Featured Blog: Kornheiser’s Cartel

Website: Kornheiser’s Cartel

Interview With: Billy Buckles

When did you start your blog:

August, this year.

What made you start it?

I used to randomly write pieces and e-mail them out to two friends, came across Bleacher Report one day, posted a humorous NBA Mock Draft on there and just sent a link out to my few friends who’d care to read it. Some people gave me compliments, so I wrote a few more pieces. Then I wanted a customized site that could make my friends laugh, but I’m worthless with coding/design… So I asked a good friend to go halfsies on a domain name/server and design me one. We chose Kornheiser’s Cartel because it’s been our team name of choice for College Bowl, Intramurals, Fantasy Leagues, etc… It stems from an online game called PimpsLord we played years ago.

What is your background?

23 years old, Leo, blue eyes, great hai— er, 2008 Purdue graduate, extremely knowledgeable fan of a ton of sports, and I’ve had some interesting working experiences in the sports world. My co-founder is one of the nation’s best trivia competitors, and we took Purdue’s College Bowl team to nationals. But we’re not nerds. We’re not!

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career?

I’d always like to write on the side, and I’m open to writing opportunities, but it’s hard to envision writing eight hours daily.

What is your goal with this blog?

To entertain. And I like to have a vehicle to spread ideas and opinions I care about.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month)

We went into this expecting to get 200 hits a months, but we somehow received 5,000 UV’s in our first week, and almost 50,000 UV’s in September, our first whole month. We’ve been fortunate to have some heavyweight blogs appreciate our writing, and that’s how we get a decent chunk of views. Additionally, we’ve had a number of pieces receive thousands of views from StumbleUpon.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Blogger

What ad network(s) do you use?

Yardbarker, AdSense, Ad-Brite

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Over a hundred bucks a month.

If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

A few more writers…

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Indy Cornrows, Ball Don’t Lie, The Offside, Deadspin