Start A Football Blog Business in Nigeria and Monetize It In 10 Ways

 

I know most people blog as a hobby, out of passion for the sports and savvy in writing. But you can also start a football blog as a business. The difference is while the person blogging as a hobby may not put so much emphasis on monetizing the blog, he or she may be looking at just making passive income,  but sports blogging for business will require making "active" regular revenue and profit to survive. 

We all know that the currency for any online business is traffic. The more traffic your blog attract is a sign that you can increase the value of your business, especially if you know how to turn the traffic into customers. Pretty simple, if you offer your blog visitors what they value and are willing to pay for, then you are in money. 

Know the Market, Size and How to Position You Blog

Most people visit football blogs for entertainment. They are looking for information to fan their passion for the sports. Others are looking for solutions or information that can help them make the right decisions or know how to achieve their football goals. Some just want to have fun and be the first to know real time. 

Most people that visit football blogs are fans, players and coaches, administrators and managers as well as other football related business people and professionals. The good news is here in Nigeria we can estimate over 100 millions persons in this categories. You can position your blog to attract all or some segment of these population in the market. 

Monetizing your football blog may seem daunting but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to be in business. Making money from the blog will allow the business to survive and possibly grow and expand into other things. 

How to Monetize Your Football Blog Business

In this post, we’ll share ten different ways to make money from your  football  blog. 

1. Join Affiliate Programs

Consider joining affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing is often considered one of the easiest ways to monetize any type of website as you don’t need to create any products. All you have to do is find a football related products and promote it to your blog audience.

You could focus on joining affiliate programs specifically in the sports industry but you can also consider promoting products that are closely related, like health supplements etc. 

You can also promote products that aren’t necessarily related to the sports industry but that you absolutely love and use on a daily basis. This can include your web hosting company, an app that you use daily or a book selling on Amazon.

2. Sell Football Jersey and other Football Related Merchandise

Most football fans in Nigeria are passionate about the top five European leagues. They support teams in the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serial A, French ligue1

One of the easiest way to monetize your blog is to start selling these teams' merchandise as well as other sports related goodies. Items like jersey and other kits, scarves, mufflers, coffee mugs, fridge magnets, car or wall decals are popular among sports fans in Nigeria. 

You can buy from big merchants who sell wholesale prices and sell retail prices to your blog audience on order. This means you don’t have to carry any physical inventory and there are no upfront costs.

3. Create and Sell Your Own Products

With your research and knowledge in football you create products you can sell with your blog. You may decide to create information products and put them on eBook format and sell them straight from your blog. You could also print them into hard copy book and sell them offline. 

It is easy to create an information product. You can create a book by answering or giving solution to some of the Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ) as well as some innovative solutions you may have discovered yourself or through your staff. Sell feasibility study, business plan or how to start a football related business. 

You can create an offline football school or resource center, scouting program, conference/seminar/webinar, exhibitions or even fans fest and sell entry ticket or admission fee through your blog. 

4. Sponsored Posts or Product Reviews

You can monetize your football blog with sponsored posts or product reviews. The way it works is simple: a person or business approaches you to write about their personal or product brand. They pay you a certain amount and you provide an honest review or article on your blog in exchange.

Again, you’ll want to make sure to accept sponsored posts or product reviews from blogs and websites that are related to your blog’s topic, otherwise you will alienate your readers. On top of that, the companies that you wrote about won’t get any benefits from it and this can damage your reputation.

5. Sell Ad Space

Selling ad space is an effective way to monetize your football blog. You could approach local sports businesses and offer them an ad space on your website. Or you could approach other sports related websites sport betting sites and get them to advertise their website on your blog. . 

Keep in mind that for this to be effective, you will need to have an established reader base so that the businesses that advertise on your site have a chance of receiving traffic or walk-in visits. 

You also need to make sure that the ads you place on your site are related to your football topic and industry, otherwise you’ll miss the mark and disappoint your advertisers.

6. Join Advertising Vendors Programs

Similarly to selling ad space on your website, you can join an advertising vendor's program like Google AdSense. With this method, you will get a code that will display random ads to your visitors, based on the content on your site. You will get paid by the number of impressions or clicks an ad receives. 

This method works best when you already have an established audience to your site. However, keep in mind that sometimes ads may be completely unrelated to your blog topics so keep an eye on them and adjust your preferences accordingly. 

7. Membership Program

Start a membership program and save some of your content for your subscribers. This can be match replays or exclusive access to statistics or player interviews. A simple way to set this up is by using a membership plugin. 

You can create different membership levels, each of which brings different benefits to paying members. For example, the lowest membership tier gives access to match replays. Another level allows members to access player interviews or a meet and greet with a team. You can even offer exclusive swag to members as part of their membership level.

8. Sell Sponsorship Packages

Another way to monetize your football blog is to sell sponsorship packages. This works well as a way to secure extra income for your sports team. However, before you set off to create a page for your sponsors and announce that you’re looking for sponsors, you need to do a bit of prep work. 

For starters, make sure you are absolutely clear on what you bring to the table and how a potential sponsor will benefit from sponsoring you. Secondly, brainstorm different levels of sponsorship packages to make yourself more attractive to sponsors. Finally, don’t forget to draft a sponsorship agreement to ensure both you and your sponsor are protected legally.

9. Accepting Donations

If selling sponsorship packages or membership packages doesn’t sound appealing to you, consider accepting donations on your website. You can easily install a donation plugin and include the link to your donation page in the main navigation as well as in your blog’s sidebar. You can also add it to the bottom of every blog post and ask your readers to consider donating if they like your content. 

Take it a step further and consider setting up suggested donation amounts. You can then offer different incentives for different donation amounts, such as a mention on social media or an article about a topic of their choosing.

10. Networking Program