You’re here for a reason. A love for sports, writing, and
the power of the Internet is quite enticing for an increasingly large
population of fans. I still remember the rush that I felt when I realized the
possibility that rose from writing my opinion for fellow fans and writers of
all abilities. Sports have always been an integral part of my life, and writing
was always something that I knew I liked but never quite found the niche that I
consistently wanted to write in. 100-plus articles later, I have found one
place that I truly enjoy.
So what about you? As the one year anniversary of my inaugural post for Bases and Baskets approaches,
I thought it would be fitting to share what I have learned thus far. This may be a little long, but hopefully helpful. Part of the reason I’m doing this is because I
consulted many helpful guidance articles like this one and
thought I would add my two cents to the mix. Moreover, I haven’t found too many
tips specific to aspiring sports bloggers and this article is directed
primarily to those aspiring authors—although it is certainly not only applicable to that crowd. So, let’s talk a little bit about the whirlwind ride of
a blog creation—some logistics interspersed with personal
experience.
1. Where do I start?
Find a platform that suits you best. I use Blogger for this
website but Wordpress is another popular free platform. Generally, Blogger is
known for its personalization and Wordpress more for its aesthetic appeal, but
with enough desire you can really make either do what you want. You might be intimidated by computer coding and all that jazz. Don’t be. I have zero online programming
experience and really don’t believe that you need any. There are many kind bloggers out there who specifically help those of
us who are not as technically inclined, and a simple Google search has got me
just about everything I could ask for. If that fails, help forums are
there, too. I’ve ventured onto Blogger help forums more than once and received quick, accurate answers there. If you look hard enough, you will find an answer to your questions.
Another thing: start simple. Are you here to be a web
designer or sports columnist? It’s all too easy to get caught up in making
everything perfect but you need to realize that it will not be right away. Things
will fall into place along the way. I know bloggers who had grand plans but
never got started because they were too worried about making everything perfect
before their entry into the blogosphere. Test
the waters and get your feet wet. Family and friends are there to give
quick feedback and realize that you won’t get too many hits in the beginning
unless you have deep pockets or have other sources for viewership. I’ve been
in that position staying up way too late, tinkering with the finer aspects of
my site and saying ‘wait, is this what I really want to spend my blogging time
working on?’ (So if that does become you, I can certainly sympathize.)
1a. Why am I doing this?
It may sound silly but really think about this. Personally, in the beginning I just wanted to create an outlet for friends and family to talk about
something that was generally only word of mouth discussion. This is a hobby that
has led to success that I am proud to say I worked for. Why are you doing this? Is it for the potential
financial benefits, the discussion, or do you want to become a journalist?
I landed a position at Bleacher Report
less than two months after my first article on Bases and Baskets, and it escalated quickly from there. I was just
going with the flow and putting my name and work out there with a ‘why not?’
mentality. I eventually decided to go back to this website for good after nearly
half a year writing for B/R because I realized I wanted full control over my
work. Some people stick with B/R, other with their blogs, and then there are people
like me who have tried both.
Depending on your desired avenue, there are different
ways to go about online sports blogging. Bleacher Report is probably good for an aspiring journalist
whereas a blog might be better for the recreational writer…or really any
combination of the two. Unless you plan on making it onto ESPN or SI from the
get-go, an online blog (your own or someone else’s) and Bleacher Report are the two
main places to go. Realistically, if B/R is an aspiration of yours, a month or
two of blog posts is a must anyway. Your
aspirations and motivations are crucial to grasp if you don’t want to fizzle
out.
2. I’m starting to get
serious, how should I expand (in terms of social media, etc.)?
If you’ve reached this point, you should first look into buying
your own domain. I’ll be honest, I bought mine nearly right away because it was
inexpensive and I wanted the marketability of that dot com as opposed to having
“blogspot” or “wordpress” or “tumblr” in the way. Through Google my domain cost
me $10 for a year, which is dirt
cheap considering hosting will put you down that much within months, if not
faster.
On that note, do not
buy web hosting. I have seen it hurt blogs because the quality isn’t that
great and the truth is, why pay for something when the quality of Blogger or Wordpress
is better and free? As long as you aren’t a spammer and put up good content,
you really should go this way. This minute risk does not outweigh the support
and reward. Plus, a template backup of your site’s html is a must and since you
write all of your articles in Word, you have copies of everything on your own
hard drive if a stroke of bad luck does run your way.
Now for the Big Three: Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Well
really, it’s the Dynamic Duo because Google+ is still far behind in online
influence but in the beginning you will take hits wherever you can get them,
and if you can get 10-20 a day from Google+, it is worth investing time into creating a profile there. If you are
starting from absolute scratch (which I was), it is a mission to get 100 hits a
day.
Social media is tough in the beginning. Getting likes and
followers is no easy task. Start with your personal friends on Facebook and followers
on Twitter and go from there. I have never been a huge Twitter person, and the
only Twitter that I use is @basesandbaskets
which has had barely modest success.
Implementation of widgets into your articles is essential. I
have had problems with Facebook plugins on Blogger (which is one point for Wordpress
in the tally for blogging platforms) but Twitter has integrated seamlessly. And
that Tweet button—which you will hopefully click at the end of this very article—is the
way that you will get hits from people that liked your stuff and it’s always a
potential jackpot. If an article gains steam on Twitter (or Facebook, of course)…watch
out.
So create a Facebook page, a Google+ page, and a Twitter
account. Try StumbleUpon and Digg if you want to try other social media
outlets. And if you manage to find success in one of these (especially Facebook
or Twitter), spend your time with that one. I know I have been guilty myself of
trying to cater to smaller populations of people which does not make sense when
you have much larger audiences waiting for your latest post or debate-sparking
thoughts.
What if none of those work? Until recently, these
sources of social media were getting a very small percentage of Bases and Baskets overall traffic. So
where was my main source of traffic?
For that, stay tuned for Part II. I’ll discuss that source
and other vital aspects that a serious (sports) blogger must consider including
monitoring success, advertising on your site, comment systems, and much more.
Part II is here!
This post was very helpful. I am currently a student majoring in journalism and I'm writing for the school's sports section. In most of my journalism classes we are required to have a blog and I am always a little overwhelmed when it comes to the online codes and programing. I really have enjoyed reading your blog over the past couple months because it has given me a lot of insite in regards to how to effectively write a blog on sports and how to back up your opinion on whatever you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI am especially grateful for your section on where to start, I think that keeping Bleacher Report in mind as a possible employer will help improve my quality on writing and establishing my blog.
Can't wait to read part two!
Glad you liked it and thanks for continuing to check out my writing! One quick thing about Bleacher Report (which is ultimately why I chose to stop writing there): it takes many, many articles before you can earn money through them - if that is your goal. Even my work as a "featured columnist" was unpaid.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading this post and found it very helpful. I started my sports blog on Word Press and found that it was easy to use and was user friendly. I started blogging at the suggestion o a good friend in October of 2013 and just love it now. I plan to continue as I find blogging give me something to do that I enjoy. Google+ has been my most successful social network, get lot of views and comments from that site and have made some friends there who also write sports blogs.
ReplyDelete