How To Start A Fitness Blog: Easy 5-Step Guide

Want to know how to start a fitness blog but not quite sure where to begin? Starting a health or fitness blog can be a great way to promote your business, help others on their wellness journey, and establish yourself as a credible industry expert. Many fitness bloggers create an impressive income stream from their site and with the right approach, you can too…

In this guide – learn how to start a fitness blog and make it successful in 5 easy steps.

We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We’ve created lots of health, fitness, and nutrition blogs over the years so so our blogging strategies are tested and proven to work.

Fitness Blogging Success Strategies [Mini-Guide]

How To Start A Fitness Blog In 5 Easy Steps

The steps to starting a fitness blog that gets traffic, engagement, and income are…

1. Define your blogging goal
2. Pick a fitness niche
3. Set up your domain & hosting
4. Build your site structure
5. Create your blog content

We created this video to provide an overview of each step or you can skip straight to the guide below…

If you’re daunted by the idea of building a website or concerned it’ll be too technical, then don’t worry. We’re not tech geeks so we’ll explain everything in plain English. It’s easier than ever for anyone to start a blog, even with zero coding knowledge.

So, if you want to become the next Nerd Fitness, Girls Gone Strong, or Body Coach, this guide will show you how…

1 – Define Your Blogging Goal

Begin by deciding what your goal is – what’s your reason for starting a fitness blog?

If you’re creating a fitness blog to promote your personal training services, then it’ll be set up very differently to a website that’s just a creative hobby. A site where you sell online fitness programs will have different content to one that’s a physique journey blog.

Some of the most popular reasons for starting a health and fitness blog are to…

• Generate leads for your fitness business or improve SEO for your existing website.
• Create a passive income from selling online workout programs, ebooks, or affiliate sales.
• Support existing clients with extra education or value that keeps them loyal.
• Establish yourself as an authority in your niche and secure public speaking engagements, fitness conference invitations, or master coaching gigs.
• Sell physical products online, such as nutritional supplements, gym equipment, or merchandise.
• Start a new hobby because it’s totally fine to do something just because it brings you joy!

Having a clear goal will set your blog up for success from the start. You can plan the design and content with your objective in mind so that everything (from the homepage banner to your articles) is all directing people towards that end goal.

You might also like… 7 Successful Fitness Blogging Strategies or 15 Ways To Make Money Fitness Blogging.

2 – Pick A Fitness Niche

Picking a niche is crucial to making your fitness blog a success, yet it’s a step many newbie bloggers often miss.

Health and fitness blogging is a competitive area online. With so many established sites already pumping out content and new ones being created every day, it can be hard to stand out and compete.

The key to doing this is niching down – pick a specific type of fitness training, workout goal, or population to focus on.

Here are a few different fitness blog ideas to get you started…

• Fitness training blog – focus on a specific training technique such as HIIT, plyometrics,
• Fitness goal website – create content that helps people achieve a specific fitness goal such as running a 5k in under 20 minutes or growing their glutes.
• Population-focused fitness blog – aim your content at a specific group of people such as getting fit over 50.
• Fitness food blog – share healthy recipes and workouts with a high protein, clean eating, or vegan fitness blog.
• Sports-specific fitness blog – create a training blog for triathletes, footballers, or surfers.
• Fitness lifestyle blog – combine two passions with a fitness fashion blog.
• Your fitness journey blog – record your fitness journey for accountability and to inspire others.
• Fitness motivation blog – motivate people to improve their health with tips and success stories.
• Fitness equipment blog – review new products and create equipment-based workouts.

The fitness blogging niche may feel like a saturated market but everybody has a unique twist that they can put on it. It might be the type of workouts you’re interested in, style of healthy cookery, unique approach to stress management, or previous experience that sets you apart.

If you’re starting a fitness blog with the aim of making money, then it’s worth doing your research at this stage. Like any business venture, you need to understand the size of the market, opportunities and gaps, identify a target audience and how to meet their needs. Shopify has put together this great guide on how to validate your business idea which can help.

You might also like… Starting a Successful Fitness Business Online or How To Become a Fitness Influencer.

We may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click some of the links in this article.

Fitness Blogging Success Strategies [Mini-Guide]

3 – Set Up Your Fitness Blog’s Domain & Hosting

Now you know what your fitness blog will be focused on, it’s time to make it a reality! To do this you’ll need to buy a domain name and hosting…

• The domain name is what people will type in to visit your website (e.g. www.wellnesscreatives.com).
• The hosting is where your website’s data is stored and managed.

Both the domain and hosting are usually arranged through the same company – the most popular being GoDaddy, Namecheap, Wix, Podia, and Shopify.

Choosing The Perfect Domain Name

If your business already has a name, then it makes sense to use that for your blog too. If the domain is already taken, then you can try different variations (like adding an ‘s’ to the end or ‘the’ to the beginning).

But if you’re starting from scratch and need to come up with a name for your fitness blog, then get creative! Think about words that’ll describe what you offer and who you help.

We have a comprehensive guide to coming up with unique and catchy names in this article on Awesome Fitness Blog Name Ideas. It outlines the blog naming frameworks that we use with our clients including…

Once you have a fitness blog name that you’re happy with, you’ll want to choose your hosting…

Fitness Blog Hosting

There are lots of website hosting companies to choose from and most will throw in one domain name for free. It’s easy to get bogged down comparing different hosts at this stage but our advice is to just pick a reputable, low-cost company and sign up.

This is because they’re so similar that it really doesn’t matter who you choose when you’re starting out. For bigger blogs with millions of monthly visitors, your choice of hosting matters more because it affects your website speed. But for newbie bloggers, it’s best to just register and move on (you can always switch hosts down the line once your site is getting lots of traffic).

The hosting companies we’ve used and recommend for fitness bloggers are…

• Wix – easy starter option with stunning fitness-themed templates and simple functionalities like accepting payments and online bookings.
• Podia – for fitness bloggers who want to sell online courses, community memberships, digital downloads, or one-to-one coaching.
• Shopify – best for bloggers who want to create an online store that sells physical products like clothing and supplements or digital downloads. 
• GoDaddy or NameCheap – enable you to install WordPress which is the platform that most professional blogs run on as it offers way more customisation options (e.g. BMI calculators).

Once you’ve sorted your website domain and hosting, you can move on to creating your site…

Top tip: Once you’ve secured your domain and hosting, create a custom email address. A hello@mybusiness.com address looks a lot more professional than anything@gmail.com.

4 – Create Your Fitness Blog’s Structure

We think this is the most exciting part – it’s the step where you actually build your fitness blog!

There are two elements to this – picking an overall design for your blog and then creating the basic site structure.

Fitness Blog Design

Most fitness bloggers use a website template for their site to start with. You can hire a professional web designer if you want something custom-made, but the majority of people wait a few years before investing in that.

The template controls the overall layout of the site, from where the header menus are located, to whether there’s a slider on the homepage. It’s like an outline structure that you insert your content into, similar to painting by numbers.

If you want your overall painting to look good in the end, then you’ll need to paint the right colours in the right sections. But if you start with the wrong picture outline (template), then no amount of paint (content) is going to make it look how you want.

If you’re using Wix, then there are a number of built-in templates that are fitness-themed and look super-professional…

If you’re using GoDaddy or NameCheap combined with WordPress, then there are THOUSANDS of design templates you can install.

We especially like templates by Dessign.net since they’re a bit more stylish than most, plus their customer support is outstanding. Creative Market and Theme Forest have a lot of good options too.

Site Structure & Core Pages

Once you’ve picked a design, you’ll need to create the basic structure. Most fitness blogs will need a homepage, blog articles page, about page, contact page, terms and conditions page, and privacy policy page.

• Homepage – effectively the ‘front cover’ of your blog, it should state what you do and who you help.
• Blog articles page – lists all of your blog posts so people can find them easily.
• About – outline your credentials, why you started the blog, the type of content people can expect, and who it’s aimed at.
• Contact – include contact info such as an email address or online form so people can get in touch with you.
• T&Cs and Privacy – are both legal requirements on a website but can be adapted from templates available online.

Depending on how you choose to monetise your blog, you may also need a products page, affiliate policy, testimonials, or membership login page.

You’ll also need to set up the header menu so that people can easily navigate to your different pages. If you plan to use categories for your blog posts (e.g. different types of workouts or fitness goals) then you can link to these in your menu too.

5 – Create Your Fitness Blog Content

The last step in creating a fitness blog is content development. It’s time to start writing health and fitness articles for your readers!

Writing Articles

Open up Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Evernote and start writing. We find it useful to plan out our articles first, by brainstorming the key points we want to make and any research we’ll need to do beforehand. But some people just prefer to get stuck in ‘free-writing’ style, so go with whatever works for you.

In the beginning, it’s important to post insanely valuable content. The kind of posts that people will bookmark and save to come back to. Think practical guides on how to achieve a specific goal or posts that answer frequently asked questions.

But it’s also important to let your readers get to know you. Share a bit of your brand personality so they understand why to follow you instead of another fitness blogger. If your blog is part of your business website, then use it to give insights into behind-the-scenes snippets.

Here are some fitness blog post ideas to get you started and help establish your brand…

• Why I Created [BLOG NAME] – This is a chance to tell your origin story… why does your business exist? What need does it serve and who is it aimed at? Did you notice a gap in the market, or develop your business to meet a need you’d experienced yourself?
• What Is [BLOG NAME]? – Talk about what inspired your business name, the products or services you offer, and the type of people who will benefit from them.
• 3 Values At The Core Of [BLOG NAME] – Describe the core values that are important to you, and how they are reflected in your style of personal training/yoga/nutrition. If your brand is a business rather than yourself, then outline its central values and how this impacts the way it operates.
• Why I Became A Personal Trainer/Fitness Coach – Describe the story behind what motivated you to get into this industry. Why do you do what you do every day? People love to know what inspires others.
• A Typical Day In The Life – Detail a day in the life of yourself or your business, in 1-2 hour intervals. This allows you to subtly promote services, whilst demonstrating how much effort goes on behind the scenes to ensure your clients have a great experience. Here’s a great example by a Pilates instructor.

Once you’ve written your first few blog posts, you can find more ideas in these articles…

Adding Images & Video

But don’t limit yourself to written articles only. People like to consume content in different ways, so consider including photos, videos, infographics, and audio content too.

Presenting your content visually is especially important in the fitness niche since people need to be inspired to take action.

• Demonstrate how to perform an exercise using a video or meme.
• Include images to show people the exact steps they should follow to prepare a recipe, and how it should look when finished.
• Use a free tool like Piktochart to create infographics about the health benefits of smoothies.
• Mix up your approach so that your content is easy to digest and appeals to a wide range of people.

You might also like… Fitness Video Ideas for Vloggers or How To Start a Successful YouTube Channel.

You’ll need an eye-catching image on your homepage and at least one near the top of every article.

Images not only add to the overall aesthetics of your site but encourage people to keep reading by breaking up the text. If you don’t have your own images, then there are a few different ways to source them…

• Take your own photos or video – these are great because they’ll accurately represent you and your work, which can add a sense of authenticity to your site.
• Canva – lets you create beautiful website graphics easily without needing expensive design software or creative skills! You can also use it to create social media graphics, pricelists, or posters too.
• Depositphotos – is a great source of professional images and photography, minus the usual cheesy options. There are lots of high-quality photos, icons, and even logo templates to choose from.

Top tip ⇒ Include a way to collect email addresses from website visitors, such as offering a free download. Then you can use email marketing to build a relationship and generate repeat visits. Learn more about fitness email marketing here.

Fitness Blogging Success Strategies [Mini-Guide]

Start Your Fitness Blog Today

So, now you know exactly how to start a fitness blog from scratch. Defining your goal and picking a niche will set your blog up for success from the very beginning. Sorting your domain, hosting, and site structure is where you build the foundation of your site. Then you can create blog content for your readers that educates and inspires them to achieve their fitness goals.

Following these simple steps will ensure you’re up and running in no time and with minimal fuss. For more fitness blogging tips and tricks, check out this promotional checklist and revenue-generating ideas…

Fitness Blogging Templates & More

Our ready-made templates make it quicker, cheaper, and easier to promote your fitness blog. They include content workbooks and ideas to keep your articles, videos, and social posts fresh and creative!

50 Fitness Marketing Templates

Whether you run a gym club, fitness studio, or personal training business, these templates will save you time and effort. They’ll help you to plan and organize your promotional activities so that you generate more revenue. You’ll get 50+ templates covering blogging and content marketing, social media, advertising, and more.