Why Ohnozone.net is the most successful short track site
Four years ago, dozens of Apolo Ohno fan sites started showing up after the Olympics. Ohnozone is the only one that remains standing and deservedly so. Noelle, who runs the site, created a popular blogging site long before blogging became popular.
The complaint running amount her Ohno site "competitors" at the time was that they couldn't compete because Noelle got all the juicy news long before they had heard about it. Ohnozone was updated every day with tidbits and photos and no other Apolo fan site could keep up. I kept hearing how lucky Noelle was for getting these exclusives and how unfair it was to them.
I know why I gave Noelle photos and any information I had on Apolo. I wasn't really giving her anything that she wouldn't have found out in a couple of hours anyway. But since I gave it to her first, she would link the news or photo World Short Track. Every time, she posted information and credited it WST, our traffic tripled overnight. At that time, we we're an unknown site that needed to get an audience. That audience was hers.
Noelle started after the Olympics in 2002. WST launched in August. In those 6 months, she had built a following for Ohnozone. She didn't get that following by accident. First off, she networked. She built a relationship with Janey Miller, Apolo's agent. She made connections with US Speedskating. Noelle was active in her networking and came off plain spoken and sincere. She made people want to help her.
Here's the first email we received from her on 8/23/2002:
"I love your site - very well done! It was unknown to me until today, I just stumbled across it. I will plan to add a link to the site I run: ohnozone.net. While I love Apolo, I'm a short track fan in general and I love that you are giving attention to all skaters and all countries.
Thanks for a much-needed resource!"
Guess what was the 2nd email we recieved from her that same day. We goofed on Event Calendar and had a location wrong for a World Cup. She was helping us edit our site long before we got to the point where we could do anything for her in return.
The other thing that made Noelle successful was that she knew her audience. That's why she's kept the open blog format. Her return percentage per day is huge. It's her audience coming first to look at her news and then returning back every couple of hours or every couple of minutes (depending on the post) to see what replies were posted.
Noelle wasn't providing a news to an audience; she was building a community. Between daily posts and monitoring the inevitable flame wars, I was suprised she ever got much sleep. I remember for the longest time, I kept offering to make her a website for all the help she provided us. She kept refusing and she was smart to do so. Websites provide content. The give and take nature of blogs build communities.
The rule of thumb with any site is give people what they want. Ohnozone does that by providing daily information. Ohnozone is more popular than Apolo's official site simply because Ohnozone always has new stuff. And that has built quite a community. At first it was fans, but then came the skaters, and the skaters parents and then the USS. Yes, I do know that there are US Speedskating officials that follow Ohnozone. They'd be missing out on a huge opportunity if they didn't. They know Ohnozone has a built in audience that they can tap to get the USS's message out to the fans.
However, the thing that's made Ohnozone successful is Noelle's work ethic. She works harder on the site than anyone I know. And she hasn't really rested on laurels. At first it was Apolo news, but has time went on she has expanded into US skating news and world skating news. So now that she's covering world news, do I think she's competition to World Short Track?
WST isn't a media site, we're a resource site. Basically, we're not a newspaper but an encyclopedia. And honestly, we couldn't compete. Keeping up with the latest news takes a ton of time, more time than we can dedicate each day. What it really comes down to is what she said in her first email : "While I love Apolo, I'm a short track fan in general.."
My wife and I have become good friends with Noelle over the years. It's a small niche and you do end up meeting everyone. What's really connected us is our love for the sport. We are huge short track fans. We love the sport and we want to do what we can for the sport. By expanding her blog to general short track, she's turned Apolo fans into short track fans.
More short track fans is good for short track and good for World Short Track.
----------------------------------The complaint running amount her Ohno site "competitors" at the time was that they couldn't compete because Noelle got all the juicy news long before they had heard about it. Ohnozone was updated every day with tidbits and photos and no other Apolo fan site could keep up. I kept hearing how lucky Noelle was for getting these exclusives and how unfair it was to them.
I know why I gave Noelle photos and any information I had on Apolo. I wasn't really giving her anything that she wouldn't have found out in a couple of hours anyway. But since I gave it to her first, she would link the news or photo World Short Track. Every time, she posted information and credited it WST, our traffic tripled overnight. At that time, we we're an unknown site that needed to get an audience. That audience was hers.
Noelle started after the Olympics in 2002. WST launched in August. In those 6 months, she had built a following for Ohnozone. She didn't get that following by accident. First off, she networked. She built a relationship with Janey Miller, Apolo's agent. She made connections with US Speedskating. Noelle was active in her networking and came off plain spoken and sincere. She made people want to help her.
Here's the first email we received from her on 8/23/2002:
"I love your site - very well done! It was unknown to me until today, I just stumbled across it. I will plan to add a link to the site I run: ohnozone.net. While I love Apolo, I'm a short track fan in general and I love that you are giving attention to all skaters and all countries.
Thanks for a much-needed resource!"
Guess what was the 2nd email we recieved from her that same day. We goofed on Event Calendar and had a location wrong for a World Cup. She was helping us edit our site long before we got to the point where we could do anything for her in return.
The other thing that made Noelle successful was that she knew her audience. That's why she's kept the open blog format. Her return percentage per day is huge. It's her audience coming first to look at her news and then returning back every couple of hours or every couple of minutes (depending on the post) to see what replies were posted.
Noelle wasn't providing a news to an audience; she was building a community. Between daily posts and monitoring the inevitable flame wars, I was suprised she ever got much sleep. I remember for the longest time, I kept offering to make her a website for all the help she provided us. She kept refusing and she was smart to do so. Websites provide content. The give and take nature of blogs build communities.
The rule of thumb with any site is give people what they want. Ohnozone does that by providing daily information. Ohnozone is more popular than Apolo's official site simply because Ohnozone always has new stuff. And that has built quite a community. At first it was fans, but then came the skaters, and the skaters parents and then the USS. Yes, I do know that there are US Speedskating officials that follow Ohnozone. They'd be missing out on a huge opportunity if they didn't. They know Ohnozone has a built in audience that they can tap to get the USS's message out to the fans.
However, the thing that's made Ohnozone successful is Noelle's work ethic. She works harder on the site than anyone I know. And she hasn't really rested on laurels. At first it was Apolo news, but has time went on she has expanded into US skating news and world skating news. So now that she's covering world news, do I think she's competition to World Short Track?
WST isn't a media site, we're a resource site. Basically, we're not a newspaper but an encyclopedia. And honestly, we couldn't compete. Keeping up with the latest news takes a ton of time, more time than we can dedicate each day. What it really comes down to is what she said in her first email : "While I love Apolo, I'm a short track fan in general.."
My wife and I have become good friends with Noelle over the years. It's a small niche and you do end up meeting everyone. What's really connected us is our love for the sport. We are huge short track fans. We love the sport and we want to do what we can for the sport. By expanding her blog to general short track, she's turned Apolo fans into short track fans.
More short track fans is good for short track and good for World Short Track.
Side note: Did I mention how saavy Noelle is? She works for AOL. AOL couldn't afford to send anyone to Turino. She says she's going over there anyway, so she can do coverage for them. AOL gives her a press pass. This is why Ohnozone is as big as it is.
I know I'll be reading her site every day when she gets there.
I know I'll be reading her site every day when she gets there.
Comments
Sue said...
Thank you for your article on The OhnoZone and Noelle. I consider Noelle a friend and I appreciate all she has done for short track.
2/17/2006
Yano said...
Great article, Corin! Many people don't realize how much work and effort goes into working on a website like the OhnoZone. Something I like to joke about is that the OZ gets info faster than some other media outlets - all the other sites just end up copying and pasting the info she puts up on a daily basis. She truly deserves all the praise and thanks she gets - she's become a resource to all of us!
3/1/2006
kat said...
I came upon Ohno Zone as a link from Apolo's official site. And you're right. Everyone goes to Ohno Zone to get updates, be it about Apolo or short track in general. Noelle is doing a marvelous job and we're very grateful for it! :)
3/3/2006