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Some Subtle Changes Made to Information Presented: 7s Feed, BBC Feed, NZ Herald Feed
posted Feb 5 2010
Just thought I would point out to readers some subtle changes to information presented to you. The front page now shows the RSS feed from the Canada 7s Blog started by Jeff Williams. So whenever someone posts a new blog entry you'll see the title link on the front page. I think the 7s blog is one of the more innovative steps taken at the national level in a long, long time so it gets front page coverage. In my view the fact that the team is performing over expectations is a reflection of the same mindset that created this new blog. It's new thinking, daring to challenge the status quo both on and off the field.
For those who like the international news both the BBC and NZ Herald RSS Feeds can be seen on the story detail page. So click on any story and to the right you'll see first the BBC feed and then as you scroll down you'll see the NZ Herald news feed.
Viewer Statistics for 2008: 20% Growth in Readership [ed. comments below]
posted Jan 14 2009
It’s time to look at the 2008 website statistics to analyze interest in BC Rugby and to show advertisers the numbers and potential of rugby in BC. The screen shots below are from a statistics package called AWStats. Here are the highlights:
- Almost 90,000 unique visitors to the website in 2008.
- Almost 350,000 visits to the website in 2008
- Approaching a million pages viewed in 2008
Some interesting patterns emerge with the pages viewed peaking in April (100,226) and November (96,804). These of course are the playoff seasons for the CDI Premier (April) and the Fall Elite leagues (November). One figure that puzzled me at first was the peak in June for unique visitors (9,690) until I realized that was the French Barbarians game and we would have had people from around the world checking on that story but not really interested in other local stories.
Looking at January 2009 up to the 13th and comparing to last year, the figures are looking good. Already we have 3,139 unique visitors and the season hasn’t even started. This projects to a figure of around 6,500 to 7,000 by month’s end, as figures will rise when the CDI Premier season starts on the 24th. Compared to last January’s figure of 5, 634 unique visitors, it shows an approximate growth of 20% to 25% in our base readership. Good news for the potential of rugby in this province.
Another interesting point, and one that makes me proud as the editor, is that if you Google “rugby news”, we come up third in the world behind Planet-Rugby and New Zealand’s Rugby News, two heavy weights in the rugby world that both exist in a professional rugby environment . If you Google only the “pages from Canada” with “rugby news” then we are first, followed by Rugby Canada. I think this is something the whole BC rugby community can be proud of and shows that we are moving forward in marketing the game in the electronic media and this will have a trickle down affect to clubs as more exposure leads to more sponsorship awareness and more athlete interest. I love using analogies and the one about a trickle of water coming through the dam just before it bursts comes to mind, the growth of rugby in our province may not be linear but may explode once that trickle reaches a certain volume. So to all the volunteers that keep the clubs moving forward in the difficult times, take heart and keep persevering as your efforts collectively strengthen that trickle of water through the dam.
2008 Statistics
2009 Statistics as of Jan 13th
A Brief History of BCRN and a Call for Directors
[ed. comments below]
posted April 10 2008
I thought it would be a good time to look at the history of BCRN, actually it was prompted by a question from a reader, so here is the condensed version. We started in September of 2004, so this will be our 4th season of covering rugby in BC. I wrote the code for the BCRN site, for those technically oriented, it’s a Content Management System programmed in ColdFusion. It means I just paste articles into a form and they get saved to a database online and then presented in order of date with the ‘header’ and ‘teaser’ automatically generated. I had written something similar for CRN (Canadian Rugby News) a year earlier when Doug Crosse was starting up CRN. My earliest online rugby connection was when I designed and maintained the original Rugby Canada site in 1997, Liz Ferguson was the Rugby Canada director who was the driving force behind that initiative. The Rugby Canada office was in Ottawa at the time, along with the rest of the amateur sport National Team offices. Graham Brown was just coming onto the scene as CEO and convinced the Directors at the time to move HQ to the environs of his home town, which I’ve always been in awe of, there’s a guy who could sell ice to the Eskimos I thought at the time. In retrospect selling ideas to the Board of Directors would prove infinitely easier than selling rugby to the corporate world. Anyway I digress.
So I was running BCRN and I was contacted by Lisa Cooper who was moving from Ontario to BC, she became a driving force at BCRN during its formative years. Mike Doyle also became involved, his experience in law proved to be invaluable in setting up the non-profit structure for BCRN. I asked a couple of Ebb Tide teammates to get involved, John Azar, who was in the consulting business and Alec Hawke who had a lot of organizational experience. Also as a Kiwi, Alec knew rugby culture in and out. We formed a non-profit association with Mike as treasurer, Lisa as vice-president, Alec in charge of events, John as operational advisor, and myself as president. Unfortunately Mike and Lisa moved to Vancouver and became less involved in operations, Alec moved back to NZ, John became busy in other projects, which left me as the Editor, President, and chief bottle washer. We operate on a budget of about $1200 a year so nobody is involved for the money but with all the traffic we get, about 1400 visitors a day, 4300 pages viewed a day, and 77,000 hits a day, it’s like having an empty store front on a busy street.
The official role was to promote rugby in BC, but we’ve taken on an unofficial role as a grassroots critic of the bloated, official organization that runs rugby in Canada, the Canadian Rugby Union. We are at opposite ends of the spectrum, we get a lot done on a $100 a month, like the clubs we try to represent it’s a struggle all the way and we try to stretch a dollar as far as it goes. The CRU, it seems, thinks money grows on trees, the IRB tree and spend money with little accountability. Since the clubs also financially support the CRU through dues, it irks many at the grassroots, volunteer level. A recent example that brought it to mind was when covering the recent U20 inter-squad game at Shawnigan Lake. The CRU flew a couple of people (at least) out from Toronto to cover the event, someone to videotape and someone to photograph the event. How much does this cost and where is this money coming from? There are plenty of volunteers in BC who could have been utilized. At the national administrative level we’re operating like an amateur organization but spending like a professional organization, the attitude seems to be if we spend enough we’ll become professional without any thought of the underlying structure and incoming revenue. Anyway, don’t get me started on this.
The point of this long missive is that it’s time for a BCRN AGM and we would like to see some new blood in the Directors. We would like to see a core group in Victoria for the practical issue of face to face meetings with strong representation from Vancouver. In the future this dynamic may change to a Vancouver core group but for now the expertise is centred in Victoria. The primary skill needed is revenue generation. Also on the table is the direction of BCRN and the plan for long term viability. It’s an exciting time for online media, next season we’ll be trying live video streaming of certain events (unlike RC’s claim they signed a six figure deal with Mediazone, video streaming services can start as low as $40 per month). If you can get excited about the possibilities of growth at BCRN then we would like to hear from you, contact editor@bcrugbynews.com
Regards, Mark Bryant
Technical issues resolved and what's coming up this week
[ed. comments below]
posted Oct 31 2006
I want to thank the dozens of viewers who sent in the error messages they were getting yesterday. I won't reply individually but appreciate the extra effort to keep us informed. The problem took 11 hours to resolve and was a database problem on the server, the ISP (internet service provider) changed the database server without telling us and then restored an old version from Aug 5th. It took them 11 hours to finally get us back to where we were Monday morning, so needless to say there weren't any new stories posted in the afternoon. But we do have some good stuff coming later today and tomorrow.
- Phil Smith gives us the inside scoop from his refereeing trip to Ireland
- Setanta Sports will be showing the New Zealand v England game live on Nov 5th over the internet, we'll examine the in and outs of viewing games online.
- The video highlights of the Caps v Lomas game, over 10 minutes of video highlights
- VIRU standings and top scorers list compiled by Phil Meyer
- and more from the clubs...
It's 1:17 am and the site is finally back up so we'll see you in the morning, much later in the morning...
New email to submit stories and car pooling to the Abbotsford NA4 game...or a charter flight from Victoria to Abbotsford
[ed. comments below]
posted May 17 2006
First I would like to welcome Denise McGeachy to our technical team of volunteers at BC Rugby News. Denise will be involved in entering stories into the database. When submitting stories, please use the new email address news@bcrugbynews.com which will expedite the posting of your story to the website.
On another matter, anyone interested in car pooling from Victoria to Abbotsford for the first NA4 game this Saturday? Another option is a charter flight from Victoria to Abbotsford airport, for 6 people $1200 return or $200 per person.
Contact the editor@bcrugbynews.com
Velox win Williams Lake tournament in Men's division, Nanaimo win Women's division....story, photos, video to follow
Story, photos and video to come later today but I would first like to thank the organizers and the Williams Lake rugby club for their hosting. Marvellous tournament and weekend, it's already marked on the calendar for next year. Refs did a great job as usual [editor's blatant attempt to atone for past sins] and they don't pay these guys enough...or give them enough free beer.
Later...
Editor gone to Williams Lake tournament until Sunday, July 2nd, copy Lisa on items to be posted to website
posted June 30 2005
The editor is taking a little break from the computer and Lisa is standing in as editor over the long weekend. So CC: lisa@bcrugbynews.com on anything you want posted on the website over the next few days. I'll be back on Sunday.
Cheers, Mark
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