Website: The Legend of Cecilio Guante

When did you start your blog?

July 2007

What made you start it?

I work in the communications business and have always had a passion for writing…as well as sports. Creative writing isn’t something I get to engage in every day anymore (with the day job), so The Legend of Cecilio Guante provided that outlet. Plus, I feel like there aren’t as many 30-somethings musing about sports and paying homage to some of the players, traditions and moments of decades past.

What is your background?

High school athlete. Attended Cornell University and currently work in communications. My early career involved supporting major marketing and public relations efforts for consumer technology and electronics companies. Today, I am lucky enough to work for clients in the sports business.

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

Blogging for me is a creative outlet. Driving traffic and revenue is icing on the cake. It would be great if my blog became a regular read for a few thousand folks every day.

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

I have a background in publicity, so I think just knowing how to pitch a story helped. But an early ESPN link by Rob Neyer and a few Hot Clicks shout-outs have definitely helped us finally get a good base of a few hundred daily visitors. You have to keep it all in perspective and keep grinding it out, though. I think as soon as you stop working hard at it, the readers will disappear. I keep acting like I did those first few months when 50 visitors in a day was a dream (and 25 of those were probably me). Sites like Yardbarker and Ballhype have been great as well…

What type of blogging software do you use?

Blogger.

What ad network(s) do you use?

I have Google Ads, Adify (via Yardbarker Network) and Shareasale affiliate program.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Currently, not a whole lot. But we’re working on that…

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

Probably ad optimization and occasional design refreshes.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

My favorites are a moving target, but I like those that seem to combine a good knowledge of sports, original ideas and creativity…i enjoy Kissing Suzy Kolber, Can’t Stop the Bleeding, Bugs & Cranks, Signal 2 Noise, SportsByBrooks, Every Day Should be Saturday and folks like Deadspin and the Big Lead keep me informed on what’s going on…it’s amazing what they’re able to bring to the masses so quickly and timely.

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

The name Cecilio Guante will live on forever.

STN’s Take:

We are really happy we found out about The Legend of Cecilio Guante. We were just perusing the blog and we found ourselves deep in the archives reading past posts. We actually agree a lot with what the blog has to say and really dig the header image. The Legend of Cecilio Guante does a great job of finding some interesting stuff like the fact that a Congressman from Pennsylvania voted against a resolution to congratulate the New York Giants. He was the only one out of 413 people.

We do have some suggestions. The first would be to add some ads on top of his posts and on the bottom (before the comments). The second would be to switch to a two column sidebar like this blog has so he can show ads and his links. Right now the sidebar basically just looks like an ad and I can pretty much see people ignoring it completely.