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The Question: Since Athletes.com is still a new website, how can we make it as big as Bodybuilding.com (View stats at Alexa.com)? What could be done to bring as many members to the Athletes.com forum. What kind of improvements can be made on the homepage? What about other pages like the following: Main Sports Page - http://www.athletes.com/fun/sports.htm Main General Page - http://www.athletes.com/fun/general.htm Sub-Category Page - http://www.athletes.com/fun/baseball.htm Store Main Page - http://www.athletes.com/store/index.html List your suggestions and what pages need updated, what you want to see, what we are missing, etc... What would you like to see in the cyber store? What kind of different products would interest you? What kind of new features would you like to see? Bonus Question: What is your favorite part of Athletes.com? Why? What could be done to make it even better? Show off your knowledge to the world! The Winners:
2nd place - 50 in store credit. 3rd place - 25 in store credit. To use your credit, e-mail Will @ will@bodybuilding.com for more info.
Normally, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any forum/web site to start from the ground up and become as popular as Bodybuilding.com. However, Athletes.com has one obvious advantage on their side: Bodybuilding.com. Here are some techniques I would personally use to make the site more popular: 1) Have A Few Hook Products:
Although you might make little or no money on each of the sales from these products, you benefit enormously from the other products that must be bought along with it. 2) Referrals:
If you gave someone a considerable reward (5-10% off an order for 10 referrals), then they might be inclined to do it more often. There would be a few pros and cons: Pros:
Possible Cons:
Way To Possibly Fix:
MASS SPAMMING (which equals bad publicity for Athletes.com): Enforce STRICT punishments for spamming referral IDs. Month-bans for first offense, lifetime for second. 3) Get Some Better Articles. Get Lots Of Them.
4) Memberships:
5) Gold Memberships!
For about 25 dollars a month, there could be a gold card that gave you a 10-15% discount. This would make the people with a gold card reliant on buying from Athletes.com. 6) BB.com Sports Articles:
This is beneficial in several aspects:
7) Use Bodybuilding.com:
"Head over to Athletes.com for a 10% discount on all purchases!"
Remember the last time you had a 10% discount on Bodybuilding.com? Everyone went wild! Advertise on the main page of Bodybuilding.com:
"Is bodybuilding really for you? Maybe you just want to get better at a sport. We can help, over at Athletes.com." 8) Sponsor Somebody Popular On Bodybuilding.com:
When people realize how much Athletes.com has helped said person, they'll take a look at the site themselves. 9) Free Shipping:
10) Multiple-Item Discounts:
11) No Posting Rewards:
I can't stress this enough. There aren't even any rewards for having more reputation points and/or more posts than other members on Bodybuilding.com, and the place is still plagued with post and rep whores. This place would be chaos if there were rewards for flooding the forum with meaningless posts. This forum will not be quality with people spamming to get discounts! Without quality, word-of-mouth is not an effective means of advertisement. The teen forum on Bodybuilding.com has an awful reputation because of misinformation that comes out of there. Do you want to be the laughing stalk of all the other athletic information/training forums?
12) Add Some Fun Into The Mix!
Lots of the posts at BB.com have nothing to do with bodybuilding! This is okay! It helps people relax, forget about bodybuilding for a while, and let out frustration. When they can vent their frustration/non-seriousness in an appropriate outlet, the other parts of the forum will benefit. I'd also like to see sports divided into age groups as well. I think 13-year-olds and 50-year-olds need different and specialized advice.
 Change The Colors!
I ended up getting maybe one good page out of what I thought was 10-15. I'd like to see individual equipment recommendations for each sport, and you could possibly sell some.
What is your favorite part of Athletes.com? Why? What could be done to make it even better?
I'd have to say my favorite part is the forums. However, even they are boring because of lack of activity. I'd love to see this forum flourish, but with more activities comes more trolls, which we'd have to hunt down. At BB.com trolls were practically eliminated when email verification was turned on. One part I like AND dislike is that it's very serious. There's no time to play or joke around here. That's why I'd like a miscellaneous forum. These forums and the site DEFINITELY (no doubt about it!) have the potential to thrive. The best part for advancing the forums is to upgrade all of the site. The better the site is, the more people that notice the forums, and the more people that notice the forums the better the site is. The process of upgrading the site should be taken slowly, so that it isn't messed up. Thanks for your time.
Athletes.com is still a relatively new web site. This puts it at a disadvantage since Bodybuilding.com has been around for quite some time and has built a strong fan base. However there are still things that can be done to improve on the popularity of Athletes.com. 1. Advertise:
Since Bodybuilding.com owns Athletes.com, large advertisements can be placed on the main page. This is bound to catch everyone's attention who enters Bodybuilding.com. So at the very main page when it says enter cyberstore or enter supersite, put something that says "enter Athletes.com", for all the athletes since a lot of them go to BB.com for cardio, training and nutrition. Also in sports sections there can be advertisements for Athletes.com. It is important to place advertisements here since most serious bodybuilders aren't likely to be getting into baseball or swimming (Most people who see the advertisements on the main page wont be interested since they are bodybuilders or are just interested in lifting weights). A lot of people who specialize in sports do go to Bodybuilding.com to look for training programs. Therefore if advertisements are placed here, serious athletes who are looking for articles to get ahead will find a site that is specialized just for them. That's why so many weight lifters and bodybuilders do go to BB.com. The site is specialized for them and everything they need to know will be there for them. At this point, it is important to associate Bodybuilding.com with Athletes.com. For example if a sports guy looks at the advertisement for Athletes.com, it would increase the chances of him going into the site if it says on the ad that Athletes.com is owned by Bodybuilding.com. When an athlete or sports guy knows this, he knows the same people who have made the quality site BB.com have also made Athletes.com. 2. Make Links:
This would be good if someone didn't find what they were looking for; the person could then be referred to Athletes.com for more info, or if the individual wants to know more they can go to a specialized site for that persons sport at Athletes.com. 3. Sponsor People:
So for an example sponsor a good high school basketball team by providing jerseys that have Athletes.com written on them. This can also be done for football, volleyball, baseball, soccer teams, or basically for any sport. If the sports team does well then people are more likely to go to this site to improve their game or check it out since a team sponsored by the site is doing so well. 4. More Articles:
There is basically all the information you need to become knowledgeable about weightlifting, nutrition, recovery, etc. However I feel that this is not true with Athletes.com. When I went to the soccer training page there were only 10 specific articles about soccer training. If Athletes.com wants to become popular, they have to offer more; meaning more articles. Now I know this isn't just something that can be fixed in a day, it will take some time. This is also related to a bunch of things I will list below. 5. Recruit More Writers:
Offer athletes, who know a lot about their sport, store credit. Some athletes would kill for some free supplements and would surely write articles. Since the site is still growing, make it mandatory for some writers to write maybe an article every 2 weeks. 6. Make Sub Categories Like BB.com:
With even more sub categories, the site is more organized and people can find what their looking for easily. This is related to having more articles. When you have more articles about various topics then it's easier to have more sub categories. 7. Go Pro:
So for example if a famous tennis star has ties with Athletes.com or has it on his/her shirt then the site would get a huge boost since a pro athlete is endorsing the site. People looking to improve in that sport would probably check it out since someone so good is supporting the site. 8. Have A Main Focus:
Also a lot of guys love lifting weights since you don't really have to be hardcore skilled at it. You can pick up weightlifting anytime and it's relatively cheap to do. It isn't like soccer where you have to be extremely skilled to be good at it. So my suggestion would be to have a focus or a main topic. This topic shouldn't require that you need a lot of skill in it, but you just need to invest time and hard work into. It should also be easy to pick up by anyone, and that thing would probably be cardio (That's what I would choose to follow). It would take a long time but if Athletes.com focused on cardio, it would probably get a lot more customers. First off cardio is such an easy thing to do, it improves fitness, gets people lean and it's cheap. It is also a very popular thing among many people. So having tons of cardio articles just like how BB.com has a lot of weightlifting articles would probably attract a lot of people who want to learn more about it or want to get into it.
The Bodybuilding.com forum is a huge part of the site. There are a few things to bring people to the Athletes.com forum. 1. Make A Section In The BB.com Forum:
When someone clicks on it they get transfered to the Athletes.com forum. This would be an effective way of getting more people into the Athletes.com forum since the Bodybuilding.com forum is more popular. Some people in the forums would probably be interested in the sports section and click on it. So basically you're putting the Athletes.com forum in the Bodybuilding.com forum. 2. Make Links On Bodybuilding.com:
If there are tons of these links everywhere people are more likely to see them and go to them. You can also have some feature articles from Athletes.com that deal with running, mental toughness, or nutrition. 3. Have More Interesting Topics:
You can also have things like the best basketball shot or even pictures for the best soccer goal. You have to have more topics than the straight forward ones in the Athletes.com forum. The BB.com forum has everything from steroids, to pictures and even forums for people +35.
The homepage is quite good. The colors and the way everything is laid out, displayed and set up is good. The organization is also pretty good. There isn't really much you can improve here since it is already quite good and people probably aren't going to say "I'm not going into Athletes.com because the homepage doesn't look good".
 Lose The Gray/White Bars. There is also one more thing that can be improved. HAVE A LOT MORE SPORTS. Things like swimming, volleyball, badminton (This is super popular in Asia and to Asian people), gymnastics, martial arts, etc. The list is endless. You have to have a lot of topics to appeal to a lot of people. Not many people just play the sports you have listed in your main sports page. You can even have golf which would attract a load of retired people who are too old to play a lot of high impact sports. This also would take a lot of time since BB.com wasn't created overnight.
But like I listed above you should create a main topic in this part. I suggested cardio be your main focus with tons of articles about it. It wouldn't make sense making vertical jump your main topic since not everyone is looking to improve it. Cardio is huge now, so many people are looking to get in shape and stop heart attacks. You would probably attract a whole lot more people if you made cardio a focus.
This is a huge part since it would be easier for someone to find what they want and get the knowledge they need. There also needs to be more articles about the sport. If someone wants to know a lot about baseball then they need a lot of articles just like how BB.com has tons of articles.
The only thing that really needs improvement is making the search for supplements by sport section have more sports. There are only thirteen sports and seems to be missing a few popular ones.
1. Actual Sports Products:
It would probably be hard to shift to selling all that stuff but if it can be done. This would make the cyberstore amazing.
 Offer Sports Equipment Beyond What Bodybuilders Use. 2. Sports Drinks:
3. Sports Clothing:
4. Maybe A Larger Section For Creatine:
It helps in many things like explosiveness which is especially good for sprinters, and sports that require short bursts of speed like basketball and football.
1. Pro Trainers:
Have his own section in each topic. This would be great since people can rely on the info knowing it came from a pro. Also having a Q and A section with these pros would be awesome where Athlete.com members can ask these individuals questions about the sport. 2. Bring Things That BB.com Has To Athletes.com:
My favorite part of Athletes.com is the general section. I don't really play sports like basketball, football or hockey so that section is automatically not where I would go. The general section is great however. I have everything like cardio, improving vertical and getting faster. If I want to improve my vertical just for the fun of it then I can just check out a few simple drills that I can do. Or if I want to do cardio to cut up then the cardio section is great for knowing how to perform it. This section is also great because a lot of the stuff doesn't require huge skill to do. Like running and jumping. Since it is so simple all I need to do is put some hard work into it and I will improve. Some things that can be done to improve this section are to have more articles. For example the cardio section only has about 20 articles. Not all the questions someone may have can be answered in just 20 articles. Same with the vertical jump section, it only has about ten articles which isn't a lot. That is the main thing to improve this section. Get more articles since the section has good topics about general conditioning.
Well obviously it is going to take time and a lot of effort on the administrative side to make a web site as big as Bodybuilding.com, but I wouldn't put it past Athletes.com. One thing Athletes.com has in it's favor is that professional athletes aren't frowned upon like professional bodybuilders may be by some people. However that definitely doesn't mean it's going to be easy, as Bodybuilding.com is clearly one of the biggest sites on the internet and no sports site in the mould of Athletes.com has even come close as of yet, but Athletes.com could very well change this.
 A Simple Link Would Make This Much Easier To Find.
Although I think you should close the sports section, I don't believe you should remove its name from the forums. Rather than remove its name completely, it would be a better idea to leave its name up, but instead of a link to the forum on the index, the link should instead be to the Athletes.com register page, where this person can sign up.
The referral competition can be run over several months and the top 3 referral getters could get some sort of reward in credit at the Athletes.com store. The competition should also make sure that the people referred reach over a certain number of posts before being counted as a referral towards the comp and that the same people aren't creating multiple user names.
Since the site is appropriately named and easy to remember it makes it a hell of a lot easier for people to visit Athletes.com, once they see the name around. The more people coming to Athletes.com generally means more forum members.
Having a professional athlete visit the forums or even write a monthly article, like a question/answer or a tip of the month, or if he prefers keep a log at the forums, could achieve this.
Another idea is $10 off the users next order for every 1000 posts, or as another alternative, a free Athletes.com t-shirt after 1000 posts, where the reward would also be a great way of advertising itself.
Basically the Athletes.com web site, needs some small changes in organization and needs to be updated soon in the areas where promised. If the site can look as good as Bodybuilding.com (if not better), it would contribute greatly to the growth of the site. My suggestions are:
There should also be a link to the Athletes.com forums, which would bring more members to the forums. Then on the side of the main page or even below the latest articles, have a tab where the viewer can click down and select there skill or sport they are looking for. As an alternative there could just be a link on the side saying "article categories." Maybe an idea would be to make the general page the main page, i.e. when you type in Athletes.com, you go straight to the general page.
I know a lot of supplement companies are trying to produce more of these types of supplements as these products are very popular with the lifting public and especially athletes. If Athletes.com can keep up to date with these products then I'm sure more customers would come to Athletes.com.
This would be helpful to noobs to supplements and the price of these stacks can be shed a little from the combined cost of the components to encourage people to buy these. Remember, supplement noobs are more likely to buy pre-selected items than selecting themselves. * 'noob' is a shortened form of 'newbie'.
A lot of members at the forums, use these types of equipment, and for that to be available at Athletes.com, would save them a whole lot of searching around. The key is to keep it to basic equipment that is useful for lots of sports or one very popular sport, e.g. football.
They don't have to be the very top athletes or trainers, but just athletes that have achieved professional status in their sport or trainers of a professional team. Look at the biggest athlete's forum on the internet (charliefrancis.com); they have one of the best sprint trainers of all time.
What can be done is to introduce a color coded system instead of rep points, where say gold colored usernames represent a highly knowledgeable member, silver colored usernames represent a knowledgeable member, bold blue usernames represent moderators and regular blue colored usernames represent a regular user. This could be monitored by either the administrator and Will, or by the moderators.
At the moment the forums are my favorite part of Athletes.com because they are well moderated, free of trolls (unlike BB.com), Have clean discussion going on without too much off topic chat. There is also a nice spread of knowledgeable members who always give good advice. But I must admit I am looking forward to the likes of the interactive pages, which sound good, and would definitely have me visiting the main page more often. To make Athletes.com even better than it currently is, I think the main thing would be to keep it moving forward, like Bodybuilding.com does. This means more articles being written, more members coming to the forums, more new features being introduced/updated etc. By doing this Athletes.com will become a much more popular place.
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