Blogging is a FANTASTIC way to build an online audience, generate new leads and bring profits to your business!

If you’re based in the health and fitness industry, especially if you’re a personal trainer, online fitness coach, or dietician – this post is going to help give you some valuable pointers. I’ll be sharing plenty of tips including; content ideas, how to attract more people to your site, and how to save time using technology!  

Blogging Platforms 

There are lots of ways to get your content out there, but personally I think the best way is through a website. With practice and persistence you’ll start to build a loyal following – attracting people who can’t wait to read your latest post! If you do things properly you’ll also boost SEO rankings, which will help generate more visitors to your site.

Once you have a website (I use WordPress) it’ usually pretty straight forward to add content. You simply login and add a new post (just like you would when doing a Facebook update!).

Understanding Your Audience…

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What’s the age range of your target audience?
• What are they interested in?
• Where do they hang out online?

Here are just a handful of questions you need to think about before writing. Answering the above questions will help you tailor your content to best suit the needs and desires of your audience.

Google Keyword Planner

Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) I like to use the Google Keyword Planner Tool, so that my blog posts rank higher on Google. This increases the likelihood of attracting more visitors to your website.

For example in the summer I wrote an article about a ‘Ketogenic Diet’. Before writing the article I used the Google Keyword Planner Tool to research what terms people were searching for in relation to my topic. After a couple of minutes I got a whole bunch of popular search terms such as:

I then include these words into my post to increase the likelihood of ranking higher on Google.

Content Planning

Once you’ve established who you’re audience is, your topic and some keywords that you’re going to use, you can start to ‘mind map’ a plan of action. Although it’s pretty old school I still like to draft mine on paper…

I’ll put the main title in the middle of the page and then branch off into subtopics. Once i’ve come up with points to discuss I’ll then organise into a template before I start to write the blog post.

Everyone is different but personally I find it much easier to write when I have a plan of action and structure. If you’re struggling for content ideas, don’t worry, i’ve included a section at the bottom – where i’ve created some topics and ideas which you can use!

Now you’ve planned out your content it’s time to type up your blog post!

Spellcheck!

I know it sounds like something your teacher would tell you but it’s often overlooked! Once you’ve written your blog make-sure you spend some time looking over it, checking for spelling and grammar mistakes. Also… does your article flow? Does it make sense and read well?

That being said don’t stress too much about getting it perfect! There are probably thousands of spelling/grammar mistakes on my blogs (I mean I only got a ‘C’ in English – give me a break!) but I accept that i’ve given each post my best shot and I don’t stress if it’s not absolutely perfect!

How to Get Your Content Read 

Ok so now you’ve got your content and your happy to share it with the world! There are plenty of ways to do this: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, E-mail, etc, etc.

I’m not saying this is the best way but this works for me, once i’ve written an article I will post on my site and then typically share across multiple social media platforms. For example I’ll share the blog link on my Facebook Business Page, Instagram and Twitter – Slightly adapting the way I present the content to each platform. I’ll also schedule an e-mail going out to my mailing list, using mail chimp.

BONUS TIPS…

So now we’ve touched upon some of the basics, I thought it would be cool to share some extra tips which can help your blog further…

Write Regularly

Unless you’re a celebrity with a large following already the likelihood is that it’s going to take time for your blog to take off. It took me 1 year of writing 2-3 articles per week before I gained any real momentum. But like anything worth having in life, if you stick at it, are patient and keep investing time and effort… good things are likely to happen.

User Friendly 

Smart phones are the most popular way to browse the internet, therefore make sure your content is mobile friendly. You’ll also want to make-sure that your content is easy on the eye: including pictures, videos, paragraphs, headings, etc.

Blog Categories 

Each blog you write will have a life span, and it can easily get lost on your site. The likelihood of users scrolling through all of your blogs is very unlikely. Therefore you may want to include a ‘Categories’ section.

I added this to my site last year, to encourage people to click on the categories they’re interested in. Let’s say someone wants to learn some new healthy recipes: they’d just click ‘Recipes’ and every recipe blog on my site would show up. This encourages users to stay on your site for longer.

Create a Google Docs Database 

Another way to leverage your blogs is to create a database. I save all my blogs onto a spreadsheet with the ‘Title’ and ‘URL’  to make it extremely easy to access older blog posts when I want to reuse on social media. Example below…

Social Media Scheduling 

Once you’ve written your blog it’s wise to share with your social media fans to maximise your reach. Using Buffer App makes this process much easier – you can literally schedule all your posts to go live at set dates and times – meaning you don’t have to keep manually updating your posts everyday!

You can also share your posts across multiple platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc and it’s a HUMONGOUS time saver! I typically like to sit down once a month and schedule all my posts for the up and coming month.

Analyse and Improve

Install Google Analytics onto your site so you can see how many people are reading your blogs. You’ll also be able to see how long people are staying on your site, your most popular pages and much more. Here’s a great beginners guide to Google Analytics…

E-mail Capture

Once someone lands on your site, the aim is usually to either make a sale or capture data i.e. an e-mail address. I’d strongly encourage you to embed an e-mail capture box into your blog posts or onto your site. Here’s how to add an email capture box using Mailchimp.

Content Ideas

If you’re finding it difficult to come up with topics for your blog, feel free to steal the one’s below and modify to suit your audience:

Nutrition Blog Ideas:

• 10 Super Foods You Need to Add Into Your Shopping Basket
• How To Make Your First Protein Shake
• 5  Quick & Healthy Recipes You Can Make in Under 5 Minutes
• Eat These 8 Foods To Blitz A Ton Of Fat Over The Next 30 Days
• How To Count Your Macros
• 5 Healthy Breakfast Ideas

Training Blog Ideas:

• A Beginners Guide To Weight Training
• How to Perform The Perfect Squat
• The Best Cardio Machines For Fat Loss
• 5 Reasons Why You Need To Lift Weights To Burn Fat
• A FREE Full Body Workout Routine To Build Muscle
• 10 Exercises You Need To Do To Get A 6 Pack!

Book Recommendations To Help You Write Killer Content:

• Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuck 
• Viralnomics : How to Get People to Want to Talk About You – Jonathan Goodman

Thank You!

Thanks for reading, I hope this post helped you. If you have any questions please leave a comment below.

Nick