Why Should Every Trainer Start a WordPress Blog

Nowadays everybody has an opinion and has the need to share it with the world. Because of this, we are bombarded by various blogs covering a plethora of themes resulting in an overcrowded landscape of content, both relevant and irrelevant. No need to point it out, but it’s really difficult to stand out from the masses.

However, if the content you’re putting out is professional and relevant you will find an audience because even though everybody is pouring their hearts and minds on the virtual page there has also never been such a willing and massive audience ready to engage the content creators.

Just to get it out of the way right of the bat, in case you’re maybe wondering “why WordPress?”. To put it very simply, it’s the best and most commonly used open source platform available right now for this sort of thing. It’s free, it’s easy to use and maintain and it has so many plugins that will enhance you’re your blog in every way, that it’s hard to count them all. To get a sense of how widespread it is, it’s enough to say that even people with no touching points with web development have mostly heard of it.

Additional possibility for trainers that WordPress offers are endless, but there’s one handy tool we would like to mention – an easy to configure WordPress booking website plugin. With a WordPress Booking Plugin you can make a website for your presentation with the possibility for clients to book appointments, training or yoga classes online. The plugin of our choice is Amelia – appointment and event booking plugin that is built for easy setup and with this type of use case in mind. If you want to check how that looks in action, take a look at demo website for yoga and gym studio.

With that out of the way, let’s start going through what you’re actually here for. One slight digression again, there is no order to the reasons we’ll be mentioning. Some are more important than others, but we didn’t grade them in a chronological wave. Essentially, if you find that most of them apply to you, then strongly consider starting a blog for yourself and the work that you do.

Get the word out to more people

Being a trainer is a very hands-on type of profession. We’re not going to convince you that there is an equally successful method of doing it from afar. This geographical limitation can’t be overcome in a perfect way, but running a blog can do wonders to get your ideas and methods out. Not only will your direct clients be privy to go through your session again, but people you can’t reach physically will also be able to get involved in your regiment.

This particular reason is twice as important when you’re just starting out. Before you make a name for yourself you want your name to be on as many lips as possible. Posting your routines, advice and directly engaging with your potential clientele will enable you to reach much more people than just relying on actual, physical word of mouth, especially if they are effective.

A guide on how to start a health & wellness blog and make your content informative and engaging can help you out. Remember, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Now word of mouth will still spread, but now on a much larger scale and once word does get out, there is always a chance some big names might get interested, propelling your career a few steps by just mentioning your name along with theirs. Naturally, the more you put yourself out there, the greater the chance of something just like that happening.

Sticking with your local gym and a small number of clients is all fine, but not willing to put yourself on the spot for a greater audience will, most likely than not, leave you always wondering “what if?” – you don’t want to be that person.

Building a professional network

Nobody knows everything. No matter how much knowledge you acquire there is still more to learn. A quick and easy way to do this is connecting with other people in your profession. Once again if you limit yourself to local, more experienced trainers, you’re cutting yourself off from a vast information hub that you can tap into. One that offers vastly different approaches from different fields, all there to improve what you’re doing.

[box]You’re not the only person to come up with the idea of putting your processes on “paper”. Starting your own blog opens the door to interaction with all other trainers doing the same thing. Ask anyone who works with people on a daily basis and every one of them will tell you that networking is a key component.[/box]

Connecting with other people, debating, exchanging ideas – these should all be at the core of what you’re trying to achieve. You’ll find yourself in a perfect position to both help others and grow yourself. A blog is just a tool that will simply make that process much more streamlined.

Expanding your expertise

Keeping with the theme of growth and expanding, in line with your expanding knowledge, so will your content be more varied enabling your clients to get even more out in just one place. Say you started as a conditioning trainer, over time you expanded that to nutrition, injury prevention, strength training, etc. Now your content has much more heft to it.

Generally, people want what is familiar. If you get them hooked with the first stuff you’re publishing chances are they’ll stay for the rest of it, as you start expanding. Keep in mind that people also tend to be creatures of comfort. Most of us will look to get all the information we need from as little sources as possible. If you’re providing content that touches a healthy lifestyle as a whole, you can be sure clients will spend even more time on your blog.

Growing in this way also proves your competence to your clients, because they’ll see you’re committed to providing them with only the best. Most of us tend to stick with what we know, so if you opt to go out of your way to educate yourself you’re both improving yourself and the lives of your clients. This growth doesn’t even have to stop at content specifically linked to your field. There are many ways to grow as a person and as a professional and it can all start with publishing your thoughts on a virtual page for the world to read.

Even if the blog eventually doesn’t pan out the knowledge you’ve gained can never be taken away from you, making it easier to switch fields if you see a push from the market in a specific direction. Set your goals high, keep always improving and you simply can’t go wrong.

Improve communication

Whether it’s face to face, or over a page communication is a skill everybody working directly with people has to master. Going into business for yourself you have to be able to present and articulate your ideas, interact with (potential) clients, be a salesman and much more. If your communication skills are subpar, you will not be able to do that any of that. These skills can, however, be learned through experience. You should constantly be directly contacting your clients, monitor their reactions to your posts (identify what works and what doesn’t) and, of course, take any criticism (because there is always some) in a cool and collected manner.

Growing your skill in this regards is just a numbers game – the more you use them, the better they’ll be, it’s as simple as that. Actually growing them behind the screen should, for most people, be easier than in person (in case you have anxiety), with the blog providing a barrier to help you express yourself easier than you would otherwise. We all know how loud “internet-warriors” can be after all. You shouldn’t adopt their “loud for the sake of being loud” approach by any means, but the underlying ease of voicing your opinion without having to actually confront a person can certainly be applied. As it gets easier for you to interact with people online it will also get easier to interact with them in the real world, making you, in turn, a better trainer.

Revenue

There is no need to shy away from it – in the end, you’re in it for the money. It may be your calling and you may enjoy doing it, but you still have to put food on the table. You shouldn’t be at all hesitant to put a price tag on a premium product. In fact, it has been shown that people tend to link free content to a lack of quality. That means by characterizing your content as premium and charging for it can actually be beneficial even from a client’s standpoint since they’ll be even more confident of your expertise.

Take into account that the price tag you’re putting up in front of your content should honestly represent both the quality and quantity of the content. You’ll only be able to fool your clients once, after that it’s essentially over. It’s much, much easier to lose their trust than to gain it and once it’s gone, in most cases, it’s gone for good. Be fair both to yourself and to them.

If you’re bristling with content it’s a good idea to compartmentalize it into sections where clients have the option to subscribe only for what interests them. Making an option like this available will make potential clients more inclined to sign up if they’re getting exactly what they need. Including special offers for a couple of packages and/or access to the whole site isn’t obligatory, but is something you should also strongly consider.

In conclusion

There you have it. Our five reasons why any trainer should have, or at least look into having their own blog. Of course, these are just the reasons we find could be the ones to push you into making such a decision, but they are certainly not the only ones. Like we said in the beginning, if you find yourself in most of these, you should strongly consider creating a blog of your own.

However, if you have a reason that we haven’t mentioned, a reason just your own, that is more than enough to share your viewpoints with the rest of us. In the end, all that’s left to say is – take the leap, go do something for yourself and others.