Kick Starting Your Sports Blogging Career
The world has moved very quickly into an online operation where many people are looking for alternative careers that they can do directly from their computer. One of those is online sports blogging, an option that combines a love of sports with a flair for writing. TrueNorth is one of the websites currently recruiting sports writers, and we asked their owner, Connor Bergeron, for his best advice to those considering a career as a sports blogger.
So what are we talking about? Well, becoming a successful sports blogger means writing content that is compelling and pulls readers into the blog. Fans make the best sport bloggers because as a fan you can write about the things you already love and share what you have written across multiple social media platforms that you already have. Your personal social media platforms will give you more exposure and help you convert your passion into a well-paying, satisfying job.
How to Start
Most people who want to kick start a sports blogging career make the mistake of just diving in without really doing their research ahead of time and setting them up for success. In cooking this is referred to as having your Mise en place which is French for having “everything in its place”, or everything prepared and ready. You have to do this with your sports blogging career as well.
- Start with a focus. This literally means finding the focus of your blog. The sports industry is vast and you certainly won’t be able to cover every type of sport or every type of team. You need to make a choice as to what sports you like best and what area you want to talk about whether it is things like baseball or football, college level games or minor league games, an entire league or a specific team, stadiums, news about sports equipment or clothing, or Esports.
- Choose your niche. Find a specific topic where you can focus on becoming an authority. The more specific your niche is, the greater the chances of you getting very targeted traffic online and as a result, better success monetarily. You will never be able to appeal to a large collection of people whose interests are varied but you can cater the content you produce with specific and targeted industry.
- Decide on the blogging platform. There are plenty of free platforms out there like Wix or Squarespace and there are others that you have to pay for. If you are just starting out, the free blogging platforms are perfectly fine, especially if you don’t have any money to invest in your sports blocking career. However, they do limit how much money you can make, especially because they limit things like ad revenue and the ability to sell products on your website.
- Decide on your domain name. Make sure that it relates to the name that is easily recognizable and something that people will be able to remember. You will have to buy the domain name but if you can’t come up with anything, you can use a domain name generator that can give you some inspirational ideas. When you buy the domain name you will also need to pay for web hosting and again, there are many different options here.
- Select a sports theme template for your blog. If you are using something like WordPress, you can easily pick a theme that has beautiful designs which already incorporate lots of sports-based visual elements.
- Create your essential pages, like the about me page, the contact page, the privacy policy, and don’t forget to create a logo.
Once that is all ready to go, you have everything in its place and you can start your blog.
Esports – The New Horizon in Sports
There are now many online e-sports websites and possible writing careers especially with Canadian esports. Writing about Canadian esports gives you an opportunity to share your opinion about current games and teams while also potentially making money doing what you already do much to the annoyance of friends and family. This is truly a New Horizon when it comes to sports and sports blogs in particular. Constantly blogging about Canadian Esports gives you the opportunity to improve your writing skills which can help you improve your success rate long-term. It’s also a wonderful way to build your resume as you take off and eventually make your way into other related sports journalism fields.
The more you cultivate successful content, the more likely it is that Canadian Esports teams or managers within the industry will pick up on the efforts you are employing and give you additional perks like free tickets or early access to different viewings.
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