Podcast Pickle changed my world.

PodcastPickle.com was one of the first podcast directories. It was a directory with a very active forum board, wrapped in a social atmosphere. At one time Podcast Pickle had an Alexa ranking under 5000.

Podcast Pickle went live in the early part of 2005. At the time there were not many podcasts in the world. Podcasting was so new it was hard to even find them. I still remember how excited I was when our 100'th podcast listed itself on the directory.

This certainly was not my first website. I probably had around ten websites by the time I started Podcast Pickle. The people I met, and the connections I made from Podcast Pickle changed the way I thought about the Internet forever. Many of these people are still good friends of mine almost 13 years later, and of course I am still podcasting. Now I am even in the Academy Of Podcasters Hall Of Fame.

Whenever I am at a podcasting event someone will refer to me as a podcast pioneer. I don't know about the pioneer part, but it was great to know people remembered me and my website

Time Magazine

Podcast Pickle. Countless people have told me that Podcast Pickle helped shape their podcasting careers. It gives me a wonderful feeling when someone tells me that. I could not think of a better compliment.

In 2006 Time Magazine honored Podcast Pickle by naming it one of the their Fifty Coolest Websites in the world. Here is the link to the Time Magazine Article.

The Podcast Pickle Mascot

You can also find Podcast Pickle listed on Wikipedia. Podcast Pickle was written about in the books Podcasting For Dummies, and The Business Podcasting Bible. I was also quoted in the books Tricks of The Podcast Masters, and Promoting Your Podcast. One of the coolest things that happened was being asked to judge the Parsec Awards. The Parsec Awards are the awards for Science Fiction Podcasts. I am still a judge to this date, and look forward to it every year.

Another fun fact about Podcast Pickle was our mascot. The Pickleman as I called him, was a hit anywhere he went. He went to Dragon Con, SXSW, Podcamp NY and Podcast Expo in California. People loved getting their photos taken with him. The Pickleman was a great way to advertise the website.

PodcastPickle.com changed my world. Today a lot of what I do on the net was formed from what I learned in the early days of podcasting.

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Many people know that I built my first website back in 1996, and that building that website was the start of my online world.

I actually tried to build that same website in 1994 but it was a little hard for me to figure it out. At the time, I had no computer skills, so I quickly gave up, and gave the idea a rest for a couple of years.

In 1996 I repurchased the domain name LelandsWallpaper.com again, and gave the site a second try.

At the time I talked to a few people that design websites to get prices, and other information. I knew that the new website would be a long term project, and that I would need to learn how to maintain the new site. I knew that I could not afford to pay someone to handle every update that I would need for the rest of my life. My goal was to hire someone that worked in house and could teach me how to maintain the site while building it.

Leland's Wallpaper Website Circa 1996

One day while I was sitting at the office I received a phone call from a new developer. The developer knew I was looking for someone to build a new site, and offered to build mine at half the price everyone else was charging back in 1996.

His voice sounded really strange. It was as if it was cracking, or breaking up. I finally realize it was a young person whose voice was changing, I asked him ” how old are you”. He replied I am 14.

I was shocked that I was on the phone with a 14 year old kid who was trying to charge me $40 an hour to build my site! I told him I would think about it, and call him back.

After I talked to him I immediately called the local high school, and asked to talk to the computer teacher. They connected me with the teacher, and I asked her if any of her kids could build a website.

“Everyone of my 3rd year students can” she said. I asked her to tell them I was looking to hire someone to help me build a company website.

The next day a student showed up and I hired him at $7.00 an hour. He worked for me until he finished college, and for a few years more.

I remember calling my vendors and asking if they had any images of wallpaper they could send me to use. Back in 1996 there were no digital cameras to use for taking photos.

All of my vendors laughed when I told them what I was trying to build. They all said ‘people will never buy wallpaper on the internet”. I always replied that I would, so I thought there were other that would too.

We ended up using scanners as they had been invented in 1996. We scanned wallpaper patterns out of the wallpaper books, and added them to the website.

It was a learning process for sure, but as we built the website I learned the basics of coding.

Don't get me wrong I am still not a great coder, but I can get most stuff accomplished with time. Also things are so much easier thanks to tools like WordPress and WooCommerce.

The Leland's Wallpaper Website Circa 2016

I am so glad I did not listen to all the people who told me how stupid I was to attempt to sell wallpaper on the internet.

Just as an FYI the site that I originally built in 1996 is still up and running, and business is as good as ever.

You can take a look at LelandsWallpaper.com

All My Fastpitch Softball Books In One Place.

I have written quite a few fastpitch softball books over the years and I realized that I didn't have a site where you could review them all and order the ones you wanted. FastpitchBooks.com serves as a one stop resource where you can order any of my books in paperback or for your e-reader.

At the moment I have fourteen books. Thirteen of the books were written by me and one, A Series Of Their Own, was written by a friend of mine. My books contain content over coaching, The Women's College World Series, and more. In addition, I have books that cover all the positions in fastpitch softball and give you effective drills to improve your game.

The following books were published by Fastpitch TV Publishing:

Fastpitch Softball Magazine Book 1
2016 Women's College World Series
A Series Of Their Own
Travel Ball Advice Book
The Fastpitch Book
Great Fastpitch Softball Questions Book 1
Great Fastpitch Softball Questions Book 2
Great Fastpitch Softball Questions Book 3
The Complete Book Of Softball Drills
Softball Catcher Drills
Softball Fielding Drills
Softball Hitting Drills
Softball Pitching Drills
Softball Running Drills

If you are interested in finding out more information on any of these books go to FastpitchBooks.com

Need A Domain Name?

If you know me, or if you have looked at all my websites you know that I own a lot of domain names.

At this time I guess I own around 600 different domain names. That may sound like quite a few, and you are correct it is.

Since I operate over 50 websites at the moment, and have many books, apps, and podcasts it may not be as many as it sounds like.

If you understand that I own the singular, and plural version of every domain name that is affiliated with any of my websites.

Then some are either investments, and others are for future use.

Many years ago I found out that I could open a GoDaddy sales account, and I did so right away.

That is how DillDomains.com was born.

I pay a yearly fee to be a reseller of GoDaddy products. Now this is not an affiliate program, it is more of a wholesale selling program.

Now I can sell domain names to anyone that is interested including myself.

In other words it allows me to buy my own domain names at wholesale. This saves me so much on domain names that I pay the yearly fee to GoDaddy, and still make money every year.

Other people also buy domain names from my site. I also make money from them every year when they renew.

If you are in need of a domain name consider using DillDomains.com. You will continue to get the same service you always get from GoDaddy. The only difference is that I will make a couple dollars.

Looking for a great listing of Softball Websites?

This is a WordPress Blog with posts about the top fastpitch softball websites, and resources on the internet. Every weekday I write a review/post about a website, video, book, app, or softball product.  I hope you are able to find this information useful in your search for great softball content.

This site is fastpitch softball information, and that is it. It has nothing else but fastpitch softball information. Like I said this is a simple site, but it should be very informative, and helpful to anyone who loves the game of fastpitch softball.

To take a look, and see what it has to offer go to PlanetSoftball.com

My Softball Travels

I have been traveling the United States for a few years now going to fastpitch softball events. Sometimes I go to clinics, and sometimes I go to games like the Women's College World Series. I go to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association every year too.

One thing you can bet I am doing everywhere I go is taking photos.

I have taken thousands of photos over the years. I actually take thousands of photos every year at the Women's College World Series alone.

After every event I edit all the photos, and add the Fastpitch TV watermark in the corner.

Then I upload all of them to SoftballShots.com.

These photos are available to anyone to use. SoftballShots.com is like a free library of softball photos. All I ask is that you give me credit, and add a link to Fastpitch.TV

Need a photo for a blog post? Go to SoftballShots.com and help yourself.

Want To Add Unique Designs To Your Coveralls?

At Martin High School here in Arlington, Texas the senior girls wear black Dickies coveralls to the football games on Friday nights.

This is a trend that has been the norm for many years. They even wore these when my daughters went to high school.

They buy the black Dickies coveralls, and have them customized with all types of embroidery. On the front they have their name embroidered over the pocket, and the Martin High School Rocking M Logo on the other chest.

On the back they add the large Martin High School Warrior Head. That's what's pretty much standard on every pair of coveralls we sell.

Then they personalize them with by choosing the designs that best reflect their personality. They add designs to the legs, arms, and wherever they feel they need a design.

We have thousands of designs that we can embroider on their coveralls, so there is little chance of them not finding what they need.

Take a look at MartinCoveralls.com

I doubt you are too surprised by the site name PodcastJunk.com. After all I operate BaseballJunk.com, SoftballJunk.com, and even SportsJunk.com. Since I am into podcasting, and websites with the word junk PodcastJunk.com is natural choice for a website domain.

The website basically sells Stuff for Podcasting, or should I say Junk for podcasting.

Of course we sell the standard items you would expect like podcasting books, and even some microphones.

But we also sell custom phone covers for podcaster. We actually add their logo to the phone cover. It is a cheap way to help you spread the word about your podcast.

The number one item we sell is in our clothing line. Many years ago my friend and fellow podcaster Scott Sigler made a licensing agreement.

As it happened Scott was getting ready to write a series of sci-fi book about a football league of the future named the Galactic Football League.

Seeing how I had a uniform shop we agreed I would provide custom football uniforms to his fans, and I would pay him a royalty on every sale.

It ended up that there were 8 books in the Galactic Football League Series so we have been selling the jerseys for quite a while.

They have been a great success, and Scotts fans love them. If you ever go to one of Scotts book signings or any other of his events you will see these orange jerseys everywhere.

Take a look at PodcastJunk.com

Did you know there was a World Softball Day? I guess there is a day for everything.

I did not know until a few years ago. As soon as I heard I looked up the domain name, and when I saw there was not a website in place, I bought the domain name right away.

I then made a website for World Softball Day. I even made a logo for World Softball Day. I make the statement about the logo because a couple of years later someone made a press release about how they had just made the first logo for World Softball Day. Weird if they had just searched World Softball Day they would of seen one was in place already.

On the website I sell caps for World Softball Day. While I do admit it is not my best selling product. It is not even my best selling cap, but the site is done and I really don't have to do much now except ship caps when orders do come in.

If you are interested in viewing this site just go to WorldSoftballDay.com

Girls wear headbands. That is just a fact, and softball players are no different. They wear headbands too.

One of the special things about Softball Headbands is the fact that they really do look like softballs. Maybe I should say they look like the seams on softball.

At first they were red seams on optic yellow leather. Yes, they looked exactly like they were made out of real softballs. Then they started coming in all kinds of colors. Colors like black, green, red, pink, and even zebra stripes.

These headbands were popping up on players all over the USA. They became so popular that I decided to make a website to sell them, and thus SoftballHeadband.com was created.

My niece came over to the house one afternoon, and I talked her into doing a photo shoot. She was a cute young girl, so we shot photo after photo of her wearing the headbands.

It may of taken longer to shoot all the photos then it took to make the website, but the site is great.

If you want to look at the large selection of headbands on the site just go to SoftballHeadband.com

While most gloves worn by baseball and softball players while batting are called batting gloves, the inventor of the Turboslot Gloves calls them hitting gloves.

Fred Willot invented the Turboslot Glove, and he calls them hitting gloves because they actually help you become a better hitter, rather than just helping with your grip the bat like most batting gloves do.

I met Fred many years ago when he still owned Turboslot Gloves, and he was a great guy. I was always impressed with how he could remember everyone name that he ever met. At least it seemed like he could.

I made my daughter try his Turboslot Gloves when she was in the 9th grade. The difference was amazing. It was so amazing she never used another batting glove again.

I asked Fred for permission to make a site with the domain TurboslotGloves.com. Of course, he replied. Anything to sell his gloves.

Fred ended up selling the Turboslot Glove patent to Easton Sports. I hope he made a lot of money.

Her is a video of Fred explaining how the Turboslot Gloves work.

My wife and I own a wallpaper store. I built a website for my wallpaper store back in 1996 at LelandsWallpaper.com.

One of the items we sell in the wallpaper store are murals made from wallpaper. These are very popular and are really pretty cool. Since we sell the murals I figured I might as well make a website to sell them, so MuralWallpaper.com was born.

This is another one of my one product line websites. The only thing on this site are murals, and nothing else but murals.

It is amazing how realistic some of these murals look.

Take a look for yourself at MuralWallpaper.com.

I have had the domain name Girls-Fastpitch-Softball.com for a long time, and I never really knew what to do with it.

Then one day it hit me. Why not make a website that was basically is a listing of websites for fastpitch softball players to use.

The page would list all kinds of stuff. Everything from catchers gear to Softball Facemasks. Books, Podcast, and more.

The really cool thing about this approach is the fact that I have so many fastptich softball resources.

I have so many in fact that the entire site has just my listings, and that is plenty enough to start off the site.

The listings on the site are as follows:

http://SoftballJunk.com
http://Faceguards.com
http://CatchersZone.com
http://BatTape.com
http://FastpitchFlowers.com
http://BaseCoachHelemts.com
http://SoftballHeadband.com
http://WeightedBalls.com
http://EyeBlackStickers.com
http://WristbandCoach.com
http://StrikeZoneMat.com
http://BuntSock.com
http://WindmillTrainer.com
http://BallStickers.com
http://Fastpitch.TV
http://FastpitchRadio.com
http://FastpitchSoftballMagazine.com
http://FastpitchUniversity.com
http://FastpitchCheers.com
http://WorldSoftballDay.com
http://USAfastpitch.com
http://SoftballCoaches.com

I also have listings for my iPhone apps, and my softball books.

As time goes by I will create more fastpitch related websites that I will add to this directory.

If you want to take a look just go to Girls-Fastpitch-Softball.com

This site was built to be a great resource for people looking for fastptich softball bats.

We list all of our fastpitch softball bats on this site. This makes it really easy to shop for your next softball bat since that is the only item listed on this website.

We list bats from Louisville Slugger, Demarini Sports, Miken Bats, and Rawlings Bats.

I guess you could say this is a one stop shop for fastptich softball bats.

If you are in the market for a new bat take a look at FastpitchBats.co

This website is a little different than most of my websites.

The majority of my websites sell physical products. By physical products I mean things like wallpaper, sporting goods, mini helmets, etc.

Quick Video Designs is more of a service company that sells custom video graphics. Things like video intros, video outros, and video transitions.

One of the amazing things about this site is the price and delivery time. I only charge $39.95 to make a custom graphic with sound. The delivery date is also fantastic. I deliver the custom video graphic within 24 hours from the time of purchase.

Yes, the price and delivery time are great, but the video designs themselves are fantastic too.

If you need a video graphic created you really need to check QuickVideoDesigns.com

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts I interview quite a few people in the world of fastpitch softball.

Many of the people I interview are college coaches. One day I noticed that there were only fourteen coaches that have won the Division 1 Women's College World Series, and that I had already interviewed most of them.

If you know me at all then you know that I took that as a challenge.

I decided to interview all fourteen of them.

At the time of this blog post I only have two left to interview to complete my goal.

Since I was so close to completing my goal I created the website SoftballCoaches.com so I could keep all the interviews on one site, and make it a resource for people researching about the Women's College World Series.

So if you would like to see the interiews I have conducted with the coaches just go to SoftballCoachers.com

There is one thing that is always true in girls fastpitch softball, and that is the fact that girls love to cheer when in the dug out.

Players can be any where from first graders to college level players, and they all love to cheer while in the dugout. Cheering is a way for them to get themselves pumped up, while having fun in a way that fits in the game.

It is so much a part of the game that I created a website just for fastpitch softball cheers.

First, I found two teams that would allow me to film them going through 25 different cheers. I filmed both teams and edited up the video into small clips. Then I added the text to each clip and FastpitchCheers.com was created.

As far as I know it is the only site on the net with not only the cheers in text, but videos and audio to go along with it,

If you are looking for some great cheers for your softball team go to FastpitchCheers.com

It is kind of funny the way things can change over time in the game of softball. A great example is the introduction of the Wristband Coach.

The Wristband Coach is really a simple tool that so many softball players use. Take a wristband and put an area for notes on it, and you have a Wristband Coach, and the notes are the plays the coach will be calling during the game.

On many softball teams they will give a Wristband Coach to every player on the team. I kind of think the pitcher and catcher would be sufficient, but I guess sharing the info with everyone might actually be a better move.

During the game, the coach sends in the pitch, or play as a signal, and the players can look at their notes on their wrist band and see what the play the signal corresponds to.

These have gotten so popular that we made a new website to sell them at WristbandCoach.com and they are selling great.

I have been heavily involved in girls fastpitch softball for many years. I actually coached a team in Texas to Two State Championships. My team was named Da'Bomb, and we won the fourteen year old, and the fifteen year old Texas State Championships.

I had a lot of great players on those teams, and those young ladies gave me everything they had when they were on the field.

While coaching this team I came out with several training aids, and one of them was Ball Stickers which I even sell at BallStickers.com.

Ball Stickers can be used on softballs or baseballs. They come in three shapes, squares, circles, and triangles. Then these three shapes come in three colors.

To use Ball Stickers you simply apply them to a ball. Then you start the player off with a simple task. As you toss the ball to the player they must identify the color of the sticker and announce the color before they hit the ball.

after they get use to this process they move to step two. Now in step two they say the color, and shape before they can swing at the ball.

This really makes a player learn to concentrate on the ball before they hit the ball, and in turn they become a better player.

Ball Stickers are simple, but effective.

You can buy Ball Stickers at BallStickers.com.

I started the Fastpitch TV Show about 10 years ago. During the 10 years that I have been recording and editing videos for the show I have interviewed 28 of the 35 olympians that played softball for the USA in the 4 Olympics Game that softball was a part of.

Shortly after I started interviewing Olympians I took up the challenge to interview every player that played softball for the USA Olympic team. Whenever I was preparing to interview a softball Olympian I would do a little research on the soon to be interviewee.

I quickly realized there was not a single source of information on the US Softball Olympians. Thus USAfastpitch.com was born.

USAfastpitch.com includes the bio of every US Softball Olympian. It turned out to be a great tool. Anytime I am at an event that an Olypian is at I can pull up her bio on the spot. This really helps me more than you think.

Now I have started adding my interviews to the player bios. I hope I have made something that will help document the sport of Softball and its involvement in The Olympics.