OTF Classic

I've been remiss in providing regular updates on my quest to turn this whole sports-blogging hobby into at least something of a significant side income, if not a career, but good news has a way of prompting action. That, and I've been heads-down busy working on a few different fronts to push things forward...

It's been a while since I've checked in here, but in the interest of self-accountability ( if that makes sense ) I want to revisit how 2012 is coming along in terms of my hockey blogging/internet marketing endeavors, and what the prospects are for the next several months. So, since we're 1/3rd of the way through the year, in hockey parlance I guess this means we're into the 1st intermission. With that in mind, let's review the blogging/internet marketing goals which I set out back in January to see how things are coming along...

As I wrote about a month ago , I decided to jump upon a short-term opportunity and set up a "hot topic" website for the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline. NHLFakeTrades.com was inspired by a column by Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail, who looked at the frenzy with which hockey fans jump on even the sketchiest of information about potential hockey trades, and wondered if some cash could be made by simply and forthrightly writing about fictitious trade scenarios. This meshed nicely with an exercise I went through a few years ago to create a Random Trade Generator, so in the course of a few hours I went ahead and registered the domain, set up a WordPress site using ( as I do at Hockey Gear HQ ) the wonderful Genesis framework with the News theme , and freshened up the Trade Generator for 2012. So how did it do, in terms of traffic, revenue, and accuracy of the trade projections? Let's take a look...

Opportunity knocks. Sometimes, it even hits you right in the face and demands attention.

To kick off this series of articles general sports-blogging articles here at OTF Classic, I think it's best to start with a comment that Brad left here last week, after I shared my goals for 2012 , which include specific revenue targets: I considered diving into the world of internet marketing myself, but I felt that my friends would hate me for bugging them about stuff. I mean, it's pretty low-risk high-reward, so it's tempting. I wouldn't mind reading about tips on how to maximize impact of blogging in general to make it a legitimate income source. Trying to make money at sports blogging can be a very touchy subject - for the vast majority of us, this is an activity we pursue to both exercise our creativity and share our love of the game, whether it's hockey, football, badminton, whatever, with fellow fans. Mixing that personal conversation with a commercial message can turn people off, especially if it becomes too intrusive for the reader. It's not unrea...

What a pain Russian hackers can be, eh? My last couple weeks have been consumed by an infestation over at my side project, Hockey Gear HQ , which ultimately required burning the site to the ground and rebuilding it from scratch, making sure that my WordPress installation is air-tight this time around. I'm not completely done with the job yet, but the site is back up and running (quite safely I might add). There was an opportunity in this effort, however, to freshen up the look of the place, which I was never quite happy with. So I've gone with the Genesis Theme Framework from StudioPress, using the News Child Theme , and I'm thrilled with it so far. The site not only looks more integrated and professional than my previous attempt, but the flexibility of the platform is amazing, I've only begun to dig into the various features that it offers. In particular, I like the basic setup I've got in the main column, with the 5 most recent Featured articles showcased i...

This summer I  set a goal for myself of completing and marketing two products for hockey readers, as a step towards turning what has been a longtime hobby into something which might provide at least some kind of significant supplementary income. Well, here we are at the start of the 2011-2012 NHL season, and while I fell short of the goal, I am encouraged by what I did achieve, and the prospects I see going forward. I think I've finally passed the first milestone, which was to bring in more money from writing about hockey and the Nashville Predators than I would by scrubbing toilets at their games (4 hours per game, minimum wage, 40-50 games a year depending on playoffs... do the math), so that's something. For the first product, I was able to record a partial success, because while I didn't complete a full commercial product there, I was able to publish a  fantasy hockey draft strategy eBook  which I made freely available over at HockeyGearHQ.com, asking only that p...

In my never-ending quest to figure out a model for making what is currently my hobby & passion into something bringing in at least a side income, I've decided to set a couple goals for myself to complete during the rest of 2011. Simply put, I plan to publish two products over the next few months, which I hope will provide real value to hockey fans, and that they'll be willing to pay for. Will it succeed? Will it fail? The only way to know is to put my nose to the grindstone and get these two things done (I'll keep the details under my hat for now). The important thing to note is that these efforts are in addition to anything I'm doing over at OTF . Taking away what we're doing over there and asking people to pay for it is a surefire lose-lose all the way around, because if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, it's that people love to read about sports, but only for free. I'm also optimistic about Hockey Gea...