New Website!
Get hyped.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Soccerlit has a new website! However, because the domain transfer from Squarespace to WordPress is still being processed, the new site is live, for the time being, at soccerlit.wordpress.com.
Why did we switch from Squarespace to WordPress?
It all started about a month and a half ago during a meeting with my two team members, Kieran and Jake. We were talking about how to improve the site and Jake said he thought we should switch to a CMS (content management system) platform. While Squarespace is great for aesthetic value, it isn’t the best platform to manage a bunch of content.
While I was initially bummed by Jake’s suggestion — mostly because Soccerlit is my baby and I built the original site from the ground up — I knew he was right. So I spent the next few weeks doing a bit of research on CMSs before settling on WordPress. From there, I gathered a list of potential themes and sent them to Kieran and Jake to review. We eventually settled on one, which meant it was time for me to begin the transfer.
How did the transfer go?
It was a very, very, very time consuming process. I spent about two weeks transferring over 700 posts from the old Squarespace site over to Wordpress. Lucky for me, WordPress actually gives you the option to transfer content from other hosting platforms, which meant I wasn’t forced to re-create 700+ blog posts. However, I did have to re-design the posts in order to improve user experience.
Since I’m currently unemployed and searching for a full-time job, I had the necessary time on my hands to complete the task. I woke up early each morning, pulled out my laptop and would spend 12ish hours a day updating blogposts. Riveting, eh?
The bright side of all this is that I must have listened to 39258092398 podcasts during the process (and I looooooove podcasts). I can’t name them all because of the sheer number, but I can tell you that I fell down the Gary Vaynerchuk worm hole. He was pretty much the soundtrack to my life for two weeks, which wound up being crazy motivational. Shout out to you, Gary.
How do the new blog pages look?
See for yourself →
Much better compared to the old, right?
The old site’s blog posts were much more minimalist in nature. While I love minimalist design, I don’t think the old site was easy to navigate — mostly because it didn’t resemble the layouts of more traditional news/publication sites. I think the re-design will help provide visitors a more comfortable experience.
What’s next?
First things first, we have to get back on track with posting at least one story a day. I even sent Kieran and Jake this [terribly awkward] video with directions for posting on WordPress.
Other than that, I’m hoping to slowly make Soccerlit a more regular presence on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and also start experimenting with creating original content. As I mentioned earlier, this entire re-design process was completed with Gary Vaynerchuk as my background music, and since he’s a social media + digital marketing maven of sorts, I picked up a bunch of cool new ideas from him.
Speak soon,
Mitch
