If you want to learn How To Start A Fitness Blog you have definitely found the right place. Fitness blogging can be a fun, exciting and very rewarding hobby. 

But,  

Can fitness blogging be turned in to a financially rewarding career path? 

Well, that is what this article is all about! tune in, kick off your training gear and focus on this article as I really show you how you can start your own fitness site and earn a living as a fitness blogger!. 

Keep reading as I show you the potential of the market, the best ways to monetize your fitness blog. Top affiliate programs for fitness bloggers and how to get traffic to your funky kick ass website....and where you can learn the skill of creating a top class blog. 

Perhaps maybe even inspire you to become a fitness blogger yourself!. 

How To Start A Fitness Blog - Are You Passionate About Fitness?

Before we absolutely get right in and talk about the in's and out's of blogging, running a fitness blog as well as managing, maintaining and growing it into a full time job replacing income I'll ask you one simple question. 

Do you have a real burning desire and passion for fitness, working out,and being in shape?

I'm not asking here if you work out or have awesome routines that are the bomb or are in shape or anything like that.

I'm asking if you have that absolute passion and drive for fitness so much so that you want to share your knowledge, workouts, advice and tips with the whole world. 

Because it is that drive and passion that will propel you forwards to building that very kick ass blog that you dream about making and one that could end up as a very nice business. 

The Fitness Industry - Few Key Facts And Stats

Before we jump and dive right in and get all excited let's first look and analyse the market - a bit of the boring stuff but...what a bummer it would be if we started a fitness blog only to find out that it would be incredibly difficult to make a living from it. 

Consider this as an integral and essential part of your niche research (of which I am saving you from doing yourself!). 

• In America there are over 30,000 fitness and gym facilities which includes local single location centres and nationwide and multinational businesses

• The Global health industry is worth over $100 Billion annually

• The European market is the biggest fitness market. 

• In the European Market, the United Kingdom is the largest. 

• Just slightly behind the European Market is the US, the second biggest global market and is growing significantly

• Millennial's use fitness apps more than any other age group and see exercise as a daily activity - an indication of continued market growth. 

• Female millennial's are twice as likely to use fitness apps than male millennial's.

• High Intensity Interval Training, holistic wellness and functional training are three key areas and trends that look set to stay. 

• "Fitness" in a global survey was seen as being the biggest "sport" worldwide.

With a large $100 Billion being spent of fitness market globally it can be said that the market is vast, large and has plenty of money moving around in it!. More than enough for you to grab you share and make a living from the industry. 

Another key takeaway from the above information is that if you are targeting female fitness and millennial's are your target audience or readership, veer towards recommending fitness apps!.  

Starting A Fitness Blog

There is absolutely nothing difficult about starting a blog in any area, be it fitness, travel, music, food, health or whatever. Thousands, sorry, millions of people are setting up and making a new blog all the time.

I, as blogaholic have plenty about half a dozen or so. I have started even more having given some away, stopped or sold or have them on the back burner. 

I am nothing special, no degree or IT or computer wizardry or anything like that is required. Sure, if you know that kind of stuff it sure helps it is not an obligation. Most certainly not a must have skill set. 

Just to mention it, you should NEVER be afraid of over saturation in a niche market or "there are too many blogs" most bloggers, some 90%, give up within the first year of starting a blog. Which is freaking crazy! at this point a site is just starting to get some traction with the search engines!. 

Before we get to the technical aspect of setting up your blog you must decide what it is exactly that you want to blog about in the fitness area. 

I recommend And Suggest that you bookmark this guide and article (Ctrl +D) so that you can come back to it and start reading where you left off and not miss out on any of the awesome tips and techniques 

Better still, take a few seconds to sign up for my 7 day 100% Free E-course on blogging and you will get absolutely everything you need to succeed delivered via email over the next week!

Fitness is a massive market, and yes, you can blog about that, but it is going to be a bit more difficult and take you longer to get to your goal of being noticed, getting traffic and earning an income for your site. 

Breaking down into a specific sub sector of the Fitness market allows you to become much more focused, targeted and very specific.

By working in a smaller less crowded market area it helps you to become more established earlier and become that "go to" person for all thing fitness and related to that particular market segment. 

This often referred to as "niching down"

Because YOU KNOW You Can Make An awesome Fitness Blog!. But, The Question is: Will you STEP UP and MAKE IT?!?

Fitness Niche Ideas - Finding Your Fitness Niche!

Niche site marketing is a very strategic business practice and concept that you can apply to your blog.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense to be specifically and exactly targeted to an exact audience and be more laser focused than wide and all encompassing and targeting the whole world!. 

It is about being specific, and detailed and starting with an end goal in mind and then working backwards for maximum impact of your site and growing your site quicker!. 

Upon deciding on your Fitness niche, have a real good think about who your ideal reader is, who they are, fully visualise them. Are they in shape or outta shape wanting to get in shape.

A millennial or a baby boomer? Or something in between?.

Are they single? married? Got children? Mortgage? what kind of job? professional university graduate or blue collar worker? what are their hobbies and eating habits? what do they do in their spare time? 

Knowing your audience really helps you to tailoring your content to them and, there's that word again...getting targeted!. 

Fitness Blog Ideas

Luckily for us and for you in particular this niche is pretty easy to niche down on and get targeted, very targeted. 

One particular way of niching down on the fitness market is by taking a particular area of fitness and then drilling down on that and finding a particular person that is interested in that discipline. 

Such examples include Yoga, High Intensity Interval Training, Kettle Bell Training, Body weight training, Callisthenics, Aerobics, Step Aerobics, Zumba, Pilates, Spinning, battle ropes, free weights, dance based training, cross fit training, circuit training.

All of these are viable niches in their own right, you can get more targeted by applying those to a specific person or type of person. 

Specific types or groups of people you can separate down to:

• Male/Female
• Children

Even those can be broken down into specific age ranges such as: 

• Children: Young children, preteens and teens. 
• Male/Female Adults: 20, somethings, 30+ 40+, 50+ and so on. Or grouped as Millennial's, baby boomers, retiree's. 

Now, you can begin to mix and match the list of fitness activities with people and start to find a variety of possible and very targeted fitness blog ideas. 

For example, 

• Yoga for women over 40
• bodyweight training for baby boomers.
• Circuit training for teenagers.
• Dance training for preteen girls. 

See how these are far more targeted towards a very specific audience than generically targeting everyone?. 

When it comes down to finding groups of people, you can group by health conditions such as back pain, knee or hip pain (or generally joint pain) and pregnancy or post pregnancy (new mum).

There are many more examples, those are just a few. 

You can then also come up with viable and good niches like:

• Yoga for sufferers of back pain - something I would be interested in!
• Yoga for pre or post natal women!
• Fitness Training for new mom's that want to get back in shape. 
• Aerobic Training for men and women over 50 with a heart condition. 

You should have a good idea now on how to exactly niche down and get targeted. This is something for you to give serious though to and start creating an avatar of your ideal client/reader. 

Once you have that in mind you can move on and start thinking about methods of making some coin from your site. I'm talking genuine authentic ways of monetization that are long established and proven. 

Before that you should start to think about a domain name and little about branding, as this is exactly what you are doing - building a brand. 

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Choosing A Domain Name

A domain name is simply the name of your website or blog. There is nothing complex or difficult when it comes to selecting a name for your site but there are a few rules and options to consider. 

• Personal Branding Vs Business Branding
• Keywords in the domain name Vs not having keywords in the domain name. 
• Country specific (eg. Ca, .Co.Uk, .Es, .It and so on) or Top Level Domain (.com, .net, .Org)
• Domain name length and number of words in it.

Ideally your domain name should contain 2 or 3 words at maximum and all in about 15 letters max. Web site names that are too long are deemed as low quality and spammy-ish!.

At a stretch I would use a name of 18 max but still try to stick to the 15 letter rule. 

If you are operating your fitness blog only within a certain country specific zone or language then use the country specific domain name to help you rank higher in that country.

If you are looking at or towards a global audience then set your eyes on a TLD - top level domain name, one that ends in .com, .org, or .net with a preference for .com if you can get it. 

Do avoid hyphens, dashes or numbers when naming your blog. It is just more difficult to remember the exact web address for your site should your potential visitor wish to return. 

The actual name that you opt for, YourName.com is fine, completely fine as many fitness, travel and foodie and lifestyle blogs work very well with what is called personal branding. 

• Keywords In A Domain Name AKA Exact Match Domain Name

It is often said that keywords in a domain name help a site to rank. This is not true. It has not been the case for a long time now, well, since September 2012 and that is a lifetime in internet terms!.

There is absolutely zero benefit to or on your ability to rank your website or blog if you have keywords in the name. 

However, there is an advantage, not a traffic or rankings one but one of letting your audience know exactly what your site is about! "Best Yoga Training" "Best Circuit Training For Teens" Or "Teen Fitness" tells the reader exactly what the site is about when they see the domain name in the search rankings page. 

• A Quick Word On Personal Branding

Personal Branding is the "art" (and, yes, I do consider it as an art!) of creating and establishing a brand around you, an individual person rather than the more familiar approach of business branding. 

Think Cristiano Ronaldo or David Beckham as personal brands Vs Nike, Addidas or Apple as business branding examples. 

With personal branding you can position yourself as and expert in a given niche market and grow your social following. 

Branding, be it personal or business, is not something that happens instantly. It can take months of hard work to establish and develop. 

You can of course, brand yourself, your name and image as part of your business or blog name and very successfully so very much in the way in which Brian Dean has done with Backlinko - mention Brian Dean to anyone in the SEO world and instantly they think of SEO and his site Backlinko and vice versa. 

It is this type of branding that I have a strong preference for. 

Why Is Branding Important?

Branding is important, very important as creating a brand sets you apart from personal blogs and personal websites that people use to tell the world about what they did last night, who with when and what they eat for dinner!. 

You know, the unimportant useless internet junk that fills out the internet that is neither helpful, useful or of interest to anyone!

And, luckily for us, and for you too, google recognises this and uses branding as means of sorting out the lower quality internet junk and the better quality helpful and actually useful stuff that you find on the internet. 

This is exactly why you should think seriously about branding be it personal branding or business branding,  getting a good catchy domain name (if you decide on business branding) and a logo. 

If you are struggling to come up with a brandable domain name check out wordoid and play around with it a little and enter your niche terms. 

Best Ways To Monetize A Blog

There are many ways for you to monetize your fitness blog. One of the most rewarding and without a single doubt is affiliate marketing. 

It might be a slow way of earning money for your site but it is certainly consistent and sustainable as well as growing means of earning an income from the traffic to your blog as long as you continue to work on it. 

Build it and they will come, as they saying goes!. 

Because You know you can ROCK IT as a FITNESS BLOGGER!. The Question is: Are you going to BUILD THAT BLOG?!?

 Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is best described as the sales of a product or service in exchange for a commission. The product or service can be either physical or digital. 

The affiliate (likely you) are paid a direct commission based on the number of sales made by the product owner. It is by far the most common, and most lucrative way of generating revenue for a website.

There is no stock to hold, order or deliver. Meaning, later once the revenue is flowing, you can, if you wish, up sticks and travel around and still work on your blog - just as long as you have an internet connection!. 

And with that let's talk about some of the best fitness affiliate programs that are currently available

The Best Fitness Affiliate Programs

• Amazon Affiliates

Do or Don't, love 'em or hate 'em, Amazon Associates, the affiliate program for amazon affiliates, is one of those "marmites" of the affiliate marketing world. You either love them or you hate them! with very little room for anything in between. 

Why the controversy? 

Well, in short a low commission structure, which is 4.5% for most categories, and a short cookie duration of only 24 hours!. Some affiliates love Amazon due to their massive trust factor and being highly optimised for conversions. 

Amazon, does, and it has to be said, convert traffic into sales far better than other higher paying independent affiliate programs. And, once a sale is made the cookie life is extended to 90 days. Not to mention you get a commission on EVERYTHING that is purchased and not just the product that you promoted. 

Also, in the online retail giants favour is the fact that they have an absolute abundance of products available for any and every niche. 

For the fitness niche, regardless of how you wish to "niche down" I have absolute confidence that they have plenty of products for you to be recommending for your readers from gym wear to home fitness equipment to fitness workout videos and routines. 

It just takes 5 mins of work and few searches. 

As you can see there is absolutely no shortage of products on amazon. It is no different for any of the sub niches in this market sector. 

• eBay

Another large and well known affiliate program with an abundance of products across pretty much all niches is eBay. Like Amazon, they share a huge trust factor and reputation amongst consumers. This is good as it aids conversions. 

Becoming an eBay affiliate is something that you should consider particularly if you are from a state or country where being an Amazon associate is not possible. 

A few quick searches does show that there is a whole range of products in the fitness niche available on eBay from gear to equipment to clothing!. 

No shortage here!

• Natalie Jill Fitness

Natalie Jill is a single mother that completely turned her life and fortunes around by focusing on all aspects of her life from her health, her wealth and her mental state.

Her site and products promote fitness in a holistic and very convenient way to fit into a busy woman (or man's) lifestyle - although I must say it does appear that the products are more aimed at women and would convert better for your female readers than male readers. 

It does look like She is moving in the direction of lifestyle products and helping you to achieve that dream lifestyle. 

Commissions are a very nice 30% with a very low minimum payout of $25 payable to your paypal account. If I was in the fitness sector and had a large female following, I would most certainly be delighted to promote Natalie Jill Fitness as the products do look to be of high quality. 

Join the affiliate program here.

If you were wondering, yep, this is an excellent example of personal branding in the fitness niche, and absolutely so.

Can she brand herself into neighbouring niches such as nutrition and as I suspect, motivation and lifestyle? - yes, she can, and probably much more so than had she been using the business branding model. 

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• Lifespan Fitness

Lifespan is a company that is long established and dates back to 2001. They sell a whole range of equipment related to fitness including gadgets, apps and high end equipment for the home, office and gym. 

Due to the price range of some of their equipment there is plenty of opportunity for recommending their expensive fitness gear for high commissions. They are a little bit fussy in who promotes their products, and rightly so!.

As long as you have quality value driven content and using genuine and known methods to drive traffic you ought to be accepted. 

Details in regards to the commission structure are not published. You can find more information about their affiliate program here.

Yes, if you are wondering a rather excellent niche springs to my mind seeing that photo! 

Office fitness equipment!.

I got a feeling the uber cool office working hip and trendy millennial's and new start up or tech culture would love go for this. 

Personally I have a standing desktop for that very reason, health...now a treadmill or one of those cycling things would not go a miss!

Yep office fitness I have feeling would make a great and awesome niche!.

(As would standing desktops).

• Workout Anywhere By Rundlefit

Rundlefit is a workout anywhere fitness program where absolutely no equipment is needed where Jessica and Justin give you custom coaching and workout videos direct by means of their app and is fully interactive. 

The particular target demographic and market is those that lead a busy lifestyle be it business men and women, parents and professionals of all disciplines.

The workouts are specifically aimed not to take too long to perform and to be of maximum effect and results. 

Commission structure is $30 to $150 per sale with successful affiliates that earn beyond a certain criteria, currently $15,000, will get a nice augmentation in their commissions from 30% to 50%. Nice!

Get more information about their affiliate program here!.

• Ace Fitness

Ace Fitness, which stands for American Council on Exercise. Their goal and mission statement is to provide solid quality education and to aid people to being much more aware of their own health and well being, changing their life and lifestyles for the better. 

They are fully and completely accredited and a leader in the industry.  Commissions for affiliating with ACE Fitness is 8% on all the sales that you make. 

You can apply to be an affiliate here

• Wahoo Fitness

This an awesome fitness website for cycling enthusiasts they call "Wahooligans". They have a lot of great products for fitness enthusiasts, cyclists and runners a like. If you are in the cycling niche do give these guys serious consideration due to the high quality of their products. 

Commission structure is a simple and easy to calculate 10% on all sales.  Get more information here about their affiliate program

• Femme Fit

This is somewhat of a fitness, nutrition and diet program aimed, as the name suggests for women to get back in shape. The key to their success is that they keep things incredibly simple and there is no need for the ladies to torture their taste buds with bland food or wild crazy fitness regimes. 

The training sessions are kept to being as fun as possible as if you actually enjoy working out (like I do) you will in all probability look forward to doing it and making it a good regular habit. 

Importantly, they have a great support system and a high quality and effective product as you only want to be promoting effective products, which will 1) help your to convert clicks into sales and 2) maintain the integrity of your site.

As an affiliate you can earn up to $40 on all sales that you make. Sign up here for their affiliate program. 

• FabFitFun!

FabFitFun is a very popular and easy to promote seasonal gift box that comes out every quarter in it is the very best in health, wellness, fitness, tech fashion and beauty. It is the brain child of Giuliana Rancic. 

Each box is very affordable and just under $50 and earns you a nice $9 per sale. On top of the commission you can get a nice 20% discount on your own FabFitFun box. You can also offer your email list and readers a $10 off discount code to help boost your sales and earnings. 

You can Join the FabFitFun affiliate program, which is by means of the affiliate network Awin here.

• Life Fitness

For almost half a century this company has been producing and creating fitness equipment and solutions that are of great use to the end user and fitness centre. They have an extensive range of specialist fitness equipment that is, as expected durable and of high quality standards.  

You may even be familiar with some of their brands such as hammer strength. Being an equipment manufacturer their products cross a number of sub niches in the fitness market.

Do check them out.  

As an affiliate commissions are 8% and rising with a standard 30 day cookie. 

• Workout Warehouse 

A quick hop on over to this merchants website and you will instantly recognise a number of brands that they supply. Such brands include ones that I have used and owned like Weider and golds gym. They also supply cross trainers, treadmills and rowers as well as yoga accessories. 

Commissions are tiered based on the volume of the sales that you generate in a given month ranging from 8% to 11% respectively. Reach that 11% (for a minimum of $30,000 in sales) and you will have on your hands a site earning you a full time income. 

More Information Is Available Here. 

• Nerd Fitness

Nerd Fitness, some what of an internet fitness sensation, or unlikely sensation more like. They are definitely a brand that most people into fitness have heard of. 

They draw on classic elements of good old fashioned role play to help regular and average people, nerds and "desk jockeys" to level up and get fit. Their methodology actually works and makes exercising and fitness fun. 

Their affiliate program due to brand awareness and trust is one that is easy to promote and pays out at a very nice 50% on all sales with payments made directly to your paypal account - always a good thing in my opinion!. 

• FitBit

Seriously, who has NOT heard of fitbit? 

FitBit has a variety of devices that would be of interest to most people interested in the fitness market from smart watches to fitness trackers and other smart devices aimed at tracking the fitness and progress of users and owners. 

Commissions are a healthy and fit 12% with payment made to your payoneer account, your bank, or by bankers cheque. Their affiliate program is currently managed by CJ affiliates. Join right here!.

• Yoga Burn For Women

Yoga is hot and is very much here to stay. And this Product by Zoe Bray-Cotton is a rather well made and well thought out digital and physical product that helps women to dynamically work out in the freedom of their homes. 

Get more info about yoga burn for women here. 

And talking about Yoga, why not consider...

• Yoga International

This is the absolute "go t"o site for all things yoga from an interesting blog to a whole variety of yoga classes ranging from styles and reasons for the classes from getting fit to becoming a yoga teacher to learning meditation and and the practice of Ayurveda. 

Commissions vary from $8 for digital classes and 5% for other courses taken. Get more information about their affiliate program right here. 

• Jillian Michaels

Probably one the more famous of personal trainers and fitness experts known in this day and age - maybe some of the older ones consider her as the modern day Jane Fonda!. 

Her product includes full interactive personalised workout program available on your smartphone, tablet or any connected device. Full healthy meal plans for all kinds of diets and diet types.

Importantly she includes tracking tools to help her (and your) clients to track their progress. 

She is well known, as are her products, which should help them to convert well. Commission is a nice 20% for your marketing efforts. Get more details about the affiliate program here!. 

More Ways To Monetize Your Fitness Blog

Affiliate marketing is and was my first love when it comes to generating revenue and getting money to flow to my blogging sites. It is something that I will continue to use

Thankfully, it is not the only method of making money for and from a blog. And for the record, I do suggest that you, as a funky new and budding "Digipreneur" look towards at least 3 methods of monetizing the traffic to your site. 

As a dear friend, a Harvard Business graduate with an MBA said and advised for my affiliate sites to not be dependent on one merchant but to split 40% 30% 30% among 3 suppliers or merchants. 

I personally think that we should go a little bit deeper and use that same 40% 30% 30% split with 3 different methods of revenue generation for any website. 

It is not about multiple sources of income but diversified sources of income and not being fully dependent on any one single method.  

Why? Because you dream of helping the whole world to get fit and healthy? My questions is: Are you going to fulfil your destiny?!?

• Display Advertising 

Adding display adverts to your site from the very outset is a genuine way of generating revenue from your traffic from the very beginning and is independent of affiliate sales or any sales at all. 

Money is is made by clicks on the adverts that are displayed on your blog.

As a word of warning, do not and absolutely under any circumstances at all get or even consider getting your friends to click on the adverts displayed on your site. 

You will quickly find yourself banned!. 

It goes without saying, don't even consider the idea of using bots or software to generate clicks on those ads!. The same thing will happen and the good old "ban hammer" will come crashing down and you can kiss bye bye to a completely passive source of revenue for your site. 

The top two display advertising networks are google adsense, which you can apply for once your site has some content and is up and running. As a general rule, I'd say about a dozen or so posts published and you should be fine. 

The other is Media Vine. You can't join these guys right off the bat. Part of their quality control and delivering high quality ads is that they require site owners to have at least 25,000 sessions per month to qualify. 

Due to high payouts and generating more revenue for webmasters, Media Vine is the better choice for website owners when it comes to earning money from advertising on their sites. 

Obviously niche, site, and optimisation dependent, you can expect earning to be around the $20 to $40 mark - nothing to be snuffed at as we are looking at an EXTRA $500 to $1000 on top of affiliate sales and other manners of monetizing your site. 

(and with that extra income you might even consider spending it on outsourcing content and making your site hands free - how cool would that be! more YOU time!). 

Your Own Fitness Products

Creating your own products is something that can be hugely profitable. Be it a Physical or digital product. Done right, and with enough traffic and a following you can "turn the tables" on affiliate marketing and have affiliates working for you, promoting YOUR products. 

Some ideas to consider:

• Diet and Nutrition books
• Digitally delivered and personalized Workout videos and Fitness routines
• Your own rebranded fitness gear. 
• Your own range of Sports Supplements. 
• Exclusive and limited bootcamp fitness regime training with full on weekly consultation with you.

• Personal Coaching

When it comes to personal fitness coaching you can of course get highly targeted and focus within your own geographic area and earn a living doing so. 

But, 

There is absolutely no reason as to why you should limit yourself to one specific location. You can of course offer your expertise and services online by means of weekly, twice weekly, by skype video calls and give full access to any of your own physical or digital products. 

Such consultations can be either individual coaching calls or group calls. Calend.ly and YouCanBook.Me are two good sites to use to manage your bookings.  

• Create A Membership Site

Creating a membership site for monthly, quarterly, 6 month or yearly access to the high quality premium content of your blog, which could include access to those digital products of your own plus coaching calls and personal mentoring by email or skype from you and access to an active community is an excellent way of making money from a blog. 

Don't worry about the "how to" do all that - it is pretty easy and manageable by means of a software plugin to manage the membership area. 

Just keep in mind that you are running two sides of your blog, the front end free site, which must be maintained and updated with high quality content to keep luring in potential clients and the premium members only area. Which also must be maintained and updated with regular top quality content. 

Do keep in mind, once your site is earning an income, you can start to outsource the creation of your content and really "go to town" and start scaling up your business. 

Earning An Income For Your Blog - A Quick Recap

As you have seen there is a variety of ways to earn and generate an income for and from a blog.

My three favourites, affiliate marketing, display advertising and the creation of your own products are what work very well for me and the niches that I am involved in. 

The two most lucrative methods are of course affiliate marketing and the creation of your products. Both of which require a lot of work and effort on a continued basis to hit those really BIG numbers. At the end, the pay off is really worth it. 

What functions for you, will fully depend on your exact niche and may not be so great for myself for example, and as an example, I just can't see myself involved in personal coaching in any subject - even one I am highly passionate about (Blogging and all things blogging related) as it is just not my thing and I live in a totally awkward time zone for the majority of my target market. 

How To Get Free Website Traffic

Getting traffic is really as simple as knowing your audience, and where they are hanging and chilin' out - digitally speaking of course...and reel 'em in! 

In short, find 'em and go get 'em!.  

Where are they? Social media sites? 

Great..which ones? Facebook, for sure...what groups? Twitter? yep..what hash tags do they follow? who are they following? 

Pinterest, Instagram..maybe..probably! investigate, dig, dig deep and then dig even deeper and find them!. 

We'll talk a little later about the role of social media and free traffic later, but first, one of my fave's and most pin point laser targeted sources of free traffic!

Search engines and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for short). 

By high traffic, I put the breaks on at 250+ anything less that 250 is good to go. In terms of competing sites, obviously the lower this number the better. Ideally when starting a new site I'll look for this number to be 50 max. 

Once I have traction, trust and authority with search engines after being established a little I'll raise that number. But very rarely will I look above 100 competing sites. 

Given that the best approach to blogging about any niche and in any niche market is to help people first and not to sell to them. A great approach is to find what your audiences pertaining pain points are and find their problem areas and question that they are seeking answers to. 

Do this and you win on many levels. You gain authority, trust and respect by helping them. 

• How To Find Question Based Keywords

Finding question based keywords is super easy! In fact there are a couple of pretty cool tools out there that will find the questions and possibly the pertaining pain points of your audience for you. 

There are a few strategies that you can apply and sites that you can visit and just see what exactly your audience is asking!. 

Here is my absolute favourite tool at the moment for finding those question based keywords. 

Because You would just LOVE to make an AWESOME FITNESS BLOG!. The Question Is: Do You Have The WILL POWER to SUCCEED as a FITNESS BLOGGER?!?

•  AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic has got to be the coolest tool ever! The best part is that it is free, but is limited to 25 searches, which is enough really if you preplan what to enter into the search box. 

It will just throw up at you an absolute TON of question related keywords that real internet users are typing into google, yahoo and bing. 

I suggest that you go and play around with it and take note, either paper and pen or open up a spread sheet and save the good ones. 

• Quora

Quora is an awesome site for finding what questions are being asked in your niche. Simply see the questions that are being asked and...create articles on your site around those questions. 

And don't for get to pop in an visit Quora regularly and answer a few questions as best you can as this will increase your authority within the field of fitness. Don't go spamming your link though, you'll end up getting flagged for that and maybe even banned. 

Properly fill out your profile and have your a link to your home page in there. If you are answering a question in an area in which your expertise is recognised it can get highlighted in your answer. 

Quora is a good source of traffic (and content ideas!) and consistently so. There is a reason as to why top bloggers love it!. 

• Create "Best" and "Top" Style Posts

When you create post around "Best" and "top X" (where X = a number) style of posts, particularly when they are related to products and an contain your affiliate links they do have high a tendency to convert well into sales. 

To find those kinds of keywords you are far better using a keyword research tool to find the number of searches and the number of competing sites in order to help you rank well. 

Do make these posts in depth and comprehensive.

I mean,

if you are writing an article "The 10 best gym shoes for cross training" or "10 top workout apps" and the article is 1,000 words long and with affiliate links to all 10 products is not going to cover the topic in any depth at all and you will have too many affiliate links for such a small article. 

Such articles, you ought to aiming at 3000 or 4000 words - which is really easy to do if you consider that it is only 300 to 400 words per product - not including the introduction to the article or the final conclusion. 

These kind of article have a tendency to generate a lot of traffic as they rank for a lot of related keywords, known as LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords.

Side note: You rank for ALL the words and phrases that are in your articles, not just the targeted keywords or phrases. 

These "best" and "top" style posts are ones that you should link a lot of your content to, to help your readers to find them and to rank them higher in search engines. Quite often they are referred to as pillar posts. 

Of course, not all of your "Best" or "Top" posts have to be with commercial intent, they can for example include the "Best Exercises for building Biceps" "Top 10 Ways To A flatter firmer and fitter waist line". 

Do be very careful of creating too much content with commercial intent with affiliate links in them. Search Engines will see you as a bridge site, a site that purely exists to to users elsewhere to other sites. 

As a General rule I tend to stick to a 1/3 maximum ration to begin with. Also as a general rule and for greater authority and respect within an industry I only recommend 5 or 6 products as a maximum.

It's another one of those, less is more. And on that subject - when you are doing your "best" or "top" style post do state which one is the best or top. Your readers want to know your thoughts and why!. 

• Vs Style Articles

This type of article compares two products or techniques, typically Product A Vs Product B, for example "Jump Squats Vs Regular Squats" or "Leotard Vs Yoga Pants" (or "Pilates Vs Calisthenics").  

These tend to attract tons of traffic and in fact in most of my blogs this is the style that tends to end being my most trafficked pages!. 

Kinda does make sense to have some commercial intent in them due to the sheer amount of traffic that they can and do generate. Take time to find and think about those, or have a quick look at AnswerThePublic as they do show these results. 

Just as the "Best" and "Top" style posts do mention which on the two products that you have compared in the Vs style article is best and why and do have commercial intent in those posts. 

• Create Informative "How To" Posts

One of the great plus points in well written "How  To" style articles is they are really helpful and that gives awesome value to your site and content. Also, this kind of content when well done tends to rank really well also. 

For the fitness niche "How To" are pretty easy to brain storm and come up with Ideas. "How To Get in Shape after a baby", "How To get that beach body" "How to get killer ads". 

Social Media

Social Media is obviously an important way and manner of informing and updating the public in regards to your blog, its latest posts and what is happening in the industry. 

Building a social media following is building a community of folks that are aware of you and your site and the topic of your blog. 

It is also a good way of being and remaining independent from google. While search engine traffic is great, you still need to remain not 100% reliant upon it as an algorithm update that goes against you and your site and...you could be kissing goodbye to a viable and profitable business - it happens to the best of us - myself included!.

• Facebook

Search for and join targeted groups and like pages that are related to or broadly similar to your particular fitness niche. Participate and join in conversations, discussions and debates. Become a valued member of the group. 

Let people gravitate naturally towards you and find their own way to your site by finding your link in your FB profile. Only post a link to your site when you feel it is necessary to emphasis your point in a discussion, and only do so with the permission of the group admins. 

Sure, it is a slow way of generating traffic, but you are creating value within the groups and becoming more of a respected authority Vs a Spammer. The traffic that you generate from people gravitating towards you is more likely to be a good steady stream of regular traffic. 

• Twitter

 Twitter is great for good quick hit instant traffic and there is plenty of activity on this social network regards to fitness.

Look for the industry leaders in your sector and who is following them and follow their followers - obviously they are interested in that aspect of fitness, which is why they are following fitness related twitter accounts. This is building a specific and targeted following on social media. 

• Pinterest

A known social network and not one used as much as it ought to be by bloggers and online marketers. Your pins and boards hang there...for ever and if and when used well provides a good stead stream of traffic. 

This is the reason as to why I love it so much!. Kinda unlike twitter and facebook where your social activity is generally lost and gone with the passing of time. Pinterest has no news feed as such and your pins are there, fully searchable for ever!. 

Do upload quality photos and infographics and don't forget to use relevant hash tags and write an appropriate description to help the pinterest community to find your pins. 

Also, pin to related boards that have a lot of followers and activity. Like Twitter, follow users that are related to your fitness niche and build up a targeted following. 

• YouTube 

I'm hazarding a guess that perhaps you have not considered YouTube as a social network. Given that there is interactivity within the comments section, it most certainly is. 

It is also a search engine, one that is second only to Google, generating 2x the number of daily searches as Bing. 

Fitness being a a very visual niche in most cases, you are definitely missing out on a lot of traffic. Besides, being visual, YouTube aids with an important aspect of branding, humanising your brand. 

This is great regardless of what ever branding style you have chosen be it personal branding, business branding or a co-branded mix of the two. 

Also regularly comment on YT videos as this brings a link back to your channel. Be active in the community - again don't spam! Nobody likes a spammer!. Offer value within your community and you will gain a lot more than respect - you will gain a following!.

• Other Social Media

Obviously, I can't mention all social media sites here. Do take your time and make the effort to investigate the use of other networks to help build your presence and sources of free traffic. 

Instagram, is certainly one that is excellent for a fitness blog.

Don't put all your efforts into all social accounts, use them wisely and limit yourself to 3 or 4 plus YouTube. They should be the ones that you are most familiar with, comfortable using and is where your crowd is hanging out. 

Getting Inspired! Top Fitness Blogs And Successful Fitness Bloggers To Check Out!

Getting inspired and getting your creative juices flowing and ideas flying in and around your head there is nothing quite like having a good look at some very successful fitness blogs that are rocking it in your niche of choice. 

So go right ahead and check out those sites and see if you have some ideagasms of your own, see if they can inspire you to greatness and make your own awesome and equally kick ass fitness blog!.

• Fitnessista

I love this site! it is absolutely awesome and has a pretty magnetic section for new mothers...

...post partum fitness!. 

It is run and managed by Gina Harney, who is a personal trainer, weight loss specialist, fitness director and mum of two growing kids. 

I'd personally describe this blog as a "Fitness lifestyle blog" as she incorporates healthy eating and healthy living as well as workouts and fitness exercises that can done easily and anywhere.

Her blog is actually for everyone but does edge and lean towards women and mothers in particular, will resonate strongly with her site. 

Monetization is by means of display advertising, site sponsorship and her own high quality products.  

 Great site Gina!. 

Seriously folks, have real good look at The Fitnessista!

• Fitness On Toast

Freaking awesomely named fitness blog if ever I seen on!. Blogger and site owner, the half Swedish and half English, Faya Nilsson has on her hands, and proves to you that mixing and matching niches really does work, and work well if you do it as well as she does. 

This is not just a great fitness blog, it is darn good travel, food, fashion and health one too!.  

She is stunningly beautiful and talks candidly about the realities of being a personal trainer, which despite having a cool sound to it is a tough and physically demanding job. 

Her site is monetized by sales of her book and by means of affiliate marketing. It is darn great site and very, very very well done. 

Do be sure to have a proper look at Fitness On Toast as it is pretty awesome!. 

• Blogilates

No prizes for guessing what this sites niche market sector is in the fitness market... yep! the ancient, tried and tested Pilates.  I just love the name! so catchy so memorable! Try forgetting this blog about Pilates!

You simply just can't! 

Site owner  and LA based Cassey Ho, also has an awesome YT channel, which I do believe is the top Fitness Channel on YouTube, if not it certainly is not far from it with over half a billion channel views to date!. 

There are plenty of challenges and workouts to keep you motivated and inspired to stay and get in shape. Her site also touches on subjects outwith fitness such as the importance of mental fitness and dealing with depression. 

The blog is monetized by means of her own products. Freaking outstanding hyper focused site, well done Cassey!. 

Visit Blogilates by clicking here.

Because YOU KNOW you can make an awesome inspiring Fitness Blog!. My Question Is: Are you going to TAKE ACTION and Build It?!?

• Workout Nirvana

You know that awesome feeling post workout, when the juices are flowing, Adrenalin pumping and the endorphins kicking in...that is what I call workout Nirvana. 

And Suzanne Digre, a fully qualified and certified weight management specialist and personal trainer has a pretty kick ass blog with that pretty catchy name.  

There is great advice on weight and strength training and well as how to prevent injuries. There are also some articles on she, courageously, continued to workout and keep in shape post mastectomy.

Monetization is by means of personal training.  She does make a very specialist and targeted niche idea spring to mind - women and weight training!. 

Check Out WorkOut Nirvana Here

• Carrots N Cake

Boston Based Influencer and Blogger Tina Haupert has created a great fitness and healthy lifestyle site right here - and do not let the name pull the wool over your eyes! - this is all about healthy eating, getting fit and staying in shape.  

With plenty of resources to keep you on track and motivated you ought to get in shape fairly quickly and stay in shape.

Covered very well in this blog is beauty, travel and nutrition. I do love the very targeted section "Fit Pregnancy". I can absolutely see fitness loving women at that stage and part of their lives really wanting to stay as fit as they can and still safely work out. 

Monetization is by means of display ads and affiliate marketing. It is very much a fitness and lifestyle site. 

Have look at the brilliantly Carrots and Cake here!.

Fitness Blogging FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any pertaining questions about fitness blogging, starting a fitness blog or blogging in general, simply ask your question in the comments section below and I will be delighted to add it (with my reply) to the FAQ. 

• Where To Start A Fitness Blog?

The very best place to start a fitness blog is from your home in your spare time and on the WordPress.org platform.

WordPress.Org offers greater flexibility and customisation and looks more professional than WordPress.com

• Why Start A Fitness Blog?

Because you are passionate about Fitness and working out.

You have awesome knowledge of the topic in your mind of which you can share with a global audience and earn a full time income from and then end up working for yourself, with you dictating the where and when as well as how you work! 

• How To Monetize A Fitness Blog?

This has been covered in the appropriate section above.

As a quick recap you can monetize your fitness blog by means of display advertising, affiliate marketing, the creation of your own products and personal coaching which can be done by skype!. 

• Fitness Blog Vs Fitness Vlog?

Both together on your WordPress blog!.

People are searching for both textual and visual information. Fitness,and  actually demonstrating the workouts is an obviously great way to compliment the written information that is presented on your blog.

Also, keep in mind that you don't own your YouTube Channel and it can be taken down at any time subject to Terms and Conditions of use, which are constantly changing.

You own your actual WordPress.Org Powered blog on your own domain name - nobody, absolutely nobody can take away from you or the videos that you put it!.

• How To Run A Fitness Blog?

This has very much been the topic of the whole article. Once you are up and running create content 2 or 3 (better 3) times per week. You can write about anything fitness related. Content only takes up an hour or 2 of your time to write. 

Once you get used to writing and creating content it just gets easier and easier. It is kind of like a tough workout - hard to begin with but gets easier over time as you get used to and adapt to it. 

Consider "How To", "best" "Top" "Product A Vs Product B" as a article topics to write about - a very good way to get started!. 

Keep on top of your social media activity and build your following, and in no time you will have a good steady flow of traffic to your site. 

After that, keep on going and consider outsourcing content creation and scaling up your content and growing your income and site. 

• What Are Good Fitness Topics To Write About?

Good fitness topics and ideas to write about include specific equipment, gym gear, workouts, exercise routines, supplements, nutrition, diet, getting in shape, staying in shape, personal trainers and so on. 

• How To Start A Fitness Blog On Instagram?

That's a great question!. 

Start by creating an instagram account with the same name as your blog and run it in conjunction with your blog for maximum impact. Draw your traffic from Instagram to your blog. Be visual, quick short videos and create awareness for your site. 

• How Much Does A Fitness Blogger Make?

I am, and many bloggers are rather shy in regards to that question and understandably so. It is a bit rude to go around asking - how much do you make?

On the other hand, I do understand why the question is often asked in regards to how much does a blogger make. You want to know if it is worth your while, your time and your effort in building up a fitness blog. 

The answer is quite difficult to determine. It is like asking how much does a restaurant make? A small town local restaurant will make considerably less than a big city multiple Michelin starred restaurant. 

A blogger, of any niche, with some effort, and dedication can grow from zero (no traffic and no income) to a "full time fire your boss" income in a year or two. 

Typically, you can expect $1000 a month within 12 month and $2,000 to $3,000 after 2 years.

Obviously, if you keep at it, the sky really is the limit. The whole world is your potential audience, it is like having a business open 24/7/365 globally!. 

Blogging is about building a sustainable business that will produce you an income year after year. It is not a get rich quick scheme. 

How To Start A Fitness Blog - Conclusion!

The Fitness industry is, globally speaking a thriving market and is something that as the population increases is going to continue to grow. People like to get in shape, be in shape and keep in shape. 

With "only" half the world connected and that number increasing all the time until the other half is connected and people's spending habits happening more in the digital space there is more opportunity than ever online. 

Be that with your own products, or earning a commission for recommending another well known brand, or personal coaching and fitness consulting as well as generating an income from display ads there is plenty of possibilities of monetizing a fitness blog and making that blog - your very own blog, your new job and source of income. 

It all comes down to you and how determined you are to apply what you have learned in this article and take inspiration from the sites mentioned. 

Your next step in becoming a world class and full time bonafide Fitness Blogger is to learn the skills that you need to be a blogger and take some proper training.

Your Next Step - Where To Learn Blogging

Where To Learn How To Become A Blogger is pretty easy! You have two choices, either learn from me or learn from the guys that taught me!. 

Rather than learn specifically how to start a fitness blog, focus on the actual skill set of how to start a blog and then you can and will be able to start another blog in any niche that you chose, when and if, you wish to expand your own online blogging empire and have multiple streams of income. 

I learned form Wealthy Affiliate, which is of course a great place to learn and with a massively thriving community and up to date video and state of the art training.

Inside Wealthy Affiliate you have full access to me and personal coaching to help you all the way to the ultimate success! - a thriving online business!. 

Take Action!

You can also grab my free training which is available by email and in PDF format. I also have a mini free 7 day training that will help you to get the very best out of blogging, be it from my own training or Wealthy Affiliate.

Just pop your email in the box below, white list me and look for my email in your spam folder (just in case) and confirm that you added your email.  

You will receive my free training and 7 day guide to help you to get the very best out of your blogging experience and help you on your way to fulfilling your dream of becoming a fitness blogger. 

Learn:

• How To Do Keyword Research and find thousands of keywords for your particular niche. 
• How To Brand Yourself For Maximum Impact and Effect
• Top Sources Of Traffic You Have Not Considered!. 
• Creating Content That Your Reader Want!
• Researching Your Competitors. 
• Awesome Killer SEO Techniques. 
• How To Properly And Effectively Funnel Your Traffic. 
• The "Must Have" Tools You Need To Succeed.

Just Pop Your Best Email In The Box Below And Begin Your Journey To Building A Sustainable Business Online and be well on your way to building a successful fitness blog. 

I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed reading about How To Start A Fitness Blog, if you have any questions, leave a comment below and I will absolutely reply back as quickly as I can. 

To your success and blogging best,

Derek.