Football Media

It’s hard to overstate what a boon the internet has been for football fans. Fans can now share their views instantly and on multiple platforms, and receive responses from other fans in seconds.

Four years ago, Soccerlens was born out of a desire to share our opinions on football with a wider audience. The market for ‘general’ football sites may seem saturated now but for football fans around the world, there are still plenty of opportunities to share their thoughts and be heard by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of fellow football fans.

How do you do it? Here are some pointers to get you started.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Internet, Social Media Comments: 0

It’s the dream job, isn’t it? Getting paid to watch football, free tickets to games and the chance to hob nob with the stars. Who wouldn’t want to be a full-time football writer?

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Posted by: Guest Authors Posted under: Football Blogging, Football Journalism, Social Media Comments: 1

The Football Media network is looking for writers. If you want to skip ahead, you can read up on the submission details at the bottom of this article. For more details, read on below.

Football Media is a collection of 30+ football websites covering all aspects of the beautiful game, from fantasy football to hot WAGs to football politics and your usual assortment of team blogs, forums and intelligent football coverage from around the world. We have sites – and writers – from all over the world, and we’d like you to be a part of this growing family.

If you’re passionate about football, love expressing your views on the game and are looking to start your football journalism career, we might just have a spot for you.

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Posted by: daryl Posted under: Football Blogging Comments: Comments Off

Football blogs and bloggers are still an afterthought to PR agencies. There are exceptions (the folks at M&C Saatchi are generally clued in) but by and large, they don’t understand how bloggers tick and they don’t understand how to use blogs to deliver the type of ROI that looks good for their bosses.

At the end of the day, PR agencies are as result-driven as any other business entity, and if they can’t figure out how to work with bloggers, they’re not going to bother unless they’re forced to do it. And this is a real shame, because bloggers have been telling PR agencies (for several years) how to pitch to them.

Which brings us to this point in time, one day before the World Cup kicks off. It’s 6:30 AM (UK time) and I’ve already received 5 pitches for various World Cup related services / products. The last week has seen hundreds of emails come through at Soccerlens and most of them have been ignored.

Football PR people, listen up. I know that the World Cup happens once every four years and everyone has to make the best of it, but that doesn’t give you license to spam bloggers.

In fact, nothing is going to guarantee an instant deletion of your emails more than shilling your product a couple of days from kickoff, when anyone who’s writing about football / would be writing about the World Cup is crazy busy.

Having said that, we don’t blindly delete emails (not really). It’s just that after having read several dozen pitches PER DAY in the last seven days, I can tell just by the email subject and first line (easy to see without opening the email if you’re using GMail / Google Apps / any decent webmail client) if it’s going to be worth my time. And unless I recognise your brand’s name, you’re just shortchanging yourself by approaching bloggers at a very busy time in their schedule.

So what can PR agencies do? Read on, and take notes.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business, Promotion, Social Media Comments: 1

Football Nomad, an independent web-documentary combining film and social media to share the color and excitement of the 2010 World Cup, is set for launch on June 4.

Brisbane-based brothers Andrew, 24, and Patrick Weber, 18, will travel the world armed with a laptop, Handycam and with the support of enthusiastic locals, aim to provide an intimate and engaging experience.

Andrew says:

“Football Nomad will be an amazing project – a true fans’ experience of the tournament that captivates the planet.”

“Patrick and I want to show what the World Cup is like for people who live and breathe the game. What’s more, we want to use online social media to share our experience as it unfolds.”

The journey begins in London on June 11 and ends a month later with the World Cup final. Along the way the Weber brothers will film, photograph and blog their way around Europe and South Africa to share World Cup culture.

The Webers will visit six of the biggest footballing nations in Europe – England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands before heading to South Africa to watch three live games in Johannesburg and Durban.

Andrew added:

“We are both young and adventurous people by nature, so we’re really looking forward to meeting as many locals as possible.”

“We really know our stuff when it comes to football culture and history, so people can expect intelligent and insightful commentary. The fact that we’re brothers should make it good fun, too.”

“We believe the most captivating thing about the World Cup is the bubbling mix of cultures on display. We want to capture footage of the bars and pubs on days when the national teams of the countries we are in are playing; to get interviews with locals about what the passion of the World Cup means to them and their country and to share the vibe in and around the stadiums in South Africa where the tournament is being held.”

The 2010 World Cup will be the most connected in the tournament’s history and the brothers intend to take full advantage of recent advances in online technology.

“It will give us the opportunity to share the documentary footage online as we travel.”

“We will update the blog daily with edited videos, photos and written posts of the best bits. Followers will be able to interact with us as we travel and we hope to include as many people as possible during the tournament.”

Andrew’s previous experience as a football blogger has created a community eager to support the project. He is the editor and head writer of Arsenal FC Blog, as well as a member of the world’s prominent football website network, Football Media.

Andrew says the Football Nomad website reveals a thriving community of followers eagerly awaiting the launch.

“Arsenal FC Blog has over 1,800 subscribers and gets around 90,000 unique readers each month, many of them extremely loyal and active participants. Most of the locals we will stay with during the trip are people I have met through the blog, which shows you just how enthusiastic people are about the project.”

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Social Media Comments: 0

On Monday Google AdSense disclosed the revenue share offered to publishers through two of their products, AdSense for content and AdSense for search.

There are many differences in what Google AdSense and Football Media each provide for web publishers, and I strongly maintain that football blogs (or other sites for that matter) shouldn’t use AdSense as their primary monetization strategy. But that’s not the point.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 1

As a football club F.C. Barcelona holds itself to higher standards than most clubs, both on the pitch and off it.

On the pitch, the Spanish champions have won their second consecutive league title, and have an incredible six pieces of silverware from the last two seasons alone. To say that they are the best side in Europe today would be an understatement.

And off the pitch, they are committed to, and quite successful in, making reality of Barça’s strapline, ‘més que un club’ (more than a club).

MeetTheBoss.TV has secured an interview with Lander Unzueta, Chief Marketing Officer, F.C. Barcelona, where the man charged with making reality of Barcelona’s ideology off the field speaks at length about how ‘the Barça way’ is changing the world for the better.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 2

The Simplest Game is a community of football websites founded in December 2009 by some of the best football bloggers based in North America. Their mission? To promote and support the best independent football writing on the sport.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Business Comments: 0

Football Media is proud to welcome Tottenham Blog and Match Fit USA to the fold as members of the Football Media Network.

Dan and Jason are passionate and articulate, and in transfer-speak, they are smart acquisitions with great future potential. More than the blogs and communities that they’re bringing on board, we’ll have two more smart brains working with us in the background to make Football Media better.

And while we’re on the subject, here’s how you can join Football Media.

Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Site News Comments: 0

Having looked at different publisher models in football blogging over the last 4 years, I see two big trends for the near future (a lot of this has happened and is happening right):

1. Democratisation of access

People will access content in a myriad of ways. Mobile, RSS, Website, YouTube, Audio are just the surface. You’ll see a lot of syndication, aggregation, widget-based content use, mashups, data-driven content, casual games, interactive apps, etc etc.

Search engines. Other bloggers. Twitter. Facebook. Retail stores. Product lines. Competitions.

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Posted by: Ahmed Bilal Posted under: Football Blogging, Football Business Comments: 0