The worldwide wellness industry is currently worth over $4.75 trillion. It has a current growth rate of 6.4 percent, and it’s expected to continue growing at that pace for quite some time.
There are lots of different ways that people can join this industry. One of the most popular options is to create a health and wellness-related blog to share your knowledge. You can also use blogging as a tool to build your audience and get them interested in the products or services you have to offer (personal training, health coaching, etc.).
Are you interested in starting your own health and wellness blog? Are you unsure of where to begin or how to make it a success? If so, we’re here to help. Read on to learn everything you need to know about creating an awesome health and wellness blog.
Choose a Creative Name
One of the first things to do when starting a health and wellness blog is to come up with a creative name for it.
This might seem like an easy task, but it can actually be one of the most difficult parts of creating a blog. After all, you have to think of a name that’s catchy, easy to spell, and easy for people to remember. Oh, and it also can’t already be in use by some other health and wellness expert.
There are a few different approaches you can take when coming up with a name for your blog, including the following:
Use Your Name
One of the most popular approaches to take when naming a blog is to use your own name (e.g., JaneSmith.com).
Your name is yours forever, and, unless you have a very common name, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to use it for the title of your blog without having to worry about someone else claiming it. Using your own name also helps you start creating a personal brand to market yourself as a health and wellness expert.
Use Your Name Plus Something Else
Let’s say your name isn’t available as a name for your blog. If you still want to include your name and build your personal brand, consider adding something to it.
For example, you could call your website JaneSmithFitness.com or JaneSmithPersonalTraining.com. This provides more insight into what you do and what people can expect when they visit your blog.
Use What You Offer
You might also want to consider using what you’re offering as your blog’s name. This can be tricky, as some blogs that take this approach end up sounding spammy and fake (most people are going to be wary of something like GetaGreatBodyToday.com).
If you choose a name like FoodFunandFitness.com that embodies the content you’re publishing on your blog, though, you can give people an idea of what they can expect from you and encourage them to develop a relationship with you.
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Set Up Your Website
After you’ve found the perfect name for your blog, it’s time to get the site set up. This involves getting hosting for your website and verifying that the domain (another name for the website URL) is available.
Here are some specific steps you’ll need to take to get your website up and running:
Choose a Hosting Platform
First, you need to select a hosting platform for your blog. There are tons of website hosting companies for you to choose from, and many of them offer very affordable pricing (less than $10 per month in a lot of cases).
When you’re choosing a platform, look for one that includes the following features:
- Blog editing
- Blog scheduling
- SEO optimization
- Mobile optimization
- Analytics
There are plenty of other features that can help you enhance your blog, but these are the basics that everyone ought to have when they’re getting started.
Register Your Domain Name
Once you’ve chosen a host, your next job is to register your website’s domain. The domain name is the URL that is used to identify your website (JaneSmithFitness.com, for example).
Most hosting platforms make it easy for you to do this. They also have robust search features that allow you to ensure the name you want for your website hasn’t already been taken.
For more guidance, check out this step-by-step guide on how to choose and register your domain name that we created.
Improve Your Blog Design
The best health and wellness blogs (and blogs, in general) are the ones that are well-designed. When it comes to choosing a design for your blog, you can either use a premade theme available through your host (there are lots of attractive options that look great and won’t cost you any extra money) or hire a web designer to create a one-of-a-kind theme just for your blog.
This option is more expensive, understandably, and a lot of people shy away from it at first as a result. Keep in mind, though, that professional web design can have a big impact on the success of your blog.
People are often more inclined to visit a blog that has an eye-catching, functional design. A better design can also improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for people to find your blog when they’re searching online for topics like the ones you cover in your posts.
Decide How Often You’ll Post
A consistent posting schedule is essential if you want your health and wellness blog to be a success. When you post a regular basis, it becomes easier for people to find your website. They’ll also be more inclined to visit repeatedly since they’ll know that you’re regularly publishing new content for them to read.
It’s easy to assume that posting more often is better than posting less frequently. In some ways, this is true. However, there’s more to the story than just posting as often as possible. It’s not just about quantity; the quality of your posts matters, too.
Be realistic about how often you can publish quality blog posts, posts that provide readers with value and teach them something new. If you can only do this a couple of times per week, stick to a couple of times per week and be really consistent with that schedule. That’ll do you more favors in the long run than posting daily for a while and then burning out and not posting at all, or posting daily but posting low-quality content that no one wants to read.
Decide What Types of Blog Posts to Write
In addition to thinking about the number of blog posts that you’re able to write, think, too, about the type of blog posts you’re going to write. There are tons of different types of blog posts you can write for your health and wellness blog, including the following:
Educational Posts
These types of posts can teach readers how to do something that improves their health and wellness. For example, you could publish posts demonstrating specific exercises, teaching readers about how to strengthen or stretch different body parts, or showing them how to prepare healthy recipes for themselves and their families.
Personal Posts
Blog readers want to know about the person behind the blog. They want to know what you’re up to and what’s going on in your current health and wellness journey.
These types of posts can include information on what you’re eating (“What I Eat in a Day” posts are beloved in the health and wellness blogging community), changes you’re making to your exercise routine, recommendations for products you love, or a specific health or fitness goal that you’re working toward (training for a marathon, for example).
Timely Posts
In the blogging world, there’s a big push to focus on “evergreen” posts. These are posts that are always relevant. People can find them the day they’re published or years later and the information will still hold true.
While evergreen content is valuable, it’s also a good idea to publish some posts that are more timely. If you write blog posts that are relevant to what’s going on in the world at the moment (for example, in early 2020, lots of health and wellness bloggers are commenting on the COVID-19 pandemic), you can increase traffic to your blog and get more people interested in what you have to say.
You can use timely posts to grab their attention, but they’ll keep coming back because they value your input and like your style of communicating.
Choose Engaging Blog Post Topics
Beyond thinking about post types, you’ll also need to brainstorm specific blog posts topics that fit under the umbrella of those different post types. It can definitely be challenging to think of creative ideas for blog posts, but these tips can help you keep the unique posts coming:
Think About Topics You Often Discuss with Clients
If you work as a personal trainer, health coach, or other health and wellness professional, a good starting point is to think about topics you often have to discuss with your clients.
What questions and concerns do they come to you with most often? If they have these questions and concerns, there’s a good chance that other people out there also have them and could benefit from your knowledge.
Consider Trending Health and Wellness-Related Stories
What health and wellness topics have you seen covered in the news a lot recently? Are a lot of people talking about immune system support or getting your “summer body”?
Think about what’s trending and look for ways that you can add to the conversation. What unique perspective can you bring to the topic to provide value to the folks who read your blog?
Ask the Audience
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your readers on social media to find out what they want to read. Crowdsourcing is a great way to learn about what interests your audience the most. It also saves you from playing a guessing game and wasting time and energy writing about subjects that people don’t really care about.
Think About Your Own Journey
Spend some time reflecting on your own health and wellness journey. What have you learned over the years that you wish you had known sooner? What insights can you provide to those who are just getting started on their own journeys?
Your blog readers want to feel that they can relate to you on a personal level. Sharing information about your journey is a great way to help them do this.
Scope Out Social Media Groups
Social media groups are an excellent place to learn about what people are interested in and find out what health and wellness-related questions they have.
Look for groups on Facebook and other social media platforms that you can join and pay attention to what people are posting in them. What questions are they asking? What kind of information is being shared?
These groups can provide you with tons of inspiration and give you ideas for future blog posts.
Promote Your Blog
Once you’ve started creating regular blog content, you also have to make sure you’re promoting your blog so that people can find your posts and check them out. The following are some of the most effective blog marketing strategies you ought to use:
Email Marketing
An email list is an effective tool to help you ensure people see your latest blog posts. Once people sign up for your email list, you can alert them whenever you publish a new post and give them a link to access it directly from their inbox.
To get people to sign up for your email list, consider offering some kind of free download in exchange for their email address. When they provide their address, you can send them something like a recipe book or a week’s worth of free workouts to say thank you.
Social Media
Of course, we can’t underestimate the powers of social media. Social media is an amazing tool to help you attract readers to your blog.
Be sure to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and your other favorite platforms whenever you publish a new post. Include a link so people can access it easily, too. Feature social media sharing buttons on your blog as well so that people can share your posts on their own channels and help you expand your reach.
Repurpose Blog Content
You can also repurpose your blog posts to create other types of marketing content that lead people back to your site and get them interested in your business.
You can take snippets from a blog post and use them in a newsletter, promotional flyer, or client handout, for example. Be sure to include a link to your blog when you do this so people know where to find you and learn more about what you have to offer.
Keep Track of Your Analytics
Once you set up your blog, you’ll have access through your hosting platform to analytics and data that helps you see how it’s performing. If your goal is to grow your audience and get your blog in front of as many people as possible, you need to pay attention to these numbers.
Your analytics will help you figure out what type of posts people like to read the most, as well as how people are finding your blog. Check-in with this data on a regular basis so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your blog and work smarter rather than harder to keep it growing.
Earn Revenue from Your Blog
Over time, as your blog grows, you’ll have opportunities to earn revenue from it. There are a few different ways that you can turn a blog into a part of your business that actually makes money, including the following:
- Earn money from ad revenue
- Include affiliate links (Amazon is a good example) so you earn a commission when people shop by clicking a link on your blog
- Work with sponsors to publish content that promotes their products or services
You can also use your blog as a tool to sell your own products or services. Whether you’re a personal trainer, a health coach, or a supplement-maker, you can use your blog to educate people and pique their interest in what you’re selling.
If you do a good job of educating them and building connections with them, they’ll be more inclined to make purchases and support your business.
Keep in mind that it can take time for a blog to become something that generates revenue for your business. If you stick with it and publish unique and engaging posts on a regular basis, though, you can get to this point sooner rather than later.
Start Creating Your Health and Wellness Blog Today
As you can see, there’s a lot you need to keep in mind when you’re getting your health and wellness blog up and running. If you follow these steps, though, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful blog that people love to read.
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