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7 Priceless Tips For Every Budding Sport Writer

The world of sport is full to the brim with passion and enthusiasm, which makes the world of sporting journalism such an enticing and equally competitive market to try and break into. Below are some of the best tips collected from leading experts to help any budding writer make it in the current market.

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#1 Stick To Your Opinions

In sports writing, you have the 'luxury' of being able to truly project yourself and your views onto your writing. As your network and fan base grows, you'll find that they are there because of you as an individual writer. If you were to suddenly switch positions or change your mind after hearing something someone else said, you lose any creditability as a writer and any incentive for a reader to remain on your platform.

#2 Networking

Writers covering sports and sports tech need to continuously be building their network of sources and can use a number of tools to do so. The relationships that are built, will be essential for journalists to be able to call on for reliable information when breaking news hits and deadlines are looming.

Contributor: Cassie Gonzalez from onepitch.co

#3 Find Your Niche

The more niche you can get, the bigger of a fish you become in your pond. For example, it is much easier and much quicker to become an expert on bodybuilding for ectomorphs than it is to become a popular fitness writer.

Once you get some recognition within your specialized athletic niche you can then build off of that and grow into a more full-fledge general topic writer if you wish.

Contributor:  Erik Bowitz, Editor of Skinny Yoked from skinnyyoked.com

#4 Contribute To Small Blogs

There are a thousand different sports blogs online, pick your favourite sport and contact a few publications asking if you can contribute. Most publications are often actively looking for more contributors and even have a dedicated landing page to attract writers.

Although these blogs attract writers with claims of exposure, don’t use that as your main reason for contributing. Your goal should be to use this stage to improve your writing, refresh your grammar skills and get a reference for the next step.

Contributor: Nikki Parsons from matchthebar.com

#5 Reach Out To Bigger Blogs

It’s like asking for that promotion you deserve. Now that you have some experience, you can move higher up the food chain. It is time to research and contact blogs with more reach and — importantly — money to spend on writers.

Twitter is especially useful in this because you can reach out with direct messages and see what type of reach the blogs have. You might have to dig a little and find the twitter of the editor of the publication, as well as the main twitter account. As you have some examples of your work in another publication, send links to your two best-performing articles.

Contributor: Nikki Parsons from matchthebar.com

#6 Utilise Social Media

Your writing will be judged not just on your content on the publication, but wherever you write. Your social media is an extension of your brand as a sports writer. You need to be sharing content related to that sport more frequently, but also offering your opinion to your followers and not just retweeting.

Contributor: Nikki Parsons from matchthebar.com

#7 The 80/20 Rule

Follow the 80/20 rule, posting 80% of your content on your interests in life, sports, etc. and 20% of the time sharing a recent article. This encourages your readers to also follow your personal brand and get some insight into how you think.

Contributor: Nikki Parsons from matchthebar.com

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Written by James Metcalfe

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