Posted 6/6/08

Guest Post written by Michael "Cuzzy" C. of the sports/Raptors/money making blog, Cuzoogle.com! Make sure you check out part 1 of the 25 Traits of Successful Sports Bloggers.


25 Traits of Successful Sports Bloggers: Part 2

13) Positive - If you write articles in a negative-tone that criticize others' or discourage others, I generally will stop reading your sports blog over time. I get tired of negative views pretty fast and I bet a lot of readers do as well. Readers will take a look at a couple of posts, see the negativity throughout and won't hesitate to leave and never look back at your blog again. Now don't get me wrong I know the negative side can spark a good debate and bring in a load of short term traffic but it should not be the overall tone of your sports blog.

Keeping a positive writing voice is something that you should always try and maintain and in the end it will really help you maximize your results. Most People love reading sports blogs that have a positive, funny and entertaining author. It takes a lot more skill to write something with a positive spin and be entertaining than it is to resort to put down humour all of the time.

Don't forget that a positive attitude should not only be taken into account for sports blogging, it should be taken into account for your overall life. Without a positive outlook and the building of positive relationships, blogging won't be that much fun.

14) Enthusiastic - Everyone loves a writer who can show a lot of enthusiasm through their sports blogging voice. When writing my own posts I try to be as enthusiastic as I can stand without going over the top. You should try this as well since you really don't want your readers to get bored. An upbeat tone is a great way to convey content on your sports blog.

Try to be as enthusiastic as possible towards your favorite team or player no matter how bad they are playing; your enthusiasm could rub off on the crowd. Do something to fire up your readers because the chances are good that it will help you become more successful. As a sports blogger you are already passionate about sports so let it show in your writing. If you can be enthusiastic everyday, there is a better chance people will enjoy reading your sports blog.

15) Responsible - Successful sports bloggers take responsibility of all their actions when it comes to their blog. Taking responsibility of actions simply means letting readers know when they made a mistake, how they are learning from a mistake, and following through on any promises made. It is very difficult to stay subscribed to a sports blog when a writer tells the readers one thing, then never follows through or provides an explanation for not following through. If you are going to promise something, you have to deliver.

In a world of thousands of sports blogs, you can't leave a reader hanging because it won't take much for them to click elsewhere. Ask yourself, do you take responsibility for your mistakes and actions when it comes to your sports blog?

16) Independent - You can't be completely dependent on others to show you the way to success online if you expect to succeed one day. At some point, you have got to take your own action, come up with your own goals, and know what it is you want to achieve.

I try to seek help and offer up help as much as possible to figure out any nagging issues, but that only goes so far. A lot of blogging knowledge comes with experience and how long you have been doing it for. The sports side of it is the easy part but sometimes the blogging side of things can really frustrate you. Being more of an independent thinker, coming up with your own fresh ideas, and learning from yourself is key to becoming more successful as a sports blogger.

17) Goal-oriented - What are your online goals for your sports blog? Do you even have any yet? It really helps to set solid and smart goals that you think you can realistically achieve. I bet you have seen a lot of sports blogs without a clear-cut focus and to be honest it is really a time killer.

An example would be of a sports blogger that does not know what topic to focus his or her time on and makes a huge list of categories in the sidebar. I have always been bad for this and this is one area where I am trying to improve on and scale back my goals. After going through it I now think it is much easier to be successful as a sports blogger if you set an achievable goal to work towards.

Successful people know that goals are important and realize that having good goals to work towards can keep them motivated, focused, and excited. How boring would it get if you had nothing pushing you to make your sports blog better everyday? If you don't have any online goals yet for your sports blog, ask yourself what you enjoy about sports and list the items. Force yourself to pick one item and one item only from the list. Then, blog about only things related to that item. It can be difficult, but keeping your sports blog's goal focused is key to success.

18) Balanced - Successful sports bloggers understand that staying well balanced is crucial to their future success. There are a number of things you must learn to balance your sports blog. They can include promotion time vs. time spent writing articles or balancing sports blogging with daily life. It can definitely get tough and any one who runs their own sports blog knows this. You may initially want to overwork yourself in pursuit of big money and begin to lose sight of things that really matter.

Successful sports bloggers know how to keep the right balance to achieve optimum results. Too much time spent promoting and not taking the time to develop good content is a setup for failure and vice-versa also applies Are you having trouble balancing your sports blog?

19) Purposeful - What is the purpose of your sports blog? Do you want to make money (duh)? Do you want to share with others how much you know about sports? Do you just need a place to rant about your team? Whatever it is, it really helps to understand the purpose of your sports blog in relationship to your personal values.

If I really didn't enjoy sports blogging, I would probably stop doing it and start focusing more of my time on other projects. Successful sports bloggers understand their online purpose, share it with others, and are passionate about their experience because of it. You have to understand that purpose is not the same as your online goal. Purpose is the reason for which you are online in the first place. Successful sports bloggers want to be online and are not forcing themselves to run a blog. They truly want to be doing it and everything that comes with it is like gravy.

20) Efficient - How efficient are your work habits? I will admit that from time to time I get caught up with life and am not able to stay focused on my sports blog even though I do always try my best. Sometimes when doing up a new post I will stop and have the urge to check my email, blog stats, how many tweets I have or feel compelled to check out Entrecard.

I have recognized this behavior and every time I have an urge to check my e-mail I try my best let it pass (unless it is the girlfriend). Why should you try to curb your e-mail urges? Because checking e-mail during the middle of a blog post is inefficient. Successful sports bloggers usually have a daily blogging routine that they stick to and incorporate into their life. It usually is as simple as a certain time period each day to work on your sports blog and let nothing interfere with that time.

21) Competitive - As a sports blogger it is pretty much built in that you are competitive already so this trait will be very common. I am always up for some good competition in my daily life and of course the blogosphere. You need to be somewhat competitive if you want to be a successful sports blogger.

What do I mean by competition? It can include friendly challenges with other sports bloggers such as networking to run a contest where the winner of the contest is the sports blog with the highest RSS subscriber count on a certain day. Simple things like that is great to see in the sports blogosphere even if your blogs should be bitter rivals based on the topics (Lakers-Celtics).

If someone asks me to have a competition and it does not involve a lot of money, you can bet that I will be willing to join. Being competitive also means being up-to-date with your advertising, producing quality content, and keeping your sports blog up to speed on the latest trends (Twitter for example). Not to get to philosophical but in the end it is important to realize that your only competition is yourself when trying to become successful as a sports blogger.

22) Honest - Honesty online is crucial to success. If you cannot be honest with your readers and admit your mistakes to others, you will never build trust or a good relationship with your readers (if that is your goal). Being as honest as possible with your commenting crowd is key and I really think that most readers enjoy that.

Successful sports bloggers are not afraid to admit their shortcomings or report the trouble that they ran into along the way. I will not hesitate to post about a time that I failed or ran into serious problems because I realize that there is always something to learn. From that others can learn from the problems or mistakes you have made. Be honest with yourself and be honest with your readers. Don't report huge monthly earnings just to draw attention to your sports blog and impress readers. Who really cares? Sure it can work for some (John Chow) but most people in the sports blogging world don't really care.

It is a terrible thing to lie to your readers and give them false hopes by displaying skewed information. If you are one of the big sports blogs, those starting out are going to try and follow your lead, so don't trick them. Read a successful sports blog once and you will know that they are not afraid to admit their mistakes!

23) Focused - Staying focused on sports blogging is very difficult for anyone that has not had much blogging experience. Starting out in sports blogging, I only posted about once every few days. Then I finally decided it was time to step it up. I really challenged myself to make a conscious effort to post everyday without excuses. It got to a point to where I felt bad for not posting and it became addicting. Now because I have the time to do it, I am posting three or four times a day.

While I am writing posts, it can be difficult to stay focused when others are emailing me, the dog is bored and wants to play or there is something on TV I want to watch. You need to fit all that in with your sports blogging. Over time I have developed a good strategy that seems to work out for me and really helps keep me focused. Getting into a daily blogging routine also helps. Think of it like your business or job (that you like) and that will help you be more focused.

Successful sports bloggers stay focused on their online projects and know exactly what move to make next. Are you focused, or do you get lost for hours once you open Facebook or Twitter?

24) Unique - Being unique is always something to strive for and incorporate into your online image. Who really wants to read just another sports blog? It really helps when you can think of your own interesting content and not flood your posts with regurgitated ideas that myself and others have read on all other sports blogs and websites.

Can't think of any ideas? Surf around the Internet and look at other blogs, listen to music or watch a TV show. Something will trigger a new idea. I like to think of it like this. What would be interesting and entertaining enough to get on the front page of Ball Hype or Yardbarker?

If you are a sports blogger you have an idea of what readers want so put your own spin on it. Most successful sports bloggers were the first of their kind and put forth the best effort in the growing niche. Sure you can choose to start another sports blog but don't make it a blog that someone refers to as "just another sports blog." Create an image to stand out from the crowd, and make it something memorable!

25) Patient - Fitting trait for the end of a list don't you think? Initially, sports blogging is not a very good investment. Your time spent sports blogging is worth much more than what you will initially be earning. If you are willing to stay in the game for the long-term, I think you will be very happy with the results. Successful sports bloggers understand that in the short-term, it may be very tough to get traffic, earn money, and get recognized. However, once you have stuck around for awhile with consistent content, you will be recognized as a reputable source of solid information.

It is great if you can throw a huge contest to celebrate the start-up of your sports blog, or get a load of traffic initially, but most sports bloggers are not that fortunate. Write these words down and live by them - patience is a virtue that successful sports bloggers have.


Make sure you check out other posts from Cuzzy like his ongoing "Rolling a Blog Joint..." and his "Babes of Survivor!"


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