Start A Football Blog: A Complete Guide
American football is a hugely popular sport with a dedicated fanbase always hungry for news, analysis, and insider commentary. For sports bloggers, focusing on football content represents a major opportunity to engage this passionate audience while building a thriving website business. This guide covers key strategies and considerations when you start a football blog.
Understanding the Football Fan Demographic
While football enjoys broad appeal, bloggers should recognize a few core demographic groups:
– Men ages 18-49 – This male-skewed audience makes up the majority of fans and participants. Reach them through stats, betting, and fantasy.
– Geographic strongholds – Populations in the American South, Midwest, and Northeast closely follow football—target local teams.
– High school and college students – Support school teams through game coverage, recruiting news, and camp profiles.
– Wagerers – Provide odds, picks, and betting strategies to serve sports gamblers.
– Casual fans – Appeal to these lighter followers through entertainment like memes, graphics, and funny takes.
– Female fans – Are a growing demographic. Take an inclusive tone.
Tailor your blog’s tone, expertise, and content to resonate with these groups.
Choosing the Right Blog Platform When You Start A Football Blog
The major decisions when choosing a football blog platform include:
– Owned blog vs network – Launch an independent site or join an established sports network?
– Hosting – Choose reliable, high-performance hosting to withstand traffic surges.
– Content management system – WordPress is ideal for ease of use and customization.
– Domain name – Choose a *.com football-keyword domain for branding and credibility.
– Website design – Use a fast, mobile-friendly sports theme and incorporate your brand style.
– Plugins – Add essentials like security, speed, and SEO optimization.
– Page structure – Create dedicated pages/categories for teams, leagues, media, fantasy, and gambling.
Investing in a quality foundation makes site growth and monetization smoother long-term.
After you start a football blog, here are some more options:
Creating Engaging Football Content: Start A Football Blog
Blogs consistently gain a loyal readership by publishing engaging, original football content. Useful formats include:
– Team and league news – Report on roster moves, injuries, trades, coach interviews, and other developments.
– Game stories and analysis – Share live updates, stats, and insight on matchups and results.
– Columns and hot takes – Entertain readers with quick reactions and bold opinions on controversies.
– Interviews – Question players, coaches, analysts, and insiders for an exclusive angle.
– Investigative features – Break news on stories like scandals, finances, and strategy with in-depth reporting.
– Rankings and power ratings – Fuel debate by ranking teams, players, units, or matchups.
– Lists and memes – Compile rankings, GIFs, and viral moments into easily digestible, engaging, social-friendly posts.
– Multimedia – Incorporate podcasts, video shows, and graphics into offerings.
Delivering breaking news and unique perspectives satiates football fans’ appetite for coverage of their favorite sport.
Driving Site Traffic Through Promotion: Start A Football Blog
Building a readership requires patience and persistence. Ongoing traffic-building tactics include:
– Search engine optimization – Target football keywords through metadata, URL structure, alt text, internal linking, and content optimization.
– Social media – Share content, engage fans, run contests on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—leverage hashtags.
– Email marketing – Send a newsletter with updates, insider notes, and new articles to drive repeat visits.
– Forums and groups – Participate and share links on Reddit, Facebook Groups, Quora, and niche communities.
– Link-building – Secure backlinks through guest posts, partnerships, and local directory listings.
– Paid ads – Run Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and remarketing campaigns tailored to football fans.
– Live coverage promotion – Advertise “Game Day Live blogs” on social media ahead of big matchups.
Persistence and creativity in marketing pay dividends when trying to be discovered in a crowded field.
Monetizing a Football Blog
There are many effective methods for generating revenue from football content, including:
– Display advertising – Place banners and squares through Google AdSense, DirectAds, and BuySellAds. Tie ads to content.
– Sponsored posts – Create football content promoting or featuring specific brands and products for a sponsorship fee.
– Affiliate marketing – Earn commissions promoting sports betting sites, fantasy platforms, and apparel through affiliate links.
– Direct ad sales – Recruit sponsors for site takeovers, custom integrations, and dedicated email blasts based on your audience.
– Premium subscriptions – Offer paid insider info newsletters or ad-free premium content tiers.
– Merchandise – Design and sell team apparel and gift items in an online store. Leverage shop platforms like Shopify.
– Digital products – Sell ebooks, courses, or guides on betting, fantasy, coaching, skills, etc.
Diversified income sources are key for long-term revenue growth and guarding against digital media disruptions.
Building a Football Blog Audience
Growing an engaged user base over time depends on:
– Comment sections – Enable discussions on posts to foster community. Moderate to ensure quality.
– Social media – Actively responding to readers and participating in Twitter chats.
– Email collection – Offer opt-in incentives in sidebars and popups/slide-ins to build subscribers.
– Loyalty programs – Provide perks for top commenters, share quantities, or newsletter subscribers.
– Surveys – Occasionally survey readers for feedback on content, features, and site improvements.
– Contests/giveaways – Run promotions awarding merch or prizes for greater interaction.
– Forums – Consider launching your own online football forum for superfans and hardcore discussion.
– Score predictions – Have readers guess the outcomes of key weekly matchups for bragging rights.
– Meetups – Organize local events to connect with nearby readers in person.
Fostering community and two-way communication results in an engaged audience that feels invested in the site.
Overcoming Challenges When You Start A Football Blog
When starting any online venture, expect obstacles like:
– Being drowned out by mainstream sports media – Differentiate through quality original analysis, insider access, and a consistent niche or point of view.
– Burnout from constant content demands – Take time off, limit hours, and build a team of contributors to prevent fatigue.
– Overreliance on dwindling ad revenue – Diversify income through multiple streams – affiliate, email subscribers, e-commerce.
– Obtaining press credentials – Earn the trust and respect of leagues/teams through solid journalism. Start local and build up.
– Fighting clickbait temptation – Avoid empty hype. Build loyalty through informed insight readers can’t get elsewhere.
– Managing overly negative readers – Delete personal attacks. Encourage vibrant but civil debate through moderation.
The rewards of running an independently successful football blog make pushing through the challenges well worth the effort.
The year-round popularity of football provides fantastic opportunities for niche blogs catering to loyal fans. New football blogs can thrive by focusing on specific demographics, optimizing platforms for growth and revenue, producing stellar football analysis and stories, promoting expertly, fostering community, and diversifying income. While staying flexible to digital media shifts, consistently providing your readership with knowledgeable, passionate perspectives, they can’t get elsewhere is the path to growing and sustaining an audience.
Key Sub-Niche Ideas To Start A Football Blog
While football is the central focus, bloggers can specialize in particular sub-niches to appeal to engaged audience segments. Here are some lucrative football sub-niches to consider:
Fantasy Football Blogging
Catering to the huge fantasy football audience with content like:
– Player profiles and projections to assist draft and lineup decisions.
– Weekly rankings of QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs, and team defenses.
– Start/sit advice based on injuries, matchups, and trends.
– DFS optimized picks and bargain targets.
– Trade analysis on which players to target and when to make moves.
– Mock draft simulations to practice different draft strategies.
– League previews spotting opportunities in scoring systems and roster settings.
– Podcasts, videos, and chats discussing news, stats, and strategy.
College Football Blogging
Focusing exclusively on NCAA football news and analysis. For example:
– Game recaps, previews, and live blogs for top teams and matchups.
– Polls and new rankings for the playoff, Heisman race, and awards.
– Transfer portal and National Signing Day coverage.
– Features on tradition-rich programs, rivalries, and school spirit.
– Conference realignment reporting and analysis.
– Bowl game selections, contests, and travel guides.
– Profiles on emerging players entering the NFL Draft.
Youth and High School Football
Covering lower levels of the sport. Can include:
– Youth skills development, drills, and coaching best practices.
– Features on standout teams, players, and coaches in your region.
– Interviews with local Little League and Pop Warner commissioners.
– High school national rankings, recruiting coverage, and profiles on sought-after prospects.
– Guides to high school stadiums, cheer programs, bands, and traditions.
– Gear guides for parents and players at each level of play.
Football Betting and Daily Fantasy
Reporting on sports gambling, odds, and fantasy contests:
– Odds, line movements, and matchup analysis to inform betting.
– Predictive analytics models to identify betting values.
– Reviews of sportsbooks and daily fantasy platforms.
– Strategies for DFS lineup optimization each week.
– Betting education on moneyline vs spread wager types.
– NFL Draft betting markets, odds, and props analysis.
– Live betting tips to identify in-game wagering opportunities.
Specializing helps attract engaged audiences interested in football’s many sub-segments. But branching out over time adds broader appeal.
Here is some additional market research on the scope and popularity of the football blogging niche:
Additional Market Research on the Football Blogging Niche
Football remains one of America’s most widely followed sports, signaling a strong appetite for content. Relevant statistics include:
– Per Gallup, 37% of U.S. adults say football is their favorite sport, 2x more than any other sport. 45% of men cite football as their favorite.
– Super Bowl LVI in 2022 drew an average audience of over 112 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched broadcasts annually.
– Fantasy football generates over $15 billion in annual economic impact, according to the trade association FSTA, underlining this lucrative sub-niche.
– 70% of NFL fans follow professional football news and updates daily, even outside the season, presenting year-round opportunities.
– The global sports betting market is projected to reach $138 billion by 2028 as legalization expands, promising major potential for football betting sub-niches.
– On average, football content like articles, videos, and social posts receive 200-400% more engagement than other sports content, according to software providers.
– Forbes reports ad rates for football content out-earn other sports by 40% or more, as brands pay premiums to align with its loyal following.
– Established football blogs like Pro Football Network generate 5-7 figure yearly revenues, indicating profit potential.
Football fandom’s consistent, mass popularity provides a strong foundation to launch a niche blog serving this diverse readership long-term.
Here are approximately 50 broad keywords that define the football blogging niche, along with 50 related long-tail keywords:
Broad Keywords:
football blog (12K searches), football news (73K), football teams (36K), nfl blog (26K), football rankings (22K), fantasy football (188K), college football (148K), football analysis (10K), football podcast (8K), football articles (6K), football strategy (5K), youth football (5K), football skills (4K), football coach (4K), football gear (3K)
Long-Tail Keywords:
how to start a football blog (300 searches), best football blogs 2021 (70), football blog name ideas (50), football news and rumors (1K), high school football recruiting (1K), sec football blog (300), fantasy football draft prep (1K), daily fantasy football tips (600), nfl football picks this week (600), football betting systems free (70), football game odds today (100), football watch parties near me (70), football collectibles value guide (50), coaching youth football defense (100), best football gloves for wide receivers (70), donating used football equipment (70), pee wee football weight limits by age (70), football movies based on true story (100), football books best sellers (70)
This covers high-level terms around football content and broader long-tail keywords targeting specific interests, questions, and sub-topics. The keywords provide a starting point for keyword research and content optimization.
Conclusion: Start A Football Blog
The popularity and year-round interest in football presents exciting opportunities for sports bloggers to launch online businesses around this passionate audience. Key tips covered in this guide include:
– Recognizing your core football fan demographics like men 18-49, students, and gamblers when crafting content.
– Choosing the right blogging platform – optimized WordPress site, custom domain, fast hosting.
– Producing great content – news, analysis, columns, multimedia that goes beyond mainstream takes.
– Promoting skillfully through SEO, social media, email newsletters, and niche community engagement.
– Monetizing through ads, affiliates, sponsorships, premium subscriptions, ecommerce.
– Focusing on a sub-niche like fantasy, recruiting, or betting to attract engaged segments.
– Fostering loyalty through community, contests, surveys, and responding to feedback.
– Overcoming challenges like burnout and competition by carving out a distinct voice.
The abundance of passionate football fans seeking coverage makes the niche a perfect fit for new sports blogs.
FAQ: Start a Football Blog
Q: How much does it cost to start a football blog?
A: Expect around $100-$200 annually for hosting, domain, WordPress site, and plugins.
Q: How do I come up with a name for my football blog?
A: Include keywords like “football news” while reflecting your personality and specialty niche.
Q: What content should I create when I start a football blog?
A: Team news, game analysis, columns, interviews, investigative features, podcasts, and viral social posts.
Q: How do I get site traffic as a new blog?
A: Build over time through SEO, social promotion, contributing to forums, and email newsletters.
Q: What are the best ways to make money from a football blog?
A: Ad placements, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, premium subscriptions, sports betting commissions.
Q: Do I need special access to cover football?
A: Start local. Build your reputation with smaller teams and high schools before expanding to major access.
Q: What equipment do I need to start a football blog?
A: Start with just a computer and internet access. Eventually, invest in video and podcasting tools.
Your blog can attract a loyal readership over time by providing quality football insights.