Royce Young is the man behind the DailyThunder.com blog, a
project he started five years ago in his final semester of college that has
since become his job. He’s 27 now, married to an elementary school teacher and
working full-time both as a blogger independently and as a sportswriter at
CBSSports.com. On Twitter, Royce has over 27,000 followers. His website gets an
average of one million page views per month, with 100,000 unique visitors.
Royce lives in Oklahoma City, and with the combination of both his blog and
CBSSports, he makes enough money to make this his career.
Royce’s blog is unique because he started it simply to put
his thoughts down somewhere, but has since developed into his own brand. “I had
decided pretty much in my last semester of school that I wasn’t going to be a
semester,” Royce said. “But I missed writing and more than anything, missed
putting my thoughts an opinions in one convenient place.” He is the sole writer
at DailyThunder, commenting on each and every game the OKC Thunder plays in,
both home and away. He also covers various other things, such as trades,
interviews players do, and how other teams will make or break the Thunder.
Royce blends the traditional beat coverage of a team with
fan-blogging. He isn’t afraid to publicize that he’s a Thunder fan, something
that most traditional media frowns upon. Being passionate about the team allows
him to connect with fans because they share the same favorite players, but he
also has no trouble calling the team or individuals out for doing something he
thinks is wrong. Royce gets to talk to players and coaches on a regular basis,
which gives his fans the feeling of an everyday fan getting one-on-one time
with Kevin Durant.
Daily Thunder, being run by a single person, has a single
voice. Normally, that’s great for a blog, but in the sports world, it can be
dangerous. However, it has established Royce Young as a local celebrity in the
minds of Thunder fans. Royce encourages people to blog about things they are
passionate about. “People love to start blogs. Not everyone likes to continue
writing them,” Royce said. If you find something you’re passionate about
writing, you’ll continue to do so.
Royce’s biggest bit of advice is that a blogger needs to
find their voice. “It’s kind of simple,” he explains, “find the style of
writing you’re most comfortable with, and best at.” Royce recommends writing,
and writing a lot, to develop your style. He says it’s almost embarrassing how
many words he’s written over the last five years, but because of that, he’s
improved a lot as a writer.
