|
|
Post by John Galli on Jun 11, 2013 0:38:44 GMT -5
Hey guys, Can't remember if I've posted about this yet or not, but for the last month I've been in the process of working on creating a Magic website specifically focused on Red Deck Wins. I'm still trying to write more content for it before I purchase the official domain and start promoting it, but the site is live and people have been browsing / commenting. I'm battling between a few layout designs and I was wondering if you guys could tell me what you think looks best between the three here. Also feel free to browse the existing site- www.reddeckwinning.wordpress.comAnd the images: i.imgur.com/BM3ke63.jpgi.imgur.com/1hRd1Yy.jpgi.imgur.com/0c8TM7U.jpg |
|
|
|
Post by abeckett on Jun 11, 2013 18:58:37 GMT -5
I like this one best. i.imgur.com/1hRd1Yy.jpgI vastly prefer the article preview approach on blogs. That way people can get a snippet and then decide if they want to read more. I dislike having to scroll through entire posts to get to previous content. Also, on posts like the "Turn on My Swag," you should really just hyperlink those URLs to text in the article, instead of having them all typed out. Just from an aesthetics perspective. |
|
|
|
Post by John Galli on Jun 11, 2013 19:18:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback Andrew. I think I found a good combination in the way I have the site now (the one you posted but with small pictures).
I agree on the hyperlinks, I'm going to fix it either manually or with whatever tool wordpress provides. Just gotta get around to looking it up.
Also one thing I want to get your guys help with at some point is filming some playtest videos against current decks in the format. Not sure when I'll be available yet but I'll holler at you guys
|
|
|
|
Post by abeckett on Jun 12, 2013 20:12:17 GMT -5
Sure. Another option with that is to of course build the deck on Magic Online and video capture the sessions. Of course, that's probably more money than you want to spend.
|
|
|
|
Post by John Galli on Jun 13, 2013 8:13:01 GMT -5
yeah absolutely not doing MTGO, and I could do the same thing on cockatrice without spending any money.
I'd rather try and get some live sessions though, I feel those videos are more fun to watch. There will be a combination on the website but I think it's definitely valuable to have stuff like what SCG posts on their site
|
|
|
|
Post by John Galli on Jun 13, 2013 11:22:09 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by abeckett on Jun 13, 2013 11:46:57 GMT -5
I always forget about cockatrice. That's obviously a great alternative.
|
|
|
|
Post by Travis Lannoye on Jun 19, 2013 15:41:00 GMT -5
Couple of non-Magic questions about this:
- How much did it actually cost you to put this site up? I'm thinking about investing in something like it myself.
- Do you have the ability to put a SQL database on the back-end and run queries against it, using something like PHP code or a similar language?
|
|
|
|
Post by John Galli on Jun 20, 2013 16:00:13 GMT -5
Cost was free, more my time then anything. If you do a WordPress.org site instead of .com then you can have an independent host and should be able to do SQL and PHP. Although you may need a paid plugin depending on the language. A lot of the stuff you might be looking to do with it though you could probably do with other plugins or third party tools. I know a decent level of CSS and HTML but having most of the work done for you and using themes is just easier on time and makes it really easy to change the full site's appearance radically in minutes.
Buying a domain and if needed more storage are the main costs you'd have to do. A domain name typically runs about $7-12 per year, and if you end up doing WordPress.com you can map a domain + buy it for $18 per year. I'm doing this on July 1st to get reddeckwinning.com (ditching the WordPress in the name).
Couple things I've changed since I first launched the site
- added more content
- added site to search engine databases (although still need to work on this more)
- added a Facebook page, a twitter account, and twitchtv, and integrated them with the site
- tried a few layout and theme changes before ultimately setting on my current one for the time being
- I plan to have a few guest written articles from Chris and Andy before July 1st
|
|
|
|
Post by Travis Lannoye on Jun 20, 2013 16:23:08 GMT -5
Excellent. I'm trying to get back into web dev as well, and I need a playground to get some more experience, specifically with interactions between web and database. I'll give this a try tonight.
|
|
