Personal trainers everywhere are looking for ways to quit trading time for money. For many trainers, this means thinking outside of the box by going online. If you’re a trainer looking for more ways to earn, this is for you. In this post, I’ll teach you how to make money online as a personal trainer or health coach.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to help personal trainers earn an income online.
Before I became a trainer myself, I spoke to several trainers who were working crazy schedules and trading a lot of time for what felt like a little money.
Many of them were stressed and looking for new ways to increase their monthly revenue.
However, most of them were looking into gaining more clients or getting new jobs that paid more hourly – instead of getting creative with ways to earn.
Related Reading: Can You Make Money With A Fitness Blog?
Naturally, many of them were eventually interested in the best ways to make money in fitness online.
Having been a blogger for a few years prior to becoming a trainer, the wheels started to turn for me. I wanted to operate a fitness blog for accountability and to help others lose weight.
But I also knew that my fitness blog could do more – I could teach about how to make money online as a personal trainer.
Can You Really Make Money Online As A Personal Trainer or Health Coach?
If you’re reading this, I’m honestly surprised that you’re still asking yourself this question! Because you know that the answer is yes.
You’re probably following some celebrity or Instagram-famous trainer that’s always plugging his or her “program.” Or maybe they’re mentioning some supplement they use. Or maybe they’re offering one-on-one coaching.
You can do that too! It’s not something you have to be famous or rich to do.
So what we’re really after is answering the question of how.
How do personal trainers make money online?
I’m glad you asked.There are so many ways. But what are they? And which one is right for you? And how can you get started?
Ways To Make Money Online As A Personal Trainer
There are countless ways to make money online as a personal trainer. You’re only limited by your creativity. (You already have the insurance!) But is online personal training worth it?
Let’s take a quick look at a few popular different ways to make money online as a personal trainer or health coach:
- Sell pre-made programs in the form of an eBook download (I sell one called Restore The Core Workout Program)
- Become an affiliate or ambassador for your favorite supplements, workout gear, etc.
- Offer virtual training packages using an app/program like Trainerize
- Offer live workout classes/bootcamps using a streaming service
- Run a membership site where people can pay a monthly fee for workouts
- Write sponsored content in partnership with brands of all kinds
- Feature fitness-related ads on your site
- And more!
We have barely just scratched the surface as far as the ways to make money online as a personal trainer or health coach. You probably have so many questions. No worries, I gotchu. 😉
Related Reading: Great Affiliate Programs for Fitness Bloggers
While there are a lot of ways to make money online as a personal trainer (i.e. a lot of products you can sell), we haven’t really talked about one super important component – getting people’s eyes on your product/offerings.
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The First Step To Making Money Online As A Personal Trainer or Health Coach
No matter what you have in mind as far as services or products you might offer, you have to get your message out there. You’re not going to reach many more people by doing the same things you’re already doing.
I’m talking about handing out your business card, asking your friends to tell their friends about you, taking out the occasional print ad, etc…
These traditional marketing methods are great for some brick-and-mortar businesses, but if you’re wanting to see a significant boost in income, you need to go online. And to go online, you need to start with a website. You can learn how to start a fitness blog here.
Before we go deeper into the ways to make money online, you have to GET ONLINE.
If you don’t already have a business website, NOW IS THE TIME. You don’t have to know what you’re doing, you don’t have to have your own fitness business already, and it doesn’t matter if you work for someone else right now.
(There are a lot of ways that you can make money without creating a conflict of interest with your place of work.)
What If I Don’t Already Have My Own Fitness Business?
Training people outside of your place of work might get you fired. But you can still write about fitness topics and offer other products (that your gym doesn’t) and increase your personal revenue.
However, if you want the most flexibility and endless income options, you’ll want to be in business for yourself.
Either way, I’m going to help you build a business because some day you might decide to go your own way, and this will help you get there.
I personally have my own fitness business, Ironwild Fitness, LLC. I’d actually started this website before even becoming a personal trainer.
I knew I wanted to become one and there are no laws saying you can’t blog about fitness if you aren’t a trainer, so that’s that.
But now that I’m a personal trainer with my own business, I can earn money in ANY of the ways I mentioned above. However, I started this long before forming my LLC, and I’m sure that it has helped me get up and running as a CPT quickly.
(Read my latest income report here.)
So – if you don’t already have your own business – and might never – you can still make money online as a personal trainer or health coach.
What you call your website is up to you. I chose to combine my online business with my training business.
But if you work for a gym or have some other sort of employment, you’ll have to choose something unrelated to that.
If you plan to quit your job some day, you could plan accordingly like I did (knowing that I was going to train and blog under Ironwild Fitness). That’s up to you!
Can I make good money as a personal trainer?
Yes, but first let’s talk about your website. Be it brick-and-mortar or virtual, all businesses should have dedicated websites. It’s beneficial for both types to have these for contact information, educational material, service summaries, and so much more.
But since you’re here to learn how to make money online as a personal trainer, we’ll focus on the ways to monetize that website. Let’s go over the most common ways. I briefly mentioned some of these above, but I’d like to go a little more in depth for those of you who aren’t familiar.
Thecategories are:
1. AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is far and wide my favorite way to make money blogging. Here’s how it works: I love a product. I tell people (my readers and fans) about that product. They buy it. I make a commission.
It’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it. I link to products I love or review them on my site.
Then I promote my blog and people buy stuff. I then get a percentage of the sale! I love making money this way because it can be super versatile and lucrative, too. Plus, I can seriously promote anything I use and love!
On this site, I’m an affiliate for the awesome Pinterest scheduler I use, the blog traffic course I took, the protein shakes I like, and more!
Here’s a post about more fitness affiliate programs if you’re interested.
2. PRODUCT SALES
Every blog has a special focus – and each blogger can create products targeted to their market. On my last blog, I sold an ebook that I wrote for $12 a pop.
On this blog, I’m sellingmy home workout program. I also have diversified my income by building a business a postpartum exercise program. I love it!
But there was a lot of work that went into making both books. The good news is that you can sell just about anything. Social media work, virtual assistant services, meal plans, recipe books, t-shirts, etc. It’s up to you!
3. AD REVENUE
See any ads on this site? I didn’t put them there just for fun.Each one earns me anywhere from a few pennies to a few dollars per day.
Yep, brands will pay you just to put them there in order to get their products in front of more eyes. It’s easy and it can be lucrative if you have a lot of people visiting your blog.
With this blog averaging 30,000 page views per month, I make about $450/month from ads alone. That’s pretty cool considering 30,000 page views isn’t really a ton in the blogging world.
4. INFLUENCER WORK
Brands will pay you a few bucks to a couple hundred bucks to tell others about their products. I get paid to post things on social media and my blogs.
Sometimes you’re just Tweeting something, other times you might be writing a blog post.
Who knows! One thing is for sure – the higheryour blog traffic and the larger your social media accounts, the more you’ll get paid. My biggest beef with this category? Work can be hit-and-miss until you’re an established blogger. However, working with brands can be really fun.
5. DIRECT SALES IN WELLNESS
Believe it or not, direct sales companies make more millionaires than any other industry. If you can find one that fits your niche, then you have a new opportunity for a new revenue stream.
I recently joined one that sells natural wellness products like protein shakes, pre-workout powders, sleep support, and more. You can read about that here. So far, the opportunity has just been too good to pass up, and I earned my first paycheck within 13 days!
Start Making Money Online As A Personal Trainer
Regardless of how you want to make money, you have to be seen. When we’re talking about how to make money online as a personal trainer, we need to address every aspect. That includes driving traffic to your site and using social media.
Every time you try to sell something, your revenue is dependent on how many people know about your product (duh). It’s the biggest challenge for most businesses.
But in the virtual world, social media can be your biggest weapon. In my opinion, using social media is the best way to get your product out to the world.
So after establishing a website (you can start your own using this tutorial), your next course of action should be to start *business* accounts for the following platforms, at minimum:
(Click to see mine.)
Optional Platforms To Explore:
- YouTube
- SnapChat
The topic of how to use your social media account to make money online as a personal trainer is a big one.
We’ve barely begun to scratch the surface, but I hope that if you’re new to the idea of making money online, this has helped!
If you’re ready to take the leap andmake money online as a personal trainer, I have a ton of resources for you! Here are some blog posts that I think might help:
- How To Start A Health, Food, or Fitness Blog
- 25 Free Ways To Increase Blog Traffic
- What I’ve Learned About Blogging After 4 Years
Thanks for reading!
-Chantal
