Friday Freebie: Content Everywhere And Plenty To Share

Time to find more homes for more articles

Welcome to the Friday Freebie, the taster of what is behind the www.footballwriting.co.uk paywall. A £5 monthly subscription gets you 8 articles per month working out at 50p each, an annual subscription for £48 works out at £4 a month, you’d struggle to get more than a single cup of coffee for that!

This weekend sees us just a few days away from the start of the pre-season fixtures beginning. Whilst a majority of clubs are ready to go some will know they’ve still got time to ensure everything is up to scratch by the time the season proper kicks off.

People who know me and regular readers will know that besides writing this blog I have a lot of other projects on the go. The Trev Talks podcast is a part of this platform as is trevorknell.substack.com which hosts ‘So you won’t believe what happened at Barnet FC’, a FREE blog for all things Barnet meaning I get to relay Bees information and opinion to the many there and not clog up this blog and restrict my market.

I’m also within the Premier Non League Podcast which enters it’s 5^th season in August. I write for The Real EFL website (www.therealefl.co.uk) covering off some of the National League news and views, not as often as I’d like mind you, there is just so much content floating around but it’s having the time to not make it a chore.

There is one other side to my game which I’m not sure how many people are aware of. I promote it mostly on Twitter/X because there is where a majority of the non-league football traffic comes from for me.

How many of you collect or read football programmes at a match? The filler for half time or before the game kicks off, the journey home or the marker you say you’ve attended this one.

I’ve always been of the opinion that it should be an informative publication, there is nothing wrong with one full of adverts but I don’t expect to be charged the same price. I do also appreciate how difficult it is to put together having done one or two in my time at Wick FC. Anyway I’ve digressed!

With that in mind of wanting myself to see the written word inside matchday programmes I had a plan four years ago as we came out of lockdowns and the like to produce a column for clubs each week for their home matches.

Now I knew the Non League Paper provided one free and available to all clubs from the top to the bottom, but I thought ‘well what if each club had their own column instead of a generic article for all’?

I tested the water and sure enough I had customers, East Preston FC local to me were the first with Met Police FC joining them as the season progressed. Of course the season was cut short by Xmas, but that didn’t deter me and went at it again in 2021.

That raised my number to three, small steps but a little growth. And that little growth has continued. Last season I sat at five clubs, Met Police still remaining from the original year, Glebe FC in their second year, and those two joined by Aldershot Town FC, Cray Valley PM FC and Corinthian FC.

Overall in four years I’ve written something for ten different clubs be that a full season or a few ad-hoc pieces along the way. I ended up with over 110 columns written last season, compared with 79 the year previous, a good jump and one I want to jump further with.

It’s a charging service and I’ll explain why shortly. Each column creates something for supporters to read, to learn, to think about, that is the idea born out of what I would want to find in a programme.

Every single column is unique. And by that I mean none of however many clubs I have on board receive the same article as each other, that is the reason I charge which is for my time to create each one.

I could have just produced a bog standard article that every club could use but that’s been done, I’ve raised the bar. Each one is a minimum of 500 words and I let each club choose what they want covered. Some choose, some let me pick a topic and run with it, it’s completely in the club’s control.

That article is also theirs to do with however they please. It can be used on any social media channel aside from the programme, a club website, quotes or bits here and there, it’s all exclusive.

People ask me ‘how do you find so much to write about’? The answer is there is never not enough content to go around, non-league football is fabulous for stories, opinions and opening up debate.

Some of you I know reading this will have read a column or two visiting one of those clubs last year and others previously, I’m pleased to say the feedback I get is excellent.

I am quite honoured to write for a National League club in Aldershot Town, I can’t get any higher in non-league football and also for one of the best publications in the game.

Going down to the County League level means you can expand everything you write about; many occasions circumstances affect Glebe and Corinthian as much as they do Aldershot.

Over the next few weeks I would hope all five clubs come back into the fold and I should have at least two if not three new clubs coming on board which excites me as much as those who know what I can produce.

But, that doesn’t mean I’m at capacity at all! There is always room for more, there is always much to write about, so if you’re a programme editor looking for some more content or think your club will or could benefit from it, then get in touch, I don’t charge for enquiries!

Find me on Twitter (@trevk37), drop me a note in the comments here, the worst you can do is have it all explained and a few samples, or alternatively get in touch with the clubs mentioned and get some feedback from those who already use the service….

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article or any of the Friday Freebies, you are welcome to buy me a coffee here.