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With so many different sports out there, and large passionate audiences to match, writing a sports blog has a certain appeal. There are many styles that you can follow like American football, soccer (European football), rugby, baseball, golf, tennis, and more.
You can follow college ball, or national teams. You can support your local team or even write about local youth games. There’s plenty of flexibility in this niche. Regardless of the approach that you plan to take, finding suitable sports blog name ideas is an important first step.
Blog names should be easy, right? The idea seems simple enough. There are even tools to help you find whether a name is available.
The problem is often that there is too much choice! How do you decide which name to go with? Many people get stuck on exactly this problem, and then never get started. It seems like everything good is already taken!
Yet, when it comes down to it, blog names aren’t actually all that important. Even though the name is noticeable, what you call your blog isn’t what defines your success. Other factors are more important, including the content you write.
This post aims to help you in the process of choosing a blog name. We talk about some ways to approach name selection, along with other important parts of creating a site. Doing so includes discussions on how you can make money, along with the processes of buying a domain name and building your site.
- 50 Sports Blog Name Ideas
- How To Choose A Good Blog Name
- Keyword VS Branding
- How To Buy A Domain Name
- How To Build & Make Money From Your Sports Website
- How Much Do Sports Bloggers Make?
- Display Ads
- Affiliate Links
- So what do you think? Are you excited to start your sports blog? Let us know the topic in the comments!
- Should You Start Your Own Blog?
- How To Choose A Good Blog Name
50 Sports Blog Name Ideas
- Sport and Soul
- Sport and Living
- Sporting Living Legends
- Our Sports Life
- The Sports Head
- Football Groupies
- Sporty for Life
- Super Sports Group
- Online Sports Lover
- Fit and Sporty Girl
- Beyond Sporting
- Strange Sports World
- Wrestling News Space
- My Football Fantastic
- Sports Cast City
- Football Studios
- My Sports Rant
- Sports Gear City
- Sporty Lifetime
- Exploit Sports
- Action Sports Studio
- Boxing Fit Guide
- World Sporting Legends
- Sports Fixation
- Sporty Life Guide
- World Sports Fan
- Sports Fan Legends
- Sportswomen Health
- Women in Fantasy Sports
- Living for Sport
- Football Groupies
- Sports Crackpot
- New Sports USA
- Planetary Football
- The Sporting Women
- Sporting Madams
- Online Sports Digest
- Our Sporting Life
- Sports Community Reviews
- Fit and Sporty Girls
- Sports Women Shoes
- Your Sport Hero
- Women in Sports Today
- Action Sports Guide
- Outdoor Sports Legends
- American Sports Fan
- Extreme Sports Time
- Drastic Plays
- Sports Community Home
- Sportswomen Reviews
How To Choose A Good Blog Name
Brainstorming is one of the best first steps in a blog name hunt for your sports blog.
We’re talking about a sports blog, so first off, some easy stuff. What sport are you going to write about? Do you have a single sport in mind or do you plan to write about multiple? There should be some connecting thread here.
For example, you could do “high school sports in Phoenix” as your niche, then call it something like youthsportsphoenix.com. If you go with college basketball, you could do something like collegeb-ball.com
Some sites go even more specific. For example, whoscored.com focuses on (euro) football statistics from across the world, while howtobreak80.com is an instructional site to help people get better with golfing. Some of the most popular digital products to sell online for a while were things like “how to increase your jump height”, and targeted towards basketball players.
What about you as a person? There might be something interesting about you that stands out. For example, one sporting site is called fanspeak.com and was developed by fans. The site nflgirluk.com has a similar idea.
Regardless of your angle, it’s important to think about the brands that are already out there. You don’t want to infringe on anyone’s copyright.
For that matter, being too similar to another company is generally a bad idea. It’s always best to develop your own reputation, rather than relying on someone else’s.
Keeping your domain name logical is also important. An easy indication is whether people can type in your URL simply from hearing it spoken. For this to work, you need to make sure that words are spelled correctly and that you don’t use numbers.
For example, the site 11livegoal.com could also be written elevenlivegoal.com or even oneonelivegoal.com. See how things can get confusing fast?
Keyword VS Branding
When we talk about blog names, it’s easiest to break them down into two categories – branded and keyword names. A keyword-based name is what you would expect, it’s a site name that contains a keyword.
The most famous examples are exact match domains. These contain an entire keyword phrase exactly as written, like a site called bestgearforfootball.com or topsoccerpredictions.com. Most exact match domains use long-tail keywords, so the site ends up having a fairly narrow focus.
Exact match domains worked extremely well for ranking once up on a time. That’s not the case now, but they’re still as good as any other type of domain.
You don’t need to be this specific with a keyword domain either. Some sites just use one or two related words, rather than an entire phrase. For example, many sites the word football or sports as part of their name, like sportstask.net and gunghofootball.com.
Using related words in the title could still give some benefits for ranking in search engines. You’re making the topic of your site clear as well. Creating a bodybuilding blog called loseweightgainmuscle.com gives one impression, while a bodybuilding site called getbigbiceps.com gives another.
This type of domain name is pretty easy to find as well. You can use common sports-related words as your starting point, then include other terms to create a name that is interesting.
Branded blog names are a little different. These just aim to create a name that is memorable and sounds good. The name doesn’t need to have anything to do with the topic at all.
One example is the site mpora.com. This is a popular site that focuses on action sports and adventure. The topic would be hard to guess from the name alone.
Branded names can be a great way to attract attention, as they’re often very memorable. However, you’ll need to find a name first. This can be the tricky part, as since you kinda just pull it out of thin air.
How To Buy A Domain Name
Buying a domain name is the next step in the process. This name should be as close as possible to what you’re going to call your site (otherwise things are far too confusing for visitors).
You’ll probably notice that there are many different places that offer domain names. GoDaddy, Namecheap, HostGator and Domains.com are some examples. There are plenty of others too.
As long as you’re not paying an excessive amount, the service that you choose isn’t going to make a huge difference to your site. Still, some of the companies are better than others.
I recommend Namecheap, as that company has provided me with consistently good service. I’m pleased with their balance of features and price. The interface is straightforward too, making the service much easier to use than many others.
How To Build & Make Money From Your Sports Website
Where you build your site is a critical decision, because the company that you choose will influence much more than just the amount you pay per month. In particular, some options will make it much easier to start a website, while making things much more difficult later on.
We’re not going to compare all of the individual companies in this post. Instead, we’re going to talk about two general styles.
The first of these is a website builder. There are many different website builders to choose from and they all have their own features. Some offer free memberships or trials, while others make you pay from the beginning.
Regardless of the company, website builders aim to make website creation easy. You normally end up with a functional and good looking site, without having to go through all that much effort. Edits tend to be easy too, especially if you just need to make simple changes.
While free website builders might seem amazing, they have severe limitations too. Most companies have restrictions on free plans, which prevent you from doing some things entirely.
What’s more, a free website generally uses a subdomain, like holdoutsports.blogspot.com. It tends to be difficult to rank a subdomain. This type of URL is more difficult for people to remember too.
Website builder companies do tend to have paid plans. These give you more freedom, including the chance to use your own domain. But, these plans can easily be $20 to $30 a month, if not more.
Even paid plans have limitations. Website builders tend to focus on appearance over function. That’s fine when you’re making a simple site. When your needs are more complex, you’ll often find that the builder won’t provide you with the functionality that you need.
The other style is a self-hosted WordPress site and that remains my #1 recommendation for someone trying to make money from their blog. WordPress is the most popular content management system for websites around the world, and it’s easy to see why.
While WordPress can initially seem confusing, it offers an incredible amount of flexibility. You can do much more with WordPress than you can with any website builder out there.
There is also a lot more guidance and support in the community. If you need a developer to whip up some custom code for you for $10/hour you can get that. For Squarespace or Wix? Not really.
WordPress is especially relevant if you want to make money from your site. Trying to earn without full control over your site is just frustrating. Imagine if you start making six figures a year with your site (totally possible), then Squarespace decides you’re violating their TOS. Good luck finding another host to port your site as-is, and converting it to WordPress at that point is going to s.u.c.k.
How Much Do Sports Bloggers Make?
Income reports in the sports field are few and far between, even though there are clearly some successful bloggers out there. This may be partly because those who make money focus entirely on their field and don’t publish content on making money from blogging.
In fact, most income information comes from lifestyle bloggers, some of whom talk about nature sports or sporting activities from time-to-time.
One example is The Soccer Mom Blog. The June 2016 income report for the blog revealed a net income of around $9,600. The total income for the month was closer to $11,300, while expenses were around $1,600.
Display ads were a key source of income for the blog, earning around $3,700. Affiliate marketing was much less significant, with a total of around $950 for the month. Wowza. Not bad, right?
The bulk of income for The Soccer Mom Blog came from sponsored posts (more than $6,500 for the month!). This method of earning requires traffic and an online reputation, but it could be powerful for sports bloggers.
Another example is Practical Wanderlust. This is a travel blog that includes information about various aspects of travel, including activities.
The February 2018 income report for Practical Wanderlust reported earnings of around $4,300. Around $1,500 of this income came from display ads. Another $950 came from Amazon affiliate marketing, while $1,000 came from other affiliate marketing programs.
Display Ads
When it comes to earning for yourself, display ads are the obvious starting point. This approach means that you will be showing ads on your website. These will often come from Google AdSense, but you could focus on a different display ad network instead.
Ads work well because you’re not responsible for them. You’re involved in the initial ad setup and perhaps some optimization, but that’s it.
This frees you up to write about whatever you want to. You don’t need to focus on products or sponsorships in your content, which can make the whole writing process much more natural.
The style could work very well for a sports blog. After all, if you’re talking a lot about players or games (for example), there mightn’t be all that many products that you can promote. It would be annoying to try and promote an ebook about the history of curling while someone is just trying to read about last nights game.
Even so, be aware that income from display ads heavily relies on your traffic. Your income is likely to be very low if you’re not getting much traffic to your site. This means that you probably won’t be earning much when you first get started.
I’ve never liked display ads for that reason, but I have found them more useful recently. With so many people online these days, the potential traffic is out there. It’s mostly a matter of tapping into that traffic, planning well and being patient.
Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing is the other angle that beginners can take to make money. When someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link, you earn a commission. Fees range from about 5% to 75%, and everything in between. Digital products tend to pay better, but people make full time incomes online promoting stuff from Amazon and other companies you’ve definitely heard of.
In fact, I’ve got a lot of content related to sports affiliate programs. Here’s a few to check out which you may not have considered as “sports”. Other obvious sports are covered too
- Extreme Snow Sports
- Water Sports Affiliate Programs
- Sports Supplements Affiliate Programs
- Esports Affiliate Programs
- Sports Betting Affiliate Programs
The idea is simple and powerful. One advantage is that affiliate marketing scales up well. The amount you earn isn’t capped by traffic either, as some customers will purchase multiple products. Add an email marketing campaign, and now you have multiple streams of income.
When done right, affiliate marketing provides value to visitors too. Product reviews are a classic example of this pattern. These offer information about a product that people need. A well-written product review can easily convert into sales.
So what do you think? Are you excited to start your sports blog? Let us know the topic in the comments!
Should You Start Your Own Blog?
Honestly, the sad thing is that most people who want to start a blog get a domain name and a website set up, but never really do much beyond that. They are leaving a serious amount of money on the table!
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