Do you love following sports news?
Are you a sports lover?
Do you love writing about sports as much as you love sharing it with others?
If your answer is a ‘Yes’ to any of these questions then starting a sports blog might interest you. While a sports blog is a great way to share your passion with others, it is also an ideal way to connect with people who love sports as much as you do.
However, being a sports lover is not enough, there has to be a proper plan of action that needs to be implemented to make your sports blog a big hit. Don’t worry!
We have curated a few topics to guide you to become a successful Sports Blogger.
Here in this blog, we are going to run you through various subjects like:
- What is a Sports Blog?
- Steps to starting your Sports blog
- How to monetize your Sports blogs
Are you ready? Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
WHAT IS A SPORTS BLOG?
Spots blogs are meant to provide sports fanatics information about various sports-related topics like sports news, player, sports strategies, game analysis, different team insights, discussion pieces of equipment, etc.
Additionally, some sports blogs also are open to different fans sharing their thoughts and opinions on sports-related subjects.
WHY SPORTS BLOG?
You might want to start a sports blog because of one of the following reasons:
- Passion/Side Income: sports blogging is often driven through pure passion ad sometimes to earn a side income.
- Mastering Your Writing Skills: blogging consistently also improves your writing skills which helps your career.
- Sharing Your Thoughts: a sports blog is a great way to share your thoughts and opinions on different sports teams and games with the public.
- Earning Money: Blogging about sports is a great way to turn your passion into revenue.
- Skill Building: Adding a sports Blog to your resume would enhance your skill set and value as a job seeker. It could even lead to sports journalism offers.
- Free Access to Sports Events: One added benefit of sports blogging is getting free sport event tickets to enjoy.
- Making Industry Connections: you can even have a chance to meet popular athletes and build some fruitful connections with people in this industry.
Which reason from the above resonates with you? Let us know in the comment section.
Moreover, Sports Bloggers make thousands of Dollars through Ads and other profitable strategies that we will discuss at the end of this blog.
Till then, here is a list of top successful sports blogs to help you understand better:
5 SUCCESSFUL SPORTS BLOGS
1. Essentially Sports
Essentially Sports is a sports blog that bridges the gap between a fan’s perspective and an expert’s analysis. It publishes the latest news and features ‘The Fan’s Perspective on various sports including NBA, UFC, NFL, tennis, NASCAR, eSports, Tennis, Formula1, Boxing, WWE, and Golf to 30 Million+ Monthly Readers.
Want to learn more? Click here.
2. Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report covers top-viewed topics like football, boxing, Rugby, MMA, Tennis, and many more. The blog also has interesting videos staring famous sports persons, a magazine, sports shows, and an exclusive app for its readers Isn’t it amazing? Do you want to learn more? Click here.
3. The Score
The Score talks about various sports highlights, the latest news, and reports for top sports like football, soccer, basketball, Formula 1, and many more. The blog also has an exclusive app to get you updated on the latest sports news and happenings. Want to learn more? Click here.
4. Sky Sports
Sky Sports is an interesting sports blog talking about the latest news, live TV, football scores, sky bets, and TV shows. The blogger also has various sports podcasts to engage its readers. Isn’t it amazing? Want to learn more? Click here.
5. Sporting News
Sporting News as the name suggests covers the latest news about NBA, Cricket, Football, and Tennis. What’s also interesting is this blog offers news to various countries like India, the US, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Hong Kong, Mexico, the UK, Singapore, etc. Do you want to learn more? click here.
DO YOU KNOW?
Football has roughly 3.5 billion fans worldwide and 250 million players across 200 countries around the world. The next most popular sports in the world is cricket with 2.5 billion fans followed by basketball having 2.2 billion fans, and field hockey with 2 billion fans worldwide.
The love for sports is growing with time which is why starting a sports blog is an amazing idea So, gear up! Let’s walk through a step-by-step guide to kick-start your sports blog in 8 easy steps.
HOW TO START A SPORTS BLOG IN 8 EASY TIPS
1. PICK A SPORTS NICHE
The first step to starting your sports blog is picking a sports niche and a blog audience which requires a lot of research and planning.
PRO TIP: Choose a specific niche. The more specific your niche is, the more the chances of becoming successful in your domain. moreover, writing blogs about a specific niche helps you to project yourself as a domain expert.
While picking a blogging niche ask the following questions yourself:
- What type of sports are you interested in?
- Do you have enough subject knowledge to start blogging about it?
- Does it have room for modification in the future?
- What value will your blogs provide?
- What are your long-term goals?
- Do you want to focus on a local team or an entire league?
- What is your vision?
PRO TIP: Switching niches later will mean changing your entire marketing strategy o choose a niche that has a room for modification.
If you are wondering- “What niche to go with?” Do not worry! We are here to help you.
LIST OF SPORTS NICHES
- Athletes
- Sports Team
- Sports League
- Popular Interviews
- Sport News
- Match Statistics
- Live Scores
- Sports Coaching
- History of a Game
- Legends of a Game
- Only Popular Sports
- E-sports and many more
If you still have doubts, we are not done yet! There are a few more factors you should keep in mind while picking a niche:
- Do some research and make a plan of action.
- Keep your target audience in mind. Since you are crafting your content for your readers it is important to know their likes and dislikes.
- Analyze the monetization opportunities for the future.
- Track down your competition. This means you need to monitor their trending posts, growth, engagement, content planning, quality of the blogs, and various other topics to understand the market.
- Make sure you are passionate about the niche you choose since passion will take your blog to the next level.
2 BE A LITTLE TECHNICAL
Hosting helps you to put your website content on the internet and makes it accessible to your readers.
A blogging platform helps you in writing, editing, modifying, deleting, and posting blogs and building your blogging website. Depending on the blogging platform you choose it may or may not come with an included hosting service.
There are two types of Blogging platforms available. Firstly, self-hosted blogging platforms that come with hosting included, WordPress.org. Secondly, Hosted-open source blogging platforms like Wordpress.com in which you need to buy a hosting separately.
CHOOSING A BLOGGING PLATFORM
When choosing a blogging platform for your website keeps a few things in mind:
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MONETIZATION
Choose a platform that is easy to monetize.
USER- INTERFACE
Easy-to-use interface for all bloggers who are not techies.
CUSTOMIZATIONS
Different platforms offer different customizations that you need to check and see if they are meeting your needs.
TYPE
Go with visually-oriented blogging platforms if your focus is more on videos and pictures rather than text and vice versa.
SUPPORT
24-hour support is very important to resolve your queries.
PLUGINS
Packing your website with extra features will require you to add plugins. Hence see what plugins are supported by the blogging platforms and check if those are enough to meet your needs.
BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS AVAILABLE ONLINE
- WordPress
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Weebly
- Blogger
- Medium
- Tumblr
- Joomla
- Drupal
- HubSpot
CHOOSING A HOSTING
While choosing a hosting check for these things:
- Speed, Uptime, and Downtime
- Backup Facility
- Price Comparison
- Reviews and Rating
- Refund Policy
- Terms and Conditions
- 24-Hour support
- Storage
- Security
PRO TIP: We recommend you go with a self-hosted blogging platform like WordPress.org to kick-start your blogging journey as it is easy to monetize and gives you a full control over your website content.
DO YOU KNOW?
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform amongst bloggers. Click to know more.
3 CHOOSE A WEBSITE NAME
People are going to type the domain name of your website in the address bar to reach your blogs, The name of your website is the face of your brand so you need to be very careful while choosing one.
The whole purpose of a domain name is to make it easy for people to find you on the web. Moreover, a good domain name is when people can make out what your blog is all about after reading it.
To help you with the process of choosing a domain name for your website here is a list of a few characteristics of a great domain name:
- Memorable
- Represents your brand values
- Not used by another brand
- Has main keywords
- Well researched
- Simple yet attractive
- Ends with a ‘.com ‘extension
- Not long
- Easy
- Creative
- Does not contain numbers or special characters like- ’-’, ‘^”, etc
- Easy to speak
- Has room for modification and is not too specific
Act fast! Buy a domain name before it gets taken by another brand. If you have a domain name in mind already, click to check its availability.
4. DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE
As per reports the design of a website directly affects the user experience. A poorly designed site is less likely to attract visitors to complete an action, such as buying a product or joining a mailing list.
In fact, 95% of visitors will leave within seconds, if the page loads slowly or is difficult to navigate,
Therefore, choosing a great theme for your website is imperative to attract visitors.
Different blogging platforms provide hundreds of paid and free themes to customize as per your brand needs. However, if you have a budget we recommend you go with the paid ones to make your website look more professional.
Here is a list of a few functionalities to keep in mind while picking a theme.
IMPORTANT FACTORS TO SELECT A WEBSITE THEME
CUSTOMIZATIONS
Check for all the customizations provided by the theme that includes font size, typeface, images, videos, layout, pages, menus, etc, and then choose a theme with extensive customization options to fit your design ideas.
SPEED
Pick a theme that loads faster since users and Google both prefer fast websites.
REVIEWS
Before you finalize a theme for your website check its reviews and ratings online.
DESIGN
Choose a design that is industry appropriate. For example, a theme that has a lot of pictures and videos might work for a sports website but not for some book blog.
PLUGINS
Plugins help you pack your website with extra features. Ensure your theme has all the plugins to meet your brand requirements.
WEBSITE SECURITY
Pick a theme that is updated frequently to fix bugs.
RESPONSIVE
The theme needs to be responsive to different browsers and devices.
SUPPORT
24-hour customer support for fixing issues is a must.
Look at some popular themes for a Sports Blog. Click to see.
5. BRANDING
To stand out from thousands of sports blogs already on the internet you need to spend some time and energy on branding.
You need to work on certain aspects to make your brand unique and memorable. These include:
LOGO
A brand logo identifies your brand, grabs the attention of your visitors, and conveys your brand value to them. Choose a logo that is unique, eye-catchy, relevant, separates you from your competition, and represents your brand values. To do so, you can create your logo using various online tools or hire a professional.
UNIQUE SELLING POINT
All the successful brands have a Unique Selling Point that makes them successful and different from others. It can either be their posting style, products or services, videos, hand-drawn images, or anything else. Find your winning qualities.
TYPEFACE
The typefaces you choose can have a huge impact on the way your brand communicates.
After all, it’s not just what you say: It’s how you say it. By choosing fonts that reflect your brand’s values—traditional or quirky, fun or formal—you can attract the right kind of customers. Click to know more.
COLOUR PALETTE
As per the color theory, different colors are used for different brand psychology. For example, violet represents creativity while the green color represents peace. Go ahead. Create a color palette that represents your brand values.
CONSISTENCY
Your branding needs to be consistent throughout all the online platforms. For Example, if you see McDonald’s, it is the same everywhere from Instagram to the website and other online platforms.
6. CRAFT YOUR CONTENT
Now, comes the step in which you are a master. Yes, you are right! It is creating content for your blogs. Content is the backbone of your blogging site and hence needs to be planned carefully.
FEW TIPS FOR YOU TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE PLANNING CONTENT
TIMELESS ARTICLES
Timeless articles, as the name suggests are blogs that do not get old with time. This means that these blogs have a longer shelf-life and attract visitors to your website. For Example, an article on How to start a sports blog is evergreen. Many things change in the sports industry but basics rarely do. People consume such blogs irrespective of the time and news.
ADD VIDEOS TO BLOGS
Videos are an effective way to attract visitors to your website. In fact, 68% of people say they’d like to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video.
If you do not want to invest in professional types of equipment, you can create high-quality content easily through your smartphone. Since Youtube is the biggest video content platform, you should make a Youtube account and start adding these videos to your blogs. This will not only help you earn money through Youtube but also attract visitors to your page.
WORK ON NECESSARY LEGAL PAGES
Do not forget to work on important web pages like terms and conditions, disclaimer, and privacy policy.
NEW TYPE ARTICLES
These articles focus on new or trending topics to gain user attention. These include news articles, new happenings, or current events. Using new types of articles increases your reach and hence boosts engagement.
EASY CONTENT
Work on the readability of your blogs, use simple language, more transition words, active voice instead of passive voice, short sentences, and short paragraphs. The more readable your blogs will be, the more audience you can reach.
MIX AND MATCH
It is advisable to mix and match different content strategies to get the desired results. Different audiences like to read different types of content hence by mixing things up you can reach more audiences.
7. PROMOTE YOUR BLOGS
Promotion is a lucrative way to boost your online presence. Follow these strategies to promote your content:
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES
-
Selling Digital Products
Apart from your blogs, you can sell various digital products like e-books, online courses, and magazines to promote as well as earn money.
-
Selling Physical Products
Various physical products like your brand T-shirts, mugs, books, and others related to your niche can be sold to promote your brand and earn money.
-
Friends and Family Groups
Share your blogs in your family and friends group and ask them to share them in their networks. This always helps since friends and family members are truly the ones who care for you.
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Writing Guest Posts
Write posts for different brands that match your niche and in return ask them to link your website. This will attract more visitors to your site.
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Building Relationship With Customers
You need to build a relationship with your blog audience. A few ways of doing this are replying to all the comments, asking your followers for next-read topics, and suggestions, and sharing others’ content on your social media.
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Interviewing Famous People
Conduct interviews of famous aesthetes and launch them on your blogging website. This will increase your reach to manifolds since famous personalities have a huge following.
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Answering Questions On Online Forums
We recommend you answer questions on Quora, Facebook, or other online forums and drop your website link at the end to attract more prospects.
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Social Media Groups
Find social media groups matching your blog niche and share your content in them.
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Adding Sharing Icons in All Your Blogs
Add sharing icons and functionality with each of your blog posts. For people to share your content you need to make sharing easy for them.
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On-page and off-page SEO tactics
Follow different on-page and off-page SEO tactics to rank your content. These include Adding keywords, link building, creating shareable content, influencer outreach, etc.
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Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool for millions of people from around the globe making it a lucrative platform for promotion. Create your account on different social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc, and share your content to gain traction.
8 MAKE MONEY
Sports Blogging lets you earn money through various means like:
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is when you promote a retailer’s products or services on your blogging site or social media pages and get paid once anybody strikes a purchase.
- Advertisements: Host advertisements on your website and get paid for every view or click that they get. Google AdSense is the most common way of doing so.
- Sponsored Posts: Sponsored posts are paid posts promoting other brands’ products or services.
- Selling Digital or Physical Products: Sell various products like online courses, T-shirts, mugs, etc, and earn money.
- Paid Reviews: Write reviews for other brands and get paid for them.
- Launching Subscriptions: Do not launch all your content for free on your website. Keep some content exclusive for people who are your loyal followers. These can include the latest news, trending posts, or even exciting videos.
Would you like a separate blog on way to earn money through Sports blogging?
Let us know in the comment section.
CONCLUSION
Starting a sports blog is a great way to stay updated with the world of sports and earn money at the same time. In this blog, we have curated 8 easy steps to start your blogging journey. Let us summarize these for you:
- CHOOSE NICHE AND BLOG AUDIENCE
- SELECT BLOGGING PLATFORM AND HOSTING.
- CHOOSE YOUR WEBSITE NAME
- DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE
- BRANDING
- CRAFT YOUR CONTENT
- PROMOTE IT
- MAKE MONEY
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