If your running passion yells to you “full involvement”, I see three good solutions: prepare for and compete in a marathon, start a running blog, or do both. The second and third option seem unconventional, but I assure you they’re not.
The perks of having a running blog are quite promising:
- It allows you to document your life and professional progress
- It’ll help you overcome challenges and setbacks
- It’ll improve your commitment to pursuing your dreams
- You can become a highly reputable running influencer
- You can earn your financial freedom if you employ the proper monetization techniques
Is it easy? Quick? No. Can anyone become a successful running blogger? Absolutely no. I’m not here to crush your motivation, but rather to expose the truth that’ll help you develop realistic expectations.
In this post, I’ll detail 7 insightful tips to become a successful running blogger. If you’re just starting out, perfect. If you already have a blog, this post will give you clues on how to improve your performance.
1. Commit to a Clearly Defined Mission
Mike Carry, CEO at EssayOnTime and marathon runner, suggests that “Blogging is just like a business. Without goals and missions, your progress might be limited by your moods, challenges, and setback. Also, by having a clear mission, a runner will better define his brand’s culture and position his blog among his fiercest competitors.”
Here are some examples of blogging goals:
- Helping beginners by offering proven and effective advice
- Setting a good example by consistently improving yourself
- Motivating and inspiring other runners to reach their peak performance
- Becoming the biggest running blogger nationally/internationally
Find your own motivation and stick to it as if you’d hold the rope before falling down the cliff!
2. Develop a Content Strategy
To start your running blog on the right foot, plan your content strategy before anything else.
Establish the Target Audience
In order for people to read your content and follow your advice, you’ll need to address the right audience. For example, some running bloggers target pregnant mothers. Other running bloggers write for overweight individuals, while others write for professional athletes who prepare for marathons. Decide, and craft content and products that fully resonate with your specific audience.
Develop a Content Calendar
You should develop a content calendar that outlines your future blog posts. This way, you’ll find it easier to post content consistently. Your audience will love you for that, and they’ll reward you appropriately.
Guest Post/Offer Guest Posting Opportunities
To bring more traffic to your running blog, you should seek guest posting opportunities and offer guesting possibilities as well. Allow other runners or professional athletes to write for your blog and allow them to link back to their site. Do the same and broaden your blog’s reach!
3. Use Passion to Differentiate Your Voice
Unless you’re passionate about running, starting a blog dedicated to runners would be a huge mistake. People expect something original, unique, and valuable. Your passion will help you differentiate your writing voice, as well as your blog’s unique value proposition.
4. Choose Attention-Grabbing Pictures
Visual content will help you capture your traffic’s attention, which will improve the number of people who actually start reading your content.
You should only use high-quality pictures of yourself, other athletes, affiliate products, or of your own products. If the quality of your images is poor, your visitors will immediately notice the lack of professionalism!
5. Get Big on Social Media
Build an online presence and share everything you post on your blog with your social followers. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube – choose a platform and try to build a huge following. It’ll take time, and it’ll only work if you can share valuable content on a consistent basis.
6. Collaborate with Non-Competitive Influencers
Another great tip to speed up your blog’s progress is to seek and collaborate with non-competitive influencers. For example, a running blogger cannot go to another running blogger and ask for promotion services because a direct competition exists between the two.
However, a running blogger will be able to close a “partnership deal” with a gym blogger, a health blogger, or a sports clothing blogger because the interests are often different, as well as the content.
7. Get Creative and Think Out of the Box
There are many running blogs out there, each trying to gain a competitive advantage over time. To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to offer content that’s creative, relevant, and ultimately useful. Here are three examples of creative approaches for running bloggers:
Monica, a passionate running blogger started documenting her dieting and weight loss progress before her first marathon. This content marketing campaign helped her increase the rapport with her followers, making them trust and respect her more. Her blog also contains recipes, exercising moves, and dozens of useful running tips.
Steve Magness is a highly successful author, performance coach, and lecturer. He’s coaching more than 25 professional runners, helping them improve their marathons’ performance. On this blog, you’ll find lots of useful information in the form of free blog posts, podcasts, and newsletters.
Offering coaching services can be a great source of income, it can help you improve your standards, and it’ll help you stand out from the crowd.
Coach Jay Johnson is a blog run by a successful author named Jay Johnson. He is an expert runner and a great coach who takes a different approach than most runners – he writes a book, publishes it, markets it, and makes a lot of passive income over time.
The book is called “Simple Marathon Training: The Right Training for Busy Adults with Hectic Lives” and teaches people how to leverage the last 20 weeks before a marathon to improve their odds of success.
Takeaways
Becoming a successful runner is often more difficult than most people would expect. Consistency and persistence are keys, as well as the presence of a true sense of commitment. Take our tips into consideration, test them one by one, assess the results, optimize, scale, and repeat. Keep growing your digital skills, expand your reach, and seek to constantly “play” better than your competitors!
Start your own running blog now
You can setup your own running blog for free here on JustRunLah!. Follow this link to find out how.
Guest post: Serena Dorf is an enthusiastic content writer in Los Angeles. She is thirsty for knowledge and is always on the lookout for amazing writing tips to share with her readers. In her free time, she is reading classic American literature and learning Swedish. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter.
