Blogging To Build Your Personal Training Business: Part 2

So last week in part one of our blogging series, we established that there are a bunch of really cool reasons why blogging on a regular basis is a great way build up your personal training business. If you haven’t read that post, head over there and have a read before you get your hands dirty today.

Today I am going to focus more on the structure and the how you can put a great blog together so it does all the great things we spoke about like bring more traffic, build trust and relationships and get more client into your business.

So lets get busy…..

In my experience across the board, fitness professionals are really, really good at training people, OK at running their businesses and bloody terrible at anything to do with internet marketing. Yes, I know there are some amazing exceptions and that as we progress into the “social” generation we are all becoming a LITTLE better. BUT, to expect that everyone has the ability to put together a website that gets enough traffic, speaks to your audience and then has the ability to convert that traffic into a tangible benefit (lead, list, supporter) is a little crazy.

So today I am going to spell it out for you , I am going to explain to you:

How To Build A Fitness Blog That Actually Converts

Step 1: Make sure your blog is actually connected to your business website URL (eg: as a page of your site)

Having a little additional blog that you link to from your business site may seem like a good idea at the time, but it’s not! It is really important for a number of reasons that you have your blog on your business site:

1. It then becomes really easy for people to take a look around once they finish reading your article.
2. It will increase the overall SEO (search engine optimization or getting people from Google) of your website.
3. Decreases the amount of f’ing around people have to do – straight lines = happy visitors.

Step 2: Make sure you use WordPress as your blogging platform.

I get paid no money to say that, I just love WordPress like it is one of my surfboards (and I love my boards alot). Look, it has the most user-friendly plug-ins (cool things that you can add to it), easy to use dash-board and it is really SEO friendly. There are an amazing number of basic themes that you can choose from to suit the style of your site and if you want to give your blog a little bit of Red-Bull and vodka, the lend themselves really well to being altered with custom designs.

You might actually be surprised how many actual website are WordPress themes that you probably wouldn’t notice. Our new www.fbombersinnercircle.com is a perfect example of this.  Anyway, you can check out WordPress and all their cool themes.

Step 3: Use A-Weber email marketing software to build your list and your blog subscribers.

I actually do get paid to say this one (I’m an affiliate of A-Weber) but I have tried others and these guys are by far the best. Just to get you up to speed, A-Weber provide you with the software to design opt-in forms, build and schedule auto-responder e-mail series and just recently, they took also took blog subscriptions to a whole new level.

Normally to subscribe to a blog, you would join the RSS feed and you would have the blog posts delivered to you as soon as they go live. This is all good but unlike a list that people opt-in to (and confirm), the owner of the blog does not have the ability to develop a ongoing relationship via email with their subscribers.

But now A-Weber have introduced what they call a Blog Broadcast which is essentially a RSS feed for your blog but it also acts as a list builder that allows you contact them if and build your relationship via email.  They have also recently updated their opt-in form templates so now you can design your own and make them look reasonably cool.

There is no other email marketing company- use A-Weber because they rule!

Step 4: Make it easy to read – no, really I’m serious.

Ok, so this step may sound a little obvious but you will be surprised how many people think that a black background and white text really ads “something” to their blog. CRAP! If people have to squint their eyes to read your posts then you are pushing it uphill. WHITE BACKGROUND, BLACK TEXT – forget about funky design, if it is not easy to read they won’t come back.

On top of this; use headings, subheadings, dot-points and lists to get your information out there. Break up your big blocks of text and make it easy for your readers to consume your info.

Step 5: Images make the world go round…

Adding at least one image to your blog post will  increases the attractiveness and can draw peoples attention in. If you are writing about activities or events that have happened in your fitness business, having photos is an awesome accompaniment to give others a real look at what happens.

Other great sources for your image’s are Flickr Creative Commons which is a free directory of photos but you have to credit the photographer in each post. The other great source of image’s for your blog is I-Stock but you have to pay a little for each of those.

Step 6: Every post must have a conversion goal – an action you want your reader to take.

So its nice to write articles and stick them up on your website every week, educating your readers and developing a relationship with them. That’s nice, but nice unfortunately doesn’t pay the bills. What we are really looking for is a strong two way interaction between you and your readers, so each one of your posts must have a clear conversion goal. This is simply something that you lead your reader to (a call to action) and could include:

• Asking for readers comments.
• Building your subscribers.
• Registering for your new program.
• RSVPing for an event.
• Purchasing a product.
• Joining a list.

Step 7: You must give people the ability to share your stuff.

Now as you write your blog posts, the real power when your information is shared. Not only does that give more people, more opportunity to get their eyes on you but it also provides more back-links to your site and that keeps the nerds at Google happy (and when they are happy, your ranking increases).

So, even if you don’t spend all day on Facebook and Twitter yourself you really should provide your readers with the options to share your content on those two platforms as a bare minimum. Even installing a Facebook “Like” button is an non-threatening way to get your stuff out to a whole new audience (and get some sexy back-links from Facebook).

Today I have stepped you through some basic “hows” of getting your fitness blog to convert. Next week in part three of the series, I am going to be showing you how to write great content that suits your audience.

But, before then I would love to know your experiences with starting a blog for your business.

Cheers

Rick :-)

About the author: Rick Watson is the surfing, swearing personal training business guy who tells it like it is. He blogs, coaches, writes books and holds live workshops for personal trainers but most of all he is a father and husband (with a healthy respect for road trips). If you like what you read, subscribe to blog here and get your weekly dose of goodness delivered straight to your inbox.

Tagged as: Audience, Blog, Blogging, Business Site, Business Website, Exceptions, Fitness Professionals, Focus, Good Idea At The Time, Google, Ing, Internet Marketing, People, Personal Training, Search Engine Optimization, Seo Search Engine Optimization, Step 2, Straight Lines, Tangible Benefit, Traffic, Trust Relationships