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 🙂