25 Traits of Successful Sports Bloggers: Part 1

Posted 5/30/08

Guest Post written by Michael "Cuzzy" C. of the sports/Raptors/money making blog, Cuzoogle.com!


25 Traits of Successful Sports Bloggers: Part 1

The goal of the list is to help you understand how to shape your sports blogging experience towards becoming more successful online and in the sports blogging niche. I hope you are able to find characteristics that you might be lacking or may need to improve on. If not then you are probably one of the successful ones already.

Nobody is perfect, but successful sports bloggers really do a fabulous job at effectively mastering the majority of the 25 traits that are listed.

The cool thing about this list is that though sports bloggers may have an edge against you with certain traits, you can always work to improve and get stronger. Let me know what you think below and add any that I may have missed. These traits are not sports blogging specific so don't worry if you are not in the sports game, they work for whatever you blog about.

1) Hard-working - Though it looks like an easy path to become a successful sports blogger, it does take some hard work as anyone who has a blog knows. If you cannot put in hard work towards becoming successful online, it would probably be best to not work at all. It takes a lot time to educate yourself about a certain topic and to constantly think of new ideas as article topics.

Successful sports bloggers are usually passionate and willing to work hard on a daily basis in order to improve and stay successful! It is like building a championship team, it does not happen over night. In sports blogging, you must produce new, quality content to keep your reader's satisfied. The content cannot be filled with bogus information either, meaning you have got to be willing to actually do some hard work and get your hands dirty.

2) Persistent - Successful sports bloggers never shy away or back down in the face of failure. They realize that if they want to be successful they must never back down and be around for the long-term. If you look at some of the best sports blogs out there, they have been around for years. Sports bloggers that may not be persistent, usually back down and end up not being very successful.

The hype and fun that initially comes with the creation of a blog can definitely keep you motivated for a couple of months, but if you're going to back down and stop being persistent, you probably don't want to be successful in the first place.

3) Educated - It is important to stay educated in the niche that you are blogging about. Nobody wants to really hear or read what amateurs are going to write on their sports blogs. So that means you have to watch sports. Rough life eh? If you are a sports blogger chances are you watch a good amount of sports so this part is easy. If you follow one team, read everything there is about that team. Sure there might be the odd visit from a hardcore sports fan but most people are looking for good, quality content. Posting a recap of a game won't cut it but if you add your own spin or opinion, then it could catch fire.

As a sports blogger, it is extremely important to keep yourself educated by reading other successful sports blogs and understanding what can be done to improve your efforts. It is of course obvious that you should never copy other's work but I always find reading other sports blogs will stir up several ideas in my head.

4) Strategic - Not all sports bloggers have a good online strategy that works. Successful sports bloggers understand how to plan for success. This is key for when something goes wrong, or their business model is not well accepted by their readers. Then they will re-evaluate and plan out a new strategy.

Strategy is a factor in virtually every part of a sports blogger's online experience. You have to plan out promotion, goals, building traffic, and keeping visitors coming back for more. While many successful sports bloggers make blogging strategy look like Ray Allen shooting a free throw, there is a lot that is being done behind the scenes that may not be written about.


5) Disciplined - It can be difficult to stay disciplined for anyone, even the successful sports bloggers. What separates the successful sports bloggers from the unsuccessful, is the fact that successful sports bloggers force themselves to stay disciplined with posting, thinking of new post ideas, and doing work to improve their online status. Some days or weeks can seem like a struggle but you have to fight through. When seasons end, it can be the hardest but that is when you have to think outside of the box for ideas. Discipline can be tough for anyone, though there are activities like getting into a posting routine that can improve your discipline.

6) Intelligent - Do you want to read a blog post by someone that is less intelligent than you? Probably not although I would guess a lot of you don't really think about that. Most people follow sports bloggers to learn something about a sport, team, player or hot button topic. If you are not as intelligent as another sports blogger, who do you think is going to get the majority of traffic and keep their visitors around? Yep you guessed it. Intelligence is a big key as a sports blogger. We are not born with blogging knowledge (Wow can you imagine?) or experience but we can all educate ourselves by reading other sports blogs and staying subscribed to them.

7) Social - If you are not networking with other sports bloggers (WTF? You better be.), it is time to start. Networking with other sports bloggers can include things like doing a guest post (just like I am doing), running a contest with other sports bloggers or a mutual exchange of links for your blogroll.

Everyone involved in the business world networks offline, online, and know how to network very successfully. You do not really want to network with another sports blog that has significantly lower traffic than yours or a poorer online image although there are always exceptions to this.

If you have not started networking with other sports bloggers, send several blogs (preferably ones that are bigger than yours) a message asking if they would like to network with you. It is amazing how friendly the blog community is if you just ask. Everyone used to be small and I find even the big dogs don't mind helping out where possible. You can do things like put up each other's 125 x 125 advertisements, comment on each other's blogs and advertise using Entrecard.

8) Understanding - Successful sports bloggers are usually understanding of what most of us want to see and how they can help out their readers. As a sports blogger myself, I try to be understanding of my reader's needs and interests by interacting with them in the comments section of each post and answer all e-mails that come my way. If you are not understanding of what readers want, you don't allow yourself to have a friendly online image that helps form a strong community.

9) Creative - This is my favorite trait of a successful sports blogger, one that I really try to zero in on. If you do the same thing as everybody else online, it is going to be extremely difficult to succeed. Right now the sports blogging niche is so overcrowded and over populated that it is very tough to get inside position under the boards. The good news is there are so many teams and so many players that it is possible to carve out your own little area.

The key to online success is being creative. Most sports bloggers that are successful right now did something completely new and innovative that most others had not thought of at the time. We all read Dead Spin and think wow, that is such a simple concept for a blog, why did I not think of that. Many people are reading that blog hoping to do the exact same thing as Dead Spin and make the same amount of money. Good luck to you if that is your goal right out of the shoot.

The fact is, most do not realize that it is much more difficult when you follow suit. The term been there done that comes to mind. Now there are many sports bloggers making a name for themselves, don't get me wrong but you need to stand out a bit. When you can be creative and be the first of your kind in an untapped niche, then you will be able to be as successful as the lucky bastards at Dead Spin.

10) Flexible - Being flexible plays a huge part in being a successful sports blogger. Anyone who works in sports or watches a lot of sports knows the strain it can put on the people in our lives. Most successful sports bloggers understand when it is time to call it quits and spend time with their family or dabble in other hobbies.

It is important to not get addicted to sports blogging to keep other areas of life in perspective. When money starts to roll in and the traffic jumps, the temptation can be to sit there for several hours working on the blog. I am not saying that is a bad thing but too much of any one thing can really throw other areas of life out of sorts. Too much sports blogging is not good and can actually get people a little overstressed. On the flip-side of that, too many outside activities can make it difficult to get back into the sports blogging routine. It is all about balance. So go and watch the game and take a break.

11) Consistent - Consistency is a key attribute to online success. Successful sports bloggers stay consistent with posting, marketing, and maintenance of their blog. Being consistent with posting frequency plays a huge role in gaining the trust of RSS subscribers and getting more visitors to subscribe. Staying consistent with all of your online efforts will play a huge role in the success of your sports blog. If you know that you can stay consistent with quality content, I can tell you with confidence that you will make money eventually and be successful. Like many things staying consistent is much easier said than done, though with proper discipline, we all have it in us to do it.

12) Confident - I have yet to come across a successful sports blogger that has low levels of confidence. Just like the athletes we watch, showing confidence is everything when going into battle. Confidence is displayed in your writing tone, through the quality of your content, and through activities such as guest posting on other sports blogs.

Most other sports bloggers that are in the business to be successful are never stressed about asking someone to guest post or posting links to their posts in forums. This is why it is great to ask other sports bloggers for help or even trading links. I have never felt like someone was turning me down because I was the competition. It is not like we are in law school or fighting for a Wii on Boxing Day. If you are lacking in confidence, you better do yourself a huge favor by boosting it up. Now drop and give me 20.

This concludes Part 1 of 25 Traits of successful sports bloggers. Look for the part 2 soon!

Make sure you check out other posts from Cuzzy like his ongoing "Rolling a Blog Joint..." and his "10 Reasons Why I hope the Spurs are Done."


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Keyword of the Year: Blogsexual

Posted 5/30/08 - Kellex

This is a completely random post that almost has nothing to do with sports but we just found it slightly amusing and a little informational at the same time.

We were skimming through our analytics the other day, checking out new keywords that were pointing to us on Google and we noticed that someone had used the keyword "blogsexual" and somehow found us! I about dropped dead when I remembered that I had used the term in a previous post about bloggers in comparison with radio personalities.

When Google indexed us, it pulled up this term from the post and the comments section. If you search for "blogsexual" you will see that we show up first! Hah! The other sites below us are obviously in the "nasty-zone" and I refuse to talk anymore about them except that we dominated the hell out of them on their own term.

Not being an SEO pro, can anyone explain how just these 2 uses could put us in the top spot in Google? I'm aware of the fact that Google is able to pull keywords from comments, but I guess I didn't think they had this much pull especially from a blog lacking a PageRank.

So the one lesson you can take from this post is that keywords can be pulled from comments and using random terms like "blogsexual" can spark someone's imagination and may land you a top spot in Google! Woo hoo!


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How do you Make Time to Blog?

Posted 5/29/08

Guest post written by Carolyn of the And One basketball blog, an amazing NBA blog following the Cleveland Cavaliers.

How do you Make Time to Blog?

Carolyn approached me the other day after reading a question from LinkedIn which asked, "How do you make time to blog? How do you maximize your blogging and social media productivity?" This was her response...

Blogging For Life

Number one rule - never go to sleep until you have listed your blog on one new directory and/or left a comment on someone else's blog. This will quickly build an audience which helps motivate you to write when you're busy.

Make a list (mental or otherwise) of your favorite blogs. This will come in handy on a day when you need an idea or are too busy to write. Takes about 10 minutes to put together a list of links for your readers to enjoy.

Interview your readers. Make a list (mental or otherwise) of questions for a mock interview. Every so often, ask a frequent commenter or another blogger for an "interview." Send questions, sit back, do other stuff, post answers when they arrive. Your readers will feel more involved with your site and it gives you a break.

When you find yourself staring out the window, watching the Godfather for the 19th time or chatting on the phone with nothing to say, remind yourself (out loud is fine) that your fan base awaits. Put down the phone, toss the remote out the daydream window and get to work. We'll all feel better.

Make a list (mental or otherwise) of interesting topics that cross your path. For us sports bloggers, this list is golden in the offseason.

When you read a blog and think "that's what I'm talking about," send the site administrator a note. Let them know you appreciate their work and suggest a link exchange. I have the world's ugliest blogroll (cannot be alphabetized) and am continually surprised how many people are willing to be listed.

When you're feeling productive, write a couple of pieces. Only post one. Save the rest for a busy day.

Guest bloggers - your friends and family will be thrilled and flattered to have a byline on your site.

If there are social networks specific to your blog's overall topic, join every one and engage with the community.

Saying to a friend who wants to go to a movie that you need to write a game recap for your blog and seeing that "you have got to be kidding me" and involuntary eye roll can be intimidating. This happens to me a lot. Any time you make a change in your life, people will resist it. They want your relationship to stay the same. Two thoughts on this.

1) Reconcile yourself to seeing less of this particular person

2) Explain to them what blogging means to you and you may be surprised that the next time you ask them to go to the movies, they will decline because they need to post something.

The assumption behind this question is the notion of sacrifice in order to blog. How do I put aside the rest of my life to make time for blogging? My experience has been exactly the opposite. Blogging is the fountain at the center of my life, enriching all areas. I have met people all over the world and right here in Cleveland, including my own neighbors. Friends use the blog to stay connected in their busy times.

It is possible to sustain a real life and an interesting, current blog. In fact, it's the only way.

Did you know you can sell links on your site with Text-Link-Ads?

Review: TNX.net

Posted 5/29/08 - Kellex




Please welcome the newest player in the text link selling business, TNX.net. These guys are really pushing this new system in hopes of taking over the market with some interesting twists on the text link selling front.

With TNX.net, webmasters are able to sell links on multiple pages rather than just on the main page of their site which could be up to 10 times more profitable. They are also allowing webmasters to choose their own advertisements rather than being stuck with something completely irrelevant.

Advertisers should like TNX.net because they are boasting cheap prices and a tool to make their links look "Google friendly". They also have some nice tools to help advertisers rank #1 in Google for highly competitive keywords.

Right they are offering a free links special to people through a post at the Digital Point forums that you may want to check out if you are interested in a service like this. There is also an affiliate program available at TNX.net.

So what is wrong with the service? Biggest problem which could really hurt their business is the fact that their script won't work on Blogger blogs. The code they ask you to add to your site is STATIC and Blogger at this point will not allow STATIC code. Sorry Blogger peeps!

We are definitely not endorsing this product by any means; this is simply a review. Please take all the right precautions whenever you apply to any advertising network!

Special Daily Sizzle: Sports Blog Earnings

Posted 5/28/08 - Kellex

I’m a little embarrassed…I forgot the Daily Sizzle yesterday and it was for one of my buddies over at Sports Blog Earnings! So today we are making a special post about this site even though its time has come and gone from our Entrecard widget.



As you all are aware, we are in the business of marketing and monetizing sports blogs. This niche is completely new and there are essentially 3 players in the game: The Sports Dollar, Juiced Sports Blog, and now Sports Blog Earnings. We are barely into our 3rd month and have already seen some great things happen like the Job Board we just launched, a successful big time Entrecard contest, and our number of subscribers breaking 50! The money making-marketing-sports blog niche is really starting to look like something that other sports blogs want to be a part of.



With the entrance of Sports Blog Earnings, the sky really could be the limit. This site has been in the works behind the scenes for quite some time now and its official launch was within the last week. Its author, Dannie, also co-authors a couple of other very successful sports blogs in the Recliner GM and Hoops State of Mind that you should already be reading. Dannie really knows his marketing stuff and you should expect this new venture of his to be nothing less than amazing.



Sports Blog Earnings’ approach is to teach other sports blogs how to market and monetize their blogs but with a trial and error/example approach. Dannie has been writing and writing and writing just to make sure he had plenty of solid content for his big launch date and you can tell from his first few posts that his ideas are the real deal. For now, he’s working one post per week but as his blog begins to grow and he sees the potential we have seen, I’m sure that post count will skyrocket.



You could call us competitors, but really, we have a great relationship and have already bounced a ton of ideas off of each other. When Dannie told me that Sports Blog Earnings was finally set for take off, no one was more excited than me. We’re glad to have you!

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FreeDarko's Book! Pre-order it!

Posted 5/27/08 - Kellex

I may not be the hugest FreeDarko fan on the planet, but it is always cool to see a fellow sports blog become successful enough to actually take a book to print.

FreeDarko is definitely known for writing some of the more creative and thought provoking (hilarious too) material in the NBA world and it has obviously been good enough to take it to that next step.

Their first book is titled FreeDarko presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac and looks to contain tons of their signature art along with some amazing material on their favorite ballers. You can pre-order this now in it's hard cover form.

Make sure to always support your fellow sports bloggers!


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Leave BlogRush Alone!

Posted 5/27/08

Mitchell Blatt, owner of Juiced Sports Blog’s Sports Blogger Forums and AirRaid81 on StumbleUpon who would love to add you as a friend!

BlogRush Can Still Bring Decent Traffic if Used Properly

Alright guys, so many of you know about BlogRush and chances are if you know about BlogRush, the first thing you know about it is that is sucks. That is only partially true. BlogRush does suck in it’s default state, but if you make some modifications to the RSS feed, it came bring good traffic.

BlogRush, for those of you who don’t know about it, is a blog syndication service that puts a widget up on your site with links to related posts, and it will put your links up on the widget on other people’s sites if you add it to yours. You can sign up here: BlogRush

The problem is that it uses the default RSS feed of your blog to display the links and titles. That leads to terrible click-thru rates, because the title space is pretty small in BlogRush, and even if the titles fit, they won’t get many clicks unless they catch the reader’s attention with controversy or whatever.

Now, you don’t want to be writing BlogRush titles for your blog titles, because that would probably annoy the direct visitors to your blog. So, what’s a blogger to do to have good BlogRush titles and good organic titles?

Just modify your RSS feed. Here’s a hack for anyone who uses Wordpress to create a custom RSS feed for BlogRush that will display only your single best post and title:

Create a Microsoft Word or other text-editing file, and use this code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <rss version="2.0">

<channel>
<title>Your Blog Title</title>
<link>http://www.your blog url.com</link>
<description>Your Blog's Description or Tagline</description>
<language>en-us</language>

<item>
<category>BlogRush</category>
<title>Featured Post Title</title> <link>http://yourblogurl.com/permalink to the post</link>
<description>
This description is not used by BlogRush.
</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

Leave everything alone except the variables that are marked for your individual use.

Save the file as blogrushrss.rss or whateveryouwant.rss and then upload it to your ftp. This is only possible with Wordpress, unfortunately.

When it comes to your Featured Post Title, write something short and funny or interesting. That will get clicks. I had done some experimenting with this in the past, and some of my top titles were things like “Brett Favre is a Disgrace!” (in regards to his thoughts about unretiring) and “Mark Cuban was Right!” (about blogging and banning bloggers from his locker room).

Don’t expect 10% click thru rates to your blog. (Hell, don’t even expect 1%.) But, right now, most people are struggling just to get 0.1%. I’m getting 0.5%. With as many displays as BlogRush gives, that translates into 10-20 visitors a day for me. Consider this is free traffic. The traffic from all these sources adds up, and the more traffic you get, the more impressions you get. My impressions have been growing exponentially.

Do the same thing, and your hits will be growing exponentially as well.

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Introducing: The Sports Dollar Job Board

Posted 5/26/08 - Kellex


You are reading that image and title correctly people! The Sports Dollar Job Board has gone live! (Woo hoo!) We thought it was about time that other sports bloggers had opportunities to look for ways to express all of their amazing talents. We also thought it was time that great sports sites had opportunities to seek out these talented individuals!

If you sports site needs writers, graphic designers or who knows what else, this job board is your outlet! At a more than bargain price of $10 per posting, this should be a "no brainer" if you are looking for help with your growing blog or sports website.

With this being the big kick off to this new venture, we are giving all new postings a solid 75% off discount for the month of June! "So...wait, $2.50?" Yep! As long as you put in the coupon code "sportsjob", your total will be automatically reduced.

Go ahead and spread the word on this new idea as we are ready to pay out nice referral bonuses to those willing to help out! (Email if interested)

I would also like to hear any suggestions you may have to make the job board better and more successful.

Thank you everyone for continuing to give us all of these new opportunities! Please let me know if you have any questions!


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Daily Sizzle: Hacks Daily

Posted 5/26/08 - Kellex



Hacks Daily



The Memorial Day Daily Sizzle is a site full of useful information, Hacks Daily. This just went into my bookmarks folder seeing as I found 3 great tips on the first page of posts. Very nice work there!



You could easily spend a couple of hours looking at the useful info on this site and I encourage all of you to take a look.





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DollarBall: 5/23/08

Posted 5/23/08 - Kellex

• Sports Blog Earnings shares a nice Yardbarker success story. It’s time to be a part of the YBN people!


• ProBlogger.net looks at a neat little trick for comparing search engine over time using Google Analytics.


• Yaro Starak is allowing people to join his affiliate program again; worth a look.


• The John Cow vs. Garry Conn “Cowpetition” is well under way. Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. Day 4.


• Blogstorm find some interesting results while using Yahoo’s search engine. I agree, Yahoo sucks.


• Courtney Tuttle breaks down the basic of you can make more money with your blog.


• Had zero success with BlogRush? Check out what the Juiced Sports Blog knows about it.

Did you know you can sell links on your site with Text-Link-Ads?

Daily Sizzle: Hochstadt's Internet Business Guide

Posted 5/22/08 - Kellex





A pretty big player in the MMO niche graces our Daily Sizzle today. The name Hochstadt probably sounds familiar to many of you as this blog ran one of, if not THE, biggest Entrecard contest ever. This blog has also completely dominated Entrecard in any way you can imagine. Continually in the top 5 Entrecard blogs, Marcus Hochstadt definitely knows what he's doing in this blog business.



Check him him for any "Make Money" tips or other business ideas. He partners up with big time bloggers all the time to keep things fresh. A true player in business, Marcus Hochstadt.





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Question to Readers: What are your Favorite Website Tools?

Posted 5/22/08 - Kellex

Good morning everyone! I'm just a little sleepy after a long night at the Indiana Jones premier. I must say, some people really love their "Indie" and I managed to see at least 3 guys with real whips! Crazy people.

Anyway, the topic of this post is fairly self explanatory but I am looking for some feedback. I'd like to know what blog or website tools or services people are using. It seems that there are countless ones out there and I definitely love the stat machines I'm using, but you can always see what else is in the world right?

Here is my list:

• MyBlogLog
• SiteMeter
• Google Analytics
• Google Adwords
• Google Adsense
• Google Reader
  
• Technorati
• BlogCatalog
• Entrecard
• Feedburner

There are a ton of other services I use, but these are the ones I use just about every day. Let me know what you've got!


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Daily Sizzle: Keith Goodrum

Posted 5/21/08 - Kellex





Keith Goodrum is today's Daily Sizzle and this is now a blog I will consider reading on a daily basis. He has a very unique perspective on the Make Money world that I actually find slightly entertaining. (Which is a good thing!)



In just the first page of browsing I found a nice article on following your passions and then another on the $2.99 gas deal that Chrysler is whipping out! Make sure to check Keith out and learn from someone that is new to the Make Money world, but seems to have the right mindset for success.





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Forget Social Media and get Linked to the Big Dogs

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:

-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!

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Daily Sizzle: Blue Workhorse

Posted 5/20/08 - Kellex





Almost forgot today's Daily Sizzle! My guys over at the Blue Workhorse are still tearin' it up! If you need sports, they are definitely bringing it to you. Covering baseball, basketball, hockey, and football you can find anything you'll need to know to keep up with your buddies during those sports BS'ing sessions.



Don't forget that we also ran a review of the Blue Workhorse earlier this year that is a must read.





Time to join ClickBooth to help monetize your site, don't you think?

How to Dominate Stumble Upon to Build Continuous Social Media Traffic

Posted 5/20/08


Mitchell Blatt, owner of Juiced Sports Blog and the Sports Blogger Forums for discussing blogging

How I Added 50 Stumble Upon Friends in One Week

Social media sites are a good way to build traffic to your blog with little effort, but most of them don’t work for sports blogs. Digg certainly won’t work, and even if it did, it offers terrible traffic quality. Stumble Upon, however, works for almost any kind of site. I’ll tell you from experience it works great with sports blogs and has great traffic quality.

Take a look at how Stumble Upon visitors compare to the average visitors to my site Juiced Sports Blog:
Source-Pages/Visit-Time on Site
Stumble Upon-2.11-1:45
Site Average-1.73-1:07

Furthermore, you don’t need a ton of friends to get good traffic volume. However, the more friends you have the better, so here are some tricks I used to increase my friend count by 50 in one week.

Give Away Free Stumbles

This is the fastest way to build your friend count. Go to webmaster forums and post saying you are going to give away free Stumbles to anyone who wants them. Tell them to PM you and reply. There are sub forums in most forums titled “services” for these kind of exchanges. Some forums like Digital Point have banned free Stumble giveaways, but many haven’t, and I’ll list some good ones in a sec.

But first, here’s how it works. How do you gain friends by giving away free Stumbles? After you Stumble their site, send back a PM saying you Stumbled them and asking if they would please add you as a friend and give them your link. 90% of the people will add you as a friend.

Here’s some forums to make such a post, ranked in order of traffic:
V7N
Webmaster Talk
Webmaster Forums
Webmaster Forums.net

For many of these forums, you will need 10 or 20 posts before you can post in the requests/services category. I know for V7N, it’s 10, so just make posts in other categories first.

You will get a lot of PM’s early on, but they eventually die down and your thread will get buried, so periodically, you should go back and make a post yourself to the extent of “Sites Stumbled.”

Message People With Similar Interests

On social media sites, people like to be interacted with, so if you make an effort to connect with them, they will likely reciprocate. Get some interesting things Stumbled on your page about the topic you are targeting, possibly write a blog post on your profile, then search for people interested in that topic, “sports” for example.

See some stuff they Stumbled, then message them about their Stumbles, offering your opinion on some of those topics, or just saying, “Nice Stumbles. Friended you,” if you’re lazy. (Actually friend them before saying that.)

I like messaging people more than reviewing their profiles, because messaging them doesn’t show up on your profile as recent activity, and if you have a lot of reviews of Stumbles on your profile instead of reviews of websites, you’re profile won’t look very interesting. Also, messages are more personal, so they seem to have a higher chance of getting people to friend you.

Add Me as a Friend

Add me as a friend here and I will reciprocate. There’s one add right there, and a good one. I like to Stumble sports stories I see, and I have a relatively large reach among my number of friends. It’s nice to have some highly friended people among your group of friends, because then if they Stumble it, it goes out to a large audience.

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Obama Takes over Portland!

Posted 5/19/08 - Kellex

This is how I spent my Sunday. An amazing experience and a once in a lifetime chance to see our next President, live. History people! Enjoy. (And damn was it hot!)

Obama Visits Portland Waterfront

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Maximizing your Sports Blog Traffic

Posted 5/19/08

Guest post written by James of NE Patriots Draft, a site dedicated to the wonderful world of football and the incredible amount of coverage given to the NFL draft.


Maximizing your Sports Blog Traffic

NE Patriots Draft has been operating for exactly two months. During this time, as lead writer and designer for the site, I have learned quite a bit about obtaining traffic, both quality and quantity. During our first two months, we have had just over 25,000 unique visitors and 105,000 pageviews. 80% of our traffic comes from referring links, while 15% comes from search engines. Here are my three thoughts on how to receive more traffic.

Stay Focused

My website deals mainly with analyzing the NFL Draft, the Patriots, and Patriots personnel moves. On occasion, I'll write a humor or editorial piece, such as the article that won me a free trip to the Patriots/Chiefs opening day game, courtesy of Bleacher Report. These articles don't bring in returning visitors very often, and some of my regulars have commented that they find them a waste of their reading, as they come for NFL Draft and Patriots analysis. Variety is nice, but losing focus risks losing your regular readers.

Fill a Need

There are literally millions of blogs out there. Why should someone read yours? Quality content and a nice design sometimes isn't enough. Most sites that succeed provide a service that can't be received elsewhere or at least many other places. HailRedskins and Walter Football have superb Mock Draft Databases and the Sports Dollar has advice you can't get elsewhere. We had our Undrafted Free Agent list. We were sick of looking at disjointed snippets of UDFA information, so we collected all the info and with our own sources we are able to put together a pretty accurate list in no time. Thus, need filled. That one post got over 115 links and over 15,000 pageviews in a short amount of time.

Use the Right Social Bookmarking

At NE Patriots Draft we started off using Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious as our Social Bookmarking focus. If you look at the popular Digg pages you will rarely see something from a blog, and even rarer to see something from the sports world. Leave Digg to tech and politics. After two weeks and about 15 total hits, we decided that we needed to find something else. Yardbarker.com was found to be an excellent way to bring in more traffic (3,000+ UV) while Ballhype hasn't lived up to our expectations (900+ UV), although perhaps we need to give it more time.

Follow your voice, provide a service, and target the right audience, and you too can reach your traffic and exposure goals.

Check out NE Patriots Draft's most recent post on their 2009 Patriots Mock Draft Database.


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And the Winner is....

Posted 5/16/08 - Kellex





"Tiiiiiiiime is on my side, yes it is!" That's right folks! The 7500+ Farewell to Entrecard - Credit Giveway is over and we have all the time in the world to work on other traffic building methods!



We had amazing participation and have realized how many of you really love this damn Entrecard thing and also that you will do whatever it takes to grab a big sum of credits. I hope the spending of these massive amounts of credits goes towards something useful, like an ad on The Sports Dollar or Le Basketbawl. (Hah)



Thank you to everyone who participated in our biggest contest ever. I'm glad we could share our wealth of Entrecard experience and bank of credits with you, but we are so damn happy to be moving on. With that said, let's get to it!



The participation was great enough that we ended up with right around 11,000 credits to dispurse. That is a pretty significant amount if you ask me.



The winners...of the first and last 7500+ Farewell to Entrecard - Credit Giveway are...

• 1st Place - Blogging Over Coffee - 8250 credits!

• 2nd Place - X3tech.com - 2200 credits!

• 3rd Place - Make a Pound - 550 credits!

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We will not be removing the Entrecard widget, so feel free to continue to purchase ads as we will keep accepting them. You have seen the last of us for a while dropping cards, but you never know, if the service changes for the better, we could be back!





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5 Reasons: Sports Bloggers Dominate Pro Bloggers

Posted 5/16/08 - Kellex


I'm guessing that many of us can attest to dropping a jaw here or there to the numbers posted by "Pro" bloggers. We've seen their earnings, their guest appearances and the tons of free schwag they receive, but answer me this: Is it really better to be a "Pro" blogger than a "Sports" blogger?

Here are the 5 reasons as to why I'm going with the sports side.

1. Press Pass Baby!

How many "Pro" bloggers out there can put in for a press pass to a major sporting event and actually get one? When was the last time Shoemoney chummed it up with professional athletes in a locker room after a game? (MMA is not really a sport, so that won't count Shoezie.)

I'm guessing some blogger will say that one of those blogging events or conferences is better than a sporting event and I'll just shoot that notion down now. You may not be a sports fan, but anytime you have a group of goofballs running around with laptops and cheesy Corsair t-shirts tucked into their pleated khakis, you are not topping the list of happenin' events.


2. The Real Fans!

"Pro" bloggers have risen to a sort of celebrity level depending on their niche, but does anyone really care about anything they write? They preach methods and spam affiliates without ever actually teaching anyone anything, but continue to keep you hooked by posting their $30,000 per month earnings.

"Sports" bloggers keep their readers hooked by writing about real life events. They come up with interesting insight, interview star athletes and insiders, and flat out keep it real. A "Sports" blogger's initial goal is never to announce their earnings to the world. (In fact, has this ever happened?) Instead they'd rather be the first to tell you about LeBron laying into some mother or whether or not Will Leitch has officially been bitched slapped by Buzz Bissinger.

Their fans continue to comeback because they love the content and the opinions; they aren't coming back just to leave a comment in hopes of a couple more pageviews or linkbacks.


3. Respectable Mentors

How many MMO bloggers can say that they actually respect John Chow or any of his dot Com Pho posse? (By the way it's pronounced "fuh" not "fer" or whatever the hell he keeps saying.) At some point, you'd think a "Pro" blogger would feel a need to give back to their specific niche. Even some original thought would be nice from time to time. The absence of real mentors in this MMO niche will most likely be the downfall.

On the other hand, the sports blog world is filled with so many that I'll just cover the niche I know best, which is basketball. Guys like Henry Abbott, J.E. Skeets, and Matt Moore do what they do because they absolutely love it. They all produce fresh thoughts, solid research and still manage to have a great time. It's easy to look up to a blogger that shares their ideas and actually loves to see another fellow blogger succeed.


4. Who's Shady?

As nice of a guy as Darren Rowse may be, I still find it hard to trust a guy in the MMO industry. I think we've all seen enough Magic Bullet infomercials to realize what every big player in the MMO niche is trying to do. "Pro" bloggers have sign up codes, offer discounts, and give away nice little prizes, but isn't there always a catch?

Tell me a time when a "Sports" blogger ran you through a maze of contest sign-ups and RSS subscriptions to get you to the meat of their content? "Sports" bloggers lay everything they've got on the line because that is all they know.


5. What's Better than Sports?

The bottom line is that sports are just freakin' amazing! I may be a biased sports fan and I also understand that not everyone in the world enjoys sports like I do, but who cares? The basic principle is that we write about something fun, entertaining and meaningful. "Pro" bloggers write about "How to get a great Twitter following!" or which cool shirt some marketing company gave them this Friday. Is that s$&t really fun?

Go watch a live NFL game Mr. Corsair T-Shirt guy.


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Don't Recap, Rethink: A Sports Blog Primer

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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Daily Sizzle: mymy Tech

Posted 5/15/08 - Kellex





mymy Tech



I've got to give it up to this site on first impressions. The layout and overall look are very nice! However, with a deeper look into the site, you can see that it is a young high school kid trying to juggle being a young schoolin' pimp and an online entrepreneur.



A great idea with a ton of potential; make sure to check it out!





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Eddie G's Top 10 Blogging Tips

Posted 5/15/08

Written by Eddie Griffin, writer/publisher/editor for The Red Zone Report, a site dedicated to NCAA and NFL football.


Eddie G's Top 10 Blogging Tips

Blogging wasn't my first foray into sportswriting, but in the 10 months that I've been blogging full-time, it's been an unbelievably rewarding experience.

In January, I started The Red Zone Report, and in the four months the site has been up, I've learned a lot about what it takes to make a successful blog from my experiences, and from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger, Ahmed Bilal, the crew at Performancing, and this great blog.

I'm still learning, but I thought I'd pass along some important things that I've learned so far to help aspiring sports bloggers.

So, here are my top ten tips - they've helped me, and I hope they help you.

1. Be confident, but be level-headed: Be confident about your talent, opinions, goals, and the way your blog looks.

There are going to be nasty comments from angry readers, traffic dips, and times when you feel you have nothing to write about.

Confidence gets you through those downs, and level-headedness will make sure you don't get a big head through the ups.

2. State your opinions, but do so wisely: It's a given that people won't always agree, but some of your most-read articles are the most controversial ones.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you can write whatever you want to - if you've got an opinion, state it because you believe it and know you can back it up.

Do your research, and know what you're talking about. If you don't know your stuff, you'll be the jackass, not them.

3. Have high expectations, but be realistic: Some people are attracted to blogging because they think it's an easy way to make some money, You can't half-assedly write or promote and expect traffic to roll in. And that's not even taking aesthetics into consideration.

Even when writing for a network, you've got to keep regularly update and promote. However, if you're running your own ship, there's not only updating and promotion, but there's also upkeep, and for many, hiring writers and keeping them in line.

You're going to have to put your best feet forward - not one, but two - and don't think the results come immediately, because unless you're really good or really lucky, it will take a while.

4. Ads aren't bad: Some aspiring bloggers could be apprehensive about putting ads up because it could put readers off, but that's not the case, unless you've got a bunch of irrelevant ads, or if your site is 75% ads.

Go to ESPN.com or CBS Sportsline, and they all have plenty of ads. So, if they've got ads on theirs, then there certainly isn't anything wrong with putting ads on yours.

5. Don't be scared to reach out and build relationships, but be selfless: The blogosphere is a community, and while we all want to succeed, we also want to help others do so (we should, at least). So, if there's someone that you admire, don't be afraid to befriend them and learn from them, because you'll be in a position where you can teach someone like they taught you.

People will know your intent, so do things for the right reasons. If so, you'll get the link or interview, and better yet, you'll get that mutual respect. If not, they'll see right through you.

To add to this: Be friendly and respectful with your readers, and be accessible and approachable.

6. Don't get lazy: Sure, you're just finished that kick-ass article. Be proud! But if it's full of errors, it doesn't matter how interesting it may be. People can tolerate a mistake or two, but if you're too mistake-prone, hire an editor, or better yet, PAY ATTENTION! Check, double-check, and triple-check, because it saves you time and embarrassment.

The same goes for upkeep. Make it look like you've put some time into it, because if you look like you're half-heartedly running your blog, then people are half-heartedly reading it.

7. There's promotion, and there's spam: This can't be said enough. Early on, you might post a ton of articles to bookmarking sites and forums to get the word out, but there are limits. Save your best content and only post it if it's really worth everyone's time.

When you do post on Yardbarker, Ballhype, etc., or on message boards, be involved in the discussion.

8. Be you: Don't try to be the next so-and-so. Carve your own niche, and don't be a copy-cat. It's as easy to spot a try-hard as it is to spot an original.

Be inspired by the big guys, but just like there's only one them, there's only one you, so be the best you, possible. If you do, then you'll inspire someone just like you were inspired by someone else.

9. Without great content, you don't get traffic. Without traffic, you don't make money. Write stuff you know you'd read if someone else wrote it. If you do that, you're on the right track.

It doesn't have to be the most interesting topic, but if you're knowledgeable, articulate, and readable, you've got three big steps towards great content down.

10. Have fun: The average sports blogger or journalist is just a fanatic who loves being and talking about sports. I know that's the case for me!

Having extra spending money is great, and being able to make a living from writing is even better.

But first and foremost, have fun, and don't lose your passion, even if it means taking a break from writing to watch a game 'just because,' or watching highlight of or reminiscing about the moments that got you hooked. It'll positively affect both you and your writing.

There's nothing like looking at your work and knowing that you're making it, but to have that feeling of accomplishment and know you've had fun is unparalleled.

Also, here are some extras: Be search engine-friendly with your content and URL (tags are a blogger's best friend), create about me, advertising, and contact pages, and buy your own domain ASAP (oh the freedom!).

Good luck, and happy blogging!



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