As the senior editor of the FanSided.com Sports Network, I work with 60-plus FanSided sportsbloggers on a daily basis to help them be as successful as they can be. In addition to my writing here and other places (contributing to FOX Sports), I’ve launched three pretty successful blogs as a sportsblogger — Arrowhead Addict, Lake Show Life and Pacman Jonesin’ (where Dan now does a great job with the site). I don’t know jack sh** about a lot of things, but I do know a lot when it comes to getting yourself out there as a start-up sportsblogger.
That being said, after doing a guide to networking in the sports blogosphere for our crew, I thought, man, I would have loved that kind of advice starting out sportsblogging. So, I decided to do some editing and turn that guide into a help post for new sportsbloggers. Hell, some veteran sportsbloggers might even find it useful, because I kind of felt like Rocky training with Apollo Creed in Rocky III when I was writing it. Kind of helped me get that Eye of the Tiger back that we all lose from time to time.
Anyway, so you just started a blog called Stan Van Stache, which will be competing with other new sports blogs like Dunkembe (which features Dikembe Mutombo holding up a “10″ sign with his dunk contest face on in the header), Jess Fest (a sports blog with the three Jessica’s — Alba, Biel and Simpson — barely dressed in the header) and Manny’s Multivitamins (self-explanatory), plus every other established sports blog out there. An awesome name is great. But a catchy name alone does not make a great blog. Once you’ve got your site built and named, the real work begins. Here’s my advice to all start-up sportsbloggers.
The Should-Be Commandments of Sportsblogging:
1. Unless you can write like Hemingway, you better have a new post up each and every weekday on your blog.
This rule is simple. Blog readers like their favorite blogs to be there for them on a daily basis. The day of your typical blog reader might go something like this:
Alarm clock. Snooze. Alarm clock. Shower. Breakfast on the fly. Drive to work. Morning coffee. Blog rounds. Procrastinate. Work. Lunch. More blog rounds. Work. Drive home. Gym. Dinner. Pretend to listen to significant other or spouse. Maybe even more blog rounds. Conan. Pass out.
OK, so that’s probably oversimplifying it. My point is that blog readers pick maybe a handful of sports blogs to visit and visit them pretty much on a daily basis, sometimes more often than once. Posting a couple times a week isn’t going to get you added to anybody’s Google Reader.
2. If you don’t spend time on your blog, both churning out content and networking it, nobody else will spend any time on your blog either.
I’m almost embarrassed to say how much time I’ve spent on certain sites and posts, how little I’ve got paid for past projects. But just like with anything else that’s worth a damn, no pain, no gain. It’s like what your old high school hoops coach said to you, “when you aren’t out there getting better, somebody else out there is.” Outsiders portray the sports blogosphere as a bunch of lazy slackers living in their mom’s basements. From my experience, that couldn’t be more false. Sportsbloggers are some of the most passionate, intense, obsessive, competitive, hardworking people I have met. You aren’t going to beat them with Jamaal Tinsley’s work ethic — you’re going to beat them “doin’ work” like you were Kobe.
3. If you’re not into something you’re writing — stop! If you don’t like it, don’t assume that anyone else will. Go back to the drawing board.
With this current blog, Fan Addict, I’ve kind of taken a less is more approach. Don’t dismiss posting often, but I now think that five great posts a week is better than 10 good posts or 20 bleh posts. More is not always more. If you don’t like a post you are preparing to write or writing, scrap it. You want your blog to be all killer, no filler. Even if it means less posts. I think any dedicated blogger can do four or five really good posts a week. Remember, I’m not counting link dumps or videos as posts here. I’m talking creative content, actual written posts.
4. If you spend 30 minutes, an hour, two hours, maybe even more on a post, isn’t spending another 10-15 minutes max making sure people actually get to that post and read it worth your while?
This is the one thing I really don’t get about some sportsbloggers. This whole “I blog for me, because it’s fun, I don’t care who reads it” thing. Stop lyin’. That may be partially true, but if you didn’t care who read it you’d just write it on a pad of paper or a word processor and be done with it. Just for your family and friends? Then why isn’t your blog private? A blogger saying they write just for themselves is like a chick saying she has fake tits, diets, works out like crazy and dresses sexy just for herself. I have no doubt that she does want to look good “for herself,” but she also wants to be noticed. So do you. Go the extra mile and network your blog. You’ll be pleased with the results.
5. Treat everyone you meet within the blogosphere as if they were the most important contact you will ever make.
No naming names here, but I know quite a few bloggers who take this approach. They aren’t all the best writers. They don’t all have the coolest looking sites. They don’t all have creativity oozing out their pores. But they all are successful. The sports blogosphere is a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” world. Never forget that and don’t burn any bridges. Treat each person you encounter within this world like they could be the person who helps you “make it.”
Five five-star recent start-ups: Heels on Hardwood, Luol’s Dong, Paneech, Rum Bunter, Silver Screen and Roll
10 Things Every Start-Up Sportsblogger Should Do:
1. Seek out the other good blogs that cover your team or topic.
E-mail them introducing yourself. Go out of your way to link them. Comment on their blog. They will more than likely end up linking you frequently. That’s when their readers eventually become your readers. Sports fans are fanatical, hence the word “fans” which is short for “fanatics.” Most of them can’t get enough coverage, so if they keep getting directed to your site and keep liking it, yeah, they will eventually stick as readers. It doesn’t even hurt to e-mail beat writers, columnists and journalists. Even they know blogging is the way of the future, and a lot of ‘em are scared of blowing off the next Bill Simmons or Will Leitch.
For example, if you are a start-up Portland Trail Blazers blog, e-mail Blazer’s Edge, our own Rip City Project, Blaze of Love and Bust a Bucket. Add all of the blogs to your blogroll and request that they do the same. E-mail Oregon Live’s Blazer Blog, and any other mainstream media Blazers blogs like it, and introduce yourself. Get yourself out there. If you are a general sportsblogger or a one-sport sportsblogger, great, then you have about 10 times as many bloggers to contact. I would reach out to as many as you possibly can. So what if they are a dick or don’t respond. From my experience, that hardly ever happens. If it does, I think you’ll recover. Our own Phin Phanatic did a great job of doing this, and even connected with the Miami Dolphins themselves during the process.
2. Respond to every comment until you have a steady flow of comments going (at least).
Responding to a reader’s comments can turn a casual reader into a dedicated one. By doing this you can give your blog’s comment threads a mailbag-type feel. If your readers feel like they’re a big part of your community, they will even recruit other readers via e-mail, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and word of mouth. They’ll start to take as much pride in your blog as you do. This is how we built Arrowhead Addict. It even got to the point where I affectionately dubbed members of the community “Addicts.”
3. Sign up over at BallHype, visit the site daily and use the site’s auto-submit function.
Want to find out what the hot topics are within the blogosphere? Who the hottest sportsbloggers are? Want to find a bunch of good links for your link dump in a quick fashion? Going to BallHype for just a few minutes a day can help you accomplish all of that. Having your blog auto-submit to BallHype does two things: A.) It gives your post a better chance of being discovered; B.) It gives you a higher score. If someone links you, your score will be 2 instead of 1. Every little advantage you can give yourself helps.
To auto-submit your posts to BallHype, go here (and sign in if you aren’t already), then click on your blog’s name under “Claimed Blog Notifications.” If you haven’t claimed your blog yet, search for it on BallHype, select it when you find it, then hit the “Claim Blog” button and follow the simple directions. If your blog is not yet on BallHype, e-mail the staff here and ask them to add it. The gang over there is super cool, and from my experience will add your blog to BallHype that very day. Hugging Harold Reynolds, Sharapova’s Thigh and Sports Rubbish are three blogs that do a great job of utilizing BallHype.
4. Sign up and get involved over at YardBarker.
Once your posts are submitted, you can e-mail editors@yardbarker.com with your post’s YardBarker post url and receive front page consideration. You don’t even have to be a member of the YardBarker Network to do so. You might make the front page without doing that, but your chances are much, much better if you send out that quick e-mail. If you are in the YBN, your posts also might end up in their widgets, which drive traffic. One of many reasons to consider joining the YardBarker Network. The FanSided.com Sports Network is part of the YBN, but we get absolutely zilch for referring anybody. My point is that I just see it as a good opportunity for any serious start-up blogger.
YardBarker, like BallHype, should be read everyday, but for different reasons. I find that YardBarker reflects the opinions of blog readers more than BallHype does. So, go to BallHype to check out what the bloggers are digging, but also go to YardBarker to find out what the blog readers and sports fans are digging. That way you get the best of both worlds. Black Sports Online, The Scores Report and Sports By Brooks all do very well over there. They also have huge fan groups, most notably their undisputed Philadelphia Eagles community. If you are a team-specific sportsblogger and your team has a huge following over there, then YardBarking it up is about as important as anything you can do. I would also be remiss not to mention the plethora of pro athletes who blog over there. Very cool.
5. Sign up for Twitter and use it as more than just a glorified RSS feed.
Twitter is on it’s way to being bigger than just about anything we’ve ever seen on the Internet. Why? Because most people don’t have the time for blogging or social networking, but Twitter allows them to do both with quick 140-word entries (micro-blogging). Because of this, everyone and their mom will soon be on Twitter — if they aren’t already (my old man, who is a technology dolt, asked me about it tonight!). Tweeting has helped me grow my audience, mainly because I make an effort to connect with other bloggers and readers. But you won’t do this if your Twitter profile is simply auto-submitting posts from your blog.
After you sign up, really try and make your tweets interesting. Retweet (RT) interesting tweets. Link to interesting posts that are relevant to your audience that aren’t your own. Offer up insightful or funny, witty commentary that can’t be found on your blog. Ask questions. Answer questions. Strike up conversations. You never know when that celeb, social media powerhouse, sports blogger extraordinaire or star athlete is going to respond. Your next Twitter friend could be one who helps take your blog to the next level. Make your mark on Twitter by making your profile more than just another RSS feed. Hail Mary Jane, My Sports Rumors NESW Sports, The No-Look Pass, On 205th, Raptors Republic and Talk Hoops, among countless others, do a good job of tweeting.
One other Twitter suggestion: find, follow and copy the power Tweeters. They’ve gotten that many followers for a reason.
(follow my tweets here.)
These two social news networking sites are a little more difficult to use. They both have complex algorithms and user bases that are very difficult to impress. My suggestion? Submit good content from other sites, connect with power diggers and be selective about what you digg and reddit. Digg and leave comments on popular posts, especially from power diggers you’ve managed to become “friends” with. A lot of sites do Reddit marginally well, but Digg is where I have seen a bunch of sites do exceptionally well. Gunaxin, The Hoops Doctors, Steady Burn and Total Pro Sports are some sites that get made “popular” (have posts make the front page) quite often. One tip (and I’m talking form experience here): try to refrain from submitting your own stuff a lot. Connect with other bloggers and diggers and ask them to submit your stuff. Do a submission exchange or offer some other kind of favor (minds out of the gutter, please) for hooking you up. Both of these sites can get you thousands and thousands of hits, but both are extremely difficult to master. Reach out.
7. Read other blogs and leave comments.
Reading other blogs will help you see what works and what doesn’t within the blogosphere. I’ve come up with many of my best posts while reading other blogs. Sometimes I think, man, this would be awesome if it were executed better. Sometimes I think, I can totally do what they are doing here with another team or sport. Sometimes I think, it’s not what’s on this blog but what’s missing that could really work. Blog reading gives you an idea of what’s doing well out there content wise. You can take that knowledge, pair it with your own strengths and create yourself a blueprint for producing interesting sports content.
As far as commenting, most blogs will allow you to have your name hyperlink to your site. Obviously, that’s a link for both SEO (search engine optimization) purposes and traffic purposes. One tip: make a sincere comment that contributes something to the blog. Otherwise, you are basically spamming the site and might as well be blabbing on about male enhancement products or travel packages. Additionally, the blogger will appreciate your comment and notice you. Hey, it’s hard for them to keep their comment threads jumping, too, not just you.
8. Read Hot Clicks and e-mail only your absolute best material to Jimmy Traina at jimmy_traina@simail.com.
Hot Clicks is the right name for Jimmy Traina’s daily SI column. First off, it’s truly the best and hottest of the blogosphere. Second, it will get you literally thousands and thousands of clicks if you make the cut. Jimmy is a helluva nice guy, but his job is to feature the best of the best. That’s why so many people visit every single day. Read his site. See what type of content makes the cut on a daily basis. Pay attention to the type of content featured to both help you generate ideas and to figure out what’s Hot Clicks material and what’s not. Most importantly, only send Jimmy your “A game” stuff. Otherwise you are wasting both his time and yours. Ever heard of the boy who submitted every post to Hot Clicks? He’s best friends with the boy who cried wolf.
9. Read other top blogs with link dumps and submit your links to their editors.
The Big Lead. Cuzoogle. In Game Now. With Leather. Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie, Big League Stew and Shutdown Corner. Pay attention to what they link. E-mail the editors, whose contact info will be available on their respective sites, but only do when you have something that either rocks or is newsworthy. Link them! It’s the least you can do if you respect their site enough that you are asking them to link you.
10. Produce quality content on a consistent basis.
The rest of this means nothing if you don’t have content on your site on a regular basis. You will have nothing to promote. The readers you have landed by following the first nine steps will leave. You will have a dead blog. But by following this step alone you will generate a word-of-mouth buzz. I guarantee it. Can’t say how big that buzz will be, but your blog will grow. Especially if you follow the previous nine steps.
Hope that helps and keep blogging! By the way, if you are a frustrated start-up sportsblogger or someone considering taking the plunge, you can always drop us a line (fansided@gmail.com). There are many advantages of joining our network, and we are always looking for new bloggers.
(Adam Best is the senior editor of the FanSided.com Sports Network and the twisted mind behind Fan Addict. Follow him on Twitter.)