In part one of how to become a fitness blogger we went through setting up a blog and choosing how to plan and approach it. In this part we’ll talk more about how to run your blog, from writing your content to promoting it.
- Write often, consistently and well
One thing that is often overlook, is hard to maintain and doesn’t seem to make sense until later down the line, is to write often and make sure you’re putting out content on a regular basis. If you commit to once a week, make sure you maintain that. If you want to write daily, make sure you can commit to that.
Do this for a few reasons. Firstly, you’ll build up a good amount of content which will have great impact on how you will rank in Google, resulting in more and more traffic. The more content you have, the greater chance you will have of being found.
The second reason to write regularly is to build up a loyal following. When people find you and like your content, if you blog on the same schedule, they’ll know when to come back and get more. Readers can be fickle, and if they come back a few times and there’s nothing new for them, they may drift away.
Finally, it’s important to note that writing consistently does not mean write for the sake of writing. Putting out bad content is worse than no content. A good way to combat this is to spend some time putting together a list of ideas to write about. Sit down and put down as many ideas as possible. Think outside the box, write down everything you can think of. Then, go to forums and sites like quora.com and see what kind of questions people are asking. Write posts answering them. Read other people’s blogs, and write response blogs to those you don’t agree with. Start a conversation. There are many ways to come up with ideas, and the more you have the more chance you’ll have at getting content out there.
- Use good imagery
With the likes of Instagram, snapchat and Facebook, imagery has come to dominate our senses. It’s therefore more important than ever to use high quality imagery to attract attention and portray a quality platform. You don’t necessarily have to invest too much, you can usually find good imagery online, however you’ll need to find imagery that are copyright-free.
- Create an email list
When creating your website, it’s also a good idea to create an email subscription. You can sign up to something like MailChimp.com for free, and they’ll give you a piece of code to add a subscription method. Now, whenever people read your content and want to know more, they’ll be able to subscribe. When you get your first subscriber, you can send out an email every time you write a new post, and they’ll get it delivered directly to their inbox. Keep the email brief, and use a link to get them back to your website.
- Promote your blog and posts wherever you can
When you’re trying to reach a wider audience, the best place to start is through your own social media accounts. Friends, family, that guy you met once in a night club and became Facebook friends with, might all have reason to read your posts. They might even share them to their friends. This is the easiest and best place to start your outreach. You should be proud of what you’ve written, and share that passion with your friends first.
Other ways to increase your website traffic is to promote your articles on other websites. Remember during your planning stage you went to forums and found questions to answer? Well now you can post those answers to anyone still asking that question, on sites like Reddit and Quora.
Another great way to build a following is to write for others. Find websites, bloggers and companies in your space, and offer to write something for them. Many companies and bloggers would welcome the content, if it’s high quality. Make sure you get your own website link in the article, or at least in an author profile and you should get some traffic from there.
Conclusion
Just like anything in life, becoming a fitness blogger takes a lot of hard work and you’ll likely not get much of a reward in the beginning, this can often put people off after a few months of hard work. But if you are prepared to give it everything, follow the steps above, you’ll make continual improvement and will start to see your readership grow. It won’t happen overnight, but if you continue to push good quality content out and keep it up, it will eventually pay dividends for you career.
So what are you waiting for? Get your Personal Training Qualifications now and and start your journey, wherever it may take you.
