TYPES OF CONTENT
There are several different ways to get people to notice your brand. Here are some ways to draw people to your brand.
TYPES OF CONTENT
There are many, many different ways to get traffic and attention for your brand. The ways I will recommend are based on your experience, strengths, and resources. The following is a basic description of the basic types of content that you can create.
TECHNIQUE ARTICLE
Technique articles are long (1,000-5,000 words) and require a lot of time, effort, and referencing. These should only be undertaken after a lot of thought has gone into them. If you do one a quarter, you’ll be far beyond most fitness writers.
WORKOUT PLAN ARTICLE
Workout Plan Articles involve writing a summary, explanation, and benefits of a given workout plan (I usually recommend 4-6 week long plans). Even if you keep the summary section short, they will still require quite a bit of work to create a whole program. Ideally, you’ll be linking to other articles within your website to give further details of the workouts and exercises involved in the workout plan.
EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
Exercise Instruction pieces are straightforward and relatively simple. Give a summary of the movement and what it’s good for, then write 3-6 steps to perform it correctly. Ideally you’ll include a demonstration video, but it isn’t necessary all the time.
FEATS OF STRENGTH
Feats of Strength pieces involve you or someone else performing an advanced move or using heavy weight to perform a movement. They are more for entertainment and marketing purposes rather than instruction.
CHALLENGES
Challenges are an excellent way to engage your audience while also providing useful information. Think in terms of, “I bet you can’t do [blank].” They can be workout based (e.g. 50 reps for time) or movement based (e.g. perform a Pistol Squat).
TOP LISTS
Including numbers in your content is an excellent way to get both SEO and viral traffic. This could be a list of exercises (e.g. Top 5 Core Exercises), workouts (e.g. Top 3 Workout Sets for Conditioning), or techniques (e.g. The #1 Implement for Core Strength).
MISTAKE CORRECTIONS
Mistake Correction articles are easy to write and could be as simple as identifying a common error in a single exercise, then explaining how to fix it. They can feature videos or pics, or be simply written.
CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS
In fitness it isn’t difficult to find people with opinions that differ from yours. People are very passionate about health and many people consider themselves to be experts in everything. You can take advantage of this by creating articles that take a stand on a “hot topic.” You must be willing to deal with haters, as there will be many of those. However, these pieces will plant you firmly on a side and speak to your true followers if they are written correctly.
INNOVATION ARTICLES
Innovation articles are interesting to everyone, both trainees and trainers alike. They can deal with using an implement in a way people haven’t thought of before (3 Ways to Use a Barbell You Haven’t Tried), trying a new exercise to hit an uncommon objective (Why Light Kettlebells are Good for Power Development), or a new movement all together (The Best Squat Variation Everyone Needs to Do).
MOTIVATION GRAPHICS
Motivational graphics are easy to create, get tons of hits, and will give your audience an insight into you and your brand. They aren’t good for SEO, but they work well with every other platform.
EXERCISE INFOGRAPHICS
Exercise Infographics take a little bit more effort than your motivational graphics, but they are worth it. These images are very popular for social media platforms, especially Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
ENTERTAINMENT ARTICLES
Never underestimate how important it is to add some fun into your content. Entertainment pieces can serve a functional purpose (like teaching people something), but most of the time they should just be entertaining. Think of ways to engage your audience that don’t specifically relate to useful information. For example, I love doing pieces about cheat meals, because I love food. These pieces aren’t useful. They’re just fun and help lighten up the rest of the content online; you don’t have to be serious all the time.
RIGHT/WRONG ARTICLES
People love when you keep things simple, and that is especially true when it comes to exercise form. By doing a simple series of pictures or a short video, you can quickly show the wrong way and the right way to do different movements.
WORKOUT GRAPHICS
You don’t always need a crazy amount of media (e.g. audio, video, photography, etc.) in order to create content. With Workout Graphics, all you need to do is create a graphic that contains a workout with a few instructions. Keep your style (e.g. logo placement, font, design elements, etc.) consistent, and you have a kick ass post for both your website and social media (especially Instagram and Pinterest).
MINDSET ARTICLES
Mindset pieces can be popular, but use them sparingly. Most new content creators make the mistake of thinking that their personal philosophy of fitness/health/etc. is what people really want to read (it isn’t). It will be when you’re big, but right now you should be working on content that
Don’t worry about trying to get writing gigs with the big fitness websites/magazines at this point. Those jobs will provide you with some cred, but they will take a ton of time (also, those guys will ask you to write, not the other way around). When you’re big enough, they will come calling.
RECIPES
You can never go wrong with recipes, especially when you combine them with an attractive picture of the food. These get tons of visits and the food pics perform extremely well on all social media channels, especially Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
INGREDIENTS
You can write quite a bit about a single ingredient if you really think about it. What health benefits does it have? What are its top five uses? Where did the ingredient come from? By doing a little bit of research you could break down every aspect of a single ingredient and create a optimized article in the process. In addition, you’ll be able to link that single ingredient to all of the recipes that you created to use it.
TRANSFORMATION
Transformation pieces do really well online, especially if you have before/after pics and a compelling back story. The typically go, “I was fat and unhappy, then I found kettlebells/pilates/yoga/etc, and it changed my life.” They can be very inspiring if they’re written correctly, but again, the pics will make them way more effective if you have them.
TOP MOVEMENT/EXERCISE LISTS
Everyone loves to see top movement/exercise lists, even if there is no way that they’re going to agree with your opinion. All you have to do is select a focus and create a list of 3 to 10 exercise that you think fit it best. This could be objective based (The Top 5 Strength Enhancing Exercises), difficulty based (The Top 8 Most Difficult Movements), body part focused (The Top 3 Exercise for Building Your Glutes), or popularity based (The Top Kettlebell Exercises You Haven’t Tried Yet).
TOP WORKOUT LISTS
Top Workout Lists go in line with the Top Movement/Exercise lists with the main difference being the use of workouts or workout set schemes in leu of single exercises. Again, you could base them on objectives, difficulty, body part, or popularity.
COMPANY/INDUSTRY NEWS
Unless you have some truly interesting news about your company, news pieces are rarely very successful or popular. They simply inform people about the happenings of your company (e.g. new facilities or trainers, the development of new products, or industry partnerships.
