11 Steps to Start a Pilates Blog
Step-by-Step Guide
It’s no longer a luxury to have a blog on your website – it’s an absolute, 100% necessity. If you’re not blogging, you’re way, way, way behind the times. You might as well be on Planet Mars. The reason is that Google love nothing better than websites who blog on a consistent basis.
Step 1
Learn About Blogging
Here are 43 Quick Blogging Tips to get you started…
- Include photos of yourself in pilates exercises
- Create an EPIC blog post out of your next pilates lesson plan
- Get ideas for blog posts from your students (e.g. wrist exercises if a student has weak wrists)
- Tests blog post ideas on Twitter first
- Write about stuff you want to learn more about (e.g. yoga and pilates for golfers)
- Use each blog to build your free newsletter
- Finish blog posts with a call to action (e.g. join your class, signup to newsletter, like your Facebook page)
- Provide a download to a pilates lesson plan.
- Be consistent (write a blog post every week or two)
- Be different
- Allow your personality to shine through
- Don’t write to impress (formal writing is boring)
- Write like you talk (conversational style)
- Write eye catching headlines
- Make the blog post worth bookmarking
- Make the blog post so darn good that your visitors email it to their friends
- Find a niche (e.g. yoga & pilates for runners or yoga & pilates for golfers)
- Write about something you love (e.g. yoga & pilates for runners)
- Add the blog post URL to your Business Facebook Page
- Add the blog post URL to your Twitter
- If you have an image of yourself in the post, add it to Instagram
- Add images. People love images
- Keep an eye on web analytics (are your blogs working?)
- Allow easy following (RSS feed)
- Get personal
- Talk about your failures, pains and struggles
- Spell check it
- Get someone to proof-read it
- Edit it (Google loves it when you edit your old posts)
- Use royalty free images
- Turn the blog post into a Youtube Video
- I use Camtasia, green screen, yeti & logitech c920 HD webcam to create Youtube Videos
- Turn your youtube videos into a Pilates DVD
- Turn the blog post into a Podcast
- Turn your blog posts into a PDF ebook
- Turn your blog posts into a Kindle ebook
- Have somebody evaluate your blog and give you constructive feedback
- Share something personal to show you’re a real person
- Enjoy yourself (Put some music on when you write)
- Research like a crazy person (I spent hours researching for this blog post)
- Research what other pilates teachers are doing (can you do something similar?)
- Always over-deliver (give away more than expected)
Step 2
Which Blogging Platform
If you’re not using WordPress, you may want to consider using it as it is widely recognised to have the best SEO (search engine optimisation). If that doesn’t convince you, consider why most websites on the net using the WordPress blogging platform. They are by far the best!
7 Reasons To Use WordPress
- Easy to use
- Free themes
- Lot of different layouts
- Loads of free plugins
- Easy to add images
- Easy to categorise posts
- Visitors can comment & share your posts
Step 3
Pick Your Topics
The first thing you need to do is choose which topics (“categories” in WordPress lingo) you want to blog about. What are you particularly interested in? It’s a whole lot easier to write blog posts about topics you’re on fire about. The good thing is that you’re a pilates teacher expert (pat yourself on the back), and have lots of topics you could get tucked into.
Possible categories:
- Anatomy
- Contests & Giveaways
- Fitness
- Healthy food
- Human Body
- Killer legs
- Killer core
- Killer buns
- Morning routines
- Personal development
- Pilates equipment
- Pilate for athletes
- Pilates for football players
- Pilates for golfers
- Pilates for pregnancy
- Pilates for rugby players
- Pilates for runners
- Sports Medicine
- Workout challenges
Step 4
Write EPIC Posts
These days you need to write EPIC BLOG POSTS to be noticed by Google.
EPIC Definition
Heroic or grand in scale or character
There is a saying about blogging: “Content Is King.”
And it’s true!
There is nothing that gets Google more excited than an EPIC blog post. These days limp, half-hearted, mediocre blog posts just does not cut the mustard. Your EPIC BLOG POST needs to be filled with useful information that the viewer to your pilates website can immediately use (e.g. how to perform a certain pose). If you don’t have a website, look online for Pilates Website Design and get started. These days a website is a lot cheaper than you think.
Keep these points in mind
Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
If you find an interesting blog post somewhere online, write a similar post injecting your own personality.
Top Notch Advice
Give your readers top notch advice. Don’t be afraid to write a lot about a niche subject (e.g. the anatomy going on within the butt when practicing boat pose.
Add Humour
Don’t be afraid to add a touch of humour. For example if you’re writing about boat pose, you could include a bit of humour about the anatomy going on within the butt to create killer buns. You could then include a photo of your bottom if you happen to have particularly tight buns (obviously make the image as humorous as possible otherwise people could think they’re on a different kind of site).
Add Images & Video
Add images and videos. People are visual creatures and love to browse with their eyes.
Bullet Points
People like reading bullet points, so include them.
Share Your Story
Share you own stories to engage your readers. This also helps brand you as an expert.
Make It Long
The longer the better. I’ve been blogging for many years, and long blog posts always get more shares and likes. Make sure your post is entertaining.
Make It Actionable
Make sure your reader can take action on something (e.g. how to get killer buns practicing boat pose).
Step 5
Promote Your Posts
The very second after you publish your EPIC blog post, immediately do the following to promote it…
- Share it on your Business Facebook Page
- Share it on your Twitter
- Share it on Google+
- Share it Linkedin
It’ll only take you a couple of minutes and it’ll be well worth your time.
Step 6
Email Your Students
Email your students asking them to put the following on their Facebook pages:
Hi [Student’s Name]
I just wrote a new blog post called [YOUR BLOG POST NAME] today. I’m asking for a small favour to share the blog post URL on your Facebook and Twitter feed. It may be useful to your friends who are interested in keeping fit.
You can use the script below: “My pilates teacher [YOUR NAME] has written a blog post called [YOUR BLOG POST NAME]. He publishes great content and useful tips. Feel free to have a look: [YOUR BLOG POST URL].”
Step 7
Be Proactive On Twitter
Go to twitter.com/search.
Type in the keyword(s) that are related to your blog (for example: “pilates exercises for runners”).
Search results from twitter.
Check their profile.
Reach out to them in 140 characters (e.g. Hi, you previously tweeted Pilates Exercises For Runners. Maybe you’ll find this article useful: [YOUR BLOG POST URL])?
Step 8
Seek Out Similar Blogs
Become an active commentator on other pilates blogs. Don’t spam! Leave useful comments that attract people to read your blog. Getting into discussions doesn’t take much time and drives laser-targeted visitors to your blog.
Step 9
Link Building
Go to Google.com and search for queries like: “intitle:YourBlogTopic inurl:resources” or “intitle:YourBlogTopic inurl:links”.
Now go to the contact page and send the following email:
“Hi [FIRST NAME]
I was reading your blog this evening and saw that you have a fabulous resource page. So, I’ve added it to my resource page. See it here: [YOUR WEBSITE RESOURCE PAGE].
I have a similar, but non-competing website that might be helpful or useful to your audience.
See it yourself: YourPilatesWebsite.com
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning on your resource page?
All the best,
[YOUR NAME]
Step 10
Social Bookmarking Sites
Submit your site to the following social bookmarking sites:
Step 11
Create A Video Of The Post
I would say that this is no longer a choice, but a necessity.
The reason is because Youtube is now the second largest search engine on the planet. Only Google is bigger. Amazingly most bloggers don’t add videos to YouTube.
It’s easy!
All you need to do is record a short video about the blog post (I use a screencasting software called Camtasia) and upload it to YouTube. Write a good description under the YouTube video. Be sure to add a URL link in the first line of the description to your website. That will get you more clicks to your website.
George Watts
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