I am a NASCAR fan. There, I said it.
Yesterday one of the biggest races of the year took place at Daytona – The Daytona 500. As it turned out, it was the Daytona 520 and it took several hours longer than it should have. Why? A pothole formed in the track. What? A pothole in a race track in Florida? Yep – a pothole in a track in Florida. Yikes! Imagine going 190 mph and hitting a pothole – and in a car that is that close to the ground.
Here’s a quote from Holly Cain in an article at MotorSportsFanhouse.com
It was everything NASCAR could ask of its season-opener at Daytona International Speedway … except for a pesky pothole located between turns 1 and 2 that stands to cast a shadow on the spotlight the 33-year-old McMurray deserves to own all his own.
So often we hear of race car drivers battling the track. Perhaps not so literally.
NASCAR’s biggest race of the year was halted for two and a half hours for two lengthy repairs to the track surface — a super gaffe in the sanctioning body’s self-proclaimed Super Bowl.
NASCAR initially stopped the race on lap 123 and spent an hour and 42 minutes trying to repair a nine-inch hole located smack in the lower groove racing line. But because of recent heavy rains and unusually cold temperatures, workers had trouble finding the right material to seal the track, and it took longer than usual to seal.
Less than 40 laps later, drivers started noticing the surface breaking up again. Robby Gordon predicted a wreck. Greg Biffle was angry that the rocks coming up from track may have damaged the front splitter on his car.
So this is the question for you – does your WordPress Blog have potholes – broken links, boring posts, hard to follow navigation, no optin, no information about you? A pothole where it isn’t supposed to be is a good lesson for all of us – let’s check our blogs AND our businesses for potholes and fix them.
Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard







Funny, you should mention it.. I made a schedule to check for broken links once a week.. Just started my blog 2 weeks ago, and already had 4-5 broken links..
Is there a particular service you like to use for broken links? because my problem was that I saw I had broken links but then had the task of trying to figure out where they were. hmm
Long story to get to the point of potholes in the blogs – but you did hold my interest – and your points were valid. Time to go and check out my links and update stuff on my blog. thanks
Yes Dee – I use a plugin called Broken Link Checker – it checks your posts for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.
Cathy
Love the pothole analogy! This is a good one Cathy. Keep up the great work! Oh, I picked McMurray to win the 500 btw!
The Daytona ’520′ was a good one at the end!!
Cathy
Cool post Cathy. Tell me, does the broken link checker plugin also tell you where to go to fix the link in the code? Should we use Firebug, etc to locate the line error? Am I mixing apples with oranges or potholes with speedbumps?
Hey Rosie – you will see Broken Link Checker in your WP dashboard. It will tell you how many broken links there are and that will be clickable. When you click on it you will see exactly which links are broken.
Cathy
Thanks for the reminder, Cathy! I’m always amazed when I find something not working and wonder why only some people feel comfortable telling us when there is a glitch. We appreciate the heads up and always good to have regular checkups!
Cathy – Thanks for this timely reminder! We watched the “520″ and are still shaking our heads about the whole pothole issue. Thanks for sharing about the Broken Links Plugin. I’m installing it right now on my blogs and my clients’ blogs!
~R
An afterword – on of the local news anchors asked – if NASCAR can fix a pothole in an hour, why can’t we get ours fixed – ever?? Of course, their ‘first’ fix didn’t last and then they resorted to Bondo! Don’t think that would have lasted a long time either.
I actually went through a couple of my blogs at the beginning of the month to see if there were any broken links or missing pages or anything.
GREAT! A good way to avoid those potholes.
Cathy
Hi Cathy, I first heard about you with Diane Eble and you’re the one who got me turned onto WordPress.org. I now have a website. It wasn’t easy, but now I want to learn how to use the darn thing!! Thanks so much for all you do!! And I love the NASCAR analogy. And go Tony!!
)
I like Tony too – ‘Smoke’!
If you want to learn how to use your WordPress Site I recommend The WordPress WorkShop! It’s fun and you’ll learn a lot.
I’m getting GREAT feedback from previous workshop and current workshop people. The next one should begin in April.
Cathy