Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Advice from the pros
I'd like to start off this post with something not necessarily basketball related, but it is blog-related. While reading his latest column titled "Just the Facts," ESPN Fantasy Football writer Matthew Berry (also known as The Talented Mr. Roto) dished out some interesting advice to up-and-coming bloggers:
The most frequent question I get is "How do I get your job?" The answer, very simply, is just be good. Anyone could have done what I did. I answered a blind ad for a Web site in 1999. Wrote for five years, starting at $25 an article, built an audience, started my own Web site in 2004, built more of an audience, sold it to ESPN in 2006. Many people do fantasy analysis, and many of them are very good. What I feel separated me from the pack was I offered something different. Whether you are a fan of my writing or hate it, you could take my byline off a column, read it blind and say "Yeah, that's a Matthew Berry column." If you want to do what I do, offer something different than what is currently out there and do it very well. If you're good, someone will find you. I promise.
As a rising blogger myself, I thought this was something worth noting. It's a great story of success. All you need is a dream and the dedication to achieve it. Alright, that sounded corny but it's true. A blog that I am very fond of is called Club Trillion and it was created by an Ohio State basketball player named Mark Titus. He started out as a team manager and ended up earning a varsity spot. However, he has never seen much game action, enticing him and his fellow benchmates to come up with a label for themselves. Thus, Club Trillion was born. It comes from their individual box scores when they magically get to enter a game. The 1 is for minutes played, followed by a plethora of zeros that indicate no statistics were amassed.
Anyway, Titus started a blog for the club, and not surprisingly a loyal following emerged. It started out small, but soon the entire OSU campus was reading his stuff. He says he is not a writer, but he tells funny jokes and stories about the team that no one would ever hear in the media. I first heard about Club Trillion when ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons had Titus on one of his podcasts last winter. That has helped Club Tril go national with its audience.
I think that Berry's advice is something that Titus would agree with. All you have to do is get on the keyboard, be yourself and find your voice. It does take dedication, but if you want it bad enough, you can have it. Provide some good information along with a few jokes, be patient, and readers will come.
Stepping down and signing off, RL.
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