How I Made Over $900 Fitness Blogging This Month

Welcome to the world of fitness blogging. Curious about fitness blogging and how to start your own personal fitness blog? Read this post to learn more about the world of fitness blogs!

Hey friends, my name is Chantal and I’m the owner of this blog, Ironwild Fitness. I’m a mom, NASM certified personal trainer, and obviously, a fitness blogger!

While I have written a lot about blogging over the course of my career, this post is specifically for people who are interested in fitness blogging as a career or for supplemental income.

So if that’s you, listen up!

I’m going to share about how I got into fitness blogging, how to start a fitness website, different blogging platforms, how I use social media for my blog, and of course, monetization.

Get ready for a long, in-depth post that will help you get a better understanding of what it takes to join the ranks of fitness bloggers and be successful fitness blogging.

Let’s get started!

How I Got Into Fitness Blogging

With every story, there is a back story. I want to tell you my blogging story so that you understand just how lengthy it can be to find your place in the world of content marketing. (And more specifically, fitness blogging.)

When I became a new mom, I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to leave my daughter and take her to daycare.

But I also wanted to find a way to contribute to my family financially.

So I started looking for gigs I could do online to make a little extra cash.

It started with legit survey sites like Inbox Dollars, and I even looked into some freelance writing gigs. But then I discovered a blogger’s income report on Pinterest. (You can read one of mine here.)

I started looking into blogging immediately – my curiosity was growing. Could it be true that people were making money online as bloggers? How?

Could it be true that people were replacing their full-time jobs with blogging? I had to know!

Long before I started what is slowly-but-surely becoming a successful fitness blog (this blog), I started a “mom blog.”

I got started using a simple tutorial like the one I have about how to start a fitness website, and I got to writing.

I dove deep into resources I found about blogging all over the web. It didn’t take long to find out that while blogging is a completely legitimate way to earn money, it’s not a super-simple job.

It’s not especially hard, and there are tons of people who do it, but it is definitely not a get-rich-quick sort of deal.

Blogging is a long-game, and fitness blogging is no different.

As I continued to learn and grow my mom blog, I learned about how to monetize my blog, get traffic to my site, and I found out more about myself.

I quickly learned that mom blogs are a dime a dozen, and I didn’t always find myself wanting to write about parenting.

So I started dabbling in other things. I continued to learn, and even started to make decent money from my blog.

Later, when my daughter was approaching school age, I decided that I wanted to go back to work as a personal trainer. I got my NASM certification and became a personal trainer. That’s when I started this blog.

I tell you all of this to help you understand that blogging takes time. I actually spent nearly four years working on other blogs before I landed here. And while I wouldn’t count myself as wildly successful, making even $500/month as a SAHM is great!

I didn’t work full-time on any of my blogs, and I certainly haven’t worked full-time on this one.

So while I could have been more successful quicker, it actually took me nearly three years of fitness blogging before I started making more than a couple hundred dollars per month.

Now that I’m making a steady $500+ every month, I feel qualified enough to help others get started working on a successful fitness blog.

How I Made Over $900 Fitness Blogging This Month

Before I get into details on how to start a fitness website, let me explain more about how you make money fitness blogging.

Learning more about how blogging works will help you decide whether you want to start a personal fitness blog or if you want to get more into fitness business blogs, or whatever. Trust me!

So as I said, I made over $900 in the month of July 2020 with my site. A large amount of that income came from ad revenue, but there are actually several ways to make money fitness blogging.

Let me show you my exact breakdown, and I’ll explain some of the main ways I monetize.

July 2020 Earnings

MediaVine / Ad Network – $807.27

I recently joined an ad network, and I get paid to display the ads you see on this site. I used to be totally against ads, but most of the internet has them, so I felt like I was missing an opportunity here.

Obviously, I was.

This is now consistently my biggest-earning income stream. I’d love to get this number up above $1000 monthly!

Ebooks / Workout Programs – $98.94

Since I am a personal trainer, I am able to legally create and sell workout programs or challenges. I created mine in ebook form, and they actually sell! (Imagine that!)

If you are a personal trainer, you can also sell workout programs with an app called Trainerize, or use it to train clients online. Or there’s the ebook route, which I recommend as a great passive income stream.

With an ebook, you just have to create your product once, and then you can keep selling them. I chose this over selling custom workout plans or taking online personal training clients so that I could avoid trading time for dollars.

Amazon Affiliate Program – $22.92

With the Amazon Affiliate program, you can link to almost anything on Amazon on your website. When someone makes a purchase using your link within 24 hours of clicking, you get a commission!

For me, this income goes up in Q4 & Q1 as fitness is a hot topic around Christmas and the New Year. Plus, I can easily recommend tons of stuff I actually use to my readers. I love the Amazon Affiliate program because so many people have Amazon Prime these days and it’s so easy.

ShareASale Affiliate Program – $3.82

ShareASale is a monetization network in which you partner with brands to sell their products. Lots of brands/companies use ShareASale to host their affiliate programs.

Make a commission off of leads and sales! I never make tons of money here, but it’s not even close to one of my priorities, so I won’t say no to a few extra dollars per month.

Total: $932.95

Not so bad, huh? Considering that I only blog *super* part-time, spend very little money to keep it running, and am also a full-time mom, I’d say that’s pretty decent money!

Especially since a few of my revenue streams are “set-and-forget.”

I’m pretty proud of it, and even though it was hard work to make it this far, it wasn’t rocket science either.

Of course, you should know that there are other ways to make money fitness blogging.

While I have learned what works for me, how you monetize is ultimately up to you. Content marketing is fun if you are operating a personal fitness blog – you can write about whatever you want!

That means that you can choose the products you become an affiliate for, or you can make your own.

Some bloggers don’t have any of their own products, while others exclusively sell their own products. And obviously, some people run ads, and others don’t. It’s up to you!

P.S. You can also use your website to promote your brick-and-mortar fitness business, or any direct sales company you might be involved in. (I tried it for Beachbody and ZYIA Active, and it totally worked, even though direct sales wasn’t for me. Read all about how to use a blog to promote your direct sales business in this post.)

If you’re curious about all of the different ways to make money fitness blogging, I did write an in-depth post explaining affiliate marketing and more. Take a peek!

fitness blogging and how to start a successful fitness blog

Different Blogging Platforms, Social Media, & More

If you’re a blogger or influencer who uses your images or writing to sell products or get leads, that’s content marketing!

Most bloggers are content marketers, but they use a variety of different blogging platforms. They also use a variety of social media platforms to drive traffic and build their brands.

Branding is not my strong suit, but I do have strengths when it comes to this world of fitness blogging.

I’m an avid Pinterest user, and I use Google too. I also use Twitter and have experimented with YouTube and Instagram. I have found that while all platforms work for marketing, some are easier to use for fitness blogging.

If you become a blogger, I highly recommend mastering two or three social media platforms, and using the others lightly.

You’ll quickly find that depending on your niche and the nature of your business (virtual or not), some platforms are pretty hard to use and “grow.”

If you’re curious about using social media and are consider using Pinterest for your blog, check this post out to learn how to optimize your Pinterest account.

As far as blogging platforms go, there are many. But if you’re a serious blogger with the goal to have a successful fitness blog, you’ll want to use WordPress.org or Squarespace. (I use WordPress.org.)

I’ll admit that learning how to use different blogging platforms involves a learning curve, but over time it gets easier.

In fact, I’d say that by now, using WordPress is pretty second nature to me when it comes to non-technical things. I love to write about all sorts of things, and since that’s most of the work in fitness blogging, it’s no problem. 🙂

If you’re still curious about the ins-and-outs of fitness blogging, here are a few more posts to check out:

How To Start A Fitness Website

If you want to learn how to start a fitness blog in just a few easy steps, use this step-by-step guide to start fitness blogging in just minutes!

Note: I only recommend things that I have used and love. The following helps you set up a blog with Siteground as your host. If you choose to make a purchase using my links, I may receive a commission. That doesn’t change your price, but it does help me keep this blog running!

Before we get into the simple steps you need to take to start fitness blogging, let’s take a look at a quick overview of how it works so you have the best understanding of what it means to start a fitness blog.

Here are the main things you need to get fitness blogging:

A self-hosted website (somewhere to put your content)
Written content and images that you will fill your blog with
A way to get your content out into the world (or better yet, several ways!)
Some way (or again, several ways) to make money with your shiny new fitness blog
Later on, you’ll also want to pick or create products you want to sell

Don’t worry if you don’t know what a self-hosted website is, I will explain it as best as I can shortly!

So. You know the basic things you need in order to start fitness blogging. But you can’t really have the last three items without the first one! Yep, firstly, you need a website. Let’s get to it.

Step 1: Choose a hosting company.

In order to have a fitness blog with money-making potential, you need your blog to be self-hosted. In simple terms, this just means that you own all of your own content and your site isn’t hosted by a free blog-making site.

If you make a free site that’s hosted by a free blog-making site, you run the risk of owing that company money when you start to monetize your blog. (Because you’re gonna be a successful fitness blogger some day right?!)

Because of that, a lot of companies won’t work with bloggers who aren’t self-hosted. You want to own 100% of what you create anyway, of course.

So, you NEED to be self-hosted. In order to do this, you need a company to host your site (and all its files).

I use and recommend Siteground for all types of blogs. So the first thing you’ll want to do is visit their site if you plan on using them. I highly recommended for epic customer service alone!

You’ll just have to trust me on this one.

Step 2: Choose a hosting plan.

If you’re using Siteground, simply click “Sign Up,” on the home page. I assume it would be super similar with other hosts. They recently updated their whole site to be even more user-friendly, so I’m sure you’ll be just fine here. 🙂

You’ll then be asked to choose from three hosting packages – Start Up, Grow Big, or Go Geek. Here’s a snapshot of that page:

Do note that the prices you see on this page assume that you purchase an annual package. You get a price break for buying a year in advance.

How do I choose a hosting package?

If you only plan to have one site, you can choose the Start Up plan for now. If fitness blogging is your main game, this will work perfectly.

However, if you plan to focus on your blog a lot or have more than one site, you may want to consider choosing Grow Big or Go Geek.

The Start Up plan is best for blogs getting up to 10,000 visits per month, and if you are working on your blog consistently, it’s very possible that you reach this number in just a few months.

You may even reach the Grow Big number of 25,000 monthly visits depending on how hard you are working on your blog. (I am currently getting over 30,000 monthly page views consistently, so I know it’s possible!)

Just remember that you can always upgrade – even mid-year.

Step 3: Choose a domain name.

Once you’ve chosen a hosting package, you’ll need to choose a domain name for your fitness blog.

This is essentially going to be your blog name or something very close to it. My domain name is ironwildfitness.com.

This is sometimes free with the purchase of your first hosting package at Siteground. (It depends on the name you choose and what kind of promotions are running, but it was free for me.)

The hosting company will let you know if the name you want is already taken.

Tip: Don’t be surprised if your idea for a name is already in existence. You can still get fitness blogging, just be flexible. Honestly, the more I blog, the more I learn that a name isn’t everything.

In my opinion, there are some dumb blog names out there, and it doesn’t effect the blog’s ability to earn.

Simply choose a domain name that fits well with the topics you’ll write about and pick something that you’ll not be embarrassed to tell people about.

Since you’re starting a health and wellness blog, I suggest that your name imply this in some way. Your name is something that you should consider carefully. Can you commit to it for years, potentially?

(I have seen a lot of youfullnamefitness.com type of deals. This is a good fallback if the name you want is taken.)

But don’t worry, fitness blogging doesn’t have to be super black-and-white. You can write about personal topics as well as other related topics successfully, as long as the overall content is fitness-related.

Back to the domain name.

Remember that you’ll have this name for at least a year, if not longer!

It’s possible that someone will already own the domain name you want, so I recommend preparing a few ideas for this step. I also recommend that if possible, you include keywords in your domain name.

That means that your domain name (which will be your blog name and part of your URL) tells people at least a little bit about your blog’s content.

For example, my blog name is “Ironwild Fitness.” My domain name is ironwildfitness.com. My name suggests to readers that my site has something to do with fitness (because it does) and that’s useful. It helps me in getting the right audience to my site.

Get the idea?

Note: I recommend domain privacy if you can afford it. It will just protect your personal contact information. If you don’t get it, you may receive calls and emails from people trying to sell you web design or other web-related services.

Once you’ve chosen a domain name and finalize your payment, you’re ready for some fitness blogging! Congrats!

Getting To The Point Of Monetization

It’s easy to find and read posts from bloggers claiming to make a full-time income in a year or less.

While it’s possible for some people (working full time maybe), I will tell you that it might take more time than that.

If you hit the ground running and work a LOT, you can definitely see some success. But the truth is that there are many moving parts in the fitness blogging world.

All of the little details and learning experiences take time. So don’t expect to see overnight success.

To get where I am, I did a lot of things!

While I recommend that you take a look at my post, The Ultimate Blog Startup Checklist for New Bloggers, I can easily give you a quick rundown of what I have done to get to this point.

Here are a few major things new fitness bloggers need to focus on before getting serious about monetization:

Filling their blog up with useful content/writing
Learning how to use Google and social media to get exposure
Honing in on their niche within the fitness blogging world
Creating some sort of branding, to help you establish a specific vibe and audience
Learning how to use the blogging platform of their choice (i.e. WordPress.org)
Researching and learning about different types of monetization
Learning blogging etiquette, and making connections with other bloggers
Establishing an email list and learning about email marketing

Once you begin blogging, you’ll find that there are a lot of moving parts. You’ll want to set goals and monitor your own progress, but you’ll also feel like your work is never done. There are always new things to try, strategies to implement, and connections to make. If you enjoy fitness blogging or just writing in general, I think you’ll have fun doing this!

I hope this post helps you understand fitness blogging, and maybe even helps you start your own personal fitness blog!

If you have any questions or comments about getting started with a successful fitness blog, please leave a comment below.

-Chantal