NO MORE ADS!!!

… sorta. The other morning as I was lying in bed, half asleep, not yet completely awake, I had this “eureka” moment where it hit me that I should try taking all the Google ads off this site. Instead, I could fill their real estate with other “ads” that would be less obtrusive for you and likely just as, if not more profitable for me anyway.

So I bolted out of bed and began yanking down AdSense and filled its voids with the following:

1. Top ad replaced by links to buy booster boxes

On the specific set pages, it’ll show the 2 best prices for booster boxes from that corresponding set, otherwise on any other page it’ll just show a listing for the most recently released set.

I don’t know if anyone here actually buys booster boxes, but I think it beats seeing Google ads.

2. Sidebar ad replaced by SixPrizes Underground promo

Because 6P UG is awesome and I run it… need I say more?

3. Footer ad replaced by random flavor text

This has instantly become one of my favorite features on the site. It shows a random flavor text at the bottom of each page, BUT it doesn’t say which card it’s from, and I was clever enough to cloak the permalink.

(Anyone looking for a new drinking game?)

It’s pretty addicting and fun trying to guess the Pokemon! I’m kind of dismayed since I know almost every single card off the top of my head after spending way-too-long typing out all the texts, but I’m sure I’ll become rusty in a couple weeks and it’ll be challenging again.

Overall removing the Google ads is a win-win for everyone since without them the site loads faster, looks nicer, is more enjoyable, and I should be able to recoup the couple bucks I was making in another form.

2commentsFeb 18 2012

Pokemon TCG Plugins for WordPress and vBulletin

Sup everyone? I’ve been hard at work the past couple weeks coding up a few plugins that utilize the PkmnCards database, and while I’ve sent the stray Tweet and Facebook update on their progress, I thought I’d made a formal announcement about them here…

1. Pokemon Card Scan Linker for WordPress

It's like an Energy Link... FOR WEBSITES!

I originally had this plugin running exclusively on SixPrizes in a very rudimentary form for a couple months, but decided to revamp it with more features and make it more user-friendly so other people with WordPress sites could use it too.

Basically what it does is search your content for mentions of Pokemon cards and links them to their respective entries in the PkmnCards database. Then, when the links are clicked, an elegant overlay emerges to show the card’s scan, specs, rating, pricing, and discussion, all via our database here.

The main draw to using the plugin is to provide reference images for all cards mentioned in your articles. Instead of having to explain what every card does that you talk about, or insert a bazillion images, the cards you discuss will be linked automatically and your readers will soon be speaking your language.

I’m hoping the plugin helps make it easier for new people to start Pokemon TCG blogs, as they’ll have a nice tool to make their site appear legitimate from the get-go. I know I wish I had this plugin when I first started 6P.

FAQ - Download it on WordPress.org

2. Pokemon Card Scan Linker for vBulletin

Yikes, this is obnoxiously large.

This is pretty much a carbon-copy of the WordPress plugin ported over to vBulletin, but with less features and settings (at least at the moment). It will check your vBulletin forum posts for mentions of Pokemon cards, and link them just as described above.

The reasons why this version of the plugin doesn’t come prepackaged with a goof-proof options page are A. I’m not that good at coding with vBulletin, B. I don’t like vBulletin’s add-on system, and C. I don’t envision too many sites using it anyway since it’s such a niche modification and there aren’t that many vB-fueled Pokemon TCG message boards.

That being said, I probably will refine it at some point incase there are any forum owners out there that want to use it. It is currently hosted directly on this site rather than vBulletin.org until I polish it up.

Despite the fact that it’s fairly bare bones, it does work, and if you want to customize the code to suit your needs, go for it dude.

FAQ – Download Link

3. Pokemon Card Search Engine for Firefox

You know how Firefox lets you select your search engine for its search box? You can add PkmnCards as one of your search engines! I’m sure most of you have probably figured out how to do this, but if you need instruction, watch this video.

And that wraps up the extent of the progress I’ve made on plugin creation over the past few weeks. If you know how to code and aren’t satisfied with my work, feel free to hack away at what I’ve written and make something even better if you can; just be sure to share your mods with me and the rest of the Pokemon TCG community.

Leave a commentFeb 13 2012

New Feature: Card of the Day

This morning as I was wasting time checking the site’s traffic stats, it hit me that it would be cool to have a designated card for discussion every day (i.e. card of the day).

I've got an idea. uhhhuh huhhhuh

I love the random discussions we have going on right now and I want to help foster more dialogue, so I was thinking that having a COTD would be a good way to get more people engaged with the site.

I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to have it set up yet, but basically each day we’ll pick a new card and encourage everyone to rate it, review it, leave a comment, write a haiku about it… whatever really.

I want to make it fun and at the same time hopefully build up some helpful content for any newbies that want to learn a little more about the cards.

As far as publicizing it, I’ll for sure send a Tweet and Facebook update out (so make sure you follow and like us to get those). I may even beam the COTD out to the 6P Facebook and Twitter as well to get more people in on it.

On the homepage I’ll probably figure out a spot to put an image of the card and link to it in the sidebar on all other pages as well. I’m going to have to sort out some of the coding technicalities first, but it should be doable. I should have most of it figured out within the next week.

EDIT: Took me like 10 minutes to sketch out the code; it is for sure doable.

Anyway, if you have suggestions or feedback on this idea, please comment below. I think it could turn out to be pretty cool.

7commentsJan 7 2012

PkmnCards? That’s an iPaddling.

I think I’ve sunk to an all-time low with cheesy post titles on this one…

I meticulously worked the past two days on piecing together functional iPhone and iPad versions of the site for you guys, and I just wanted to announce that they’re good to go!

If you visit the site with any smart device like an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, the mobile version should boot up. You can also add the site as an App, which basically just bookmarks it for you. (It’s not really an App.)

I personally do not own any of the aforementioned devices, so that made it a little difficult for me to build the build the new sites as I’m not sure what the norm in terms of layout and everything, but hopefully they work ok. They are a little stripped down and simplified, but should do the job.

As always, let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions.

-Adam

2commentsDec 20 2011

“Next Destinies” Scans Leaked

Hey dudes and dudettes,

Some scans from the upcoming set Next Destinies have been leaked/released onto the internet, so I added them to the database. (Thanks to PidgiPress for the tip-off!)

The set is due to release on February 8, 2012, so you’ve got a bit of waiting to do before you can get your hands on those shiny Mewtwo EXs.

Here’s the full press release:

IN STORES FEBRUARY 8, 2012 

Theme Decks    Booster Packs
MSRP: $11.99    MSRP: $3.99
The Return of Incredibly Powerful Pokémon-EX Is Coming!

Pokémon™ Trading Card Game players everywhere, get prepared for the return of Pokémon-EX cards in the fourth expansion of the Black & White series: Pokémon TCG:Black & White—Next Destinies! Using advanced powers and new strategies, Trainers will battle like never before with awesomely powerful Pokémon, including two versions of six different Pokémon-EX!

Pokémon-EX are more powerful versions of Pokémon, giving Trainers great rewards when used effectively. But beware: Trainers also suffer heavier losses when those Pokémon are defeated! In Black & White—Next Destinies, players will find more than 100 Pokémon, including some—like Mewtwo-EX— from beyond the Unova region for the first time in this expansion! Discover elusive Pokémon like Reshiram-EX and Zekrom-EX. Black & White—Next Destinies delivers your destiny: Pokémon with exceptional HP, Special Energy and Trainer cards with expanded powers, and new strategies to extend your victory streaks!

Key features of the new Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Next Destinies expansion include:

  • Two versions of six amazing Pokémon-EX, including the amazing Mewtwo-EX
  • Six Pokémon-EX cards with character art covering the entire card and a special etching treatment never done before in the TCG cards industry
  • Theme decks built around Legendary Pokémon Reshiram and Zekrom
  • Over 100 cards in all

Each new theme deck and booster pack includes an in-pack code card that unlocks virtual cards for play in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online. Expand your personal deck and battle against others from anywhere in the world at any time from your own computer! Battles are taking place now at www.pokemon.com/tcgo!

For more information about the Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Next Destinies expansion and Pokémon TCG Online, please visit www.pokemon.com.

The etching treatment sounds kinda cool. And we know there will be some secret cards since the scans say out of 99 on them.

As always feel free to rate and discuss the cards. This is the first set we’ve had (partially) up on the site before it was released, which is pretty cool.

Alright, well time to make dinner (2.5 pounds of baked potatoes… yum).

-Adam

P.S. Click here to download high res media files I was sent but am too lazy to post.

6commentsDec 14 2011

The Transformation is Complete

The Move

This is going to be cool!

I spent most of Friday and Saturday transferring files to the new domain, and while I was worried that something might bug up, the move from TcgScans.com to PkmnCards.com was actually pretty seamless.

The only major thing that I could not really transfer perfectly was the comments. Any “likes” on the comments were lost, and also avatars associated with the comments are gone for the most part, but you can reclaim your old comments and restore the avatars by taking the following steps:

1. Make an account at Disqus.com

It’s free and it’ll take like 10 seconds if you use their Facebook connect feature.

2. Once logged in, look for the Edit Profile link.

It should be located in a drop-down on your username tab. Click that, and then it should ask if you want to merge comments. Say yes, and it should add any previously made comment on here to your Disqus profile.

I already know about this bug.

You can change your avatar in the Disqus settings as well, and then it should show up on your old comments here.

Of course, if you notice any other bugs besides that, please let me know! Either comment or e-mail me at adam@pkmncards.com.

Ryan M e-mailed me earlier to let me know the set links in the menu were busted, so I fixed those. Thanks for letting me know dude!

Moving Forward

I need to go through and fix the prices on a bunch of cards. I’m hoping to get that done today, then I want to make a page listing all the sets (incase you don’t want to use the nav menu).

That’s pretty much all I have planned at the moment. I need to take a little bit of a break from working on this site!

-Adam

P.S. Make sure to click the Facebook Like Button, Twitter Follow Button, and Google +1 Button on the home page. It really helps us out!

1 commentDec 11 2011

Turning a New Leavanny: Changing Our Name and Direction

Hey everyone,

If you haven’t noticed, over the weekend I changed up the colors of the site and the layout of the homepage a little bit. You can thank YouTube for the soothing grey background which I’ve stolen borrowed from them. I think the grey is a little easier on the eyes and makes viewing the site more pleasurable.

On the homepage I got rid of the Computer Search image and moved up the Recent Comments list so it’s more visible without scrolling. I also added avatars to the comment listings and extended it to show the 25 most recent comments instead of 5. I think this helps by encouraging more discussion and makes the site more fun.

The Thinker

Anyway, as I was working on these changes I had some time to reflect and think about the direction I want to take the site into the future. The original plans with the site were to have it be a database of card scans for all card games.

However, I didn’t really research THAT much into all the different card games out there, so my plan was a little misguided. I didn’t realize it, but there are a TON of card games out there. In my head, I was thinking there are Pokemon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and WoW… and that’s it. Right?

But upon further research, I realized there are a ton of other smaller games out there – like Naruto, Maple Story, Redakai, etc. – and many more that have ended up failing over the years. I have little intention of trying to catalog all those games on this site. I don’t even know if I’ll expand beyond Pokemon at this point. Pokemon is the only game I really know and feel comfortable working with; any other game is a little more of a mystery/crapshoot to me.

I only want to focus on games that are established and will hopefully stick around for a while longer. I see little point in documenting something like the Need for Speed TCG when nobody cares about it. If nobody peruses these obscure games, then I’ll have little motivation to work on them, so I need to stick to the popular games to draw traffic.

The Three Options

That leads me to three possible ways to proceed with this site…

1. Make it Pokemon TCG exclusive and create separate sister sites in the future.

If we went this route, I’d rename the site to be more Pokemon TCG oriented. The best name I’ve brainstormed so far is PkmnCards.com. Here is a mock-up of the site with that name:

I made the logo as an homage to the old Game Boy games, which I feel brings a certain je ne sais pas to the table. The advantage to having a separate site for each card game is that it would make it a little easier to manage things on the backend, and it allows more customization for each card game in terms of eventual advanced searching features (which I hope to add at some point).

This is model is based off of sports-reference.com, which has sister sites for various sports. They do host college sports databases on the main site, but all the major sports have their own URLs.

I could still possibly keep this URL to host minor TCGs and create separate sites for the major ones, if I was ever motivated enough to do that.

Another advantage to something like PkmnCards.com is that it’s a little more marketable/brandable and could possibly draw more of an audience/following than this current URL. I could also focus more on releasing Pokemon TCG news, and I think forums would be more of a possibility with that URL as well (though not guaranteed).

You know, you do have a point.

And even if we never expand to any other card games, then PkmnCards.com is a little better URL to have than TcgScans.com.

2. Keep using this URL and make separate homepages for each card game.

The homepage would look more like this with just a listing of all the games on the site. The Pokemon TCG home URL would be tcgscans.com/pokemon. Magic would be tcgscans.com/magic. Etc. This would make it searching and organization a little simpler.

There are a couple ways to set this up on the backend. I don’t know if I really like either solution, but in one scenario, the recent comments list would show comments mixed from different TCGs. Part of the issue there is that we use Disqus for commenting (which I’m a huge fan of) and I can’t filter their comment output.

I definitely do not want comments mixed since I’m sure most of you don’t care about Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic, and we could just NOT use Disqus, but I like it too much. :P

In another scenario I’d basically have to install separate databases at each URL, so each URL (tcgscans.com/pokemon, tcgscans.com/magic, etc.) would almost be like separate websites in themselves. That would allow the comments on the homepages to be specific to each game.

I don’t know if that’s the best solution either though because then there are separate backends for each game, and it almost seems more logical to just have different domains for each game at that point.

3. Uhhhh… I guess there are only 2 options. I lost count.

Where the heck is my abacus?

Conclusion

Please let me know if have you an opinion on this! Either comment below or send me an e-mail at adam@tcgscans.com. The more views and thoughts I can get on this, the better. I sometimes get close-minded when I’m analyzing stuff, so your opinions can help me look at this with a more open mindset before moving forward.

Even if you just have other URL ideas besides PkmnCards.com, please share!

I really appreciate the support you’ve all given so far and I want to move forward with this in the best way possible. Thanks!

-Adam

3commentsDec 5 2011

Situation Normal; All Scans Up

What’s up everyone? I thought I’d write a post regarding the latest developments with the site…

1. New scans!

Yay new scans!

Thanks to the help of a few gracious volunteers, the site is up to date with scans again! Over the past 4 or 5 days, we got about 5,000 new images uploaded and organized on the site for your viewing pleasure.

The new scans come to you courtesy of Martin from Pokemon-Paradijs who supplied me with the images and has given us permission to use them watermark-free (aside from the most recent set). One of my original goals was to have un-watermarked images, and now we’ve got them, which is pretty awesome!

In the future when new sets are released, I’m totally open for people submitting scans if they have access to a scanner. The reason being is that it takes Martin a few weeks from the first prereleases here in the US until he is able to get his scans done. I know most people (including myself) probably don’t want to wait that long, so if you’d like to contribute in the future, that would be great.

2. Rating system is going pretty well!

At first I wasn’t sure how the ratings would work, but so far so good. My hopeful theory was that as more and more people rated the cards, the ratings would even out over time. This seems to be the case for the most part, aside from the random Hoppip comfortably sitting in the 8.5 to 10.0 range.

My goal is for a newer Pokemon player to be able to view cards here, and get a general sense whether or not a card is good from the community rating. If you look at Black & White in order of highest rating first, which you can see here, it’s actually fairly accurate. Not perfect, but surprisingly decent.

3. Comments are good too!

Upward Lick? LOL

I want to thank coolestman22, Curtis, Vinay Patel, and everyone else for their active discussion the past few days! I think it’s really cool that we’re able to comment on the cards and say whatever about them, whether it be a serious strategy-based question, fond memory, or snide remark regarding a dubious attack name.

Any discussion is cool with me; have fun with it!

I think what I may do in order to promote more discussion is redesign the home page to show a forum-like listing of the cards that have been most recently commented on. Or if not the home page, I could create pseudo-forum pages for different sets, modified legal cards, or whatever.

4. Plans for the Future

As I just alluded to, I think I want to redesign the home page. I’m not exactly sure how I want to change it, but I may just try to make it simpler like the Google home page and just have the big search bar. I’ll take some time to think about it, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know by commenting or e-mailing me.

I also have a list of a few random things I need to fix, like how prices for some cards are whack. I’ll try to take care of that kind of stuff this weekend. If you notice any bugs that could be fixed or improved, let me know.

One thing down the road I’ll try to add is a mobile version of the site. Right now I’m more concerned with getting the web version as complete as possible, then I’ll begin development for all you people with smart phones.

Oh and finally, full-text is something that will be in development for a while. It’s sort of a slow process typing out all the cards. Eventually I’ll enable full-text searching on the site, but for now, if you Google “site:tcgscans.com QUERY” it will work.

For example, here’s a search for Foul Play. Both Zoroarks come up, which is pretty cool. Only modified legal cards have their text typed out so far though. I’ll estimate that by Valentine’s day we’ll be done with the text, but we could be done a lot sooner.

After the text is done, then I’ll maybe work on allowing advanced searching/sorting features, like filtering out all Basic Grass Pokemon that have Free Retreat. That sort of thing.

Anyway, I guess that’s it for today. Thanks for reading and supporting the site!

-Adam

4commentsDec 1 2011

Adam Needs Your Help!

Hey everyone,

Long story short, over the weekend I was forced to remove all the PokeBeach images that were on the site. This means a lot of scans are now missing, and in order to get new images up as quickly as possible I could use some help!

The Game Plan

I’m looking for people that can help do data entry type work. Basically how the process works is that I will upload new images to the site, and then those new images need to be assigned to the right cards in the database. That’s where you would come in!

I’ve shot a short screen capture video to show exactly how it’s done, which you can watch here.

It’s very simple and I’d do it all myself (which I already have done once), but at this point I figure we can get this done WAYYY faster with more than one person on the job. It takes about 1 to 2 hours per set, depending on how quick you are (and how large the set is).

Just to be clear, I’ll upload the images to the site, and all you need to do is go into each card entry and set the featured image plus author. Pretty easy.

At this point, I think we’re fairly up to date with modified cards, so we’ll move backwards from most recent to oldest sets until we’re caught up.

If you’ve got some free time and think you’d like to help, shoot me an e-mail at adam@tcgscans.com and I’ll get you more info. Even if you can only do 1 set, that would be awesome.

Full Card Text

Next thing on the agenda is full card text. I’ve made decent progress on this along with Alice who graciously volunteered to help out. She’s done a killer job and I really appreciate her help!

I think almost all modified legal cards have their full card text typed out which is incredible – we got that done very fast!

If you’d like to help out with this too, just let me know. Typing out card text is a little more involved and time-consuming than doing the image assigning, but I could give you admin powers for editing and if you’re ever bored, you could type out a few cards when you feel like it.

New Scans?

One of my original goals with this site was to get high-quality non-watermarked card scans on the site, and I’d still very like to do that. However, I’ll admit I was a little too high with my standards for the scans and initially turned some contributors away.

I apologize for that, and have revised the submissions instructions page with simpler, less picky scanning and image editing instructions. Please read over that page if you’d like to help with the scans project.

Basically we’ll need people who can either scan cards and/or edit images. I’m incapable of doing either at the moment, but if you’d like to help, please let me know. :)

Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting this site! I’m glad it’s been useful for a lot of people, and I’m doing my best to help it grow and get better. One step at a time…

-Adam

Leave a commentNov 9 2011

Full Card Text – Coming Up Next!

Forgive me for the lame rhyme… I’m not a poet at this time. HAH! Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’m going to begin typing out the full text to all the cards on the site.

Why am I doing this? Well, there are a few reasons…

1. You’ll be able to do full-text card searches.

Say you’re trying to finding cards that do “Leek Slap”… right now the site only searches card titles, so you would have no way of find said cards.

However, with the full-text card search functionality, you’ll be able to quickly pull up all cards that have that attack! Pretty cool, huh?

I honestly don’t know how useful this will end up being, but I figure it’s worth trying it out. At the moment I don’t have a special full-text search bar set up yet, as it would be fairly useless considering I’ve only typed out the text for 1 card so far, but I’ll give you a heads up when it’s ready. Until then, you can try doing Google searches like this:

site:tcgscans.com Leek Slap

It’s going to take time for the cards to get indexed in Google, but eventually that should work pretty well.

2. You can copy/paste the text to message boards, forums, chats, or whatever.

Other sites that offer card text use images for energy symbols, types, Poke-Powers, etc… and that doesn’t make for good c/p material.

I’m going to be using all plain text for the spoilers, so it’ll be easy to share with other people.

3. It will hopefully get more search engine traffic to the site.

The more people using the site, the more motivation I have to keep working on it. The site is pretty sweet as is, but I want to develop it as much as I can; I want it to be as cool as possible.

I actually use the site a ton already myself for random purposes, and I hope it’s been beneficial to other people.

How to View the Text

At this point I’ve only typed out the text for Farfetch’d Base Set, so I’ll use it for demonstration purposes:

CLICK TO WATCH COOL VIDEO

Pretty slick, eh?

If I’ve typed the text out for the card, the “Specs | Text” links will show. Otherwise they’ll be missing.

It’s probably going to take me at least a month to get all the cards done, but if anyone would like to help, just let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail, and I’ll get you set up.

-Adam

Leave a commentOct 28 2011