Good Day to you all... before I get into this tutorial/suggestion post on how to create a sports network I want to start by saying that I am in no way a genious when it comes to website forums, the sporting community, or in life really. This tutorial/suggestion post has been made from my own experience, something that has been working well with me for over a year and something that can take your website from just another sports website. 1. Preperation Just like with any and all websites you should always plan a sports network - I call it a network when you offer news/ interviews/ forums/ games and the rest but all of this stuff can be applied easily to a sports forum. You need to think about what you are going to cover on your website. What sports, what talking points, what off-field discussions are you going to have. For me I find it easier it write it all down on a piece of paper, plan the categories, the boards, the layout. After I have it written down I then turn around and put the piece of paper down and leave it for a day. The following day I come back and have a look at it, I do this because some things sound like a good idea, or look like a good layout, however after you have had time away you realise it isn't that good after-all. 2. Scope your Opposition When it comes to sport websites, sport networks, sport forums (what ever you are creating) there is already a large number of opposition out there, some are big websites everyone knows about some a small that you have to do your best to try and find. It is important that when checking out you rivals/competition that you visit both the big and small websites - while the big ones are more popular (thanks largly to their big budgets they can put into advertising) the smaller ones may also have a number of great features, or ideas that you haven't even thought out. While you are looking at your competition the main things to look for are their layouts, what works what doesn't. Features available on each website, and take a look in their suggestions/feedback boards - this tells you what sport fans (your audience) want, and what some administrators are refusing to put on. 3. Styling This one is simple and easy - come up with your own design. It is easy (like many do) to have a site that is two or three columns, with latest forum posts, ladders/standings etc on the right and your news on the left. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. The amount of sport websites I have been to that for their status icons they have a soccer/football ball, or a basketball, or have a static background which is a gradient which down the bottom has a shilloutte of the crowd cheering. Seriously - do not make it just another sport website, think outside the box and take it by the hands and make it your own sport website. There is nothing wrong with buying a style, but make sure you do some of your very own customization. 4. Piece it all together By now, if you are taking my advice as to starting a sports site of some type you would have things planned, what boards, what categories, your style and your combination of features that you have poached from other sites. Now is the time you piece it all together, get your forum software/cms software what ever you are doing. Install the style, make the customisations, add the boards, the features to the point you are happy with it and staring back at you is your site that you have been planning and it looks different to other websites. DO NOT OPEN IT YET! 5. Ensure you have content As you know, Content is like Gold, it will be your selling point. It is common sense to say to fill your board with content, do not over do it though. Some may say it is hard to over do content but I started a failed Mystery Website about crimes and I over did the content. I filled it with information on serial killers, murderers, crimes that shook the world - but that meant there was nothing to talk about. People were commenting that there was plenty to read on there but no real discussion points - so you can have too much content - do not over do the content. To ensure that your website has the latest content, information from the world of sport - do your research. Contact the sporting organisations, associations and teams that are involved in the sports you plan to cover. All associations, organisations and teams have a media department. Contact the media department for those sections and tell them that you are starting a site, outline the features, outline what makes your site different to the rest, outline what your site can offer them (true and accurate news reporting on their club/organisations/association). Sure some my blow you off and ignore your request but the chances are anything that gets them more exposure they will jump at - my sports network receives Media Releases from over 600 sporting organisations, associations and teams from around the world and try to report on all of them. This is an important step that for many sport websites they over-look, this ensures that your members have fresh contact every day and your site will soon be seen as one of the leaders in sports news for the sport fans. In the email that you send to the clubs/organisations/associations ensure that you tell them that the site is not open yet, however you will give them a quick glimpse of what the site will look like and give them your address. You will hear back from clubs pretty quickly normally 24-48 hours some do take longer, and if it is an international site remember the time differences across the world. 6. Final OPTIONAL Step before opening Okay so this one is a final, optional, step before officially opening your site. It is something that I did for my sports network and things turned out better than I imagined. Take a look at local sports merchandise stores to your location, yes you may run a global/international site but many places have online shopping available. Do not go for the biggest sporting brand in the world, or in your country but go for ones that are known. What you do is contact them and offer them advertising on your site, constant mentions et in return for merchandise to be donated as prizes. This is hard to explain however I contacted one of my sites main sponsors, as I have a couple of tipping/fantasy competitions, and said they could have naming rights sponsors for one of the competitions, and have advertising on my network. In return I was given over $2000 worth of Gift Vouchers and a yearly commitment from them for more sponsorship. As stated this is an optional step, but this gives you some things to offer as prizes for competitions etc. 7. Finally Open your site Final step is to officially open your site, post on sites like this asking for a review, find sites that allow you to post links, put it in your sig, facebook/google ads, etc etc. If you have done all the steps above you will be getting news releases from clubs, you would be well set up and organised, you would have a large amount of features and stuff installed that are hits elsewhere and you could possibly have prizes on your site for your competitions that you do not have to shell out your cash for. I hope this comes in helpful to you, as I said this is not a bible on how to do it but it is what I have done on my site and has worked out well for me after 12 months I was receiving $1000 a month in paid subscriptions from my small member base because I offered a complete site, everything they wanted in one place. This went into purchasing professional addons, and I now conduct continuous interviews with players/officials etc further adding to our members enjoyability, and I run my own advertising through vbAdvertise (from vbCredits) which now brings in additional income. Best of luck to you all...
Well written and easy to read. Quite a bit of information here and easy analogies to make for other niches, really. I believe that is quite valuable in writing Articles. Thanks so much for your time, effort, energy, and candidness with this. I thought about doing a sports related site myself actually, Cycling. I'm quite passionate about it and had an inkling of what was needed. You completely confirmed this for me. Meaning, I'd say you've provided a very healthy ideal process and I had thoughts of a few levels below that. However, I know it would not last without being closer to this that you have provided. +1
Thank you both for the comments they are really appreciated. As I was writing it was like 1am my time and I now see some spelling mistakes, but at the time I was thinking who would be interested in what I have to say and so I just wrote from experience and thought even if it helps you to have a better looking website, getting a "sponsor" who will give you prizes etc it would help out. I think this could be used well on any other niche also, for example a television forum - contact the media departments for the television channels so when the announce new shows/cancellations etc you are the first with the news to provide, contact electronic stores that have online merchandise but aren't giants in the field and they may give you a couple prizes or something so you can run quiz competitions or something like that. Best of luck to everyone and if I have helped you in some sort of way my job is done.
Can you give me an idea of what to expect from sports teams? Would they email the info to me? Would I browse a specific section on their own website, whcih I suppose I can do now.
By contacting a sporting club they may add you to their Media Distribution List which means when there is news to know they will e-mail you and you can then put it on the site.
Thanks for the reply. It'd be great if indeed this worked out. Kind of regret being a one team fan now
