"Action Sports" websites

**Mcwop** · 11-28-2006, 02:45 PM

http://www.boatertalk.com/

**LeeLau** · 11-28-2006, 02:53 PM

Suit.

The alexa traffic reports don't seem to represent site hits very well fwiw.

These have already been mentioned but I'll put them together in one thread.

Mountain biking sites ranked in order of alexa traffic rankings from most to least

www.mtbr.com
www.pinkbike.com
www.nsmb.com
www.dropmachine.com
www.ridemonkey.com
www.asilvertouch.com

You've probably heard of these guys - (disclaimer - I do work for them) but they're a site that's trying to do a Quokka - type of business webcasting "extreme" sports.

www.rip.tv

**char** · 11-28-2006, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark

http://formergirlfriends.com/

Heh.

56789

**The Suit** · 11-28-2006, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by LeeLau

Suit.

The alexa traffic reports don't seem to represent site hits very well fwiw.

These have already been mentioned but I'll put them together in one thread.

Mountain biking sites ranked in order of alexa traffic rankings from most to least

www.mtbr.com
www.pinkbike.com
www.nsmb.com
www.dropmachine.com
www.ridemonkey.com
www.asilvertouch.com

You've probably heard of these guys - (disclaimer - I do work for them) but they're a site that's trying to do a Quokka - type of business webcasting "extreme" sports.

www.rip.tv

I think I understand what Alexa is doing pretty well. As it turns out, their VP of Engineering a college roommate of mine. Their data's not perfect, but not useless, either.

Thanks for the MTB list.

I'm pretty sure we recently sent rip.tv some footage for an Ian McIntosh interview.

**Dromond** · 11-28-2006, 03:14 PM

http://www.bikeguide.org/

**pechelman** · 11-28-2006, 03:25 PM

http://www.extremeironing.com/

**PlayHarder** · 11-28-2006, 03:37 PM

www.biglines.com

Might be pretty obvious, but just in case.

**Will** · 11-28-2006, 06:07 PM

Is climbing an action sport? I always thought of it as less "extreme" and more "adventure."

A mix of blogs, magazine websites, and regional sites with forums

http://www.neice.com
http://www.rockclimbing.com
http://www.neclimbs.com
http://www.rockandice.com
http://www.climbing.com
http://www.alpinist.com
http://www.psychovertical.com
http://www.gravsports.com/
http://gravsports.blogspot.com/
http://www.onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/
http://www.8a.nu
http://www.planetfear.com/
http://www.freakclimbing.com/
http://www.newenglandbouldering.com

Oh hell.... here's a huge list of links from Climbing magazine:
http://www.climbing.com/links/climblink/

**iceman** · 11-28-2006, 06:37 PM

All the mags in Primedia's Action Sports Group have sites, some already mentioned here, some not.

edit: what the heck is that \\\\ stuff, it's not in my post when I go to edit it. odd.

**Base733** · 11-28-2006, 06:43 PM

http://www.explorersweb.com/index.html
http://www.dropzone.com/
http://www.stellarmag.com/

**cj001f** · 11-28-2006, 06:51 PM

Primedia

**s.p.c** · 11-28-2006, 08:34 PM

suit pm me, i can run a comscore report for you when i have a minute at work and come up with an excel sheet for you.

**Lakes** · 11-29-2006, 09:46 AM

My personal favorites:
http://www.Niftytricks.com
http://www.SkiMovieMusic.com

**Trashcan** · 11-29-2006, 10:13 AM

http://www.roadbikereview.com/

**Alpine Dreams** · 11-29-2006, 10:17 AM

http://www.grindtv.com

Pretty good, check out the surfer chicks!

**The Suit** · 11-29-2006, 10:51 AM

Quite a few of you have expressed some interest in helping, so here's what I'm trying to figure out.

Hopefully you've noticed that we're trying to build up TGR TV, which is the area of tetongravity.com where we serve up TGR-produced streaming video clips. "This Show Socks" is our first attempt to produce content specifically for online distribution.

It's been fun, and we've steadily increased video views since TGR TV launched this summer, but I am concerned that we may be swimming against the tide by focusing so much internal energy on TGR TV. Most of the recent online successes (YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, etc.) are more participatory - website visitors talking to each other, rather than the website hosts talking to their visitors.

When I look at alexa rankings for ski-focused websites, it seems that the ones with the highest rankings tend to have vibrant user forums. In fact, I have a hard time finding action-sports sites that outrank tetongravity.com. Surfline.com is one. Outsidemag.com is another, but it's aggregated with all of away.com, so I doubt that's an apples-to-apples comparison. I haven't checked all the sites mentioned so far in this thread, but of the ones I've looked at, mtbr.com is the only one with a high ranking.

So the hypothesis I'm trying to test is this: The most successful action-sports oriented websites are those on which visitors are encouraged to participate and interact with each other, rather than simply "consume" site-produced content.

You guys are (mostly) pretty smart - whaddaya think?

**Lakes** · 11-29-2006, 10:55 AM

Web 2.0 baby. User generated content. It is the future and you described it perfectly.

**hev** · 11-29-2006, 11:02 AM

My friend runs this site: http://www.stellartransmedia.com/ - "Lifestyle by Adventure".

edit:
I think Lakes is right. Trying to invent cool doesn’t work. Just look at the site I posted, lot’s of cool but no traffic. I think it is more lucrative to do custom work or sell your content to other sites. Stellar also did this site which really is pretty sweet. http://www.powderroad.com

**cj001f** · 11-29-2006, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by The Suit

So the hypothesis I'm trying to test is this: The most successful action-sports oriented websites are those on which visitors are encouraged to participate and interact with each other, rather than simply "consume" site-produced content.

You guys are (mostly) pretty smart - whaddaya think?

High traffic means lots of people checking in often. They are checking because there is new content at a high frequency; absent automated content generators like surfline (webcams of surfspots & meteorological info) user generated content is the easiest way to afford that.

**Lakes** · 11-29-2006, 12:33 PM

Agreed with both of the last posts. We are such a culture of instant gratification now.

I am trying to change my circa dot com bust "cool" website into a more user generated community based project. It is going to basically be a complete redo if its going to work and a major pain in the ass, but most likely the only way to ever grow. Athletes for athletes. So if anyone wants to get sponsored by Niftytricks.com and write up tricks I will give them a good home online.

**dipstik** · 11-29-2006, 12:50 PM

www.SkiRacing.com

www.wcsn.com - (they're the ones broadcasting all the World Cup races this year, but they also do a ton of video coverage of non-skiing sports)

**DerJaeger** · 11-29-2006, 01:34 PM

It depends. What's your definition of success? If the definition is the popularity of the site, well, I believe that user-generated content websites are successful for one (or both) or two reasons:

1) The sheer volume of content means that a small percentage of good stuff that keeps people coming back exists AND there is an easy way to find the good stuff. Examples: YouTube, Flickr, Digg

2) The site's utility comes from sheer volume or from creating a network effect: Examples: MySpace, Facebook, Craigslist, Ebay, match.com, Wikipedia, etc

Compelling content wins over quantity no matter how it is generated. There's a reason CNN is ranked higher than MyLittlePonyBlog.com. The magic recipe probably looks something like: Compelling content + Frequency of addition of new compelling content + the ability to find it instantly (including things like "making it easy to share" in the definition of "easy to find") + Smart marketing.

All this aside, my personal definition of success for a commercial website can be summed up in one word: profitability. I touched on that a little with the mention of smart marketing (few people realize this is one of the biggest factors that make these sites possible and profitable). This stuff is is an entirely different ballgame, and I'm not sure it's the question here, so I'll leave that discussion for another day.

**GoldMember** · 11-29-2006, 01:40 PM

There was some discussion a few months ago by some maggots who wanted to get a "maggot movie" put together as a leader for the annual TGR flick, or to get included in the TGR flick. It kind of got beat down by some (HotTate, this means you....) as not being appropriate for the annual flick but...as part of a user-generated content website, it could be an attractive part of it. With the embedding capability with YouTube, you could do that here and provide a platform for the maggot movies coupled with the ongoing forum activity. Seems like there is some demand for it already expressed.

**ActionJackson** · 11-30-2006, 01:36 PM

So is anyone interested in seeing more TGR video? Say footage and all the good stuff that does not make the movies.
Or fresh footage that was shot the day before throughout the winter?

Or is it more about sharing each others trip photos and huck vids?

**cj001f** · 11-30-2006, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by ActionJackson

So is anyone interested in seeing more TGR video? Say footage and all the good stuff that does not make the movies.
Or fresh footage that was shot the day before throughout the winter?

Or is it more about sharing each others trip photos and huck vids?

Those could be cool -

So would a page of ski area Webcams. Clickthrough and have access to the resorts streaming webcam or daily photo without having to go to the resorts website or RSN (which sucks). Include streams of Euro areas.