Website: www.sportsagentblog.com

Interview With: Darren Heitner

When did you start Sports Agent Blog?

SportsAgentBlog originally began titled, “I Want to be a Sports Agent” on December 31, 2005. I decided to keep both titles. Initially, the site was located at www.dhpromo.com/blog, but eventually made the shift over to www.sportsagentblog.com.

What made you start it?

I interned at Career Sports & Entertainment (a full service agency) in the Summer of 2005. I gained invaluable experience, but as I continued to read up on the sports agent industry, I realized how difficult it would be to break into the business. I decided to start thinking outside of the box. At the time, I had a very successful promotions company in Gainesville, FL (home of the University of Florida) and decided to drop it and all the money it was bringing in so that I could focus on reading as much as possible about the sports agent industry, stuffing my head with tons of knowledge, and writing about it on a daily basis.

What is your background?

I was born in Hollywood, FL on February 9, 1985. I am the only child and have been blessed with amazing parents who have believed in me since day 1. In high school, I was a nationally ranked debater, which led to my interest in negotiations. As an undergrad at the University of Florida, I majored in Political Science and ended up valedictorian of my class with a 4.0 GPA. I am currently a first year law student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. I am also CEO of Dynasty Athlete Representation, LLC.

Did you launch your career as an agent before or after you started the blog and how has that worked out for you?

Without the blog, I would not be nearly at the point that I find myself today. The creation of Dynasty is a direct result of starting SportsAgentBlog.com. In fact, very few people are able to start off in this cut throat industry on their own. Most try to get a low paying entry level job at an established conglomerate, and a majority of applicants are denied. I can honestly say that in its first year of business (Dynasty is still less than 1 year old, officially becoming an entity in April 2007), Dynasty has become much more than I ever envisioned in such a short amount of time. If you only knew everything that we are working on behind the scenes currently…

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

In February 2007, SportsAgentBlog.com received about 4,000 unique visitors and 9,000 page views. In March, that jumped up to 10,500 unique visitors and 21,500 page views. We have seen a constant increase since then. To tell you the truth, I think the main reason that the site has been “put on the map” is because we have stayed true to our mission. We believe that our product speaks for itself. We aim to provide the public with free information on an industry that has been left in the dark for a long time. At the same time, we will continue to write pieces that are easy to read and not try to win cheap hits by showing pictures of naked girls or stupid videos (occasionally we show a picture of a hot athlete with a story).

But the main thing that helped us out was when Google started giving us some love. Type in anything like “sports agent” into a google search and we are near the top, if not at the top, of that search. Other sites have shown us some love with links, and we appreciate that as well.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Wordpress to write the posts. Dreamweaver to create/edit the website.

What ad network(s) do you use?

I have independent advertisers that have contacted me personally, Google ads, and Adify ads based on my participation in the Yardbarker network.
If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

Since I am busy reading over 1,000 stories a day and typing my brains out (along with going to law school, working for my clients, trying to get new clients, etc), I do not have much time to spread the word about the stories on the blog. If there was one thing I would like to have, it would be someone to spend half an hour a day hitting up the message boards and linking to our posts. I find that whenever a random reader decides to post a link to our site on a message board, we get a nice influx of hits.

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

Favorites:
Deadspin
The Big Lead
Money Players
Sports Biz with Darren Rovell
Sports Law Blog

Least Favorites:
Schilling’s Blog
Can’t Stop The Bleeding

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

Sports and the internet go hand in hand. There is something about the two that mesh tremendously. I believe that content (including actual footage, highlights, recaps, news) will be received by internet by more consumers as time goes on. As the old get older and the younger rely more and more on the internet, internet subscribers will continue to grow and people will increase their reliance on using the internet to fill their sports cravings.

Bold prediction: A group effort led by an intelligent and willful sports writer ends up gaining enough of a following to become mainstream and challenge ESPN.com as a preeminent source for sports information.

STN’s Take:

In order to be a top notch agent in all major sports, it takes more dedication and work then 99.9% of the population would even think about putting into their own work. We can tell Darren has that and he is on his way to being an extraordinary sports agent. If I was a top professional athlete, I might think about hiring Darren as a secondary agent if that is possible. I would still want the experience of a major agent but it would be nice to have someone like Darren who would give me the “Jerry Maguire” treatment until he gained that experience.

The I Want to be a Sports Agent blog is a perfect example of how blogging can help your career. If you want to break into an industry and don’t know how to go about it, research as much as you can and blog about it. If you provide good enough information, you will be noticed. If you don’t provide good enough information, then that industry may not be for you. One thing I would suggest about the blog is redesigning the header image. To me it just looks really ugly. The overlapping fonts aren’t very attractive. Paying a designer to do simple redesign would make it look more professional. Also, it would be great if Darren eliminated the splash page from his Dynasty Reps site.