The #1 Mistake Fitness Content Creators Make
Takeaway Points:
Fitness professionals who are using websites or social media in order to get more clients need to treat their online presence as a proper work like any other field.
Followers and views don’t automatically translate into sales. You have to be able to capitalize on having those followers and make it easier for them to become paying clients.
Unless you’re very lucky, you’re going to have to grind to be successful. Make time for that work and take it seriously!
If you’re a fitness professional starting a website or other social media presence, I’ve got just one huge piece of advice for you that frankly, I don’t think I see very much anywhere else. There’s all kinds of content out there about developing your brand, but this is one piece of advice that I don’t think I’ve seen much.
That piece of advice is simple, but its application is complex. That advice is:
Treat your website like it’s a business.
That seems like it should go without saying; it seems like that should be step one. But frankly, it took me years of blogging and running a coaching business to get to the point where I could say that I was actually doing that, and I think I’m not the only one.
The problem is that many people don’t really have any plans in mind when they start a website. They don’t have a dedicated plan for how everything is supposed to work, or having systems for making money, or managing sales/clients/however you make money. If you look at the website of a well-known coach who makes their business from that website, that website has been finely tuned based on what works for their business. It has to be the same with your own presence, and it has to be the same with your business.
Instead, what I see most commonly, what most people end up doing, is that they just think that they write and their posts will get shared, and sooner or later, that’s somehow going to lead to money. This approach can certainly work if you’ve got revolutionary new things to say and develop the capacity to monetize that attention later, but frankly, you probably don’t. Virtually everything that can be said has been said in some way. The only way you have something unique to say is if you’re ahead of the pack, and that means that you’re either way smarter or in a better position than everyone else (congrats!) or you’re a scientist on the cutting edge of some kind of fitness research. Chances are that you’re neither of these people.
If you’re lucky enough to have something new to say, then you may find that you’re getting business without too much effort. But if you’re one of the rest of us, what that means is that you can only gain business by producing lots of content over time, or more effectively communicating with a particular niche that isn’t well-served by the existing industry. This enables you to build a following and a brand.
Having a social media presence or a mailing list helps - this enables you to more easily transmit your content to your followers so that they’re reminded to check it out. Social media helps other people find your page so that they can become new followers. Growing a mailing list is easiest if you have some sort of concrete product you can offer people for signing up: a short ebook or video series is usually best, and can be automated to be sent to people after their signup. (Like my free program, for example.)
In order to make money as a fitness professional online, you have to develop a reputation and have a solid system in place for taking advantage of that. If you just write posts all the time without any kind of system to encourage sales, you’re not going to get much no matter how much you write, unless you’re terribly lucky.
Personally, I’ve met many coaches over the years who I thought were making a ton of money because they were getting a lot of followers and views on social media - only to find that behind the scenes, they were making little to no money because this didn’t translate into sales or clients.
Advertisement is another key component. It’s hard to sell a product that people don’t know that you’re buying. Look into an advertising course and learn how to market on the platform of your choice (Facebook and Google are common examples) and use that info to drive sales. If it costs you a few bucks to make a sale, it’s certainly worth a lot more than not spending a few bucks and not making a sale. Use advertising to drive people to your site so that they can find out about you and start following your work.
Focus on grinding. Make regular, quality content, post about it to your friends, and refine a system for taking advantage of that social capital.
Treat it like work, as if it were another job you have to do. Set aside a certain amount of time each week to work on your website and set yourself timers to make sure that you actually do it. Don’t treat it like “a fun hobby” that you may make money off of in the future, or that you don’t have to take seriously and do regularly. Otherwise, chances are that it won’t pay off much.
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached thousands of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
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