A healthy lifestyle is one of the most pressing issues today among young and old. Athletes can not only train and monitor their diet, but also share their experience, knowledge, and skills with others.
You can join the sports industry by creating your own blog. It can become a favorite hobby and a source of additional income. Therefore, it’s worth understanding how to set up a successful sports blog.
However, before you can get started, you need to define your goals and follow some important steps when starting.
- Planning; Analyse everything carefully.
- Choosing hosting: Today, there are several options that are suitable for running your blog.
- Advertising: Organise an advertising campaign on different thematic sites.
- Choosing affiliate programs: Having the right affiliate programs can quickly help you monetize your blog.
- Effective content creation and promotion: Draw up a plan for writing thematic posts.
- Tools: Use additional tools to monetize your sports blog.
These are the basic steps to help you understand how to start a sports blog. If you want to make money with your blog, you need to work out your content carefully. Stay with us as we explain the steps required to start and run a successful sports blog.
Liven Up Your Blog
To make your blog stand out from others, add high-quality photographs to your articles. Try not to write about too many topics. Instead, concentrate on two or three sports in particular and target your audience.
Aim to cover arguments that can attract more clients to your blog. You can also conduct surveys to find out people’s needs.
Choose The Right Name
The first step in creating a successful blog is choosing a name. The name must be catchy and remind you of the industry you are working in, which in this case is sport.
Try our blog name generator if you face any difficulty coming up with an ideal name. After choosing the name, check that someone else has not already used it. If the domain is free, you can proceed with domain registration.
Choosing a platform
Another important element is the choice of platform for the site. For example, you can choose a free CMS (WordPress is the most common) or use a CMS developed by a website creation company.
You can also try one of the easy-to-use website builders. We have a dedicated page where we review the best web builders on the market.
Graphics
The graphics of the blog are up to you, but a good rule of thumb is never to choose graphics templates seen and reviewed on the web. Try instead to customize the blog making it unique and unmistakable.
Contents
We come to the most important part of a blog: the content! A blog must be constantly updated, so the more you write, the better. Writing lots of posts helps your ranking on Google and enables you to find new readers. A poor or infrequently updated blog gives the impression of an ‘abandoned’ and uninviting place!
A good rhythm is at least one post per month, but even better if you can write more!
As far as topics are concerned, don’t set yourself any limits: in-depth analysis, training, reviews of products or equipment you use, reviews of films or books about sport, and interviews with coaches.
Devote Yourself
Turning your interest into a job is one of the latest trends that many young people are throwing themselves into to earn money. The examples coming from the net are very encouraging, from the makeup artist Cliomakeup to the fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni, and show that turning your hobby into a job is possible.
The easiest way to become a successful blogger is to devote oneself to one’s interests, which is why there are so many sports blogs. However, you need to follow a few tips and arm yourself with goodwill and patience to succeed in this field.
Find the Right (and Unique) Topic
Are you a football fanatic? Surely you already know that you are not the only one, which is why it becomes necessary to specialize in a particular aspect of the sport to offer a range of topics from a unique perspective.
The format and editorial style are also important to distinguish yourself from other blogs. Additionally, it is also important to let your personality shine through interesting posts and debates in the comments section.
What Blog Post to Write About
It’s best to start producing content on things you are most passionate about, whether specific games or teams, the profile of players, or sports history. The most crucial thing is to make sure your blog content is unique, valuable, and attractive.
Below are a few types of blogs depending on the type of content you are looking to create:
- Form lists of some of the best-ever sportspeople or players in your niche.
- Schedule and conduct interviews with famous players in your sports niche.
- Write on the latest sports occasions worldwide.
- Create content on the best upcoming and ongoing sports events that will interest your audience.
- Compile behind-the-scenes posts concentrated on the daily lifestyle of players.
- Concentrate on game highlights.
Sports blogging is quite similar to other types of blogging. Although they may be different in some ways, the writing and content creation processes are the same.
Make Your Blog Fun
You might be able to write a long analysis of a recent sporting event, but a very long text will usually not attract readers unless it has something engaging and entertaining in it.
Layout and navigation of the text are very important: images, videos, podcasts, and polls can make a difference. Dividing the text into several paragraphs can be a winning choice to make readers feel attracted to the text and choose the blog and share it with others.
Inform Yourself About the Topic
Finding a niche topic is good, but it doesn’t do much good if you don’t write with confidence or if you can’t offer relevant and complete information. The best sports blogs are run by people who possess a passion for the game and expertise in that particular sport and its industry.
For example, a rugby coach can offer an interesting insight compared to someone not directly involved in the sport. Why should people trust your commentary on a game if you don’t have enough experience?
Keep Up to Date
Staying informed about industry news, trends, rising stars, and gossip is very important for a successful blog. Even if you are not a major media outlet, it is important to be on top of the news, making you one of the first to get a scoop and be cited as a source.
Using Google Alerts and Google Trend, reading other websites, and browsing Facebook groups are great ways to find news and trendy topics.
Write frequently
Deciding how and when to update the blog is crucial to creating continuity and expectations in followers. Four articles a month is the minimum required to write to get regular user traffic.
To do this, you can schedule your posts and queue them up so that they are spread out over time. But the most important thing is not to forget to share your post on social media, which is now the most important means of spreading news.
Look for Scoops and Do Interviews
The best way to make sure you write first on a particular topic is to search for your own stories. For example, if you are writing about hockey, go to a hockey game and talk to the fans. Get in touch with players or athletes on social media, and establish local contacts who can provide quotes, data, and news.
Become an investigator if a scandal occurs in the sport you blog about. The best sports bloggers approach their hobby as serious journalists looking for news, and scoops are the best way to write great content.
Publish a Minimum of 10 Posts Before Promotion
It will be best to write at least 10 posts published on your sports blog before promoting it. Each entry can have over 300 words, but lengthier entries work better. However, this depends on your audience and your preferred niche.
Readers in some sports niches may prefer long, in-depth posts, while some are interested in short posts. Examine what works best for your niche, and use your findings well.
Promoting Your Blog
For a blog to become popular and a source of income, it is necessary to take the right steps to promote it on the Internet. You cannot expect user traffic to come in by itself without doing anything. Therefore, use techniques to promote and display your site without running into spam. This is not difficult, but it certainly requires time and a certain amount of preparation to gather as much material as possible.
If, for example, you talk about horse riding, it would be useful to make a list of all the forums and online chats in the sector where you can promote and talk about your site. Introduce yourself and post the link to the blog together with a description of it, you could also get in touch with other bloggers or online magazines and ask them to advertise the blog.
Create Essential Pages & Logo
It is important to create essential pages for your sports blog and post them, so your visitors can find necessary data on your website.
To build a new page, visit Pages > Add New (on your WordPress website dashboard). Provide the name of your new page & its contents, then click Publish.
Essential Pages Include:
About Page: This blog page tells your audience a few things about you. You don’t need to go into too much detail when doing this. Just present them basic information, like the motivation behind your blog, who you are, your objectives, etc.
Contact Page: This blog page should contain your contact information, like your phone number, residential address, email, mobile number, etc. It will help if you also provide an online contact form and your social media information on this page to make it easier for your site visitors to reach you.
Privacy Policy: This page is essential for several reasons because your sports blog can attract readers from jurisdictions with privacy laws. In such a scenario, your blog’s privacy policy confirms that you obey the laws governing the privacy rights of your readers.
You can observe the structure of the essential pages of prominent sports blogs to get inspiration for your sports blog. After adding these basic features to your blog, you can start your blog operations.
Create a Logo: A logo is important for your sports blog because it helps your readers identify with your blog from a glance. There are several different approaches to creating a logo- you can create one yourself using a logo maker or delegate the task to freelancers on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
Furthermore, you can check our guide on creating the best logo for your blog for more details on how to create a logo yourself. You can go for a logo builder that will offer you a free logo for your blog, and you can also pay a small fee for access to high-resolution logo tools and a few other things.
Start Blogging
Here is where the fun begins: creating your first blog post! This is your chance to get your audience excited about subsequent posts and set the ideal tone for your sports blog.
Tips for Producing Outstanding Blog Posts
- Create a compelling and attractive title that makes your audience click at first sight.
- Make keyword research to discover relevant phrases and keywords on your desired topic or niche. Include them in your titles, posts, & subheadings.
- Always observe the best procedures for creating engaging and optimized content that ranks high in search engines other than Google.
- Provide links to different reputed sports platforms in your blogs.
Monetizing – The Right Way
There are many ways to earn some extra money through your blog. The most common methods include pay-per-click ads and affiliate links. Keep in mind that you should only advertise relevant products and that you can personally vouch for.
If you write dishonest reviews or place misleading ads, your blog will lose public trust. The moment you start seeing the blog as a money-making machine, it loses all authority within its niche. People appreciate a blogger who writes with passion and not just for profit.
In reality, there is much more to know, but these tips already offer a good starting point. The main rule is still to have fun while aiming toward success.