TraditionU.com -- anyone available for hire?

Blackshirt

Blackshirt

Team HuskerBoard
To continue with the earlier topic about traditions, is anyone up for making some extra money & helping work on a new site? If not I might also post in the main forum or on elance, but first wanted to check with you guys.

Overview:

The site would be a warehouse for all college team traditions. It would include a description of each tradition, with any videos & pictures. Fans could vote on their favorite ones.

The collection of this would be as simple as searching & copying/pasting & paraphrasing when necessary.

The other element would be contacting various fan boards to get ideas for new traditions.

Once we have a list of new ideas, we post a poll on the site for a vote. We then email local media to promote the most popular new tradition ideas, which would be an easy story for them.

Compensation:

I'll compensate any key ppl involved a fair rate. We can either work out an hourly or lump project rate.

Benefits:

This will hopefully help generate revenue for the board, via apparel & ticket sales for the various teams. And then there's the potential for creating some new & improved NU traditions. Tell your grandkids or chicks @ the bar it was your idea for the new mascot.

Technology:

I'm not current on the best tech available, but I'd like it to be open-source. Perhaps something like drupal. I'd want whoever is leading this effort to be familiar with the required technologies involved.

Site structure/design:

It can be very simple. A list of all teams in every major conference. When you click on each team it takes you to a page listing the traditions & poll to vote. It does need some sort of "college feel" to it.

My involvement would have to be limited to a "big picture" level. I don't have the time to get deeply involved, so we'll probably need 2-3 ppl's help with collecting all of the info.

Why could this work?

I'm open to your constructive thoughts. Looking at google stats it shows 8,100 ppl searched for "college traditions" last month, with little competition.

If you're interested in helping, please post your thoughts & what level you'd like to be involved. If you'd rather keep it private email me @ chad@huskerboard.com

I'll need to move on this soon, so let me know asap.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'd love to help if I can. Chad you already have an idea of my specialties if that helps (graphic design, video production, basic web site design and coding).

 
Great Eliot. Do you have experience setting up CMS sites? I think that would be key for a site like this.

Also, as I mentioned to someone else who emailed me, I discovered another site with a very similar name: http://utradition.com

Looks like they're currently just for mobile devices. Here's what would make us different:

-They aren't a repository for all traditions - at least not yet.

-Don't have polls to vote or promote ideas for new traditions.

But what are your thoughts -- too similar of a site, and does the overall model I outlined seem viable to you?

If we do proceed, we'll need to come up with a new name - so I'm open to suggestions if you can think of a clever one.

 
I'll wrack my brain for some new names. I think the similarities of the sites shouldn't be a problem - there are a dozen sites doing everything out there. The trick is to do it better. Be the Facebook to MySpace.

Adding interaction from the public would be a good way to get more people involved.

 
Chad, I'd be happy to pitch in where and when I can. I seriously doubt that it's a job I could handle in its entirety, but I can do some HTML/CSS stuff and a few other odds and ends.

 
Thanks guys. Here are a couple available name ideas:

ugameday.com

traditionall.com

This site could also be used to collect gameday tips from around the country - from where to get the best wings, to where to find cheap parking. Would be useful when going to some new venues this fall.

 
Blackshirt said:
Great Eliot. Do you have experience setting up CMS sites? I think that would be key for a site like this.

Also, as I mentioned to someone else who emailed me, I discovered another site with a very similar name: http://utradition.com

Looks like they're currently just for mobile devices. Here's what would make us different:

-They aren't a repository for all traditions - at least not yet.

-Don't have polls to vote or promote ideas for new traditions.

But what are your thoughts -- too similar of a site, and does the overall model I outlined seem viable to you?

If we do proceed, we'll need to come up with a new name - so I'm open to suggestions if you can think of a clever one.
Click to expand...
As far as a CMS goes, I would actually use WordPress for the backend. It's dead simple to use, implement, collaborate, customize, and keep up to date.

I would create a "magazine" type theme similar to one of these:

http://www.inboundpass.com/

http://www.h-mag.com/

WordPress isn't just for you average blog anymore!

 
Blackshirt said:
Great Eliot. Do you have experience setting up CMS sites? I think that would be key for a site like this.

Also, as I mentioned to someone else who emailed me, I discovered another site with a very similar name: http://utradition.com

Looks like they're currently just for mobile devices. Here's what would make us different:

-They aren't a repository for all traditions - at least not yet.

-Don't have polls to vote or promote ideas for new traditions.

But what are your thoughts -- too similar of a site, and does the overall model I outlined seem viable to you?

If we do proceed, we'll need to come up with a new name - so I'm open to suggestions if you can think of a clever one.
Click to expand...
The existence of that site with that name is troubling. At least, I'd think about a way to name this without "tradition" being in the name...but, that's tough. TraditionU is a solid name though, and if you can't come up with something at least as solid without using tradition, best to stick with it and go head-to-head on these guys.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think it's a much weaker name than TraditionU, as well as more ambiguous. I know, I don't have any better suggestions at the moment...but between that and TraditionU, I'd go with TraditionU, unless legally you can't.

 
zoogies said:
I think it's a much weaker name than TraditionU, as well as more ambiguous. I know, I don't have any better suggestions at the moment...but between that and TraditionU, I'd go with TraditionU, unless legally you can't.
Click to expand...
Agreed. And I'm sorry I don't have a better suggestion yet, Chad. I'm still thinking about this, but with the house refi we're doing and business at work, my time to focus on other projects is limited.

I'm still intent on gathering info from other teams for you. What kind of time frame are you looking at? When do you want to start populating your new site with info?

 
Appreciate the feedback guys. We won't have a legal issue; my main concern was that ppl may confuse the domains, sending traffic to our competition.

Whats your thought.. might ppl be prone to swapping the U & tradition around? For an example, I shop at iherb.com but have never accidentally typed herbi. then again I dont smoke the herb.

 
Domain confusion could be a problem. But if you do decide to go head-to-head against UTradition, I think it could come down to the quality of the respective sites. UTradition has traction right now and what looks like some damn fine polish. That's troublesome and makes it an uphill climb.

Strictly from a name standpoint, I like TraditionU at least a couple steps better.

If there's confusion it might even be the other way around. Look at their logo:

logo1.png


Does that read "U Tradition" or "Tradition U" to you? To me it reads Tradition U.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top