After 20 plus years of personal training and many, many tough months trying to make “ends meat”, I finally woke up and figured it out! It wasn’t making the fanciest business card or brochure than any other trainer. It wasn’t pounding the pavement anymore than I had been doing. And it wasn’t lowering my fees in hopes for more clients.

The “Ah Ha” Moment

I combined my career as a fitness trainer and my passion for golf into the first golf fitness personal training company on the net over 8 years ago. What did that do to my business? I more than quadrupled my income in less than 6 months!

End The Frustration

Unless you’re the less than 1% of traines making a living in fitness, don’t you want to end this frustration and make the kind of money you now you deserve? You’ve got college loan payments to pay off. You might even already have a family. And of course a car, and other expenses. How on earth can you keep up with all of that and get ahead, without working 10-12 hours a day and burning yourself out?

The name of the game is “diversify” your client demographics. I know you hear many people say specialize, and if that’s what you want to do, then go for it! Just make sure that special demographic can provide you enough living to survive. Otherwise, you need to have 2-3 client demographics you are going for.

For example, if you are a female trainer, you may want to have a pre-pregnancy, during and post-pregnancy fitness package. This is a great approach as you can retain them for at least 9 months if not longer. So really…you have 3 markets in one with this approach.

Another approach is what I’ve done. Go after a “rabid market” like golfers! I can tell you firsthand, this is a goldmine for a trainer. With over 27 million golfers in the U.S. there are hundreds of potential clients in your area. All you need to do is position yourself as the golf fitness expert and you’re well on your way to making double or triple your income very quickly. Personal training golfers can be fun as well as rewarding watching your golf clients add yards to their drives and lower their scores, making the game much funner for them.

It is very realist to have a new golf fitness training career in no time.

If this is an approach you are interested in taking, there are several critical steps you must implement to be successful. If you want to know more, contact us today to find out how we can help you get started in this very lucrative sub-niche of fitness.

With the competition getting tougher and tougher, it doesn’t mean anything to be second page or lower in any search engine. In fact, truth be told…being at the bottom of the first page will only get you a few clicks even. The first position can get up to 50% of all clicks, with the second getting 10%-15%, the third getting 6%-9%, etc…

So for your personal training fitness business, you really need to rank in the top 3 for your terms. It is also critical you decide what terms you want to rank for that will get you qualified leads that have the potential to become clients. Deciding what these terms are takes a well thought out plan with your end-goal in mind.

I will give you a little hint. You must choose terms that are relevant to your location and specialty. If you live in a small town, but near a bigger one and you train clients privately in their home, it would be wise to have pages on your site that target the bigger cities terms and not your small town, although the small town should be important as well.

There are many strategies you can use to rank at the top of the first page for the “money terms”, but you’ve got to have a keen knowledge of the search engines and how they change weekly. There are SEO companies that charge 5 figures a month for their services…with NO guarantees! Don’t fall into this trap. With a little guidance, you can get your site ranked near the top fairly quickly.

Search Engine Optimization Services 

If you want a successful fitness website, and don’t know where to begin, our search engine optimization services can get you the results you’re looking for.  Contact us today to discuss your needs!

Getting Links

If you want to rank in google you need links pointing to your website. And lots of them! This is the most demanding part of any internet marketing business. With so much competition for first page rankings, website owners are working harder and harder to gain links to their sites.

So how do you get links to your site? There are too many ways to cover them all in this article, but some of the most effective ways is contacting websites that are similar in topic to yours and asking for a reciprocal link. Although the current discussion about reciprocal linking is that they don’t mean much, you still should do it to have a natural look to your link-building strategy.

Also, submitting to the major search engines being Google, Yahoo and MSN. This is a must if you want to gain any momentum. Also submitting to directories like DMOZ.org, Yahoo.com, JoeAnt.com and many others. The great thing about directory submissions is you obtain a one-way link, not a reciprocal one. This is much more powerful link in Googles eyes.

You can also provide content (articles) for fitness and golf sites and ask for a link back to your site in return. This is very common as it is a win/win for both sides. The website is getting fresh content at no cost, and you are getting a relevant “one-way” link back to your site.

Pay Per Click Marketing

Another effective method to getting more traffic is Google Adwords, as well as Yahoo Ads and MSN Ads. The only downfall is you pay for them and it is difficult to track your ROI (but with a little trick you can do it). You can pay as low as 5 cents a click, and as high as several dollars per click. As you can see, this can add up to a large amount of money very quickly.

There are many tips and secrets to paying lower click amounts AND getting more clicks at the same time. We’ve been able to do this for years with all our websites.

One BIG plus of PPC advertising is “immediate” traffic. You can literally sign up for Google ads, and have it “live” in 10 minutes, getting eyeballs almost instantly. For many new websites, this is a great way to test the conversions of your website early on. If you get clicks and no referrals or sales, you know right away you need to tweak your website copy, layout and functionality.

I’ll be covering more tactics to teach you how to increase website traffic to your online businesses so stay tuned.

If you want to inquire about our Search Engine Optimization services, contact us today to discuss your needs!

Awesome Demographics

I’ve touched on this in previous articles but let me go over it again. In any business you have your “ideal” prospect (customer), and personal training is no different. Since personal training is not cheap and is borderline a luxury for many people, so the “ideal” demographic would be educated, affluent and have a desire to be fit as they get older.

Well… golfers fit this profile PERFECTLY!

Most golfers (but not all of them) are educated (college degree), therefore have a better understanding of how important their health is as they age… they also are professional people with stable jobs and some disposable income. Golfers also are in the 40 and up age bracket which is when they start to physically fall apart and finally have the maturity to admit it and admit they need help (wake-up trainers).

Many golfers have private or semi-private golf club memberships that are not cheap. These memberships require an initiation fee that can range from as low as a couple of thousand to as high as $350, 000. I know… this is outrageous but I have several personal clients who have “multiple” memberships like this… so it’s for real guys.

Personal training golfers is one of the most rewarding experiences for a trainer.

Golfers usually have a wide view of the world and great experience professionally that they can show you as your professional relationship develops. They are more than happy to give you advice on business and life and enjoy it too. But… as you know… it’s “all about the client” first!

So to avoid this being too long-winded, the golfing demographic is a fantastic one for personal trainers! You would be foolish to ignore it. Unless you have no desire or totally hate golf, you should look in to this niche, as I can tell you first hand it is VERY lucrative and can literally transform your personal training business.

Stick around and find out more!

We Can Help You 

If you’re ready to take the next step I strongly urge you to contact us to discuss your needs.

Simple Tips, Techniques And Strategies

There are so many simple and easily applicable website marketing ideas you can do in a matter of minutes that will dramatically improve your exposure on all the search engines. Many of them are termed, “on-page optimization”, which means formatting each and every page of your fitness website with certain keywords that will bring you floods of traffic and new leads.

There are also many online partnerships you can find and create that will quickly increase your search engine exposure, resulting in yet even more leads and potential clients. This is SO powerful you MUST implement a search engine optimization plan for your business.

Lead Generating

Like in any business, having a system to generate regular and consistent leads is so crucial, it should be at the top of your list to build and grow your fitness business. There are many ways both offline and online to accomplish this. I have spent 25 years offline and the last 10 online coming up with easy systems that can bring in 2-5 new leads EVERY day! If you are a good trainer, you should be able to “close” at least 50% of these, which could be a HUGE amount of money on a regular basis.

Nuture Your Leads

As a website owner you should be collecting leads right from your website. There are technique to accomplish this with a high level of efficiency, resulting in 5, 10, 20 and maybe 30 or more leads EVERY day! I’m not kidding! I have one website that gets over 100 leads EACH DAY, every day!

It is critical to create a relationship with your online leads. Send them a weekly newsletter with golf and fitness tips. There is a way to craft your newsletter to bring you “instant” money every time you send out a newsletter. Depending on the size of your email list, you can make into the thousands of dollars with one email drop. Sound impossible? I do that every time I send out an email. I’m not saying this to brag, but to tell you it can be done.

Search Engine Optimization Consulting

If your website isn’t performing the way you had hoped it would, we can help. Search engine optimization is not only a critical factor in your business success, it’s a MUST! Contact us today to discuss your online needs and goals.

Golf Fitness Training

Golf fitness training can be a very lucrative part of your personal training business. With over 70 million baby boomers coming up and 27 million golfers already playing the game, this market segment is only going to grow. So jump on this wild ride now and reap the rewards in your fitness business.

Golfers Are A Fantastic Market

Let’s look at the benefits of looking into the golf fitness niche. First off, as mentioned above, they are educated and have a stable job, with some discretionary income. Secondly, they are used to a very expensive sport. A round of golf can range from $30 all the way up to $400. So golfers will not blink at your personal training fees which is sort of a “pre-qualifier” for new clients.

Let’s go over a few other golf expenses that make your personal training fees look very reasonable. A golf lesson can range from $40 for a half hour less all the way up to several hundred dollars PER LESSON! The majority of golfers have taken lessons, so they are quite comfortable with paying for personal services like your personal training. They are also use to working with their pro on a regular basis which for you will encourage a more steady schedule and guaranteed money.

Do we need to even talk about golf clubs? There are two types. You’ve got the physical clubs they play with (a driver can cost up to $500), then you have the private country clubs many of your clients belong to. These clubs usually have very high “initiation” fees, and all require monthly dues. The initiation fees can range from $5,000 up to$350,000 believe it or not. The dues can be $200 and up to $700 EVERY month.

Can you see where I’m going with this?

Your fees are perfectly in align with what golfers ALREADY spend on golf. This is a “dream client” waiting to happen. I know from firsthand experience, training golfers can be very lucrative, and that’s why I’m putting together my golf fitness success formula to help golfers dramatically increase their personal training income. So stay tuned and keep checking back with this site.

Make More Money Now

If you are ready to learn more, you can set up a half an hour phone consult, by contacting me.

There are so many organizations offering certifications for personal training, that it gets to be overkill. Does having a certification guarantee you’ll be successful and make the kind of income you desire? I don’t think so. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in our country barely have a high school education, and some even dropped out.

Now I’m not advocating skipping a degree or certification, but I do want to play devils advocate. To be a Golf Fitness Professional, you should have a college degree, several years experience in the field, whether it be in a club setting or as an independent trainer.

As I mentioned in a previous article, you must have a clear understanding of golf swing mechanics, as well as be able to administer a golf-specific fitness evaluation to determine limitations and starting point of the clients program. This is critical! Taking a golfer “off the street” and training them is wrong! Do NOT do this! You MUST evaluate them first.

There are many very good instruction books available, and in a future article I’ll mention a few. But just know you need to acquire golf swing knowledge to have success in this specific niche of fitness.  If you want to take the next step and get a certification, just type in golf fitness certification in Google and you’ll find a few.

The bottom line will be how effectively you can communicate your knowledge onto the golfing client and have them understand it and be motivated to trust it. Golfers are very fickle. They still think that lifting weights will hurt their swing. You must educate them with valid information as to why and how it will not only not hurt their swing, but in fact greatly enhance it!

If you have never picked up a club, but want to expand your personal training business into the golfing market, your first step would be to schedule a lesson with a golf instructor. Take it like you are a beginning golfer wanting to learn the golf swing.

Tell your golf instructor your story. That you are a personal trainer wanting to have a better understanding of golf swing mechanics, that way he can not only teach you how to swing a club, but can inform you of the frustrations of golfers he/she works with.

Learning these frustrations is your ticket to a successful golf fitness business. Being able to provide a physical solution for every golf swing frustration is your sweet spot for adding serious money to your income.

I hear of so many trainers who say they have golf fitness programs, and they are really general fitness programs in disguise. Do not do this! Many golfers will realize you are “fronting” and not only fire you, but spread the word that you are a fraud. This may sound drastic, but it is exactly what has happened to trainers already, so don’t put yourself in that category.

The ideal situation for you to succeed in the golf fitness niche is to already be playing golf on a personal level. You don’t have to be a single digit golfer, but if you can talk golf during your sessions, you’ll have yourself many long-term clients that can take your personal training business to the 6 figure mark in no time!