How to Become a Freelance Sports Writer

If you love writing as much as you love sports, freelance sports writing could be the perfect career choice for you. Fortunately, becoming an independent sports writer has never been more accessible to more people. The internet is crawling with sports websites, and they need talented writers to create content for them. Whatever your sport of choice is, you can count on finding a website that covers it!

If you’re new to the world of freelancing, however, you may be wondering what the best practices are for pursuing professional sports writing as an independent writer. The more prepared you are for the challenges of your new career, the more success you’re likely to find! Here are some tips that will help you launch yourself into the world of freelance sports writing.

Know what the best sports websites are.

Sports writing isn’t scarce on the internet. Type the name of your favorite sport into a search engine and you’ll likely come across hundreds of sites dedicated to it, if not thousands. However, the sites that are useful or fun for sports fans aren’t necessarily the most useful ones for a sports writer. Your question should be: What are the most informative and accurate sites that I can use for research? If you want to locate baseball statistics easily, for example, you should have one or two reliable sites bookmarked, so that you don’t have to waste valuable writing time looking for them on Google.

Have a niche, but don’t hesitate to branch out.

Most sports fans have a couple of sports that they are most interested in. If you’re going to try to make a career as a sports writer, however, having diverse interests will be helpful for you. If you focus exclusively on one sport, you’re limiting the number of opportunities you have, which will make it harder for you to find writing jobs. It’s a good idea to have at least a glancing familiarity with all of the major sports in the U.S. and Canada, from baseball to tennis to hockey.

Remember to stay impartial.

If you’re like most sports fans, you probably have a long, ever-changing list of favorites: Favorite teams, favorite players, favorite moments. In order to write well about sports, however, you need to be able to put your personal feelings aside so you can write about teams—and players—you’re not such a fan of. While some sports writing will call for a more subjective approach, much of the writing you’ll be doing should be relatively neutral in tone, as it will be targeting a general audience.

Learn how to use social media.

In today’s freelancing world, knowing how to make smart use of social media is nearly as important as knowing how to write! Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media giants are indispensable to promoting website content, so it’s important that you know how to use and post on all of them. If you’re interested in finding steady freelancing gigs, knowing how to manage social media accounts and write well-crafted, optimized updates is a must.

Read the sites you want to write for.

It might sound obvious, but it’s still true: If you want to write for a site, you need to be reading it. When you visit a sports website that’s new to you, spend some time reading its latest articles. Don’t rush through them—take your time. Study how the writers present information, the voice they use, the audience they seem to be targeting, and even the length of the sentences and paragraphs. If the site lists its most-read articles, take a close look at them. What do you think it is about those articles that is attracting so much attention?

Study the best sports writers.

If you really want to stand out as a sports writer, you can’t just repeat the same things every other sports fan is saying—you need to be bringing something new to the table. In order to be a truly exceptional sports writer, you need to study the work of the best writers in the field. Pick up books that collect the best sports journalism of the years. Go to the Sports Illustrated website and read classic athlete profiles. Find the best writers currently chronicling your favorite sport and follow their work. Don’t just read the best articles you find once—go back and read them again and try to break down what makes them so good.

Start your own sports blog.

If you don’t already have a blog, there’s no better time than now to start one. However much time you have to spend updating your blog, having one will provide you with a convenient outlet for your writing. Thus, it will give you a reason to practice and hone your writing skills. There are plenty of great, easy-to-use platforms out there for beginning bloggers, such as Medium or WordPress. Once you’ve got your blog up and running, be sure to repost—or post links to—your latest posts on all of your social media accounts.

Remember to be persistent.

It’s easy to feel a little discouraged if you don’t find work right away. The important thing, however, is that you keep at it. If you continue to spend time every workday looking for new writing opportunities and sending out queries and applications, you’re increasing your chances of landing gigs. You should also be sure to carve out some writing time for yourself every day. The more you practice, and the more you hone your skills, the better a writer you’ll be—and the more rewarding your new career will be for you.

Have you always aspired to become a professional freelance writer? Writers Work can provide you with the tools you need to make your way in the freelancing realm. When you join our site, you’ll have access to our handy document editor, our informative videos, and much more! If you’d like to learn more about how a Writers Work membership can help you build your portfolio and find writing jobs, visit our website today and check out our introductory video.