Website: SECRivals.com

Interview With: Darrel Owenby

When did you start your blog?

We started our blog this past July, but SECRivals has ran a message board for five years.

What made you start it?

We all read a lot of sites, some we agreed with, some we didn’t. Basically, a couple of us decided that we could do the same thing, except better.

What is your background?

I have @ twelve years of blue collar work, ten years of sales experience, three years of training/development and have been online since 1996.

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

Fun.

What is your goal with this blog?

Develop a solid base of regulars inside as well as outside of the SEC.

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

Creating an affiliation with MoonDog Sports really got us going. Our message board has over 1k members and we already had a decent amount of traffic, BUT the blog was put on the map with MoonDog’s help.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Wordpress

What ad network(s) do you use?

Adify through Yardbarker.com, Google adsense and Commission Junction.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not a whole lot, like we said, it’s fun.

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

Wow, good question. Our biggest area would be marketing; we could always use extra traffic.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

MoonDog Sports, EDSBS, A Sea of Blue and Vanderbilt Sports Line.

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

We haven’t scratched the surface yet. A lot of people are screaming that blogging is dead, but video is only now being played with. Podcasts were huge a couple of years ago, but the next big thing will be for video podcasts by regular people. Imagine “Jake and Luther on Sports”.

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.

Website: www.accnation.com

Interveiw with: Patrick Hite

When did you start ACC Nation?

Started in January 2005 as a local radio show and companion Web site. We moved to producing the show as a podcast a year later in January 2006. The current blog was launched in January 2007. My co-host of the show and co-writer on the blog was Chris Graham until this past September. He moved on to other projects and my current partner is Jim Quist (AKA The Evil Q)

What made you start it?

I’ve been a fan of the ACC (specifically the University of North Carolina) since I can remember. I have a journalism and radio background and was hosting a local-themed sports-talk show on a radio station in Staunton, Va., when ACC Nation was launched. Chris and I had known each other for several years and had always talked about doing a show together. When we started throwing around ideas, ACC Nation seemed a natural fit for both of us (Chris is a University of Virginia graduate). We convinced the station to let us do the show and the blog soon followed.

What is your background?

I worked in radio (a Top-40 as well as a Country music radio station) as both a disc jockey and news reporter during college. I then got into print journalism and have worked for several daily and weekly newspapers. Currently I am an editor with a publishing company (more money than newspapers). I am based in Charlottesville, Va.

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

It’s a little of both, I guess, although it’s much more for fun at the moment. I love my full-time job, so there is no hurry for me to make blogging and podcasting a career.

We have had a few sponsorships for the podcast, but nothing significant. If I had more time to focus on getting sponsors, I’d certainly be interested, but between my family, my full-time job and providing content for ACCNation.com and the podcast, sponsors aren’t something I have much time to pursue. I’d also be interested in switching the blog to something besides Wordpress.com, but my technical abilities are limited and I don’t have time to research the process or money to pay someone else to do it.

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

Probably getting credentials to cover the 2007 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament. Since we’re a podcast and blog and not mainstream media, I thought it was significant that the ACC credentialed us to cover the tournament. We had applied in 2005 and 2006 and were turned down. We’ve also just received credentials to cover this year’s ACC Tournament. We did live game blogs and other posts from the tournament last year as well as six podcasts in the four days of the tournament. We attracted a lot of new listeners and readers from that event.

We’ve also interviewed some big names on our podcast, including John Feinstein, Dick Vitale and Andy Katz as well as several ACC football and basketball coaches.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Wordpress.com

What ad network(s) do you use?

None

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Minimal.

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

Like a lot of others, I visit Awful Announcing and Deadspin several times a day, plus I try to check out DC Sports Bog as often as I can.

There are a lot of ACC sites I like, but I really admire Statefans Nation, the Duke Basketball Report and Eagle in Atlanta. I’d like to provide the kind of in-depth stories they write for their blogs. But again, time is an issue. Plus, they are able to focus on one school while we try to cover 12 schools. That sort of forces us to be a little more general in what we write.

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

Coverage of sports will continue to grow on the Internet. There will always be bloggers out there satisfied to just write their opinions a few times a week for the world to see, but I think we’ll start seeing more and more breaking stories on blogs as well as in-depth pieces that, in the past, have been the territory of magazines like Sports Illustrated.

As more and more veteran journalists turn to blogs, I think we’ll see the quality of blogs get better (although there are plenty of quality blogs written by people without any formal journalism experience). I hope, over time, the hostility between mainstream media and bloggers fades away. There is plenty of room for both.

I find it interesting that bloggers complain about a lack of respect from mainstream media, when there seems to be a lack of respect from bloggers toward mainstream media as well. I respect both. Like anything, there are good examples and bad examples in both camps. Find what you enjoy and read it or watch it or listen to it. When you find something you don’t like, avoid it.

STN’s Take:

As one can tell Patrick is having a great time doing his podcast and blog. He is a very hard worker that puts a great deal of time into his website while also having a family and a full time job. If you are a fan of the ACC, his blog is a must read. He must have some great connections because his list of interviews are top notch. Nothing can beat Dick Vitale.

We do have some suggestions for Patrick. We would like to see links to his top podcasts like his one with Dick Vitale easily available. Patrick should keep in mind that most people are new to his site and he should make it as easy as possible to find his best content. Also, we would like to see the intro in his Podcasts shortened. It seemed like it was 2 minutes. If I wasn’t forcing myself to listen to it, I would of shut the podcast down. And last, we don’t think Patrick should be so quick to dismiss Wordpress. It can do many great things and we actually think his site looks great.