When I look back to 12 months ago on MotoOnline.com.au, the very site that you’re navigating today was an extremely different place. In fact, so different that almost everything has been revised, apart from the domain name.

It was on a flight back from Los Angeles last January that I decided to make MotoOnline solely a dirt bike website. Previously it was 50/50 with a mix of road, but the idea struck me to shift all road content to CycleOnline.com.au (which is also growing significantly).

From there, MotoOnline went from strength to strength, resulting in a major expansion for 2012 that we introduced on Friday (read all about it here). In short, it’s redesigned, has more of everything and should work a little more efficiently over the long run.

The way that sections are structured is improved, our fonts and picture styles are far superior, and the iMoto Community Forum is in its final stages of a complete overhaul as well. We expect that to be in play within the next week or so once I’m happy to publish it live.

But it’s not just the site itself that has been revamped for this year. Our content will be better than ever and at a level that I believe will finally place Australia on the same level as U.S. sites when it comes to original updates from various resources – journalists, photographers and film specialists.

We welcomed Guy Streeter from Out of Bounds Film Company to the team at the start of last year, which proved super popular and he did an awesome job of producing two films a week, and he’s back again for more this year every single week.

This year we’ll again have Andrew Spence back and contributing with various news and feature stories in an advanced role, while Adam Spence (Andrew’s brother) will be part of the team as well, heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of MotoOnline.

During the MX Nationals season, we’ve also put a deal in place with renowned moto-journo Simon Makker to travel nationwide with us, which will be a huge bonus for the site and a great addition since he can both take photos and write with the best of them. Makker will also increase our FMX content as the year goes on.

Speaking of more content, we have Adam Riemann in place as our off-road guy, and to me there’s no doubt that he is the most knowledgeable writer (and fastest rider!) in Australia when it comes to anything off-road. He’s already penned a couple of his weekly Off-Road Observer columns, so be sure to head to the Features and check them out if you missed them.

Last year also saw American-based contributor Steve Matthes welcomed to the team in a monthly column called The Matthes Report, which has now become a weekly feature for this season. In my eyes, he is one of the most talented, entertaining and insightful writers in the sport.

To go along with Matthes’ world-class writing, this year we have Simon Cudby providing all the images we require for editorial all year long. On top of that, we also have some other cool plans in the works with Cudby, so stay tuned for them…

With that all said, we obviously have a great team in place to provide content from all angles during the year and at this stage, we’re only just getting started.

With a great working relationship alongside Racer X that includes shared technology and more to come, MotoOnline plans to well and truly help in placing Aussie moto on the worldwide map.

Thanks for all the support and remember, feedback for the site is what helps us move forward from month to month, each and every year. We can’t wait for the domestic race season to begin!