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Motorcycle Views Newsletter for 08/16/2015

By Walter F. Kern

 Motorcycle Views Newsletter

Vol. 9, No. 18, August 16, 2015

Articles of Interest on Motorcycle Views:

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Recent Additions to the Motorcycle Views Website:

Motorcycle Information:

Back in 1999, I had been retired from my telephone technology job for just three years. I had worked there since I graduated from engineering school, a total of 35 years. I read somewhere that a large percentage of engineers die within three years of retiring. I didn't want to become part of that statistic.

I was already building websites as a part-time venture. One day I was trying to get a client's website known to the search engines of the day. One such service was the Mining Company. If you visited their site you found up to 1000 smaller subject-oriented websites each run by a so-called Guide whose job it was to search the Internet to find information on his or her subject and provide links so visitors to the site wouldn't have to search themselves. These Guides also had to write original articles on a regular basis, maybe two or three times a week and make these articles available on the site. I thought this was a neat idea, so I looked to see if they had any job openings. I found the subject Biking (meaning motorcycling) available, so I applied.

After a month of training, I was accepted to go live and immediately changed the subject from Biking to Motorcycles. I started with three pages. Within a few months, I was surprised to learn that the Mining Company had changed its name to About.com.

I spent seven and one-half years there and grew it to nearly 20,000 pages. I created four active motorcycle forums as well that were in the top 10 forums on About.com.

Eventually, About was purchased by the New York Times. I left About in 2006 and created my own website, Motorcycle Views, in 2007. I've been growing it ever since doing much the same things I did before except now I could be my own boss.

Over the years, I've watched my usage statistics closely and have noticed that most of my traffic comes directly from Internet searches, mainly from Google. Users pop in and out looking for answers to specific questions they have about motorcycling. Most don't even know where they are after they get to my site. I try to entice them a little by providing lots of links to important things on the site along with ads just outside the content that brought them to the site. After my three books came out in 2014, I added links on my pages so the books could be bought directly from Amazon. The books contained material that was already on the site. If I couldn't convey information in larger quantities from the Google searches, I thought maybe visitors might buy the books to get it.

The Motorcycle Views site is similar to a library with lots of information placed under individual subjects. Visitors come to the site looking for motorcycle information. I have had a few people tell me that once they arrived at the site for the first time, they decided to look around. They seemed to enjoy what they found and became regular visitors and sometimes even bookmarked my site for easy access. Many became contributors to the site by submitting user reviews, motorcycle stories, haiku poems, motorcycle tips, pictures of their bikes and themselves, salvage yards they liked, etc.

I keep an up-to-date list of motorcycle recalls, a directory of motorcycle salvage yards for each state, numerous picture galleries, motorcycle user reviews, motorcycle tales, motorcycle haiku poems, and countless articles for motorcycle beginners. I also have a lot of trike information since I rode a trike for 15 years after ten years on two wheels. I have a collection of antique motorcycle ads that was contributed by a visitor. My motorcycle glossary of terms contains hundreds of definitions. I have a listing of motorcycle books that I recommend. In the past few years, I have begun compiling a list of motorcycle seat heights. They seem to help in the decision-making process to select that perfect bike that will fit you. I have lists of rallies, clubs and associations, a packing list I created for myself and decided to share, a gallery of motorcycle tattoos, and, of course my 25 How-Tos I've been sharing here twice a month.

My article, 10 Ways to Be Safe on a Motorcycle, has gone a long way toward saving lives. I even had a visitor tell me he hung up a copy in his garage to remind him about how to be safe when riding.

About a year ago I created smartphone and tablet versions of my website. Now you can use you Android smartphone or iPhone to access my site. Just type in motorcycleviews.com on your smartphone or tablet to see the mobile version of Motorcycle Views.

My Makes and Models article tries to keep you up-to-date with all the models that the major manufacturers have each year. There you'll find links directly to every model on the manufacturer's website. I use it all the time. About this time of year, the manufacturers start revealing their new models and updating their websites. It's also the time I try to keep all the current model links updated on my Makes and Models pages. This newsletter shows the only two makes that have announced 2016 models: Victory and Suzuki (see below). You'll see mention of the remainder of the 2016 models in this newsletter as the year goes on.

So, please consider checking out the Motorcycle Views site to see what motorcycle information we have to offer. Hopefully, you will find something you like.

2016 Motorcycle Models:

As I mentioned above, the 2016 motorcycle models are starting to roll out. The following two makes, Victory and Suzuki, are the first.

2016 Victory Models

2016 Suzuki Models

Today's Motorcycle Views Poll:

I'm running one new Motorcycle Views Poll in each issue of the newsletter. Please participate in each poll so we can all find out what's happening in motorcycling.

Here's Poll No. 20: What will you do when you can't ride a motorcycle anymore?

The latest Motorcycle Views Poll also appears on the front page of the Motorcycle Views website.

ALL Motorcycle Views Polls

Today's How-To:

I will be featuring one of my How-Tos in each issue of the newsletter.

How To Ride a Motorcycle in the Winter

ALL Motorcycle How-Tos

Motorcycle Picture of the Month:

Motorcycle Picture of the Month - August, 2015 - 2015 Honda CB300fa:
See the August, 2015 Picture of the Month and previous pictures. If you'd like to be considered for Picture of the Month, send me a picture and description of your bike. Submit Picture.

My Book, 50 Wild Motorcycle Tales, is also available as an Audiobook (Audible) Edition on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible:

My new audiobook makes a great gift for those who want to listen instead of read.

I mentioned in previous Motorcycle Views newsletters that I would soon have an audiobook edition of my book, 50 Wild Motorcycle Tales. On April 14, 2015, that became a reality. The audiobook is available on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.

If you click the book cover (or click here), you can listen to a 5-minute sample of the audiobook and hear all three narrators, including one female voice and me.

Should you decide to buy and download the audiobook, I'd welcome any Amazon online reviews you might want to write after you have listened to the audiobook.

Remember, this new audiobook edition is also available for download on iTunes. That means you can access it on all your Apple devices including your iPhone and iPad.

Here are some very popular articles on the Motorcycle Views Site. Take a look:

Latest Motorcycle Pictures:

See the latest received pictures by category.



"This is my 2007 Honda Shadow Spirit VT1100C ... more. -- Dennis' Spirit"

My Motorcycle Books:

I hope you will take a look at my three motorcycle books, available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.com. These books make great, inexpensive gifts. In fact, you can purchase all three for less than $25 total. As I mentioned above, you will also be able to download each of the three color Kindle books FREE, IF you buy the corresponding paperback first.

My first book, Getting Started Riding a Motorcycle, was first published in 2011 but only as a Kindle edition. It was revised in 2014 and also made available in a paperback edition. Click the book cover to learn more about the book and how to buy it on Amazon.com.

My second book, 50 Wild Motorcycle Tales, contains a collection of stories that originally were only available on my website. Fifty of these stories were selected, intensively edited, and compiled into the book. I wrote five of the stories. The book is available in both paperback, Kindle, and audiobook (Audible) editions. Click the book cover to learn more about the book and how to buy it on Amazon.com. The Audible edition is also available for immediate download on iTunes and Audible.

My third book, Motorcycle Haiku Poetry, also available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle editions, contains haiku poems about motorcycles.

A surprising number of visitors to my site quickly caught on and enjoyed haiku poetry that had been submitted to me over the years from motorcyclists. Haiku is a simple poem of three lines with five syllables in the first and last lines and seven in the second line. Here's a sample haiku poem that's the latest user submission and may go in the next haiku book:

Biker Lightning

Dark Texas highway
Lightning cracks, my thunder rolls
Ozone and exhaust

—Bear Graves

They are easy to write, and most riders like to read them. I coupled each haiku poem with a motorcycle picture and description that tied into the poem itself. I wrote seven of the haiku poems. Click the book cover to learn more about the book and how to buy it on Amazon.com.

I have reduced the price of my three Kindle editions to $0.0 (FREE) IF you also first purchase the corresponding paperback edition. That way you can always have the book with you if you have a tablet or smartphone with you. None of the paperbacks has color pictures in them owing to the high price of producing a book with color. However, every Kindle edition has color pictures, so the Getting Started Riding a Motorcycle and Motorcycle Haiku Poetry Kindle books are in full color.

Help Grow Motorcycle Views:

The Motorcycle Views Website is here for you. We encourage you to submit a story, picture, poem, salvage yard recommendation, user review of your own bike, tattoo, YouTube video you made of your bike, motorcycle tip, etc. These will be evaluated for inclusion into one of our major features. Send us a submission today and share part of your motorcycling experience with our many readers. Read how to make a submission.

Send In Your Pictures:

We love pictures of your motorcycles. Even better is a picture of you with your bike. We also like descriptions of bikes so tell us all about your bike. What accessories do you have? What special paint job do you have? How long have you been riding? Tell us more. Women riders are especially requested to send their pictures in. Submit a Picture.

The Motorcycle Views Website is Also on your Smartphone or Tablet:

Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information.

Be sure to check out the Home Page on Motorcycle Views. It keeps changing daily, now containing links to hundreds of my original articles and features including Makes and Models, Picture Galleries, Motorcycle FAQ, Motorcycle Tips, Motorcycle How-Tos, Rallies, Videos and Movies, and User Reviews.

Social Media:

See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Walter F. Kern's Author Page on AmazonThanks again for coming along for the ride in this new edition of the Motorcycle Views Newsletter. -- Walter.

For New Subscribers:

Expect newsletters on Sunday afternoon every other week.

Please understand that the Motorcycle Views Newsletter is NOT the Motorcycle Views website. The newsletter provides a few links to content on the Motorcycle Views website. Once you click a link in the newsletter, you'll be getting access to content on the Motorcycle Views site.

If you'd like to view some recent newsletters, just go to the newsletter sign-up page and look below where my three motorcycle books are described for links.

Thanks for signing up for the Motorcycle Views Newsletter. Using this Newsletter, I'll keep you up-to-date with what's going on in the Motorcycle Views Blog, the Motorcycle Views Website, and the Motorcycle Views Forum. The forum has a new look as of February 13, 2015. Take a look. Not sure what a blog is? It's like a daily readout of what I'm thinking about, similar to a diary at times. Most often, I'm using mine right now to tell my visitors what has been added to the Motorcycle Views site.

See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube.

The Motorcycle Views Website is Also on your Smartphone or Tablet:

Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information.

END OF NEWSLETTER

All Previous Newsletters:

2016

2015

2014

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Walter's Books:
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Kindle, Paperback, and Audible Books

Walter's Audiobooks:
© 2016 Walter F. Kern. All rights reserved.