Website: www.hotfootblog.com

Interview with:  Anthony De Rosa

When did you start Hot Foot?

March 2006

What made you start it?

Was looking to create a site just for myself and my friends enjoyment, to share our experience watching the team and it grew into a full blown news and rumors site for the team.

What is your background?

My background is in New Media and Marketing. Currently, I am responsible for contract negotiation and client management for a top software company.

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career?

For fun, if I can make a career out of it, even better.

What was your tipping point?  What put you on the map?

The support of Mets Blog, along with many other blogs linking over to us consistently. The winter meetings is a great launch point. In December 2006 we received close to 80,000 page views and many people started to read us for the first time, and many of them stuck around. The winter meetings are a huge time of year for baseball bloggers in general.

What type of blogging software do you use?

WordPress

What ad network do you use?

Google AdSense

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not nearly as much as I would like.

What are some of your favorite blogs out there and what are some of your least favorite?

Mets Blog, Coppola Sisters, Mike’s Mets, Faith and Fear In Flushing, Toasted Joe, Metstradamus, Mets Heads, Deadspin, MLB Trade Rumors. I don’t want to name any blogs in particular but I don’t like how many blogs copy and paste entire articles from mainstream sites and don’t really provide much else. You need to bring something original to the table, not to mention its outright copyright infringement.

Any bold predictions for the future of sports on the internet?

I see more consolidation of mainstream and fan blogs, more partnerships and relationships being forged. The cream will rise to the top. Eventually folks who aren’t 100% dedicated to writing about sports on the internet tend to fade away. Mainstream sites have really begun to embrace the blog format and that will continue to become the place fans go for the most fresh information about sports on the web. Straight news outlets will always have their place, but people will use aggregations like Sports Spyder as an entry point to get to them, as it puts all their news in one place without having to surf around. Blogs will be there to provide additional commentary and the point of view that the fans share or respect.

STN’s Take:

Hot Foot is another great Mets Blog and Anthony works hard to keep it that way.  4 posts on New Years Day and 3 on New Years Eve Day show he doesn’t take much time off.  Our one suggestion so he can earn a bit more money would be to push his sidebar down on the left a bit and add a Google Ad.  The top left of blogs is actually the most valuable ad space.  People see it first.