Learn how to start a successful sports blog in 2023 and turn your passion into profit. My expert guide includes valuable tips and strategies to help you create a winning blog that engages your audience and generates income.
Get started today and join the exciting world of sports blogging!
Chose A sport you want to cover
The majority of the time, you should focus on one sport or league that you can cover on your own and are most interested in.
If you have previous experience playing the sport, that is a huge plus. You will be able to give your readers more information and tips.
Avoid too technical sports if you don’t have a background in them. For example, IndyCar and F1 are difficult to cover completely if you don’t have a good understanding of the machinery.
You can focus your content in a variety of ways, including:
- Your city/small state’s sports teams
- Only college level sports are covered
- Nationwide coverage of more niche sports is provided (swimming, track and field, gymnastics)
- Blog about individual players
PRO TIP: Don’t try to cover all of the major leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and Soccer) all at once.
The truth is that as a sole writer, you will not have enough manpower to produce valuable content for every league at first. That is why major media outlets such as ESPN exist.
When you concentrate on one league/team/town, your chances of success skyrocket.
Pick a blog name.
A blog name is something that will set you apart from the competition; you want something that is easily remembered and makes it clear what you are writing about.
WARNING: Avoid using names from leagues such as the NFL or the NBA, as well as teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Knicks, as these are copyright protected and you will almost certainly be sued for infringing on their copyright.
That is also why you will never see a sports network named after something specific: For example, Barstool Sports or ESPN (the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) do not use the name of the league because it is illegal.
Another problem that could happen is that the domain name you want to register is already in use. This can occur because there can only be one registered domain activated at any given time.
In this case, you have no choice but to continue and search for a domain that is free and not already in use.
Click here. Select a web hosting plan to see if your domain is available.
If you want more advice on how to name your blog check: 6 tips for naming your first blog
Start a blog by setting up WordPress
WordPress is the best platform for sports bloggers because it was specifically designed for this purpose to make it incredibly easy to publish many online articles without knowing programming.
WordPress is used not only by small bloggers, but also by large publishers and websites.
For example, all of those websites use WordPress:
WordPress should be used to create your sports blog because it is a free open source software that is available to everyone.
According to W3techs, WordPress is still growing in popularity, so you won’t be stuck with outdated software. WordPress currently powers more than 42% of all websites on the internet.
You need a domain and web hosting if you want to use WordPress.
- The domain name: the name of your website
- Web hosting stores all of your website’s resources online, allowing anyone to access your blog at any time.
If you want to have your own website, drive traffic to it, and earn money, you cannot create a sports blog for free.
One of the most important requirements for starting to monetize your website is that you must be an owner.
If you do not have web hosting, you will never be able to fully monetize your website, appear in the top positions of Google search results, or sell your website.
What is the best web hosting for sports bloggers?
Don’t be scared it is not that expensive, you can get web hosting for a few dollars per month. For example, SiteGround will cost you only $2.45 per month for the first year and will include a free domain.
SiteGround is the best place to get web hosting for sports blogs because they offer the most features at an unbeatable price.
Furthermore, SioteGround is one of only three webhosting companies recommended by WordPress, and they are by far the best of the three.
How to Select the Best Hosting Package for Your Sports Blog
Even though Siteground is trying to recommend you buy their GrowBig plan I would highly suggest to go with their StartUp plan.
The main difference is that while GrowBig allows you to create an unlimited number of sites, you only need to create one.
Besides that, higher plans will give you more web space, but as a beginner, you will not be able to use all of it, so you will be paying for nothing.
TIP: If you outgrow your current hosting plan, you can always upgrade to a higher plan, so don’t waste your money at the start.
How to Set Up a Domain Name for Your Sports Blog
Following that, Siteground will prompt you to create a domain name. This is the name of your website.
As I previously stated, try to keep it under 4 words and 17 characters because anything longer will be unreadable.
You can also choose your TLD (Top Level Domain), the most popular of which is “.com,” and if you plan to write for an audience primarily from the United States and English-speaking countries, you should be using “.com.”
Also, keep in mind that there may only be one active domain registered, so you may receive messages like this from time to time:
If the domain is already in use by someone else, you will see this message: “The domain name you have chosen is not available. Please try a new domain name search in the domain name box above.”
You have no choice but to try to think of another name that will be available.
Fill out this information to complete the creation of a hosting account.
You will be redirected to this page once you have found the perfect name.
Fill in your information with your true personal information here.
WARNING: I’ve seen many people put up fake names and addresses. Don’t do it because you’ll be registered as the rightful owner of a domain and you’ll want to use your real information if you ever have to prove ownership in court.
You can change the location of the Data Center in the purchase information.
This is essentially where your data will be saved. You should always try to get as close to your intended audience as possible.
If you’re writing for a US audience, make the United States your data center location.
If you are writing from the United States but covering topics such as European Soccer, and the majority of your readers are from Europe, you should select Europe.
Domain privacy, also known as WHOIS privacy, is something that will not slow down your website but will allow you to hide your personal information from strangers.
When you register a domain, your information must be made automatically available to the public.
You can look up any domain owner here see all of their personal information if they do not use domain privacy.
You may receive spam calls and unwanted mail, but if you do not choose domain privacy, it will have no effect on your speed or Google ranking.
Customize your blog. Choose a free blog design template and tweak it.
When you want to change the look of your sports blog, simply click the appearance button in the left sidebar.
After that, you should go ahead and click on add new, which will bring up a list of pre-made WordPress themes.
You want to stick with something that has a lot of positive feedback and is widely used.
This ensures that this theme is always being updated and that you are getting the best theme possible.
Here are some of my favorite FREE WordPress sports blog themes:
If you don’t see the theme you’re looking for, go to search themes and type in the theme name, for example, Astra.
After that, move your mouse over it and click on install, but be careful because you will have to wait and then click on the activate button for your website to be changed.
The design of your blog has changed. But first, let’s make it pretty.
To do so, go to plug-ins and click on the add new button, then search for plugins called “starter templates,” and then click on install and activate once more.
After that, if you hover over appearance, you should see a new button called “Starter Templates.”
If you click on it and follow their instructions: if they ask you to choose an editor, go with Elementor
you should be taken to this page where you can choose from premade website designs.
The advantage of doing it this way is that you won’t have to waste time creating everything from scratch; instead.
You’ll be able to simply go to your visual editor and change images and text.
Write & publish your first post.
Simply go to posts and click on add new to create your first blog post.
This will allow you to begin writing your post right away. But don’t worry, you don’t have to finish and publish it right away; you can always stop and come back to it later.
PRO TIP: If you don’t feel comfortable using the WordPress editor for your blog posts, you can simply use Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or any other editor of your choice to write in. Then copy and paste it inside WordPress, which will automatically keep all of your alignment headings links as you had them. (I write my blog posts in this way.)
When you want to publish your blog post, you have three visibility options:
- Public – Visible to everyone. (use this if you want to make your posts be found on Google)
- Private – Only visible to site admins and editors.
- Password Protected – Protected with a password you choose. Only those with the password can view this post.
Promote your sports blog.
Because of the fast-changing environment of sports, promoting sports blogs isn’t as difficult as promoting other types of blogs.
It can take several months before Google fully understands what your blog is about and begins to properly rank it.
Many people are losing interest in blogging in that time because they aren’t getting any traffic.
Using social media to promote your articles can ensure that your blog receives viewers from the start.
The most effective social media platforms for promoting your sports blog
If you write in-depth articles about a sport or team, you can post them on Reddit in a subreddit dedicated to that sport or team.
PRO TIP: Don’t just use a headline and a link to your blog post; this will not convert well. You will have much more success on Reddit if you choose a good headline and put the most interesting parts of your blog post as a kind of summary inside the body, and on the last paragraph you will post a link to your blog for the full story.
This ensures that people are already interested in that topic and will spend more time on your blog, which is a good sign for Google and will help you rank higher.
Twitter is by far the best option for you if you want to react to the news. You should definitely use Twitter to promote your sports blog because the sports community is very active on this platform and you can definitely benefit from it if you have interesting information.
Growing your Twitter account will also provide you with an additional source of traffic aside from Google search, which will be very beneficial to you.
Podcasts
Podcasts have definitely seen a large increase in the last few years, with sports-related podcasts being particularly popular.
The good news is that people are looking for information not only from national media providers like ESPN, but they are also very likely to start following someone who is talking about their local sports teams in detail.
Locked On Celtics, for example, is a podcast about the NBA team Boston Celtics hosted by Boston Sports Journal writer John Karalis. This podcast currently has over 1,500 episodes and thousands of listeners per episode.
This is an excellent way to promote your blog’s writing. A typical episode lasts between 30 and 55 minutes.
If you cover smaller teams, you don’t need to record your podcasts daily; a weekly recap will be enough to capture the attention of people in your area.
After that, you can refer people to blog posts you’ve written about a specific topic. This is great because people are far more likely to remember your blog’s name if they hear it.
Video
If you have experience with video, you can definitely use platforms like YouTube, but keep in mind that because of the time it takes to record and edit videos, it will take you much longer to react to the newest events and news in the world of sports.
So try using YouTube and other video platforms for so-called “evergreen content,” which is content that will be relevant today, a week later, and also in a few months.
Example:
- NOT evergreen content: My reaction to Rudy Gobert’s trade to the Timberwolves.
- Evegreen content: How to choose a youth baseball bat based on player’s age or level of play.
How to make money blogging about sports.
If you want to make money blogging about sports, there are plenty of opportunities. According to Statista, the North American sports market will be worth $83.1 billion in 2023.
According to Sports Global Market Report 2022, the global sports market is worth $501.43 billion and is expected to grow to $707.84 billion by the year 2026.
Sports is a thriving category that is still expanding rapidly and can easily support even small bloggers financially through: advertisements, affiliate programs, sponsored posts, and much more.
Four major ways to monetize your sports blog.
Ads on your blog
Placing ads on your blog is the simplest way to earn money online. It works fairly simply: you sign up for a program, and they begin placing advertisements on your website.
The good news is that you can simply allow them to display ads on your website and they will do everything automatically for you, leaving you free to focus on writing.
If you are a complete beginner and your sports blog does not yet have traffic in excess of 50.000 monthly visits and you still want to be monetized, you should create an AdSense account.
This is provided by Google and is available to bloggers with small audiences.
After that, as your blog grows, you can switch to premium ad networks such as Adthrive, Mediavine, and Ezoic, which will provide you with better rates for displaying ads on your blog.
However, they have pretty strict requirements when it comes to joining them, particularly that you have at least 50.000 monthly visitors in order to successfully apply, and in some cases even more.
Affiliate Markteing
Affiliate marketing is a great way for complete beginners to get started because it allows you to promote other people’s products/services while earning a commission every time someone purchases through your unique link.
These are some of the best affiliate program categories in which you can participate as a sports blogger and begin promoting even as a beginner:
- Sports equipment
- Tickets to sporting events,
- Sports betting sites
- Fantasy Sports
- Nutrition products
- Sports memorabilia
- Fitness software
- Fitness plans
Selling your own product/service
If you are still active in a sport that you want to promote, you can create a course and begin selling it as a way for people to improve.
This is a very popular method, and even the best players, such as Michael Jordan, have given master classes to share their knowledge in their respective fields.
You can even create your own events if you are an expert in that sport and can teach it to others.
Impact Basketball, for example, holds coaching camps that teach not only professional players but also coaches.
Sponsored Blog Posts
If you begin to build an audience, you may be approached by sponsors who want to reach out to your audience through your blog. This is actually quite common.
For example, Fanatics, one of the largest manufacturers and retailers of licensed sportswear, sponsored the post “My Favorite WNBA Players + How To Support Them This Season.“
How much does Sports Blogger make
Obviously, it is impossible to say exact numbers but if you would want to monetize your sports blog with display ads those are your potential earnings according to Google AdSense
| Monthly page views | Potential annual revenue |
| 50,000 | $2,538 |
| 152,842 | $7,758 |
| 512,791 | $26,029 |
| 769,897 | $39,080 |
| 1,078,424 | $54,741 |
| 3,006,718 | $152,621 |
| 10,000,000 | $507,600 |
Those are only data from Google AdSense but if your sports blog achieve over 150,000 monthly visitors you can apply for premium Ad networks like AdThrive and they can increase your earning by 80% so for around 1,000,000 monthly page visits you would be getting around $98,533 which is something you can definitely live from.
In addition, you can also make additional money with sponsorships, affiliate marketing and other ways.