It’s with great pleasure to introduce a new feature ‘Industry Face-Off’ with two soccer bloggers behind two local soccer blogs making a name for themselves (mainstream media take note and yes MEDIA BUYERS here is another platform to consider for marketing your brands), that being www.footballfevr.com and www.safootballfans.co.za.
As a start this feature will pit two industry websites/blogs against each other (then move onto other sectors), where you the reader will vote the winner. Calvin Ntombela runs FootballFevr while Ashraf Stakala manages SAFootballFans.
So let’s get behind the scenes and better understand what drives these soccer lovers…enjoy and remember to cast your vote at the end.
| FOOTBALLfevr | SaFootballFans |
| When was your blog launched | |
| 10th February 2009 | My Blog was launched on the 1st of June 2008 |
| How many hours per day do you invest on your blog? | |
| 5 – 7 hours |
Between 3 and 6 hours a day (min and max) |
| What are your monthly page views and unique visitors | |
|
Footballfevr is still very young but according to Google analytics, since we launched the blog on 10 Feb we’ve had: 119,105 page views Just to be more elaborative, between 13 April and 13 May, we’ve had 48,716 page views and 15,707 unique visitors So it looks like we are growing, but still very young. |
Page views = 130,000 on average. Looks like I will break the 20,000 page view barrier this month as I’m sitting on 18,000 at the moment. Unique Visitors = 4,500 on average, but again this month I’m already sitting at 8,000. (Not sure whether you want average or current) |
| How is your blog monetized? | |
| At the moment starting up with Google adsense, hope it works out;
I am also considering using South African TrafficSynergy. |
I have monetized my blog with Google adsense (although I’ve removed adsense from the blog since the 1st of May). I also make use of Adgator and Traffic Synergy. |
| Why is feedburner email subscriptions not your big focus as is twitter subscriptions? | |
| Well in my case, I rate email subscriptions higher actually, the only reason I never had it enabled till today was because you (Muzi) helped me fix it. Thank you for that.
Twitter is great! I mean there’s no doubt about it, micro blogging is taking over, and almost everyone lives on Twitter nowadays, so we are keen on using both really. |
I feel that soccer blogs won’t benefit from RSS as much as say, a technology blog for example. I have a RSS/Email subscription banner on the blog but the response is not that great. Twitter on the other hand is much more powerful in terms of bringing in new visitors and one of my biggest sources of traffic. |
| Is blogging your full-time or part-time occupation | |
| Ehem, occupation? No. I blog for the love of it, football is my life, I live, breath, sleep and eat football if you know what I mean, and no I still have a day job, I kinda need it. LOL | Definitely part-time. Blogging is my hobby. |
| What is the biggest mistake you’ve made since launching your blog? | |
| Well I would say not picking up on the problem I had with my email subscription as I believe is the best way of building a solid user base for any blog or website. | Blogging for about 6 months before implementing good SEO practices! |
| What are your top three blogs that you read daily? | |
| Jeez I hate this question because there are lots, but these come to mind quickly, in no particular order:
imod.co.za The list goes on, recently I’ve been enjoy Lennox’s post on soccerwires.com |
|
| What are your strategies to growing your blog? | |
| Well, build a community around FOOTBALLfevr through consistent and quality blogging.
Introduce a few features and sectionS, I have quite a few under my sleeves. |
I plan on growing my membership base (registered users). I have also started to spend more time on SEO and results are paying off as this looks like being the best month for the blog since I launched it 11 months ago. SEO is very important. I’m participating on other blogs and social networks in an effort to gain new readers. I will also be taking a more structured approach in terms of daily planning. |
| Do you publish press releases on your blog? | |
| Not too keen, but if it’s worth it, I will | Not anymore, I did some for Coca Cola and two other media companies recently, but have since decided not to publish any press releases on the blog. I feel it’s important for bloggers to publish unique content. |
| Do you welcome guest posts and do you guest blog? | |
| Definitely | Yes. Always. |
| Do you use www.openx.org? | |
| Speak English please, hehehehe, kidding, I haven’t used it yet, maybe in future. | No. |
| Which blogger do you idolise? | |
| Chris Mills of Imod is a legend. | Christopher Mills and Darren Rowse. |
Thanks for the “interview” Muzi. It’s a very interesting concept you have going here.
It feels kind of weird going up against Calvin though because he is probably my closest “Blog Buddy”. We are in contact on a daily basis and always trying to help each other improve. I think Calvin should win this one though as he has done remarkably well in a very short space of time. My blog was nowhere to be found after 4 months hehe!
Keep up the great work your doing year at soccerwires Muzi.
Hi Ash, its my small way of contributing to your growth, how I wish that media buyers could give bloggers a chance…however in the meantime we have to make do with the limited resources at our disposal.
Oh yeah, thanks for this feature Muzi, I thought you were joking, heheheh, glad to know someone is reading FOOTBALLFEVR.
Thanks again dude
Am encouraged to see the youth being drivers of their destiny…the time is now.
Eish Chase Mfowethu( Calvin). Did yo uahev to make us chose..I see a Tsunami victory for Footballfevr….I might be wrong..If Muzi chane his campaign strategy to “Stop Calvin”..It might sway voters to his side,..LOL..Good one though..Muzi..haven’t been to your site,.but will visit it soon,..don’t worry Calvin,..Won’t go forever…
Tity-GP, I support both blogs…therefore hope for a draw.
@Muzi, LOL…
Wow, so far Footballfevr is 11 votes, while SAfootfallfans only has 2 votes…interesting…ASH get your readers to kick-butt!
Yeah Football fevr is running away with this one. Unfortunately I’m very busy at the moment so I can’t really spread the word now Muzi. I’ve just tweeted about it though, Let’s see if that makes a difference
Good interviews gents, it’s great to see new and fresh blogs hitting the scene and getting some publicity. I tell you, I’m absolutely honoured to see my name in the mix there, just wow – thank you!
From a blogging and SEO point of view, just because I’ve got a couple more years experience, you’re both doing incredibly well, I’ve watched the Alexa ranks increase and I’ve watched how you’ve both changed things as the months have gone by and it’s awesome to watch.
Monetization is not going to be easy for either of you, but you need to start thinking niche – Both your blogs are niches, which means you need to do some hard marketing and target football/sporting related shops – Think Sportsmans Warehouse and the likes, that’s where you’ll see good revenue injections, not so much from Adsense, AdGator or TrafficSynergy, I’m sure you’ll agree. Get those rate cards together, please feel free to look at mine for inspiration and start sending them off to various sporting chains – nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Keep going gents!
@ChrisM
Now can you see why I call you a legend, this is advice any blogger could kill for, thanks a lot for the advice. As you know I always take notes… need to jot this down quickly, brb
Hehe, thanks dude
But seriously, try it, don’t just think about it, actually make a big effort to do it, that was one of my flaws in the beginning, being a tad lazy..
Chris, we’re all indebted to your valuable advise, you’re our local Darren Rowse…thank you for not being selfish with information. I now pay R300pm for hosting my sites from paying about R5,000pm, you recommended HostGator, though there were interruptions during the transfers, however it was all worth it.
R4700/month saving.. magical!!!
Added to Muti, http://www.muti.co.za/comments?sbid=40774, bump it up!
Thats what I admire most about guys like Chris and Darren. They are always wiling to help other bloggers despite the fact that they have very popular blogs and are very busy guys .
Wish more of SA’s “big” bloggers whould follow Chris’ example.
Thanks for the advice Chris. I have removed adsense from my blog in an attempt to get some direct advertisements on the blog.. No luck so far but I’m gona keep trying.
Ag ja, look, I’m first to admit that I can’t always help, I get totally swamped with requests and am quite unavailable at times, but one thing I do ensure that I do is scope out the person asking the questions and sometimes if the person fits criteria, I help them
Ye, would be nice if more bloggers shared, but quite honestly, I don’t think there are too many locally who actually know a great deal about blogging..
Have you got a rate card? Marketing pitch? It’s quite a bit of work..
Chris – that’s a massive saving, unfortunately local hosting companies are milking online publishers dry.
Ash – I wouldn’t totally remove adsense from my blogs, as it generates something in the meantime, as opposed to get nothing at all, while hunting for a direct advertiser. Since soccerwires.com is less than two months old, for now it’s about building traffic. I would also recommend outsourcing to sales agents like http://www.internetadsales.co.za, (they help my travel blog travelwires.com a great deal) as another means to get direct advertisers.
Great advice gents, this just shows you we (Ash and I) have done nothing yet, still a lot of work to be done…
nice staff boss
Come on comrades! we demand! two third majority
Stop Calvin, stop Calvin!
I have some alterior motives for removing Adsnse Muzi, but your right. Adsense was my biggest income stream. Thanks for the tip about internetadsales. Will check them out.
@Chris
I’m working on a ratecard , I saw you changed yours last month so I’m trying to get somethingg similar goiong. It looks ver professional.
They are both great SA footie blogs. I currently reside in the UK and I can vouch that our SA bloggers are on par. The 2010 WC is playing into our hands so lets see some more of that around the blogs.
keep up the great work guys.
Yours in blogging
The Real Footie Analyst
Just an observation directed to Ashraf (SAfootballfans) about email feedburner subscription. I suggest you revise your rss symbol and offer an email subscription form on the homepage (and at the end of each published story), which is easy for an average visitor to your website to join your mailing list. Not all users clearly understand the RSS symbol, however everyone understands an invite to subscribe a daily email updates. You’ll notice an improvement to your mailing list, which works wonders by updating your readers on all new articles you’ve published.
Thanks for the tip Muzi. I see FootballFevr has also done this it looks a great suggestion. Will look into it today. Thanks again for the advice
Indeed, unfortunately website visitors have to be spoon fed, make everything very simple for them…otherwise you’ll not get what you’re looking for.
It took me 4 years to get bid2load.com users to start paying for the service I was rendering…because all the other formats were just too complex for them to understand and they couldn’t pay for something they didn’t understand.
@Muzi,
Agreed on the feedburner issue
Very nice information. Thanks for this. You really have a very informative site, thank you for sharing!