Creating Your Short Track Website

Making your place on the web

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by Corin Nguyen

13 July 2003   |   Like strapping on a pair of skates, anyone can put up a website. Luckily, putting up a good website takes a lot less time and talent than becoming a good skater. So where do you start?

Developing a website can be broken down into 4 steps:

1. Deciding the purpose of your site.
2. Making the site.
3. Finding hosting for your site.
4. Maintaining the site.

What's The Purpose?

The purpose is not the subject.

If it's a skater site, then the skater is the subject. However, a site about the same subject might have different purposes. A fan might put up a site about a skater for the purpose of creating a comprehensive site about the skater. A skater might put up a site in order to attract sponsors. Same subject - the skater, but different purposes.

The site's purpose also helps clarify the site's goals. Sites that try to do too many things end up doing nothing. Sites should focus on specific goals.

For example, out of the dozens of Apolo sites that popped up after the Olympics only a handful get any significant traffic. One of those few is Ohnozone. (www.ohnozone.net) Ohnozone is a blog which delivers fan content and news about Apolo Ohno, and the site does this well. There's no biography or medal count, just fan news. The site fills a need for current fan-submitted news that won't get met with the official Apolo site and because of this, Ohnzone will be around as long as Apolo is.

Apolo's official site serves as an introduction for those who aren't Apolo fans already. To attract current fans, his official site will have to fill a need for content that currently isn't being filled. Right now that content is news and writing from Apolo and Yuki Ohno. This is the content that isn't anywhere else on the web and unless this need gets filled, the site will see a rapid decline in traffic after the first 2 months.

Be honest to yourself about the purpose for your site. What if you're putting up a fan site and the skater doesn't want to be involved? How motivated will you be to continue the site?

What if you are a skater hoping to get sponsors and no one's calling? What motivation will be there for you to put effort into a site that's not fulfilling its purpose?

If you're honest and clear about the purpose of your site, there's a better chance of you creating a site that will accomplish it's purpose.

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