Talkin’ Sports The Write Way: What Emerging Sports Writers Need To Know First (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned that any aspiring sports writer first has to love what they do before getting started in this industry. It’s also important to be a student of the sport(s) that you decide to write about. Here’s a continuation of the steps that I gave in Part 1 to becoming successful in sports writing:
*Start A Blog Or Contribute To One
The first thing you have to do when starting a sports blog is to choose a specific niche. There is a countless number of sports blogs out there, which means you have to work that much harder to build yourself a loyal following. The key to having a large audience is developing your blog to have a unique aspect that sets you apart from your competitors and make people want to read it. If you don’t already have idea of what you want to write about, you should do some exploring online and see where your interests might lie. Whatever you write about on a regular basis should be something you have an inherent interest in, or something you can develop an interest in. Having a passion for your topic would be a tremendous help to you.
*Reach Out To Some Larger/More Popular Publications
These articles are usually a lot of work because the editor often has higher standards for the content and the articles need to be a certain word count minimum. Until you get well-established and have made a name for yourself, make sure you keep your primary source of income and shoot for writing 1 or 2 articles per week. If you can help it, don’t put too much on your plate because if you can keep contributing to the smaller publication (your personal blog) also, that would be ideal. Having 2 publications that you contribute to shines a favorable light on you for outside viewers. Now you have to update your social media accounts so they reflect the change in your status.
*Use Social Media To Promote Your Blog
The top 3 platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s important for you to look at social media from the right perspective. When used correctly, each of these platforms are powerful marketing tools. You can use them to direct people to your blog, ask them to sign up for your newsletter, and even run contests. You can reach readers worldwide with social media, but it’s not quite as simple as spamming the link to your blog site. Instead, when you promote your posts, include relevant hashtags (or Twitter handles) and don’t forget to engage with others. It’s always good to post links to other news articles and get involved with other bloggers. Bloggers tend to build a network that’s happy to promote each other, so it would be wise to make the most of this. Also, live videos or live tweets during big games is especially useful because die hard fans always have strong opinions and are looking for opportunities to discuss these games as they unfold. This is another great way to engage with potential new readers.
*Be Interactive
Making connections is important too, whether you focus on promoting through social media or by word of mouth. You could reach out to brands and companies, teams, or players that you frequently write about. They might be willing to grant you an interview, or at the very least re-post a social media update about a particular blog post or article you wrote. It’s also nice to reach out to other writers and collaborate on future projects or invite them to guest post on your platform, or vice versa. Building connections with other writers can help you build a strong community online and get some additional traffic for your own site.
Conclusion
My aim with this mini series is to take emerging sports writers and provide them with guidance and tips on how to launch their sports blogging careers. This content is intended to be used as a small and simple blueprint to establishing yourself as a sports writer, as well as writing good content and connecting with your audience of fellow sports fans. This can be one of the greatest journeys of your writing experience, and if you stick with it YOU WILL eventually see growth.
Written by Tom-Tom, Sports Success Journalist/Trainer, Editor-In-Chief at Sports Behavior Journalism Entertainment, creator of the platforms Out Of Bounds, Talkin’ Spurs, and author of Writing Is A Sport: A Playbook For Getting Started In Sports Writing
