Posted 5/21/08 - Kellex
Many new bloggers, wait, most bloggers in general are obsessed with social media sites and the potential they have to bring in thousands of visitors to their sites. As a sports blogger, I definitely pay attention to what is happening on Digg, BallHype and Yardbarker but I’ve realized that these are not reliable forms of traffic and the amount of time put in to them may not be worth it. I still see dozens of new sports bloggers spamming up Digg, BallHype, and Yardbarker with hopes of having the next Stuff that White People Like. Sorry to be the thousandth person to break this to you, but it will probably never happen!
There are other sites out there that can deliver more targeted traffic than any of the Digg’s or BallHype’s of the world. Social media sites tend to send the “quickie” visitor that is there just to catch a quick snippet of the big article of the day and decide whether or not they would like to hype it. The chances of that visitor hanging around to view the rest of your blog or click on any of your ads are probably minimal. It’s time to think even bigger and better!
When our NBA blog, Le Basketbawl, was in its early stages we had no idea how to work social media or drive traffic or basically gain any sort of reader other than working over forums. We definitely knew what BallHype and Digg were, but had no clue on how to make the first page or create a neat little clique that would drive our work out to the world. Instead we focused all that we had on writing fun and interesting content that we hoped would either sit well in search engines or get picked up by TrueHoop or Ball Don’t Lie. We would write up an article and send emails to Henry or Kelly Dwyer in hopes of getting on their daily link lists which basically never happened until that one magical day when I wrote a post based on the upcoming Oscars but with an NBA twist, conveniently titled the 2008 NBA Oscars.
Ever heard of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard? (As a sports blogger you should have!) They picked up the post and within minutes our blog had 100’s of visitors which at the time was an incredible thing! While our post spent the entire day on Extra Mustard’s Hot Clicks it ended up generating a few thousand hits. Our blog exploded that day and I think we even shared a little champagne to celebrate. (OK not really, but it sounded nice didn’t it?)
From there, Extra Mustard found a liking to us and picked up our Top 6: Worst Hairstyles in the NBA and Top 7 Pretty Boys articles. (February was our month, woo!)
Here are the stats from the 3 articles of ours it picked up:
There are other sites out there that can deliver more targeted traffic than any of the Digg’s or BallHype’s of the world. Social media sites tend to send the “quickie” visitor that is there just to catch a quick snippet of the big article of the day and decide whether or not they would like to hype it. The chances of that visitor hanging around to view the rest of your blog or click on any of your ads are probably minimal. It’s time to think even bigger and better!
When our NBA blog, Le Basketbawl, was in its early stages we had no idea how to work social media or drive traffic or basically gain any sort of reader other than working over forums. We definitely knew what BallHype and Digg were, but had no clue on how to make the first page or create a neat little clique that would drive our work out to the world. Instead we focused all that we had on writing fun and interesting content that we hoped would either sit well in search engines or get picked up by TrueHoop or Ball Don’t Lie. We would write up an article and send emails to Henry or Kelly Dwyer in hopes of getting on their daily link lists which basically never happened until that one magical day when I wrote a post based on the upcoming Oscars but with an NBA twist, conveniently titled the 2008 NBA Oscars.
Ever heard of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard? (As a sports blogger you should have!) They picked up the post and within minutes our blog had 100’s of visitors which at the time was an incredible thing! While our post spent the entire day on Extra Mustard’s Hot Clicks it ended up generating a few thousand hits. Our blog exploded that day and I think we even shared a little champagne to celebrate. (OK not really, but it sounded nice didn’t it?)
From there, Extra Mustard found a liking to us and picked up our Top 6: Worst Hairstyles in the NBA and Top 7 Pretty Boys articles. (February was our month, woo!)
Here are the stats from the 3 articles of ours it picked up:
-Top 7 Pretty Boys – Ran 2/22/08
-Top 6: Worst Hairstyles – Ran 2/18/08
-2008 NBA Oscars – Ran 2/05/08
(It should be noted that the Pretty Boys article ran on a Friday. Extra Mustard does not perform updates on the weekends so it ran all weekend long!)
Of course once again, one of the major points in this article boils down to content. Content remains king over any traffic building tool you could use with your blog. We had no idea what Extra Mustard was until they picked us up and the traffic started raging in. In other words, we did not submit our articles to Extra Mustard; instead they picked our articles up because they thought their viewers would enjoy our work. Besides the thousands of visitors our blog saw on these days, it ended up generating links, return visitors and a ton of exposure for our new NBA blog.
What should you take from this article? It really is time to look elsewhere for some big time traffic. Almost all of the big time sports blogs out there ask their readers to submit interesting articles to them so their work is cut down. SPORTSbyBROOKS, the Big Lead, Deadspin and even SI’s Extra Mustard all have “submit” buttons that you should be utilizing. Your articles may not appear on these sites all the time, but if you really take some time to create great stuff, you will increase your chances. One article, one time on any of these sites can mean big things for your blog.
If you have success stories with any of these sites, I’d love to hear them!
6 comments:
The Mustard is king. I get in there about once a week and the traffic is amazing as long as it does not blow up my server.
Get in with them because as you can imagine, going through 1000's of emails is not fun. So if they like your site they check it even if you don't submit.
those are great numbers Kellex, congrats.
We have a buddy that works for NBA.com and he wrote an article based on a survey we did and linked to a photo post I did of inside the Sixers locker room it sent a lot of very targeted traffic for weeks.
The big time sites really can work for many bloggers. I just think that many bloggers are scared or intimidated by them and won't submit their work.
It's a damn shame!
We had something interesting happen today in that a local sports talk radio show mentioned our site and an article (at least that's what I have been told by a few friends -- the show was hosted in TN while I currently reside in GA).
I don't know if there was a direct link between the radio mention and two widely read message boards writing posts that contained links to the article, but today we had the best day in the short history of The Blue Workhorse
A link to your blog is the ultimate compliment. I have really been taken aback when anyone from the sporting blog blogs, or any other blogger that blogs for a living links to my stuff.
Getting votes on a social media site is great, but a link is worth a thousand votes.
Another post with some great tips. i've definitely noticed the yardbarker hits are pretty much one time visits till you write about their team again. I'll have to check these other sites out.
Post a Comment