Youth Sport: How to Start A Youth Sports Blog (Part 4)

In Part 4, you will learn how to build traffic to your blog posts with Twitter.

Review -

In Part 1 of the series, I encouraged you to determined if you really had the motivation and passion to start a Youth Sports Blog.

In Part 2, you learned how to set up a blog and perhaps you started to write.

In Part 3, you learned how to build credibility and organic traffic (Traffic via search and referrals).

Follow the steps below and have patience it takes time and effort to build a following.

1. Join Twitter

In Part 3, we talked about joining the conversation on blogs to increase your authority and credibility about your chosen subject. Twitter is another great place to hold a conversation about your chosen topic and as a bonus Twitter can drive traffic to your blog.

I would recommend that you set up a Twitter account in association with your blog. My twitter account is www.twitter.com/Stats_Dad. I use twitter to curate, disseminate and converse about youth sports subjects. 

It's so easy to set up a Twitter account. Just go to Twitter.com and follow the very easy instructions. You can be conversing about your topic in a matter of minutes.

Of course, you need people to converse with and you need followers to see the influential thoughts you have about your topic. So, the first thing you need to do is find people to follow. A simple search on Twitter will uncover a long list of potential people to follow. First, I searched for coaches. After weeding out life coaches, I started following coaches of youth sports who had large followings (500+). I also started following moms and dads with kids, the target audience for my youth sports content. After I found people of interest though my search, I just started clicking the Follow button. You will immediately start to see a stream of tweets from the people you chose to follow.

The next thing that you need to do is join the conversation. When someone you follow says something interesting or provocative click on the rely link and voice your opinion. If you do not have anything to add to the conversation, but like the content, you can simply retweet (RT) the message by clicking on the Retweet link. This rebroadcasts the tweet to your followers. (Note: only followers see tweets) When you RT, the original writer of the post will be notified in his or her tweet stream and perhaps via email (You can set your preferences to notify you of any activity relating to you via email. I do not do this because it will take over your email. Simply look at the activity on Twitter).

Note: People love to be retweeted because it validates the sent message. RTs tell the twitter world that the writer contributed something worthwhile.

Note: In the beginning, I would recommend that you keep your replies positive and supportive.

Soon, you will start to notice that the people you are following and conversing with are following you. (It is somewhat common courtesy to follow those who follow you unless you are a celeb.) Your followers will likely start reading and replying to your Tweets. When they reply to your tweets they expose their followers to your conversation. So make your tweets worth reading and sharing and soon followers of the people you follow will start following you. It is a snowball effect.

If you want to start a new conversation with someone on Twitter simply post a message on your Twitter page with the twitter handle of the person you want to converse with - For example, if you wanted to send me a message that can be seen publicly then tweet @stats_dad I really liked your post on How to Start Youth Sports Blog. The @Stats_Dad is like my address on a letter you are sending. I will immediately see this in my activity column and most likely respond to you.

Note: You can also send me a private message or direct message (DM) via twitter. Click on my profile and if a little envelope icon is there send a message. I need to be following you for you to send me a DM.

Note, you can Tweet 135 character text messages. You can also include links to pictures, videos or websites as long as the text and the links combined are less than 136 characters. 

Advice: Tweet links to each one of your blog posts.

Before long you will have hundreds maybe thousands of people that you follow and who follow you. I have assembled 1000 followers in 10 months.

When you follow a lot of people you will notice that you cannot keep up. You will want to create lists of your favorites. I have a Dads list and a Youth Sports Coaches List. This is easy to do. Click on the person that you want to follow or are following - look for an icon of a head / bust. Click on that and then click on add to list.

Advice: It is a good idea to bond with a person who has a strong twitter following. Intrigue them and they will likely drive traffic to your Twitter page.

Note: You can and should customize your Twitter page to match your website. You can do this through settings and the design button. Use Trial and error to get the look you want - you can always reset it.

2. Set up TweetDeck or HootSuite or similar

There are free Twitter platforms that can help you organize and send Tweets in one view. I use TweetDeck to organize my Twitter streams - The first column is my Youth Sports Coaches list. This column has the most relevant information that I might want to explore and respond to.  The second column consists of tweets from all of the 1,500 people I follow. It is quite cumbersome. The 3rd column showcases all the tweets that @Stats_Dad is mentioned in and the 4th column shows all direct private messages (DMs) to me. Again, this one view layout makes participating on twitter easier. These platforms also make it easy to add videos and pictures and shorten URL links so that you can maximize your 135 character limit. You can also schedule Tweets using these platforms. Sending out a tweet at 2AM will not have the same impact as one sent at 12N unless you have an international following.

Twitter can do all of the above. These platforms just make it easier to see because of the one view layout.

3. Set up Buffer

In the previous posts, I talked about how important good consistent

Youth Sports: How to Start A Youth Sports Blog (Part 3)

In Part 1 of the series, I encouraged you to determined if you really had the motivation and passion to start a Youth Sports Blog.

In Part 2, you learned how to set up a blog and perhaps you started to write.

In Part 3, you will learn how to build credibility and organic traffic (Traffic via search and referrals).

1. Create blog roll on your site.

You'll want to join the conversation about youth sports to increase awareness of your site and build your authority. So you need to find conversations to join.

The first step is to find likeminded blogs. You can find blogs by 1) searching blog aggregator sites, like All Top or Blogs.com, 2) doing a Google Blog Search or 3) reviewing the blog rolls of sites you admire. A blog roll is a list of blog links on a blog. These are blogs the blogger likes to follow.

The second step is create your own blog roll.  It's easy to add a blog roll to your Blogger blog. Go to your layout options and select add a gadget. Then select Blog List. Follow the instructions to add the URLs of all of the blogs that you identified in step 1. For Wordpress blog roll instructions follow this link.

Every time you add a blog to your list, you are essentially giving a vote of respect to the blogger you admire with a link. Bloggers like links because each link to a site is tells search engines that this blog has interesting content that people like. The number of links to a site is an important ranking element for search algorithms. When you give a blogger a link, they will often show you some link love by adding you to their blog list.

2. Join the conversation

Go to the sites on your blog roll and comment on their posts. Let these bloggers know that you are a new voice. They will  notice your post and check out your link. If they like your content and see that you gave them some link love on your blog roll, they might add you to their blog roll. Again, you'll want the inbound links for SEO (Search) and exposure to the blogger's audience.

3. Keep the conversation going

Look at the comments on your site often. Acknowledge the comments and continue the conversation by adding a comment of your own in response. People love to be heard and acknowledged.  If the comment was not posted anonymously, check out the person who made the comment by following the link on the comment. Chances are that that person has a blog too. Go to their site, read it, comment on it and add it to your blog roll if you like it.

4. Use keywords

You will want to start showing up in SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) for your chosen topic. For example, if your topic is Youth Hockey - you will want to put those words in most of your posts.

Look at your analytics and check out which key words people are searching to find you. I once wrote a

Youth Sports: So You Want to Start a Youth Sports Blog (Part 2)

So if you are serious about starting a youth sports blog here are the first steps.

1. Pick a topic that you are passionate about. 

I write about youth sports in general, but I focus on select baseball, soccer, golf and basketball. These are the sports my kids play and therefore the topics that I have the most passion and content for.

Here are some examples of other youth sports blogs with a specific focus: Coach Parker writes about youth football, Hockey Mom in Canada writes about youth hockey in Canada. Sports Girls Play focuses on girls in sports.

Before you start your blog, I recommend that you explore many youth sports sites to see what you like and what you don't. Start by exploring the blogs on the blog roll on the right column of this blog.

2. Pick a name for your site and see if it is available.

One of the most important things you need to do is to select a name for the site. You'll need a name that will set your site apart from the crowd. Find a name that reflects the subject and the personality of the site.

If you are serious about blogging, you'll want your own URL, like www.statsdad.com. It is not very expensive to do (less than $10 / year). To get your own URL, you'll need to go to a URL Registry Service like GoDaddy.com, NetworkSolutions.com or Register.com and check to see what names are available and register for that URL. If the name you want is taken, these websites will suggest alternatives. I would recommend that you use a URL with a .com or .net ending. These are the most common and therefore make your site look more authentic and credible.

I choose StatsDad.com because I keep the score books and team stats for the sports teams that my kids play on. Dad blogs are getting big so I wanted the word Dad in the title.

If you do not want to pay for a URL, you can simply use the URL associated with the blog platform that you decide to use (See next section). In that case your URL would look something like this; www.statsdad.blogspot.com or www.statsdad.wordpress.com. You can start with one of the URLs that come with the blog platform and then change to your own URL later. I think that you'll agree that the owned URL looks more professional and credible.

3. Pick a blog platform and design

I recommend using Google Blogger (www.blogger.com), Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) or Typepad (www.typepad.com). All three are very easy to set up and use. Both provide intuitive step by step directions to guide you through the process. You can literally be up and running in less than 10 minutes, but you'll want to take some time designing the site.

The design of your site is one of the most important decisions you can make. A good design will make your site look credible and authoritative. A good design will make the site easy to read and navigate. Always think about the end user, your audience.

Each platform above provides many design templates from which to choose. Pick a template that fits your subject and your personality. Use the template features to make the site look new and different. Experiment with custom templates, colors and fonts. Avoid the cookie-cutter design templates. You can change the look of the site with a click of a button and then switch it right back. Use colors and fonts that are easy to read. Avoid dark backgrounds with light type.

Consider these three blogs which ones do you think look more credible and easy to read. (The first one was masked to protect the source, but this site is now defunct.)

Cookie Cutter Blogger Template

Custon Wordpress Template

Custom Blogger Template

Youth Sports: So You Want to Start a Youth Sports Blog (Part 1)

I welcome you to start a youth sports blog. In fact, over the next couple of posts I will tell you how.

Believe it or not, in this world with 156 million blogs and a population that is crazy about youth sports, there are really very few enduring youth sports blogs. So if you love youth sports jump in, you'll soon realize that blogging is as competitive as sports.

Before we start, let me be frank with you, very few youth sports blogs endure. Heck, very few blogs endure past 30 days. Evidence, I just cleared out about 40% of my blog roll. 40% of the blogs that I listed 1 year ago were dead - no activity.

Here are my Top 5 Reasons why Youth Sport Blogs Fail.

1) You'll realize it's not easy

It's very easy to set up a blog on Google Blogspot or Wordpress, but it is very difficult to write original content that is engaging, entertaining and / or informative with consistency 2 to 3 times per week every week.

2) You'll realize that your talking to yourself in the beginning, stories you've already heard

Blogging usually starts with a desire to express oneself and a dream to make money. Here's how it'll play out for you. Your blog will start with a post that you pour your heart into. You'll agonize over every word. You will hesitate to hit the publish button for fear that it could be just a little bit better, so you'll re-read it. Then you'll hit the publish button. You'll feel complete satisfaction because you created something from scratch. You will click on it over and over again. Checking in on it like it was your first born. This will energize you to write more. But after a couple of weeks, you'll come to realize that very few people are reading your posts. You'll question your sanity, "Why am I spending so much time talking into the wind?" You'll be discouraged to say the least. All of your great early content will go unnoticed. If you are like many, you will lose your desire. Your three to four posts per week will go to 1 to 2. Then you will post sporadically until you abandon the site altogether.

It takes months and months of strong content and persistent networking to build an audience. You'll need to be very patient. In the first three months, I wrote 77 posts that generated a measly 1,500 page views and 750 visits. And I can tell you that the majority of those visits were from me. Two years later, StatsDad.com is averaging 20,000 page views and 11,000 visits per month. Not a powerhouse, but respectable.

3) You'll realize your not going to make any money blogging (for a while at least)

Let me tell you straight, you're not going to make money at blogging at least for a while. Maybe never. So don't get into blogging because you want to make money. You'll only make money if you have an audience. And you'll only have an audience if you consistently create content that people want to read. (Read Point 2) Concentrate on creating compelling content that satisfies your passion to create and not on generating money. And before you know it, you will be making a few bucks from AdSense and other advertising networks. Enough to support the coffee drinking habit you will create staying up late writing..

Youth Sports: Blogs That Make the Cut

It's cut time. Yep, time to cut the slow and unmotivated and add in some new energy. The cuts I made today were easy to make because those in question have just not performed well while others have stepped up to be noticed. Of course, I kept my go to solid performers.

I am talking about my blog roll. I had 45 blogs on my blog roll and cut the roster down to 32. If your site got cut, it's time to reevaluate your commitment and your contributions to the youth sports blogosphere. Perhaps this time next year you will be added back again.

Here some of my favorites (CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO GO TO THE SITES)

A blog that makes youth sports parents SMILE.

FeelGoodSportsStories.com There is so much ugliness in youth sports and no one site can erase that ugliness from our minds, but this site makes you believe in the human spirit and the overall goodness of sports. I have been a guest writer for this site several times. My recent story call, Ready to Play:  A True Story about God and Baseball is currently being featured.

A blog that makes youth sports parents LAUGH.

SportsPickle.com - This site is about sports with a humorous twist. It made the list because it often highlights the ridiculousness of youth sports. I wish I could be a guest writer for this humorous site.

A blogs that makes youth sports parents THINK.

AskCoachWolff.com - This blog is constantly refreshed with new content that makes you think about the good, the bad and the ugly of youth sports parenting.

JBMThinks.com- Janis Meredith consistently fills her blog with interesting insights regarding the world of youth sports. Her perspective as a mother of college and soon to be collage athletes and as a wife of a long time coach provide her unique POV.

A blog that MOTIVATES youth sports parents and athletes.

StrongerTeam.com/Blog is written by Alan Stein, an internationally renowned basketball specific strength & conditioning coach. The site is motivational.

A blog that INFORMES youth sports parents.

The LA84 Sportsletter is published by the LA84 Foundation, endowed with Southern California's share of the surplus from the 1984 Olympic Games. The Foundation awards grants to youth sports organizations, initiates its own youth sports programs and manages the world's premier sports library. It's a great site for short little news releases related to youth sports. This site inspires some of my topics.

The Main Point

If you are looking for great content regarding youth sports these sites will provide you with a great foundation. 

Circle of Moms - 25 Best Daddy Blogs - Vote for Stats Dad

If you enjoy reading the blog.

If you think that my youth sport tips are useful.

Please vote for Stats Dad as a Top 25 Dad blog at Circle of Moms. Click here to vote.

Thanks for your support

Youth Sports: 1 Year Old Stats Dad is Now in Twitter

I celebrated the one year anniversary of StatsDad.com by launching a twitter page www.twitter.com/Stats_Dad. Follow my tweets.

The Main Point

I am hoping to reach more people and get more comments on my site. My hope is to start conversations about youth sports so that we can all learn how to make youth sports a better for everyone.

Youth Sports: Top Ten Youth Sports Blogs

Blogs.com asked me to compile a list of the Top 10 Youth Sports Blogs. It is easy to make the list if you are the one compiling it, but I figured I must have a worthy blog if they asked me to do it.

I spent a couple of weeks reading, critiquing and comparing youth sports blogs. I was surprised that the universe of active youth sports bloggers is actually pretty small. I kept seeing the same blogs appear again and again on blog rolls. I started there.

I eliminated the blogs that were not updated with regularity. I eliminated blogs that were new because we all know that blogs come and go. I eliminated a lot of great parenting and sports blogs that only occasionally talked about youth sports. Sports and youth needed to be the major focus.

I wanted a mix of multi-blogger / general information sites like momsteam and the more personal blogs. I tend to read the more personal blogs more often. I like to get insightful information without a lot of clicks. Finally, I could have compiled a list of blogs that focus on the sports my family is most interested in, baseball, basketball and soccer, but I wanted to make the list universally appealing.

Blogs that made the short list

We Play Sports
Girlsplaybaseball.com
High School Baseball Web
One Voice Sports
Sports Feel Good Stories
Youth Baseball Blog

Up and coming blog

Loud Mom in the Stands

The Main Point

While the universe was small, the final list was not easy to pick. What are your favorites? What would you add / subtract from the list and why?