A blog for an amateur athletes is almost critical to create their own audience and build a crowd. Below is a short list of advices we give to our MAKEACHAMP athletes to help them build a crowd before their MAKEACHAMP campaigns. This is also important when you’ll be trying to find a sponsor. Nonetheless, it is never to late too start a blog even for the simple reason that it is a great way for athletes to express their athletic journey and gather an audience around their athletic activities. That being said, it is important to be cautious regarding what you are going to be blogging about – yes there are some rules.
1. Be diverse in your topics of writing.
Not everyone who will be reading your blog will be athletes and you need to create your blog with that in mind. Your life is complicated and you have many topics you can write about that might be interesting to a diverse crowd. For example, if you are a female competitor in a male-oriented sport, you can definitely talk about that aspect of your life in a way that relates to other aspects than sports.
2. Keep it short, simple, fun and entertaining.
A blog doesn’t have to be complicated actually the simpler it is the better! The average reader is not looking to be educated, no offence to you, but they have other sources where they will go to if they want to get educated. The average reader wants to have a light-hearted; entertaining read and catch up with your life. Keeping your blog simple will also prevent you from getting overwhelmed with the topic of your blog. Last point is make sure your blogs are short. Its hard to precisely define what short means but if you generally keep the blog regarding a single topic it will help to keep the reader interested – no one likes to read 10,000 word papers.
3. Share your story
Your story is what makes you unique and this is the reason people are visiting your blog. Don’t worry about copying someone or making a fancy blog. Your story should be the center of the attention because it is one of a kind. Your story includes all the good things and all the bad things – so don’t try to only write when you are ina good mood or when you are on top of your game – tell people about your struggles, your injuries.
4. Results don’t nearly as much as you think you do
Some athletes tend to post a ton about their results – tell people about how they won that and this tournament. However, this makes for very poor blogging. People want to get the inside story - the context and the background to what makes your results unique – regardless of the results. Before you go on telling people how you won the National championships or lost your race and your qualifications – stop, think about what was the journey towards these results, what makes them unique. Share the story behind the podium and you’ll have people coming back to read more.
5. Edit your blog
Sorry, I had to add this one in here. Just because you are an athlete, it does not mean you are allowed to write a sloppy blog. If you want readers to come back to your blog, you better start caring about your grammar and spelling. However, you don’t have to go overboard with the grammar and spelling but minimal proof-reading can make a huge difference in the number of people you have coming back to read your blog. If you simply cannot stand grammar, you can ask a friend to edit your blog.
6. Add visuals
Adding pictures and videos to your blog can add another exciting dimension to your content. Furthermore, if a picture can say 1000 words, imagine how much a video will say? This might be true for all blogs, but athletes should be extra inclined to use videos and picture because so much of what we do requires visuals. Our sports are always better explained with videos and pictures.