Monday Morning Mojo: Top Sports Posts, Blogs and Sites from Last Week

Being an active twitterer and facebooker, all around social media follower, I run into some great sites, sports blogs, single posts and stories, that bear passing along.

These aren't only amusing, meaningful, and/or insightful, they're outstanding examples of the type of writing you can do. I've tried to give you a good cross section of posts, from different types of sites (blogs, static sites, affiliate sites, products created for sale, etc). None of these are affiliate links, they're just informational.

Great stuff, have a look.

How Pete Dye's Dog Killed Herb Kohler's Sheep - Here's a great post from Armchair Golf Blog. Take a look at the post and read through the blog. Neil Sagebiel loves golf and is an excellent writer. Both qualities show through in his writing. He has taken his passions and turned them into a respected and widely read online publication.

The Rotater - Here's an actual, physical product, and one that will save and prolong the careers of a lot of athletes. The founders of The Rotater, a shoulder rehabilitation device, took their know-how, and turned it into a simple to use, affordable product.

Big Blue Booyah - Here's a pure fan play. If you love a team, sport, individual player, etc., take it and run. Conventional wisdom says to have a successful blog, you need to buy a domain, pay for hosting, use WordPress as your platform, and so on. That's great advice, but you don't HAVE to do it that way to enjoy success. BBBooyah has taken something they love, University of Kentucky athletics, applied it to a huge audience that loves the same thing, and made a great blog in a relatively short time. Further, they're using the same platform as this blog, Blogger. It's free.

TennisMD.com - One of the best new websites for golf health and fitness information. Ok, I'll say it, it is THE best site. They've assembled many of the top tennis instructors, health professionals, fitness professionals, and sports psychologists as staff writers. They also have top sports writers on their team (proud to say I used to write for them). The reason I include it here, aside from how well-done the site is, is because it's a great example of one outlet for your writing.

There are lots of sites, in every sport, that need quality writing and writers/editors. You simply need to reach out.

BananaPutting.com - Here's an excellent example of how to take your expertise and turn it into a commodity. PGA professional, Paul Hobart, is a putting expert. He took that expertise and turned it into a unique instructional book and program, built a website to showcase it, and tons of people are better putters for it. Banana Putting is a fresh look at putting, and an example of sports entreprenuership.

Each of these sites use a variety of media (text, photos, video, polls) to engage readers. You can learn a lot from them and have fun doing it.

What method of earning a living from your sports writing do you like best from these examples? Not every method here is suitable for every person.

Image courtesy toddwickersty's photostream.

John Daly: An Engaging Twitterer?

When John Daly applies his talent on the golf course, minus any distractions, he has success. His recent resurgence, which he’s honing in Europe with a good measure of success, is the most recent example of how easy it is for him to play golf at a high level. This time, he’s getting in shape, dropping tons of weight, and seems to have a great attitude about life and about golf. How do I know this? Because he’s a great writer, one that involves his readers.

Yes, a great writer. I don’t mean that his use of language is pure poetry and literary genius, but rather because he engages his readers, his friends, by open and honest communication and interaction. How do I know this? Because he uses Twitter.com (http://www.twitter.com/PGA_JohnDaly), the online communication forum where users write about whatever they want in 140-character messages, or tweets.

From the day he first "tweeted," Daly has done what most of his professional golfer counterparts, indeed, celebrities in general, have not: he actually follows the people who follow him. Imagine that? Following many of the people who like you, want to hear what you have to say, and enjoy following your career. What a novel idea.

Now, the "twitterverse" is as free a place as the United States, and there’s no rule that requires a person, celebrity or otherwise, to follow everyone who follows them, or even most. Certainly, there are people/fans who take things over the edge (of sanity), but a star who makes full use of one medium they choose to use will go a long way toward building a fan base and strengthening their platform.

By all appearances, JD genuinely enjoys communicating with his Twitter friends. He answers most questions (with more than canned, expected responses), responds to well wishers, invites others to have conversations with him, and simply interacts. How do I know this? He became a follower of mine after I followed him and wished him well, he has responded to my well wishes and questions, and I’ve seen him do the same for others many times.

John has figured out the true utility of Twitter for building a fan base; being genuine. As of this writing, he has a following of 5,048 and he’s following 5,121 people. Given his interaction with followers, starting with simply following most of them (actually, he follows even more people than follow him) and continuing through being as responsive as possible within his schedule, people like him. They like hearing about his game, his fitness, his new choices in attire, his life, his jokes.

Now, what would happen if he dropped in a few tweets about a favorite charity, maybe asking for donations or participation? I say people would respond. Daly’s response rate would be far above many other celebrities who don’t interact with fans, or who’s interactions are simply one-way and/or hollow.

I would rather have John Daly’s 5,000+ engaged followers, which is a large number of followers, than Ashton Kutcher’s uninvolved two million (he’s only following 149 people).

I say, way to go John D! You’ve found the secret to Twitter, to golf and to life. Be open, be yourself, and be genuine. Success, and people, will follow.

You're Changing the World as an Entrepreneur

Here'a a short, creative and inspiring video about entrepreneurs and the role they (we) play in the world. Enjoy.

One Way to Gain Freelance Writing Credibility

Suite101.com and the Internet

One way for aspiring freelance writers to gain a trusted following, and writing credibility is to start writing for a quality web site. Suite101.com, is one of the best places to learn the trade. There are other sites, such as HowtoDoThings.com, eHow.com, and a few more general and niche portals, but Suite101.com offers writers much more assistance. Help in the form of tutorials, writer forums, a monthly newsletter, comprehensive statistics, and editor involvement are invaluable while to learning the craft.



On the path to becoming a freelance writing expert, the legitimacy attached to holding the title of Feature Writer, Contributing Writer, Editorial Writer, and so on, for a respected web site is a great first step. It can often catapult a fledgling writer into bigger things and a wider audience.