Do you blog? If your goal is to become a well-known, successful name in the crowded fitness industry, there’s every reason to blog regularly and consistently. Blogging is still seen as some to be a dark art or a skill which only certain people possess. The truth is, if you can talk with passion about your specialism (which all of you can), then you can blog. Here’s why, when and how to become a success fitness industry blogger.
Why should fit pros blog?
Blogging positions you as an expert in your field, a go-to person whose name is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. You need to strive for “top of mind awareness”, and blogging is a great tool to achieve this. Blogging ensures that fresh content with your name attached to it is circulating on search engines and social media. It will certainly help with SEO (search engine optimisation), putting you nearer the top of page one of Google. Here’s a quick test. Google the search term you’d most like to dominate (perhaps it’s “Wokingham Zumba”). Does Google return a blog in the first page of results? If not, then there’s no time to lose. You simply have to start blogging so you can dominate that valuable spot. If there is, well, then you have a little more work to do, but we’ll show you how to overtake a weaker blog. (We haven’t got room here to talk about Google video results for your search term. That’s another topic!)
How to get started with a blog
Sure, you’ll need to invest time and effort but think of it as a crucial part of your marketing and business development. Choose your blogging platform (WordPress and Blogger are popular) and think hard about your blog’s name before claiming the account. Then write a couple of static pages (like a website’s about me and home pages) and start blogging! Hook your blog up to Facebook (you can use an inbuilt widget on the blog platform, or a Facebook widget such as networkedblogs), Twitter and LinkedIn so that you really squeeze everything out of every blog post you write.
How often should you blog?
The key is not in frequency but in consistency. It’s far better to blog twice a month, but blog on the same day every fortnight, than it is to blog every day for a week and then go AWOL for two months. The ideal would be twice a week or more. This might sound a lot, but think about the amount of conversations you have with clients, prospects and friends about various elements of your job. You do have a lot to say! The key is in thinking about how you can turn things into blog content. Give useful information (top tips, trends, “Did you know…” and “Why…” type posts), start blog post series (articles linked by theme which readers will eventually come to anticipate) and start to build a solid hub of knowledge which will keep readers coming back for more.
How to blog
You need to start thinking of everything as potential blog content. Carry a camera phone and/or flipcam with you to capture images and footage which could be used on the blog. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of blogging: blog posts don’t have to be long or detailed every time. The key is building a voice, a following and a niche. What do you want to be known for? What type of expert do you want to be? What sort of voice do you want to project through your blog? On a practical note, think about the layout and readability of blog posts: images, paragraphs and bullet-points all break up text to make it more readable. And don’t forget to spell-check everything thoroughly. Whilst blogs should be a laid-back form of reading, it doesn’t mean they can be a sloppy form of writing.
In a future article we’ll look at how to promote your blog by linking with other bloggers, commenting regularly on blogs and using social media platforms to their full potential.