I’m thinking of a complete overhaul of my blog.
Anyone who has read my blog for any period of time knows that I’m pretty strict about sticking to my theme. A couple of times a month I’ll write about something else, but if I were to look back at all my posts I’d bet that well over 90% are writing/publishing/book related. But I think there’s another topic that I’d like writing about just as much or more…sports.
I know you’re probably thinking “typical guy,” but no. I love sports more than I love books. And I can just about guarantee that the one guy you’re thinking about who tends to “know everything” about sports knows a whole lot less than I do. I had to come to realize how much I loved reading when I was younger. I didn’t have to do that with sports. There’s never been any doubt. I’ve only been to two Houston Rockets games (the second one happened yesterday) and I’ve never been to a Texans game, but I’ve probably attended 50 Astros games. And now that both the Astros and Rockets have a TV deal that allows me to watch them, I don’t miss games. It’s easy for someone to say they don’t miss any of their team’s games when it’s football season. But I’m talking about 82 + 162. It’s difficult to describe to you how seriously I take this stuff.
Simply put, I’ve never met someone who keeps up with MLB, NFL, and NBA like I do. I don’t just watch, I’m constantly analyzing. I used to think two of my older brothers knew more than I ever would in a lifetime, but I passed them long ago.
The thought has crossed my mind to just create a separate blog to write about sports, but that’s out of the question. There’s a reason this blog has a nice little readership and attracts new visitors every single day…time. The time I’ve put in to enable its growth. And I’m not going to do that a second time. But I know based on passed posts that y’all aren’t interested in what I have to say about sports. So I’m left with two choices…turn this into a sports blog because I want to, or don’t.
Tell me why or why not. And don’t say “do what you want.”
Johnny Reads 
I think ruling out a separate blog is a little premature. You will not retain the current readership with a sports blog, as that is not the interest that drew them. If you do just switch this blog to sports, a change of name is in order, too. Maybe to something more closely related to your regional teams. As a Chicagoan, I wouldn’t be as interested in a Houston-based sports as White Sox and Blackhawks would not be your focus.
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I don’t think it is. Cause I have no intention of posting on a new blog with 50 followers or something. I’d just be wasting my time. A name change is simple. And I wouldn’t write only about Houston. I’d write posts about any and every thing I find interesting about the three leagues I mentioned.
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Personally…and I will say I am being a bit selfish…I would like it to stay about books and your thoughts on them. You have piqued my interest in different books. I like the idea behind sports, the challenges of the physical body…telling your brain to go take a hike when it says you cannot do this. But sports seems to have evolved into a he man adventure…and I guess I do not hear much about the motivation and the desire to play a sport, usually in a group. Or much about women in sports.
I am a huge fan of the Seattle Seahawks…being that I spent 26 years in that state. A good chunk of my life. So I cheer them on and like to hear their stories of how and why they got to where they are. And it is nice to see a team that has been down for a long time, be hugely successful. Perhaps that is a thought you can put into your book blog…information about the premise the reasoning the drive of sports and why we as a public like them so much. For some it appears life or death.
But I for one…would be extremely sad if you were to stop the book blog. I love your sense of humor and how clear and concise you are.
My thoughts…
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I’m not going to overhaul my blog. Not yet. I’m just going to test out a weekly series or something. I’ll just have to figure it out.
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Why not start with a few posts about sports – adding them in a different tab or whatnot – start building your sports readership that way and then move to having one blog about books and another about sports. Don’t get me wrong – I love both but I don’t see why you would have to give up either. Yes, it might take a little more work to build up a readership for the sports, but that shouldn’t discourage you from writing about sports. Also, changing from books, etc. to strict sports you may end up losing readership, those who aren’t all about the sports. I enjoy sports (my husband is more like you when it comes to sports, most especially the Washington D.C. teams) but they aren’t the kind of blogs I read often or regularly.
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That’s exactly what I was going to say 🙂
Same answer.
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I think the regular readers can skip the sports items if you tag them 🙂 I am not going to read the sports pieces but won’t stop reading your other stuff that interests me.
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I’m thinking one day a week for my sports topics. For now.
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My reasoning for really not wanting to write sports-related posts on here is because when I’ve done so previously they’ve barely been read. Like I said in the post, the regular readers just don’t care about that stuff. Not on here. But I think I’m going to test out maybe one day a week or something for a month and then I’ll reevaluate.
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Test, give it some time – see if you gain some new followers on the sports posts. If you tag them right I think it should really work for you! Good luck!
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I think starting another blog is a good way to avoid alienating your current audience, but it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to start over. It’s what I would do if I wanted to branch out, but I don’t have any audience to lose 😛
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Haha I’m going to try maybe once a week for some non-bookish posts.
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As another person said, maybe you can have a special section on your blog about sports or weekly posts on sports, if you do not want to start a new blog entirely. You already have a large audience who is interested in your posts about books and writing–we would miss not seeing those 🙂
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I’m thinking of maybe one day a week. Even though my previous sports-related posts have not been well read. We’ll see.
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I made the mistake of starting a second blog which is only about theatre and I have never built up a big following on that one. If I were facing that decision again I would stick to one blog and do the occasional theatre post within that main blog, but I would list theatre under a separate category.
There are many people I follow who write about more than one thing, and if a particular subject of theirs doesn’t interest me when I see it in the Reader, I skip it that day because I know that the next day’s post will probably interest me again – that’s why I followed them in the first place. I followed you because of the books, and because you’re a writer.
Personally, I wouldn’t like to see the whole focus of your blog change direction to sport because that doesn’t interest me, but to add another string to your bow will bring you more readers even if we don’t all read the same posts. Good luck with your decision…
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I’m not going to change it. I think I’m going to do maybe four sports posts a month or something. I’m skeptical because I know how my previous sports related posts have been received, but I’ll do that and if people aren’t reading them then I’ll reevaluate.
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Time has brought you your readership but you may lose a lot of that if you change to become a sports blog. Because how many of your followers do you think like both writing and sports? And how many of your reader are from outside of the US and so even if they like sports, might not follow American sports? By announcing a second blog on here, you could encourage new readership onto a brand new sports blog for the people who’s interests do overlap. I personally would miss your posts if you changed this into a sports blog. But if you are writing about sports for the enjoyment does it matter if it takes time to build up a readership again? I think a new blog would be good, while keeping up this blog as well. Assuming you have the time for that.
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You’re right. But I’ve posted on here almost 400 times in way less than two years. I’ve decided to test out discussing sports one day a week. I’ll try it for a month and see what happens.
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Good plan
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How about “Sports-talk Saturday” or something like that. Give it one day of the week, and go all out on your sportsy talk. See how it goes over.
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I’ve already decided. And it’s going to be exactly what you said. Except on Sundays. I’ll test it out for a month and just see what happens.
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My wife and I are huge Blue Jays fans and so we follow baseball. I watch NFL games and I am denver Bronco fan. I do not watch basketball though. But I would read and enjoy posts on sports. But I might not have much to say if the post is really specific about a team or player I’m not that familiar with. Of course my mostest favourite sport is MMA but I wouldn’t really blog much on that because it is so specific. I thought I might do this and realized that readers I have would have little knowledge or interest in combat sports.
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You’re a fan of the Blue Jays but not the Raptors? Hmm. If I ever did change the blog, I wouldn’t only talk about my teams. Then it’s a Houston sports blog. Very specific, like you said. No. I love the three sports I mentioned and tennis. I’d write about it all. BUT I’m not changing anything. Not yet. I’m going to try weekly posts or something like that. For now.
And I hate MMA. Not because I don’t understand it or know some of the fighters, but because I think it should be illegal. I don’t find the UFC entertaining in the least. I don’t want to sit there and see a guy take elbow after elbow to the face or someone either have their arm broken or tap. Yes, I also have an issue with boxing, but at least they’re limited to their hands.
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I completely understand your stance on MMA. The Blue Jays are so much easier to follow because pretty much every game is televised. The Raptor games, less so, because basketball, especially out here in the west, is not as popular so fewr games are televised. And time wise, I can only focus on so much.
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Oh. I would have thought they’d both always be on. Baseball is better anyway.
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One of the last places where a man can scratch his balls and no one will give him a hard time.
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Hahaha unless he does it toward the crowd.
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Well, yes, that’s true.
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Hmm, I would do both and see what happens. So start with “this post is about sports so if you’re not interested please politely piss off” and then cyber stalk them when they leave you a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz comment. This has NEVER happened to me btw. I promise. Well … semi promise.
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I’ve written sports posts. And they don’t get read. Oh well. I’m still thinking about it.
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Honestly, I just have two blogs (uh, okay, actually I have more than 2, but whatever), and my subjects aren’t as removed from one another as yours are. But, I also really treat one as something like a diary and don’t give a crap about readership. The other has a really small readership so far, too. I just have a different approach; for me, it’s about writing about what I want to write about. And, if I get followers from that, awesome, because those are people on a similar radio frequency to mine, but I just don’t feel right about ‘getting followers’ being the main purpose of my blog. If that was the point, I’d just join twitter and be done with it. 🙂 I blog because I have things to say. Whether I’m preaching to an audience of 1 or 100000 doesn’t make any difference.
That said, while a weekly sports post wouldn’t kill your blog or anything, being realistic, that doesn’t mean your regular readers are going to read it; that’s just not what they’re here for. And yeah, you’ll get some overflow. I’m sure you have followers who like both writing AND sports, and if you did start another blog, those people would follow you. But, straight up admission: I wouldn’t be one of them. I was into sports in my teens, but I really don’t give a crap about them now, so I won’t read those posts whether they’re on this blog or a different one. There are too many other things in my reader that I DO want to read to waste my time on things I don’t care about. But, just because I and some other people won’t read them, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post them. Write about what you want to write about; that’s what writing is for. 🙂 I don’t think it’s fair to your passions (especially one you feel so strongly about) to determine their validity based on how likely they are to become an instant success.
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I know just about everything you said to be true. Which is why I’ve decided on makimg another blog. No idea how many times I’ll post on it or when I’ll make or a name or anything…but I’m going to just see what happens and keep this one as is.
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Yeah… I agree that you shouldn’t start another blog. Mostly because of the time thing. Even with my currently piddly cntributions to my own blog, it’s still a time-consuming enterprise.
I love sports, though not as much as you. And we like different sports. I prefer hockey. I know we’ve talked about this already.
If you feel that passionately about sports, I say dedicate a couple days a week to sports posts. As long as they cover more than just the sports in Texas. We all love our hometown teams (as we should), but if people don’t follow your team at all, but have an interest in the sport in general, they might like to read about the league, or writing about multiple teams.
I love reading articles and blogs analyzing hockey. Obviously, you’ll write more about your own teams than any others, which you should, but I think if you open it up to the whole league (of whatever sport you write about), you’ll attract more readers to your blog. For the sports part.
And if you state somewhere in your description that certain days will be set aside for sports talk, the people who come to read about sports will know which days will be geared towards them.
I say go for it.
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If you look back at my other responses, then you see that I said I’d just do maybe one sports post a week. I changed my mind today. New blog. Cause I already know what’s going to happem if I just throw out 3-5 sports posts on here every month. They won’t be read. I wrote about the freaking Super Bowl and no one read it. So I’m going to start a new one. I figure if only 5-10% of my followers on here follow me there too, then I’m off to a nice start.
And it definitely wouldn’t only be about Houston teams. And sorry, there wouldn’t be any hockey. I just don’t have the knowledge.
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