How To Build a Web Site for your Softball Team

Building A Web Site for your Team

By Dan Hughes

Many softball teams now have their own websites. Not only will your own team website make you look more professional, it can also be a great selling point when you are trying to land a sponsor. Just be sure to display your sponsor's logo prominently on your home page.

Here are a few ways you can set up a site for your team:

1. Most teams use one of the many specialized boards that are available on the internet, and customize them for their own team.

Some have monthly fees, some are free but have ads, and some give you choices, charging more for more features. Here are several to check out:

http://www.active.com/eteamz/overview.htm/
http://leaguelineup.com/
http://www.eteammanager.com/
http://www.teamsporttech.com/
http://www.hometeamsonline.com/sportswebsites/
http://www1.mysportsite.com/

2. If you can get by with a bulletin board where everybody on the team can post messages for each other and you can post scores, averages, schedules, etc, you can get away with a free bulletin board like http://quicktopic.com.

It has ads, but it is easy to use and the ads stay on the left side of the screen and are pretty much out of the way. Here's what the board looks like (this is for a school class, not a team, but it gives you an idea of what yours will look like):

http://www.quicktopic.com/41/H/hp5XyMXCjjBFf

3. You can pay $49 per year for a deluxe QuickTopic board that has no ads and allows you to post photos. That's what I use:

http://www.quicktopic.com/40/H/q3nzgArYpcxK
http://www.quicktopic.com/36/H/3xJjSHtasiQS

Here is what makes the QuickTopic board so attractive: Once you pay your $49, you can create as many boards as you like, without paying any extra fees. Make ten boards and you've cut your price to under five bucks each.

I have one for my school, one for my high school graduating class, one for Illinois professional broadcasters, etc, etc. Here are a few samples:

http://www.quicktopic.com/19/H/rstqdzRygmaG
http://www.quicktopic.com/15/H/uguHTLxg54a

All of them are included in the one payment.

4. You could buy a domain name (baycitybombers.com) for $15 per year or less, and webspace (about $5 per month), and then build from scratch using HTML or a program like Microsoft Office's Front Page. (Front Page lets you put your pages together as if they were letters - the process is very similar to typing a letter in Microsoft Word.)

This is the most complicated and tedious way to build a website, but it also gives you total control. Most of the preformed sites (in point number 1 above) force you to do it their way, and they won't be set up exactly as you would like them to be. With your own handmade site, you are in total control.