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If you’re passionate about fitness and staying in shape, then I’m sure you would love to know that you could make a living off off fitness online! Just take our steps to help you become a profitable fitness expert online.
Here is everything you will need to do in order to make money in fitness online
- Come up with a brand name
Your brand will be you, but you might want a specific brand name that may or may not include your name. You’ll want a domain name that fits your brand name so you can check to see if the domain is available here.
- Register a business using your brand name
Rules for this will vary state by state, so you will need to look into what is required for you to start a business.
- Form an LLC
This, in my opinion, is the best way to legally protect yourself. It’s actually quite simple to do and not very expensive if you use Incfile. I go into more detail about forming an LLC here.
- Get a domain name & web host
You will want a website with your name, and if you choose BlueHost for a web host, then your domain name will be free. BlueHost is a great choice for a web host because they are known as one of the best in the business – and they are very affordable, which is important when you are just starting out.
- Get WordPress
WordPress, in my opinion, is the easiest way to get a blog going. More websites are run by WordPress than any other content management system, and what that means in plain English is that because it is is so popular, there are a lot of people out there who know and understand WordPress so there’s a lot of helpful guides out there to help you with WordPress (including us!) so that just makes it even easier to start a blog if you have no experience, and you don’t need any coding or computer science background to use WordPress. Here is a video of how to install WordPress on BlueHost, too.
- Pick a WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme is basically how your WordPress website will look. It is important to get a theme from a reputable company and not a free one you find online, because that can give you a virus. But don’t worry, there are a lot of great themes out there for fitness websites, like Fitness Pro, Gimnas, Athlete Fitness or In Shape. And here is how you can add a theme to your BlueHost account.
- Start Writing Great Content!
Start writing blog entries and making content for your fitness website. You know you have a lot of great opinions and ideas on the matter, so it’s just a matter of getting those ideas out there! And here’s a tip: check out these tools to help you with creating content that will get your website ranked higher in Google. That is a great way for people to find your website.
- Start a YouTube Channel
Of all the social media accounts you could have in the fitness field, a YouTube channel is your most important one. YouTube is a wonderful vehicle for you to get great tips, how to guides for fitness exercises, etc. You can get an affordable camera here which you can set up to tape your videos and you can take advantage of this video editing software deal to edit your videos and then put them up on YouTube. And then you can include your YouTube videos on your website. You can also make money with your YouTube channel by running Google ads on your YouTube account. So really, ou can have a YouTube account without having a website and make money. Personally, I think you are limiting yourself, but if you want to switch the order and get a YouTube account first or just stick to YouTube, you definitely can – and be profitable (especially if you want to save money on upfront costs and just stick to the cameras and editing software).
- Start an Instagram Account
An Instagram account is probably your next most important social media account. Instagram is also a great way to get the word out about your brand because you can post great photos and videos that could inspire your followers. And speaking of followers, here are tips on growing your Instagram followers.
- Start a Pinterest Account
Pinterest is another great social media account you should use. Personally, this is my favorite social media account when it comes to driving traffic to my website. Pinterest is great for fitness blogs and websites because you can make video pins or pins highlighting fitness pictures that would get people’s attention and make them want to check out your website. We go into detail here about how you can use Pinterest for marketing.
- Start a Facebook Account
A Facebook account can also be great, especially because it allows you to really interact with your website’s visitors, give advice, get feedback of your blog posts, etc. This is a good tool to get you started on using Facebook for your business. And if you want to get more people to share your Facebook posts, check out our Facebook tips here.
- Start an Email Newsletter
A great tool for you to use to grow your fitness business is an email newsletter. A lot of people who like your tips will want to know more tips because fitness is a passion for a lot of people and something people will want to keep up with to stay in shape. Good email marketing services you should check out our Constant Contact, AWeber and ConverKit.
- Get affiliate links
Now, you probably want to know more about how you can make money on your website, right? I mentioned you can run Google ads on your YouTube, and you can do that on your website, too. But another thing you’ll want to check out is affiliate links. This is where you could recommend companies, link to them on your website and then when people buy the products, you’ll get a percentage of the sale. Good affiliates for a fitness company would be Amazon (since they sell everything), Target, Ebay, etc. We go into more detail about affiliate marketing in this blog entry.
- Offer member subscriptions
In addition to affiliate links (or instead of affiliate links), you could consider making your website member only. This is also something you could consider doing after you have built up loyal customers who enjoy your product who will want to pay monthly to get extra things from you. A great thing about this business model is that you can get a nice steady income. And you can add this functionality with WooCommerce Subscriptions, a great WordPress plugin (as to what WordPress plugins are, please see our WordPress Plugin Guide).
