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DRIFTING / RACING SPONSORSHIP ARTICLES Drifting / Racing Sponsorship: An Overview
Why You Need to Have Your Own Website
How to Get Maximum Exposure Through Car Shows
CONTACT US: BOOKS ON SPONSORSHIP
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Drifting Sponsorship: Create A Personal Website
For
all of you professional driver hopefuls out there, there's one thing that
you're going to need to succeed in this day and age... a personal website. A
website is your personal calling card to the world. By
putting yourself out there, you’ll have a permanent place to send and
receive emails from and you’ll look more professional than the next guy
because you have your own domain name. You can also use your website to put
up information about yourself, your progress, track record, etc.
Get a Domain Name With
the numerous web hosting services available today, you can choose from any
number of providers based on their price and level of service. For a small,
personal website you’re looking at a relatively small amount of money per
month; probably around $10 a month or so. Try using GoDaddy
or Yahoo.
If you can’t afford that (you probably shouldn’t be drifting), see if
you can get someone to sponsor it for you (ask your mom for an early
Christmas present or something).
If you absolutely can’t afford the
hosting fees, just create yourself a page on Myspace
and / or Facebook.
Having your own domain name is immensely more professional than directing people to your Facebook page. There are a ton of other racers / drifters out there competing for that same sponsorship dollar and chances are that most of them are using a Facebook or Myspace address. Select
yourself a domain name that’s easy to remember, easy to spell, and has a
good connection with who you are. Your given name or nickname (like
“joeblow.com” or joeblowdrifts.com”) is a good start.
Add Some Basic Content to Your Website When creating content for your website keep in mind what you’re trying to communicate to readers: that you want sponsorship, that you’re going to be competing, that you’re a professional, and that you’re an overall good person to work with. You're trying to give potential sponsors an online snapshot as to who you are so be sure to include:
1. Driving Resume -- events entered, wins, formal training, etc.
2. Basic Personal History -- education, automotive experience, etc.
3. Vehicle Overview -- year, make, model, current modifications
4. Event Schedule -- races and automotive events you'll be entering this year
5. Pictures & Video -- you, your vehicle, your driving, events attended, etc.
6. Current Sponsor List -- if applicable
7. References -- business & automotive industry related only (no family, personal friends, pastors, or chemistry instructors)
8. Contact Information -- name, mailing address, email, phone number, facebook
Post Some Good Media of Yourself Try to get good photos of yourself, your vehicle, and some quality action shots and video. Include descriptions with your photos like the date, time, and place that those photos were taken. Recent photos are a must. Potential sponsors are going to have a difficult time considering someone who's only using action photos from 6 years ago on their web page.
Give some descriptions of the photos; hopefully your photo
captions will read more like “here’s a picture of me winning a drifting
event…” and less like “here’s a photo of my car with stock wheels.”
Good Photo Caption: "On May 7, 2011 Joe Blow took first place at the x-y-z Drift Championships in Los Angeles, California." -- a photo and caption like this this tells sponsors that you were actually at an event recently, when and where the event was, and that you actually won the event. If they want, sponsors can even double-check your info to verify that everything is correct.
Bad Photo Caption: "Here's me 10 years ago with my old ride hanging out at the mall." -- a photo and caption like this one would be old and outdated. The description indicates that you probably don't even own this car anymore and posing for cheap photos in the mall parking lot is not something that top level competitors typically do.
Use Professional Photos if Possible If you don't have good photos of yourself yet, consider hiring a professional (or semi-pro) photographer to take pictures of you and your vehicle. You'll need some action shots of yourself drifting as well as some good photos of you and your vehicle stationary. By hiring a professional photographer (one who specializes in motorsports photos) you'll get more pictures and better pictures of yourself than if you just hope to show up on someone's website after an event. A dedicated photographer will be there to photograph you and only you.
Use the American Society of Media Photographer's database here to start your search for a good photographer. Just select "automotive" under the specialty area to search for and you should come up with a list of photographers and their portfolios. If
you have the equipment to take video, do that. Post video clips on your site
so potential sponsors can see exactly what you can do. If you can’t manage
to host your videos on your own server, go to a host like Youtube and host
your videos there and just embed or link them to your site. If you have good
videos, you should put them up on Youtube anyways so people can watch them
and hopefully be drawn to your real website.
Be Optimistic, but Realistic About Sponsorship Building your website and putting yourself out there is a step in the right direction towards establishing yourself, but try to be realistic about your situation as well. There's a lot of other guys out there looking for sponsors and a lot of companies that simply don't have the means or motivation to sponsor a driver.
If no one’s heard of you at the national competition level yet, it will be difficult to get a large cash sponsorship. It's going to be easiest to pick the lowest apples on the tree so start your sponsorship search as close to you and your home area as possible. Ask family and friends if they'd know anyone who's interested in sponsoring you and grow from there.
Another good place to start with would be your vehicle’s parts list on your website. Start listing exactly what parts and manufacturers you’re using in your vehicle now. If a manufacturer sees that you’re still using a stock flywheel and they make one for your car, they might be able to see an opportunity. Get
that website up and running and start filling it with your own content.
Don't get discouraged by the thousand "no's" that you'll encounter
along the way; it only takes one "yes" for you to gain a new
sponosor. Good
luck!
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