We hope you manage to get some games in over the holidays and the weather isn't too bad (see pictures below). All the very best with your clubs in 2009!
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Web Teams webmasters and all visitors to Web Teams.
We hope you manage to get some games in over the holidays and the weather isn't too bad (see pictures below). All the very best with your clubs in 2009!
We hope you manage to get some games in over the holidays and the weather isn't too bad (see pictures below). All the very best with your clubs in 2009!
Sunday 7 December 2008
The Best Football Scene in a Movie
What is the best football scene in a movie?
Here are a few clips below...
1. Kes
Anyone over 30 in the UK will remember PE lessons like this. No coaching, just a school kid of a PE teacher playing out his dreams on the football pitch.
Billy Casper is last one in the line up to be picked for the team, the teacher fills him with confidence "Casper, I've got to have you. Come on..."
2. The Great Escape
A collection of the football clips to music below. Pele and Sylvester Stallone in the same film!
3. Bend It Like Beckham
Keira Knightley before she became a Hollywood superstar and Jonathan Rhys Meyers before he became a young Henry VIII.
4. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Every Christmas there used to be a Disney special on ITV with clips from different films, this football clip from Bedknobs and Broomsticks was always there.
Can anyone else think of any great football scenes from movies?
Here are a few clips below...
1. Kes
Anyone over 30 in the UK will remember PE lessons like this. No coaching, just a school kid of a PE teacher playing out his dreams on the football pitch.
Billy Casper is last one in the line up to be picked for the team, the teacher fills him with confidence "Casper, I've got to have you. Come on..."
2. The Great Escape
A collection of the football clips to music below. Pele and Sylvester Stallone in the same film!
3. Bend It Like Beckham
Keira Knightley before she became a Hollywood superstar and Jonathan Rhys Meyers before he became a young Henry VIII.
4. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Every Christmas there used to be a Disney special on ITV with clips from different films, this football clip from Bedknobs and Broomsticks was always there.
Can anyone else think of any great football scenes from movies?
Wednesday 3 December 2008
Small Tweaks to the Match Report Page
A few tweaks have been made to the match report page. The screenshots below show the "before" and "after".
Any comments on this please reply to this blog post.
Before...
...and after
So, what are the benefits of these changes?
Great video
On a final note, check out how the webmaster from Soham Town Rangers has embedded the video above on his match report page:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/MatchReport.aspx?team=sohamtownrangersfc&mid=match54.xml
A great record of a super strike from Soham's Paul Jones.
For more details on how to add video content to your match reports and news items see:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/post-your-videos-on-web-teams.html
Please let us know what you think when we make small changes like this.
Any comments on this please reply to this blog post.
Before...
...and after
So, what are the benefits of these changes?
- Sometimes the previous layout spread across the browser wider than the banner at the top of the page. Check out the "Before" picture above. This was always a minor irritation.
- When a large match report was written it didn't wrap around the squad details area. Check out the white space to the bottom left on the "Before" picture above. This white space continued to the bottom of the match report.
- If a match video was embedded in the match report, it was very squashed on the page. Check out the screenshot below to see this looking much nicer.
Great video
On a final note, check out how the webmaster from Soham Town Rangers has embedded the video above on his match report page:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/MatchReport.aspx?team=sohamtownrangersfc&mid=match54.xml
A great record of a super strike from Soham's Paul Jones.
For more details on how to add video content to your match reports and news items see:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/post-your-videos-on-web-teams.html
Please let us know what you think when we make small changes like this.
Monday 1 December 2008
Your Pictures On The Homepage
A couple of weeks ago we asked if you'd like a picture of your team on our homepage:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/11/your-team-on-webteams-front-page.html.
Since then we've had some really good pictures emailed into us. However, rather than pick just one, our homepage now randomly picks a picture every time you visit:
http://www.webteams.co.uk
If you think you have a picture as good as one of those below and would like it on our homepage then please email it to support@webteams.co.uk - it must be good quality and not have a huge sponsorship board in front of it :)
A selection of some of the best photo's from you is below...
Sam from Horsley and Clandon FC sent this picture in. Non league football at its best
webteams.co.uk/horsleyclandon
Niki from Leeds City Juniors FC sent this great picture in. A super shot of youth football. Check out their site too for some excellent use of videos within their news items.
webteams.co.uk/leedscityjuniorsu13a
Liz from Poppleton Ladies FC sent this shot in. Even though it looks utterly freezing, everyone still has a smile on their face!
webteams.co.uk/shlfc
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/11/your-team-on-webteams-front-page.html.
Since then we've had some really good pictures emailed into us. However, rather than pick just one, our homepage now randomly picks a picture every time you visit:
http://www.webteams.co.uk
If you think you have a picture as good as one of those below and would like it on our homepage then please email it to support@webteams.co.uk - it must be good quality and not have a huge sponsorship board in front of it :)
A selection of some of the best photo's from you is below...
Sam from Horsley and Clandon FC sent this picture in. Non league football at its best
webteams.co.uk/horsleyclandon
Niki from Leeds City Juniors FC sent this great picture in. A super shot of youth football. Check out their site too for some excellent use of videos within their news items.
webteams.co.uk/leedscityjuniorsu13a
Liz from Poppleton Ladies FC sent this shot in. Even though it looks utterly freezing, everyone still has a smile on their face!
webteams.co.uk/shlfc
Wednesday 26 November 2008
WebTeams.co.uk in the Top 50
Sites such as Alexa.com give rough statistics on how many visitors a website gets.
There are also companies out there who package together statitics such as these into categories and sell these to marketing/advertising companies.
Well we have managed to get hold of the list of the UK's most popular football sites in October 2008 and are delighted to see that WebTeams.co.uk is in the Top 50!!!
A summary of the results are below. The values are in "absolutely unique visitors per month".
1. BBC.co.uk/Football - 5.8 million unique visitors - the biggest and best!
2. SkySports.com - 3.8 million
3. PremiumTV.co.uk - 2.0 million (these are the chaps who do Virgin Media and official sites for Man City, Sunderland, West Ham etc.)
4. 365MediaGroup.co.uk - 1.8 million (these chaps do football365, teamtalk, rivals etc.)
5. UK.Eurosport.Yahoo.com - 1.5 million
...
7. The Sun Sport - 853,000 (top of the list for the tabloids)
...
8. ManUtd.com - 743,000 (top of the list for the official club sites)
...
11. Guardian Sport - 567,000 (top of the list for the broadsheets)
...
45. NUFC.com - 145,000 (top of the unofficial club websites)
...
and
48. WebTeams.co.uk - 129,657 absolutely unqiue visitors (actual figure, not estimated).
So, we've just managed to sneak into the top 50!
Considering how many official Premier League football websites and how many extremely well financed media outlets (from ITV to The Times) there are in the UK - we're very proud.
As a final note...
...add a few rugby, formula one, american football and WWE wrestling websites into the mix and we move down to the number 63rd most visited Sports website in the UK.
There are also companies out there who package together statitics such as these into categories and sell these to marketing/advertising companies.
Well we have managed to get hold of the list of the UK's most popular football sites in October 2008 and are delighted to see that WebTeams.co.uk is in the Top 50!!!
A summary of the results are below. The values are in "absolutely unique visitors per month".
1. BBC.co.uk/Football - 5.8 million unique visitors - the biggest and best!
2. SkySports.com - 3.8 million
3. PremiumTV.co.uk - 2.0 million (these are the chaps who do Virgin Media and official sites for Man City, Sunderland, West Ham etc.)
4. 365MediaGroup.co.uk - 1.8 million (these chaps do football365, teamtalk, rivals etc.)
5. UK.Eurosport.Yahoo.com - 1.5 million
...
7. The Sun Sport - 853,000 (top of the list for the tabloids)
...
8. ManUtd.com - 743,000 (top of the list for the official club sites)
...
11. Guardian Sport - 567,000 (top of the list for the broadsheets)
...
45. NUFC.com - 145,000 (top of the unofficial club websites)
...
and
48. WebTeams.co.uk - 129,657 absolutely unqiue visitors (actual figure, not estimated).
So, we've just managed to sneak into the top 50!
Considering how many official Premier League football websites and how many extremely well financed media outlets (from ITV to The Times) there are in the UK - we're very proud.
As a final note...
...add a few rugby, formula one, american football and WWE wrestling websites into the mix and we move down to the number 63rd most visited Sports website in the UK.
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Your Team on the WebTeams Front Page?
How would you like a photo of your team to be on the front page of www.webteams.co.uk?
We get 1 million unique visitors every year. To get your team photo or an action shot from one of your games up on the front page then please email a picture to support@webteams.co.uk by November 30th 2008.
What we want doesn't have to be perfect quality, but it must show the spirit of amateur football.
We get 1 million unique visitors every year. To get your team photo or an action shot from one of your games up on the front page then please email a picture to support@webteams.co.uk by November 30th 2008.
What we want doesn't have to be perfect quality, but it must show the spirit of amateur football.
Monday 10 November 2008
Fundraising Case Study
A few teams have now opted to raise funds for their club using EasyFundRaising (see Make Your Website Earn Your Club Money).
Two of these are Penyffordd Panthers and Barrow Celtic Football Club
Penyffordd Panthers
The Panthers have used Web Teams for three seasons now, they get around 700 visits to their homepage each month.
Webmaster Paul Cain has decided to give the EasyFundRaising idea a go and explains,
"So far we have raised around £8 in the first month. We placed the video on the News Items and had 500 business cards printed, which we have given out to players families to try and encourage people to use it.
With Christmas coming up I'm hopeful that people will use the system when doing Internet orders as you could potentially raise about £5-£10 per month which could be £100 a year (useful to put towards additional kit, or equipment) for very little effort.
We sent out reminders when giving out letters to players for the next match, I think the key thing is getting someone to do it once (first spend) and then they see it's actually straightforward. I might try and do a simple step by step instructions for those who thinks it's going to be complicated or find another YouTube video that explains it better."
Example payments
Barrow Celtic Football Club
Barrow Celtic have also started encouraging their site visitors to use EasyFundRaising. Webmaster Stephen Quinn also believes it will be possible to make £10 a month that will help with equipment and club funds,
"...We've only just started using it, but i think £10 a month is possible in a couple of months when people get used to using it. ive advertised it on the site and also our Facebook page and will be printing some of the pre written info available on the site, for our players meeting on Saturday."
From a Web Teams point of view we see this as being a nice little idea that can supplement fundraising activities such as domino cards and betting sheets for any amateur team. It probably does need a little bit of effort in persuading players/fans/parents to go through "the system" - but it's not a bad idea to make your website earn a little money for your club.
Finally, one other thing we've noticed is that lots of Web Teams sites are posting their club sponsors within their page. Why not see if these sponsors are willing to pay £10/£20 for this advert and it may bring in a little bit more. It'll maybe help with buying some balls, or cones, or bibs, or the end of year tour to Blackpool...
If anyone other clubs have any fundraising tips - please add your comments to this blog post.
Two of these are Penyffordd Panthers and Barrow Celtic Football Club
Penyffordd Panthers
The Panthers have used Web Teams for three seasons now, they get around 700 visits to their homepage each month.
Webmaster Paul Cain has decided to give the EasyFundRaising idea a go and explains,
"So far we have raised around £8 in the first month. We placed the video on the News Items and had 500 business cards printed, which we have given out to players families to try and encourage people to use it.
With Christmas coming up I'm hopeful that people will use the system when doing Internet orders as you could potentially raise about £5-£10 per month which could be £100 a year (useful to put towards additional kit, or equipment) for very little effort.
We sent out reminders when giving out letters to players for the next match, I think the key thing is getting someone to do it once (first spend) and then they see it's actually straightforward. I might try and do a simple step by step instructions for those who thinks it's going to be complicated or find another YouTube video that explains it better."
Example payments
Barrow Celtic Football Club
Barrow Celtic have also started encouraging their site visitors to use EasyFundRaising. Webmaster Stephen Quinn also believes it will be possible to make £10 a month that will help with equipment and club funds,
"...We've only just started using it, but i think £10 a month is possible in a couple of months when people get used to using it. ive advertised it on the site and also our Facebook page and will be printing some of the pre written info available on the site, for our players meeting on Saturday."
From a Web Teams point of view we see this as being a nice little idea that can supplement fundraising activities such as domino cards and betting sheets for any amateur team. It probably does need a little bit of effort in persuading players/fans/parents to go through "the system" - but it's not a bad idea to make your website earn a little money for your club.
Finally, one other thing we've noticed is that lots of Web Teams sites are posting their club sponsors within their page. Why not see if these sponsors are willing to pay £10/£20 for this advert and it may bring in a little bit more. It'll maybe help with buying some balls, or cones, or bibs, or the end of year tour to Blackpool...
If anyone other clubs have any fundraising tips - please add your comments to this blog post.
Monday 20 October 2008
Web Teams on your Mobile Phone
In the last twelve months the number of people with Internet access on their mobile phones has gone through the roof.
There will be at least one player in your team with the Internet on their mobile phone in the changing room before the game or in the pub after the game.
So from today, they can get a special version of your Web Teams site on their mobile.
To do this, it's very simple.
1. Go to your Web Teams site on the phone
2. Click the "Low graphics" hyperlink at the top of the page
3. Bookmark the site within the phone's memory
The two screenshots below show the "Low graphics" hyperlink on the full Web Teams page and then the smaller, leaner Web Teams page as it looks on a mobile phone:
The advantages of the "Low graphics" page on a mobile phone are:
1. All of the information can be seen on a small screen
2. Only the really important information is downloaded - if you have a low speed Internet connection then this is massively important.
Consider the current Tipton Town FC site http://www.webteams.co.uk/tiptontownfc
Their homepage has 48KB worth of text, 53KB of pictures and some javascript and css files to download. This is well over 100KB in size and can be very frustrating if you have a slow connection.
The equivalent "Low graphics" version is only 14KB in size. It will download around eight times quicker AND fit your mobile phone screen nicely.
If you do use your mobile phone to access Web Teams - please let us know.
If you want the facility to quickly enter news items to your site from your mobile - again, please let us know.
UPDATE (23 October)
Since this feature went live on 19th October over 300 unique visitors have been to a Web Teams page on their mobile! The Eastport South Manor news items page has proved to be the most popular so far:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/NewsItemsLowRes.aspx?team=esm
It's early days, but it's nice to know that this seems to be a successful addition to the Web Teams service:
There will be at least one player in your team with the Internet on their mobile phone in the changing room before the game or in the pub after the game.
So from today, they can get a special version of your Web Teams site on their mobile.
To do this, it's very simple.
1. Go to your Web Teams site on the phone
2. Click the "Low graphics" hyperlink at the top of the page
3. Bookmark the site within the phone's memory
The two screenshots below show the "Low graphics" hyperlink on the full Web Teams page and then the smaller, leaner Web Teams page as it looks on a mobile phone:
The advantages of the "Low graphics" page on a mobile phone are:
1. All of the information can be seen on a small screen
2. Only the really important information is downloaded - if you have a low speed Internet connection then this is massively important.
Consider the current Tipton Town FC site http://www.webteams.co.uk/tiptontownfc
Their homepage has 48KB worth of text, 53KB of pictures and some javascript and css files to download. This is well over 100KB in size and can be very frustrating if you have a slow connection.
The equivalent "Low graphics" version is only 14KB in size. It will download around eight times quicker AND fit your mobile phone screen nicely.
If you do use your mobile phone to access Web Teams - please let us know.
If you want the facility to quickly enter news items to your site from your mobile - again, please let us know.
UPDATE (23 October)
Since this feature went live on 19th October over 300 unique visitors have been to a Web Teams page on their mobile! The Eastport South Manor news items page has proved to be the most popular so far:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/NewsItemsLowRes.aspx?team=esm
It's early days, but it's nice to know that this seems to be a successful addition to the Web Teams service:
Monday 13 October 2008
Web Teams and Google
As Google dominate the internet so much, at Web Teams we are aware of the importance of getting your site into the Google search index.
If you set up your own website from scratch it can take months to get into the Google search index and years to move up the rankings to the top results. Maybe try doing a search for "search engine optimization" (SEO) and check out how much companies pay to be high up on the Google rankings.
Well, with Web Teams, you do not have to worry about any of that. We make sure that all of our pages are designed so that they are very easy for Google to index. We have our site map registered with Google and as a top 100 UK Sports site Google spider all of our team sites regularly.
A few examples of this are demonstrated below:
1. Frequency of index
Red Hill FC, who have been with Web Teams for three or four seasons, posted a news item on Sunday 12th October. By Monday 13th October this news item was in the Google index.
2. New sites
CHESLYN HAY F.C under 11s joined Web Teams on Monday 6th October. Doing a Google search for CHESLYN HAY F.C 11s will return search results for their site (less than seven days later!)
3. Top returns
Do a Google search for Boreham Wood, the first search result is for their Web Teams site. Please note that incredibly the Web Teams site is higher on the search returns than the actual Wikipedia site for the town Boreham Wood!
Why not try this for your site? - pick a phrase from one a news item from one or two weeks ago and see how high up your site is in the Google index.
Remember other methods to move your site up the Google index include:
If you set up your own website from scratch it can take months to get into the Google search index and years to move up the rankings to the top results. Maybe try doing a search for "search engine optimization" (SEO) and check out how much companies pay to be high up on the Google rankings.
Well, with Web Teams, you do not have to worry about any of that. We make sure that all of our pages are designed so that they are very easy for Google to index. We have our site map registered with Google and as a top 100 UK Sports site Google spider all of our team sites regularly.
A few examples of this are demonstrated below:
1. Frequency of index
Red Hill FC, who have been with Web Teams for three or four seasons, posted a news item on Sunday 12th October. By Monday 13th October this news item was in the Google index.
2. New sites
CHESLYN HAY F.C under 11s joined Web Teams on Monday 6th October. Doing a Google search for CHESLYN HAY F.C 11s will return search results for their site (less than seven days later!)
3. Top returns
Do a Google search for Boreham Wood, the first search result is for their Web Teams site. Please note that incredibly the Web Teams site is higher on the search returns than the actual Wikipedia site for the town Boreham Wood!
Why not try this for your site? - pick a phrase from one a news item from one or two weeks ago and see how high up your site is in the Google index.
Remember other methods to move your site up the Google index include:
- Get others webmasters to link to your site
- Post your URL as a signature on any posts you make to newsgroups or discussion forums
- Add a couple of news items and a match report each week to your site
- Post your URL on your town's Wikipedia page
Monday 22 September 2008
Make Your Website Earn Your Club Money!
You have a Web Teams site, all of the players and fans visit it, how can you make the website earn your club money???
Well earlier this year we were alerted to the excellent easyfundraising.org.uk website (click logo below).
All you have to do is register your football club with their site and then whenever your players/fans shop online, up to 15% of the value of their spend comes back to your club.
Here's a link to one of their press releases on the reputable website fundraising.co.uk
http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2008/05/08/easyfundraising-website-raises-over-%C2%A3350000
Here's a link to register your club and get started:
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk
In terms of the names of some of the retailers involved, here's a quick list:
If you can get 10 people (yourself included) to push 5% of an average £500 annual online spend through your club then that could be a cheque for £250.
You can promote the EasyFundraising idea through a news item on your site and of course your site links and site sponsor areas.
Update (10th November)
Check out a couple of Case Studies for sites using this idea:
- Fundraising Case Study
Well earlier this year we were alerted to the excellent easyfundraising.org.uk website (click logo below).
All you have to do is register your football club with their site and then whenever your players/fans shop online, up to 15% of the value of their spend comes back to your club.
Here's a link to one of their press releases on the reputable website fundraising.co.uk
http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2008/05/08/easyfundraising-website-raises-over-%C2%A3350000
Here's a link to register your club and get started:
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk
In terms of the names of some of the retailers involved, here's a quick list:
If you can get 10 people (yourself included) to push 5% of an average £500 annual online spend through your club then that could be a cheque for £250.
You can promote the EasyFundraising idea through a news item on your site and of course your site links and site sponsor areas.
Update (10th November)
Check out a couple of Case Studies for sites using this idea:
- Fundraising Case Study
Tuesday 9 September 2008
A Permanent Fixture?
We have had 7 or 8 users telling us that they have been having problems adding fixtures to their Web Teams site in the last couple of months.
Pretty much all of these reports are from users with aol.com email addresses.
It looks pretty likely that the AOL version of the web browser was not happy for some reason with our Add Fixtures site admin page. (Technical note: pretty certain this was a security clamp down on the window.showModalDialog method).
So now we have changed the Add Fixtures page so that you enter your fixtures inline within the single page. When you are happy with what you have added, you click Submit. The screenshots below show this in action.
As this page is now pretty new, please report any unusual behaviour to us:
support@webteams.co.uk
Pretty much all of these reports are from users with aol.com email addresses.
It looks pretty likely that the AOL version of the web browser was not happy for some reason with our Add Fixtures site admin page. (Technical note: pretty certain this was a security clamp down on the window.showModalDialog method).
So now we have changed the Add Fixtures page so that you enter your fixtures inline within the single page. When you are happy with what you have added, you click Submit. The screenshots below show this in action.
As this page is now pretty new, please report any unusual behaviour to us:
support@webteams.co.uk
Monday 8 September 2008
Back to School
To get to where Web Teams is today we've had good ideas and some not so good ideas.
One area of Web Teams that we worked on a few years back was the "fun" area.
Banana Football in particular was a success and for a few months got some good world wide publicity.
Play Banana Football Now!
One game however that sadly didn't ever see the light of day was Web Sums...
...until today!
The idea was to wrap up the classic Little Professor computer game from 1980 that the Blog Editor used to play as a 6 year old... and put a modern spin on things with a comedy Wayne Rooney cartoon face.
Play Web Sums Now!
For those with kids, it isn't a bad little game to get them to do a bit of maths, And for those big kids, come and have a go if you think you're clever enough.
The Blog Editor can do a sub 8 second time on basic addition and a sub 20 second time on advanced multiplication (and that is with 13x14 thrown in).
One area of Web Teams that we worked on a few years back was the "fun" area.
Banana Football in particular was a success and for a few months got some good world wide publicity.
Play Banana Football Now!
One game however that sadly didn't ever see the light of day was Web Sums...
...until today!
The idea was to wrap up the classic Little Professor computer game from 1980 that the Blog Editor used to play as a 6 year old... and put a modern spin on things with a comedy Wayne Rooney cartoon face.
Play Web Sums Now!
For those with kids, it isn't a bad little game to get them to do a bit of maths, And for those big kids, come and have a go if you think you're clever enough.
The Blog Editor can do a sub 8 second time on basic addition and a sub 20 second time on advanced multiplication (and that is with 13x14 thrown in).
Sunday 31 August 2008
Web 2.0 Teams
One of the big buzz words about the world wide web currently is Web 2.0.
In simple terms this is about the recent changing trends on the internet. The internet used to be a place to market your company - a brochure on the web. It is now a place where a community can be created, content and functionality can be pulled from other websites and your content can be made available to other sources.
We'd like to think that Web Teams has always been a bit of a Web 2.0 type of a website.
1. No HTML skills, no problem
Web Teams would have nothing if it wasn't for the team sites. These are created by you.
For our part, we have produced the template site design and the code behind to allow you to enter your match reports and news items. This gives you a great looking football website without having to be a HTML genius.
But it's the power of the community of people who use and visit Web Teams that makes the site what it is. Since 1999, over 10,000 team sites have been created - we're very proud of this fact.
2. Sharing video content
You can now upload videos from your mobile phones to YouTube. You can embed these videos in your match reports and news items. You want to show your star striker scoring the winning penalty on the Saturday afternoon? Get your mobile phone or camera out, video it and have it up on your Web Teams site by Saturday night.
3. Your latest content wherever you want it
Our previous blog post Go Go Web Teams Gadget explained how you can get the latest news from your site on your Windows Vista Desktop or your Google Homepage.
4. Share any content on Facebook
One or two of you may have heard of a little website called Facebook that's doing quite well in the UK?
Well, you can click on a news item or match report or player page within Web Teams to post that content to your Facebook profile. Your Facebook friends can then get this information and comment on this.
In simple terms this is about the recent changing trends on the internet. The internet used to be a place to market your company - a brochure on the web. It is now a place where a community can be created, content and functionality can be pulled from other websites and your content can be made available to other sources.
We'd like to think that Web Teams has always been a bit of a Web 2.0 type of a website.
1. No HTML skills, no problem
Web Teams would have nothing if it wasn't for the team sites. These are created by you.
For our part, we have produced the template site design and the code behind to allow you to enter your match reports and news items. This gives you a great looking football website without having to be a HTML genius.
But it's the power of the community of people who use and visit Web Teams that makes the site what it is. Since 1999, over 10,000 team sites have been created - we're very proud of this fact.
2. Sharing video content
You can now upload videos from your mobile phones to YouTube. You can embed these videos in your match reports and news items. You want to show your star striker scoring the winning penalty on the Saturday afternoon? Get your mobile phone or camera out, video it and have it up on your Web Teams site by Saturday night.
3. Your latest content wherever you want it
Our previous blog post Go Go Web Teams Gadget explained how you can get the latest news from your site on your Windows Vista Desktop or your Google Homepage.
4. Share any content on Facebook
One or two of you may have heard of a little website called Facebook that's doing quite well in the UK?
Well, you can click on a news item or match report or player page within Web Teams to post that content to your Facebook profile. Your Facebook friends can then get this information and comment on this.
Monday 18 August 2008
Go Go Web Teams Gadget!
One Web Teams feature that visitors to your site may not be aware of is the Web Teams Gadget.
This feeds live news from your site to either your Windows Vista Desktop or your Google homepage.
The screenshot below shows the gadget working on Windows Vista. Click here to find out more about the Windows Vista Gadget
The screenshot below shows the gadget working on your Google homepage. Click here to find out more about the Google Gadget
This feeds live news from your site to either your Windows Vista Desktop or your Google homepage.
The screenshot below shows the gadget working on Windows Vista. Click here to find out more about the Windows Vista Gadget
The screenshot below shows the gadget working on your Google homepage. Click here to find out more about the Google Gadget
Thursday 7 August 2008
The Football Season Starts Here
This weekend marks pretty much the start of the football season in the UK with the Charity Shield, the start of the main football leagues in England and Scotland.
At Web Teams we're going to stick our neck on the line in this blog post and predict the winners of each of the main leagues. If you think you can do better - then please add a comment to this post and we'll check in 9 or 10 months to see if anyone got their predictions correct.
English Premiership: Arsenal
English Championship: QPR
English 1st: Leeds
English 2nd: Darlington
Scottish Premier: Celtic
Web Team is going stronger than ever - so thanks to everyone for continuing to use the service. We've never had so many sites running at this stage of the year. This Blog is also getting a large number of hits, around 300 people a day read it - but please add your comments and make it more of a community (add comments link below this post).
We leave you with two YouTube videos:
1. English Premiership Goals of the Season 07/08
...and for those that don't like Ronaldo back heels and want to see "proper football" on "proper pitches", here are some great goals from the 1970's...
2. English Goals of the Season 1972-1982
At Web Teams we're going to stick our neck on the line in this blog post and predict the winners of each of the main leagues. If you think you can do better - then please add a comment to this post and we'll check in 9 or 10 months to see if anyone got their predictions correct.
English Premiership: Arsenal
English Championship: QPR
English 1st: Leeds
English 2nd: Darlington
Scottish Premier: Celtic
Web Team is going stronger than ever - so thanks to everyone for continuing to use the service. We've never had so many sites running at this stage of the year. This Blog is also getting a large number of hits, around 300 people a day read it - but please add your comments and make it more of a community (add comments link below this post).
We leave you with two YouTube videos:
1. English Premiership Goals of the Season 07/08
...and for those that don't like Ronaldo back heels and want to see "proper football" on "proper pitches", here are some great goals from the 1970's...
2. English Goals of the Season 1972-1982
Thursday 31 July 2008
Attract more Visitors to your Site
Some weeks ago we posted a post on what team sites got the most visitors (read article).
Here are five quick tips how to maximise the traffic to your Web Teams site.
1. Get higher up the Google search results
To get higher up the search results in Google you should do two simple things A. update your site regularly and B. Get as many other sites to link to yours.
2. Add your web address to the bottom of your emails
If you write an email, use an email signature at the bottom such as
Regards,
Joe Bloggs
Fulchester United
www.webteams.co.uk/fulchesterunited
3. Mention the site in your match programme
Put the web address on the front of your programme. Maybe also have an advert in your programme for the site telling fans to check for the latest news.
4. Post regular news items
Visitors come back to a site again and again if they know there is good content on it. Get your team manager or chairman or captain to write a few words each week for the site and post these as a news item.
5. Tell others on the web about your site
There are loads of discussion forums and football blogs on the Internet. Post some articles on these forums telling others about your club. Also if you ever post any comments, remember to sign off with your web address as you would in an email signature.
Here are five quick tips how to maximise the traffic to your Web Teams site.
1. Get higher up the Google search results
To get higher up the search results in Google you should do two simple things A. update your site regularly and B. Get as many other sites to link to yours.
2. Add your web address to the bottom of your emails
If you write an email, use an email signature at the bottom such as
Regards,
Joe Bloggs
Fulchester United
www.webteams.co.uk/fulchesterunited
3. Mention the site in your match programme
Put the web address on the front of your programme. Maybe also have an advert in your programme for the site telling fans to check for the latest news.
4. Post regular news items
Visitors come back to a site again and again if they know there is good content on it. Get your team manager or chairman or captain to write a few words each week for the site and post these as a news item.
5. Tell others on the web about your site
There are loads of discussion forums and football blogs on the Internet. Post some articles on these forums telling others about your club. Also if you ever post any comments, remember to sign off with your web address as you would in an email signature.
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Get a Club Page
If your club has multiple Web Teams team sites then we can provide you with a club overview page for free.
This will be a single page that sits above your Web Teams team sites and feeds off the information within these and automatically updates.
The best way to show this feature off is with screenshots and example club sites:
Fig 1. Credit Suisse site above for their first and second team.
Other club sites you may want to browse include:
If you would like an overview page for your club then send an email to info@webteams.co.uk. This is a free feature for all clubs that have three or more paid for Web Teams team sites.
This will be a single page that sits above your Web Teams team sites and feeds off the information within these and automatically updates.
The best way to show this feature off is with screenshots and example club sites:
Fig 1. Credit Suisse site above for their first and second team.
Other club sites you may want to browse include:
- Bridport FC's page for the first, reserve and third team.
- Poulton Victoria's page for the first and second team.
- Withymoor Colt's page for the ten of their youth teams from unders 9's to under 17 girls.
If you would like an overview page for your club then send an email to info@webteams.co.uk. This is a free feature for all clubs that have three or more paid for Web Teams team sites.
Wednesday 16 July 2008
How to Archive your Site
We've had a few emails coming in over the last few weeks querying how to archive a Web Teams site so it is ready for the new season.
It's hopefully quite easy - but here's a few screenshots below that should help...
1. Click the Archive Site option within your site admin area
2. Click to confirm
This then does a few things:
If you want to know more about the archive process please check out our help page on this:
- http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help017.aspx
It's hopefully quite easy - but here's a few screenshots below that should help...
1. Click the Archive Site option within your site admin area
2. Click to confirm
This then does a few things:
- Your previous season's site is archived
- You must return to the team entry page and set up your site for the new season
- Once your new site is set up - links to the old site(s) will be automatically added
- Previous season's data is also used on player stats pages
If you want to know more about the archive process please check out our help page on this:
- http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help017.aspx
Sunday 6 July 2008
See the Bigger Picture
A couple of small enhancements to tell folks about:
1. How to quickly see a bigger picture of the main team picture
Web Teams sites have a 300 pixel wide team picture at the top (see Fig 1.1 below). This allows us to show your news items and match report headlines near to the top of the page. However, if you quickly want to see a bigger version of a site's team picture. Just click on the image and a 600 pixel wide picture will be shown (see Fig 1.2 below).
Fig 1.1 Small picture
Fig 1.2 Big picture
2. Slightly bigger player pictures
The size of the player pictures you upload will now be 100 pixels wide, a little bigger than the 80 pixels it has previously been. This is now possible due to our wider site size compared with last year - so we have a little more room to squash bigger pictures on the squad page.
Fig 2. The blog editor as a three year old!!!
1. How to quickly see a bigger picture of the main team picture
Web Teams sites have a 300 pixel wide team picture at the top (see Fig 1.1 below). This allows us to show your news items and match report headlines near to the top of the page. However, if you quickly want to see a bigger version of a site's team picture. Just click on the image and a 600 pixel wide picture will be shown (see Fig 1.2 below).
Fig 1.1 Small picture
Fig 1.2 Big picture
2. Slightly bigger player pictures
The size of the player pictures you upload will now be 100 pixels wide, a little bigger than the 80 pixels it has previously been. This is now possible due to our wider site size compared with last year - so we have a little more room to squash bigger pictures on the squad page.
Fig 2. The blog editor as a three year old!!!
Sunday 29 June 2008
Post your videos on Web Teams!
At Web Teams our thinking has always been to concentrate on providing great football related functionality. Where another company does something really well for example Google with their graphs, or Facebook with their posted links, we look to utilise their technology.
The clear leader on the web for videos is obviously YouTube.com. And YouTube.com allow you to embed their videos on any site.
At Web Teams we have now allowed you to embed YouTube.com videos on your site.
To add a video to your site you must first post it on YouTube.com.
A simple way of doing this is to video a bit of your match on your digital camera. Then use Windows Media Maker to make it into a WMV file. Then logon to YouTube.com and upload it to the web.
Once your video is live, you need to get the unique id from the YouTube URL. The screenshot below shows this. Note that the characters before the id are v=
Add this unique Id to your Web Teams news item. Click preview to check it is OK.
Your video is displayed on your Web Teams site!
Why not upload some of your videos from your games and then post a comment on this blog post so others can view them?
The clear leader on the web for videos is obviously YouTube.com. And YouTube.com allow you to embed their videos on any site.
At Web Teams we have now allowed you to embed YouTube.com videos on your site.
To add a video to your site you must first post it on YouTube.com.
A simple way of doing this is to video a bit of your match on your digital camera. Then use Windows Media Maker to make it into a WMV file. Then logon to YouTube.com and upload it to the web.
Once your video is live, you need to get the unique id from the YouTube URL. The screenshot below shows this. Note that the characters before the id are v=
Add this unique Id to your Web Teams news item. Click preview to check it is OK.
Your video is displayed on your Web Teams site!
Why not upload some of your videos from your games and then post a comment on this blog post so others can view them?
Tuesday 24 June 2008
How many visitors?
Now that it is pretty much the end of the 2007/08 football season, it is with interest we look at our visitor statistics...
The team that attracted the most visitors to their home page was Boreham Wood from the Ryman Premier League. Their home page alone received over 48,000 unique visitors!
To put this into perspective. Only four Premiership stadiums could sit this many people (Old Trafford, The Emirate Stadium, St James, Stadium of Light). If this many people tried to fit into the City of Manchester Stadium there would be over 200 left over standing in the car park.
Boreham Wood also had the most hits for a match report (Boreham Wood 1 AFC Wimbledon 0 - 800 unique) and for a player (their top scorer Simon Thomas - 1,200 unique).
But other sites were most popular in other areas.
Redhill FC from the Sussex County League posted nearly 360 news items! This attracted over 15,000 unique visitors who read their news.
Over 2,000 unique visitors browsed the excellent photographs displayed on Romulus FC's website.
The fun fantasy stats where most popular on lower league team sites. 2,000 unique visitors flocked to see who had the most fantasy points on Shadforth Plough's website from the Durham Sunday League (4th division).
Across all of our team sites a combined total of nearly one million unique visitors visited Web Teams. Our web community continues to grow every year - please continue to tell others about us and we look forward to the 2008/09 season!
The team that attracted the most visitors to their home page was Boreham Wood from the Ryman Premier League. Their home page alone received over 48,000 unique visitors!
To put this into perspective. Only four Premiership stadiums could sit this many people (Old Trafford, The Emirate Stadium, St James, Stadium of Light). If this many people tried to fit into the City of Manchester Stadium there would be over 200 left over standing in the car park.
Boreham Wood also had the most hits for a match report (Boreham Wood 1 AFC Wimbledon 0 - 800 unique) and for a player (their top scorer Simon Thomas - 1,200 unique).
But other sites were most popular in other areas.
Redhill FC from the Sussex County League posted nearly 360 news items! This attracted over 15,000 unique visitors who read their news.
Over 2,000 unique visitors browsed the excellent photographs displayed on Romulus FC's website.
The fun fantasy stats where most popular on lower league team sites. 2,000 unique visitors flocked to see who had the most fantasy points on Shadforth Plough's website from the Durham Sunday League (4th division).
Across all of our team sites a combined total of nearly one million unique visitors visited Web Teams. Our web community continues to grow every year - please continue to tell others about us and we look forward to the 2008/09 season!
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Most frequently asked Frequently Asked Questions
At Web Teams we pride ourselves on having a pretty good frequently asked questions help area. This saves time in people emailing us a question and waiting for an answer on something that's been asked many times before.
This help area can be found at:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help.aspx
...and what are our most frequently asked Frequently Asked Questions? Our visitor stats show the following interesting results:
1. What do I get for my £15.00?
This help page was viewed over 1,600 last season! In short the answers include (1) The best football stats for your team presented in the most professional way, (2) Absolutely NO adverts anywhere on your site, (3) End of season archive and the use of stats from previous season... [read full article]
2. What format must my pictures be in?
This is becoming a more common question now that digital cameras produce such large images. The image quality you need for a website is MUCH lower than if you wanted to print out a 10x8" quality photo. So before you upload a picture to the web it is best to resize it down a little... [read full article]
3. Can I add a discussion board to my site?
Web Teams has always had a strategy of concentrating on doing football related things perfectly (league tables, goal stats, team progress, player stats etc...) and leaving more generic things (lots of photos, discussion boards, visitor polls, online videos) to the multi-billion dollar sites that are huge. Our recommendation here is to set up a Facebook Group for your team in parallel to your Web Teams site. This is perfect for banter and daft photos and things and compliments your professional looking Web Teams football site. A more full blog post on this subject will be posted in the near future... [read full article]
4. I have just signed up, how can I edit my site?
Simple getting started question that most reading this blog already know the answer to... [read full article]
5. What happens to my site at the end of the season?
Web Teams offers the much valued archive feature, where a snapshot of your old site is stored at a new URL and the stats from these previous sites are used on your site for the new football season. [read full article]
We do have one or two emails this time of year about people wanting to change URLS we answered this question in the blog post below:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-proper-domain-name.html
6. How do I get a proper domain name?
Related to the point above. [read full article/ read blog post]
7. A player has left my team, can I delete him from my site?
Yes, at the end of the season. During the season, you should mark against them that they have left the club. In their player details area you should say why they have left the club. This way all of the player statistics stay intact. [read full article]
Please email in any suggestions for future blog posts.
stephen@webteams.co.uk
This help area can be found at:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help.aspx
...and what are our most frequently asked Frequently Asked Questions? Our visitor stats show the following interesting results:
1. What do I get for my £15.00?
This help page was viewed over 1,600 last season! In short the answers include (1) The best football stats for your team presented in the most professional way, (2) Absolutely NO adverts anywhere on your site, (3) End of season archive and the use of stats from previous season... [read full article]
2. What format must my pictures be in?
This is becoming a more common question now that digital cameras produce such large images. The image quality you need for a website is MUCH lower than if you wanted to print out a 10x8" quality photo. So before you upload a picture to the web it is best to resize it down a little... [read full article]
3. Can I add a discussion board to my site?
Web Teams has always had a strategy of concentrating on doing football related things perfectly (league tables, goal stats, team progress, player stats etc...) and leaving more generic things (lots of photos, discussion boards, visitor polls, online videos) to the multi-billion dollar sites that are huge. Our recommendation here is to set up a Facebook Group for your team in parallel to your Web Teams site. This is perfect for banter and daft photos and things and compliments your professional looking Web Teams football site. A more full blog post on this subject will be posted in the near future... [read full article]
4. I have just signed up, how can I edit my site?
Simple getting started question that most reading this blog already know the answer to... [read full article]
5. What happens to my site at the end of the season?
Web Teams offers the much valued archive feature, where a snapshot of your old site is stored at a new URL and the stats from these previous sites are used on your site for the new football season. [read full article]
We do have one or two emails this time of year about people wanting to change URLS we answered this question in the blog post below:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-proper-domain-name.html
6. How do I get a proper domain name?
Related to the point above. [read full article/ read blog post]
7. A player has left my team, can I delete him from my site?
Yes, at the end of the season. During the season, you should mark against them that they have left the club. In their player details area you should say why they have left the club. This way all of the player statistics stay intact. [read full article]
Please email in any suggestions for future blog posts.
stephen@webteams.co.uk
Saturday 7 June 2008
Web Teams - Out of Office
From 8th June to 16th June there will be minimal email support from Web Teams. Coincidently both lads who run the service will be on holiday, and although I'll check in to make sure things are running fine on occasions, I'll not be doing much on email.
The most common enquiry currently is from those archiving who have teams whose names have changed. For example from webteams.co.uk/thequeenshead to webteams.co.uk/theblackbull - our advice here is to either:
1. Archive as normal, change your team name but buy a proper domain name:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-proper-domain-name.html
or
2. Sign up for a new site and forget the old one
All other queries are pretty much always answered in our frequently asked questions area:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help.aspx
Thanks very much - enjoy Euro 2008 even though it's not the same without any of the home nations in it. Top 10 Euro Championship goals below. Add a comment to say which goal you think is the best (although it has to be Gazza or Van Basten really).
The most common enquiry currently is from those archiving who have teams whose names have changed. For example from webteams.co.uk/thequeenshead to webteams.co.uk/theblackbull - our advice here is to either:
1. Archive as normal, change your team name but buy a proper domain name:
http://webteams.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-proper-domain-name.html
or
2. Sign up for a new site and forget the old one
All other queries are pretty much always answered in our frequently asked questions area:
http://www.webteams.co.uk/Help.aspx
Thanks very much - enjoy Euro 2008 even though it's not the same without any of the home nations in it. Top 10 Euro Championship goals below. Add a comment to say which goal you think is the best (although it has to be Gazza or Van Basten really).
Monday 2 June 2008
Get a Top Level Domain Name
Have you ever wanted a nice short and snappy domain name for your Web Teams site?
If your club is called Fulchester Town FC - then you could have the URL www.fulchestertownfc.co.uk and receive emails to manager@fulchestertownfc.co.uk
Three or four years ago, Web Teams used to offer this service. But we stopped doing it as you can get it so cheap elsewhere.
Two of the biggest hosting companies in the UK are www.fasthosts.co.uk and uk2.net.
With either of these companies you can get your proper domain name and access to a control panel for less than £10 a year.
A screenshot from each is below.
UK2
Fast Hosts
Note: This option is particularly useful if you originally signed up for your Web Teams site as webteams.co.uk/fulchesteru7s as an under 7s teams and are now an under 11s team - you could get the domain www.fulchesteryouth.co.uk and mask the Web Teams URL beneath this.
Disclaimer: Web Teams is not affiliated in any way with either www.fasthosts.co.uk or uk2.net, all support on web forwarding and domain names can be found on the site of the web hosting company you choose.
If your club is called Fulchester Town FC - then you could have the URL www.fulchestertownfc.co.uk and receive emails to manager@fulchestertownfc.co.uk
Three or four years ago, Web Teams used to offer this service. But we stopped doing it as you can get it so cheap elsewhere.
Two of the biggest hosting companies in the UK are www.fasthosts.co.uk and uk2.net.
With either of these companies you can get your proper domain name and access to a control panel for less than £10 a year.
A screenshot from each is below.
UK2
Fast Hosts
Note: This option is particularly useful if you originally signed up for your Web Teams site as webteams.co.uk/fulchesteru7s as an under 7s teams and are now an under 11s team - you could get the domain www.fulchesteryouth.co.uk and mask the Web Teams URL beneath this.
Disclaimer: Web Teams is not affiliated in any way with either www.fasthosts.co.uk or uk2.net, all support on web forwarding and domain names can be found on the site of the web hosting company you choose.
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