Posted 5/16/08

Guest post written by Alex of Basketball Notes by Alex, a very solid NBA basketball site run by one of the top young guns in the business.


Don't Recap, Rethink: A Sports Blog Primer

Blogging is thought to be hard and tedious by the average person. Trust me, it's not astrophysics. You don't have to know everything about SEO, web design or how to work complex programs. The quintessential aspect is time.

A blog will not be successful unless you work on it for a good amount of time. You can't just sign up with blogger, put up some Google ads and expect to watch the money pile up immediately. A couple of months might even be stretching it. You have to be willing to email everyone if you want to be a top dog quickly.

When I started blogging (six years ago) blogging was not "in" yet and I knew half as much about basketball. That was actually an unknown blessing. I just wrote whatever I was thinking; schedules are so for the office. I realized that blogging isn't work. It's just my train of thoughts written on the web's version of paper.

Many people just want to rule the web. The true way to get success is to share the glory. There is room for ESPN and your blog, trust me. Get the most out of your competitors, seek their advice and work together with them. This will drive traffic to both of your sites and show that you can work with other people. Bumping heads on what you don't know is not worth it, either. Just because I don't remember that Kobe averaged about 35 points in 05-06 doesn't mean I can't write. The only thing that shows is a) my competition should be on sports Jeopardy and b) stop reading the stats sheet! I love to read the competition and it enlightens me on different ways to write.

This may be obvious, but think outside the box. If you want to post box scores, go ahead; sit back while someone takes your place in the blogosphere. I'll admit it; I reported too many stats when I first started. Now I'd rather not write about how many points Kobe had, but how that back injury of his affected the whole psyche of his team. Do you ever see Henry Abbott of Truehoop saying he had 'x' points and 'x' rebounds? No (that would be boring); he wants to say the Spurs defense was stagnant, or something along those lines. Dissect the events in your sport. Don't give plain hard news.

This has been, in a nutshell, my adventure in sports blogging. Now go out, crack it open, and plant your own tree!

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