Laois Panthers - New Site

toomevara

The laois Panthers have just gone live with a nice new website...Check it out.

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/laois/?

old gregg

If you knew anyone involved with the club then they would benefit greatly from having their own domain and proper hosting for their site.

The new site looks/feels fine but as it's part of a pitchero.com subdomain they will never gain the search engine benefits of having their own domain and hosting. Being linked to an organisation like pitchero.com also means that they are relying on pitchero.com to maintain that presence which takes control out of their own hands.
From a branding perspective, a dedicated domain name looks much better on flyers, publicity, advertising, etc. than 'www.pitchero.com/clubs/laois'

I hope you don't mind me suggesting this. In another (less interesting) life I've been involved in the 'net area of business for 16 years and did once advise another RL club in Ireland in the same way. Also, I'm not looking for business here. I'd imagine there would be a cool web company up in Laois who'd take this on as a part sponsorship deal.

toomevara

old gregg wrote: »

If you knew anyone involved with the club then they would benefit greatly from having their own domain and proper hosting for their site.

The new site looks/feels fine but as it's part of a pitchero.com subdomain they will never gain the search engine benefits of having their own domain and hosting. Being linked to an organisation like pitchero.com also means that they are relying on pitchero.com to maintain that presence which takes control out of their own hands.
From a branding perspective, a dedicated domain name looks much better on flyers, publicity, advertising, etc. than 'www.pitchero.com/clubs/laois'

I hope you don't mind me suggesting this. In another (less interesting) life I've been involved in the 'net area of business for 16 years and did once advise another RL club in Ireland in the same way. Also, I'm not looking for business here. I'd imagine there would be a cool web company up in Laois who'd take this on as a part sponsorship deal.

Thanks Old Gregg, I did think it was a bit odd in respect of the domain name...I'll try and pass on your comments...

old gregg

no worries mate. If they happen to be a bunch of dedicated folks with no real knowledge of how the whole interweb doo-hickey works then by all means pm me and I'll pass on my work related email address on the understanding that I help them out with some free advice and no money changes hands.

footy and music are more important than business to us old skool web heads

JonPH

Hi Guys,

My name is Jon, and I'm a developer at Pitchero. I thought I'd just pop on here and respond to old gregg's reply as there are a few key points I think should be explored in more depth!

old gregg wrote: »

If you knew anyone involved with the club then they would benefit greatly from having their own domain and proper hosting for their site.

Regarding getting a domain name, yes most definitely. We advise all our clubs to register their own .com or .co.uk or .ie etc domain name for their website with us. These can then be pointed at your Pitchero website.

old gregg wrote: »

From a branding perspective, a dedicated domain name looks much better on flyers, publicity, advertising, etc. than 'www.pitchero.com/clubs/laois'

Agreed. See for example Wakefield FC: http://www.wakefieldfc.com

As for having your own hosting and not using Pitchero though, I tend to disagree for the reasons below....

1. Pitchero is FREE, ie there is zero cost to setup a website with us. Any basic hosting package will cost at least £30+VAT per year and you may still have bandwidth and disk space limits. There are no limits with Pitchero.
2. Bespoke CMS. We've developed a content management system developed specifically for sports sites (Currently Football, Rugby League / Union and Cricket). The cost of replicating this kind of system on your own website and hosting just for one club website we estimate to be between £3,000 and £6,000. (We work in the same office space as a media agency so we know exactly what they have charged in the past).
3. Constant development. We are always upgrading and adding new features, which means that your website with us will never get static or stale.
4. Unlimited technical support. We have support forums and a ticketing system that are all monitored by our developers. So you get help from the guys who built the thing!

old gregg wrote: »

The new site looks/feels fine but as it's part of a pitchero.com subdomain they will never gain the search engine benefits of having their own domain and hosting.

If you build a site with Pitchero, you actually benefit from our on going Search Engine Optimisation. We'll do everything in our power to get you on the first page of Google's search results, and we can usually get you to the top......

See what happens when you search for "Wakefield football"...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=wakefield+football&btnG=Search&meta=

It's the top result and even has site links included to help you navigate.

You'll also benefit from having your content visited by Google much more frequently (bigger sites get indexed more often, Pitchero is visited by Google's bot every single day). Which means better ranking and more up-to-date content in search results for your club.

old gregg wrote: »

Being linked to an organisation like pitchero.com also means that they are relying on pitchero.com to maintain that presence which takes control out of their own hands.

This is true, but we've only had a few hours total downtime in the last TWO YEARS and this was planned....... I don't think that's a bad track record!

Clubs can leave our service at any time. Another advantage to having your own domain name....

old gregg wrote: »

I hope you don't mind me suggesting this. In another (less interesting) life I've been involved in the 'net area of business for 16 years and did once advise another RL club in Ireland in the same way. Also, I'm not looking for business here. I'd imagine there would be a cool web company up in Laois who'd take this on as a part sponsorship deal.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to expand on this gregg.

If anyone wants any more information, please check out our website (http://www.pitchero.com/) or give us a call in the office (+44 (0)845 0176 088). Ask for "Jon" if you want to speak to me directly.

Cheers!

old gregg

Hiya Jon,

that all sounds great. A 10 quid domain solves all their problems, which is nice .

just as an aside .... I've no connection with the club and was not in any way trying to muscle in on anyone's party here so I appreciate the objective and logical approach you've taken.

I'll take my oar out of the water now

JonPH

No problem old gregg!

Valid points on your part.

It's good that these discussions happen so we can clarify our position and hopefully help the clubs make their own mind up etc

At the end of the day, the more successful our member clubs are, the more successful we are, so it's in our interest to provide the best product possible.