The other day, we had a recruit on campus and I was explaining to her all the new technology I implemented for Winthrop’s Volleyball Program.  She said I reminder her of a computer science teacher.  I got a chuckle out of it and told her I can be a bit nerdy at times.  She proceeded to call me a VolleyNerd

Obviously, you have found my blog which has really become a little website.  More proof of my VolleyNerdiness.  I originally started this website as a means to give me a competitive advantage while I was between jobs.  I taught myself some basic html and CSS code and with the assistance of Adobe’s Dreamweaver and Fireworks software, I threw-up a basic, yet professional looking website.

There were a few purposes for the website.  The first was to be a place to post my resume.  Beyond just being an attachment to an email, I thought it may help to have my resume posted with a link.  This way prospective Head Coaches didn’t have to download a resume, they could easily share the resume with their Athletic Director and Staff, and it would be readily accessible online (not in a pile of other resumes).  Secondly, I could post more than my resume, do it in color with pictures and graphics, and give deeper insight into me.  I included the categories you see at the top of the page: About, Biography, Philosophy, etc.  My hope was after a Coach clicked to see my resume, that Coach would be intrigued to click a little more.  The third purpose was created by failure…hard drive failure.

A lot of the information you see throughout the website was stored on my personal computer hard drive and backed-up with a thumb drive, flash drive, jump drive, whatever you want to call it.  I plugged in my thumb drive one day and POOF it somehow burned out both my hard drive and thumb drive!  Fortunately, I spent a couple years as a Technician with an IT company (I had no technical background before joining this IT company and learned on the fly.  It was a means to an end in order to allow me to coach on a volunteer basis with Low Country Volleyball Club and at Bluffton High School).  So I became nerdy enough to know how to restore the “lost” information, but it was a real chore…and a lesson!  So I decided to create a blog where I could store all my information online, or what is becoming known as “The Cloud”.  Storing this data online would help to prevent losing this information and would enable me to access it anywhere in the world.  I still often refer to my blog for pieces of information.

Bit-by-bit I added the volleyball information I had on my hard drive to my blog.  As I stored this volleyball information, I started to get a couple emails about general volleyball questions.  Through these emails, I learned that these people found my website on search engines, like Google.  Wow! I thought.  Who’da’thunk it?  So I did research and learned about SEO, Search Engine Optimization.  I learned that search engines, like Google, use particular algorithms to help make websites better recognized.  Google does a tremendous job with these algorithms to help bring pertinent websites to the top of their list and weed out those wanna-be websites that have no real purpose or meaning.  The most important information you can include in your website is exactly what your website is all about, relevant information that pertains to your subject.  Google is obviously an amazing tool, but I since have created a website called VolleyLink: www.VolleyLink.com.  Algorithms are great, but a true expert in a field does a better job bringing real websites to recognition.  I’m still searching for a partner to help expand upon this project because it needs a lot more automation.  Google already has some interest with me   I’m digressing.

My website has been in existence for three years.  From the resume website I first developed using basic HTML to the first generation blog (using an open source software, BlogEngine.net) to a second generation blog using WordPress to the current look and feel of this blog also using WordPress (as a true “CMS”, Content Management Software).  I have been overwhelmed and humbled by the people I have met through my little corner of the web, from National Team Coaches from around the world, to fellow collegiate coaching colleagues, to beach volleyball professionals, to parents and players that just want some general knowledge.

In a follow-up blog, I’d like to offer my perspective, experience, and more detailed information in developing a blog or website so you can share your volleyball experiences with the world.  Technology has gotten so much easier that it is pretty simple to develop a professional looking website with limited IT knowledge.

I must give mad props to Streamy.  I found Streamy through a Mashable plug.  I guess its best described as a social network content management system or a content hub.  In somewhat-non-techie-terms, Streamy combines streams from blogs and social networks to get the best news, a place to view your facebook, twitter, flickr, and blog feeds on one website.  I’ve tried friendfeed and chi.mp, but they were not as user-friendly as Streamy seems to be.  I’ve been working the Google products over especially Google Reader, where I’m still a Google platform groupie.  I would like to be able to email my gmail from Streamy, but I can foresee Streamy getting boughtout by a Google…just my prediction.

Streamy is dreamy. Yes, that was ridiculous, but check it out.  It was just recently released from Beta version and it still has some glitches, but it looks as if the social media society was able to overlook Twitter glitches too.  I highly recommend viewing the 4 minute introduction video, as it provides great oversight of the website.