Tag Archives: writing

Life of a Super Sports Blogger

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—Independent bloggers drive sports industry—Fortune 500 companies engage with the citizen journalists —

It’s the ultimate dream for many a football fan. Swapping the nine to five for a career spent posting on a blog about the sport you adore. No editorial limits, no suit, no boss. For Alan Spurgeon and his blog Footy-Boots.com, that dream is reality.

What started as a series of niche articles in 2006, Alan’s blog which focuses primarily on reviews of football apparel now reaches four million people worldwide, three hundred thousand of whom read his words on average every other day. It’s the sort of platform any of the major football brands would pay serious sums to control, but Footy-Boots.com remains independent, relying upon a small team of mostly volunteer staff and freely available publishing technology to engage the fans.

In a year which has seen every major sports brand jump on the social media bandwagon, Alan’s seen a shift in attitude when it comes to dealing with the marketing departments representing the kit he reviews—

“Our job is to review everything we can get hold of and when a product comes with an already established online fan-base that can explain the benefits in our terms, an invitation to meet the people who produce the product and a willingness to engage in feedback, there’s an obvious advantage. For years we struggled away ordering products as soon as we could get hold of them, crawling through the maze of PR departments to get comment or information and then taking the stuff to the field to run it through the paces before posting our opinion online. These days it’s a little different. Whilst we’re still just a couple of lads operating from their laptop, it’s not unusual for us to be invited to meet the people who produce the kit or to go down to the pitch to chat to the premiership players who are wearing it. The biggest names in the world like Nike, adidas and Puma have got used to the fact that if you want to sell your boots to a digital generation, it’s not just the print media and broadcasters you need to engage with celebrity endorsement, it’s the little guys like us. We need data and it’s in their interests to make sure we have it.”

Whilst the manufacturers are falling over themselves to accommodate the ‘super-bloggers’, some team brands have been better than others at adjusting to the social media era. Manchester United and Arsenal rule Facebook with 20million and 7million fans respectively. Arsenal in particular have embraced the digital revolution, recently hosting web chats for up to 2.5million international fans at a time. The players themselves are thrust into this world, somewhat dazed, to play their part. In May this year Rio Ferdinand posted on Twitter “Yesterday I’m signing a few autographs + a guy pulls out his phone + says ‘can you follow me’! A follow is the new autograph!”.

So what does it feel like being taken from your backroom office to the glorious highs of sports stardom? According to Alan, whose site is successful enough to “pay the bills”, some things will never change. “We are now considered de facto I guess in our niche, particularly for the Football Boot Awards we run every year where the public come to us to vote for the product of the year. That’s great and it’s astonishing of course to get to meet your heroes through your work as we have done when premiership players are lined up to take part in things like the awards sessions, but other things remain the same. We’ve not yet been able to get to some of the international product launches, not because of the cost, but because we’re a simple set up, a couple of guys and a few computers, we just wouldn’t be able to take the time for a long flight which would mean being offline for 9 or 12 or 24 hours. We miss out on that sort of stuff. We’re still geeks attached to our umbilical tech.” When asked if they would accept a private flight sponsored by a major sports brand, their reaction is typical of the new generation of citizen journalists— “No way, the fans of the blog would slaughter us. Our greatest asset is being unbiased. You can’t buy our opinion.”

Nobody at Footy-Boots.com has made a dot com million, but the site owners need an income. The key to success might be seen in the addition of sponsors and affiliates on the boy’s website which help to bring in stable financial support whilst they focus on reviewing kit and steering conversation in the forums. “We’re not salesmen, we never have been, never could be. We’re not good at going out there to find sponsors. I’m sure there are plenty of ways the site could make more money, but it’s never been about the money for us so we’re happy to just let a couple of sports shops link through the site as long as we get positive feedback about them. It’s a happy compromise between running a basic blog and being a commercial website.”

As someone who has tested every major boot released since 2006, Alan has a few pointers for those wanting to be on the Christmas list this year and next. “The best boot in the world is only good for one man. Reading our forums (especially the “ask geeks” channel), you know every player has their own strength, speed, accuracy, strength, ability and confidence to take risks on the pitch. No one cleat is going to fit them all. Just like social media has opened up a million different varieties of opinion, the manufacturers of the product are going to have to follow too. Bespoke might be the way to go. I’m sure the technology will exist to let players pick every aspect of their kit through an app very soon.” Which raises an interesting question- what will be the value of celebrity if and when every boot is customised not to the famous foot, but to every man or women on the pitch? There will be bigwigs in PR breathing a sigh of relief in some cases— we all know Football and Twitter don’t always a happy marriage make. Alan has a list of social media disasters on his site to tell that story.

So where next for Alan and his happy team of sports bloggers? “2011 was a great year, we saw some astonishing products hit the pitch and through our relationships with the brands, we felt like we were pretty much front row. We’ll continue to offer a space where your opinion matters and we’ll be bringing that to a climax with this year’s awards which launch online December 5th and we’re expecting tens of thousands of votes again.”

The one difference between this year and last for Footy-Boots.com, a 1765% rise in the number of visits originating from mobile phones. Let’s hope that Nike and co have their iPhone apps in order when voting kicks in.

Prose & Cons Casting and Update

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Prose & Cons update….

So, we are on IMDB! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2014324/ We are really excited now. We are tweaking the script, casting actors, getting ready for a funding blitz. )If you would like to become a producer contact us at frostmagazine@gmail.com)

Lots of people have asked me about casting, and hundreds of people have already applied. I have put a few of the characters we are casting below, but there is more. Feel free to apply, and if you are a filmmaker or actor who has something worthy of being in our film section then email frostmagazine@gmail.com.

The film has no funding at the moment so it is completely a collaboration. No one is getting paid anything, however, if we get funding; you will be paid. I know its annoying but Richard and I are not rich so we can’t fund our own projects.

Thank you!

Company: Run Pictures Film Company

Production Name: Prose and Cons

Production Type: Film (Feature)

Location: London

Salary: Pay depends on whether we get funding!

Production Details: We are doing a feature film, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2014324/ It will be entered into festivals. We are trying to get funding but if we don’t we will be making it for no money, no one will be paid, we have cameras and location, etc, all for free.

We understand if this is not for you, but please realise that if we don get funding, it is not just the actors not getting paid.

Paula: female, artistic, good at writing poetry, agoraphobic, anti-social, melancholic, slightly unstable, has to be okay with not showering everyday and looking a bit dishevelled. We are flexible on age. Gender; female Min Age 29 Max Age 40

Spud: Sarah’s best friend: Description25-35, must be able to drive a car. No exceptions.

Spud (not her real name, she loves potatoes) is a screenwriter about to make it big and go to Hollywood. She is best friends with Sarah. Spud has an on/off thing with Jamie.

Jamie: Male, 25-39, eccentric, slightly dim but warm and loving. Terminally unemployed. Loves Spud.

Two Dog Walker: We need two dog walkers with good comedy reactions for one day filming. Any gender.

Sarah’s Publisher; any gender. 35-45. Literary agent. A little heartless.

George White; Male, 45-55, TV presenter, think Philip Scofield but arrogant. Or any American TV anchor.

Anna Whiteman ; 25-35, Female. TV Anchor/presenter. Presents own TV show with Matt. 25-35.

We have more roles to cast but that’s it for now.

Alain De Botton on Philosophy, happiness and writing.

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One of my favourite authors is Alain De Botton. As well as being an amazing writer, Alain is also a very nice person. So when I asked him for an interview I was delighted when he said yes.

1) The first book I read of yours was The Consolations of Philosophy. A friend lent it to me. The book changed my life. I put quotes from it all over my diary. How important do you think Philosophy is to our everyday life?

I’m delighted you enjoyed the book. I think that one shouldn’t look at Philosophy as just one thing. After all, one wouldn’t say one loved Literature: it’s always particular books and authors that can touch us. So my own attachments in philosophy are to certain thinkers like Epicurus or Nietzsche or Montaigne. They are by no means mainstream and are often considered to be ‘not real philosophers’ by academics, because they address quite practical questions and don’t argue their points as precisely and logically as they might. They are good writers first and foremost, and good psychologists – but not necessarily philosophers in the way that David Hume was.

To answer your question, with the right philosopher (like Montaigne), philosophy can be of incredible importance to life. It helps to illuminate was is confused and expands your horizons. It can literally save your life, that’s the way that the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome understood philosophy and I have a lot of sympathy for this therapeutic approach.

2) What is your writing schedule?

I keep to office hours – though can’t work all day, so waste time online and looking out of the window. I am in a constant battle to be more productive, and feel eternally guilty.

3) Do you find it easy to write?

I find it very hard to think properly – which for me is what it means to ‘write well’. It’s so easy to get one’s thoughts tangled and not say the most important things, or at least not say them crisply enough. So I feel very tortured indeed as a writer, and often wish that I were something else (an airline pilot or the manager of a hotel).

4) What do you consider your greatest achievement in life?

Bringing up 2 small lovely boys. Everything else pales in comparison.

5) What is your background?

I was born in Switzerland where I lived till I was 12, at which point I switched languages (from French to English) and moved to the UK. My parents are Jewish, and I’d identify myself as a secular jew.

6) Do we deserve to be happy?

Most of us yes, but we’d also better be ready for a lot of pain. Modern society prepares us for a lot of happiness, it seems inconceivable that we wouldn’t have a good marriage, find a good job and never die – and yet these expectations are on the optimistic side.

7) Who is your favourite writer?

I’m very fond of Marcel Proust, about whom I wrote a book, How Proust can change your Life. I admire his sincerity, his clarity, his simplicity, his courage to say the important things.

8 ) When are you most happy?

Just after finishing an important difficult piece of work. The feeling lasts 10 minutes max.

9) You recently wrote, The Art of Travel. What was the thinking behind it?

For most of us, when we think of how to be happy, we think of one (or all of) three things: falling in love, finding satisfaction at work and going travelling. Travelling can form some of our greatest fantasies: we lie in bed reading a travel supplement, looking at pictures of faraway places (London/Honolulu/Paris/Naples/Sydney/Bali) and think, ‘Here I could be happy!’

But the reality of travel seldom matches our daydreams. The tragi-comic disappointments are well-known: the disorientation, the mid-afternoon despair, the lethargy before ancient ruins. And yet the reasons behind such disappointments are rarely explored. We are inundated with advice on where to travel to; we hear little of why we should go and how we could be more fulfilled doing so.

The Art of Travel is an attempt to tackle the curious business of travelling – why do we do it? What are we trying to get out of it? In a series of essays, I write about airports, landscapes, museums, holiday romances, photographs, exotic carpets and the contents of hotel mini-bars. I mix my own thoughts about travel with those of some great figures of the past: Edward Hopper, Baudelaire, Wordsworth, Van Gogh and Ruskin among them.          The result is a work which, unlike existing guidebooks on travel, actually asks what the point of travel might be – and modestly suggests how we could learn to be happier on our journeys.

10 ) My friend, is a Buddhist. She said this wonderful quote to me; ‘ When does the suffering end? When you want it to.’ Do you agree?

I’m very sympathetic to the idea that one could be in total control of one’s life, that one could – simply through an effort of thought – change everything. And yet I’m also realistic enough to know that we are not in command of our minds in a total way, and that suffering is an intrinsic part of life. Your friend is also being a little casual with her Buddhism. Buddhists do believe that there are a few exalted ‘saints’ like the Buddha himself who can overcome suffering. But it adds that they only come along once every hundred years or so and only overcome their desires and drives through an immense daily effort of the will.

To purchase Alain’s books go here; http://www.amazon.com/Alain-de-Botton/e/B000AQW38G/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1276079458&sr=1-2-ent