How To Recession Proof Your Fitness Business

Despite what you may be experiencing, thinking or feeling about the current recession, there are still huge profits to made working in personal training and fitness.

In fact, you could say that there has never been a better time for the industry than right now, after all, whilst many other 'luxuries' like buying cars, taking vacations and even dining out may be on pause right now, people don't simply quit their fitness, nutrition and rehab programs solely because of money.

How people feel about their bodies will never change, recession or not.

They will ALWAYS want to look, feel and perform better than they currently do and, whilst they may temporarily 'downgrade' a personal training package to a bootcamp or bootcamp to a gym membership to allow it to fit into their new budget, it's very rare that a person will quit their health and fitness goals entirely because money is tight.

(They'll quit for a thousand other reasons if they're not committed to their goals, but that's a different article!).

Most personal trainers and bootcamp instructors don't get this at all.The typical reaction amongst the vast majority of them is to batten down the hatches, reduce their outgoings by saving money on their marketing and hope that they can weather the economic storm well enough to start attracting clients 'once things settle down'.

The trouble is, this is 180 degrees in opposition to what they really should be doing...Marketing harder than ever!

You see, rather than the recession being a bad thing, you need to realise that it is, in fact, a brilliant opportunity for you and your business.

Think about it; because most of the business competitors in your market are reducing their marketing budggets, putting their client attraction strategies on the go-slow and waiting for the recession to burn itself out, they are decreasing rather than increasing their own visibility.In effect, they're creating a vaccum in the fitness market.

Where the public used to have 50 trainers, studios and gyms to choose from, they now have only 10 or so.Where there used to be bundles of ads, flyers and direct mail pieces vying for their attention, now there are far, far fewer messages reaching them, meaning that each one can be heard more clearly and have much greater impact.

Most fitness professionals don't get this, though those who have ventured byond the 'personal trainer' label and have developed a more entrepreneurial mindset certainly do...and they take advantage of it, enjoying the less competitive playing field while it lasts.

The trouble is, most of those who work in fitness and health lack the entrepreneurial drive necessary to succeed when times get tough.They can't see past the fact that their role is more than just writing exercise programs, spotting on exercise routines or writing nutritional programs.It's about leadership.

Leadership is about using your passion and purpose in a focused, clear and results-oriented way that inspires others to follow and take positive action themselves.Rolling over and playing dead during times of struggle or adversity is not leadership in any way, shape or form.It doesn't teach your clients to stick with their goals when things get tough for them does it?In fact, it sets an example that when things get tough with their programs, their diets, their lifestyles that they too should quit and try again 'when the time is right'.

Is that what you want to teach your clients?Thought not!

So instead of getting caught up in the 'woe is me' recession-based conversations that are going around at the moment, take a 180 and focus on the opportunities that currently lie before you because there really are many, many of them...if you'll only open your eyes to them.

Forget reducing your marketing commitments right now, instead, ramp them up.Do more.Become more visible now than you ever have before.Get creative and most of all, have fun with it.

The truth is, no matter what you've been told about becoming successful, no matter how many self-help books you've read, no matter how many motivational seminars you've attended and tapes you've listened to, there really is only one way to become unstoppable in your quest for fitness business success.

Refuse to stop.

Now is the time to hit the gas, not the brakes.

Floor it!

About the Author

Dax Moy is one of the world's leading experts in fitness marketing with a catalog of books, courses, seminars and mentoring programs.

For more FREE articles related to marketing your fitness business visit www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com

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Benefiting From Social Network Sites

Of all the aspects of Social Media Marketing (SMM), social networking sites or profile sites have attracted the most attention from main stream marketers as they involve huge potential markets that run into tens and even a couple of hundred millions.A study co-authored by a Wharton University of Pennsylvania (USA) professor found that consumers are far more likely to buy a company's product if they are "network neighbors" of an existing customer.

The report continues to note that "results indicate that a firm can benefit from the use of social networks to predict the likely hood of purchasing".This study evidently has identified the network marketing potential inherent in these social profile sites.

Online social network sites enable people to create profiles, describe their interests, share thought and connect with other people.They are becoming a cultural phenomena with examples including MySpace, FaceBook, Frienster, Hi5, LinkedIN and more.Socially they provide a place to digitally hang out and make friends.Commercially it is a place one can potentially get some serious viral marketing using word of mouth as individuals rave about your product, company or service.

This is created as one online friend tells another online friend that tells another online friend and so on.Indeed an angle that has been identified for marketing profile sites include creating communities around a company or a product allowing customer and potential customers to discuss the company or product freely.Such communities can then be used to collect market intelligence, correct perception and direct discussions ultimately encouraging sales.Companies in the US like Helga and Burger King that have MySpace profiles have attempted this avenue with some level of success.

For smaller web business without much of a work force, marketing social profiles poses two major problems.First is that these sites tend to be mercurial.Since most are used by teenagers and young adults, they have the tendency to migrate to new services very quickly.For example Freindster was among the first social profile networking sites.By late 2003 it had over 20 million users.In 2005 it slipped to under one million members as many migrated to the formerly great MySpace which is believed to have built its membership to over 200 million members.

Then guess what, today Myspace is so yesterday.The new kid on the block getting reviews in international business magazines is FaceBook.These major shifts occur as new services come with better functionality.So a web business could take time to work a particular hot profile site only to see its efforts reduced to naught in a matter of months.

The second problem is that marketing social profile site takes time.It involves frequent blogging, updating of your profile, visiting tens of other profiles daily as you look for friends etc.Considering that all this effort may not get sustainable results as users shift to new services makes one wonder how can a small website benefit from social sites?

Just like news and bookmarking sites, the easiest means to benefit from profile sites is to target them for link popularity.If you can remember link popularity which is expressed by Page Rank (PR) can assist a site to improve its Search Engine traffic.Profile sites usually have high PR which you can "siphon" to improve your websites PR.And though this may take time, the effort has sustainable results you can count on.

About the Author

The author recommends an All-in-One Small Online Business website builder called Site Build It.

Get a detailed review of how to work online.

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Internet Marketing Ucovered: Discover The Industry Secrets

Internet marketing refers to the practice of communicating a company product or service over the internet.It is also known as web marketing, online marketing or eMarketing.There are many forms of online marketing ranging from search engine marketing to banner advertising and paid search marketing.The industry in the UK is rapidly creeping up on television as the most popular and effective medium of advertising.

Internet marketing can refer to anything from direct email campaigns to banner advertising within a social networking website.There are two main types of internet marketing that generally separate the medium; paid marketing and natural marketing.The former refers to the purchase of advertising space within a website and the latter refers to the practice of optimising websites to enable natural profile within search engines.

Paid marketing is one of the most lucrative parts of web marketing and the practice incorporates any form of online advertising that has to be paid for.A homepage interactive advertisement on a leading social networking website for twenty four hours can expect to draw in over one million unique hits in that period however the client can expect to pay in the region of 30,000GBP for the impressive results.Other forms of paid internet marketing are banner advertising, paid linking and paid search.

Paid search is the practice of bidding for keywords in the sponsored listings of a search engine.Otherwise known as pay per click advertising this is a very popular form of web marketing for corporate clients who invest more in paid search than natural search.

Although paid search is an important part of online marketing, many corporate clients neglect organic search optimisation and get involved in expensive bidding wars over the most popular keywords, the best results are seen when a combination of paid and organic search are used strategically.

Organic search is the practice of formatting a website in line with search engine compliancy so that it ranks highly when internet users search for certain key terms.This process is specialised and involves the optimising of all aspects of the website from the programming to the inbound links.The more relevant to site is to what it is trying to achieve, the more the search engine spiders will recognise it as being relevant.

There is no formula for search engine optimisation however fundamental principals can be observed and adhered to, enabling optimum search listings.Since 1998 Google has been returning unique and relevant search results which used innovative technologies to filter results for relevancy to the search term as opposed to predetermined criteria which were easily manipulated by internet marketing experts.

These internet marketing malpractice techniques such as black hatting, keyword stuffing, hidden scripts and server side cloaking, were used to manipulate search engines such as Alta Vista and Lycos to obtain high results without relevancy to the key search term.

Google now punishes websites using techniques such as these including banning a website completely from the search engine.Industry professionals specialising in SEO will testify to the damaging effects of these practices on a website's online profile which personifies the importance of organic SEO compliance.

The natural listings that can be obtained through compliant search engine optimisation can be enhanced with other paid internet marketing strategies such as pay per click advertising.For seasonal trends and specific product launches combined internet marketing strategies have proven to provide an unprecedented return on investment.The traceability of internet traffic provides essential data that can be analysed to hone online marketing strategies, ensuring that your campaigns are reaching the most relevant consumers.

About the Author

Dominic Donaldson is an internet marketing guru and works freelance for some of the largest names on the web.

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Advantages Of Online Marketing

It is indeed a well know fact, that online marketing is essential to have a profitable business on the Internet.A good website design is paramount to a successful online internet campaign.Online business is more than just building a website and waiting for someone to find it.The true learning curve in online marketing is steep and getting off on the wrong foot can cost you time and money.The key to marketing online is content and the ability to write well provides the website business owner with an advantage both in terms of visitor interest and with search engines.Just building a website is not enough to succeed online.

The online marketing Summit is the most comprehensive educational forum for marketers to learn best practices in all marketing disciplines.Its sole objective is to educate on how to execute the best known practices in online marketing.A winning marketing campaign depends on an expertly planned, skillfully executed strategy paired with experienced professionals dedicated to your success.The most cost effective way to achieve this is by combining your marketing message with important content that users are already actively seeking out.Unlike most trade shows and conferences, it is built around content that drives action and delivers insight that we as marketers can actually use and build into our marketing plans.

However, the key thing to understand is that attraction marketing is not something that suddenly happened over the last 12 years or so because of the Internet.When surfing the internet you can find different websites where you can earn some money.Of all the advertising platforms, the Internet is one of the few on an upward trend.The Internet is not that good at big brand building objectives, so there are a lot of companies struggling with a way to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity Google and other searches offer.It gives advertisers the opportunity to build mind share more effectively by targeting the right context at the right time, ensuring their messages are relevant to the people they are trying to reach.

Moreover, the Internet gives marketers more precise, measurable accountability for their ad spending than do traditional media.Marketers can use the Internet to target specific, well defined audience segments, yet reach a large audience scaling across many markets.In some ways, it causes TV to look less useful but in order to continue to do a mixture of both you need to use a combination of very solid measurements and total gut feel.And while advertisers are getting better at quantifying the payback for their investment, advertising remains as much art as science.

Many people think of Internet advertising as an intrusive, annoying experience with dancing aliens jumping across the screen and perpetual pop up windows.The opportunities on the Internet are in providing relevant content that is not intrusive personally.In addition to search and display advertising, marketers are also using the Internet and other techniques to generate word of mouth or buzz marketing.Yahoo and Msn search engines add millions more Internet home shoppers.It is expected that 90% of all home purchases will involve the Internet this year.

Indeed, as computer screens, mobile phones and other devices offer what amounts to billboard space for display ads, video and tie ins to Internet searches, the advertising landscape is undergoing a major transformation.Advertising networks have proven very effective in building brand awareness and generating demand.It has also the benefit of target advertising.Internet advertising offers an unprecedented vista of touch points with a customer.The goal of internet marketing is to bring you more qualified visitors to your website which translates into more business for you.

About the Author

Obinna Heche: Los Angeles - California

For the best home business ideas, opportunities and resources so you can work at home successfully visit.

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http://www.home-incomeportal.com

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