Create an Engaging Athlete Profile Ontheside

Your Profile is where your story, your sport, and your future sponsors meet. It’s the cover of your book, the trailer to your movie, and a window into your athlete-creator journey. This is where fans decide to follow your journey and brands decide to invest in your success. Here’s how to build a Profile that best represents you. So you can grow your audience, attract sponsors, and showcase your authentic self. 

Getting Started: Your Checklist

When you Enhance Your Profile, you’ll see a quick-start checklist to make your Profile public-ready. Each step helps fans and brands understand who you are and the impact you want to have within your community. 

Your checklist includes:

1. Your Mark
2. Gallery
3. Sports
4. Accomplishments & Stats
5. Your Story

Choose a Mark that Stands Out

Your Mark is your visual identity Ontheside. It helps fans instantly associate you with your content and engagement on the platform. Your Mark is attached to your Profile and all content feeds. Whether that’s the Discover Feed, or individual Fan Feeds when they follow or sponsor you. Think of Your Mark like a logo that’s unique to you. 

Quick tips to make Your Mark unmistakably yours:

1. Use a clear, high-quality photo and avoid blurry selfies.
2. Center your face or focal point so it crops well.
3. Make it sport-specific—like a BMX rider mid-air. 

Build a Gallery That Represents You

Your  Gallery is the top carousel on your Profile. Ideally, your Gallery will hook fans and entice them to keep exploring what you and your content are all about. 

For a Gallery that gets attention:

1. Use landscape-oriented media (16:9). 
2. Start with your most powerful shot such as a dynamic clip or expressive portrait. 
3. Upload 5–10 visuals that highlight both your skills and personality.
4. Mix competition, behind-the-scenes, and training moments for a full picture.

List Relevant Sports

Sport(s) are likely the primary way that fans and brands will search for athletes and content. So adding your Sport(s) will make it easier for fans to find you. The more representative your Sport(s) choices are of you and your content, the better the discovery experience will work in your favor. 

Tips:

1. The first sport listed is shown everywhere. So choose your primary sport focus wisely.
2. Keep your sports relevant to your content. If all your posts are about mountain biking, don’t list track & field because you did that in high school.

Turn Accomplishments into Opportunities

Accomplishments and Stats build credibility. They’re validation of your hard work, skill, and aspirations that potential sponsors can rally behind. 

Accomplishments can  include:

1. Personal milestones or community impact achieved or ahead
2. Coaching roles or event leadership
3. Completed events or years of experience

Stats can include: 

1. Competition placements
2. Race results or # of completed races
3. Season rankings or performance metrics

Best practices:

1. List the achievement most meaningful to you first. 
2. Keep each entry short.
3. Align your Accomplishments with your content or ideal sponsors. 

Share Your Story

Your Story is where you get to personalize an invitation into your world. It’s your space to connect and relate with your audience beyond stats and photos. Help fans and brands understand who you are, what drives you, and why you are here Ontheside.

Consider these prompts to get started:

1. What makes you unique or relatable?
2. How did your athlete journey start?
3. What’s driven you to keep going?
4. What do you stand for and why?
5. What’s next for you?
6. What do peers and fans ask you about or come to you for your advice on?
   
   

Pro Tip: Pair your story with a compelling portrait-style image or short video to help bring your narrative to life and instantly draw fans in as they start reading. 

Craft a Memorable Mantra

Your Mantra is your slogan and is one of the first things visitors see on your Profile. Your Mantra is located right next to Your Mark and below your name at the top left of your Profile page.

For a mantra that moves you:

1. Make it personal, not generic.
2. Reflect the motivational mindset behind your journey.
3. Keep it under 64 characters.

Build Connections Through Location

Location helps sponsors and fans discover local athletes and makes it easier to connect and relate. Whether you run the trails in Los Angeles or dominate the Denver skate parks, sharing the primary location where you train, compete or are based out of can be a strategic advantage. Adding your location though is never required.

Publish and Start Sharing

Once your Profile feels like a true reflection of what you want to share about yourself, hit Make Your Profile Public. This unlocks your ability to post content. You can create free or paid content. Free content is available for anyone to view whether they have created an account on Ontheside or not.

→ For resources on getting started with content click here.

Your Profile is More Than a Page; It’s Your Channel

There’s only one you and as your journey progresses so do you. So stay true to you and update your Profile as you and your goals grow and change.