Have you been interested to start a sports blog? A sports blog is not only used to share sports news and related topics. Blogs for sports are trending, if you’re really serious about this, here is a complete guide to learn how to start a sports blog in 2024 with step-by-step instruction.
Everyone likes to spend their time on what they really love. If you love sports then starting a sports blog is a great way to fulfill your desire. Adding more, you can make money from sports blogging by sharing your passion and making new connections with the people who are interested in sports activities.
Based on Forbes, An annual growth (compounded) rate, the major professional sports leagues media rights from NA – North America (alone) have increased by 5.5% to over $21 billion. Also sports sponsorship are 3.9% to $18.7 billion, with the MLB, NBA and NFL getting the top sports respectively. These numbers are expecting to grow more which creates more sports bloggers in the blogosphere. Also many people are thinking of starting a sports blog.
Unfortunately most of the aspiring sports bloggers get excited and get into creating a sports blog without having a proper idea, plan or road map. That’s why most of the sports blog owners struggle with many challenges and obstacles and quit sports blogging midway.
If you want to start a successful sports blog and make it a profitable sports blog then you need to have a proper plan and road-map.
Here is the step-by-step to create a sports blog and run it effectively.
Why to Start a Sports Blog?
There are many reasons to start a sports blog. Find below the most important reasons:
Share your opinion: If you’re always talking about many sports or a particular sport, starting a sports blog is the best way to share your sports opinion with many persons and teams.
Make money sports blogging: Whether you’re blogging about sports for love, fun or as a career, you can easily make money from sports blog if you love the sports topics seriously.
Develop your writing skills: Writing (blogging) consistently will help you to improve your writing skills which will help you find your career.
Build your resume: Starting sport-blog is an awesome way to build your resume. Also this will lead to sports journalism opportunities.
Making industry connections: Your sport blog is the gateway to get connected with your favorite athletes that you admire.
You may be targeting a single sport, a team or all parts of all games and events, sport blogging is the best way to make money.
1. Think and Decide To Focus on the Sports Blog
First of all, you need to sit, relax and spend some time to think about which type of sports blog you want to create now. The reason to spend time to think more about the sport blog is, sports blog is an extensive topic and unlikely to do well unless you have valuable and interesting things on your blog.
As your primary niche of your blog is sports which is very tough subject for your to handle at the beginning of starting your sport blog. Each sport has different elements and you’ve to master the subject which you’re focusing on.
it’s true that you cannot focus on multiple sports as the sports audience is too large. However, if you’re able to get man power to handle different types of sports then you’re good to go with many sports elements on your blog of sports.
However, a great way to start your sports blog is to focus on only one area which you can cover completely. It’s really best if you choose an area where you have sound knowledge, players, history, techniques, player transactions and rules.
Ask few questions to yourself like:
- Will my blog be about cricket, football or baseball?
- Will my sports blog cover only local college football matches or major leagues as well?
- Does my sport blog focus on an entire league or local team only?
Below are some basic ideas to brainstorming the process:
- Write about the athletes including upbringing and accolades.
- Start to focus on local sports teams like professional, college and high school.
- You can write sports news about the latest athlete news and sports.
- Blog about the famous sports stadiums in the world.
- You can write about your favorite sport or team(s).
- You may play entire major leagues like NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL and more.
- Write about World Cup Cricket Matches.
- Write about sports clothing’s, accessories and equipment.
- Create reviews on sports clothing
- Blog about sports movies
As you’re going to blog about on your sports blog, so you need to decide what you are going to write with enjoyment. Make sure that you should write on a consistent basis throughout the years to come.
Keep in mind; you can always change your focus at any point of time. So decide and pick your favorite sports topic and move on to the next step.
2. Choose Your Sports Niche
You do NOT need to become the ESPN sports blog. Instead, choose a specific sport topic, stick on it and focus more on it. You’ll surely become an authority of that particular topic you’ve chosen.
Selecting a specific niche for your sports blog will surely help to increase your web traffic. When you see more visitors coming to your blog then you can easily make money from blogging.
Instead of targeting a huge mass of people through varied interests, you can target a specific group of audience.
By doing this, you can easily get connected with your targeted audience and you can keep them with you for a long time.
We know that finding the perfect niche for your blog of sports is a really challenging and crucial step. Make sure that you’ll build a firm foundation for your blog of sports.
Below are the popular games and most watched sports in American and all other countries.
- 1. American Football – NFL
- 2. Baseball – MLB
- 3. Basketball – NBA
- 4. Ice Hockey – NHL
- 5. Soccer / Football
- 6. Cricket
- 7. Tennis
- 8. Golf
- 9. WWE or NCAA – Wrestling
- 10. MMA/Boxing
- 11. Motor Sports
- 12. Badminton
- 13. Rugby
- 14. Volleyball
- 15. Lacrosse
3. Choose Your Blogging Platform for your Sports Blog
Choosing the best blogging platform for your blogging career is really the most important task. Most of the sports bloggers stuck here and even many talented spot bloggers quit here.
There are 3 elements which are the most important part of any kind of blogging.
Domain Name – It’s a name (address) of your sport blog, which people used to find you on the internet through web browsers.
Web-hosting – This is the place where you blog content like, text, images and videos will be stored to access on the internet.
Blogging Software – Here you’ll write your sports content and design your sports blog appearance and layout.
Why Free Blogging Environment is NOT Good for Sports Blog?
Bloggers get confused here to choose everything for free which tends to lead them to quit blogging.
As there are few free blogging platforms like, Blogspot (blogger.com), Wix, SquareSpace and more. These are the free platforms to create free web-hosting.
But most of the bloggers don’t know that they cannot do much with the free blogging environments.
For example, my blog name is saransaro.com and I bought it from Bluehost.
Instead if I would have bought it free blogging platforms then my blog name will be,
- saransaro.blogspot.com OR
- saransaro.wix.com and so on.
Also you do not have any control on your free blogging platform. You cannot not customize or design your blog.
Even you cannot run Ads on your free blog platform. If you’re not able to run ads or affiliate programs then what is the use of running blogs.
Top of all these, you’re NOT the owner of your blog when you go with a free blogging environment.
So if you’re really serious about blogging then I would strongly suggest my readers to go with paid-web hosting. Don’t I’ll show you how to get free domain name and WordPress software along with the web-hosting purchase?
Bluehost is the number one trusted web-hosting company trusted and recommended by WordPress. So you’ll get the benefits below when you register with Bluehost.
Benefits of Bluehost Web hosting:
- You’ll get a FREE domain name. Check your available free domain name below.
- Free Blogging Software (WordPress).
- 24 / 7 Support from Bluehost
- Over 1000+ eye-catching FREE themes.
- Step-by-step blog setup support.
So it’s very clear that you should use self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org) for your sports blog.
- WordPress on Bluehost is free to download and use it.
- WordPress has loaded over thousands of free plugins and themes for your sports blogs.
- You’re free to monetize your sports blog without any issues.
- WordPress on Bluehost provides complete support anytime.
If you want to start a profitable and successful sports blog on a firm foundation then WordPress.org from Bluehost is the best option to choose.
You do NOT need any technical knowledge and prior experience to start a sport blog.
Why are most of the blogs running under the WordPress environment?
- WordPress powers over 60% of all CMS-build online blogs in the world.
- Sites built under WordPress receive more than 400 million visitors every month.
- The number of WordPress used websites is growing every month and year.
- Over 660 WordPress websites are being created every day.
- WordPress has over 50,000 plugins and a vast community of users and developers.
I’ve 12 domains and all are loaded with WordPress only.
I believe you might have understood why I strongly recommend WordPress from Bluehost web-hosting for your sports blog.
You do not need to have any doubt that WordPress.org is the best option for your blog on sports. Millions of businesses and individuals are NOT wrong.
Alright so far you have an idea about your sport blog niche and you’ve chosen the best blogging platform for your sports blog.
What’s next? Now you need to choose a best domain name for your sports blog.
4. Domain Name for Your Blog
It’s time for choosing the best domain name for your new sports blog. Selecting domain name is a vital part of the entire process of starting a blog. However, you do not need to spend more time to choose the best domain name for your sportsblog.
Things to be followed when you choose your domain name:
1. Buy a .COM domain name
Buying a .com type domain name is getting popular very quickly and it can be easily recognizable and memorable. However, .com domain is easy to recall.
2. Stay broad with domain name
When you choose a domain name, do not go with targeting a very particular niche which is too narrow in terms of topic. Choosing broad with your domain name helps to expand your sports blog down the line.
3. Short and Sweet
When you choose a name for your sports blog, keep in mind that your blog name should be short, sweet and easy to remember or call it out. Your blog name or domain name should be more relevant to your target niche. For example, your sports blog’s name can be 24CricketNews.com, Soccerlovers.com, Football365.com like that.
4. Alliteration
You can make use of ‘Alliteration’ which are similar sounding words lime CricketCommentary.com or FootabllFans.com. This helps to remember your sports blog name easily.
5. Creative Domain Name
If your favorite sports blog name is already taken by someone else then you can try using synonyms instead. Try to find the unique words which mean the same thing.
6. Use Domain Name Generators
Domain name generator is the best tool to get your desired sports blog name.
You can use the below domain name generators to find the domain name of your sports blog.
Below are the popular sports blogs
- TheAthletic
- SportsRants
- BleacherReport
- BronxPinstripes
- RiverAveBlues
Based on the above examples of sports blogs, you can think about your sports blog name accordingly.
Once you’ve decided your sports blog name then you’re good to move on to the next step which is buying your domain name and web hosting for your new sport blog.
5. Get Your Sports Blog’s Domain Name and Hosting
Now that you’ve decided your platform and domain name for your new sports blog. What’s next? You need to buy your domain name and hosting to set up your sport blog now.
As I said earlier that your domain name refers to the web address online which online visitors use to find you on the internet.
For example, ESPN’s domain name is espn.com. Likewise, you need to purchase your domain name and web-hosting.
I’ll walk you through how to get domain name and hosting.
Step by Step Guide to Set Up Your Sports Blog on Bluehost
Here are the easy steps to set up your first Sports blog.
Go to Bluehost and click the “Get Started Now” button to start setting up your sports blog now.
Select the best hosting plan and go to register a new domain name (FREE) or skip it for now if you already have a registered domain name.
If you wanna choose the domain name later then can continue setting up your web hosting without choosing your desired domain name.
Now you’re good to choose your web hosting plan, type and provide web-hosting account registration information.
It’s a very good idea to select a 36 months hosting plan. You’ll get a great deal and discount when you choose a 36 months hosting plan.
The more months you select in your hosting plan, the less you pay as your hosting fee for your sports blog.
Once you’ve selected a 36 months hosting plan and the hosting payment is done, you’ll get an email (confirmation mail) to your registered email id from Bluehost.
How to Install WordPress on Your Sports Blog?
Now you’re good to login with your Bluehost and find your WordPress (FREE) blogging software under “My Sites” tab.
You can login into WordPress and provide your credentials.
Click “Create Site” to create your new sport blog now.
Now you’ll see Bluehost’s WordPress installation setup wizard screen.
Now you need to provide your sports blog’s name and tagline (optional). If you want, you can change it later.
Click on the ‘Next‘ button now and select your ‘domain name‘ from the drop-down menu.
Now click on “Next” to start the installation and it’ll take a few minutes. After 2 minutes, you’ll see the WordPress installation is completed screen.
You’ll get a confirmation mail with login link to your registered email id with Bluehost.
Now that you’ve set up your sports blog successfully on Bluehost’s WordPress environment, what’s next?
Your new blog is ready with the default theme and appearance.
Don’t worry, WordPress has provided over 1000s of free eye-catching themes and layout. You can easily make your blog look awesome.
Choose an Eye-Catching Theme for your Sports Blog
Now, your blog is live, Even though it’s accessible with the basic or default appearance. You need to change or customize your sports blog to look great in appearance.
Install WordPress theme to modify or change your new sports blog’s appearance.
There are more than 1000of free eye-catching themes loaded with WordPress.
However, if you’re not satisfied and looking for some other premium – paid themes, you can buy paid or premium themes for your sports blog.
Premium Themes for Sports Blog
We’ve seen more sports blogs use eye-catching themes especially made for sports blogs.
Divi and Astra are the best themes of the blogs for sports. You can buy these themes with good discounts.
Once you’re done with the theme part, now you can move with your plugins area.
WordPress Theme installs:
- Open WordPress admin and go to Appearance and select Themes.
- Click on Add New
- To unlock themes options, hover over your theme icon . You can either choose Preview or start installing your theme by clicking on the Install button.
Install Plugin for your new Sports Blog
Plugins are small programs to keep your blog good. Using plugins you can add features to use your sports blog effectively to make money out of it.
1. Click on “Plugins” in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Click “Add New”.
3. Navigate your Plugin.
4. Install plugin now.
6. Best Themes for your Sports Blog
Although WordPress has offered over thousands of best themes for your blog, there are some popular themes for your sports blog to make your sport blog great in appearance which bring more visitors to your blog.
If you want your readers to stick with your blog then you need to make sure that blog’s theme is beautiful, professional looking and unique.
Your Sport’s Blog Theme should be,
- Mobile responsive
- Reliable support
- Great speed
- Customization features
- Eye-catching designs
- Your theme should have good reviews and ratings.
Popular Theme for Sports Blog is Thrive Themes.
7. Create Basic Pages & Logo for your Sports blog
Now you need to create some essential pages for your new sports blog. These blog pages will help you to find information about your and your blog on the internet.
To create a new page in your blog,
Open WordPress Admin -> Pages -> Add New.
Now type-in the required details and click on publish your page to available on the internet.
What are the essential pages for your blog?
About page: Here you need to tell your readers about you and your blog intention. Here you do not need to add more content. Just make your readers understand about your blog.
Contact Page: Your blog readers will contact you from this page. You need to enter your email id and contact number if its needed. Also you can place a contact form to collect your readers email ids.
Disclaimer Privacy Policy: This is the place where your readers get to know and trust you and your blog from a jurisdiction where there are privacy laws. Here, you’ll let your readers know that you’re not doing anything apart from the law or rule.
Create a Logo for your Sports blog: Having a unique logo for your blog is very easy for your readers to identify your sports blog from the crowd.
8. Start Sports Blogging
Writing a first post in a new blog is always more exciting. Here is, you’re going to make and set your tone of your new sports blog and do the magic to get more readers to your blog.
What do you write on your sports blog?
It’s always a very good idea to write content where you’re passionate about. You may have more knowledge and interests in sports history, teams, player profiles and anything related to sports.
Make sure that the content you write is more interesting, engaging, unique and valuable.
Below are the blog types to provide inspiration to create valuable content.
Create a list where you’ve knowledge of sports related activities.
Take interviews of popular players within your niche.
You can write about the latest sports events happening around the world.
Write an interesting story of sports that got succeeded.
9. Promote Your Sports Blog
You need to be consistent when you write content for your sports blog. In addition, you need to get your content in front of your readers.
Blog promotion comes into the picture now. You need to build attention using several ways to get more traffic to your blog of sports.
Rather than publishing content two or more times in a day, make sure that your content gets attention and you’re able to get a good ROI (Return of Investment) on your investment of time.
What are the different ways to promote your sports blog?
1. Tell your Friends and Family
This is every bloggers will do after their blog or post if live. Sharing your blog or post with your family, friends and where it’s possible will help your new blog to get some attention and traffic. Request everyone to share your new blog or post to the world.
2. Social Media Sharing
As long as you keep writing new content it surely gets optimized in the search engines which helps to go on towards the success path. Although, social media is the best place where your content gets shared by my people and group and your new blog will get more reach at the earliest.
3. Guest Posting
This method is a great way to promote your new blog, especially if you are a beginner blogger. If you’re new to your sports industry or you do not have enough connections then you can build traffic by writing guest posting on others’ blogs.
4. Email Marketing
Promoting a sports blog using email marketing methods is to collect your ids from your readers. In return you need to offer them a free ebook or report. You need to email them whenever you publish a new post or promotions on your sports blog. You must add a link back to your blog along with the email content.
5. Online Forums
One of the easiest ways to promote a sports blog is, you need to sign up with the online forums in your target niche like sports forums. And then you need leave valuable comments, questions and feedback which would be helpful to others. You can add a link in the content to get visitors to your blog. Adding your bio in the comments section is a smart way to get more visitors to your new sports blog.
10. Make Money from Sports Blog Now
This is the place which you are waiting for and one of the reasons you started your sports blog. Below are the several ways to make money with your new built sports blog.
Affiliate Marketing
In this method, you’ll get paid affiliate commission when a product is sold through your sports blog. There are many popular affiliate programs for Sports available on the internet. You need to join with the affiliate network and you’ll be given an affiliate link which you need to place on your sports blog along with the banner or text.
When your readers click on the affiliate link which redirects to a sale, you will get a small commission which is called an ‘affiliate commission’.
There are many legitimate affiliate networks for sports productions like ShareASale and Amazon. You can join with them through free registration and start promoting sports related products.
Google AdSense
Displaying Google Ads on your sports blog and making money out of it is one of the evergreen ways to make money from a blog. All you need is, once your sports blog has enough traffic, you can apply for Google AdSense partnership program.
Google team will analyze and approve to place Google Ads on your sports blog. Whenever readers click on the Google Ads placed on your sports blog, you’ll get paid.
Based on the ads type and geo location then CPC (click per cost) will be varied.
Sell Your Own Sports Products
You can make use of your sports blogs to sell your products. You need to create a banner and link to place on your blog. This is one of the most successful businesses to make money with your own sports blog.
Conclusion
Now you have learned everything to build a sports blog for your own. You need to follow the simple steps discussed here to start your first sports blog easily.
Starting a sports blog is not as tough as it seems. If you have learnt the things involved to set up a sports blog then you can easily build a sports blog and start making money through sports blogging.
There are many important things to be considered when you want to start a blog for sports. Those are choosing domain name for sports blogs, buying the best web hosting for your blog, designing your sports blog, customization, installing plugins and creating basic essential pages for your new sports blog.
If you follow these guides and use the strategies listed in this article, you can easily create a sports blog and monetize it successfully.
The big mistakes to avoid when you start a sports website or blog is, you should not go with the free website platform or free hosting platform. You do not have any control or access when you plan for a free platform.
You need to design a logo for your sports blog which is one of the most essential parts of starting a sports blog. However, you need to study more about the SEO parts to promote your blog to get more visitors to your website.
I hope you’ll be a owner of a profitable sports blog soon after reading how to start a sports blog article today.
Are you ready to start your sports blog now?
Share your comments below.
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