Web Teams - an update

Sadly, for a mix of personal reasons and technical issues beyond my control, I have decided to call it a day running WebTeams.co.uk.

WebTeams.co.uk has always been an extremely enjoyable activity alongside both my day-job and bringing up my two children. However, the last three or four days have been particularly hard trying to fix server problems beyond my control.

As part of my efforts to find a solution, I decided that the time has now come to pass it on to a team of full-time web developers who can take football-website provision to the next level. I have watched Pitchero.com grow over the last few years and am very happy to pass the baton onto them. They will work with WebTeams.co.uk users to transfer data to the Pitchero system.

This is not a decision I have taken lightly. I spoke to the lads at Pitchero and then travelled to Leeds to meet with them and visit their offices. I have been very impressed with their setup. Please be patient with them and give them a little time.

The official Pitchero statement will be posted to their blog:

- http://blog.pitchero.com/

Important: WebTeams.co.uk club Webmasters should click here to view support information and check the status of their website.

- http://www.pitchero.com/_services/webteams/

If you require support please use this email address: webteams@pitchero.com

Pitchero has a great deal of features that Web Teams does not have, such as forums, video and picture uploads, commenting, the ability to update on any web browser, Twitter integration, links to official leagues etc… Visiting their offices and seeing the enthusiasm and professionalism of their staff also convinced me of their ambition to keep improving.

So a final farewell from me. Having used Web Teams myself for Northern and Wearside league football when I played and as a team coach, I know how important your websites are. I’ve had very little sleep this week trying to make sure everyone is looked after. I am confident that you are migrating to a better system. It’s been an absolute pleasure to run Web Teams since 1999 and see the websites that you have created.

All the very best,

Stephen, Web Teams

What do you like best about Web Teams?

Currently Web Teams site administrators are feeding back to us through the end of year survey.

As always, we're amazed at some of the positive comments that come in - many thanks!

When asked "What do you like best about Web Teams?" you replied (selection of 25 of the comments below)...

• Its so easy to update everything from scores to player stats.
• Reliable service which is easy to use and fast to update.
• The range of statistics that are produced
• It's easy to use and looks good
• The lay out and the way its updated automatically
• The fact that the site automatically updates and you don't need to update player stats and league tables.
• I like all of the site that main reason ive used it for last 5 season even if weve changed our name due to sponsorship ive always continued to use it in new name.
• Just about everything, its a quality website. The stats obviously stand out and the ease of use
• Quickness of how everything is uploaded.
• GOOD FOR FOOTBALL
• The amount of information with all stats etc, makes for great viewing when looking at all the little details and stats. Fantasy points are also a very good feature, which we run an award for at our presentation evenings!
• The overall layout is easy to input information for me and for visitors to the site to read. this encourages repeat visits and recommendations to others.
• The clarity and array of information available to the user
• Defo the stats tracking for the goals and assissts.
• Those unforgettable last minute winners are now genuinely unforgettable.
• The immediate updating of stats once the input has been done.The website looks very professional and we have had many good comments.
• Very user friendly interface
• The support from Webteams with any problems. Great value for money and no advertisements flashing all over the place.
• its very easy to use and it is linked to Facebook which helps get the info across to the team and fans.
• Simplicity of the website but the detail behind that.
• It gives you everything you need for a football teams website!
• professional layout of the site. makes us look better than we are!
• Simplicity to use and quickness of navigation
• Prompt response when contacting about an issue.
• Easy to input information. The site always looks neat and clean and uncluttered
• Simplicity of use which can generate so many useful stats.

Many thanks for all of the positive comments, we'll also look at doing some enhancements based around the handful of frustrations. But please keep on spreading the word about Web Teams and help us to continue to build the community!

Web Teams a Top 10 UK site

Web Teams won a top 10 Experian Hitwise Award last week.

Great to see Web Teams name in the list for the Computers and Internet - Hosting and Domain Registration industry. Especially alongside such well respected names such as fasthosts.co.uk and uk2.net.

http://www.hitwise.com/uk/2010-annual-awards

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

Small tweak to the homepage now so that your large team picture is now shown. Over the years people's screens have became bigger and Internet connections have become faster. So now your Web Teams site looks even better, more crisp, more professional and 100% yours without any horrible adverts.

All Around The World

Great to see so many non-UK football teams using Web Teams for their websites. A selection below...

• Panthers FC - Dubai
• Block 8 Superstars - South Africa
• Nieuw Woensel 5 - The Netherlands
• Amagents FC - Botswana
• Forbidden City FC - China
• Lobsterpot FC - Bermuda

Congratulations to Tipton Town FC

A massive congratulations to Tipton Town who have reached the first round of the FA Cup!!!

Tipton Town have used Web Teams for the last five years or so.

- webteams.co.uk/tiptontownfc

Hopefully all Web Teams fans will be supporting Tipton over Carlisle Utd on Saturday 6th November:

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/fixtures/default.stm

Do People Like Your Site?

The home page, news page, match report pages and squad pages now have "Facebook Like" buttons on.

This has the big advantage of getting your visitors to promote your website and your news stories to their friends. In turn, this will drive them to your site and have more people finding out about your club.

Facebook now has 25 million users in the UK. So this seems a very good way of getting others to help promote your club.

Update (16/09)

Once you click like you can then add a comment and share the link on your profile as shown in pics below. The "like" button is Facebook's new way of doing what used to be called "share".

Like and share the page

Your friends will see it and add comments

Upcoming fixtures

Occasionally we get email suggestions that are nice little ideas from users of the service. Ian Brown from Pannal Sports emailed in suggestion that if there is a not a "next match report" then we should encourage the visitor to go to the fixtures page. So it's been done.

Before

After

Takes you to the fixtures page

See Who Subscribes To Your News Stories

Just made a small change to the site on request of Stephen from Real Athletic. Webmasters can now go to their "Edit Your Club's Details" page and see who subscribes to news stories from their site.

The screenshot below demonstrates this:

Web Teams and Twitter and Facebook

Browsing through the fantastic Web Teams sites that you set up, the trend of using Twitter.com or Facebook.com to complement Web Teams is growing. A couple of examples of this are given below:

1. Twitter

Tipton Town FC have a twitter feed giving teaser information for every Web Teams story. So they enter a story or match report in Web Teams, then they "tweet" this news. Their 100+ followers are informed that the news is live and then can go and read the story and look at the latest league table and statistics.

Web Teams is used for the official site with the best statistics and charts - but Twitter is used as an essential media promoting the latest news.

2. Facebook

If you want loads of photos and loads of informal banter back and forward between the players, then the place to do this a Facebook page for your site. Within Facebook, making this private to those in your club is just a setting to apply to the site.

Web Teams works in parallel with this as the official face of your club. Your Facebook club site is there for all of the daft stuff. Web Teams is there for the formal news items, the official league table and goal scorers stats etc...

This is demonstrated really well with the Morley Town Sunday club Facebook site: