to fight the best fighters in the world and I thank the UFC for bringing me into the organization where that will be possible.

What do you make of the Jesse Taylor situation, and what are your thoughts on his character?

He really is a funny guy and his poetry was classic. I think he has a problem when he gets drunk and I am glad he got that under control. He said something at the beginning of the show that stuck out to me. He said in life he always gets to the finish line and fucks up. I think doing that on national TV was a turning point for him. I hope he has trained hard, unfortunately for him I have to use this fight to show the world and Zuffa I belong at the UFC.

Finally, speaking of Jesse, we know you have your next UFC bout scheduled for this weekend as you take on him. I know you’ve been working very intensely to be in great shape for the match. What’s your strategy and approach and how do you think the fight will go?

I am a better fighter on the feet and unless I stopped evolving since college and he continued I am the better fighter on the ground. I need to avoid the lay and pray and this fight should go my way.

C.B., we want to thank you for giving us some of your important time as you prepare for this huge fight, and we wish you the best in the octagon against Jesse!

Thanks and thanks to MTX Audio, LG Sports Marketing and AZ Combat Sports.

DVD Review: TNA Genesis 2005

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Those of you who read TBLWrestling.com know that I recently began watching Total Nonstop Action wrestling – otherwise known as TNA. They call themselves the “new face of professional wrestling” and to help set themselves apart from WWE, they have a six-sided ring and have their weekly tapings as well as pay per views all in the same soundstage at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Side note – if WWE has a television contract with NBC Universal, then wouldn’t that mean that the Universal organization has some affiliation with both WWE and TNA? Weird.

This pay per view was awesome. Sure, something is certainly “missing” from it because it was held in the same arena that their weekly tapings are held in, but TNA is working to fix that situation. They are holding their first monthly PPV outside of Universal Studios this coming October. I think it’ll do them some good!

However, that is a minor point against what was a great show that not only saw a completely out of control main event (literally, they were all over the place), but that also saw the TNA debut of Christian Cage. Those of you who are interested in what the former WWE Intercontinental Champion had to say during his TNA debut can flip over to TBLWrestling.com’s quotes section and take a read.

There was one bad part of the pay per view, though. BG James (formerly Road Dogg in WWE) had a really awkward mini-tirade against WWE and Vince McMahon in his backstage interview. In my short time watching TNA, this seems to be a recurring phenomenon. A few weeks ago on TNA Impact, former ECW World Champion Rhino actually started the show with an in-ring promo against the new ECW show and Vince McMahon. There just seems to be frequent references to WWE and how it sucks or how Vince is nuts or whatever and listen – I’m not going to debate any of that stuff. I will, however, say that if I’m watching TNA then I must already be aware that there is a problem in WWE or that I just don’t like what I’m seeing in WWE.

Let me get back on topic before I miss the point of this post. This PPV was fantastic! I’m not going to go through a match-by-match recap of the deal because that’s boring and the PPV is already a few months old. The main points that I want to get across are that the while the overall feel of the show may come up to the standard of a WWE produced show, it’s damn close. TNA, however, completely surpasses WWE in terms of the wrestling that takes place in the ring. They do a phenomenal job of getting the desire and determination of their wrestlers over with the crowd – oh, and speaking of the crowd, they are completely into the show 100%. Anyone who has ever watched a wrestling show with a hot crowd or who has been to an independent show knows that a hot crowd can make a show just like a dead crowd can kill one. The TNA crowd is completely into the product and it comes off very well on screen.

And the X Division is something to see. At the time of this PPV, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles were just a few of the many young up and comers that were a part of the X Division. Folks, the quality of this division is unmatched on RAW, Smackdown!, or the Tuesday show. This is what you want when you buy a wrestling PPV – you want people giving it everything that they’ve got because you’re willing to plunk down the money to buy their show. That’s something that you don’t get in every wrestling promotion…

I give Genesis 2005 a rousing approval. If you can get your hands on a used copy of this DVD (like I did), then spend the money and buy this event. It was well worth the money because, unlike other wrestling pay per views, there’s a strong possibility that I’ll watch this event over and over again!

Good job TNA!