Posted 6/30/08 - Kellex
Good Monday morning everyone! We were recently found by a supposed MMO douche guru over the past couple of weeks that continues to remain "Anonymous" and of course this guru also deemed it necessary to flame up our Top 50 Sports Blog rankings that we put out during the 1st quarter of this year as well as this blog in general. Feel free to go check out the amazing conversation and worthwhile constructive criticism! (Can you smell the sarcasm in that sentence?)
Anyway, the idea here is that this blog is basically the only one of its kind and is really incomparable to just about any other blog. We've been grouped in with MMO blogs, internet marketing blogs and of course sports blogs but I'm not sure it's really fair to put us in with any of those groups.
We've never claimed to be experts as the idea for this blog is completely new and seeing as we've only been doing this for 6 months now it would be ludicrous for us to call ourselves anything but "learners."
One thing that I think you should take away from this blog or post is that staying true to your own thoughts, ideas, and goals is what it is all about. The internet is full of lamers like this "Anonymous" guy that get off on trying to bring down any success you may have encountered.
The only way to win in this game, is to follow your senses by sniffing some things out, tasting a little cheese and seeing the road ahead. These are blogs aren't they? They are supposed to be your personal take on our particular niche; make sure you keep it that way. And thanks again to everyone that reads our little attempt at entrepreneurship; we couldn't do it without you!
(Btw, stay tuned for the 2nd quarter rankings! We should have them out some time at the end of this week.)
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This Blog vs. the "Anonymous" Commentator
Monday, June 30, 2008Writers Block? What to do?
Posted 6/30/08 - Joshua
So at this moment I have writers block, and I have it really bad. Usually on Fridays I write at least two NASCAR posts. I do this as the cup teams practice and qualify. Today that just wasn’t working for me, so I broke my usual routine, grabbed my laptop and hit the road searching for inspiration.
Usually when this happens to me I end up at a cigar store or the local Starbucks and inject myself with coffee and nicotine and find inspiration. After two rather large iced mocha’s I wasn’t feeling it. After spending 50 bucks on cigars I still wasn’t feeling it. (On a side note don’t smoke cigars, they cost more then drugs.)
So I took what was left of my Government stimulus check and went out to get some new ink. As I write this I am getting two of my older tattoo’s touched up, a few new ones and some nice background pieces added to really complete my left shoulder. Ironically, about two weeks ago I tore my rotator cuff in that arm and this is the only thing that has really made me feel better.
So why would I share all of this with you? Well the point here is when you have writers block, and it will happen, don’t panic. We talked earlier about finding things to do to keep your sanity, but we sometimes also need to find things that help to inspire us. Even sports writers have to be creative, and sometimes it is hard to find that creativity.
I am sure my critics in the legitimate media will take this as another swipe at their profession. Well that is fine; I do whatever I need to do to write. I can write anywhere and in almost any situation, and to be more bluntly if the so called legitimate media were doing their job then I wouldn’t have mine.
I don’t let myself get trapped into what people think is normal or traditional. It would be my advice to all of you that do whatever works for you, write what you feel and success will follow.
Look at me getting tattooed as Metallica jams in the background; I am not exactly Walter Cronkite, or Michael Wilbon. Really that is the point. Sports bloggers are a new breed and we do things our way. This is called progress and every time I turn onto PTI on ESPN I hear Wilbon trashing my profession, when really he should be watching his own back cause one day soon one of us will have his job. That and the Washington Post will be out of business.
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Job Board June Promo - 2 Days Left!
Sunday, June 29, 2008Posted 6/29/08 - Kellex
The Sports Dollar Job Board has had a solid first month thanks to our initial June 75% off coupon code. Well that coupon code will expire in 2 days, so if you need to fill a position on that sports blog of yours, you better do it now!
Using the coupon code "sportsjob" you will get an automatic 75% off your posting which will run for 30 days or basically the entire month of July. Pretty solid deal huh?
The job board is definitely something you need to look into as we've seen the first hand success it can bring. We were able to find 2 new writers for each of our blogs and I know others such as the Red Zone Report and Cuzoogle have also had quite a reaction to their postings. There are countless bloggers out there looking for work, get in now!
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DollarBall: 6/29/08
Posted 6/29/08 - Kellex
This edition of DollarBall will act as somewhat of a special edition as we take the top sporting stories from the past week. These would be the stories that had major play on big sites like Digg, YardBarker, BallHype and even sites that got mentioned on SI or Yahoo. You should be able to use this as a reference guide or idea generator for your next big linkbaiting piece!
- Top 10 Players Not Drafted in the First Round - Hoop Doctors
- Shaq Freestyles on Kobe - TMZ.com
- The Jheri Curl All-Stars - Home Run Derby
- Morning Look: Four Portis Costumes - DC Sports Bog
- The Shrinking Frame of Roethlisberger - Busted Coverage
- A Blogger at Training Camp - Sporting News
- Interview with BallHype Creator Jason Gurney - BallHype
- Zombie Kickball - Steady Burn
- Ballgirl Makes Incredible Catch - Break.com
- Hottest Women of Euro 2008 - Sports Crunch
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Sports Dollar and Twitter
Friday, June 27, 2008Posted 6/27/08 - Kellex
I still can't stand Twitter for the most part but I do have both blogs hooked up to Twitterfeed to at least notify all of my followers if a new post has gone up. So if you hate Google Reader and don't want to subscribe to our feed, then feel free to follow us on Twitter.
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What's Hot? NBA Draft Posts of Course.
Posted 6/27/08 - Kellex
If you were lacking on post ideas over the last couple of weeks you should have looked towards the NBA and its NBA Draft. Each sport has events that take place that just fuel the blog world and in order to create a top notch sports blog, you need to hit on these events and exploit the hell out of them.
The NBA Draft was the most recent, and just to give you an idea of its power, we'll throw up the top draft posts from BallHype so you can see how creative people can get.
- Hollywood NBA Lottery Mock Draft - The Money Shot
- OJ Mayo's NBA All-Food Team - NE Patriots Draft
- Top 10 NBA Players Not Drafted in the 1st Round - Hoop Doctors
- Ballads and Rhymes: Draft Previews in 30 Words - Daily Basketball
- NBA Wonderlic Test - Word of Isaac
- 25 Ways to Guarantee Yourself as a Bust - Le Basketbawl
- Frederic Weiss (Forgotten) 1st Rounders - Legend of Cecilio Guante
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A Look over at Le Basketbawl...
Thursday, June 26, 2008Posted 6/26/08 - Kellex
Even with a nasty sore throat in full on "suck" mode, we did have a chance to post this up late last night on the possibilities of NBA draftee's turning into "busts." It's worth a read and it actually got some nice play from Digg today thanks to a certain someone who has been filling up the NBA season with ridiculous videos.
Check out our 25 Ways to Guarantee Yourself as an NBA Draft Bust.
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Sick Day, Feel Good Video Day.
Posted 6/26/08 - Kellex
What up! Sorry for the lack of posting today, but I'm feeling sort of under the weather and pretty much passed out last night instead of prepping for today. I was training a few people over the last few days and their grimy little paws were all over my mouse and keyboard which I'm assuming, is why I'm now getting sick. Bleh!
So instead of some preachy grow your sports blog post, how about a video showing that big time sports figures really do some pretty cool things. Steve Nash and Claudio Reyna put on a charity soccer (footie) game in New York recently and had a pretty amazing turnout of fans and other stars.
Thanks to You Been Blinded for this video and to see more visit his page. Show some love to Baron Davis!
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Blog Advertising the Sports Way: Part 2
Wednesday, June 25, 2008Posted 6/25/08 - Kellex
This is the second post in our latest series which will cover the process of selling advertising space on your sports blog!
Create a Blog Version of a Media Kit
Once advertisers decide your blog may be a potential site for them to put some ads on, they may come asking for your stats or reasons as to why they should be forking over the cash for that banner ad. At this point, you should have a media kit ready to be sent over to not delay your chances at landing that next big advertising deal.
In our previous post, we covered your "Advertise" page and I'm hoping you have completed that task already. Your media kit on the other hand, will essentially be your "Advertise" page except it will include even more info and should be personalized to the possible advertiser.
What should your media kit include? Here is an example of how we have ours laid out:
[TITLE]
[WEBSITE AND CONTACT INFO]
[INTRO PARAGRAPHS]
[STATS]
[ADVERTISING OPTIONS]
[CLOSING PITCH]
Title and Layout
As a blogger you should have no reason to make this thing over 2 pages long. Our layout above suggests a simple title that includes the names of your blogs followed by your contact info and website addresses. I wouldn't worry about making this as pretty as you would a resume, since most media planners are simply looking for the meat and potatoes, otherwise known as your stats.
Your Purpose and Stats
From there we recommend that you cover in a couple of brief paragraphs, what your blog is about and why it would be the perfect fit for the potential advertiser. We've thrown in the fact that our basketball blog is featured regularly on some of the big time sports sites which bring in thousands of targeted visitors per day at times. Anything to help right? Get creative!
Your stats (and the most important part) come next. Make sure you include your PageRank, Alexa rank, monthly pageviews, monthly unique visitors, number of RSS subscribers, if you have email list capabilities, and your Technorati rank. If you can think of other stats or worthy bragging material, make sure to include them. CTR anyone? Maybe some graphs?
Your Options and "the Close"
You'll want to make the advertiser aware of their ad possibilities with your site. We always include separate banner, text, and availability sections to help make the decision easier. Including price in this section is up to you but try to have a reason why you are or are not showing pricing.
Your closing statement should reinforce everything you've just covered through the entire media kit in a straight to the point sort of way. If the advertiser is having any concerns up to this point, then this is your last chance to seal the deal so go out with a bang.
This may seem like a daunting task, but once completed, you can keep it on file for years to come and make simple updates as needed. It is a worthy investment of time.
Questions? Let me have 'em!
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Cuzoogle: A Success Story
Tuesday, June 24, 2008Posted 6/23/08 - Kellex
Blogs come and go. Most fail. Some make it. And some really make it. You can now consider Cuzoogle to be in that last category. This is a blog that I've watched blossom into something remarkable over the last few months and it's been through a ton of hard work, laughs and an amazingly talented guy.
It's author, Cuzzy, put up a post the other day as sort of a motivational piece for bloggers to look at and realize that those dramatic initial results they are expecting, are possible. Obviously you have to have some talent and an understanding of the way the blog world works, but if you play your cards just right, you can hit the big time within a couple of months.
He is a master at linkbaiting, building relationships, and creating original pieces time and time again. If you haven't check out Cuzoogle yet, you should head over and read the piece titled, "If you build it, they will come."
Congrats Cuzzy!
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Obama Steals Shaq's Lyrics...
Posted 6/24/08 - Kellex
In light of the most recent Shaq vs. Kobe battle, it looks like Barack Obama has jumped on the freestyle bandwagon against his opponent covering what appears to be some foreshadowing into his eventual win in the Presidential election.
(I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself with this one. Somebody should make t-shirts of this!)
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Firefox 3 Released!
Posted 6/24/08 - Kellex
This post probably seems a little late, but for those of you not up on things, we thought you should all be aware that the new Firefox 3 has been released.
Firefox was shooting for over 5 million downloads on its release day and ended up crushing that number by hitting well over 8 million by the end of the day! In just 72 hours, it had hit 14 million and that number could be double within a week or so.
Here is a list of first impressions of the new browser. More here.
I'm not sure I like it quite yet compared to the last release. I'm sure it will grow on me and I'll start to see how beneficial these new updates are, but I really grew accustomed to the old one. Let me know what you all think. Are you impressed? Is the address bar history driving you as nuts as it is me?
If you don't have the new version, you can download it below:
Firefox 3 download page.
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Google PageRank Update this Week?
Monday, June 23, 2008Posted 6/23/08 - Kellex
The word on the internet streets is that Google is in the middle of its latest PageRank update this week. I've heard rumblings from bloggers who have already seen their PR fluctuate, rise or drop so this could mean some movement is in the works.
We're interested to see where we fall with the Sports Dollar. We took a very interesting approach to this blog to see how our PR could turn out. Seems stupid that we didn't follow our format with Le Basketbawl seeing as it dropped a PageRank 5 (PR5) within 2 months, but we wouldn't be doing what we are doing if we weren't testing out systems and then reporting them back to you.
So if this is the week, expect to see your blog and ours on the move!
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5 Firefox Extensions - Backlink and PageRank Checking
Posted 6/24/08 - Kellex
I ran across this post the other night and thought that it needed to be shared immediately. Here are 5 Firefox extensions that show you things like PageRank or Alexa rank of the page you are on, the quality of backlinks, and a link analysis.
One issue: with the new Firefox 3, I was not able to install the first add-on which sucks because it looks like the best one. Hopefully soon, it will be install-able? (nice word there)
If you don't want to go to that page then here are your quick links. For descriptions go here.
1. Smart PageRank
2. SearchStatus
3. SEO for Firefox
4. Inbound Link Quality
5. SEO Link Analysis
Did you know you can sell links on your site with Text-Link-Ads?
Surviving the Grind
Posted 6/23/08 - Joshua
Everyday the Sports Dollar brings all kinds of really useful tips on how to blog and make a little money. Today I want to do something a little different. Today I want to focus in on how to survive a typical blog work day.
For me this is really a grind. I spend anywhere from 8 to 10 hours a day in my office, between two computers. And for those of you who think this isn’t a job well I got news for you, I do the same thing my parents do for the government. They sit at a desk 8 hours a day and I’ll tell you this, I am way happier with my career than they are.
However some days, hell maybe even most days, I need to take little breaks from the research and the writing, and from the school work. Yes my friends I even go to College online.
Besides from checking in on my son, changing a diaper or two, or just taking some time to play with him I have constructed my office environment with one thing in mind, how to keep Joshua sane as he writes and researches all of his stories and blog posts.
I have all the usual stuff a die hard sports fan has. I have a TV that is essentially on a sports channel all day long. I also have Sirius Radio which when on is usually on the NASCAR channel. I have my laptop set up to play DVD’s if needed. But since I am online anyway I have found a few sites that really help me with the stress of it all.
The first is AdultSwim.com. There I can watch some short video clips of hilarious shows, or play truly off the walls games that just make me smile. But recently I have been spending a lot of my downtime over at Hulu.com.
Hulu offers clips or whole episodes of just about any show one could think of. I found them in a search for old News Radio episodes, but recently my downtime has been spent catching up on older American Dad episodes.
My wife has even got into the act when school or something has her all stressed out; she goes and watches old SNL clips on Hulu to help her cope with her online stress.
The point of this is, yes we could all waste all of our earnings on fancy toys to help us deal with stress, or we could put our earnings into our pockets and go to Hulu and watch cool stuff for free.
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80 More Tips to Building a Better Sports Blog
Friday, June 20, 2008Posted 6/20/08 - Kellex
In the beginning of this blog's life, we ran our initial 100 Fluffs(tips) to Building a Better Sports Blog that received a good reception. Well since posts like that gave us enough love to keep doing this, we thought it was time for 80 more!
1. Seriously, get rid of the Minima template.
2. Join the YardBarker Network.
3. Work your way to the Entrecard "popular" list.
4. Start tracking stats with Sitemeter.
5. Download Firefox's "ShowIP" add-on.
6. Install Compete.com's toolbar.
7. Post to the Sports Dollar Job Board.
8. Make sure your "Subscribe" buttons or links are everywhere.
9. Create a solid "Advertise" page.
10. Utilize a "Contact" sheet.
11. Check out other money makers than Adsense.
12. Join BlogBurst.
13. Continue to interview your mentors.
14. Hire people to help!
15. Add 10 new Stumble Upon friends per week.
16. Create a Google Group specific to your niche.
17. Create a MySpace page for your blog.
18. Keep running creative polls.
19. Dabble in BlogRush.
20. Check out this list of sports affiliate programs.
21. Join in on the Sports Dollar/Juiced Sports forums.
22. You better have your own domain by now.
23. Get yourself a custom look.
24. Still on Blogger? Think about WordPress.
25. Create your own images with GIMP.
26. Cut down the number of blogs in your reader.
27. Get rid of all those spammy widgets!
28. Create a Blog Catalog group.
29. Add 1000+ friends to your Blog Catalog account.
30. Have fun with Flickr.
31. Install the URL Fixer.
32. Join in the Twitter craze.
33. Create an Adwords account for keyword research.
34. Track clicks and site layout with Crazy Egg.
35. Check your page load time.
36. BlogRolled.com may be worth a look.
37. Don't fall for scams like these.
38. Utilize this Web 2.0 directory.
39. Read Publisher Spot for the latest reviews on affiliates.
40. Do not leave long breaks in between posts.
41. Join in on the Blogger's Choice Awards.
42. Do not overuse videos.
43. Do not use irrelevant videos.
44. Cut down your Digg and BallHype usage.
45. Find 10 new niche specific blogs a day.
46. Comment on them.
47. Use Twitterfeed.
48. Get creative like this.
49. Pay close attention to you competitors.
50. Laugh off hateful comments.
51. Create an enormous email list.
52. Use "Recent Visitors" widgets for MyBloglog and Blog Catalog.
53. Sell advertising.
54. Start a blog challenge.
55. Ask your readers their favorite topics.
56. Ask your readers if they if they've subscribed to your blog.
57. Write a 5 part series.
58. Google News will help you break news.
59. Force advertisers to pay via PayPal.
60. Cut 3, 6, or 12 month advertising deals.
61. Get a press pass to an event.
62. If other blogs run contests, participate in them.
63. Reduce the number of posts that show at a time.
64. Give away 11,000 Entrecard credits.
65. Trade banners with friends.
66. Find a way to write about Erin Andrews.
67. Post Youtube videos to Digg and BallHype.
68. Don't claim that as if you created them though.
69. Use a recent comments widget.
70. Use a top commentators widget.
71. For the love of anything, please use a full RSS feed.
72. Use "nofollow" on links if need be.
73. Add a search bar.
74. Stay consistent with a color scheme.
75. Join the Wicked Fire forums, but be careful.
76. Write press releases monthly.
77. Create a monthly newsletter.
78. Read Daily Blog Tips.
79. Asks friends for Digg's, Stumble's, Hypes, and Barks.
80. Read the Sports Dollar!
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Ldmstudio Directory
BlogRolled: A New Twist on Link Selling
Thursday, June 19, 2008Posted 6/19/08 - Kellex
Our friends over at ReviewME have started a new text link selling idea that actually seems worth trying. It's not one of those weird shticks like TNX.net that wants you to practically turn your blog over to their intrusive script to get it to work correctly.
This new site is called BlogRolled and the idea is to basically take your existing blogroll and sell links to it. There is absolutely no installation involved and all you need to do is manually place an advertisers link on your blogroll if they have purchased one from you. (Google is going to hate this!)
Sounds too good to be true? It probably is, but with the service just being released today, I have not had a chance to test it. I've definitely signed up for it and will let you know if I see anything weird going on, since the last thing I want to do is endorse something crappy for any of your blogs.
One thing I did notice was the difference in link prices they had initially set for this blog compared with Le Basketbawl. They must be basing those prices off of PageRanks which is not unlike any other text link selling service.
Give it a try and let me know what you think! I'll be working it and will hopefully be able to do a review before long to let the rest of you know if it's worth it or not. BlogRolled.com is the place!
Link-Vault Part 2: Set-up
Wednesday, June 18, 2008Posted 6/18/08
Mitchell Blatt, owns Juiced Sports Blog and loves to Stumble. Click to friend me on SU!
How to Install Link Vault and Start Building Tons of Links
About a week ago, I wrote a post on how to build lots of links through a program called Link-Vault.A few people in the comments section had further questions—specifically how do I install this [stuff]?—so I am going to address installation today.
A quick review for anyone who missed the post: Link-Vault uses a disguised code to automatically put links onto each page of your site and you earn credits to have your customized links appear on other network sites.
It is fairly complex to install though, so here’s how:
First, you must have a Wordpress blog or other hosted blog—it doesn’t work with Blogger. Also have access to your ftp. If you don’t have an ftp program but you do have Wordpress, you might want to get an ftp program. They are pretty cheap (about $20) and give you good access to editing and uploading files on your site easily. I use Fetch for Mac OS, and I hear Cute FTP is pretty good for Windows as well as Mac.
So, once you have an FTP program, Part 1:
Go to “site setup instructions” on Link-Vault, and they will tell you:
Create a file called lvqi9reotDrtCX3zzS.php or download (right click, Save Target As...)
All you do is click the download link and the file downloads to your desktop then upload the file into the index file of your FTP. You would log into your FTP program. It would give you a list of the pages and websites on your account. Click to the folder labeled mysportsblog.com and open it, then drop the file into that folder.
Basically, dragging and dropping into FTP is all you’re going to be doing to set up.
Part 2
Create another (empty) file called qi9reotDrtCX3zzS.txt (download), upload here : http://yoursportsblog.com/qi9reotDrtCX3zzS.txt and give it read/write access (use your ftp client to change the properties of file once uploaded).
Again, download the file and upload it. For this specific file you have to give it reading and writing permissions, which lets the links be written in. To do that, on Windows FTP, highlight the file and go to File > Properties, and put check marks in all the boxes for reading and writing, which would put your permission level at 666 (my favorite number).
Part 3
There is some code in a text box that you should copy and paste into the footer theme. That code is the link code.
Part 4
This isn’t necessary, but recommended, an automatically updating file that updates the link code, making it more disguised. You just download then upload it again.
Part 5
Click a link to turn test mode on and test links will show up on all pages if you installed it correctly. Then turn it off and click a link to check setup and activate at the bottom of the page. After you pass the check setup, you will slowly begin receiving link credits.
Enjoy the links!
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Becoming an Affiliate
Posted 6/17/08 - Joshua 
So over my first couple of posts I have talked about style, and how to get some traffic to your blog. If this were a step by step process, or a blogging by numbers class, the next step would be to become an affiliate of some website so that hopefully you would start earning some cash.
This is not an easy decision to make. There are literally hundreds of website affiliate programs out there. So how does one filter through all of that and get hooked up with the right one?
Well first of all you might want to try one that doesn’t offer money but offers an insight into just how much traffic you have, and how willing that traffic is to click on your ads.
For this kind of tool I generally turn either to Pepsi or Mountain Dew. Every summer they have some kind of campaign that bloggers can use as a website campaign. Again this does not offer money but the Pepsi sites monitor exactly how many people have clicked your ad and ranks that against everyone else doing the same.
Right now on all of my blogs I am using the Dewmocracy campaign to monitor my readers and their habits. So far the results have been about what I expected.
Of course after reading the Sports Dollar, I also have a BlogBurst account that also monitors blog hits. For our purposes though, the dew widgets are better because they show how many of our readers are clicking our widgets.
Now to get paid I have two favorite programs that have been pretty successful for me. The first is www.barrystickets.com. This is a sports ticket site that offers affiliates a 10% commission on all sales made through your link. I average around 100-250 bucks per month between my blogs and my cut of these banners on www.fantasyinsideronline.com.
The good thing about this program is they specialize in sports tickets. Since our readers are generally sports fans we have a built in market for this kind of market. The bad thing is over the last few months as the economy has become soft my numbers have been off as more people just cannot afford to go to sporting events.
In this case I have gone back to an old favorite, which is www.allposters.com. I first got hooked up with them when I used to write TV and movie reviews. In that context, I made a lot of money with my readers hitting my links and buying movie posters. I myself have a large collection of movie posters I bought through them.
The great thing is they also sell sports posters. Over the last few months I have switched over to sports poster links and while I am early in that switch over, the results are very promising.
They have this cool widget that can link to 20 different sports themed products and it switches every time my blog page is refreshed. It is a very cool program.
Hopefully with that all of you can start making some money. I would also like to add that we at FIO are looking to build a network of NASCAR related blogs to help us reel in bigger advertisers. If anyone out there is interested please e-mail me jlobdell@fantasyinsideronline.com.
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Is your Blog Continuing to Grow through Networking?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
1. Commenting (Yes I brought it up again!) - It really is a huge deal if you want to make some friends that will continue to link, participate and spread the word on your blog. I’m am the worst at this and always tell myself that I don’t have time, but the truth is, I need to make time.
2. Link Lists – Almost as important as commenting and some would argue that it is more important. You’ll notice that we ran our “DollarBall” post yesterday for the first time in a while because it’s time to start growing again. Link it up to your peers and the chances of them returning the favor are pretty high.
3. Guest Posts – Asked anyone if you could guest post lately? This is something many of us feel uncomfortable doing, but it’s also something that you have to do. What’s surprising about guest posting, is your idea machine (brain) immediately starts flowing once someone says “yes.” Your post will likely be better than your every day posts and should help bring in a ton of new readers to your niche.
4. Social Bookmarking – We’ve hammered the hell out of this in the past and will continue to until something better comes along. Through our search bar or category list you can find tons of information on these with our favorites being Stumble Upon, YardBarker, and BallHype. We don’t mention Digg all that much anymore as it has basically become useless to sports bloggers unless you have a new and creative video that no one has seen before. YardBarker at this point, tends to be dominating the rest.
5. Interviews – Plain and simple, ask someone if you can interview them! Think about how you would feel if someone asked to interview you. Would feel good huh? I’m not sure that anyone, aside from maybe a pro blogger, has turned down an interview when asked. Throw together a quick 5-10 question list and send it off in a well written email. You may have instantly gained a reader just by asking!
DollarBall: 6/16/08
Monday, June 16, 2008Posted 6/19/08 - Kellex
- BlogStorm ran this list of the top 10 Viral Marketing campaigns of all time. Some that were way before my time, but some that I also remember very clearly. I think he forgot the Tiger Woods bouncing ball though.
- This is over a week old, but has been one of my favorite pieces to the "cowpetition" over at John Cow.
- A look at various online business models through Court's Internet Marketing School.
- Strategic Profits asks "Are you really an entrepreneur?"
- Another contest to win some Market Leverage stuff; this time through Zach Johnson.
- Need a new WordPress theme? Here are 2 free ones, courtesy of Blueverse.
- Garry Conn asking if Google made a wise decision in the purchase of YouTube.
- Is this just another BS attempt to coax you into thinking you can make $100 a day?
- A great read on "Getting Others to Talk About You" from XFEP.
- A "sort-of" review about Entrecard and its eventual doom. Thanks Turnip of Power.
- Need a new affiliate? Check out PublisherSpot.
- Slow growth in your blog? Here are 5 reasons courtesy of PureBlogging.
Did you know you can sell links on your site with Text-Link-Ads?
Best Sports Blogger Templates
Posted 6/16/08 - Kellex
Besides people searching for "the sports dollar" my top keywords have to be those directed at "sports blogger templates." Blogger is obviously still free and possibly the most widely used blogging platform that contributes thousands of new blogs to the blogging world daily. There are also countless blogs out there dedicated to providing templates for this platform and from our stats, people are really looking for sports related templates.
We'll also mix in some WordPress themes to let the Blogger users see what is possible with a blog template. You become pretty limited with Blogger and making the upgrade to WordPress can mean big things to come. (Of course we still need to make this jump. Soon people!)
Here is a list of sites you can pull, what we feel, are the top sports blog templates.
Pyzam
This site also made our list of the Top 5 Blogger Template sites and remains one of the top still to this day. They offer you a ton of options and color schemes but seem to lack much originality. You'll find way too much Minima going on, but the site will still give you a nice range of colors and background images that should give you a solid base to begin a transformation of your blog.
BlogSkins.com
This is an interesting site of Blogger templates with the templates provided by users. Not a ton of high quality templates for Blogger but you'll definitely have a wide range of sports minded themes. Take some time to browse through and you may find a hidden gem.
Template Monster
OK, not a Blogger template site, but Template Monster is definitely carrying a ton of very high quality sports minded themes. They are also not free, but may be worth a look if you are a starting out a blog and going straight to WordPress. This also has an affiliate program that you can sign up for here.
Free Wordpress
A solid sports WordPress theme list that you should check out. These are free templates that offer you a pretty solid range of what many sports blogs can look like.
Classic Websites
Another WordPress site. None of these are free but it should give you some more examples of sports blogs and your template options.
Time to join ClickBooth to help monetize your site, don't you think?
Ahh, the Weekend is Over
Posted 6/16/08 - Kellex
Sorry for the lack of posting over the weekend! We finally had some nice weather up here in the Northwest and there was plenty of golf and beer to be had, US Open to watch, and birthday parties to attend. But we're back now in full swing with a great week ahead!
The final round of the US Open is on, the sun is still shining, I'm chowing cajun burgers at 10:38AM and things just feel good. I hope everyone else had a solid weekend!
Have you signed up for the PepperJAM Network and eBay.com, their newest affiliate?
Viral Marketing: Does it work?
Friday, June 13, 2008Posted 6/13/08 - Joshua
So before any of us can think about ads and dollars we must figure out how to get traffic to our blogs. There are many ways to do this, and we can do just about all of them for free.
First and foremost create a separate myspace account for your blog. Sure, friend it to you own profile and keep it in your top friends. Once you get a blog myspace, do a search for people interested in what your blog is about. For me I did racing and then NASCAR. Then sign into that account everyday and set a number of people to invite, when I started I was doing 25 a day. When we launched Fantasy Insider Online we were adding at least 50 friends a day.
In the end I would say about half of the people we invited to be friends on myspace became traffic to our sites and my blogs. Remember that when setting a number of invites per day. Half is a pretty good number, but I would bet the average is around a third.
Once you have a blog myspace account you will need an avatar and a banner with a link to your blog. There are several sites online where one can customize their own banner and avatar, or you can try and get a buddy of yours to make it for free.
For me I used a different viral marketing method to get my avatars and banners made. I joined livejournal.com and found many communities where up and coming web graphic artists where looking for stuff to do to help promote their skills.
In fact my corporate logo and the logo’s I was using to promote my own football venture came around this way. It can be a very useful tool.
Once you have a myspace blog account, an avatar, and a banner with a link, then we must find a social network site that is specific for the sport we are covering. Since I do mostly NASCAR stuff I joined Infield Parking and used a similar strategy there.
I searched for sports social networking sites and came across this article, on “Sports Social Networking Sites"; hopefully there is something there for you to use. I am willing to bet there is a specific sports networking site for everything one can think of. In fact there is infield parking which is run by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and The Race Space which is run by part time driver and Hollywood stuntman Stanton Barrett for racing alone. I have profiles on both and use them to drive traffic to my collection of blogs and websites.
With the exciting news delivered by Kellex about Yardbarker teaming up with Foxsports.com, submitting articles to Yardbarker is a great way to drive traffic. My first 10 or so articles for Fantasy Insider Online were submitted there and he positioned me as a fantasy racing expert.
Now I get many emails from sites wanting a specific article and the great thing about that is they pay. Starting this year I teamed up with Mock Draft Central and was offered a four article run every January as a fantasy NASCAR preview. They pay 25 bucks an article, and hey money is money.
The main point here is there is an unlimited amount of free ways to help promote your blog. Make use of as many of them as you have time for. You will be quite surprised at the effectiveness of them.
Have you signed up for the PepperJAM Network and eBay.com, their newest affiliate?
How's the Category List Coming?
Thursday, June 12, 2008Posted 6/12/08 - Kellex
The category list is something I'm on the fence on and hopefully that fence doesn't have razor wire. My category list currently has 22 categories that I'm sure need some defining. This is the first time I've used an actual category list since Le Basketbawl has a mind numbing 176 categories!
With that being my first attempt at blogging, I made some initial mistakes like using a new category for just about every single post. Smart huh? Some day I'll take on the task of slimming that down but until I have 4 extra hours on hand, I doubt that'll be happening any time soon.
How do you all feel about a category list? Do you like it listed on a blog? Do you ever use a category list? What is the max number you like to see? 5? 10? 20+?
Ours will definitely be minimized since I've already noticed a couple of categories that are technically the same thing or could be merged, but I think I like using it. It definitely gives readers looking for a specific thing a nice way to browse a site, but after looking at some of our tools I can tell it also rarely gets used. (Maybe once our traffic goes up?)
Let me know what you think!
Have you signed up for the PepperJAM Network and eBay.com, their newest affiliate?
My Blog Value
Posted 6/12/08 - Kellex
I ran into MyBlogValue.com from a ton of different blogs today and thought I'd run it since everyone else seemed to be. (Follower!) The thing is completely ridiculous...
The Sports Dollar is worth:
$253,320
Le Basketbawl is worth:
$1,752,620
OK, obviously I'm either doing that wrong or like I just said, this thing is completely ridiculous. Some of the big time blogs came in at $1.8 million and Le Basketbawl is no where near those. Was still fun to see, I guess.
Time to join ClickBooth to help monetize your site, don't you think?
When Linkbaiting Turns Real Ugly
Wednesday, June 11, 2008Posted 6/11/08 - Kellex
I used to consider myself the king of NBA linkbaiting pieces while I was writing up whacky lists and covering other fun topics that would get picked up by the big dog sports sites. My BallHype NBA ranking had cracked the top 20 within a month, Extra Mustard was my buddy, my readership was growing exponentially, and then one day my brain went "blah!" and it all started to slip away! I wasn't creative any longer, I hated writing about actual games, there were no controversies, and my linkbait dominating days were over.
Was the end near? Actually, this was probably the greatest wake up call I could have asked for. Linkbaiting, if done correctly can take a brand new blog and make it an instant power which is what happened with Le Basketbawl.
The problem? I was essentially a one trick pony that was only good at writing goofy top 10 lists and pushing out what I thought was "breaking news." There was no depth to my writing and you could tell that my brain was wrecked in trying to come up with the next great list or news blurb. You could also tell that my readers were a little bored and had moved on from my cheesy wannabe contests and "forced" material.
Why was this good? It forced me to write. It forced me to concentrate on a style and stick to it. Once you leave the linkbaiting phase of the blog life cycle, it can become difficult to continue to write on a regular basis when you aren't seeing the dramatic numbers steadily flowing in. There is nothing more disheartening than taking a few hours to write what you thought was a deep and well researched piece only to see it flutter out of sight and grab little response.
But Le Basketbawl is fine now isn't it? I ended up taking a long break to figure out what the hell I was going to do and what approach I was going to take. During the break, I started this site (which I freakin' love) and soon after my life as an NBA writer was renewed, the NBA Finals kicked in, BlogBurst, Ball Don't Lie and Stumble Upon showed me some basketball love and now I've got the smile back.
The meaning? If your blog is rising in an early stage, make sure to dabble in the linkbaiting game, but please do not make it your only outlet. Write one to two linkbait pieces a month and use the time in between to really define your style as a writer. Remember to shoot for the long haul rather than the quick fix.
I'd love to hear your stories! Has your blog hit rock bottom after some major linkbaiting pieces? Has your brain cramped with linkbait-itis? How did you recover or did you recover?
Have you signed up for the PepperJAM Network and eBay.com, their newest affiliate?
Market Leverage is Dishing it Out
Posted 6/11/08 - Kellex
I need to apologize. I feel dirty. I'm ashamed. Hose me down with holy water. Peel away my blistery skin. Take me out back and punish me.
Why? Because this is a post simply to give me an entry into a contest on another blog. What makes it so filthy though, is that it's a John Chow contest.
Companies love him and you can understand why with the amount of targeted traffic he reaches on a daily basis. Well, the latest company to rub his Chowzer, is Market Leverage. They've sent him a solid Nike gym bag full of crap that he is giving away to anyone that comments on the post and then follows up by writing about it on their own blog. (Yes I have officially sold out today. Give me a break, it is hump day right?)
Prizes include: A Flip, iPod Nano, $200 AMEX card, and a flash pen.
I figured I could be ashamed for one day and hopefully you all won't run away! Plus I'll be making it up to you in a couple of weeks when I run a sick little giveaway. :)
Did you know you can sell links on your site with Text-Link-Ads?
BlogBurst: It Does Bring in some Solid Traffic
Posted 6/11/08 - Kellex
The first thing I'd like to do is acknowledge Dannie from Sports Blog Earnings and his positive look at BlogBurst while I was hating the hell out of it. BlogBurst ran an initial push back in April by recruiting any basketball blogs they could find that would be willing to join their network.
I jumped on the idea but after seeing nothing early on from it and the fact that they denied the Sports Dollar from it had me quickly forgetting about the service and moving on to other ideas.
So what happened?
Well sure enough, Dannie was right about its potential to put your blog posts on major sites and deliver some nice traffic. During these NBA Finals, I've been linked up to NBA.com on 2 of the 3 games and man, did Le Basketbawl feel the love! Not only was it linked up, but it was one of the top posts linked during the entire running/streaming game which obviously had thousands of visitors simultaneously checking the score for updates.
The first line in this image is the traffic that the BlogBurst post to NBA.com has delivered to me so far tonight for game 3 and the second line is from game 1 on 6/5. (I grabbed that 408 visitors number at 11PM PST and the traffic is still flowing in, so that number will look drastically different by now.)
Those may not seem like Deadspin or Big Lead numbers but they are the exact readers I am looking for to come to my NBA blog. These are die hard NBA fans that are following the game play-by-play online and also browsing around to the top blogs at the same time. Can you get any better than that? My Google Adsense sure loves BlogBurst! These numbers are also pulled from my Google Analytics which for whatever reason always recognizes far less visitors than my other stat trackers. (Anyone else notice that?)
How can you utilize BlogBurst?
Write a game preview! Write something buzzworthy! Don't swear (too much)! Here is the bullet list pulled from the BlogBurst site on how to get the "in's":
- The more frequently you post, the more likely a publisher will be to find you. Minimum of one top-notch post a week.
- Our publishers tell us that they are most interested in unique perspectives, make sure your blog offers a distinct voice. We don’t want novels, but we do want full-length essay-style posts with unique content.
- Stay away from posts that just link and summarize content from other sites.
- Spell-check, grammar-check, polish it up.
Tell us Dannie!
I'll leave this post open for Dannie to possibly write about on his blog or respond via comment as to how he got linked up to the Chicago Sun Times. Was it a game preview of a Sixers-Bulls game or just an interesting piece on them?
For the rest of you, if you haven't already, you will want to sign up for BlogBurst and try to break their code to get some play on a major site; the results speak for themselves.
Time to join ClickBooth to help monetize your site, don't you think?
Crazy Egg is a Pretty Cool Tool
Tuesday, June 10, 2008Posted 6/10/08 - Kellex
This is a very nice free tool that can be used to see many things including whether or not your current layout is optimized correctly. If you are not familiar with Crazy Egg, you should go to their site now to check it out and start running a free test.
The tool allows you to track a certain number of visitors to your site and keeps track of what the visitors are clicking on by showing you in a clean and visual manner. I would recommend that you run a test on your index or main page to see what your readers are clicking on the most. From there you can pick other pages to run the test on such as your most popular Google searched page or a new linkbait piece you have just released.
This will give you a pretty good idea if your ads are receiving enough action and if your site needs some adjustment.
Let me know if you have any questions!
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