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Post by valpo04 on Mar 3, 2011 8:50:10 GMT -5
Hey Everyone, I have been playing around with the idea of creating a blog site that would allow folks here to sign up and blog about Valpo/HL athletics. I created a site: The Valpo Fan Zone that is powered by Wordpress and have just sort of thrown together a rough idea of how it would look. Eventually, we could even integrate the forum into that site, to make it an "all in one" sort of deal, but that can be decided and worked on later. My thought was if people are interested, I would continue working on it and people could apply to post blogs. You could post whenever you wanted, but all posts would be approved before being published. I don't want to continue development of it until I get a better idea of the level of interest. If you like the idea of having a dedicated, centralized area to blog/read about Valpo athletics, I will go forward with the plan. Thanks, valpo04 |
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Post by dcvalpo on Mar 3, 2011 9:13:22 GMT -5
I'm all about this idea if we can tie the board into it. I wouldn't want to visit multiple sites, but I would definitely read/contribute to blogs if the forum was there too.
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Post by valpo04 on Mar 3, 2011 9:29:15 GMT -5
I'm all about this idea if we can tie the board into it. I wouldn't want to visit multiple sites, but I would definitely read/contribute to blogs if the forum was there too. We definitely can tie the forum into it... right now this one is linked to on the right side but in the future it could definitely be integrated and it would give us a lot more flexibility and customization, but we would face the issue of not being able to move everything from here into it. Proboards does not allow us to export it out. |
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Post by valpo84 on Mar 3, 2011 10:03:31 GMT -5
I think a blog site that is fully integrated with live in game chat, blogs, news updates and discussion about the blogs is a great idea. There is a terrific host site that you should contact and see what it would take to add Valpo to their sites. It's SBN or Sportsblognation. Some of the better college blog sites today are on there. Plus, it hosts the site, is easy to use and also allows interchange between other sites. I would recommend you take a look at what the ACC sites on SBN are doing. They then link to their twitter accounts for additional marketing of the site.
Here's some examples:
shakingthesouthland.com
bloggersodear.com
fromtherumbleseat.com
tomahawknation.com
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Post by stlvufan on Mar 3, 2011 11:22:09 GMT -5
I think a blog site that is fully integrated with live in game chat, blogs, news updates and discussion about the blogs is a great idea. There is a terrific host site that you should contact and see what it would take to add Valpo to their sites. It's SBN or Sportsblognation. Some of the better college blog sites today are on there. Plus, it hosts the site, is easy to use and also allows interchange between other sites. I would recommend you take a look at what the ACC sites on SBN are doing. They then link to their twitter accounts for additional marketing of the site. Here's some examples: shakingthesouthland.com bloggersodear.com fromtherumbleseat.com tomahawknation.com They also seem to support (automatically) linking to all articles that reference a given school. |
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Post by valpo04 on Mar 3, 2011 11:39:42 GMT -5
I think a blog site that is fully integrated with live in game chat, blogs, news updates and discussion about the blogs is a great idea. There is a terrific host site that you should contact and see what it would take to add Valpo to their sites. It's SBN or Sportsblognation. Some of the better college blog sites today are on there. Plus, it hosts the site, is easy to use and also allows interchange between other sites. I would recommend you take a look at what the ACC sites on SBN are doing. They then link to their twitter accounts for additional marketing of the site. Here's some examples: shakingthesouthland.com bloggersodear.com fromtherumbleseat.com tomahawknation.com They also seem to support (automatically) linking to all articles that reference a given school. I noticed that Valpo is already on that site, but listed under the Summit League. I also noticed that they don't seem to have a message board feature. My main thought with developing our own site is that it would be completely ours, without any restriction or lack of customization. If there is something we wanted to change, we could do it without having to go through them, and if they want to change something, we wouldn't be forced to go with it. Great comments and suggestions so far... I am open to anything (but would lean towards developing our own site and community.) I think we have a lot of folks here who give great recaps and updates and even a segment that keep us updated on the "other sports" that could have a dedicated outlet to expand them in an organized way. |
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Post by stlvufan on Mar 3, 2011 12:39:10 GMT -5
They also seem to support (automatically) linking to all articles that reference a given school. I noticed that Valpo is already on that site, but listed under the Summit League. I also noticed that they don't seem to have a message board feature. If you visit the Loyola section, you'll also find that the only time they ever get brought up is by Bring On The Cats, some KSU blogger who gives a daily KSU RPI Watch, and so you get a sentence bemoaning how the Ramblers are killing their RPI. Not exactly thrilling coverage. On the other hand, they pick up posts by Searching For Billy Edelin that take HL teams more seriously. |
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Post by valpospartan on Mar 3, 2011 13:49:40 GMT -5
I frankly don't see a need for a blog and I wouldn't look at it.
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Post by jhbertram on Mar 3, 2011 16:15:42 GMT -5
I am up for a blog. I already participate in blogs on the ESPN site. I would like something more specific to Valpo
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Post by blackpantheruwm on Mar 3, 2011 16:25:21 GMT -5
The way I see it, as a Milwaukee Panthers fan and the owner/operator of PantherU.com, I think you should go for it.
If you do it right, as in take the time to deisgn it and get your content up, it can be a real fun thing to do.
For me, PantherU is a cross between a blogger venture and an informational site. A lot of students coming into the university don't know anything about the athletics program, so if I get PantherU across to them, they will at least visit it once and learn about everything. I also have broken news; when Shaq Boga picked Milwaukee over Purdue, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Kent State, Southern Illinois, Wichita State, Illinois State, Missouri State, and Minnesota, I was the first outlet in Milwaukee to break the news. I would have been first overall, but the Boga family had a deal with a St. Louis preps writer, who was a family friend, and I respected that and waited until he put out the news.
It's a great place to put all the information together on one site. Once the season is over, I will be pulling in advertising revenue (not much, but enough to pay for the site and a bit more) and start a t-shirt company to get the ball rolling on making Milwaukee better.
Think of it as helping the athletic department market the product. It's something you can do to help the university in a small way without donating a lot of money. Plus, you can help grow the fan base by putting together information that only big schools have (recruiting, etc.)
Put it this way. On a slow day, my website has about 150 unique visitors. In the offseason, I've got more (mainly because I write about all the conference teams in the offseason).
If you're proactive about putting the website out there, and want to do something cool for Valpo while advancing the fan base, then do it. Plus, we may need someone at Valpo for a certain project we might be working on over the summer...
I would also like to be a guest blogger if you ever need one.
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Post by a3uge on Mar 3, 2011 18:09:26 GMT -5
Hey Everyone, I have been playing around with the idea of creating a blog site that would allow folks here to sign up and blog about Valpo/HL athletics. I created a site: The Valpo Fan Zone that is powered by Wordpress and have just sort of thrown together a rough idea of how it would look. Eventually, we could even integrate the forum into that site, to make it an "all in one" sort of deal, but that can be decided and worked on later. My thought was if people are interested, I would continue working on it and people could apply to post blogs. You could post whenever you wanted, but all posts would be approved before being published. I don't want to continue development of it until I get a better idea of the level of interest. If you like the idea of having a dedicated, centralized area to blog/read about Valpo athletics, I will go forward with the plan. Thanks, valpo04 I'm sure you'll be able to get readers outside of forum views. I think a forum post typically is around a paragraph in length, which is drastically different from a blog post. If you provide good insight about a game or a news piece, I would probably read both. |
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Post by valporun on Mar 3, 2011 18:29:30 GMT -5
I would definitely be interested in a blog/forum site where we could have articles, blurbs, quick stories about how the teams are doing, any news we hear, maybe even adding pictures or video clips from bloggers who might attend games. I don't get back to campus for events, or get a chance to go to away games or competitions at other schools we play at, but I would enjoy having more columns from people who do go to these games. We could really do something fun with this site, and I would also post quick blurbs or anything that I know from cross country, track and field, soccer or any of the other sports that get lost in the forum.
My biggest concern with the other sports, in this forum setting, is they constantly get bounced around or ignored for stories about football. Plus, we also only seem to report on them when some exciting happens, like in track when a kid like Jarrett Mickens or Julian Smith does something big at conference, or when anyone from the non-revenue sports might lead the nation in a statistical category, or is on those lists. If there are any blogs that you would like to specifically focus on, like track or cross country, I would definitely do that. I'll promise not to get so verbose about meets where the team didn't have a major showing or doing anything noteworthy.
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Post by valpo04 on Mar 4, 2011 7:50:07 GMT -5
All right... The site is coming together pretty well, still some things to work on but the basic layout is pretty much complete. If you want to become an author, send me a PM with your email address and desired username and we can get started!
Thanks!
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Post by blackpantheruwm on Mar 4, 2011 12:08:32 GMT -5
Hey, what is that social media widget you have on the right side?!
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Post by moodboom on Mar 4, 2011 13:44:55 GMT -5
Hey, what is that social media widget you have on the right side?! I'm running Adblock in Firefox, I don't see a widget. Ad perhaps? oh you mean the twitter feed?? |
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