Recruiting Tip 3: Marketing Yourself

By Michael Husted, Active.com

Michael Husted played professional football for nine years as a placekicker in the NFL. He is also the co-creator of ActiveRecruiting.com, an innovative online video recruiting tool that connects student-athletes with coaches through the use of interactive video profiles.

You've signed up with the NCAA Eligibility Center and identified your top 15 schools that you would like to attend. Now you have to let them know you exist. Marketing yourself is vital if you would like to get on colleges' radar screens.

If you are as good as Michael Beasley, stop reading this because you are good to go. If you are NOT as good as Beasley, you need to be positioned so that you separate yourself from the competition. 

Selling You

Where to start? First of all you need a resume. Nowadays, having an online presence is vital. Many college coaches use the internet to get introduced to student-athletes.

It is 1,000 times easier for them to view online profiles then to have to worry about getting paper cuts when opening your mail. Secondly, you need video. Video is key in helping coaches during the recruiting process. (In a recent poll conducted by ActiveRecruiting.com, 100 percent of the coaches polled answered that video was very important to finding players.)

Next, you need to present your resume in a way that is user-friendly for coaches. College coaches want to efficiently view your resume. If you make it hard for them or have incomplete/inaccurate information, chances are they will scratch you off their list.

The reality is that there are several student-athletes that they could recruit who are on a similar skill level as you. Again, what you need to do is set yourself apart from the competition. How are you going to do that? Work your way to the front of the line.

Take advantage of technology to spread the word that you are their "answer." Every college sports team has a web page. Besides D-1 football and D-1 basketball, you can easily find contact information, phone numbers and email addresses for coaches in most sports and divisions. They want to be contacted.