Posted 9/12/08

Guest post written by Apryl Delancey, author of the blog Women Like Sports and a freelance writer/hands on blogger/super cool chick.

I was inspired to send over this guest post after reading the now-famous “6 Types of Sports Blogger” post.  I wrote to Kellex and told him that he forgot to write about another type – the Hands-On Blogger.  I’m also throwing in some other payment/exchange info I’ve learned along the way.

What is a Hands-On Blogger?

Well, it’s quite simple.  I actually go to local events and stand on the sidelines with my camera and recorder.  For a few minor league football teams here in Southern California, I am their only press outside of their websites.  It is rather rewarding to give these dedicated athletes the coverage that they would otherwise lack.  They send my pictures, videos, and posts to their families and friends all over the world.  This equates to more traffic for me.

What goes around comes around as well.  When I was covering a local team I met a photographer that happened to show up.  It turns out that their main gig is snapping pics of an NFL team.  This photog also stories for a local paper in the off-season.  Guess who happened to need a writer at that time?  Guess who made some money in a print publication as a sports writer?  Even better, it certainly makes the resume shine a bit more with published bylines.

I’ve also interviewed some bigger names in the world of sports.  Lisa Guerrero, Fred Roggin, Phil Shoen, and many other local and national sports names have been featured on Women Like Sports.  I just got out there and started my own buzz and asked for it.  It worked.  I felt rather special when a big sports name actually called me personally to give me an update to post on my blog.

Other Ways to be Hands-On: Merchandise

I’ve written for a site that paid a token amount for posts but assured me that their writers are quite happy.  I took a chance and sure enough I am.  I’ve received a token amount of cash and a substantial amount of merchandise.  Stuff I actually use and would have bought myself if I hadn’t written for this company.  The moral of the story?  Payment is not always in cash.  I’ve done this arrangement with a few other places and I don’t have to spend any money on holiday gifts for my nephews this year.  Of course, this is only viable if you will actually use the tradeoff merchandise.  Don’t blog for a free set of dishes when you’ve got an entire cupboard full.  That is - unless you can give it as a gift and get value that way by pocketing the money you would have spent.

Tickets

Yeah, you can get a quick set of tickets to a particular game for writing about it.  Many times, the ticket agency will contact you once your blog is above a certain page rank or other benchmark.  This counts as payment.  They ask that you say that you got the tickets from them using their online system…yadda yadda.  I’ve had offers for this but never done it.  It is probably because I refuse to sit anywhere “less desirable” than Field Box or Loge between the bases at Chavez Ravine and above the 200s at the Staples Center.  So be it.

Don’t Expose Yourself

The “exposure” tradeoff is tricky.  Remember – if you have your own blog you are getting exposure.  Those folks asking you to write for them for exposure found you, didn’t they?  Start out by syndicating a post or two.  Give them the first paragraph of a post that you particularly like and then have a “click here to read more” that takes you to the full article on your site.  A good analytics tool will tell you how much traffic you are getting from them so you can decide how you want to proceed.  Just because someone has a fancy title for their blog and it doesn’t look like they are a one-person operation like you does not mean that they aren’t.  We’ve all written for free at some point to hone our skills so don’t discount exposure completely.

The reason I even bring that up is because of the requests I get to write “for exposure”.  I once had a site tell me that they were really looking for a woman to write sports and they were going to put all this time and effort into promoting the sports-writing gal…and not pay me.  Great.  All of that promotion and effort will surely generate income for them – where’s my cut?  Exposure is necessary but it isn’t very cool to have someone else reap the benefits of your hard work.  Expose yourself wisely.

Remember

Sometimes you don’t get paid right away and sometimes you get paid by other means than cash.  Whatever you choose, I highly recommend getting out there and actually covering local events in your area.  Be a Hands-On Blogger.  There are minor league teams of all sorts everywhere in the country that are dying for press.  Give it to them.


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