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Between baking sugar cookies for my kid's kindergarten class, slapping together tonight's dinner (tuna sandwiches) and finishing off a client's bio, I blog.
Honestly, right now I'd rather be flaked out on the couch like that guy in the photo above.
But I'm blogging because I said I would.
It was one of the last things I talked about in my session on fitness blogging at the Can-Fit-Pro conference in Vancouver.
I said something like, hey, let's all sign up for a blog or post to our existing ones THIS WEEK! It'll help set the stage for a lifetime of happy, healthy fitness blogging.
So here I am. And, yes, this post does have a point.
My "let's all blog!" declaration reminded me how much it helps productivity to have someone relying on you for something specific. That's how I get my fitness articles written - I've got editors expecting them from me by a certain date.
If you're really stuck at the point of perpetually intending to blog without ever doing it, try this: Tell your most valued fitness clients that you're about to blog on X topic and you'd love their opinions on whatever you write about.
There. Now you have a reason to blog.
A deadline.
And a pre-established audience.
That should whip you into blogging shape.
Point made. Can I go lie around now?
P.S. Kudos to Mia Sutherland and Josh Neumann (both in my Can-Fit-Pro fitness blogging session) for following through so fast on that "blog this week" pact. Inspiring! If you blogged in the past week, let me know with a comment here and I'll comment back on your blog.
The photo above cracks me up. I imagine a bunch of people without a lot of exercise experience saying, "Hey everyone, let's take some fun fitness-y shots now!" And what we get are silly pink mini-weights (the kind known to set me off on a rant), leg warmers (and are those wrist warmers?) and fake fitness poses that don't resemble actual exercises.
But whatever. At least they make fitness look oh-so-carefree.
The "fake fitness" photo reminds me of how fitness pros might view blogging at the onset.
With the benefits and popularity of social media, a lot of marketing experts and fitness pros insist that you've got to have a blog. But that kind of advice tends to drive me crazy because the result is fitness pros--and, yes, major fitness companies--rattling around online with a blog that, frankly, doesn't feel or look very "blogg-y" at all. Its posts are as "fake" as the cheesy poses in that photo above.
Take the several fitness companies I can think of off the top of my head whose idea of a blog is to drop previously published articles into a post and call it blogging. ("Hey everyone, we've got a blog up and running! That wasn't so hard.")
Is it so wrong of them?
Maybe not. But when the article is written in boring academic language and appears as one 1,500-word block of text, then, yeah, it's veering away from the essence of blogging.
I can't authoritatively say all that a blog is, but I know what it probably shouldn't be: impersonal, dry, a copy/paste job from another publication, longer than my Master's thesis...
That's why when someone suggests that people who don't get around to blogging are just plain lazy (as did a commenter in my previous post), I get to thinking about blogging as an exercise in being thoughtful and informed, not just prolific.
Without considering the craft involved, blogging becomes about as effective as flailing around a couple of one-pound hand-weights and calling it a workout.
Don't you think?
FOR MORE ON FITNESS BLOGGING AND HOW TO DO IT: Come to my session, Sunday, November 21, at canfitpro Vancouver, Session 3211 (10:30am-12:00pm), Blog Your Way to Fitness Business Success.
Why You Do Have Time for a Fitness Blog
When it comes to fitness blogging, I hear a lot of excuses from fitness pros about why they don't do it.
The primary reason?
"I'm too busy. I don't have time to blog."
I heard it back in September at the BCFIT '10 conference in my session on fitness marketing with social media.
I'll probably hear it again in November, when I present on fitness blogging at canfitpro's Vancouver conference.
It's just an excuse, though, and here's how I know: I have the same problem. I don't blog every week (or even every month sometimes--oops).
And why not? Uh, I don't have time?
Meaning: When I'm not on deadline with an article or writing/editing project, I manage to find other things to do instead.
Like Facebooking. Or chatting with a colleague on the phone. Or catching a movie (last night it was Canada's own FUBAR II).
Isn't it the same excuse people use for not exercising?
No time. Meaning: They don't feel like using the spare time they do have for working out.
As for blogging, here's why it makes sense to at least set up a blog so it's there when you can get to it.
Blogging and other online pursuits (Facebook!) are part of the new way to market fitness. The old way is setting up a brochure-style website then ignoring your online presence.
If you're a fitness pro, what do you tell clients about how to carve out time for exercise? Could any or all of those strategies work for your own blogging pursuits? Whether you blog or not, share your tips and ideas here!
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to Facebook.
For more on jump-starting your fitness blog, come see me on Sunday, November 21, at canfitpro Vancouver, Session 3211 (10:30am-12:00pm), Blog Your Way to Fitness Business Success.
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