This article is going to be slightly different from the usual, in that I’m going to break from the formality as the topic directly pertains to me. Typically when I’m asked to write an article I have to do a lot of research on the topic and then produce an article, written almost exclusively in the third person.
In this case, I’m ditching that and going full on first person and foregoing any research as I have built a successful sports blog myself and helped others to create their own too, so feel like I’m somewhat of an expert on the topic.
In 2012 I tentatively started a blog about my local soccer team Huddersfield Town, entitled the imaginatively named Hudders Blog, before later coming to my senses and rebranding it as TerrierBlog.
Before selling the site to allow me to focus on my career, I grew the readership from just over 50 or so per article to anywhere from 5-10,000, which isn’t bad going for a team that at the time, only attracted crowds of around 16,000 to the stadium.
Since then I’ve lent my expertise to friends and aspiring bloggers, helping them establish their own sports blogs and today, I’m going to help you by sharing everything I learned about going from 50 readers and 0 profit, to 10,000 readers and boosting my bank balance.
Get a Good Name
Hudders Blog was a bad name, and what made it even worse was the fact that I didn’t even have a domain. If memory serves me correct my website URL was something like www.blogspot.com/huddersblog.
That’s not catchy and it’s certainly not memorable, which are two things that are absolutely necessary to make your blog successful. TerrierBlog was much catchier and www.terrierblog.co.uk was easy to remember.
Partnering Up
There were a number of ways in which I went about making money with TerrierBlog. The least profitable of which was setting up a Patreon account and asking my readers to support me with monthly subscriptions. Moral of the story: people are stingy and prefer to get things for free.
Another way that I tried to make money was by approaching local businesses and offering them advertising space. Whilst this did provide a stream of income, it was inconsistent and sometimes difficult to create and incorporate the ads onto the site.
The most consistent and easiest way to make money came from partnering up with companies that produced sponsored content, in particular online betting related content. TerrierBlog’s niche was football in the Premier League and Championship, as such sportsbooks were keen to offer me cash to publish sponsored content directing my readers towards their sites.
Whatever your topic is, understand your niche and then reach out to companies directly linked to that niche and speak to them about sponsored content. It’s the best way to make consistent money blogging.
(It doesn’t matter what your niche is, there will be sponsored content opportunities out there.)
Write Regularly
Producing good content is an amazing way to standout but it’s not everything, sometimes consistency is even more important. When I first started out I would write a weekly review on the games that had played over the past 7 days, and that would be published sometimes on a Monday and sometimes on a Tuesday.
The content itself was brilliant – even if I do say so myself – but it didn’t attract that many readers. Then someone told me to write regularly and post daily articles and soon as I started doing that, my site traffic went through the roof.
By posting daily content I was giving readers a reason to visit my site and encouraging them to stay longer each time.
Use a Website Builder
Setting up your blog properly is going to cost money, but it if you want to make a success of your blog, its money you should definitely spend. There are pros and cons to using sites such as Substack but in our experience, nothing beats having full control over your own website and domain.
Personally I opted for Wix and found it to be phenomenal. Not only was it easy to use, but the end product looked sleek and professional, from the webpage to the mobile app that users could download.
There are other website builders around like Squarespace which have great reviews too, so shop around and find one that you like.
(Set aside a full day to build your site properly on Wix or Squarespace.)
In Summary
If you want this to be a success you are going to have to spend money and invest an awful lot of time, but at some point you’ll realise that it was all worth it. The best and most important piece of advice I could give anyone is to stay persistent.
The first months of your blog writing experience will be a whole lot of nothing. The only people reading your articles will be friends and family, but if you’re good and consistent you’ll soon start to gain some traction and from that point, your audience will explode into life.
PS. Learn how to use social media and SEO to your advantage too…
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