Website

Club Notices General
1

Delighted to see in the programme this evening the inserted flyer promoting the redeveloped Official Website. Although not being sure as to why this had to be inserted as an extra sheet rather than contained within the body of the programme, I was still impressed to see that commercial activities were on the up!

That was until I logged on to http://www.wittonalbionfc.com/

This is frankly a disgrace and a let down - what a complete and utter waste of time going to the effort of promoting something so poor!!!

A banner at the top claims "Extensive Market Penetration". There is nothing extensive about this, in no way does it cater for any market and I will leave the last word of the three well alone!!!

So;
On the fixtures page the are no match details behind any of the the links!
The online shop tells us only that the club shop is open on match days!
The news page tells us only that there was a game on tonight and the link to previous news does nothing!
As for the Managers Analysis, a very interesting page of nothing!
But then there is always the photo galleries to cheer you up - oh no, just a tinted background logo!
There is a nice 3-D images of the social club that is worth looking at once (seen it now though)!

Maybe all of the content is hidden and I need a Username and Password, but guess what, no way of registering!!!

In summary this an absolute joke and just about sums up our commercial ability. If the club hopes to make money from this new site or use it to drive extra revenues into the business then we will be waiting for a very long time.

Furthermore if the club intended to put money/time/effort into developing the official site then why on earth have they not approached Mike or myself regards bringing the two sites into one. This club is not big enough to run two separate websites and there is little benefit to doing so. Everything could be migrated to one site with a link to an unofficial forum for the sake of keeping that independent.

Our incompetence in this area is astounding!

In stark contrast anyone who bought tonight’s programme will see how truly superb Mark Lyon’s efforts have turned out. Tonight’s programme was stunning, packed with pictures, interesting articles, a feature on a player and past history. The best programme we have produced in a long time and a genuine good read. One of the reason’s why this is as good as it is, apart from the hours and hours put in by Mark, is that no one from the club’s commercial side has had anything to do with it!

Apologies for being so critical (unlike me) but it is about time some changes were made by the board.

Rant over!

2

A rather scathing piece from the Rabbit, but after perusing the site in question, I regret to say I agree fully. I certainly wouldn’t denigrate anyone’s efforts to produce a site, but to promote the site in its present state is utterly ridiculous. The supporters’ site still needs a lot of work on it, but is perfectly functional and has a lot of information available on it., however the official site at present hardly even counts as a work in progress, certainly nothing more than could be knocked up in a few hours.
I believe it would be better just to have the official site as a placeholder, with the information page only, until the rest of the site is in some sort of fit condition to go live. At the moment it presents a very unprofessional image for the club.

3

I think we have to distinguish here between criticising the site, which I am loathe to do given that I cannot believe that it is meant to be live, and criticising the promotion of something that is hardly started, let alone ready to go live. What I would say is that I hope that this is not something the club has already paid for, and that it is only paid for when it is in a suitable condition. One would expect that a professionally produced site would be considerably better than this one (the supporters’ site), as although myself and the Rabbit have put some considerable time into the development of it, neither of us have any training or professional experience in web development.

4

Yeah, very good post Wincham Rabbit and having looked at the site myself I too agree that this simply isn’t good enough. I remember Mike T’s website a few years ago being very good simply because it was updated regularly and everything worked well.
To be fair it’s little wonder that other commercial activities fail such as sportsmans dinner etc if our own ‘official’ website is a complete shambles.
This is not knocking people’s effort because I know every one associated with the club wants the team and all activities to succeed but maybe some fresh ideas are needed on the commercial front to raise extra funds, Alty seem to have the right idea check out http://www.ideas4alty.com/ a site designed for Alty fans to post ideas on fund raising and commercial activity should we not have something similar to try and move this club forward off the field in tandem with the success on the field?
Anyway thats my rant over and as I said I am not knocking anyone or anyone’s effort just think some more commercial focus could really get this club moving!

5

Agree, something needs to be done urgently off the field, I know people have offered their services in the past re comercial etc but were knocked back because we have handed these activities to a ‘professional outfit’. It does make me shudder when at the dramatic meeting our ambitions included us running a full sports complex when we can’t even run a small office.

6

Technical stuff like websites I tend to steer well clear of (and this is no exception!)

However, the ‘official’ website was discussed at our recent Board meeting and the Club’s contributions (namely the Chairman, Jim Vince & myself) were encouraged to post new news on that site and tell you on this forum that there is a new posting on the official site.

Whilst I only read the forum (and hold my hands up to say that I haven’t recently visited the new site) I do feel that, whilst the postings above are accurate in their content about it being poor (so I’ve been told) I think it could be an opportunity for the unofficial main men (aka Mike T & Rabbit) to liaise with Mark Bailey about helping to improve, or whatever it takes, for the betterment of WAFC as a whole.

Regarding the commercial side - for years now this needs to be got a grip of by person(s) who have got the time and committment to make it work. If anyone should be keen to have a go, WAFC will be very keen to hear and, as always, would be happy to talk it through. Personally I think we need several people split into responsibilities of Match Sponsorship, Advertising and Customer relations to improve our image.

GE

7

[quote]
Furthermore if the club intended to put money/time/effort into developing the official site then why on earth have they not approached Mike or myself regards bringing the two sites into one. This club is not big enough to run two separate websites and there is little benefit to doing so. Everything could be migrated to one site with a link to an unofficial forum for the sake of keeping that independent.[/quote]

GE, as always the voice if reason. This unofficial site was worked on over the summer to help add the value it brings to the club and the fans. Mike deserves the bulk of any credit for this as for years he has ran it at his own cost and mostly his own considerable effort. I have only really assisted this process over a short period of time, helping with the design and content. The main reason for this has been to make up for the shortcomings of the ‘official’ web presence.

As per my previous post the club should probably only operate one website. We are getting an average of below 400 fans a game, however the frequency of posts on the forum and site visitors are extremely good considering - this confirms the passionate interest in the club and also the value that fans place on the website. Commercially however these visitor numbers are in web terms small and therefore there is little opportunity for online revenues (through syndicate online advertising).

There is however the opportunity to develop an online store for club merchandise and whilst take-up would not necessarily be huge it would give people opportunity to browse goods on sale and for distant fans to buy online. There are also opportunities to combine programme and web advertising to add additional value to companies getting involved with the club. The web is naturally a great vehicle to promote other events, dinners, social nights, away travel, etc.

What concerns me is the strategy for the ‘offical site’; why is it being done, where will the content come from, who pays for it and how will it generate any revenue? If the site is being developed as a window for delivery paid for video content of witton games then in reality what is the likely uptake and revenue from this? Other than a handful of fans than can’t get to the game who will buy the online video footage? I suggest there are many other more basic ways of making money from the web.

I know that Mike and I are not precious when it comes to this site - it is being down more out of love for the club and as a service to other fans. We are building good content on this site and will continue to improve it and grow it for the same reasons.

My concern is that the official website goes the same way as the Sportsman’s Dinner - a good idea poorly executed. We will liaise with anyone regards the official site, however maybe it would have been an idea for this to have happened first before promoting a new site (with no content).

8

Still not much improvement with the Offical Site with the lastest news still including a preview to our game against Fleetwood in Oct 06 however there is a video interview with JV from Tuesday night which is worth a look…
http://www.wittonalbionfc.com/play.php?fixture_id=1371

9

Gawd almighty what a shambles of a site purporting to be representative of our actual club.

It’s plainly obvious that whomever is administrating it knows very little about what a football club’s website needs to include. Even more astounding is the apparent total lack of communication with Mike & Si who have got a revamped and brilliant site up and running in double quick time that by comparison with most of the other clubs, certainly at our level, is way above average.

I’m totally unable to view any of the videos that are, I take it there, as keep getting a Windows Image errors - something I’ve never come across before.

See though, in the only item of News posted, we’ve got Father Chruistmas coming on December 2nd - yep it’s a Sunday when we are at home on the Saturday. Another chance to gain on match attendance wasted me thinks!

Come on, the way forward is to integrate both sites but for gawds sake put the site under the charge of people that are actually full blown Wittoners. You just might then get the commercial spin-offs that it looks like you’re mainly after

10

Just had look at the official site and some nice interviews on there now, especially from Jim and all the goals from Tuesday also on there

11

Nice to see the videos.

Shame that the page title is ‘The Official Website of Stocksbridge Park Steels Football Club’ . . .

12

Yep and their home page and general layout bears an uncanny resemblance to the Official Lizards site

13

And now also BPA…

14

Still lots wrong but I do like the video clips of the goals and post match interviews, one part of the site they have got right, nice couple of chats with Jim and Rod Thornley today and my missus is made up she is on there when Mark Peers gets his first!

15

Agree completely Picko, it is great to see the goals and interviews on the video. Be easy to criticise some of the production qualities but in honesty that would be unfair, the content is good and it is great to see these up online quickly after the game too. All fans will be very interested to hear Jim’s comments and the player interviews.

16

It is easy in this day and age to criticise the quality but its not very long ago that there was no chance of seeing a goal again, God I wish some of the games I’ve seen Witton play had been recorded, I don’t care what the quality had been like! What would we get for the Yeovil game at the central ground? (Bishop 3-1) I would remortgage my house for that one!!!

17

I’d love to be able to easily watch the videos off the "official site" unfortuantely I have been unable to get them to work on my newer computer running under Windows Vista - keep getting bad image messages and the screen clogging up.

I have though watched the Prescot one, under Windows XP on my older computer.

Anyone able to help me at all on this please?

18

CHAD

Try the following link to the latest video;
http://www.wittonalbionfc.com/uploads/matchvideo/1466/wit%20v%20ashton%20manager%20inerviews%204%20web.wmv

When you click on the this is should launch windows media player automatically and play it - rather than watching it embedded within the web page.

Let me know what happens as this may then determine whether your problem lies within windows media player, you web browser of with Vista. I am using Vista on my laptop and can view them so hopefully we can get you there, by all means message me direct or email to the usual address.

19

No idea why it won’t work Chad I have Vista too and it works fine, but when I try to watch at work it won’t work so I guess it must be the video programme needed to watch, I’m sure Rabbit, Mike or Stu will be able to enlighten us[br][size=1]Posted on: October 21, 2007, 10:40:34 PM[/size][hr]There you go, even before I finished typing ;D

20

is there any way to see a video of the goals from the 6-1 prescott? i was on holiday so missed that game…