How to Monetize Your Fitness Blog

As a fitness professional, you can earn money in several different ways. One of the most common is offering in-person training services. You meet with your client, devise an effective workout plan based on their fitness goals, and they pay you for this service. 

You can also boost your income by offering online personal training or online coaching services. But have you ever thought about creating a fitness blog and monetizing it for profit?

Fitness Blogging Benefits

Fitness blogging may turn you off if your daily schedule is always packed. However, blogging is a manageable hobby for someone with enough time management skills, especially if you have a lot of passion for your blog niche.

You can even be a fitness blogger without ever writing a word. Some people create audio files and pay someone to reduce them to writing. Others hire ghostwriters to create their blog posts for them. You can give a ghostwriter a basic outline, then let them create the blog post.

Hiring someone to produce your content is a good way to build and grow a fitness blog if you don’t like to write, struggle with writing, or simply can’t find the time to put your thoughts and ideas into words.

An additional benefit of creating a successful fitness blog is that it can help establish you as an expert in your field. It's a way to promote yourself and what you can contribute to the fitness industry. 

You can also look at your blog as a creative outlet. Use it as a way to share your fitness knowledge in your own special way. 

Another huge advantage is that your fitness blog has the potential to blow up—and rake in figures that are higher than what you're earning right now.

Reasons You May Want to Monetize Your Fitness Blog 

Fitness blogs aren’t free. They take time and money to maintain, especially if you have to pay for your hosting site. Monetization is a good way to support these and other expenses that running a blog incurs.

A monetized fitness blog can also be a great source of passive income for personal training professionals. This means that the upfront investment you put into a single blog post could result in a steady stream of income even while you’re sleeping, playing, or otherwise off work.

Money also motivates. It helps you gain something from all the effort you put into your blog. It provides some reward for sharing your knowledge as a fitness expert.

How Much Money Can You Make as a Fitness Blogger? 

Your profit potential depends on how much time and effort you're willing to invest in your fitness blog. How much money you make also varies depending on the strategies you use to monetize it. 

For example, Glassdoor reports that the average income for affiliate marketing is $51,000 to $90,000 per year. (1) This doesn’t include earnings from other blog monetization opportunities. 

The average personal trainer earns $50,170 annually. (2) (If you have the name, experience, and certification, you can earn more.) Combining your training services with blog monetization can help you earn a six-figure income as a fitness professional.

Before Even Thinking About Fitness Blog Monetization

You can’t monetize your fitness blog if it has no readers. So, before even thinking about monetization, it’s important to grow your online following. This requires posting quality content that is relevant to your readers. Start to establish a relationship with them and inspire them to share your posts. As more people read and follow your blog, others will begin to look to you as a fitness influencer.

Earning the status of an influencer provides more monetization opportunities. Companies will want to partner with you to sell their fitness products and services. And they’ll pay good money to do it. But all of this requires developing a solid blogging strategy. 

For instance, you want to define the focus of your fitness blog. More specifically, what will you blog about? If you’re not sure, make a list of all the fitness topics you’re knowledgeable about. Select a few that you want to focus on in your writing. 

Other factors crucial to creating a fitness blog that compels readers to want to subscribe to your writings include:

• Knowing who your readers are. The more you know about your readers, the better your ability to tailor content that is relevant and appealing to them. What are their biggest fitness obstacles? Do they struggle with finding the time to exercise, for example? Or is staying motivated their greatest challenge? You also want to know their fitness goals. Are they after weight loss, muscle growth, or something else? How can you help them reach their fitness goal? Talk about this in your blog posts.

• Creating a unique fitness brand. If your blog is like everyone else’s, you may have a hard time drawing in new readers. Instead, think about what makes you unique and develop a blog that accentuates this. Maybe it’s the way you speak (or write) that makes you different. Or you might have a different approach to getting and staying in shape. Give readers a reason to choose you as their preferred fitness blogger. Make them want to come back to you versus going to one of your competitors.

• Define a fitness niche. Defining a niche helps draw readers interested in that topic. It also makes it easier to create fitness content relevant to your target audience. Some people are afraid to define a fitness niche because they don’t want to limit their potential clients. But you can get better results by being a specialist in certain areas of fitness versus being a generalist in them all. Being a specialist also allows you to charge more for your expertise, similar to how a medical specialist charges more than a general practitioner. In this way, defining a fitness niche can increase your fitness blogging income.

How to Monetize Your Fitness Blog

Once you've gained a strong number of followers, you can use your fitness influencer status to boost your brand as well as to partner with other brands that relate to your blogging niche. Here are a few options to consider.

Sell Your Training Services Through Your Blog

One of the simplest ways to turn your fitness blog into a money-maker is to use it to sell your services. Write a blog post that explains the value of your workout routine or fitness plans. Within other posts, share an experience you had with a client or in a fitness class that you lead. End each blog with a reminder that you can help them progress in their fitness journey, whether in person or as an online fitness coach. Include links to your services so readers can sign up for them easily.

Create and Sell Your Own Fitness Products

Fitness blogs are also great platforms for selling products you’ve created. Use yours to sell any digital products you’ve developed, such as e-books, training courses, and webinars. You can also use your blog to sell branded products such as fitness equipment or apparel that contains your logo.

Sell Other People’s Products with Affiliate Marketing

If you don’t have your own products, you can earn money with your fitness blog by selling products created by others. This is referred to as affiliate marketing. To do it, you put an affiliate link somewhere on your blog’s site. When readers click on the link and make a purchase, you earn a commission. Other fitness companies that you trust make good affiliate partners. Amazon also offers an affiliate program called Amazon Associates. 

Offer Sponsored Posts 

If you have a big enough following, other companies or brands will be willing to pay you to post sponsored content. There are a few benefits of taking this approach, in addition to the money you’ll make. One is that it gives you a break from writing. Another is that it helps educate your readers about different ideas and viewpoints. This helps establish you as a fitness blogger who is willing to provide your readers with all the information they need to make the best decisions for them.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Fitness Blog and Improve Its Monetization

One of the most challenging aspects of creating a profitable fitness blog is bringing in your target audience. Traffic is what's going to keep your blog alive, so you want to look for ways to draw readers toward your content. It’s also your target audience who will click the sponsored content you put on your site and buy your products and services. How do you get your blog posts noticed?

It may sound cliché, but in the blogging world, content is king. Content that captures the attention of readers is what separates successful bloggers from unsuccessful ones. You want to write about things that matter to your audience, something that they love, or a problem that they're trying to solve. Your headlines should be captivating as they are the gateways to each blog that you post.

Another tried and tested way to drive more readers to your fitness blog is to use keywords the right way. Proper use of keywords will help your blog get noticed by search engines. Take note, however, that this does not mean stuffing your post with every related keyword you can find. It only means putting the important ones into context and making sure they don't affect your target audience's experience.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Fitness Blog for Money

While it’s important to know how to maximize a fitness blog for monetization, it’s equally as critical to know what not to do. Here are a few common blogging mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.

• Trying to be like every other fitness blog. Looking at blogs with a high level of readership can help you see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to blogging. But it’s also important to create a blog that is unique to you. If readers can get the same experience from another blogger, they have no reason to come to your blog instead. Give them a reason to read your content over someone else's.

• Posting irregularly. You can’t publish blog posts every now and then and expect to increase traffic to your site. You must blog regularly to maintain and grow your audience. Generally, this involves posting two to four times per week. Create a blog post schedule to help you stay on track.

• Not having a central focus. Every successful blog focuses on a central topic. Having a focus for your fitness blog increases your chance of gaining audiences who are truly interested in what you're offering. They’ll see you as a fitness expert and will trust you instead of another blog that only has one or two blog posts about the specific topic they’re interested in. To find the right blog niche, look for a topic you're passionate about, knowledgeable about, and is profitable. This may take a bit of soul-searching and research, so give it enough time before starting your blog.

• Not paying attention to your blog design. Another factor to consider is having an eye-catching blog design. This doesn’t mean that your design should be extremely elegant or over the top. What matters is that your blog is clean, easy to navigate, and has good content and/or ad placement. Check out other similar blogs or websites for inspiration, but the idea is to keep everything simple. 

• Not posting high-quality, relevant content. Whatever you decide to blog about, quality content should be your top priority. No matter how good your blog looks, poor content will not get you the numbers you desire. Quality content is easy to market and will draw a lot of attention across multiple social media platforms. What's more, it will help boost your reputation as a reliable fitness expert in your chosen niche. 

• Not utilizing the power of social media. Building a strong social media presence can be an important tool in promoting your blog. The challenge is choosing the best platforms to promote your fitness niche. For instance, if you love photography and visual art, you may want to invest in Instagram to create stories with your blog links. The key is to create compelling images and videos that compel your target audience to check out your fitness blog.

Boost Your Fitness Blog’s Credibility as a Certified Personal Trainer

Having a personal trainer certification boosts your legitimacy in the fitness industry. It also helps establish greater trust with your blog readers. It does this by providing them with some assurance that you know what you're writing about.

If you aren’t yet certified, check out ISSA's Certified Personal Trainer course. This online course teaches you how to help others reach their fitness goals safely and effectively. You also learn how to build and grow a successful fitness business.

References

1. Salary: Affiliate marketing in United States 2024. (2024, February 10). Glassdoor. https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/affiliate-marketing-salary-SRCH_KO0,19.htm

2. Exercise trainers and group fitness instructors. (2023, April 25). https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes399031.htm