During the 2010 World Cup, EPL Talk registered its best month ever in terms of web traffic. On behalf of EPL Talk, I’d like to thank you, the readers, for your continued patronage, as well as the continued excellence shown by all of the EPL Talk bloggers (and podcasters) who have worked diligently to produce thought-provoking articles.

To recognize the considerable achievements, EPL Talk distributed a press release to the media this morning. Here it is in its entirety:

EPLTalk.com Reports Record World Cup™ Web Traffic

LAKE WORTH, FL — JULY 14, 2010 — EPLTalk.com, a leading English Premier League blog based in the United States, registered more than 1 million page views during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ between June 11 and July 11.

During the 31-day tournament, EPLTalk.com generated 500,205 unique visitors—the highest number in the site’s history. When combined with traffic from EPL Talk sister sites WorldCupBuzz.com and MajorLeagueSoccerTalk.com, web traffic between June 11-July 11 recorded 1.65 million page views and 966,318 unique visitors.

In addition to the record breaking web traffic, the daily World Cup Buzz podcast — featuring soccer experts Richard Farley, Kartik Krishnaiyer and Laurence McKenna — generated more than 258,000 downloads during the 2010 World Cup.

“These results show that informed soccer fans respond to EPL Talk’s quality content and breaking news stories that they’re unable to find anywhere else,” said Christopher Harris, Founder and Publisher of EPL Talk. “Our team of bloggers cover the aspects of ‘the beautiful game’ that matter most to soccer supporters, whether it’s the exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in soccer, or the critically-acclaimed analysis.”

EPLTalk.com, which is one of nine soccer websites in the EPL Talk Network, features daily news and analysis of the English Premier League as well as a focus on world soccer. Founded in 2005, the website features exclusive audio and video interviews, an archive of more than 5,000 articles, free soccer eBooks, and US TV schedules for soccer.

About EPL Talk

EPL Talk is a leading English Premier League blog with daily news and analysis of the world’s most popular sports league. The web site is part of the EPL Talk Network, which also covers soccer from Spain, Germany, Italy and the rest of Europe. EPL Talk is a privately held company headquartered in Lake Worth, Florida. Reach EPL Talk at (561) 247-GOAL or on the web at www.epltalk.com.

The World Cup is agonizingly close, I seem to be spending all my time thinking, reading, or talking about it.

However with all of the different news, blog, and sport sites available on the internet, sifting through the pile for worthwhile material can be a nightmare.

This is why I have, in association with The Gaffer, created the EPL Talk toolbar. It allows you to find the latest football news, blogs, and opinion quickly and efficiently without leaving your current webpage.

Packed full of easy to navigate information, it really is the perfect tool for an avid football fan.

The toolbar features include:

• Live score updates
• Football headlines from all the over the World
• BBC Football and EPL Talk news ticker
• One click Facebook and Twitter access
• Available on all browsers except Google Chrome

Sports headlines from the top sites around the world

All of the world sport headlines are available at the click of a button, without you having to change page. If you want to see a story you are taken straight there with a single click.

Latest Scores

Whichever league or team you follow, this application will provide live score information 24/7. This can be done without changing your webpage, so you don’t have to stop what you are doing to be up to date.

BBC Football and EPL Talk News Ticker

Constantly updating, this stock exchange style application loops the latest headlines from the BBC football website and our very own EPL talk. See something you like? Click the link and you are there in an instant. 

Facebook

By clicking the Facebook icon you can login and receive alerts or check your inbox without changing pages, particularly useful if you want to keep working or surfing whilst keeping in touch with your Facebook world. 

Twitter – access to the latest Twitter feeds for EPL Talk and the top names in football. Constantly being updated the feeds featured will be updated throughout the tournament to find the most interesting football tweets out there.

Between now and the end of July, EPL Talk will be your headquarters online for World Cup news and coverage. We have so much planned — which I’ve teased on an EPL Talk Podcast episode and in a recent interview – so let me bring you up to speed on what we have in store for YOU:

Daily World Cup podcast

Beginning today, the World Cup Buzz Podcast will bring you daily latest news and analysis of the 2010 World Cup. Hosted by Richard Farley, the podcast will evolve into three different phases. First, between now and May 31, the podcast will feature interviews with some of the biggest pundits in world football. Be sure not to miss a single episode as experts from around the world give you insight into the tournament that you won’t be able to find elsewhere.

Second, from June 1 to June 10, Farley and the co-host team of Kartik Krishnaiyer and Laurence McKenna will preview each group in the tournament. And third, from June 11 til the end of the World Cup tournament, the team of Farley, Krishnaiyer and McKenna will bring you daily news and analysis of the World Cup tournament — 7 days a week!

If you’re already subscribed to the EPL Talk Podcast on iTunes (or the MLS Talk Podcast), you’ll automatically get each episode of the World Cup Buzz delivered to you each day. Otherwise, you can subscribe to the World Cup Buzz Podcast (by itself) via iTunes (a feed will be added in the next 24-48 hours). Or you can get each episode through this web site or via the World Cup Buzz Podcast site. Plus you’ll be able to get each episode from BigSoccer.com — as part of our partnership with them as the first soccer podcast on their BigSoccer Radio Network.

What will happen to the EPL Talk Podcast and MLS Talk Podcast during the World Cup tournament? There are no specific plans to release new episodes since we’ll be up to our eyeballs in World Cup coverage. But from time to time when massive interview opportunities present themselves or when big news breaks, we’ll release special EPL Talk and MLS Talk Podcast episodes during the June 11-July 12 tournament.

In addition to the World Cup Buzz Podcast, here’s a preview of the other World Cup coverage we’ll be providing you:

Daily World Cup news and analysis

In addition to the daily World Cup Buzz Podcast, we’ll be bringing you daily news and analysis in the form of articles on this site — and other sites within the EPL Talk Network. It’s our goal to provide you with the quality analysis and coverage that you’ve been accustomed to reading. As well as covering the storylines and news, we’ll be particularly paying close attention to the TV coverage of the 2010 World Cup and we’ll be analyzing that for you, as well as writing informational articles on how you can get the best 2010 World Cup experience.

The news and analysis won’t exist just on EPL Talk. You’ll be able to find more specific coverage on our sister sites, too.

World Cup 2010 links:

• World Cup shirts
• World Cup schedule
• World Cup TV schedule
• World Cup Beginner’s Guide
• Which team will win the World Cup

2010 World Cup coverage on sister sites:

• World Cup Buzz (general World Cup news)
• MLS Talk (US men’s national team coverage)
• La Liga Talk (Spain national team)
• Serie A Talk (Italy national team)
• Champions League Talk (European national teams)
• Bundesliga Talk (Germany national team)

iPhone app

Download the FREE EPL Talk iPhone app so no matter where you are this summer, you’ll have immediate access to the latest blog posts, comments and World Cup Buzz Podcast episodes. Download the EPL Talk iPhone app today.

World Cup Fantasy Challenge

Register today for the World Cup 2010 Fantasy Challenge which is free to register and you have the opportunity to win big cash prizes.

The concept is simple. Pick your best 11 from the 32 competing teams and see how they do in the 2010 World Cup. And then enter a public league so you can compete against 11 soccer fans from around the world. Thankfully this is one of those competitions where you can pick and choose any players for your eleven rather than limiting yourself to certain players to fit into a certain budget.

World Cup Predictor

The World Cup is about to start and we at EPL Talk Predictor want to help build up the excitement and offer you the opportunity to win big prizes.  All in all, during WC2010, we will be giving away £700 in total prizes sponsored by online gaming site Paddy Power.

In addition to the usual 1X2 Competition, featuring each and every match of the WC2010, there will be a total of 8 Mega Matches on select tourney matches and a season ending Raffle for all members who achieved a “Predictor” level and higher (predicting the opening WC2010 match is required to participate in the raffle).

But kicking off the festivities will be our newest game, the Predictor Challenge. For obvious reasons, the first Predictor Challenge, kicking off 2 weeks prior to the World Cup, will only feature WC2010 related content. Next season, this new game will also take place before the start of the Premier League season, Championship League group stage, and other tournaments or league competitions.

So if you think that Messi will be the top goal scorer, Brazil will win the Cup, and Ivory Coast will make it to the quarterfinals, now is your time to test your knowledge. Visit us on May 23rd and join the game for your chance to win!

Free World Cup eBook

If you haven’t picked up your free copy of the eBook, What The World Cup Means To Me, featuring contributions from Simon Kuper, Tim Vickery, Rebecca Lowe and others, get your copy today.

Social Media

To stay on top of the latest World Cup news, you can follow EPL Talk and World Cup Buzz on Twitter, and like World Cup Buzz and EPL Talk on Facebook.

And much more

We have several other exciting plans for our World Cup coverage which we’ll be announcing in the next few weeks. If you’re interested in contributing articles to EPL Talk, be sure to read our Get Published page.

Good news everyone. In the build-up to the World Cup, we’ve decided to move the EPL Talk Network forums from Ning to www.epltalk.grou.ps.

Don’t worry if you were already a member of our previous network, you have already been migrated to our new destination, avatars and all! Due to changes in the Ning network that previously hosted our network, the EPL Talk Network Forums will now be taking advantage of all the great features Grou.ps offers. With options such as polls and wiki’s, the Intelligent Soccer Forum will allow even more discussion and collaboration to be expressed.

If you haven’t yet joined the discussion, head to the new EPL Talk Network Forums and voice your opinion on whatever is on your football mind. It’s the perfect place to raise topics, interact with fellow readers and more. Enjoy!

I’m really proud to announce that EPL Talk has just launched a brand-new iPhone app today. If you’re a regular reader of this site and you own an iPhone app, it’s definitely a must-have.

The EPL Talk iPhone app features:

• The latest blog posts (updated as soon as new articles are published),
• A comments feed (updated whenever someone adds a new comment to any thread),
• The latest episodes of  the EPL Talk Podcast (updated daily),
• The latest Premier League-related news items from the EPL Talk Twitter feed (updated throughout the day), and
• EPL Talk’s Flickr feed, which is updated whenever there are new Premier League-related photographs uploaded to the EPL Talk Flickr account.

The best part about the iPhone app is that it’s completely free. Plus it’s advertising free.

If you have an iPhone, get the EPL Talk iPhone app today either through iTunes or the App Store feature on your phone.

We’re also working on getting an EPL Talk app created for phones that run Android so stay tuned for news about that in the near future.

If you have the EPL Talk Podcast iPhone app, which was released a few months ago, we will still continue to support that.

Enjoy the app and feel free to post your feedback about it here.

EPL Talk has been nominated in the following two categories of the latest Soccerlens Awards:

• Best football podcast, and
• Best competition site.

If you enjoy the EPL Talk Podcast and EPL Talk website, we highly encourage you to vote for us by clicking on the above links (one vote per person, and no registration is required, so it’ll take less than 30 seconds).

And please don’t forget to vote in the other award categories.

Voting closes January 31, so don’t delay.

Microsoft, Home Depot, Harley Davidson and even Halliburton have all announced they’re having layoffs, but here at EPL Talk we’re one of the few places that are actually hiring.

If you’re interested in writing for EPL Talk or any of our eight sister sites covering the world of football, please e-mail a writing sample to thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com

One of the advantages of writing for one of the sites in the EPL Talk Network is that we send you a weekly behind-the-scenes newsletter that gives you tips on blogging, SEO and Internet marketing. Plus we give you opportunities to get free tickets to matches and attend VIP press events.

On the final day of 2008, I want to send out a huge thank you to you, the readers, for supporting EPL Talk in what has been our best and most successful year ever. Your support and your comments are much appreciated (EPL Talk has now amassed more than 13,000 comments). There’s no way to thank every reader personally but I do want to mention a special thank you to Lonnie (LS), Atlanta Pompey, Lou (eplnfl), Bishopville Red, Double Pivot and DaveMo for contributing the most number of comments in ’08.

As far as articles, EPL Talk now has more than 2,500 of them. Massive thanks go to the team of writers at EPL Talk in 2008 which include Michael James (200 articles), Lonnie (68), Paul Bestall (58), Johnathan Starling (49), Tyler Duffy (49), Sam Dalton (34), Jeff Hash (22), Kartik Krishnaiyer (22), Chris Rivers (14), Josh Pedley (12), Andrew Moshoian, Andrew Morris, Christopher Nee, Dominic Mather, Ferd, Ian Cahir, Jake Hall, James Harris, Jonny Carter, Karthik Balasubramanian, Michael Barany, Phil McThomas, Richard Whittall and Tony Allen. I couldn’t have done it without all of your help.

The year 2008 started well for me after I traveled to Baltimore for the annual NSCAA Convention where I interviewed Steve McClaren and Gerard Houllier for the EPL Talk Podcast. But it all went downhill from there after returning home and being rushed to the hospital, where I stayed for six weeks and had two surgeries to remove blood clots from both of my legs.

Special thanks must go to Chris Oakley, author of the excellent Some People Are On The Pitch blog, who graciously compiled a Best Of episode for the EPL Talk Podcast while I was still in hospital — and to Kartik Krishnaiyer who produced the episode featuring an interview with Paul Gardner (from my NSCAA trip) and Martin Rogers from Yahoo.

After being in the hospital on bed rest for six weeks, I returned home unable to walk and still in immense pain. But thanks to the support of my wife (and goodwill phone calls from Japan courtesy of the Tokyo Toffeeman), I was able to return to full health within a couple of weeks and I’m now 100% healthy again.

The strangest thing for me was that when I finally returned to full health during the beginning of April, it felt like I had missed out on a quarter of 2008. In many ways, I had. During the three different hospitals I stayed at while I was infirmed for six weeks, one of them had Fox Soccer Channel so I was able to watch one live match. The rest of the time I was able to find the scores online.

May, in terms of the Premier League, was a massive month so I was fortunate to witness the wonderful end to the season as well as the Champions League victory for Manchester United. For personal reasons, I was also ecstatic that my team – Swansea City – had gotten promoted from Division One to the Championship.

The year got better in June when I was fortunate to travel to Switzerland for a weekend to watch one match, Italy against Holland, which was one of the best games of the tournament. As I did in the 1994 World Cup in Orlando, I fell in love with the Dutch fans again. This time, in 2008, they took over the beautiful Swiss capital of Bern and I have the pictures to prove it!

The year continued to get better in July, August and September when, after publishing my free travel guide on how to save more than a thousand dollars to attend Premier League matches in England, I was interviewed by BBC Five Live, featured on the two hours of BBC’s World Football Phone-In Show and then interviewed and featured in The New York Times.

From September through December, the year has been a blur for me. In September, my wife and I had a baby boy named Christopher who has been a wonderful addition to the family alongside my three daughters. As you can imagine, raising all of those kids has been a handful and again, I must thank my dearly devoted wife.

In the past several weeks, some of you may have noticed that EPL Talk hasn’t been posting as many remarkable stories as we have done in the past. Other than a lot of sleepless nights due to the baby having colic, that’s because I’ve been busy at work planning for 2009 to make the new year even bigger and better for readers of EPL Talk.

One of the things that suffered from my ill health and arrival of the new baby in 2008 was the inconsistency of the EPL Talk Podcast. But beginning in January, the podcast will return to a twice monthly format and will feature interviews with some of the biggest names in football courtesy of new host Johnathan Starling.

During 2009, Johnathan will also be bringing you daily coverage to EPL Talk with the return of The Daily Digest (a roundup each weekday morning of the major Premier League-related stories from the tabloids as well as his objective criticism and observations), a weekly preview and predictions (every Thursday) of the weekend Premier League matches, and a daily update on Saturday and Sunday of the key decisions in the weekend matches.

Working alongside Johnathan, in addition to the team of EPL Talk volunteers, will be Tyler Duffy (formerly known as Bill E Shears from The Guardian fame), Paul Bestall, James Harris and Josh Pedley. They’ll be bringing you unique and remarkable Premier League-related stories in 2009.

In the next few weeks, EPL Talk will also be undergoing a massive redesign (yet another) to improve the usability of the site, and a move to a dedicated server which will radically improve the loading time of the pages. Plus more surprises and big plans are in store for 2009, so be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and keep on returning each day.

And last, but not least, a special thank you to all of the contributers responsible for the EPL Talk sister sites including Kartik Krishnaiyer (Major League Soccer Talk), Kevin Walker (Serie A Talk), Juan Arango (La Liga Talk), Mark Moll and Chris Murphy (Bundesliga Talk), Shakira Graham (Championship Talk), George Metellus (World Cup Buzz), Lonnie (Champions League Talk) as well as contributing writers Mike (from Starting 11) and Mitch Howard. If you’d like to write for EPL Talk and/or any of the sister sites, please contact me thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com.

As you can tell, 2008 has been one hell of a year for me. Thanks once again for your support, and I’d like to wish you and your family a safe and Happy New Year.

Best wishes,
The Gaffer

Thanks to everyone who voted for EPL Talk in the 2008 Soccerlens Awards. Alas, EPL Talk didn’t win, but we did achieve the runner-up spot in the Best British Blog category, as well as having the honor of narrowly beating The Guardian’s Football Weekly in the Best Football Podcast category. Take that Barry Glendenning ; )

In the coming weeks, stay tuned to EPL Talk for some big changes including a brand-new redesign, new podcast interviews, more posts and more. I won’t let the cat out of the bag quite yet, but I’m confident you’ll be pleased with the enhancements.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the EPL Talk contest this week. The winner of the Fox Soccer Channel bag packed with soccer merchandise is Douglas R. Fiumara. And the winner of the Love & Blood book by Jamie Trecker is Andrew Bredholt.

If you didn’t get a chance to vote for EPL Talk in the Best British Blog and Best Football Podcast in the Soccerlens awards, there’s still time. The deadline is Sunday night, December 14.

Thanks for the support.