Blogging

How to Start a Sports Blog in 12 Easy Steps

Are you a sports enthusiast looking for a means to express your opinions or turn your passion into money? Well, we have something for you. Blogging has proven to be a lucrative venture for many people, especially if done right. You can choose to start a sports blog and earn handsomely from it.

However, remember that you should follow the right steps before coming up with your sports blog. We are committed to helping you every step of the way, and therefore, this article will look at these steps to ensure that you come up with something that you will also be proud of. Take a look at the following and implement them when creating your sports blog:

1. Think About Your Reasons for Starting the Sports Blog

Why do you want to start a sports blog? Is it because of your passion for a given sport, or would you like to make money and improve your writing skills? Knowing the reason behind your desire to start a sports blog will help you understand how to run the blog accurately. Most people start writing blogs to share their opinions and make money. This is especially viable if you are a fanatic of a given sport and have talked about it for some time.

You can also start a sports blog to build your resume, and who knows? You may land a sports journalism gig! People also begin sports blogs to improve their writing skills, especially if done consistently. This can give you a boost in your career. Lastly, you may be thinking about starting a sports blog to make industry connections, which can even help you meet some of the athletes you respect.

Regardless of your reasons, having a sports blog will ensure that your voice gets heard, and you can make some money while at it.

2. What Will You Be Focusing On?

After discovering your reasons, it is time to think about the sports blog you want to create and identify a special focus for your blog. Remember, you cannot solely have sports as your main topic as it is too extensive and may lead to confusion later on. Remember, there are many sports you can decide to cover and different elements that you may dwell on.

You need to tailor your coverage to suit your audience, which means that you will be failing if you decide to cover all sports or every element. Therefore, make sure that your sports blog focuses on an area you are passionate about. You should also have previous knowledge of the area and, most importantly, a good grasp of its history, rules, players, techniques, and coaches, among many others.

Start by asking yourself the sport you wish to cover. If you decide on football, choose whether it will be major leagues or local football and whether you will discuss a given team or an entire league. Such a breakdown will make your work easier once you start your blog.

You can blog on a local sports team, the latest sport/athlete news, the entire league, your favorite sports stadiums, or different athletes or even decide to review sports equipment or clothing. Make sure that you focus on something specific to make your work easier, create a loyal following, and specialize. Lastly, you have to select an area you are passionate about and will therefore enjoy writing about consistently. However, don’t be rigid and keep in mind that you’re allowed to alter your focus later on as you work on your blog.

3. Choose a Niche

The third step is to find a sports niche. We advise you to choose a specific topic that you will be discussing since nothing makes your work easier than specializing. A specific niche will also be beneficial as you will get more targeted traffic, resulting in more profit generation. Can you imagine making money writing about something you are passionate about? Splendid, right? Choosing a niche will help you be an authority on a given topic, which every sports blogger aspires to be.

A good niche is important because you will be targeting a specific audience instead of creating content for a huge mass of people whose interests vary. You will get a chance to fasten your journey of becoming an industry expert and being more proficient in your blogging. You will also get a chance to get through to the right people if you choose to use your blogging for marketing purposes. This may be the most important step in starting a sports blog as it gives it the foundation it needs. In case you are wondering about a niche, here are a few recommendations:

  • MMA

MMA has increasingly become popular, fast overtaking boxing. It continues attracting more viewers and would be a good niche to focus on. If you choose MMA, some areas to cover are rankings, equipment, fighters, news, and some of the most anticipated fights.

  • Soccer

Soccer enjoys worldwide viewership thanks to different leagues such as Bundesliga and EPL and the most awaited World Cup Championship. As more people switch teams and start focusing on soccer, you can also choose to cash from this game. You can write about transfers, players, stadiums, news and many other enjoyable things.

  • Formula One

Popularly known as F1, this game has become extremely popular in the recent past, gaining global viewership. This highest international racing class is normally undertaken by open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars. You can write about its athletes, such as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, or review the races, cars and participants. You will enjoy writing about Formula One if you watch the races and keep up with industry news.

  • NFL

NFL is a popular game in many places. It is, in fact, the most popular sport in America and ranks ninth globally. It enjoys crazy viewership both physically and through media, as seen by the number of people that flock the stadiums. You cannot fail to have something to write about NFL. Cover its athletes, who are some of the highest-paid globally; anticipated games; news and, if possible, updates. All in all, writing about NFL would be a thrilling experience.

  • Baseball

Baseball is one of the most popular sports on the earth, making it a good niche to write about. You can choose to cover the minor leagues or major baseball leagues. However, we advise you only to take up baseball blogging if you are a baseball fan, as it will be more enjoyable that way. You can cover the players, matches, news and anything else that will appeal to your target audience.

  • Basketball

Basketball is also one of the most popular games on earth, as seen in leagues such as the NBA. Like football, it also has some of the highest-paid athletes globally. You must have definitely heard of famous basketball players such as Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Shaq O’Neal and LeBron James, which should further convince you about this sport’s popularity.

You can write many things about basketball, such as the athletes, transfers, basketball equipment, and different leagues and teams. It would be an interesting experience writing about this game.

All in all, ensure that you cover something that you love. You can also choose to write about ice hockey, tennis, wrestling, golf, motorsports, boxing, rugby etc and narrow it down to something specific to build a loyal audience.

4. Choosing a Blogging Platform

After finding your niche, it is time to begin your blogging experience. Which platform will you use? Remember, your choice is important as your blogging platform may limit or empower you. Therefore, you should intensively weigh all the options available by focusing on their pros and cons. You can choose a free blogging platform like Wix for a starter who’s still focusing more on gaining experience and less on making money.

However, note that these free platforms come with many setbacks, which explains why they are not advisable if one chooses to take their game a notch higher. They will limit your earning potential from ads and product sales, come with several restrictions and are hard to customize. Your blog will hardly look professional, therefore lacking a serious touch.

Here are some of the blogging platforms you can choose as you begin your blogging journey:

  • WordPress

WordPress is often free to download and use. Thanks to the thousands of in-built free plug-ins, you can extend your website’s basic functionality. To make your website look professional, WordPress offers you several affordable themes, saving you the need for coding. You also get a chance to monetize your blog in many ways and will receive excellent customer support.

You won’t need any technical skills to use such a free-hosted website. Lastly, WordPress records over 400 million visitors monthly, which means that your site will have lots of traffic.

  • Squarespace

If you want to customize your sport’s blog into something professional and attractive, then Squarespace is all you need. Remember, how your blog looks will directly influence its number of visitors since no one will take you seriously with a poor-looking blog site, despite the quality of your content.

Like WordPress, Squarespace also has several customization themes and add-on features that you will enjoy. It also has an easy-to-use interface that requires zero coding knowledge. It offers you a chance to customize your website and own it easily.

  • Weebly

Weebly will come in handy if you possess some coding knowledge. Unlike WordPress and Squarespace, you will customize your website through a line of code, even though some elements do not require much tech knowledge. You can choose from several themes and access this platform’s useful SEO guides to give your content more visibility.

After choosing your Preferred sports blog, finalize this step by signing up and selecting a plan you deem fit. The next step will be choosing and connecting a domain name to eat you on the right track.

5. Pick a Domain Name

A sports blog will only sell if it has a good name. The domain term refers to the end address visitors have to access to view your site. Remember, names and appearances have a lasting effect on readers and visitors. It shouldn’t take up much of your time as it is definitely one of the easiest steps. Here is one of the tips you can use when coming up with the domain name for your blog:

  • Get a .com Domain Name

One of the best domains that a blogger can settle on is .com. It looks professional and makes your blog site easy to recognize and memorize. You will definitely win over more visitors if you decide on such a domain name.

  • Don’t Be too Narrow. Create a Room for Expansion/Diversification

We advise you to be broad with your domain name and avoid thing yourself to a narrow topic as you may choose to try something different later in. A domain name that focuses on a narrow sports niche may limit the type of content you out across to your readers.

  • It Does Not Have to be Long

When it comes to domain names, long is boring. You should therefore focus on a shorter name that is easy to remember. Make sure that your choice is also relevant to your audience. If you decide to focus on soccer, a domain name like FancySoccerFanatics.com will do.

  • Be Creative

Creativity is key when coming up with a domain name. Nobody wants to pay attention to a web or blog site with a boring, dull and non-creative name. We advise you to settle on unique or weird words that will wow a reader. Also, try using synonyms if you discover that your preferred domain name is already taken. This shouldn’t be hard to do.

  • Go Cheap at the Beginning

You don’t need an expensive domain name. Remember, the price of your domain name does not matter much at the beginning, as you can still rake in profits with a standard one. Go Cheap at the beginning, but get whatever you want once your blog starts picking up.

  • Use Domain Name Generators

Do not beat yourself if you get stuck or cannot seem to come up with a domain name. Note that you can use different blog name generators such as Lean Domain Search. These will give you something to work with when naming your blog.

  • Save Time

You still have more steps ahead, and therefore, it is advisable to spend as little time as possible on this step. A couple of hours or less would be good when deciding on a domain name. Remember, you can use Domain name generators if things look bleak.

Most of the time, ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist when coming up with a domain name you need; in most instances is one that you are happy with.

  • You Can Employ Alliteration

We advise you to try alliteration in your quest for creativity, which refers to two close words beginning with the same letters, such as fancyfootball.com. Such will make your website more visible and memorable, attracting more traffic and regular visits.

  • Make Use of Additional Words

This only applies if you can’t seem to come up with a good domain name after some time. Words such as hub will help you come up with a unique blog name.

It is only right that you proceed to the next step in your sports blog creation after getting a good domain name, buying the name and hosting.

6. Buy the Domain Name and Host

Remember, we had already chosen a platform for your blog, which means that after identifying a good domain name, all you need to do is purchase it and host your website. This sixth step requires you to open a domain hosting account with your platform. What does hosting mean? Hosting is an internet service that places your website on a particular server, allowing it to be accessed online at all times. This will be done by your blogging platform, which we chose a while back.

 For example, if you choose WordPress, you will host your domain on the WordPress hosting page, which brings you to a hosting plan page. Remember, there are different plans depending on your preferences and additional needs, and therefore, be extra careful when picking one. In this case, you can settle on a cheap plan such as the Startup plan, which offers you 50GB webspace, a free domain a year, and many other features.

Once you have picked a plan, you will be allowed to type in your new domain or create it later if you don’t have it at the moment. You will then key in your information, which will act as your domain hosting account information. The next step is to offer the package information, which details the length of your plan. Remember, the longer the plan, the cheaper the hosting service becomes. You will then pay for your domain and confirm whether you have read and understood all the terms and services. Most platforms will also require you to acknowledge the cancellation policy and privacy notice.

7. Theme Installation

It is now time to choose the right theme for your sports blog now that it has been hosted. Remember, the theme dictates the appearance of your blog, which makes it an important factor of consideration. An attractive theme will boost your page visit as people live being associated with gorgeous things, while a dull theme may harm your blog.

The theme allows you to win your blog since you choose the featured images, design layout, and other design elements that you would like in your blog. Sites such as WordPress and Squarespace have thousands of themes that you can choose from. Remember, you will have to spend for prominent themes while others are free. Spend if you have to since the theme offers visitors a first impression of your blog, determining heather they will stay or not. Such a decision-maker should not be taken lightly at any time.

Make sure that you design your blog in a unique, beautiful and professional way to attract and retain visitors. These are some of the considerations that you should make when coming up with the best theme for your website:

  • Responsiveness

Your audience will be using different devices to access your blog, and therefore, ensure that your theme looks good and functions well on both mobile devices and laptops. Its effects will be tremendous.

  • Quick Load Speed

The theme you pick gives the viewer a first impression, and therefore, you must settle on one with a quick load speed. Such a theme should also not affect the speed of your website.

  • Reviews

You will know whether a theme is good or bad by looking at its reviews. Therefore, before purchasing, installing, and customizing one, ensure that there are no issues with its reviews. Take issues reported by other users seriously as you risk encountering them.

  • Extensive Customization Options

You need a theme with extensive customization options that allow you to add your brand and integrate your design ideas easily.

Other considerations to make when settling on a theme are reliable support if you encounter a challenge and the brand reputation. You can never go wrong with a renowned brand.

8. Come Up With Your Blog’s Essential Pages

After installing the perfect theme, you need to create your blog’s essential pages. This is a crucial step before starting the blog posts you have been writing over time. Once you complete these pages and publish them, your audience will be able to find the important information posted on your website easily.

Here are some of the essential pages that you need to create:

  • About Us Page

As the name suggests, the about page tells the readers more about you and the blog. You don’t have to be too detailed as their more focus will be on the blog and less on the owner or writer. Cover the basics and tell the readers the reasons behind the blog and what it intends to achieve. The about page should be convincing as it can easily influence and generate repeat visitors. Also, shed more light on who you are.

  • Privacy Policy

Even though most bloggers do not put more consideration on this essential page, it is just as important as others. Your blog will not only be visible to those in your region(unless you restrict it), and therefore, there is a possibility that a reader from a place with stringent privacy laws will access it. A privacy policy will come in handy in such an instance as it will protect such an individual’s privacy rights.

If you cannot develop a good privacy policy, take a look at some of the renowned sports blogs to get a hint.

  • Contact Page

The contact Page will tell the viewers your contact information, such as email, phone number and address. It will allow readers to get in touch with you and may open doors, especially if one intends to give you a gig. Most people also include their social media information, which is wise.

  • Home Page

The home page should be simple. You should list blog posts on this page and have a snippet with a ‘Read more’ option instead of posting a full article. Keep in mind that, like the theme, this page can give your audience a good or bad first impression and should therefore be created tactfully. Make sure that it contains just the right amount of information and a good call to action to attract your audience and keep them hooked.

9. Create a Logo

A good sports blog should have a logo. Like the domain name, a logo also makes your blog more recognizable and memorable. It can be used to identify and brand the blog. You can create your logo or use a logo maker, normally available on the net.

Most of these logo makers will give you a free blog logo. You only have to make sure that your logo files are clear, which shouldn’t cost you much. Get a logo that resonates with your brand, and you will be good to go.

10. App Installation

Apps are additional plug-ins that help improve your blog’s functionality, giving you and your blog’s visitors a fantastic user experience. These can easily be obtained will the theme of your choice and will come in handy when creating additional features and customizing your blog. Luckily, like the ones we covered, most website builders have several apps that can be installed into your blog to make your work easier and your blogging experience enjoyable.

Remember, these apps will help create additional elements such as image galleries, social media icons and bedded galleries. Lastly, they will come in handy on other applications such as Search Engine Optimization, popularly known as SEO.

11. Start Blogging

Now that your blog is all set up, it is time to start blogging. This is the step where you will write your first post, attracting and retaining viewers. However, it is not an easy process and will require you to answer several questions, such as what you should write about.

We always advise our readers to write about what they love. Passion goes a great way in content creation. Regardless of the area you choose to discuss in your blog posts, make sure they capture your interest. What you write must also be rich, captivating and unique, or you will not be different from the average sports blogger.

Remember, blogging about sports won’t be as different as writing about art. Expect to use the same writing techniques and tackle issues similarly. What will prevent you from being average is the content you will put across to your audience.

12. Promote Your Sports Blog

The buck doesn’t stop with your blogging debut. No. You must promote your sports blog to widen your reach. Remember, you can be an awesome and consistent writer but fail to ee any tangible results if you do not take blog promotion seriously. Ensure that your content is out there for readers to consume and digest.

What is blog promotion? Blog promotion is putting your blog out there for as many people as possible to notice and read it. It is all about drawing attention to your blog to generate traffic. There are many ways of blog promotion, such as:

  • Use of Social Media

This is one of the main ways of promoting a blog. You can easily generate and share a link on your social media profiles, inviting your followers to check out your blog post. Others can reshare these links if your posts are good, giving you a wider reach.

You will also get a chance to interact with sports fans under the posts and generate more clout for your blog, which is necessary.

  • Email Marketing

Email Marketing is also another great way of promoting your blog. This can be easily done by collecting your reader’s email in exchange for free reports, information or even an ebook. You should then notify each of your blog subscribers once a post is out or when you have any important information to share with them. Each email should have a link that leads to your blog.

  • Guest Posting

Did you know that guest posting is a good way of promoting your blog? This means mostly favors beginners as they can improve their traffic, especially since they are new to the industry and most lack the necessary connections. You will come up with exceptional sports pieces and ask any renowned sports blogger to publish them on their website.

However, remember to include a link that directs them to your blog. Depending on your arrangement, you may have to part with some amount.

  • Word of Mouth

World of mouth is the easiest way of marketing your blog. You can do it by telling your family and friends about your sports blog. Make sure that you share your sports blog directly with your family, friends and contacts for a few consistent visits.

You can also request that they share the posts with those they know to create more traffic for your blog.

  • Use of Online Forums

You can also use online forums as a way of promoting your blog. For a sports blogger, you need to find an online sports forum and then contribute to different discussions. Do not forget to give a link to your blog posts as you contribute to such discussions.

However, be careful not to spam. Make sure that the discourse you have in the forum is valuable and can push participants to want for more and therefore look for your blog.

Monetizing Your Blog

Now that you have learned how to start a sports blog, it is time to monetize it. Here are some of the ways of making money from your blog:

  • Google Adsense

You must have heard of Google Adsense. It allows you to monetize your blog by displaying Google ads on it. This service also uses Search Engine Optimization to make your blog more visible online through keywords and phrases. You will be paid based on the number of ad clicks which is motivating, especially if you have high traffic.

You can also sell and add space on your sports blog to different sporting entities. Like Google Adsense, they will pay you depending on the number of clicks.

  • Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the most popular ways of monetizing a blog. Here, loggers earn commissions on referrals, meaning that you are entitled to a certain amount when your blog visitors buy a product that you reviewed or recommended to them. For a sports blog, some of the potential affiliates include ticket websites and companies or Amazon associates that deal in different sporting merchandise.

You only have to include your affiliate links to products within the content on your blogs.

  • Referrals to Betting Sites

One advantage of starting a sports blog is that you have several means of monetizing it. You can earn some money from your blog traffic through sports betting referrals, which have a similar working concept as affiliate marketing and SEO. Betting sites often pay blog owners a certain amount based on what their referrals do on their sites. These may include deposits and registrations.

  • Sale of Merchandise

One of the best ways of making money from a sports blog is finding merchandise that readers will love and selling on your site. You will earn handsomely provided that whatever you are selling has the team’s logo or players’ photos clearly embedded in them. Good options include sports equipment or shirts. This would be a great way of earning extra income.

  • Membership

Do you know that you can choose to have a member section in your blog with content that only regular subscribers can access? It is possible to offer exclusive content for your followers at a small fee. However, it will have to be unique as no one will regularly part with money for something they can easily come across.

A good way will be collecting content about your focus area and placing them in one place, saving people from wasting time roaming the internet for such content. People will be happy to pay if done right.

  • Sponsored Posts

Do you know that you can make money via sponsored posts and product reviews? Websites, businesses and companies are willing to pay if you can create posts about some of their offerings. However, they will want to know how much traffic your website generates since everyone wants results when parting with money.

Kindly come back to this section to monetize your site if you successfully start a sports blog.

How to Ensure that Your Sports Blog Thrives

You will have to do certain things to ensure that your sports blog succeeds. Here are a few:

1. Watch the Content You Produce

You cannot succeed as a sports blogger if you do not create relevant content. What is relevant content? Relevant content matches your chosen niche and meets your target audience’s expectations. Do not therefore digress. If you decide to write about boxing, do not decide to cover football out of the blues unless you introduce a different section and duly inform your audience.

2. Consistency is Key

You cannot have a loyal following if you are not consistent. Consistently writing relevant content will also make your blog popular and thus increase traffic, generating more money.

Do not publish one article and another two months later, or you will be undoing the good work you have done.

3. Have a Schedule

The only way to be consistent when managing a sports blog is to have a schedule. We advise you to create an editorial calendar that will come in handy in regular posting. Chose the number of times you will be posting in a month or a week and stick to it for better results.

However, note that you will have to be more thorough initially as you will have to interact with your audience frequently. We advise that you at least create a two-month content in advance so that you can regularly post once your site is up.

4. Do not Rush into Promotion

Even though you have to promote your blog, make sure that you do not do it hurriedly. Nobody wants to visit a blog, read one article, and wait for weeks to read another. Therefore, you won’t inspire loyalty and repeat visits if you only have a few posts on your blog.

Therefore, ensure that you have at least 10-15 published blog posts when you decide to promote your blog to keep new visitors occupied. Cover engaging and popular content and include amazing visuals in your posts.

Conclusion

We have covered all you need to know to start a sports blog. Remember, blogging can be easy and profitable if done right. Think through your niche and come up with highly engaging content. Do not also forget to promote your blog and when it picks up, monetize it! We wish you all the best as you start your sports blog. Remember to check our other posts on similar insights.

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