How to Create an Inspiring Athlete Portfolio Site using Joomla
Athletes are inspiring. They represent the best physical attributes of being a human being. They encourage a generation of children and adolescents alike to be competitive and passionate about a sport. Building an athlete's portfolio is a fulfilling job that asks you to be creative and yet adhere to precise standards. So, do you think you're up for the task? Then let's get started!
To create our athlete portfolio, we're not going to start from scratch. That'll take too much time. We're going to showcase a pre-built template so that you can focus on the crucial things: customizing for yourself or your client.
Why Joomla
Joomla is a free and open-source CMS for any static or dynamic website. It allows you to keep your costs low while also maintaining very high quality for your online presence.
Joomla is a community-driven industry and relies heavily on custom-created content. You have access to thousands of extensions, templates, and plugins that extend the site's functionality effortlessly. You'll also be a part of a very helpful and open user base who continue working in this industry for years, so it's easy to ask for support or help. This is why we’ll choose Joomla as our go-to choice on CMS.
Tools We'll Need
To create a web presence for an athlete, we'll need the help of several tools. They might seem daunting if you're a new Joomla developer, but don't worry, we'll guide you through every step! I like to think of this as a checklist. And once you've gone through all the items in the list, you've completed your job. So, let's start checking off a few points from our list.
A Domain Name
A domain name is a core aspect of your website. Put very simply it's your identity on the internet. That's how visitors will find your website, so you should brainstorm with your peers or clients to find out the perfect name. For an athlete's portfolio, it should be directly tied to his or her name, so that people are familiar with it. A ".com" domain is the most trustworthy, but you're allowed to be more creative as this is an athlete portfolio website. To purchase a domain name, you can go to GoDaddy, Namecheap, or any other popular domain name provider.
A Stable Hosting
Hosting is the lifeblood of any website. After all, if the user can't connect to your website, then it's as good as dead. It creates a bad image onto potential sponsors, advertisers, or partners if the athlete's online platform is unavailable. So, a strong and stable hosting provider is of the highest priority.
A Website Template
Joomla templates are like the perfect launch board for your website. They give you a massive head-start for any project or task. As a result, we highly recommend using a pre-built template. You don't have to write a single line of code as well.
For this tutorial, we'll be using Dylan, a Joomla template created for this very purpose. With its custom design, two beautiful home variations, and so many more, it's the perfect candidate for your athlete platform.
Some of its highlight features are:
- 2 home variations for 2 use cases
- Personalized About page
- Training showcase page
- Charity page
- Press page for media links
- Helix Ultimate and SP Page Builder Pro
If this doesn't fit your needs, we've got several other Joomla templates that cover portfolio style websites, check them out here!
Start Creating Your Website
Now that you've completed several items from your checklist, we're going to start building our website using Dylan, the athlete portfolio template. Check out the basics of building a Joomla website from our article here. We highly recommend downloading our QuickStart pack from the template page instead of installing Joomla separately. Refer to our blog post for easy steps on QuickStart pack installation.
Pick a Design that Fits With Your Athlete’s Personality
The home page of the athlete portfolio site should speak for the athlete’s values and character. Try to keep these things in mind and research about the athlete. Some are born leaders who need bold and sharp designs, some are the star players who could do with a unique, non-mainstream design. While some are prospective candidates, who will benefit from designs with loads of information and statistics.
Your home page should reflect the athlete’s main attributes, both professionally and personally. Our template, Dylan, focuses on 3 different design philosophies that cover all of these use-cases.
Highlight Career Milestones
Shine a spotlight on achievements, qualifications, and the athlete’s past to create a vivid image of his or her life. Help them create a personal touch with content directly from the athlete. Showcase videos, images, and eBooks to bond directly with the visitor.
Display Training in Action
A huge number of fans as well as aspiring novices will look up to an athlete. To give them an inside scoop on an athlete’s life, it’s important to make a dedicated training page on an athlete’s portfolio.
That’s why, in Dylan, we have designed an entire page for training routines, videos, and other statistics. Make the most out of this page and add tons of customized content.
Present the Athlete's Best Moments
A full-width spanning gallery with lively images delivers a huge boost to the athlete portfolio website. This is another page to put the achievements, highlighted moments, and sponsor spots. The possibilities with a gallery are endless. Visuals really are irreplaceable when it comes to web design.
Showcase Support for Noble Causes
Charities are a noble way of giving back to the community that showers an athlete with love and affection. That’s why you’ll see all kinds of athletes supporting charities to stand with the community. An athlete site's charity pages also help other people find links and contribute to the less fortunate. Thus pages like charity hold a significant stature while designing an athlete portfolio.
We’ve added a full-fledged charity page to Dylan so that you can also create a page like this with ease if you choose. You can also go into all the details of customization and create something with a different flair and flavor.
4 Things To Do After Building Your Website
Congratulations! You’ve now published your website. Now what? The show’s just started. Now you must follow these simple steps to ensure your website grows properly:
- Use Blogs to Generate Traffic: The best way to drive traffic on to your website is to publish blogs on relevant topics. Dylan comes with a modern and responsive blog single page and blog landing page.
- Analyze Your Traffic: Use website tracking tools like Google Analytics to study visitor behavior, and make changes accordingly.
- Use Social Media Campaigns: An athlete’s social media provides easy access to fans, enthusiasts, and professionals alike. Gaining their attention on the website is an easy way to get more engagement.
- Keep Your Website Updated: One thing that turns down visitors is the lack of updated content on websites. So, you must keep your eyes on recent happenings to keep the website updated as needed.
Wrapping Up
The best way of showcasing an athlete’s new or booming career is to use a website. Showcasing achievements, sponsors, qualifications, and social media links can help grow the athlete’s presence. Dylan focuses on these important factors while being tastefully designed with modern practices.
So, if you’re working on an athlete portfolio, give it a go and see how great it looks! If you face any problems, let us know in the comments section below and we’ll respond as soon as possible.
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