The end of July is going to be hectic as I begin migrating Clubnets websites to a WordPress multi-site network – while putting a further 6 club sites live!

What is a WordPress multi-site?

WordPress became well-known as a blogging platform ‘back in the day’ but has since evolved into an amazing content management system for websites with over 60% market share.

What many people don’t know (and I was one of them until recently) is that every WordPress website has an inbuilt networking function that’s turned off by default. Enabling this function allows multiple websites to be chained together in a network.

Why does that matter for Clubnets?

Ahead of the 2020/21 football season, we have been busy recruiting new clubs and I am looking to launch a further six websites by the end of the month.

Good as that is, I was worried about making a rod for my own back. Why? Because as standalone websites, all fixtures and results would have had to have been input separately on each site. Not exactly scalable!

So, finding a way to connect clubs that were in the same league together, while ensuring their individual websites were preserved, went from a ‘nice to have’ feature to a ‘must have’ one.

I had resigned myself to sourcing some kind of WordPress techie guru when I stumbled across a solution that had been under my nose all the time. It turns out that the genius coders from Themeboy – who power the Clubnets engine – have a plug-in that works with WordPress multi-site to give me exactly what I need.

So, in short…

Once the multi-site is up and running, we will be able to:

Update league tables on one central site and have them displayed on all connected websites

Generate mockups of new club websites in minutes rather than hours or days

Preserve everything else that Clubnets website owners benefit from (personalised layouts, user login, etc.)

But (because there’s always a but)

Setting up a multi-site feels a bit like picking up a house of cards and moving it across the room. It has to be done very carefully and if one card is out of place – the whole thing breaks.

Enabling the multi-site function itself isn’t too tricky (in fact, I’ve done that bit already). The scary bit is migrating all of the existing single sites into the network.

Should you be worried?

If you currently have a Clubnets website you might be worried I’m going to break it but have no fear because:

a) I will be migrating one site at a time and each one will be fully backed up before I make any changes

b) I aim to complete all site migrations by 31st July so well ahead of the football season, and

c) If you are one of the six new clubs waiting for a new Clubnets websites, adding a new site to a multi-site network is quick and easy so there shouldn’t be any delay to the 31st July schedule.

So, while your website might go down briefly over the next few days, you probably won’t even notice. Of course, if you have any concerns, please email me.

And if the worst happens and I can’t get the darn thing to work – I can just put things back as they were, put this project on the back burner and get looking for that tech guru…

Wish me luck!

Clubnets sponsor update

This will be a quick update because…there is no update.

We did have some interest from a brand that sponsored a League Two side a couple of seasons back but that seems to have fizzled out.

Clubnets websites currently cover the whole area between Plymouth in the west and Exeter in the east but ultimately I am looking to cover the whole of the UK so this opportunity could suit a regional or national company.

Need football social media graphics – for free?

I had a request recently to produce some social media graphics for one of the clubs with a Clubnets website. We introduced them to the free Adobe Spark software and it’s great to see them using it to full effect. The starter plan is free with no credit card required so ideal for grassroots clubs.

By the way, this is a genuine recommendation – I have no connection with Adobe. But as I say, sponsorship opportunities ARE still available 🙂

As grassroots football fans anxiously await the latest government and FA updates, desperate to get some idea of when the local football season might get the green light, there is one way they could be getting involved with their local club – Football Manager 2020.

YOUR CLUB, YOUR WAY

Your club, your way is the tagline for this season’s edition of the popular management video game but the standard issue only goes down to the National League South. So how does that help out grassroots fans who would like to try their hand at managing Buckland Athletic or Crediton United or even Newton Rovers?

Take a bow, Dan Gander!

Thanks to the Football Manager database editor and Dan’s annual sweat and tears, fans of any club in the English football pyramid can take the helm of their club (at least, they will be able to once Dan’s completed his mammoth task).

In fact, we’ve noticed that people connected to Paignton Saints are ahead of the game on this and have been using Dan’s database already.

Clubnets reached out to Dan to ask him some questions about his labour of love:

How long have you been editing the FM databases for?

“I’ve been editing for around six years now. My first one was only basic and went down to Level 10 of the English football league system as I didn’t know what I was doing. This current one is the biggest I’ve ever tried creating with the number of divisions in each Level.”

What are the best and worst parts of editing?

“Best part is when you have to verify the database to see it works – and it works fine! Worst part is finding team information, especially the lower levels; finding correct club colours, nicknames and years founded is extremely difficult but it’s worth it in the end.

“The FA Full Time website, Wikipedia and Twitter are my best friends when editing. Twitter is the best place to look for club information for me. Hardest one for me was the Crook and District League. There wasn’t much information on the league and 75% of teams aren’t on social media (or they haven’t updated it for a number of years).”

How long does it take to edit a division – and what do you have to do?

“It probably takes me 45 – 60 minutes to do a division. That’s adding new towns, longitude and latitude, new stadiums then adding the kit colours.”

How can Devon fans show their appreciation?

Donations would be gratefully received at https://www.paypal.me/DanG1985

So how can you get started?

If you haven’t got FM20 yet, then the first step is to purchase the game from https://www.footballmanager.com/ or your chosen merchant.

At the time of writing this blog, Dan had released up to Level 14 of his epic task. For South Devon, that means Western League, Peninsula League, Devon Football League and the South Devon Football League down to Division Two are covered. If you fancy yourself as the Benitez of Babbacombe Corries Reserves or the Klopp of Kingsteignton Thirds, keep a tab on Dan’s updates for Level 15.

Here is the link to the download page for Dan’s free Level 14 database. Scroll down the list of leagues and you will see a download link: https://community.sigames.com/topic/498100-wip-fm20-e20-england-to-level-20/

What’s New on Clubnets?

If you have a free website with Clubnets you will notice that they are all now protected with SSL technology. In layman’s terms, they have the padlock icon in the browser bar and no longer trigger the Google ‘Not Secure’ warning. This means that all communication between the websites and the server on which they’re hosted is encrypted (scrambled).

We have also been in communication with a potential brand sponsor for the 2020/21 season and hope to launch our £5 Clubnets Classified ads service very soon.

We are also hoping to launch one or two new websites before the new season, whenever that may be.

Finally, we are very keen for fans or clubs in the Exeter area to get in touch if they fancy selling ads on Exeter-based club websites. For a very small monthly fee you get to keep 100% of the commission you make. Click the red button at the top of the page to find out more.

That’s it for now. Stay safe and thanks for reading!

Neil

All photographs (c) MiraclePR

The last thing I thought I would be doing on New Year’s Eve is promoting a weight loss program. But after having personally lost 17 pounds and three and a half inches off my waist I can 100% say that Player Tackles Weight deserves a shout out. It is changing lives in the Bay (and beyond). Here’s how it changed mine:

Denial: The biggest battle

I had always been the fortunate kind of bloke who could pretty much eat what he wanted and not really put on much weight. Even when I crept above 11 stone for the first time in my life in September 2018, I wasn’t that worried about it.

My first warning bell should have been last summer. The family were all up for a swim but I wasn’t enthusiastic. The truth is, I had allowed my midriff to get a little bit out of shape and it was affecting my body image. Don’t get me wrong; I had never had a six-pack or anything to shout about but at the same time, I wasn’t used to having anything wobbling.

Player Tackles Weight

Soon after, Simon Walker asked me if I would be interested in writing an article about his Player Tackles Weight group. He was launching a second season and there would be a presentation prior to the first games. Ali and I turned up, did some interviews and took some photographs and the article was published in the Herald Express.

I was already playing 8-a-side football on Thursday nights – another session Simon runs – and Simon suggested I also sign up for PTW. Although the program did interest me, I didn’t feel I needed to join. After all, surely my daily intensive runs would be enough to get my body back to how I liked it, wouldn’t it?

In addition to this denial, I also had the very real problem of my daughter training in Teignmouth at exactly the same time as the program started. Anyone who knows Simon will know that, in his world, all reasons are excuses so even that didn’t dampen his attempts to persuade me. When he started a Sunday evening group, I had no more ‘reasons’ to say no and signed up.

It was the best decision I made that year!

Why counting calories matters

Before this year I had never counted a calorie in my life. If anyone had asked me how many calories were in an apple, a burger or a teaspoon of sugar I wouldn’t have had a clue.

Not only do I find counting calories boring, I also downplayed their importance and overestimated the impact of exercise. One of the lessons I have learned during the program is that you can only hope to ‘out-exercise’ a high calorie diet if you are an elite athlete. For us mere mortals, calorie control counts much more when it comes to losing weight.

I believe the misconception that exercise is more important than diet is being sown from our earliest years with junk food manufacturers signing ad deals with sports firms and athletes.

One of the biggest culprits, in my opinion, is the misleading Change4Life program created by Public Health England. It makes children think they can jump around for a few minutes with a Disney character while waiting for their Disney Cakes & Sweets magazine to land on their doorstep. I stopped paying any interest to Change4Life after it suggested swapping out fresh OJ for Pepsi Max because the latter had no sugar. I think the NHS should be promoting programmes like PTW rather than Change4Life!

Moving on from this rant; when I really took this message on board and restricted my calorie intake in line with the figure provided by the PTW team, the results followed – very quickly indeed.

Of course, if you can combine calorie control with intense, regular exercise then the results can be stunning. I did this on week 3, losing 5 pounds.

It’s all about weigh-in day

It may be a ‘no-brainer’ that eating less and moving more will lead to weight loss but if it was that easy, we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic would we?

Reflecting on my results, I have realised that the sum of the PTW programme is more than its individual parts. You have the exercise, the nutritional targets, the educational presentations, the competitive elements, the support of your team mates and Simon’s unique approach.

This all comes together on weigh-in day. The scales don’t lie and if you have stuck within your personal calorie limit you will find you have lost weight. If you do hit a zero – or put on weight – it won’t really be a surprise to you (and I’m sure Simon will have a motivational chat with you to help you to do better the next week). I am pleased to say, I lost at least a pound each time (although I must admit I endured one or two Sunday fasts just to make sure!).

Rest assured, everyone in the room wants to see you succeed so don’t feel bad if you do have a dodgy week – this is a hard programme and I would guess most people have a wobble.

Playing to your strengths

One of the great things about the format of PTW is the different ways you can win points for your team. I won’t go into the points system now but if you are a top striker, people will love you in their side as you could make up for a goal deficit on game day.

Conversely, if you are not the most gifted player, you can add value by putting a hard week of weight loss in so that your team gains goals and points. The teams are all roughly balanced by weight so you shouldn’t find that any one team has a huge advantage.

Another way you can win your team points is by being super-motivated. Whether it’s contributing diet tips on the lively social media pages, entering a triathlon or posting your FitBit stats, the more active you are, the more likely it is Simon will reward you with the ‘enthusiasm’ bonus.

The hard numbers

I’ve already revealed that I personally lost 17 pounds, dropping from 11 stone 7 pounds to 10 Stone 4 pounds in 12 weeks. Most importantly for me, my waist is now back to 33 inches (from 36.5) which is half my height (that’s the aim for good health, apparently). I am now happy to go swimming with the family and I don’t even ‘suck in’ anymore 🙂

If you want to get an idea of the total group weight loss, I suggest looking at the Sport & Fitness4U Facebook page where you can find out all about the programme.

Before, after … and beyond

Bad habits are tough to break but thanks to Simon, Tracey, Mike and the rest of the PTW team, I am in a happier place with my body image and looking forward to 2020 with renewed optimism – maybe that 6 pack isn’t out of the question after all.

If you need more support

One final note – and an important one – if you are feeling down about your weight or anything else about your life and you don’t know where else to turn, Simon and Ollie run The Man Cave at South Devon Sports Centre in Paignton. This is a free and open Monday night session for men who need to talk.

Make 2020 the year you turn it round!