Your feedback is vital

It was a bit of a multimedia overload this morning. There I was in my living room watching my big screen TV with the splitscreen format on. On one side, I had Everton against Manchester United and on the other, it was Chelsea against Bolton. Plus I was logged into the EPL Talk Chat. While watching those two matches, I had my laptop as I recording an interview with Ian Plenderleith, the next guest on the EPL Talk Podcast. Talk about multitasking!

So with the frenetic EPL action happening, I wanted to take a quick breather and ask you what what interested in reading on this EPL Talk Buzz blog. What do you want to know about EPL Talk? What would you like to see different? How can we improve? Feel free to let us know by clicking the 'comments' link below. We appreciate any and all feedback.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

Press Release to Announce Video Podcast

On Monday, April 23rd, EPL Talk and GolTV will be issuing a press release to announce the first-ever video podcast published in the United States featuring the interview with Ray Hudson and the behind-the-scenes tour of GolTV.

The press release will be distributed to the Associated Press and circulated within the soccer and trade media.

You can see a sneak-peek of the press release here. Feel free to save the press release and forward it to any bloggers or your contacts who would be interested in reading the news.

The Author Who Turned Down the EPL Talk Podcast

Since the EPL Talk Podcast launched in April 2006, I've interviewed more than 62 people for the show. My goal is to interview each person just once (other than the holiday special, the rare exception was Ray Hudson, who was interviewed for the podcast once and most recently the EPL Talk Video Podcast; but albeit a different medium).

In all this time, I've only had one person turn my offer down to be interviewed. Sure, many didn't return voicemails or reply to e-mails. But the one person who turned me down was author Dave Twydell.

The English author specializes in writing books and articles about non-league and Football League grounds, especially those that are now long gone (or forgotten) or are often overlooked. I own a copy of his book "Football League: Grounds for a Change," which is a fascinating look at the grounds that were once used by the Football League clubs but are now gone (or, as is the case with Woolwich Arsenal, as I discovered on the EPL Talk tour, still remaining if only for the steps of the terracing in people's back gardens).

The angle I took with Twydell is that he could focus on the forgotten grounds of Premiership clubs only. However, he was polite but pretty firm with his response when he said he had no desire in discussing anything related to Premiership sides. Such is the feeling among many in the UK regarding their distaste for anything Premiership related.

More About EPL Talk Buzz

Each week, EPL Talk provides you with an average of 18 articles to read on the blog, one 45-60 minute podcast, an email newsletter, an average of six matches on the EPL Talk Chat plus the blogs and messages written by you, the readers, on the Community. And all of that is on a quiet week!

Plus, that's only a sliver of the time that's put into the site by you and me. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes such as public relations, web design, marketing, pursuing advertisers, link exchange, mailing prizes, research, and more.

The goal of EPL Talk Buzz is to give you complete transparency into seeing and understanding what it's like to run EPL Talk. Feel free to ask any questions you want, and you may be surprised by how forthright we'll be.

In turn, we hope you'll appreciate our candor and help promote the site to others out there.

Think about how you first heard about EPL Talk and what brought you to the site. Was it a link somewhere? Or a posting on a message board? Or something else? Whatever it was, we need to bring more soccer fans into EPL Talk. The more people who visit, the more attractive EPL Talk will be to advertisers -- which is the only way (other than donations from you) that EPL Talk earns revenue to help pay the bills and expand.

So while I put in tens of hours a week into EPL Talk, all I ask is that you take 2 minutes here and there to help promote the site. Thanks in advance for your support.

Do you Wiki?

Wanted: An enthusiastic EPL Talk reader/listener who's willing to create an entry on Wikipedia for EPL Talk. The first person that creates the entry and emails thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com will receive their very own EPL Talk T-shirt (size L).

Learn more about contributing to Wikipedia here.

Editor's Note: Thanks to the Tokyo Toffeeman, a Wikipedia entry for EPL Talk is now available here. Feel free to update it as you see fit everyone.

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Welcome to the EPL Talk Buzz, where we give you the tools to help promote EPL Talk, and where you can get an insider's look at what goes on behind the scenes at the site.

Since its launch in November 2005, EPL Talk has continually strived to deliver a unique experience for soccer fans and provide you with content for the discerning fan that you're unlikely to find elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for your continued support.

Cheers,
The Gaffer