Website: www.lonestarstruck.com

Interview with: Kelly Horn

When did you start Lone Star Struck?

The website kicked off in November of 2006.

What made you start it?

I had created a Dallas Cowboys fan site on Myspace, and it became very popular, very fast, and led me to create a website.

What is your background?

I have a Bachelor’s of Art Degree in Graphic Design and currently work at a local newspaper as the Production Manager.

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career? What is your goal with this blog?

Currently it is just for fun and out of love for the team. As it is, it consumes a lot of time, but I call it my stress relief and enjoy it very much. My dream is to make it my career, although I’d never want to do it ‘just for the money’.

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

I’d like to give credit to the great season the Dallas Cowboys are having this year. I also believe adding more writers with different styles and personalities helped a great deal.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Movable Type

What ad network(s) do you use?

Google AdSense and LinkShare

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not nearly enough to quit my day job

If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

I would be interested in learning more about Advertising and Marketing.

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

thedallascowboysshow.com, thelandryhat.com and metsmerizedonline.com to name a few

I prefer fan opinionated blogs. There are tons of them out there that just report the news, but the ones who share their perspective really get my attention.

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

I believe that sports on the internet will one day mimic the growth of internet shopping, but not until the blogosphere attracts more talented and educated writers. Most sports fans do not take information they read on sports blogs seriously, and rightfully so. Too many bloggers create their own rumors and falsely report sports news. You even have a few of the bigger bloggers who actually establish quotas or set goals of 15 or more posts per day. They do this to garner more hits and page views, but the reality is that they litter the web with poor quality posts, inaccurate information, and junk. Once we start to become more organized, ethical and professional, you can really see sports sites making a huge impact.

STN’s Take:

As one can tell Kelly knows her stuff. It’s great to see that her site started out as a My Space page. It can be tough these days to start a website out of nothing and having a community to start it with can really help out. Kelly has some great experience being that she is a graphic design person and a production manager for a newspaper shows she wants to have integrity on her site. Plus the site is designed extremely well. We like that she has been able to bring in some other writers and the quality of content is very solid.

She says she doesn’t want to do it for the money and she is definitely missing out on some. Pretty much all his ads are buried. We think she could make some more money by being consistent on his sidebar on the main page and individual posts. If she moved an Adsense ad up to the top left and put an adsense ad at the end of each post, they would become much more visible and garner more clicks.