Step by step on how to start a sports blog 2022 is really challenging situation especially when you don’t enough clue on how to start.
Do you remember 4-2 win of France over Croatia and those nerve-wracking & heart freezing moments of the final FIFA World Cup 2018?
Over 3 billion audience counting second to second progress, just to be in sync with the pulse of football. This is the power of sports.
Is there any doubt that sports bring people together?
Sports keep people united in the common spirit of competitive brotherhood. Fans follow, cheer, and motivate players to achieve maximum. Sports are such a beat that gets maximum traction at any particular time.
Sports is, no doubt, one of the most dynamic mainstream industries. Annually, billions of dollars in revenue are generated from ticket sales for sporting events.
That is only one aspect. People love and enjoy reading about their favorite sport, teams, gossip and players.
You can help them through a sports blog.
Yes! Sports Blog is one way to help fans know more and feel connected to their favorite game. The blog can be a source of inspiration for a budding sportsperson.
Having a passion and understanding of a particular sport, the rules, techniques, teams and the players help in starting a sports blog.
Below here, I will highlight the step by step process on how to create a sports blog in 2022
Step 1 – Micro Niches To Choose From For Starting A Sports Blog
Following all the sports, events, players and stats is an impossible thing. You cannot be an expert in all sports. Look for your passion for a single sport, a country, a team or for one topic. An area in which you are an expert, that will set you apart.
Various sports are a micro-niche in itself. Create a blog in the sports in which you have the expertise.
- Football
- Tennis
- Golf
- Rugby
- Formula 1
- Cricket
- Boxing
Apart from the mainstream sporting events a lot of leagues have caught attention. Few of the sporting leagues which can be your micro-niche are as under;
- English Premier League
- La Liga
- India Premier League
- Pro Kabbadi League
- Big Bash
#3. Covering Major Sport Events
Sporting micro-niches can be the major sporting events happening worldwide. But the micro-niche can be seasonal. Still, a lot of information can be shared on player/team preparations, strategies and event locations.
- Grand Prix
- Tour De France
- Olympics
- Commonwealth Games
- World Championship
- WTA
- NBA
Micro sports niche can be topics revolving around a particular sport.
- Player Transfer
- Match Statistics
- Blog on Favorite Team
- Sports Coaching Blog
- Legends of Game Blog
- History of a Game
Step 2 – Choose Domain Name For Your Sports Blog
On analyzing domain names, I find that the best domain names have already been taken by media houses, magazines and sports channels.
My analysis of sports blogs suggests that the best domain names are the combination of the name of sport/activity + the attention-seeking word. For example “Tennis Now” and “Sporting Life”.
You can use the domain name finding tool Leandomainsearch.com to get more domain name ideas.
For example, the tool returned the following domain name suggestion for the word “Skiing”.
Try to find a word relatable to your sub-niche.
If you can’t find a suitable domain name then you can start with any domain name. I too started my blog with the domain name “wisebaniya”, then I changed it to “moneysparkle” but still I was missing the connection.
Finally, I got the right combination in the domain name “CashOverflow”.
The other things which you should keep in mind before finalizing the domain name are:
- Pick a .com extension: If it is already taken then go for any other extension.
- For a country-specific audience, you should go for that country’s extension. For example, for blog audiences in India go for .in extension and likewise for a US-based audience you should choose a .us extension.
- Avoid domain names with hyphens and special characters. Because your audiences may find it difficult to spell and remember.
- Avoid words that are difficult to spell and hard to remember.
Step 3 – Buy A Hosting
You should avoid free hosting because in free hosting you do not own the site. You are given a subdomain, that looks like “mysite.yoursportblog.com”, a completely unprofessional look.
In free hosting space, you do not have access to the control panel. On top of that, the server speed slows down with time.
There will be NO help and support options. To make things worse, free hosting does not give you the flexibility to design your website as it has limited functions.
A good idea is to buy hosting space from the safe and reliable hosting service provider having quality customer care.
I would recommend you to buy Namecheap hosting
Namecheap gives you a safe hosting space on their high-speed servers. Your website loads faster on their solid-state drives (SSD) and free content delivery networks (CDN).
All the shared hosting plans from Namecheap are protected from hackers and brute force attacks using HTTP/2 tech and AI security bots.
You get a free SSL “Lets Encrypt” certificate and assistance from quality customer support agents.
Click here to Special discounted link to buy Namecheap hosting
Steps To Buy Hosting From Namecheap
- Step 1: Go to Namecheap website and select “Web Hosting”
By purchasing web hosting you get hosting services for your blog on the Namecheap shared servers.
Stellar Plus is for starting level growing websites. You get enough resources for starting a growing website, like;
- Free Domain Name
- Unlimited Websites
- Unmetered SSD
- Free CDN BETA
- AutoBackup
On the other hand, you can host only one website on Stellar Plan having limited resources.
The Stellar Business Plan has higher resources and is best suited to high traffic websites or to support the portfolio of growing websites.
You should not get a domain name registered from your hosting service provider for the following reason:
- In case of website transfer, you may want to shift the domain registrar also which can be confusing.
- For a portfolio of websites, managing domain at the registrar is better.
- For added security.
Hostgator is a good option for registering a domain name.
Here you can select the hosting plan and choose to connect it with your existing domain name or a new domain name.
*Note* the free domain name that comes with the hosting is not a .com domain. For example sportnews.site
Here you can select the hosting plan period from 12, 24 or 36 months. Namecheap Stellar Plus plan has a fixed transparent price of $2.18 per month for the first year.
Next, you will require a WordPress setup to see your blog live on the internet.
Step 4 – Technical Steps To Setup Your Sports Blog
Installing WordPress, themes and essential plugins make your sports blog go live and functional.
Install WordPress
You can create beautiful websites by installing the free content management system of WordPress.
You just need to go to the control panel and click on “Install WordPress” in order to create a blog.
Some hosting services provide a pre-installed WordPress, but that entirely depends upon your hosting provider.
WordPress is used to create web pages, posts and add images. Further, WordPress lets you install themes & plugins, to help you customize and change the appearance of your blog.
Setting Themes
Themes include layout, style elements and color schemes to help you improve the overall look and feel of your website.
The next section contains a list of the best WordPress themes for sports blogs. You can check and choose the theme which fits your micro sports niche.
However, when starting a blog you should not waste precious time in finalizing the theme.
Instead, you should pick up a free theme or any reasonably priced theme and focus more on other important things like content & growing your blog.
Make sure that whatever theme you choose, the website should;
- Have a responsive design
- Open with the help of any browser
- Be easy to navigate
- Give a professional look and have a proper structure
Steps to Install a Free Theme
You need to go to the dashboard> “Appearance” menu and select the option theme.
Next, you can select one from the list of themes and click on add new.
Steps to Install a Paid Theme
- Download the theme file from the theme website
- Click on upload theme
- Choose the theme file
- Click on install
Once the installation is done, click on the “Activate” button to make the theme functional.
Installing Necessary Plugins
Plugins give you the much needed additional features. They are helpful for having extended functionality. For example protection against spamming, incorporating SEO features, creating an e-store and many more.
Further, as you grow you may require advanced plugins like email marketing or affiliate marketing plugins.
In the initial phase, you can start by installing only necessary plugins, the list of which is as under;
- Akismet
- JetPack
- Yoast SEO/Rankmath
- TinyMCE Advanced
- WP Smush
- Shortcodes Ultimate
[Nairabet - 500% Win Bonus]
Please can you help me to choose a nice domain name that’s catchy and focused on sports content.
Yes, we can help you. send us email through our contact form. Thank you.