How to start a fitness blog

Before you do anything else, it’s important to know exactly who you want to be reading your fitness blog. The readers of your blog will be its lifeblood and their willingness to come back to it will determine how successful you’re going to be. If you pick the wrong audience to target, your blog’s content might not be tailored to suit them.

Ask yourself what areas in fitness are you most passionate about. Do you enjoy weightlifting? Is long distance running your thing? Or is it meal planning that inspires you to write?

If you’re not sure, here are some of the most popular fitness niches:

• Weight Loss Journeys
• Healthy Eating Tips
• Workout Advice
• Mental Fitness
• Fitness on a Budget
• Running
• Fitness for Beginners
• Fitness for Men
• Fitness for Women

Picture not only what your blog will look like short term, but how it will evolve long term. Recognise which niches have longevity and lean towards them. If you take one of the above ideas and put a unique angle on it, you’ll have a greater chance of being successful.

If your blog’s niche is too specific, there’s isn’t going to be as much content that you can create for it. For example, you’ll get a lot more mileage out of a blog on workout advice than a blog on tricep workout techniques.

Picking a catchy, memorable name can greatly improve the chances of people noticing your blog. On the other hand, a bad name will only deter them from clicking into your site.

Try to make sure that your name is relevant to the fitness niche that your blog will be centred around. If it’s completely unrelated, visitors to your blog will get confused.

Choose wisely, because it will be difficult to change the name of your blog once you’ve made a commitment to it. Your site’s URL, your logo, your web design and your promotional material may all have to be adapted to reflect any change.

When you’ve decided what you’re going to call your blog, purchase an appropriate domain for it. The domain is the name of your website and, depending on the name you’ve chosen, you may need to think creatively to find one that’s available. Domains can be bought through Google Domains, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost and HostGator.

Lots of successful fitness bloggers have had to start from the very beginning to get where they are tosday. So it’s a good idea to take note of how they did it and apply some of their methods to your own blog.

Nerd Fitness is a fantastic example of a fitness blog that started small and then exploded in popularity. Founded by self-confessed nerd Steve Kamb in 2009, Nerd Fitness aims to ‘help regular people lose weight and get stronger’.

The success of his blog can be attributed to a few things. Steve makes it easy for anyone to learn about how to get fit, cutting out most of the jargon and speaking to his audience in a way that’s very easy to understand. He also chose a very good niche that no one else had covered in such depth, finessing his content as his blog grew.

In an attempt to tackle growing obesity in the African-American community, Toni Carey and Ashley Hicks started Black Girls Run. They felt that black women were not encouraged to run, so they took it into their own hands to change that.

They recognised a problem and their blog was able to provide a partial solution. Thanks to Black Girls Run, more African-American women have been inspired to take up running. If you see something similar in your own area that you might be able to improve with a fitness blog, it could be a good idea to pursue it.

If you’re looking for a regular girl who got very successful with a fitness blog, then look no further than Liz from One Twenty Five. The blog follow’s Liz’s weight loss journey as she navigates her day-to-day life and the challenges it might bring.

If you go to the blog’s archives, you can see step-by-step how Liz grew her blog and the type of content she posted.

Once you’ve decided on which niche your blog will reside in, it can be helpful to choose some of the main topics that you’ll generally focus on within that niche.

A running blog could feature articles that cover marathons, competitive running, running attire etc. You could write on a certain topic for a while as part of a series and then move onto something new. Variety is crucial in any blog. If you focus on the same subject for too long, readers will probably get bored and seek out new content.

Look for seasonal activities that you can write about at certain times of the year to ensure that your content is highly relevant. If you’re taking part in runs, competitions or other events, let your readers know about it. It’s important that you practice what you preach!

A typical blog will often feature written content accompanied by images and/or videos, but this format can be structured in a variety of ways.

Many blog posts are structured in one of these formats:

• Lists
• Guides
• Interviews
• Diaries
• News
• Surveys
• Infographics
• Opinions
• Comparisons
• Guest Posts

Lists are a great choice to start out with, as you can create an article that can be based around any fitness theme and it will likely be engaging and informative for your readers.

The titles of these list posts could be something along the lines of ‘the top 10 foods to help build muscle mass’, ‘8 things you’re doing wrong in the gym’ or ‘20 tips for a beginner in the gym’. It really depends on the content you like creating and what your audience wants.

As you get more experienced, you can start introducing in-depth guides to your arsenal. This content should be well-researched and informative, providing readers with clear information that they can easily follow.

You can also include interviews with fitness experts, a diary of your activities and the latest fitness news.

Surveys are a great way of reaching out to your readers and finding out about what is working for them and what isn’t. You can use the information you get from surveys to fine tune your content for your audience.

If you feel like there’s too much text in your post, mix things up with an interesting infographic. Engaging visual elements like well-made infographics can really set your content apart and reduce the bounce rate on your blog.

You could take a personal angle with an opinion post or a rant that conveys your passion for a certain fitness topic or challenges a widely held belief in the fitness community. Posts like these can quickly get a lot of traction and significantly increase your blog’s traffic.

If you want to supplement your own posts with additional content, you could look into guest posts. Guest posts are often written by freelance writers who will suggest topics for your blog or will write topics you have given them. If you find it hard to continuously pump out content, then a guest writer could be the solution you need.

You might have lots of helpful fitness knowledge to share, but if you have no hosting provider, nobody’s ever going to read about it.

A web hosting service allows you to make your blog accessible on the web and they will store your blog on their servers.

When choosing where to host your blog, it’s important to compare what potential web hosts will offer. You’ll need to take a close look at the monthly costs, site uptime, speed, customer support and their suitability for beginners.

Here are some of the most popular blog hosting providers:

• Bluehost
• GoDaddy
• WP Engine
• SiteGround
• HostGator
• Dreamhost
• A2 Hosting
• iPage
• GreenGeeks

If you’re going for a host that’s not on this list, make sure that it’s a good one. A bad web host can negatively impact SEO and can result in slow site speed and make your blog vulnerable to hacking.

You’ll also need a blog platform to manage the content on your site. The one that instantly springs to mind is WordPress, but there are two different WordPress platforms, and the one you choose will have a huge impact on your blog going forward.

WordPress.com offers a blog platform and hosting all in one. You can create an account on their website and you can quickly create your blog. However, the free plan is very limited and you won’t be able to personalise your blog with plug-ins or custom themes.

With WordPress.org, you’ll have to get your own hosting, but you’ll have a lot more freedom to create the blog you want. Another bonus is that it’s all open-source, so the platform itself is free

Here is a list of the best blogging platforms:

• WordPress.org
• Wix.com
• Joomla.com
• WordPress.com
• Medium.com
• Squarespace.com
• Weebly.com
• Ghost.org
• Typepad.com

Once you have an article completed, the next step is to publish it on your site. If you’re using WordPress.org, there is a very useful plug-in called WPBakery that will make your life a lot easier.

This page building tool allows you to create great web pages without any coding experience. You can use pre-made templates as building blocks for your content, structuring it so that it’s optimised for search engines.

WordPress.com is even more straightforward for publishing content, just click on the ‘Write’ button and then hit ‘Publish’. But as we’ve already mentioned, you won’t be able to add any custom themes to personalise the look of your pages.

Similar to both versions of WordPress, on Wix.com you can publish your post by going to the ‘Blog Manager’, selecting ‘New Post’, adding your content and then clicking on ‘Publish Post’.

One thing that can really make a fitness blog appealing is if the writer’s personality shines through in their posts. Everyone loves great fitness tips and hacks, but they can be even more enjoyable to learn about if they are shared in an entertaining, engaging fashion.

Be willing to share things about yourself with your readers that will make you more relatable and don’t shy away from opening up your struggles with fitness if you have had any. Seeing someone who used to be overweight shedding the pounds and looking great can be incredibly inspiring for people.

Don’t be afraid to take a humorous approach to your blog either. If you can turn a topic you’re writing about into something more light-hearted, it will more often than not become a more interesting piece.

There are tons of fitness-themed images out there, but not all of them can be used in your blog! The not-so-small matter of image usage rights means that not all images that you find on the web can be added to your content.

Luckily, there are resources that provide tons of royalty free images that can be used in your blog posts. In fact, PikWizard is one of them!

With PikWizard you’ll have access to over 1 million images and videos that you won’t need to attribute to anyone when you use them.

All of these images can be edited in Design Wizard in just a few minutes. Design Wizard is an easy-to-use graphic design tool that makes it easy to create personalised designs without any experience.

You can add text, shapes, your own images, custom fonts and more to each photo. All you need to do is click on an image in PikWizard and then select ‘Edit Image For Free’. This button will take you straight to Design Wizard, where you can begin customising your photo for your blog!

To achieve a position of authority in the fitness world, you’re going to have to prove you know what you’re talking about. If you start making false or exaggerated claims, it won’t be long before your audience deserts you.

Honesty is the best policy, so be open with your readers about what’s personally worked for you and what hasn’t. If you have used external sources in your content, make sure to credit them in your articles.

Even if you feel you know a lot about fitness, it’s no harm to continue researching and finding out new information that could enhance the quality of your blog.

Consistency is key when it comes to publishing blog posts. When readers return to your blog, they’ll expect to see new content. It makes things a lot easier for both of you if that content has been scheduled to publish at a certain time.

For example, you could write 2 articles per week, and then schedule one for Tuesday and the other for Thursday. If you stick to this schedule, readers will know exactly when they can read a new post.

On the other hand, if you randomly published your blog posts whenever you felt like it, you could end up having too much content early in the week and none at all later in the week.

The schedule you choose really depends on how many blog posts you think you can write in a certain period of time.

If you can write a blog post every 1-2 days, great, but you must also think of the quality of what you put out. It could suit you better to publish content that’s packed with more value, but is added less frequently.

WordPress has a built-in scheduling feature that lets you choose exactly when you want your posts to go up.

To get a large number of readers, you’ll need to promote your blog. The best way to do this is through social media. While it’s been getting increasingly difficult to get organic reach, quality content will still have a chance of getting shares, comments and likes, which will increase its visibility.

In theory, paid traffic will lead to more success, but paid ads may not be an option for you if you’re just starting out. Either way, you’ll need to have scheduling set up and a well-thought out posting strategy in place.

Long term, SEO, or search engine optimisation, is your best bet for getting more traffic to your blog. SEO isn’t something you can learn overnight, but by starting with the basics, you can slowly build up your expertise.

Some important subjects to look at in SEO include keywords, featured snippets, link building, meta data, your blog post titles and image optimisation.

Maybe you just want to create a fitness blog for fun or to inspire other people, but it’s also possible to make money in the process. There are a number of ways you can do this.

Advertising is a great way of generating income for your blog, but the type of advertising you go for really depends on the amount of traffic that your blog is getting. Pay-per-click ads can be superb if you have tons of traffic, but not every will blog will get thousands and thousands of visitors a day.

A more realistic option is to speak directly to a fitness brand and see if they’d be willing to pay you to display an ad on your blog. If they have a similar target demographic as you, and if your blog is doing reasonably well, they may feel it’s a worthwhile investment.

You should also recognise the value of the knowledge that you’re sharing with people and not give it all away for free. When you’ve gained a loyal readership, you could offer them fitness ebooks and courses with extra information that you haven’t provided anywhere else.

Emphasise the value in these offers so that your readers will know that they’ll be getting access to something that’s going to really benefit them. Another idea is branded fitness products, but you’ll need to build up a significant personal brand before this becomes worthwhile.

If you have a background in personal training, you could use your platform to sell your services. Provide contact information so that your readers can get in touch with you and book a session. You could offer in-person training and/or give advice online.

It can be easy to get complacent once your blog starts getting noticed, but it’s important to stay focused on maintaining its growth. You need to keep delivering quality content and providing value for your readers if you want them to stay with you.

Keep an eye on the latest fitness trends so you know that what you’re sharing is relevant and up-to-date. If you can be the one that starts a fitness trend, even better!

It’s important to use analytics on your site to monitor your site traffic and track what your most popular content is. This way, you can avoid wasting time writing posts that don’t perform well. Google Analytics is easily the best way of doing this.

Simply sign up, fill information about your website, install a tracking code and set up things like site search tracking and goals. You will be able to get reports on various areas of your site, which can help you decide how you’re going to try and make improvements.

Now that you know every step you need to take to create a great fitness blog, it’s time to put what you’ve learnt into action.

At first, you might find it very difficult to get readers, but if you continue to post extremely valuable content and adhere to the rules of SEO, eventually people will start visiting your blog.

There is a huge fitness community online and there will be opportunities to tap into some of the niches within that. If you closely follow these steps, you will be doing everything you possibly can to give your fitness blog the best chance of success.