I recently had an a-ha moment with regards to my website OHCanada Sports.
I love OHCanada Sports, every time I see an amazing article and post it, I'm so happy with the content.
I didn't feel comfortable that I was sharing amazing articles on OHCanada Sports. They weren't my articles. I was mostly an aggregator website and although I credited the original source of the articles, I didn't feel that it was right for me to direct someone to the specific articles on my website.
This is when my a-ha moment arrived. Why did I found OHCanada Sports? Was it so I could get multiple clicks on my website? Was it for the number of views it would get?
No, it was to share the athletes' stories and articles written about them.
I want the athletes to be supported. I want the media's articles on Olympic sports and the sports organizations to be supported. How can I best help that? The answer is by linking the articles directly to the source instead of reproducing them on OHCanada Sports.
I don't care about clicks and views but the athletes, sports organizations and media maybe do. Let them get the views for their work.
Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?
Most website owners will tell you that views and traffic are the most important thing, that's how many of them get paid. The fact is that I'm not your typical website owner. I'm not doing this for me to be recognized with website traffic. I'm doing this so that athletes are recognized and so that events where they're competing at are watched.
So this morning, I revamped OHCanada Sports.
The first section highlights "Must See Upcoming Events" that will feature where we can see Canada's athletes compete whether in person or on television. Those thumbnails don't link directly to the source, because often times, there are multiple sources for information so I will summarize the information like television listings, ticket information and schedule as well as link to original sources.
I also decided that rather than try to include all events in a calendar like I used to, I would focus on events held in Canada, World Championships, World Cups and events that are televised or livestreamed. There will be less content but higher quality content.
The second section offer thumbnails to original OHCanada Sports content and specific topics.
The third section is now simplified with all articles together in a "Most Recent Articles" section. The articles can also be viewed by category like it used to be (athlete posts, media articles, sports organizations) in the navigation bar but by visiting OHCanada Sports' homepage, you immediately see if there are new articles no matter what category they fall in.
As the changes are complete, I see that CBC Sports have revamped their website today as well. You can read their launch article here. Coincidence?
How exciting to see them have an even greater focus on Olympic Sports with their new Road To The Olympics website and weekly television program (previously named CBC Sports Weekend).
With the announcement that CBC/Radio-Canada will have the broadcast rights for the Olympics up to 2024, plus be broadcast partners for the IOC's new global digital Olympic Channel, coverage for our Olympic athletes will be greater than ever in the years to come.
This is adding excitement for me to continue the work I am doing with OHCanada Sports. I love that I share from various websites and sources. The Heartbeat includes television listings from all channels and various livestreams.
I will continue to share my favourite articles from various sites like the Canadian Olympic Committee, CBC, sports organizations, newspapers, other media and most importantly, the athletes.
Because in the end, it's all about the athletes.
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