Do Sports blogs make money?

I can't find any popular sports blogs that make money. None of them have any sort of monetization methods implemented. I've looked at rotoworld, bleacherreport and Grantland. All 3 are the most popular sports blogs in the USA but neither use adsense or any sort of affiliate marketing. I wanted to create a sports blog but it seems like a bad idea because that traffic is hard to monetize. Any thoughts on this?

No you are wrong man....Sports blogs make a SHIT TON of money....maybe you are missing the ads part

Uninstall your adblocker - its the stupidest thing/extension an IM can have activated... either that or buy yourself some eyeglasses.

I know Rotoworld uses a subscription model. $30-50 per year for access to their draft and in season fantasy resources. They are using some remarketing provider from what I can tell (Adsense, Adroll or someone) with three ad blocks on the home page. To make it in sports, I think you'd need massive traffic and produce lots and lots of insightful content people can't get elsewhere. I've tried it before and its a tough racket.

bronxbombers said:

I know Rotoworld uses a subscription model. $30-50 per year for access to their draft and in season fantasy resources. They are using some remarketing provider from what I can tell (Adsense, Adroll or someone) with three ad blocks on the home page. To make it in sports, I think you'd need massive traffic and produce lots and lots of insightful content people can't get elsewhere. I've tried it before and its a tough racket.

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I don't have any subscription to rotoworld, but they post most of their stuff in their columns. I play fantasy football/basketball a lot and have been an avid fan of both sports for years now lol. I can provide insightful content but I know for a fact that I'd have trouble with traffic.

To the other 2 posters: I don't have any adblockers installed on this computer. If you can point out the ads on bleacherreport/rotoworld or Grantland than I'd be surprised. I use the sites routinely but haven't seen ads on them. Bleacherreport used to use ads but they don't anymore.

You are not taking into consideration the MAJOR sports sites man!

NOTE:
These are only the most obvious ads captured on a quick check. bleacherreport and grantland are run by major TV-channels and are an advertisement for their portfolio on their own already. There are plenty of ads promoting their own apps, email lists etc on all three websites - even if not for external services - these are ads.
Other external ads:

Rotoworld header with Google Ads and banner to rotogrinders:




Bleacherreport with outbrain:


grantland with outbrain:


Again: these were just the obvious visible ones after two or three pageviews... I never visited those sites previously...

Have you ever heard about gambling ? It is one of the richest niche on internet .It simply dint make it to the top.

I'm earning via ads with the same niche.
Making easy $150-$200 pm

Spawnie said:

NOTE:
These are only the most obvious ads captured on a quick check. bleacherreport and grantland are run by major TV-channels and are an advertisement for their portfolio on their own already. There are plenty of ads promoting their own apps, email lists etc on all three websites - even if not for external services - these are ads.
Other external ads:

Rotoworld header with Google Ads and banner to rotogrinders:

Bleacherreport with outbrain:

grantland with outbrain:

Again: these were just the obvious visible ones after two or three pageviews... I never visited those sites previously...

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Thank you so much man. My chromebook must have adblocker installed because I haven't seen any of those. Wow, thanks. Clears up a lot!

Yes they are making money. Sports is a huge topic and niche. You can make some very good money off doing this.

They can earn money from sport blogs by taking these steps:

How to Make Money with a Sports Blog
Carve Yourself a Niche

As I outlined in my post on how to start a blog one of most important things you want to decide before you get started is "What do you want to blog about?" Making this determination is crucial in keeping your blog tightly focused and your audience engaged. Now, there is nothing wrong with blogging about sports in general. In fact there are a lot of positives about taking this approach. Most notably is you will never run out of things to blog about. The sports world is constantly producing stories and if your website is broad in scope you will never find yourself scratching your head asking the question, "What should I write about today?"

Don't Waste Your Time with Google Adsense

Google's Adsense program has made a lot of bloggers a lot of money over the years. For many blogs it is a perfect fit and an excellent way for even those with limited technical skills to earn money from their blog. Sadly, sports blogs do not count themselves among those websites that align well with Google Adsense.

Review Products

This is a very useful tactic, but should be used sparingly and honestly to be most effective. It is also a method you want to hold off on until you've built an audience in your niche and established trust with your readers. Sports fans are like any other consumer out there, they want to enjoy the better things in life, and if there is a hot product or service out there they want to know about, and they want to hear how good/bad it is from someone they can trust.
Become a ticket and/or Sports Betting Affiliate

There is big money to be made in both ticket sales and sports betting. Joining an affiliate program for one or both of these ventures can earn you some extra money and will align nicely with your content. Putting links to these affiliate programs in your blog's sidebar will gain you extra revenue without hitting your visitors in the face with intrusive ads.

Keep Your Readers Apprised of Deals

Everybody loves a bargain, and your viewers are no different. Constantly keep your eye open for bargains at online sporting goods shops, and be sure to keep your readers apprised (including your affiliate link, of course) of any great bargains. Not only will they be appreciative of the heads-up, the reduced price of the item(s) will increase the likelihood of making a sale with a nice commission for you.

Leverage Your Website's Authority - Create a Store

Providing your content is good you will find that you gain authority in the search engines as the months roll by. Other webmasters will link to your website, highlighting your best content, and further raising your value in the eyes of Google, Yahoo and Bing. As you gain more authority you will start to rank more easily with each post you write. Once you've reached this point it is time to leverage that authority by creating a store.

Get Proper Hosting and a Professional Theme

Though it is certainly possible to make money with a sports blog using a free Blogger website if you don't want to limit your earnings potential then you are best served getting some real web hosting and investing in a professional WordPress theme.

We have outreached to few sports blog for publishing some of our articles that deals with hot topics in that niche, the price they quoted for 1 post was more than $$$. You can see how many $$$$ they make just by publishing articles on their blog page. This is one such way they earn money - My experience.

gnarlesbarkley said:

I can't find any popular sports blogs that make money. None of them have any sort of monetization methods implemented. I've looked at rotoworld, bleacherreport and Grantland. All 3 are the most popular sports blogs in the USA but neither use adsense or any sort of affiliate marketing. I wanted to create a sports blog but it seems like a bad idea because that traffic is hard to monetize. Any thoughts on this?

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The big players don't use adsense lol

Sports blogs are probably among the most lucrative of the niches. Think about it, sports content is constant. There isn't a day in the year where a sport or sport related topic isn't trending. Have you even been to ESPN's website? They have a huge banner ad at the top of the home page. I'm pretty sure that those ads generate tons of revenue. Sports blogs are also one of the most correlative; meaning that they relate, in some way or another, to many other niches. For instance, it's safe to say that a large amount of sports lovers are also movie lovers; cue movie ads. A large of sports lovers are also beer lovers; cue the beer ads. A large amount of sports lovers enjoy cars; cue car ads. A large amount of sports lovers also love pizza; cue the pizza ads. Etc, etc, etc. This would be more difficult for say a person with a yoga blog. How many yoga lovers enjoy beer? How many love pizza? Etc. Sports is where the money is guy.

Dude thanks for sharing...

I need to study this sports niche. I would assume they do, but I see there's a lot to learn. Great responses from everyone.

Always been thinking of how much opportunity exists in any given major sports event for generating content as well as traffic. Even with just the NFL for example there are 32 possibilities for just fanpages, team blogs, etc... So the opportunity here is huge, and of course sports is a major draw for a lot of people worldwide so there's simply no end to ways to generate traffic and income in this niche.

I need to at least dip my feet in these waters. This thread was quite helpful in forming some initial motivation to take action. I hope others feel similarly.

VoxMedia, the company that owns SB Nation (Sports Blog Nation, which is comprised of 307 sports blogs), was valued at around $800 million when they raised their latest round of investments last August.

Definitely money to be made there.