Back from the real world

2 weeks in football is a very long time.

My apologies for leaving you guys in the lurch like this – the next time I take a break I assure you that there will be regular articles and SL will be update daily, no matter where I am.

With that being said, there are several topics that I’d like to address today.

1. The Forum

Note: If you’re registered as a contributor on SL, you can use the same login / password for the forum, and conversely if you’re registered in the forum you can easily submit articles on the SL blog using the same login details.

Think of the SL Forum as a platform for football fans. If you want to rant about football and share pics and videos, that’s great. If you want to do more – that is, start blogging – my first piece of advice would be to get used to starting conversations in the forum. The better you are at picking topics (and more importantly, the right angles to those topics) that evoke discussion, the better you will be at blogging.

And of course, being regular in your writing is a key aspect of blogging, so use the forums to get the hang of that as well.

There are a few fundamental differences between blogs and forums – one of the most significant ones being that you are expected to write meatier articles – but with an interesting topic in hand and with good timing, you already have a good blog in the works.

Bottom line – head over to the forum and start posting, especially if you want to contribute to SL in the future.

2. Fantasy Football

While I was gone all the major players seem to have started their own fantasy football leagues and have promised outrageous prizes. Good for them. I’ll make an announcement today or tomorrow about the SL league, IF there is going to be one.

3. Football Kits

August is the month of kits and transfers – no, seriously. You’ll see plenty of more kits this month, starting tomorrow with the Milan and Inter kits.

4. Transfer News

I’m getting to it, promise.

5. Partner Blogs

Red Ranter’s taking a break, so I’ll be keeping his seat warm for the week. As far as ArseRant is concerned, RearGunner has taken a month off as well, so I’ll be popping up there now and then to talk about the Arsenal. Everyone else seems to be in their places, so that’s a bit of a relief 🙂

There are a couple of new blogs in the works (the last two blogs that we’ll launch for some time), and you should hear a lot more about them in the coming weeks.

Also, kudos again to Ed Harrison of the NUFC Blog for making his site the most popular Newcastle blog in such a short period of time. I’m proud to be associated with nufcblog.com and since it was the first partner blog we launched, it’s a great example for other bloggers as well.

6. Loose Ends

I could go on all day but there are updates to make, emails to check and lots of catching up to do. I’ll head over to Red Rants and make an update there, so for all United fans make sure you go there next.

As for everyone else, there are several articles coming up later in the day, keep an eye out for them.

A picture is worth a thousand words…