The most exciting news we get from our users is when one of our users commits to attend a university…that is the “ultimate connection” for beRecruited, and the reason that we come to work every day.

Until recently, we did not have a way to display these success stories. We’ve now changed that and we’ve started to have athletes update their profile when they have made the important decision regarding where to attend college.

To see the latest beRecruited athletes who have committed, click here. In a very short time, we’ve had nearly 400 athletes tell us where they are going to school.

Updating is extremely easy to do. Here’s how:

Log into your account and go to “My Profile” > “Preferences” and change your account status to committed. It only takes a few seconds, and you can provide valuable feedback to beRecruited regarding our service.

Updating your account status will remove your profile from our prospect database, add you to our list of committed athletes, and give you an opportunity to be featured in your local newspaper’s sports section. It also helps us improve beRecruited so we can make it even better for future athletes.

So share your news with everyone in our network.

beRecruited has become the No. 1 online network connecting high school athletes and college coaches on the basis of a free service.  In the first 50 days of 2008, there have been more than 300,000 connections made directly through our service…an average of 6,000 connections per day.

While our users (coaches, athletes and parents) know that our service is free, we have seen increased interest in our deluxe athlete upgrade. That interest is driven by results.  Profiles of athletes choosing the deluxe upgrade on average are viewed 3x more than athletes with standard profiles.

Deluxe Features:

See What Coaches View Your Profile-Gain instant access to all coaches that view your profile.

“The feature I thought was most helpful was the section where you could see which coaches/colleges viewed your profile. Being able to have access to that would let me know which colleges I should follow up with.” -Ashlei , successfully recruited softball player.

Letter-of-Interest Generator-Create customized letters to express interest in collegiate programs.

“The letters to the coaches gave me the opportunity to communicate with some schools and get my name out there. It was very helpful in getting the ball rolling in my personal recruiting process and made it a lot easier.” -Justin, successfully recruited lacrosse player.

Featured Athlete-Get additional exposure to coaches by being seen more. Deluxe athletes are showcased on beRecruited’s homepage and other high traffic areas throughout the website.

“Coaches that I wouldn’t have previously thought of to email were able to find me on their own and email me. It was very helpful in that aspect. I received many offers and emails from various college divisions and locations.” -Sarah, successfully recruited softball player.

Student Advantage Membership-The latest addition to the deluxe product, athletes who upgrade to deluxe accounts receive a one-year, complimentary membership to Student Advantage, the nation’s largest student discount program. Major discounts associated with the program include:

• Foot Locker: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)
• Target.com: 10% off your purchases at Target.com
• ALDO shoes: 10% off
• AMC Theatres: Up to 40% off box office prices
• Barnes & Noble.com: Save an additional 5% at Barnes & Noble.com
• CHAMP Sports: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)

So in addition to a higher level of exposure, as well as a higher degree of functionality, deluxe members now save money through this exclusive relationship with Student Advantage.

If you want to upgrade your account, click here to get started.

Don’t miss any college recruiting advice with the beRecruited Advice Widget. You can install this on your blog, My Space profile, Netvibes page, and so forth. It automatically updates when new articles are posted - so that you can stay ahead of the competition.

To get started, simply press the “Get Widget” button beneath the widget, choose the type of page you want to install it on, and then embed it!

Earlier, I wrote about how beRecruited Photos are proven ways to drive more traffic to your beRecruited Profile and connect with college coaches / recruiters.

Another terrific way to improve your recruiting and scholarships chances is by using beRecruited Video - another free, powerful tool!

Like photos, your videos are effective ways to communicate personality, goals, skills and technique.

Tip: the best way to drive traffic to your profile is by creating several videos that showcase various elements of your overall offering: personal, academic and athletic. Videos don’t need to be lengthy or professionally edited. My advice is to create and upload the following videos:

- Personal Introduction (introduce yourself, explain your goals and background)
- In-Game Showcases (upload in-game videos from different aspects of the game and different events)
- Training Showcases (upload videos of practice - whether it’s in the weight-room, on the track, or in the pool)

When you upload a video on beRecruited, give it a full title and accurate description (date, time, what to look for, etc).

When your video is uploaded, we then provide links to the video’s page (called a permalink) and the embed code (so that you can place it on your blog, MySpace, page, etc). Embedding your video on your other webpages drastically increases the amount of traffic you are able to drive!

Great example: Isaac Fisher

Here is a tremendous example of a beRecruited user who has used beRecruited Video effectively. He has numerous videos of different games, different lengths and showcasing different skills. His descriptions are thorough and meaningful - letting viewers know what to look for!

More beRecruited Videos	Uploaded by: Isaac Fisher

One of the best ways to connect with college coaches and NCAA recruiters is to add photos to your beRecruited profile using beRecruited Photos. Sports pictures convey personality, showcase skills and technique, and make your recruiting profile more robust and interactive.

To date, beRecruited users have uploaded over 110,000 photos and they have been viewed nearly 2,500,000 times. Uploading photos is a tremendous way to drive traffic to your profile - and the more photos the more traffic you can drive! Pictures don’t need to be professionally taken - you can upload pics from your digital camera or even your cell-phone. Remember - coaches aren’t looking for artwork - they are looking to learn more about you.

Tip: upload in-game photos, training photos (such as practice or bench press), and even personal pictures (like a yearbook shot)!

Below are the current top 25 beRecruited users based on their beRecruited Photos traffic.

Top 25 beRecruited Photos Users

1. Christopher Peterson
2. Katherine Davis
3. Katherine Wallace
4. Jessica McGregor
5. University of North Carolina
6. Christopher Frazier
7. Bridget Kelly
8. Crystal Ndidi Ibe
9. D . Matthew “Matt” Houser
10. Trevor Scott
11. Ben Kramer
12. William Brown
13. Evan Wade
14. Jasmine Tucker
15. Anthony Mosca
16. Shannon Ingram
17. Patrick Hathaway
18. Brianna Broady
19. Corrie Hegwood
20. Phillip Klipp
21. Andrea Beard
22. Clayton Chamberlin
23. Michael Kutcher
24. Hami Kara
25. Emilie Roslund

A key thread in nearly every athlete that has successfully utilized beRecruited is that finding the right college opportunity for you is hard work. It also involves learning about a number of things that you or your parents may not have thought of before.

This area of our site is designed to help you and your parents understand the recruiting process and help you get organized.

Whether it involves checklists for your Junior or Senior years in high school, or finding out the things you need to do to make sure you meet NCAA eligibility requirements, we hope you find this section helpful in your process.

We also just launched an area of our site that allows you to see athletes registered through beRecruited who have committed to a college or university. beRecruited Commitments will show you some of the latest athletes who registered with the site that have now completed the process.

The Coach