i recently started getting more active through my design website at nekada.com. i am hoping to sell some consulting or whatever you call it (i am always confused by these business titles and names and buzzwords). one of the things i was happy to do through nekada.com business was sponsor triathletes.
the way i sponsor them is i help them with anything that their internet presence requires. this consists mostly of setting up a wordpress blog, training them how to use it, how to write and market it, and we work on particular campaigns, sometimes with their managers etc… i believe they should be as independent as possible and also i think that their work on their own marketing is a very valuable skill for them to have. of course their training is their number one priority and internet marketing is low on the todo list but we just started and the more we work the more valuable their blogs become for their sports career.
currently i only sponsor three athletes:
dejan patrcevic is champion of croatia and with best result was 6th pro in st. croix triathlon 2007.
dan hugo is the best multisport athlete in south africa and best result was 6th pro at xterra temecula 2007.
ognjen stojanovic is junior champion of serbia and 37th junior in the world championship 2007.
all these blogs aren’t the most pretty ones but keep in mind that we started working when they had almost no knowledge about blogging or internet. my goal is to make the blogs more interesting by the end of the year and also add more athletes to the nekada.com team (will soon announce it).
it is very exciting to sponsor athletes.
today dan hugo is competing in south african powerade triple challenge and the race will be over in an hours or so (if everything goes ok) and i can not wait to see if dan won (he should). dejan is switching to ironman next year and this will be super interesting while ognjen is super young at 17 years old and has many many many years of competition ahead of him.
if you get a chance you should sponsor an athlete. it is fun and also a great learning process.