Website: Stet Sports

Interview With: Jarrett Carter

When did you start your blog?

Formally known as Scott Van Pelt Style, my blog was started back in July of 2007.

What made you start it?

As a journalist and avid sports fan, I noticed two things about sports blogging that were becoming more apparent everyday. 1) It is the new primary medium of information gathering for sports fans 2) There is a distinct disparity of well know minority sports bloggers.

What is your background?

I am a published freelance journalist, a public relations practitioner, and aspiring author. I am a graduate of Morgan State University, Maryland’s largest historically black college, and have written for the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Upscale Magazine.

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

My professional interest is to become a full-time blogger. Right now, my day job makes it extremely hard to post more than 1-3 times daily, with the the proper funding, and a 6-8 month window, I can make the four blogs I operate among the most popular and economically viable on the Internet.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month) 

I am usually linked twice a month by sites like The Big Lead, Deadspin, and the D.C. Sports Bog. I have also been spotlighted twice on Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard, ESPN.com’s Hashmarks, and the NCAA’s official blog, the Double-A Zone.

Avoiding profanity, customary photos of naked chicks and celebrities with bongs might be a detractor for me, but I believe my humor and writing ability make me entertaining and informative destination for all types of sports fans.

What type of blogging software do you use?

I recently switched over from Blogspot to Typepad, and I find the Typepad platform a lot easier to manage and a tremendous help for Search Engine Optimization.

What ad network(s) do you use?

Google Adsense, and Yardbarker’s Affiliate program with Adify.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

On a good month, approximately 20-30 dollars. Normally, between $10-15.

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

It would have to be venture capital. I believe that one year with my mortgage paid and my wife happy would make me a blogging millionaire.

What are some of your favorite blogs? 

As a native of the Washington-Metropolitan area, I regularly check the D.C. Sports Bog, Mister Irrelevant, TruthAboutIt.Net, and Deuce of Davenport. I also enjoy Larry Brown Sports, Deadspin, and Cousins of Ron Mexico.

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

The bold prediction anyone could have imagined is already happening. Blogs have revealed themselves to be the Holy Grail of sports and entertainment news and gossip. The rest is history.

Here are a few of Jarrett’s other websites as well:

www.hbcusportsblog.com
www.jarrett-carter.com
www.60daystoheaven.com
www.cartermediaenterprises.com

Over at Juiced Sport Blog Mitchell Blatt has created a list of the 100 most Valuable Sports Blogs using the website dnscoop.  Its a pretty solid list of the top blogs but there seems to be a few major blogs left off like MLB Trade Rumors.  We are glad we found it because there are some blogs we are missing out with when we come out with our monthly Top 25 Sports Blogs.  

We don’t really believe any of the values though as most of those blogs could never sell for their listed price.  We are sure Nick Denton at Gawker media would sell Deadspin for 16 million in a second if someone offered him that.  Many bloggers have added comments in the post saying they are willing to listen to any offers.

Its too bad that we don’t get to find out the prices for a site like True Hoop so we can actually gage what sports blogs are worth.  I would bet that Henry Abbott is looking at the list thinking those numbers are way off because he probably didn’t get that kind of money though he probably gets a solid salary.

Website: NE Patriots Draft

Interview With: James Christensen

When did you start your blog?

March 2008

What made you start it?

We were interested in the NFL Draft, and no site was focusing enough the Patriots Draft and Salary Cap situation.

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

We write and promote as a challenge to see how good we can be.

What is your goal with this blog?What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month)

We get about 8-10k uniques per month, and most of that is due to being featured in SI, on The Big Lead, and the HailRedskins Mock Draft Database.  Winning 4th in the Huddle Report Mock Draft challenge was also nice.

What type of blogging software do you use?  

What ad network(s) do you use?

Adify is where we get most of our ads served by, through the Yardbarker network.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

We make around $300 month revenue each month.

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

Photoshop please.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

The Sports Dollar, Sports Blog Earnings, World of Isaac, and Sports By Brooks are all favorites of NE Patriots Draft.

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

We see the continued rise of niche content sites over behemoths like ESPN.

Website: Docksquad Sports

Interview with: Vikas Chokshi

When did you start your blog?

July 07

What made you start it?

I started my blog just because I loved sports so much, and I wanted to have a place to keep my thoughts, and have others chime in on the Sports topics that made me tick.

What is your background?

An IT major in college, currently working in Downtown Chicago.

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

A little of both. I would love to blog full time if possible, or to get picked up by a bigger website.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month)

I think when my Derrick Rose post got posted by True Hoop, Deadspin, SI Extra Mustard, and The Big Lead. I got around 10,000 hits in a week.

What type of blogging software do you use?

I use blogger, and now a google domain.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not much, about 50 bucks a month.

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 love to get some optimization tips if possible.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

I love True Hoop, SI’s Extra Mustard, Deadspin, the Ball Don’t Lie, and The Big Lead, as some of my favorites.

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

Sports Bloggers will be just as important as Sports Writers in the future.

Website: iFutbal.com

Interview With:  Benjamin Huwiler

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

The founders are Jeremias Huwiler and Benjamin Huwiler

What is your background and qualifications?

We got a very talented team on board ranging from MBAs to a soccer expert who has competed at the professional level in Europe.

What does your website do?

iFutbal.com is a video sharing site for soccer fans. Visitors can browse thousands of videos and members are able to upload/embed their own content and share it with their friends or the entire community.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Revenue is generated through ads and other sponsorship opportunities.

How have your marketed your site?

The site has grown mostly through word of mouth. There are large promotional campaigns lined up to create a lot more buzz in the near future.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self funded.

Are You currently looking for funding?

Not actively seeking funding at the moment. With the right partner(s) and timing we would consider outside funding.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Our team has worked hard to incorporate all the standard video sharing features and will continue to update the site’s technology.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

The embed feature. This allows members to quickly share their content without having to upload the videos again.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

I won’t predict but rather state the trend: Technology is changing sports and sport is challenging technology.

Website: UFN

Name: Jonathan Joseph

When did you launch Ultimate Fotball Network?

The Ultimate Football Network is still pre-launch.

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

I’m the only founder.

What is your background and qualifications?

I’m a former venture capital investor and social media consultant. 

What does your website do?

The Ultimate Football Network (UFN) is a free social media resource for the Fantasy Football market or for casual fans looking for the hottest news about their favorite teams. UFN aggregates, organizes and ranks football content making it easily accessible and customizable for football fans. Fans can add, rate and comment on the content in the UFN news stream. The Ultimate Football Network automatically tags content with the teams and players mentioned, giving users the option of filtering the content to find the hottest news about any team or player with one click. So when users are trying to figure out whether to start or bench a particular player on their fantasy roster, they can quickly find the hottest news about that player whether it comes from ESPN or a fan’s personal blog or a fan discussion thread on a message board.

The Ultimate Football Network also organizes the social media landscape by tracking data about social media content. Based on fan feedback and participation, we track which authors and sources produce good content, which fans add valuable content and commentary and which fans know about certain teams and players. We’re working on building out additional features that make this content and data more useful to fans looking to use UFN to manage their fantasy rosters.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

For now, UFN generates revenue through advertising and we use Adbrite. Going forward, we will have a different strategy with respect to advertising and other non-advertising revenue streams coming from features under development.

How have your marketed your site?

We haven’t done any marketing yet as we are pre-launch.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self funded to date

Are You currently looking for funding?

We’re talking to some angels at the moment.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Ruby on Rails and Postgres

What is your favorite feature on your website?

My favorite feature is definitely the ability to rank fans and authors. When there are enough users voting on content, I’m really excited to see which authors fans will think are the best. For example, I’m looking forward to seeing whether fans think the guys at ESPN (John Clayton, Len Pasqaurelli, etc) do better work than the guys at CNNSI (Peter King, Don Banks, etc) and I’m wondering who will be the first “fan” to break through to stardom using UFN. It would be a great story if an independent blogger ended up getting hired somewhere like ESPN because his blog consistently got more votes than say, John Clayton.

If you ran a large sports network like ESPN or CBS, besides your website what indpendent website would you acquire first and why?

Not an easy question to answer. Even though ESPN and Yahoo, in particular, have done a pretty good job with their online sports properties to date, the world of media (and not just sports media) is going to undergo such a dramatic shift that they will all have to make major moves. There are a handful of “startups” in the sports 2.0 space but I don’t know that I think any of them have gotten it right so far. In fact, a few that have emerged so far as early “leaders” have, in my mind, huge, fatal flaws in their business models so I think everything is wide open for start-ups at this point.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

I have bold predictions for what technology is going to do to almost every business in existence, so yes I think the sports world will also get turned upside down over the next 10 years. All sorts of industries are trying to figure out how to incorporate the “social” trend but no industry has a more natural affinity for social trends and user engagement than sports, so yes there will be big changes on the horizon. I was amused recently at the brouhaha over the Bob Costas Live panel on the future of Sports media (see the UFN blog for my complete thoughts). For what was supposed to be a panel of experts, it was abundantly clear that none of them had even a basic understanding of the changing landscape, so it’s clear we’ re still in the first inning of the game here.

*Kissing Suzy Kolber is hosted at kissmesuzy.blogspot.com and Kissingsuzykolber.net. Most of their traffic goes to the blogspot address so we used that address for stats. The same is true for Awful Announcing. Mgoblog is only at Mgoblog.blogspot.com

Only one site new to the list and that is Hardball Times. We are not sure why they have been left off the list but they have deserved to be on it since we started this site. The biggest thing that stood out to us versus lasts months Top 25 Sports Blog Rankings is that nearly all the Alexa numbers had drastic improvements. We are not sure if this means that Alexa gave more weight to sports sites or that more sports fans have added the Alexa Toolbar.

For those of you who have never seen this rankings before we want to revisit how we compile the rankings. First, through our research we have found that Compete seems to be the most accurate at reporting site traffic when comparing other websites. Alexa is used as a secondary option for sites that have Compete numbers that are close together.

You won’t see sites like Aol Fanhouse or Bugs and Cranks because they are blog networks. You also won’t see sites like Yahoo blogs, True Hoop, and the Sporting Blog because they are major media networks.

Via Techcrunch Citizen Sports is teaming up with Sports Ilustrated to develop Facebook Apps devoted to sports enthusiasts.  The apps will include stat tracking, live draft capabilites, and other features that fantasy players use.  Originally the group who created Pro Trade is now Citizen Sports and Pro Trade is one of the companies underneath Citizen Sports.  Pro Trade is basically a stock market for sports players based on fantasy stats.

Citizen Sports is led by Jeff Ma who was one of the original MIT blacjack players that inspired the book Bringing Down the House and Mike Kearns. 

It is really interesting that Citizen Sports has moved away its focus from Pro Trade.  Landing the deal with Sports Illustrated was probably key in orchestrating the new company which will devote a lot of its time towards Facebook apps.  With fantasy sports being such an interactive experience we find it hard to believe that a facebook app would be how people compete.  We see destination websites being much better at fantasy sports.  They are probably more likely to attract the passive fantasy player.

Website:  MVN

Name:  Evan Brunell

When did you launch MVN?

MVN was originally launched December 31, 2003. It was not put together as a company until March 2004, however.

What made you launch it?

MVN in it’s original form was simply a blog about the Red Sox and Pirates linked to each other. We had the idea to get someone covering every baseball team and link to each other under the same house with a similar design. It was a concept that we quite literally stumbled on to and have been concentrating on making it a business since.

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

The founder of the idea was myself and Frank Palmieri, a friend from Pittsburgh. The founders of the company were myself and Dave Cohen, a former partner who works for IBM. Cohen sold his share in the company last year to my father.

What is your background and qualifications?

I am currently finishing up a degree in journalism and a minor in business administration at Northeastern University. I have worked at the Red Sox Foundation, Northeastern Marketing and Communications, ESPN Radio Boston and currently am at The Patriot Ledger. I am curious about the advent of new media and am dedicated to making MVN the best independent sports media company it can be. MVN was a site that was originally designed as a hobby and has grown into much more.

What does your website do?

From MVN’s About Us page:

“MVN is an independent sports media company relying on the volunteered time of people to “blog,” or write on the internet, about their favorite sports team or any derivation thereof. MVN also has a podcast network, which can be thought of as blogging, except in voice form. MVN continues to aggressively explore what a sports blog network can do on the internet, and prides itself on being the first and largest sports blog network on the internet. With such a distinction comes awesome responsibility, and while other networks have sprung up, MVN continues to pave the way and will continue to pave the way during this exciting time in history, where “convergence journalism” is becoming the preferred media.”

Basically, we give a voice to bloggers to blog about their favorite team.

This summer, MVN.com will be re-launched in an effort to better serve the needs of sports fans. Focusing on producing a higher quantity and stronger quality of content in addition to implementing a more sophisticated publishing platform, the Most Valuable Network intends to set itself apart from other online destinations. Continuing to develop a strong sense of community between readers and writers is a top priority.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?  Have you contacted advertisers directly instead of going with ad networks?

We primarily generate revenue through our ad network, Fantasy Sports Ventures which takes on a bit of a bigger role than a typical ad network. We are very pleased to be part of the FSV network. We also work with the smaller-market advertisers directly, such as ticket brokers, to place links on the pages.

How have your marketed your site?

Right now, since we are self-funded and in a family business, we do not have much capital and rely on word of mouth for marketing. We plan on changing that this coming year and getting MVN the traffic it truly deserves. Everyone who visits MVN always talks about how much they like MVN and what it offers; we just need to get more people to see it for themselves.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

MVN is currently self-funded. My father invests for any overhead, but for the most part, MVN’s ad revenue currently covers all costs. Last year, we were able to turn a profit which will help as the new platform for MVN will be costly. We are exploring people investing into the company.

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes, we are starting to look for additional ways to create revenue so we can pour it into the company to realize additional profit coming back. We are open to angel investments or venture capitalism.
What type(s) of technology do you use?

Our platform is currently Wordpress MU, and we also have RSS, podcast, video and other technology available.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

The fact that we bring local team coverage to a national scale. It’s what we’ve always built around and what we always will.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Sports has exploded in popularity thanks to the Internet and technology. Now, not only is it easier to follow your favorite team, you can follow all teams and know anything you want. In addition, the technological advances (such as the yellow first down line) has made watching sports so much more fun as well. And the scary thing is that we’re still figuring out this technology gizmodo. Imagine what happens when we finally do.