Those are a lot of factors to face but depending on the sports niche and assuming that your product is superior/ well designed, then I might suggest focusing on getting a strong following with that niche and growing from that small position of strength.
For example, say it's biking apparel, I might reach out to bloggers/biking sites and perhaps doing guest features or creating something of value with them (giveaways?).
You should be able to help your SEO by creating content of value around your niche and getting links to it (organic SE rank is likely tanking just because people are getting what they need at those sites first and not bothering with smaller players). Same with your AdWords - you won't be able to compete with the massive marketing budgets of the bigger players so you'll have to be creative about using words further down the tail. Look for other acquisition opportunities by figuring out who your core target is and how you can get them to spend more (perhaps an email newsletter highlighting news/new products/trends in your niche?).
Just a couple of suggestions but hard to say for sure without knowing more specifics of what you're dealing with.
Appreciate this perspective - I agree that hackers/non-hackers is a very inaccurate label and I like the idea that it's for "satisfying intellectual curiosity".
This is really helpful - thanks. A follow up question about volatility - is it true that volatility only really exists when trying to convert to currencies like the dollar or pound but doesn't exist if you remain within Bitcoin? Wouldn't that imply that it's like gold where it's good to buy as much as you can when the price in dollars drops but that once you own Bitcoin the price of goods in Bitcoin would remain constant?
The BTC price of goods only remains constant if sellers decide so. And they generally have a supply chain and labor that is heavily impacted by exchange rates. Plus, neither consumers or producers are ignorant of exchange rates, so there aren't going to be products marked at 1 BTC forever if BTC appreciates/depreciates.
But there's nothing within BTC itself that's volatile. The currency is slowly being inflated to the target 21 MM coins.
I find using a simple excel sheet, with the following columns helps me:
Objective (what action trying to drive like "increase traffic to site")
Lever (overall bucket like email or SEO or PR)
Tactic (specific initiative like "write 5 blog posts re: X" or "get 2-3 quality press coverage articles")
Metric (how you'll be measuring success like "2x traffic in 4 weeks" or "increase conversion by 4%)
Lead (team member responsible)
Learnings (summary of findings)
Though it doesn't cover everything, I find it helpful to review with team on Mondays to make sure everyone is on same page about week's priorities and any recent findings.
The trick I find is in sticking to it, whatever the system is.
Services like Buffer or Hootsuite help so that someone can devote a couple of hours straight to find/write and schedule posts for the whole week. Makes it more of an ownable, discrete task (albeit for an assigned person) instead of a fragmented haphazard one.
I think it just starts with being curious about the world around you - write about what you see and what interests you. And in the beginning write for yourself. Don't think about audiences and reach and all of that stuff. That will come as you find your voice and what you're passionate about writing. Also, the most valuable posts come from the people that have had the experiences to write about. So just living and having a diverse set of experiences will get you great material to write about. Most of all, don't try to sound like anyone but yourself. People will connect with that.
For example, say it's biking apparel, I might reach out to bloggers/biking sites and perhaps doing guest features or creating something of value with them (giveaways?).
You should be able to help your SEO by creating content of value around your niche and getting links to it (organic SE rank is likely tanking just because people are getting what they need at those sites first and not bothering with smaller players). Same with your AdWords - you won't be able to compete with the massive marketing budgets of the bigger players so you'll have to be creative about using words further down the tail. Look for other acquisition opportunities by figuring out who your core target is and how you can get them to spend more (perhaps an email newsletter highlighting news/new products/trends in your niche?).
Just a couple of suggestions but hard to say for sure without knowing more specifics of what you're dealing with.