Digital & communication · 10 min read · 13 Oct 2026
Club platform or web studio? When your club needs a custom-built website
Most clubs are best served by a club platform they can run themselves. Some are really businesses too, and they need a studio-built site. Here is how to tell which one you are, and what each route involves.
Read the guide →Digital & communication · 7 min read · 23 Sept 2026
Club website fonts and branding: choosing fonts that look like your club
How to choose fonts for a club website that every visitor actually sees, pairings that suit a sports club, how to match your logo without copying it, sizing that works on a phone, and what to check before uploading your club's own font.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 7 min read · 23 Sept 2026
Custom CSS for club websites: what it is for, what is allowed and why
When a club website genuinely needs custom CSS and when the theme already does the job, what a safe custom CSS feature should allow and refuse, and how to keep a stylesheet from becoming the thing nobody on next year's committee understands.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 8 min read · 23 Sept 2026
How to schedule club website updates (and undo the ones that go wrong)
A practical guide to scheduling club website updates — which pages, news posts and events to set up ahead of time, why the take-down time matters as much as the go-live time, and how version history lets a volunteer undo a bad edit without retyping it.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 8 min read · 23 Sept 2026
Members-only content on a club website: what to put behind a login, and how
What belongs behind a login on a club website and what should stay public, the difference between a members-only page and a members-only section, what "members only" actually protects, and the things that should never be on a website at all.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 10 min read · 22 Sept 2026
How to lay out a club website page: sections, sidebars and what goes where
A practical layout guide for club website pages — which sections belong in the main column, what earns a place in the sidebar, page-by-page layouts for home, membership, training, committee and contact pages, and how to keep a page useful without cramming it.
Read more →Digital & communication · 13 min read · 21 Sept 2026
How to connect your club to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools
You have minted a connection token for your club. Now you have to tell your AI tool about it — and whether that works comes down to one question you can answer in ten seconds. This guide gives you the rule, the exact command for Claude Code, the config shape for editors and desktop clients, the OpenAI API field, and what to do when a tool asks you to sign in instead.
Read more →Digital & communication · 14 min read · 21 Sept 2026
MCP vs an API vs webhooks: three ways to connect club software
A club platform can offer three genuinely different kinds of connection - a read-only REST key for your own code, outbound webhooks that push events to your system, and an MCP token for an AI assistant. This is the plain-language explainer for the committee member who wants to know which one they actually need, and why an agent connection is not just an API with extra steps.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 17 min read · 19 Sept 2026
Club email consent and opt-in: permission, records and re-consent
What consent actually means for a volunteer-run club — express versus inferred permission, why the opted-in-only setting is on by default, capturing opt-in at registration and on a member's own account page, running a re-consent campaign, honouring unsubscribes, keeping the consent list as evidence, and when to stop emailing someone who has left.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 13 min read · 19 Sept 2026
How to email your club members: a practical guide for committees
A step-by-step guide to club-wide email for committees — building the list from your member database, choosing the audience by role, position or paid status, writing a subject line people act on, using merge tokens, testing and scheduling, budgeting your email allowance, and knowing when to send a broadcast instead of a newsletter.
Read more →Digital & communication · 13 min read · 15 Sept 2026
Club website down? What to do in the first ten minutes
The club website won't load, or registration has stopped working, right in the middle of the night that matters most. Here is how a volunteer works out whether it's just them, keeps the event running and tells members what's going on, and what a well-run platform is already doing about it before anyone picks up the phone.
Read more →Digital & communication · 12 min read · 15 Sept 2026
When a fixed bug comes back, and what “fixed” should mean
The committee reports a problem, is told it's fixed, and three weeks later it's back. Here is why fixed bugs return, what a good platform does so a volunteer isn't left to notice and chase the same problem twice, and the questions to ask any vendor about what “fixed” really means.
Read more →Digital & communication · 12 min read · 15 Sept 2026
Who fixes bugs in your club software? What happens after something breaks
A volunteer hits an error on a busy night. On a lot of club software, nothing happens until someone writes in. On ClubHelix the failure records itself, lands in a ticket, our team is alerted, and the fix is watched after release so it stays fixed. Here is what happens, step by step, and the little that is left for your committee to do.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 14 min read · 13 Sept 2026
Push notifications for club members: what to send, what to leave out, and how members stay in control
A push notification is the most personal message a club can send, and the easiest one for a member to switch off for good. Here is a test for what earns a push, a table of what to send and what to leave out, when to ask members to turn notifications on, and the per-category settings that stop them muting the club altogether.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 11 Sept 2026
Why your club software shouldn't sell your members' attention
When a club tells every family to install an app, the club is handing over an audience it spent years building. Here is what we found reading the public reviews of a widely used club app, why the advertising model produces it, and the questions to ask a vendor before your members find out for you.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 7 Sept 2026
Club website migration checklist
A print-and-tick checklist for moving a club website to a new platform — what to export before you commit, what to test before you switch, what to redirect, and the order that keeps your domain, your email and your members intact.
Read more →Digital & communication · 10 min read · 7 Sept 2026
How to move your club website to a new platform
What actually transfers when a club changes website platform, what has to be rebuilt by hand, what can never move at all — and the order of operations that keeps your domain, your members and your search rankings intact.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 10 min read · 7 Sept 2026
Is your club website being scraped?
Automated copying of public club pages is ordinary, constant and mostly unstoppable — you cannot block bulk copying without also blocking search engines. So the realistic goal is not prevention. It is publishing less about people, and knowing when harvesting has happened.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 7 Sept 2026
Keeping your Google rankings when you change club website
Changing website platform is the most common way a club accidentally disappears from search. Here is how redirects, canonical addresses, sitemaps and Search Console actually work, and the order to do them in so your rankings survive the move.
Read more →Digital & communication · 9 min read · 7 Sept 2026
What happens to your old club website
Your domain, your hosting and your content are three separate things, and clubs lose the first one by cancelling in the wrong order. What to archive before you go, the safe order of cancellation, and how long to keep the redirects running afterwards.
Read more →Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026
The club software demo checklist — what to test in twenty minutes
A demo is only as useful as the questions you bring to it. This is the committee's twenty-minute test plan for any club platform — the screens to open, the buttons to press, the exports to demand — plus the difference between a guided sales demo and an open one you can drive yourself.
Read more →Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026
How to choose club management software (without regretting it by round 3)
Most clubs choose software under time pressure, off a feature list, with the decision made by whoever volunteered to look into it. Here is a calmer way — start from the jobs your committee actually does, ask the questions that separate platforms, and never sign up to anything you have not driven yourself first.
Read more →Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026
How to report a bug in your club software (and what a good process looks like)
Something broke on registration night and a volunteer is staring at it. What happens next depends on two things — whether the report is written so an engineer can act on it, and whether the vendor has a process worth reporting into. Here is how to do your half well, and how to judge theirs.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 6 min read · 31 July 2026
Editing your club website with an AI assistant: a practical walkthrough
How AI website editing actually works for a club — the propose-review-apply loop, what a built-in site assistant can change (theme, navigation, pages, forms), how draft-only editing protects your public site, and the jobs where a human in the editor is still faster.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 6 min read · 31 July 2026
Using AI to draft club newsletters and news (without losing your voice)
A working method for AI-drafted club communications — the facts-in, draft-out workflow, prompts that keep your club's voice, the review habits that catch AI mistakes before members see them, and why the send button should always belong to a person.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 8 min read · 31 July 2026
How to connect an AI assistant to your club data (safely)
A step-by-step guide to plugging an AI assistant like Claude into your club platform over the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — what a connection token is, how scopes and expiry keep it safe, what the assistant can and cannot do once connected, and the questions to ask before you connect anything to member data.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 12 min read · 5 July 2026
The best club website examples (and what makes them work)
Six archetypes of genuinely great club websites — the recruiter, the community hub, the match-day HQ, the shopfront, the sponsor magnet and the minimalist — with the specific patterns each one nails, so you can steal what fits your club.
Read more →Digital & communication · 23 min read · 21 June 2026
How to set up online club forms
Every paper form at your club is a form somebody types up on a Sunday night. Here is how to move the eight that matter most online — conditional questions, payments and consent capture, and where the responses land so nothing sits unread in a shared inbox.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 16 June 2026
How to promote a club event (a 4-week plan)
A week-by-week plan for promoting a club event or fundraiser — website, email, social media, posters and QR codes — so you fill the room instead of hoping people show up.
Read more →Digital & communication · 10 min read · 7 June 2026
How to set up club social media accounts (page vs group, handover, safety)
Setting up social media for a sports club properly — page versus group, club-owned accounts, admin handover that survives committee changes, and the safety settings every junior club needs.
Read more →Digital & communication · 10 min read · 4 June 2026
Club email templates: 10 emails every club sends
Copy-ready email templates for the messages every club sends — welcome emails, fees due, wet weather calls, AGM notices, volunteer asks and sponsor thank-yous — plus tips on getting them delivered and read.
Read more →Digital & communication · 8 min read · 3 June 2026
How to run a member survey (questions that get answers)
How to run a club member survey people actually complete — question sets for end-of-season, new member and volunteer surveys, plus how to get responses and act on what you hear.
Read more →Digital & communication · 13 min read · 2 June 2026
Free images for club websites (without breaching copyright)
Where volunteer-run clubs can safely get free images for their website — what copyright actually means for community groups, the free-licence sources worth using, consent for member photos, and how to size images for the web.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 27 May 2026
Club social media ideas: a season-long content plan
A social media plan for sports clubs that a volunteer can actually run — a weekly content calendar, dozens of post ideas organised by season phase, and the rules that keep it safe and sustainable.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 20 May 2026
How to get a club email address at your own domain
Why secretary@yourclub.org beats a personal address, how to set up role-based club email addresses, what they cost, and the deliverability basics (DKIM, SPF) explained in plain language.
Read more →Digital & communication · 8 min read · 10 May 2026
How to buy a domain for a club (.org.au, .com.au or .au?)
A committee-friendly guide to buying a club domain name — comparing .org.au, .com.au and .au endings, eligibility rules, who should own it, what it costs, and how to connect it to your club website and email.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 6 May 2026
How much does a club website cost? An honest breakdown for committees
The real cost of a sports club website — domain, DIY builders, club platforms and agency builds compared in rounded figures, the hidden volunteer-hours cost nobody budgets for, and how to pick the right spend for your club's size.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 14 Apr 2026
How to make your club website accessible (WCAG basics for clubs)
A plain-English guide to website accessibility for clubs — alt text, colour contrast, headings, forms and captions — so every member and visitor can actually use your club website.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 13 Apr 2026
How to take good club photos (match day tips for phone photographers)
Match day photography tips for volunteer club photographers — getting sharp action shots on a phone, the shots every club needs, consent done properly, and organising a shared photo library the whole committee can use.
Read more →Digital & communication · 12 min read · 7 Apr 2026
Why club emails go to spam (and how to fix it)
Members swear they never got the email? A plain-language guide to club email deliverability — SPF, DKIM and DMARC without the jargon, bulk-send hygiene, and the unsubscribe rules clubs must follow.
Read more →Digital & communication · 12 min read · 6 Apr 2026
30+ club website content ideas (organised by page type)
Wondering what to put on a club website? Here are more than thirty content ideas organised by page type — homepage, news, teams, events, membership, sponsors and more — with notes on which ones actually earn their upkeep.
Read more →
Digital & communication · 9 min read · 24 Mar 2026
How to set up a club website for free (and what "free" really costs)
Yes, you can run a genuinely useful club website for nothing — here's how, what free tiers honestly include and leave out, the one thing worth paying for anyway, and how to upgrade later without rebuilding.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 15 Mar 2026
How to write a club newsletter people actually read
A practical guide to writing a club newsletter — the structure that works, how often to send, a big list of content ideas, and a template outline you can copy for your next issue.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 12 Mar 2026
QR codes for your club website — registration days, posters and canteen menus
How to generate a QR code for your club website and actually put it to work — registration day sign-ups, clubroom posters, canteen menus, sponsor boards — plus printable poster ideas and the mistakes that make codes go unscanned.
Read more →Digital & communication · 11 min read · 24 Feb 2026
Google Business Profile for sports clubs — get your club on Google Maps
A step-by-step walk-through of setting up and verifying a Google Business Profile for your club — the right categories, posts and reviews, linking your website, and the local SEO habits that keep you on the map.
Read more →Digital & communication · 12 min read · 16 Feb 2026
The club communication plan: who says what, where, and when
A working communication plan for sports clubs — a channel matrix for email, SMS, push, chat and the website, who speaks for the club, a pre-season comms checklist, and a wet-weather escalation ladder that actually reaches everyone.
Read more →Digital & communication · 10 min read · 5 Feb 2026
The one-page club marketing plan (plus a channel playbook that works)
A practical marketing plan any volunteer committee can write in an evening — one page, five questions — plus a channel-by-channel playbook of sports club marketing ideas that actually fill teams.
Read more →