BLOGS WITH BALLS

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 24

hhr — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:07:13 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 24 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

We are joined this week by the “World’s Greatest Chinese Jew,” non-Eskimo Ben Koo.

A bucknuts.com blogger and the former Business Development Manager at Yardbarker, Ben is now the CEO of Bloguin.com, a blog network founded in 2009 that now boasts over 130 sites and 800k+ views/day.

With his background as a blogger, advertising point man and now network exec, Ben is able to provide a wide perspective on many areas of the industry.

A quote that I think is worth repeating is one that we haven’t heard in such a frank and concise manner:

“There’s this misconception with sports blogs that there are media buyers or people looking to purchase advertising…going across the web and reading articles looking for the best writer to sponsor…but the reality is that there needs to be a certain reach that gets them excited that meets their needs and it could be in the millions or hundreds of thousands…”

Ben talks about Bloguin and what sets it apart from networks like FanSided and SB Nation, but notes how the real competition isn’t the other online networks like these, but rather the traditional media outlets.

This week’s links of interest:

Bloguin.com
Koo’s Corner
@bloguin
@bkoo
Interview with Ben Koo, CEO of Bloguin (Buzz Manager Blog/Sports Media Challenge)
PSAMP

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 23

hhr — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:09:24 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 23 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Our guest this week is Phil from the multifaceted men’s website Gunaxin.com.

Phil has been a longtime friend of HHR and, more so, the Blogs With Balls conferences, having attended and been vocal at both the New York and Vegas shows.

In Vegas, we had a great panel conversation on whether or not bloggers should be granted the same access and treatment that teams and leagues afford traditional media and journalists. On that panel, Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski – among the most high profile and respected hockey bloggers on the web – brought up the fact that the NHL has embraced new media to circumvent the lack of coverage MSM has allotted the sport. Specifically, the Washington Capitals, thanks in large part to their new-media savvy owner, is regarded as one of the most progressive franchises in terms of blogger credentialing. Phil, who blogs at the Fansided Caps blog Capitals Outsider, is among those select few sports bloggers in any sport that covers games from the press box.

Recently, his actions in the press area drew the attention and criticism from the Internets, the team and even Wyshinski…actions that eventually lead to his suspension from the press box.

With almost 3 weeks to digest the incident, Phil reflects on his actions, the reactions, and the hypocritical treatment in relation to his Verizon Center nemesis Mike Milbury.

Moving on to Gunaxin, Phil talks about how his unique background has aided in positioning the site among the fastest growing men’s general interest sites, how and why the Gunaxin decided to dabble in podcasting, and its recent launch of Gunaxin Links – a direct and men’s focused alternative to Reddit.

A recurring theme is Phil’s appreciation for the online community. He credits folks he met at BwB (Dan Levy, Matt Sebek and Gary Vaynerchuk) as being influential in Gunaxin moving into many of the areas it has, and credits the conference itself as helping facilitate some of the A-list guests they’ve gotten to interview.

This week’s links of interest:

Gunaxin.com
@Gunaxin
Gunaxin on Facebook
Gunaxin Links
Gunaxin Podcasts
Capitals Outsider
@CapsOutsider
Mike Milbury Assaults Blogger (Gunaxin)
Analyzing the Mike Milbury vs. hockey blogger ‘assault’ (Puck Daddy)
Battle With Milbury (KuklasKorner)
DC Sports Bog
On The DL Podcast
Joe Sports Fan
Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Purple Cow
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 22

hhr — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:16:13 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 22 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Welcome to the “man” episode. We focus on “things guys like” with Guyism.com and chat with the incomparable Sarah Spain.

Lucas is away this week in sunny Hawaii, so filling in once again is Chris Illuminati. Combining Illuminati’s new segment at HHR with Lucas’ Ballsy Blog of the Week, we bring on Guyism.com’s Isaac to answer 8 Softball Questions.

What happened to the World of Isaac?
Why do women read men’s sites?
Why do people get so worked up over internet articles?
What Internet trend will he never understand?
Who epitomizes Guyism.com?
What’s more unmanly than creating Internet viruses?
How unmanly are staged wedding party pictures?
What is something every man needs?

Keeping with our theme, Chicago’s own Sarah Spain joins us. Four years removed from auctioning herself off on eBay to get to the Super Bowl, Sarah is now rubbing elbows on the red carpet at the big game with NFL legends in a journalistic capacity.

Sarah has been our eyes and ears on the ground in the planning process of BwB3, and really epitomizes a lot of things we intend to focus on in June.

One thing we’ve worked hard on incorporating is a more diverse perspective at the shows. Among them is having more women participate. Like previous guest Jemele Hill, Sarah talks about the role her gender plays as a sports blogger and journalist. Ivy league educated, she talks about how she balances being a woman in a male-dominated genre with her talent, background and work product. She offers her advice to female bloggers and talks about what they can expect along their respective paths, which could include a couple of creeps and stunts like this:

Sarah also has worked in various platforms including web, radio and now television – both locally and for national companies. She also talks about the professional advantages of online accessibility and social media.

In lieu of Skyped Up, as the queen of Chicago sports, we put her on the spot and ask us to talk about some of her favorite Windy City team-specific blogs and bloggers.

This week’s links of interest:

Sarah’s favorites:

Blackhawks

Second City Hockey

Bulls

Bears

Cubs

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 21

hhr — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:50:17 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 21 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Lucas has long been an advocate that the future of sports blogging lies in content producers adopting more than just the written word and dabbling in audio and video. We kick off the week talking a little about some folks who do the latter quite well.

Our ballsy blog of the week belongs to our good friends at The Global Sports Fraternity who did an absolute phenomenal job creating original, entertaining content at the Super Bowl in Miami.

Most notably, GSF’s Henry Lowenfels gave Lions QB Matt Stafford the business at the Gatorade Fitness Lab.

We’d be remissed talking video if we didn’t mention our BwB videographers and editors Ben Eckstein and Rob Baker, as well as the great work done by Wondershot Productions (who gave us the BwB opening/welcome video).

Our favorite ongoing use of video-that-should-be-its-own-TV-show is from our podcasting partners at Joe Sports Fan, who this week brought us the return of The Softball Guy.

An Exclusive, Emotional Interview with Softball Guy from JoeSportsFan.com on Vimeo.

Our guest this week was a panelist at Blogs With Balls 1.0 in New York and winner of the inaugural Blogs With Balls Charity Poker Shootout, Adam Best.

Best is the co-founder (with his brother Zach, a web designer) and senior editor of the FanSided.com sports network as well as the site that launched the network, Arrowhead Addict.

What sets FanSided apart from its competitors is the family-like business approach that Adam has taken to advancing it. Adam talks about the progression from blogging on his Chiefs site to creating the original make-up of FanSided as an NFL blog network to one encompassing multi-sports and housing 135 different sites. He taps into the importance of forging strategic partnerships, like he has with Yardbarker.com/Fox Sports and CBS Sports.

He also recently launched FlickSided.com, a site dedicated to his other passion – film.

This week’s links of interest:

Follow us on Twitter@HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 20

hhr — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:45:40 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 20 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Welcome to the big 2-0.

While everyone’s looking at staying ahead of the curve and taking advantage of the “next big thing” to market themselves or their products, we bring on two people who have been cashing in on the first big thing – email.

We are joined by “the third head of the Blogs With Balls three-headed monster,” Kyle Bunch. Kyle aggregates his Daily Bunch right into subscribers’ inboxes. We ask him the hows and the whys.

While we have him on, we thought what better time than to finally let people know the venue of BwB 3. You’ll have to listen to find out.

Our guest this week is Aaron Karo. You might remember getting “Ruminations” emails at some point over the course of the last dozen or so years. Hell, you might still get them.

With the success of his electronically disseminated tales of college, Karo was able to forgo his Wall Street career in favor of one on the road (and rich in adventure) as a standup comedian, author and a business-owner whose product is himself.

Ruminations is now in book form (“…on College” and “…on Twentysomething Life“). He has another book now out “not intended for married people” – I’m Having More Fun Than You. You can also find his comedy album “Just go Talk to Her” on iTunes – recorded live in Boston on the night before Chris’ single worst hangover, ever.

We talk a little about sports and a lot about his online marketing strategy and tools and multi-platform approach.

This week’s links of interest:

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 19

hhr — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:35:50 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 19 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Today marks the triumphant return of the Ballsy Blog of the Week, which fittingly goes to the quartet of Chad Ochocinco, Chris Cooley, Ray Rice and Darnell Docket for their unprecedented news coverage along with Jake & Amir during Super Bowl week. We highlight it for the fact that not only is the group (collectively known as the OCNN News Team) downright hilarious, but the project’s sponsor – Motoblur – does an amazing job integrating their product into the viral videos in a manner that compliments, rather than takes away, from the videos’ entertainment value.

I have seen the future. Take note, advertisers.

Staying in Miami, we bring on on-location guest Joe Fortenbaugh of National Football Post to talk Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, trade rumors, McNabb/Favre speculation and how the site and its unique staff have quickly become an inside source for pro football news, analysis and insight.

Prior to joining on with NFP full-time and focusing on fantasy football posts, Joe worked as an NFL agent at JB Sports for three years while earning his degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

This week’s links of interest:

BwB/HHR Media Recognized for Sports Blogger Community Building

hhr — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:37:53 +0000

Christopher Byrne, one of the foremost watchdogs on sports journalism at Eye on Sports Media bestowed this beautiful etrophy upon us today along with a very flattering write-up on his site.

When I started blogging as part of the IBM Lotus Software community back in late 2002, I was immediately part of a group of people that understood (and still understands) the inherent value of community building and collaboration. In many ways this is unusual among blogosphere genres, and the sports blogosphere has been no exception. That is, until someone came up with a great idea to bring sports bloggers and mainstream media professionals together to meet, greet, debate, and exchange ideas.

You can read the full post here.

Thanks to Chris for not only recognizing our efforts, but also for his continued outstanding work at Eye On Sports Media.

Blogs With Balls Radio, Episode 18

hhr — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:59:29 +0000

This week’s Blogs With Balls Show on the JoeSportsFan Radio Network is now available.

Download Episode 18 here, or subscribe via iTunes.

Today we celebrate the godliness of New Orleans Saint Tracey Porter.

And are reminiscent of Calvin Pace’s early words of praise to us for Rex Ryan.

HHR @ NFL Draft Classic – Calvin Pace and the Defensive Mastermind from HHR on Vimeo.

Shifting gears from NFL playoff and Super Bowl talk, we bring on guest Lang Whitaker, executive editor at SLAM Magazine, columnist at Hawks.com and author of a forthcoming memoir on Bobby Cox and growing up a Braves fan.

Lang talks about the unique relationship the magazine was able to develop with the NBA’s biggest stars and teams.

As someone who dabbles and excels in and on so many platforms, Lang brings insight to how writing in general is affected by the immediacy of the Internet age:

“The more you write online, the better a writer it makes you. You learn to deal with immediate reactions from people. You understand what the audience looks for in stories…But at the same time, I learned a long time ago you cant 100% give in to what people want you to do. At some point you stay true to yourself and you hope the audience likes what you’re doing.”

Keep an eye out for Searching for Bobby Cox, due out February 2011, which is a Julie and Julia-esq memoir of lessons Lang’s “learned about life by watching Bobby Cox managing the Braves.”

This week’s links of interest:

Steve Nash Gets Down to Business in Fast Company

hhr — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:20:47 +0000

Fast Company, February 2010

Steve Nash graces the cover of this month’s issue of Fast Company magazine.

The accompanying story focuses on Nash transforming his public image from a reluctant sports superstar who once shunned public light and endorsement oportunities to one who now embraces the spotlight and the subsequent philanthropic benefit he can garner from it.

Photo Credit: Patrik Giardino

His willingness to transform came from his realization that he needs to prep for a life after basketball – one in which he hopes he can make a real difference in the world. A large part of his new carefully-crafted public persona comes from his ability to maintain control of his assets by using his own concepts (and production team) and leveraging new technology.

While Nash says in the article, that these days professional athletes “think of themselves as a brand, but that’s not my way of thinking,” ultimately it is his personal brand that he is honing to both personal and public benefit.

His newest startup, Apoko, grew out of his affinity for social media. On Facebook, where he has nearly 600,000 fans (more than 100,000 people follow him on Twitter), he shares videos of himself — playing a pickup game in China with locals; hanging out on the set of Katherine Heigl’s next movie, Life As We Know It (he has a cameo); and sweating through Whitecaps training. While playing a charity game, he and the Clippers’ Baron Davis discovered a mutual interest in film, which led to their making a spoof of Will Ferrell’s Step Brothers. The video attracted more than 600,000 views on YouTube. As two of the most Web-savvy NBA players, they decided to help other athletes market themselves online. “We’ll help them build a fan base and create content,” Nash says. “That’s the hard part for players.”

That “hard part,” whether Nash will admit it, is only as strong as individual branding. Were Nash (and Davis) not the commodity that they are, it’d be difficult to gain an upward of half-a-million online fans to opt-in to the athlete’s social media space.

Nash’s reflectance is ultimately part of his appeal – a stark contrast to the egotistical world of sports we know.

The model could very well serve as a blueprint for athletes in years to come.

You can read the complete story here: How Steve Nash Shines in Basketball – and Business.

Jim Bouton on Baseball and the Transformation of Sports Media

hhr — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:44:24 +0000

Photo: insidesocal.com

I’ve long been a fan of former MLB pitcher Jim Bouton’s book Ball Four.

The Blue Workhorse’s Shotgun Spratling caught up with Bouton for a candid telephone conversation on “the transformation and evolution of media since his playing days” (and also a little baseball talk).

“The media coverage now in sports is more distant than it was in my days. There’s so much media now, so many television cameras, so many reporters. There’s no intimacy any more. If a reporter wants to spend time with a professional athlete, get to know him and learn something about his life, he can’t do that. He has to show up at a press conference where the guy sits behind a long table, answers questions, and then gets up and walks out behind a curtain. There’s no intimacy. … There are more cameras, more reporters, less information.”

You can read the entire interview here.