We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul M. Banks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul M. below.
Hi Paul, thanks for joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.
I found that content related to a sports league on the other side of the world, the English Premier League, got way more eyeballs than everything I was writing about here, closer to home. And it’s the “world” wide web, so there was no reason not to fully lean into it. This was over a decade ago, and at that time, I realized how sports media was going to change forever. Remote coverage was going to be the future, and now, here we are, it is the present. When I was at the 2016 NFL Draft Media Luncheon, I said to a NFL Network Executive: “you can cover a team from anywhere,” and that executive loudly talked over to me to proclaim ‘you can cover a team from anywhere,’ before I even had a chance to finish my sentence.
I really knew, at that moment, I was truly on to something, and that the times were definitely changing rapidly.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The Sports Bank.net is a sports and entertainment news website that has been featured in and promoted by hundreds of different media outlets. It has been officially recognized by Google for various SEO accomplishments and strong SERP capabilities.
What we regularly provide to our clients, above and beyond all else, is an elite level of SEO. I started the site right after I got back from my Fulbright fellowship in Berlin, which was focused on the discipline of media studies.
I also earned an MBA and wrote two books, “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in Sports Media” and “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America”
As a Member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the United States Basketball Writers Association, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and the Football Writers Association of America, I’ve broken numerous major sports stories first, but the one story that most people primarily associate with me is the infamous Jay Cutler “DOOOOOOOOOON’T CAAAAAAAARE” narrative.
After I first brought it to light, it inspired a very popular meme, numerous GIFs, and even t-shirts and merchandise. It went crazy viral, and I’ve told this tale on numerous tv and radio talk shows all across the country. I even ‘acted it out’ on stage at The Laugh Factory in Chicago.
I’ve been credentialed to cover events at the United Nations, the Rose Bowl, College Football Playoff National Championship, Final Four, Stanley Cup Finals, and NBA Playoffs. Among the many outlets that have me on as a featured guest, my favorites were probably the History Channel and Sirius XM.
But perhaps the accomplishment that I am most proud of is having my first book eventually become a college text book. During the depths of lockdown amidst the pandemic, a sports journalism student at SUNY-Oneonta found me on Instagram and asked me some questions for his book report assignment.
It was like a real life version of that scene in the classic Rodney Dangerfield film “Back to School,” when the main character hires Kurt Vonnegut himself to write his book report on Slaughterhouse Five!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
I really believe in word of mouth, friends of friends, “I got a guy who knows a guy” kind of advertising. The big break came a few years ago when this one specific client purchased a bulk order of sponsored posts, and offered to negotiate with me a package that included listing my site as a top destination for purchasing guest posts on Effective Business Ideas.com
It has been a top referrer for me. What’s funny though is when people come to me and say “I want to buy a post on your site: effectivebusinessideas.com.”
It’s amazing how many people get this wrong. Just laziness, or basic incompetence I guess. Anyway, over time, I built up my inboxes contacts list that now I even have a guy in Israel who buys sponsored posts and pays me to do email introductions for him to other guest post purchasers.
Selling leads is definitely something I would like to get into more- lots of potential as an additional revenue stream.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I am a three time cancer survivor. I’ve had three bouts with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma- 2000, 2002, 2012-2013. In addition to all the numerous cycles of chemotherapy that I’ve had to undergo, the process of defeating the deadly disease involved two different stem cell transplants.
In the first one they were able to harvest my own cells/bone marrow. In the second, my sister Kristen, who was a perfect match, donated her cells. These were all long, arduous journeys, and describing it all would easily fill a 100,000 word book. I’ll just say this for now. I really didn’t have a 20s and 30s. At least mine were unlike anyone else’s I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thesportsbank.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsbankofficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks
- Other: Dog’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stellathespanielmutt/ Cat’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/otisgingertabby/