In this post, we’ve covered
- How Much Money Do Sports Bloggers Make
- Factors Affecting Blog’s Earnings & How You Can Utilize Them
- 5 Ways To Make Money As A Sports-based Blogger
How Much Money Do Sports Bloggers Make?
Sports bloggers make around $3,000 – $40,000 monthly across different categories.
This is not a formulated number but based on what we found among sports bloggers.
These include blogs that cover topics about, Football (Soccer), Basketball, American Football, Hockey, etc under sports-related sub-niches.
Below are more details about these categories of sports-based bloggers and how much they make;
Beginners: $3,000/month [Before or above 6 months]
Here are the reasons for results like this;
- They haven’t lasted long in their niche.
- They still have a low number of posts.
- They have a low volume of traffic.
- They are monetized using a few methods.
- They still don’t have enough skills to write a good quality post that will be competitive due to their lack of experience. Most people can’t afford to pay freelancers or don’t know how to do it yet.
- They might as well have gone into the wrong niche entirely.
New sports-based bloggers need time to learn more and discover what works better to apply them and gradually surpass their current income range.
Average: $10,000/month [Over 12 months]
Here are the reasons for results like this;
- They have lasted a little bit longer in their niche and have gained some experience.
- They have published an average number of blog posts which is still not very competitive to keep enough audience on their post or make them convert more.
- They have gained a few thousand or tens of thousands of visitors monthly due to their gradual organic search growth over time.
- They are monetized with two or more methods of monetization.
Average sports bloggers still need to stay longer, learn what works better, and develop a strategy to pass their average income range.
They can also surpass this income range if they just continue to publish lots of useful content related to their niche even without following any special strategy.
Established: $40,000+/month [Over 2 years]
Here are the reasons for results like this;
- This type of blog has lasted on in its niche and to a good extent understands what works.
- Over the years they have published a lot of blog posts.
- Over time they have gained trust and consistent traffic.
- Within this time as well they have gained topical authority in Google that helps new posts to rank faster.
- Due to the consistent traffic, and good implementation of what works that they have learned over time, it fuels their passive monthly income which is not just acquired within a few months.
- This type of blog at this stage doesn’t really need to constantly publish new blog posts and would only need to publish once in a while and update its old posts to remain relevant.
Established sports bloggers are much more likely to have spent years on their niche, and have discovered and implemented what they now understand to work, which can get them to a $40,000 monthly income.
These earning results are heavily based on the quality [satisfaction rate] of each blog post and how many there are in your blog.
If you pay attention below you will find all the major factors that will help you boost your blog’s monthly revenue.
Factors affecting their earnings & how you can utilize them to the max
If you recognize the functions of these factors and utilize them well enough you can increase your blogging revenue much faster than you would have done without utilizing them;
- Content quality or satisfaction rate
- Targeted Topics
- Number Of Published Posts
- Utilized Methods of Monetization
- Traffic volume
[1]. Content quality or satisfaction rate – No one has a definition of what quality content is but we all agree is a type of content that satisfies most of its visitors or readers.
Although this can be simply stated it requires considering a lot of small other factors when writing the post itself such as understanding your audience, the value they intend to find in a post, and how you can present that information in an easy way to read, scam or consume it becomes a lot of work in practice.
If you can find a way to do this and align it to the methods you’ve used in monetizing your post, then we can both agree that the conversion rate of those visitors will be high.
[2]. Targeted Topics – Most bloggers, during their early stage just go into publishing any type of content just because it is related to their niche and not because they intend to use those posts to accomplish something to their blog entirely by collectively writing about those topics.
I personally target and select the type of post am going to publish in my niche. Not just because I like or feel good about those topics, but because of how interlinkable they are to one another, and how they can collectively help to increase my affiliate revenue or attract more visitors for higher ad payout while also trying my best to offer value to those visitors as much as I can.
You should always target the type of post you publish to collectively help you achieve your earning or traffic goals while also in the process trying to produce as much value as possible for those readers.
[3]. Number Of Published Posts – Your number of published blog posts clearly matters, even though content quality is king above all other useful metrics. We can’t just deny that quantity is another form of quality overall just on its own which really matters.
Having 10 quality posts that bring in over 10k monthly visitors obviously doubling that to increase its quantity will definitely increase your traffic and earnings.
For example: Two blogs in the same niche have published 100 identical blog posts each but the other surpasses with an additional 100 more blog posts.
Assuming they have the same experience and implemented things the same way the one with 100 additional content is likely to attract more traffic and make more money from their blog.
[4]. Utilized methods of monetization – Some blogs might use one method of monetization while another blog utilizes four. Because of this reason, the other one utilizing four methods is much more likely to make more money than the other one. This is not always true but it happens in most situations for most bloggers.
[5]. Traffic Volume – Increasing your blog’s traffic volume will boost your revenue. Achieving that goal requires a combination of strategies that focus on attracting visitors and then monetizing that traffic effectively. Find “How to increase your blog traffic fast“.
Here’s a breakdown of how increasing your blog traffic volume can translate to increased revenue:
More Visitors = More Opportunities for Monetization
- Ad Revenue (Display Ads): If your blog uses display ads, such as Google AdSense or direct ad sales, increasing traffic means more page views, which in turn can increase ad impressions and click-through rates (CTR), leading to more revenue.
- Affiliate Marketing: With more readers, you have more opportunities to promote affiliate products, which leads to higher commissions. The more traffic you generate, the more chances there are for conversions from your affiliate links.
- Sponsored Content: Brands are willing to pay bloggers with larger audiences to publish sponsored posts. More traffic can increase your attractiveness to potential sponsors.
- Selling Products or Services: Increased traffic opens up more opportunities to sell your own products, whether they’re digital products like e-books or courses, physical products, or services like consulting.
In summary, if you can increase your blog’s content quality or satisfaction rate, increase your number of published posts and promote it, it will by default attract more quality traffic, and this type of traffic has a high conversion rate and can increase your blog’s monthly income significantly.
How To Start A Standard Sports Blog
To utilize any of the mentioned methods of monetization in this post, you need to follow the below steps to get started and apply them. It’s simple anyone can do it.
- Step 1: Use HostGator to get started
- Step 2: Choose your preferred HostGator’s plan
- Step 3: Choose your preferred domain
- Step 4: Create your account, choose your password, and checkout
- Step 4: Within your HostGator account “Install WordPress” your blogging platform
- Step 5: Within WordPress choose your blog theme [A Pre-built Site]
- Step 6: Customize your blog main pages and start publishing blog posts
5 Ways To Monetize Your Sports Blog To Make Money
This is the most common method most sports bloggers use in monetizing and making money from their blogs and it’s very lucrative.
If you can learn how to make the most out of them you can cash out big just by utilizing at least two of these methods for a start.
- Display ads
- Sponsorships deals
- Affiliates product recommendations
- Selling merchandise
- Offer subscriptions or memberships
[1]. Display Ads
Display ads are the most widely used blog methods of monetization you can use to monetize your sports to make money. You can place ads on your site for free using ad networks like Google AdSense or Mediavine, etc. As your traffic grows, you will earn revenue based on your impressions [number of ad views] or clicks.
High-traffic sports blogs with valuable content can generate consistent income just from display ads.
Even as a beginner, you can easily make up to $5,000/month, if you push hard on blog post content creation.
How to utilize Display Ads
- Step 1: Focus on creating high-quality content, that your audience will find useful and want to stay long on your site.
- Step 2: Once your blog starts getting steady traffic (around 10,000 page views/month), sign up for ad networks like Google AdSense or Ezoic. It is not necessary to get to 10,000 monthly page views but this is when most bloggers earnings start making sense.
- Step 3: Place the ads on your blog in strategic areas like the sidebar, above the fold, or within the content itself, and watch your earnings grow as traffic increases. You can also make this automatic once you create a new post and can also prevent ads from any page you want, you can do this easily.
[2]. Sponsorships or Brand Deals
In simple terms, sponsorships mean that a brand can contact you or that you can contact a brand related to your niche to advertise their product or business in your blog post for an agreed price between you both.
As a sports-based blogger, you can collaborate with brands to advertise their products in your blog posts, social media pages, or YouTube videos if you wish to earn more.
In return, you will get paid according to your negotiated commission. These deals are often more lucrative if your blog has grown lots of traffic over time.
This is not ideal for complete beginners, but something you can definitely keep in mind as you grow your blog.
On average sponsorship deals within sports-based blogs are usually between $500 – $5,000 and can last as long as one month or more.
You can partner with more than one brand as much as you can manage and control to even make more money.
How to utilize sponsorships or brand deal
- Step 1: Grow your blog traffic first
- Step 2: When you’ve reached 20k monthly visitors or more create a page on your site, and make it align above your blog page with your nav bar links to your home, page and other important pages, for interested brands interested to be able to contact you if they wish to advertise their brand on your content.
- Step 3: If you feel you’ve waited too long, and no one seems interested, you can use platforms like, Upfluence, or Grin to find and pitch to brands about your blog and get them to sponsor your blog. The higher your blog traffic and the more related it is to a brand you are pitching to the higher the chances of accepting your request to come to come to a deal.
[3]. Affiliate Product Recommendations
As a sports-based blogger, you can promote affiliate products related to sports and earn commissions when you make a sale.
You can join a single sports-related affiliate brand to promote their product or join affiliate networks to find many brands and manage them in one place.
Here are some examples of items you can promote as a sports-based blogger;
- Sports equipment: Brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and other sports apparel and equipment manufacturers.
- Sports gear: Bikes, skateboards, surfboards, and other sports equipment.
- Sports nutrition: Protein powders, energy drinks, and other sports supplements.
- Sports streaming services: Platforms like ESPN+, DAZN, and FuboTV.
- Sports betting platforms: Legal sports betting sites and apps.
- Sports merchandise: Team jerseys, memorabilia, and other sports-related items.
- Sportsbooks and magazines: Sports publications and guides.
- Sports training and coaching: Online courses, coaching services, and training programs.
You can use affiliate networks like Impact, CJ Affiliate, ShareAsale, or even Amazon Associates to find products and brands like the ones I mentioned to promote them.
When readers purchase through your unique affiliate links, you will earn a commission.
This method works well if produce satisfying content your audience likes and feels is useful or even profitable to them.
You can make as much as $4,000/month just by recommending sports-related affiliate products.
How to utilize recommending affiliate products
- Step 1: Sign up for affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or sports-related affiliate programs or networks.
- Step 2: Recommend those products that align with your blog audience and include your unique affiliate links.
- Step 3: Use strong call-to-actions to encourage your audience to purchase through your links, earning a commission on each sale. You can do this more effectively within posts that align well with affiliate product recommendations.
[4]. Selling Merchandise
Merchandises are basically, items bloggers design with their logo on it, mostly in the form of t-shirts, stickers, etc.
Sports bloggers often sell merchandise related to their niche.
Merchandises like:
- Apparel: T-shirts, hoodies, hats, and other clothing items featuring the blogger’s logo or branding.
- Accessories: Sports equipment, bags, water bottles, and other sports-related items.
- Physical products: Items like posters, prints, or collectibles related to sports.
- Special items: Exclusive merchandise that is only available for a limited time.
These might be complicated for some but it’s not.
Bloggers can use platforms like Printify to design product items like the ones I mentioned above.
After the design, they can use their blog to promote the product and make sales while Printify partners handle the order delivery.
Some sports bloggers who take this very seriously can set up a dropshipping store within their blog using the Woocommerce plugin within their WordPress blog.
This time around you don’t really need to design the product or add your logo, but just need to import your preferred products to your woocommerce-designed store using third-party product suppliers like AliDropship or Oberlo.
Those suppliers will help you to handle shipping whenever there’s an active order and the actual product price will be deducted from the price you set and you pocket the difference as profit.
How to utilize selling merchandise
- Step 1: Identify your niche products your audience would likely love to buy.
- Step 2: Set up an online store with Printify to design & sell simple merchandise, or set up a WooCommerce store within your blog to sell a wider category of products you can import from reliable product suppliers.
- Step 3: Promote those merchandise in your blog posts, on social media, and through email newsletters, to increase traffic on those products and get you more sales.
[5]. Subscriptions or Memberships
Some sports blogs do offer subscriptions to their audience for exclusive content.
Exclusive content like in-depth sporting analysis and betting predictions for their audiences who play bets.
This is very lucrative since there are lots of audiences who play bets on different sports most especially on football or soccer.
If you are good at it or have a particular that works most times you can use this as an additional method of making more money from your blog.
How to monetize your sports blog with a subscription or membership
Assuming you are offering sports betting predictions this is how you can do it;
- Step 1: You can decide to focus on one sport or league or in multiple sports or leagues depending on where you can offer value.
- Step 2: Have a strategy based on your skill or what you know works on how to analyze past data, trends, and statistics to come up with very likely predictions.
- Step 3: Offer a free trial by giving potential subscribers a chance to try out your subscription content before paying for it.
- Step 4: You can research similar competitors to find out your target price range for your subscription service.
- Step 5: You can use WordPress plugins like MemberPress, or Paid Memberships Pro to create and manage your subscriptions.
Note: This is not ideal for beginners till you master your skills and gain some experience.
How To Start A Standard Sports Blog that makes money
To utilize any of the mentioned methods of monetization in this post, you need to follow the below steps to get started and apply them. It’s simple anyone can do it.
- Step 1: Use HostGator to get started
- Step 2: Choose your preferred HostGator’s plan
- Step 3: Choose your preferred domain
- Step 4: Create your account, choose your password, and checkout
- Step 4: Within your HostGator account “Install WordPress” your blogging platform
- Step 5: Within WordPress choose your blog theme [A Pre-built Site]
- Step 6: Customize your blog main pages and start publishing blog posts
Simplified Summary
You’ve seen the estimated figures sports bloggers are making from beginners to average and established sports blogs. If you’ve really read the post I think by now you should have at least a rough idea of how to start your blog, how to monetize and make money from them, and those factors you need to improve to boost your revenue and be happy.
