Yes i've been busy!

Yes I have been busy creating a new website called pitchseek
This site i created and themed using the open source content management system Drupal. The site is designed to provide marketing ideas and case studies to people for free! It is still a work in progress but i think it is getting there.

Check it out www.pitchseek.com

where has the time gone?

well its been over a month since my last entry, so i thought i had better say something (not because i think people read this but because... well i dont know). Sportsconnect.com.au is coming along well considering no further work has been made to it since my last entry, we are yet to implement a suitable SEO module, which is what is holding us back from growing further. But in it's current state it is still slowly growing! I have been slightly busy lately with some other projects, and between that, learning how to develop sites and my real job, all thats left is time for sleep.

So thats it.. no interesting changes, no exciting plans, we just have to not give up!... easier said than done.

Next...

So lets see.. so far we have put up a directory and i have edited it slightly with css so whats next?
Well i've made further improvements to the look of the site including some cool sports icons for each category (which i especially like), i did these quite simply in photoshop creating a rollover effect using css to change the background colour when the mouse hovers over the image (without being too technical). Check it out ----> Sports Directory

We have also constantly been improving the SEO (search engine optimization) of the site by adding relevant keywords and more informative titles. Other importantt aspects in SEO include providing 2 sitemaps (an html one and an xml sitemap which is used by google) and providing clean urls - which is basically a more simplified url without any jibberish this helps search engines to easily find specific pages on your site - we have yet to implement Clean URLs because of the version of joomla we are using. But this will Hopefully change soon. Also who could forget the importance of gaining links (which this blog is an example of).

Second on the to do list is CONTENT which i guess is self explanatory.. the more content the more reason user's have to look at your site.

I was thinking today that maybe the point of this blog could be to show other's that it isn't really that hard to create a website of your own. I have no real education in IT (except a couple of random IT subjects at uni) and i'd say that Sports Connect is coming along well.. dont you think?

css in the house!

So after searching around for a cheap but handy course to learn css and finding none with a reasonable price tag, i decided to teach myself. Thanks to Lynda learning essentials. CSS is quite easy to grasp if you have any experience at all with html and is much more efficient. I just want to say that mozilla firefox and the firebug plugin as well as developer tools makes the whole thing that much easier. Especially when it comes to editing existing templates - you can inspect a page as you browse it and find the exact tag that must be changed in relation to the text.

But anyways, our australian sports directory - sportsconnect.com.au is coming along well - the hardest bit is coming up with the right design ideas and creating a style that is pleasant and user-friendly. We want to involve the users as much as possible with Sports Connect so if you have any criticism or ideas please let me know!

Check it out - Australian Sports Directory

It Begins

Yes thats right, Sportsconnect.com.au - The Australian Sports Directory has gone live! It's not easy setting up a site from scratch even with the help of a content management system such as Joomla But we did it! We want to provide fellow sports lovers with a complete Australian sports directory, which can be used to find places such as your local football team, netball comp, gym, and even surf club! It is currently free to add to our directory and will most probably stay that way.. after all the aim isnt to make money but to give the public what is long-due, a community sports directory that everyone can contribute to and help build however they like.

Check it out - Sports Directory - Sportsconnect.com.au