It’s minutes away from noon and Tony Rizzo is wrapping up his live sports Web cast on thesportsking.com. He and his three co-hosts take verbal swipes at Cleveland Indians third baseman Russell Branyan, whose future with the team is uncertain after an uninspiring performance last year. Rizzo doesn’t put it quite so tactfully.
“This dude has been a bust,” Rizzo shouts into his 1940s-style microphone, which is then blasted around the world on digital audio and video. “At some point you’ve got to be able to put the bat to the ball. This guy is a freakin’ home run hitter, and he only hit eight of them all year.”
Rizzo’s brash style is a home run on the Web. His show, which he splits between his duties as a sportscaster on Cleveland’s Fox Television affiliate, is by far the most popular program on thesportsking.com. The site Web casts original local sports programming throughout the workday and draws about 1.4 million visitors a month. The site launched with only about 66,000 visitors a month in September 2000.
“I thought 66,000 was pretty good,” says thesportsking.com President Thomas Mercadante. “But every month, without exception, those numbers have gone up.”
Those climbing numbers are also attracting advertisers, which is how the site draws revenue. Even though advertising-only as an Internet business strategy has been maligned by experts for more than a year now, Mercadante says he’s profitable and has been for more than six months. That’s profitable with no VC-funding and no Angel Investors. Mercadante is entirely self-funded.
So how does a man survive on ads alone? It’s in the package. Here is what draws advertisers to thesportsking.com.
Traditional
The clickable banner ads and tile ads don’t get much of a response. On a national average, only about 1 to 2 percent of visitors who see them click on them. But on thesportsking.com that response rate is closer to 4 to 5 percent due to the repeated advertiser exposure to the visitor through the Web casts.
Teamwork
Sponsors are part of the programs, not as faceless advertisers, but as personalities. Scott Merk from Merk’s Ticket Agency Inc. calls in to tell Rizzo what sports events are coming to the Greater Cleveland area. Huge banners from advertisers, like Mountain Jack’s Restaurant, serve as the studio backdrop for the live video Web casts.
“If you hit somebody with a message enough, eventually it will sink in,” Mercadante says. “But you’ve got to do it in different ways. We hit them at least five different ways.”
Variety
Mercadante offers advertisers on-air commercials, either promotional copy read by one of the Web cast hosts or a 30 to 60-second live action commercial produced by the advertiser.
How to reach: thesportsking.com, (440) 583-4220.
Morgan Lewis Jr. ([email protected]) is senior reporter at SBN Magazine.
