When it comes to writing on the web, you really don’t know what’s going to connect with the audience and translate into pageviews and reads.

Without an hour after posting my interview with UFC middleweight Nate Marquardt, I saw a news story cross the wires (well, Twitter) that hadn’t made it to Bleacher Report yet: the unannounced signing of BJ Penn vs. Matt Hughes III for November.

So I took a few minutes, wrote up a quick AP-style piece and posted it. To date, the news story has over 3700 reads and 70 comments while the Marquardt feature that took me several hours to do has just under 600 reads and 14 comments. Funny how that works, eh?

Even stranger, a few days later I was asked to do a quick news writeup of exiled-UFC’er Paul Daley signing with Strikeforce. Neither the fighter or the organization were really at the top of the MMA news cycle but to date, the story has over 5000 reads and 35 comments.  The post took about 2o minutes.

Here’s where I’ve been published the past few weeks:

MMA

UFC Fight Night: Nate Marquardt Looks To Be Award-Winning Wednesday Night

The afore-mentioned Marquardt feature which I thought turned out really good. I didn’t do the normal Q/A approach some others do and did more of a traditional magazine-style piece. The views may not be through the roof, but I’d put this up against other Marquardt feature out there.

UFC’s Greatest Fear Isn’t the Government: It’s Shine Fights

This was a column about the Shine Fights promotion and their complete lack of disregard for fighter safety by having a ring with ropes so loose, fighters were falling through them. Not good.

UFC Fight Night 22 Conference Call: Five Standout Quotes (B/R)

This was a compilation of some quotes from a somewhat bland media call for UFC Fight Night 22.

Paul Daley Signs With Strikeforce

BJ Penn/Matt Hughes III set for Detroit’s UFC 123

Radio/Podcasts

I joined Mauro Ranallo on the always awesome Fight Show, a show broadcast on Sirius 98 and TheScore.com.  We previewed the UFC Fight Night show, along with some TUF talk. The show aired on Wednesday, September 15 and is available on my audio archive page.

Email Marketing

I’ve had a great run of retweets for my SendLabs blogs, which would seem to mean that people are getting some value from them. Here’s what I’ve been writing about in my full-time gig.

An interview with BtoB Magazine

A big thanks to Karen Bannan and BtoB Magazine for interviewing yours truly earlier this week for an email marketing post on welcome emails. I hadn’t been interviewed on email marketing for a while now, so this was pretty cool.

The Red Sox hit a home run with email marketing automation

“Sitting on a supermarket bench Sunday, I did a quick inbox check while waiting for some friends and got a very effective email from an unexpected source  – specifically based on a previous purchase with a specific date on it….”

An Email Marketing Q&A With GY&K President Travis York

Just what the title says! Travis is a friend and heads up an agency we do a lot of work with.

Email Marketing Industry: That Chris Brogan Guy Is One Smart Fella

Internet darling Chris Brogan recently mentioned email marketing in a speech and it compelled me to write up a post. Chris even acknowledged the post on Twitter which was pretty cool.

Email Marketing Automation: The Ease And Greatness Of The Daily Recurring Email

A post on setting up daily recurring emails and how easy it is to do it.

3 Reasons Why The Welcome Email Is Important For Your Email Marketing Program

More email automation goodness.

Other

Things Were Different Then

My bud Darryl interviewed me for a post on what it’s like to cheer for the Red Sox at this time of year. I helped hook him up with his gig at Fire Brand Of The American League and he’s killing it for them so far. And yes, I do say in the piece that I hope the Yankees win the World Series but there’s a damn good reason. Read and you’ll see.

And as always, I’m available for hire on your next content project.

Josh Nason is a freelance journalist who has penned pieces for FIGHT! Magazine, Apollo (Australia) Magazine, Manchester Magazine and more. While he loves to write about mixed martial arts and email marketing, blogging about music and observations on life are passions as well. Follow him at Twitter.