When you think about the modern-day professional athlete, what words come to mind? Activist? Philanthropist? Influencer? Business Person?

The world that we live in today has transformed the way we look at athletes, and people of high recognition, as I have pointed out in multiple different ways, throughout multiple different articles.

It has given them a bigger platform, allowed them to carry and express their own message and narrate their own story.

It has put them in control, but at the same time, it has allowed others to voice their opinions and say negative things about these athletes, whether these things are necessarily true or not.

This provides a lot of vulnerability and maybe even frustration on the athlete’s part because their words can be misconstrued a lot of the time. Their actions can be taken out of context and their brand can be negatively affected because of misinterpretation even with having all of the right intentions.

But if all athletes recognized that they still hold power when it comes to their voice and how they tell their story, then they hold the leverage regardless of what others might say about them and the things that they do.

If you hear something directly from the source, and you have a relationship that source, then there is very little room for skepticism and miscommunication.

That is exactly what a website can do for the modern-day athlete. Among a lot of other things, it can give them their voice back and create the story that they want to tell.

Every single athlete, should have their own website.

Why Athletes Have To Have Their Own Website
Freedom To Express Yourself. Along with social media, having a personal website allows you to be yourself genuinely and authentically. You can express your thoughts, ideas, creativity, and anything else you’re interested in on your platform so that people can see you for who you are. There is no substitute for having a website in which you completely control what goes on it, what’s your passionate about, and where you can express what you stand for.

Consolidated Information For Fans. Fans who want to know any and everything that goes on with their favorite players. A website opens the door of transparency and lets those adoring fans fall in love with you even more than before. You can display your recent stats, in-game and outside of the game photos, what you’re goals and plans are for the upcoming season, etc… Your website is where your fans can go to get what they want in order to create a better relationship with you as an athlete and as an individual. This matters a lot more than you might think in the long-run for the other reasons listed below.

Ability To Gain More Opportunities. Having your own website provides a lot more opportunities off of the playing field. As I said in the previous example, fans will follow your every move on your website and social media, and you never know who’s watching. For example, one of your biggest fans might be an executive for a Fortune 500 company who is interested in working with you or having you market their product.

By showing them you have a sense of how to digitally market yourself as well as your personality and character, they’ll probably come knocking at your sooner than you expect. The opportunities that you gain outside of your sport will largely be predicated on whether or not you have a good head on your shoulders and whether or not you show up online.

Ownership Is Everything. If it’s yours, it’s yours. Ownership is so crucial in the world. Put it this way, if Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, & YouTube all went out of business tomorrow, a lot of celebrities, influencers and athletes would lose tons of money and followers. If you have a platform that is completely yours in which you have autonomous control over it, then your followers from these platforms will still have somewhere to go and a way to still follow you no matter what happens. You can’t own your profile on these other social media platforms, but you can own your domain name.

When you completely rely on these other platforms to generate business and opportunities for you, you are still at the mercy of their power. If Instagram wanted to delete your profile, they could. If Twitter wanted to ban you for a week, they could. Those things probably won’t happen, but they very well, could.

Capitalizing On The Game
All of this still ties back to the fact that athletes shouldn’t wait to prepare for their next move.

As an athlete, you have to realize the influence and respect you have when it comes to your sport. You have to capitalize on the game while you’re still in it.

At the end of the day, that’s all that any of this is and if you play the game right, not only do you win, but everyone wins.

Playing the game includes managing your brand, getting involved in charitable activities, and promoting your thoughts and interests. It is about supporting others, giving back and just flat out being a good person in every aspect of the word.

The most important thing is that you take advantage of the time that your still relevant and known because it’s not only a lot harder to make the transition when you retire, but it’s hard to actually get people to be interested in you once you’re not an athlete any longer. That’s just the sad, unfortunate but very real truth.

You have to bring something to the table, whether that’s a following, a good idea or charisma and personality.

A website is one of the starting points when creating an online presence and a huge factor as to whether or not you will actually have options away from the sport that you play.

Take advantage of today, so that you will be ready for whatever comes tomorrow.

We see crowdfunding as the first step toward securing athlete sponsorship. Social media allows athletes to leverage the power of posting quality, popular content to find sponsors and get funded.

Why Athletes Should Use a Website to Attract Sponsors for Sports Events
Participation in your sport costs money and if you are an aspiring athlete who wishes to train and compete in events, this will cost you thousands each year.

Although government funding is available, the assistance is often not enough to pay for all the costs of training, camps, uniforms and travels. Athletes rely on their finances or dig into the pockets of parents and relatives.

Websites Have a Wide Reach!