Active Voice Writing Service

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PODCAST: How to Use Your Fitness Expertise to Break into Writing for Magazines and Newspapers

PUBLICITY ARTICLE: 6 Publicity Tips for Gaining Valuable Recognition as a Fitness Professional

WEB WRITING: Are the Words on Your Site Costing You Money?

MARKETING ARTICLE: 7 Simple Ways of Driving Traffic to Your Site Using One E-Published Tips Booklet

PODCAST:

How to Use Your Fitness Expertise to Break into Writing for Magazines and Newspapers from FitnessBusinessRadio.com

Hear about:

How writing for magazines and newspapers can boost your status and net worth in the fitness industry.
What you must know before approaching magazine and newspaper editors to preserve your professional image and get your writing published.
Why fitness professionals have a clear competitive advantage for breaking into magazines and newspapers, and how you can use this upper hand to your benefit.
How you can use your fitness know-how and experience to get your name into major magazines, read by millions of people.
What you need to know about the difference between writing fitness articles for online magazines and writing for print publications.
Simple ways to make writing articles easier for you and more interesting for your readers.

> MORE ON WRITING HEALTH AND FITNESS ARTICLES

PUBLICITY ARTICLE

6 Publicity Tips for Gaining Valuable Recognition as a Fitness Professional

By Amanda Vogel, MA, and Jim Labadie

The free publicity you receive from being a fitness expert in the media is more powerful than any paid advertisement. Being quoted as a fitness expert in articles or appearing in fitness segments on TV increases your profile as a credible professional, which, in turn, boosts your overall career and profit margin.

Here, fitness professionals and media experts Amanda Vogel and Jim Labadie offer six tips for scoring valuable exposure as a fitness expert with everything from widely popular magazines to your local TV station.

>For magazines and newspapers

1. Think ahead.

If you aspire to stand out as a health/fitness expert in big-name magazines, think ahead - way ahead. That's because - unlike newspapers and small publications - most major magazines work months in advance.

Be prepared to drum up summer-related story ideas in the winter. But don’t stop there. Many editors at top magazines begin concocting stories a whole year in advance! Get ahead of your competition by being the first fitness pro to suggest attention-grabbing ideas for the seasons and holidays ahead.

2. Branch out.

Magazine editors come and go more often than you might think. Focusing all your attention on one editor could be disastrous for your long-term publicity efforts. If she leaves her position at the magazine, you might be back to square one with her replacement. One way to avoid this is to build relationships with editors at many magazines and/or editors in different departments of the same publication, such as fitness, nutrition and health.

3. Make print publicity work for you many times over.

When an article containing your name and fitness advice hits the newsstands or newspaper racks, you’ll likely notice a boost in business and/or interest in your services.

Make the most of that valuable publicity long after the magazine or newspaper is out of circulation by including it in your marketing plan. Prominently post the article in your fitness studio. Mention the publicity on your website, with a link to the article’s online version if possible. Tuck a good-quality copy of the piece into your press kit.

>For TV and radio

4. Pitch the producers, not the talent.

Radio and television producers decide what goes on air. The talent - news anchors, reporters and disc jockeys – typically have little or no idea who’s coming on as a guest. If you want to regularly appear on radio or TV, strengthen your relationship with the producer as opposed to the person who interviews you.

5. Show benefit to the audience.

Your goal is to sell your ideas with a pitch. The key to getting TV or radio producers to buy your ideas is convincing them that their audience would enjoy and benefit from your story or information. That’s why you must be familiar with the stories that usually air, and the audience’s demographic before you pitch an idea. Regularly tune into the TV programs and radio shows you want to be on.

6. Come alive!

Being lively and well-spoken during your first TV or radio appearance increases your chances of being asked back as a guest. Knowing that you’ll be heard or seen by thousands or more people can be nerve-racking. When you’re nervous or overly excited before an appearance, channel that energy to create an electrifying “on air” performance. Remember, you’re a fitness professional - people expect you to be energetic!

Amanda Vogel, MA, is a fitness writer in Vancouver, B.C. Receive a free copy of her e-book 51 Need-to-Know Writing & Marketing Tips for Fitness Pros through her website: www.activevoice.ca.

Jim Labadie is a Florida-based fitness entrepreneur. To learn more about pitching producers, coming up with terrific story ideas and the biggest mistake health and fitness professionals make when trying to land publicity, sign up for his FREE mini-course at: howtogetmorepublicity.com.

>> Please feel free to reprint and distribute this article with the above bios.<<

MORE PUBLICITY TIPS

WEB WRITING

Are the Words on Your Site Costing You Money?
By Allen Hill, FitnessWebsiteProfits.com

A simple checklist for testing and improving the words on your site to improve the response you get from your visitors.

Most fitness websites fail simply because of the words on the site. Words are so much more powerful than the fancy graphics and cool flash animations.

Without words, nothing could EVER be sold on the Web. Here's a simple checklist to make sure you're harnessing the immense power of the written word.

1) Does your site have a powerful opening headline?

The first thing any visitor to your site will see is the headline. Its sole responsibility is to reach through the monitor and hit your visitor between the eyes with your single most important benefit.

It has to reach out and grab their attention. And it has to do it fast! You have 5 seconds or less to get their attention, or you have no hope of getting them to read any further into your sales copy.

Headlines account for 75% or more of your site's effectiveness. If your headline is sub-par, your sales will be too.

What is the most important benefit you have to offer? Make your headline answer the visitor's most pressing question, which is...

What's in it for ME?

2) Your sub headlines must "tell the story"

After the headline, the subheadings must hit them again with the other important benefits of working with you.

People on the Web are in a hurry. They skim. They scan.

Your headline and your subheadings must tell your story all by themselves, even if that's all they read on your site. Make each subheading benefit-focused and let them know again and again exactly what IS in it for them.

Read your site from a busy visitor's perspective. Do your headlines and subheadings tell the whole story? If not, rework them until they do.

3) The "you-to-me" ratio

How much time do you spend talking about yourself on your fitness website? How much time do you spend talking about your visitor and what's in it for him/her?

One of the biggest mistakes I see on fitness professionals’ websites is that they spend too much time talking about themselves.

There's an old marketing axiom that goes like this...

"Tell me NOT how you and your product came to be, just tell me what the damn thing does for ME."

That could not be more true than on the Internet. People don't care about you, how many certifications you have, how many clients you have, how long you've been a trainer, or anything else about you.

Sounds kind of selfish, I know. But that's the cold hard truth of the matter. They came to your site because they have a problem they need help with, a pain that needs cured.

Make an effort to go through your site with a critical eye. Count how many times you use the words "I," "me," "us," and "we." Then go through and count the times you use the words "you" and "your."

The "you-to-me" ratio should be at LEAST 10:1, probably more in the range of 25:1. Anything else is costing you visitors, costing you subscribers, leads, and most importantly, sales.

MARKETING ARTICLE

7 Simple Ways of Driving Traffic to Your Site Using One E-Published Tips Booklet

By Paulette Ensign

I am not a web designer or search engine optimizer, nor do I play one on TV. However, I do know that the driving force in bringing qualified traffic to your web site is dynamic high value content. That means compelling, interesting, approachable, and immediately useful information, especially when you also directly sell products or services at your site.

Increasing and maintaining traffic also demands both offline and online mechanisms to attract those visitors.

One of the easiest and most versatile forms of the content described above is a ‘how-to’ tips booklet. With the right writing style, not only can you use the booklet in its entirety as a downloadable bonus file on your site, it can also be sliced, diced, and reformatted to get the most mileage possible from the single document.

Imagine a booklet called “110 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Health Club Membership.” Your site features health and wellness products.

Look at some of the ways to use one tips booklet:

1. Downloadable bonus - full booklet download for visiting the site, a new title bi-monthly

2. Radio/television advertising campaign - “This fitness moment brought to you by (your company’s name) …Visit www.xyz.com for 109 more great tips like this one.”

3. Print advertising campaign – a few tips, directing people to your site for more tips.

4. Autoresponder service - send a tip a day or week, inviting people to your site for more.

5. Trade show coupon – offering free downloadable booklet at your web site.

6. Product packaging or printed catalog - single tips, directing people to your site.

7. Email - a tip within any email from your Customer Service Department or in any electronic invoice, encouraging people to receive more tips when visiting your site.

Doing this with a different booklet every other month easily broadens your campaign to an entire year, keeping the content fresh, interesting, flowing, and attractive to more traffic.

Your next booklets could be:

You Can Do It - Walk A Marathon
77 Ways to Prevent and Improve Back Problems
117 Tips for Relieving Arthritis & Muscular Pain
Keep Smiling! 75 Tips for Great Dental Health
108 Ideas for Getting Your Family to Eat Better

Picture what happens when you translate the same booklet into a different language to reach a non-English speaking population. You can do the same things mentioned here to bring traffic to your site.

Simplify your life and the lives of your customers by giving them useful information that will keep them wanting more from you – more information and more of your products.

Paulette Ensign is Founder and Chief Visionary of Tips Products International. All the booklet titles mentioned in this article, plus hundreds more on a wide range of topics, are readily available for licensing rather than using your valuable staff’s time and salary.

> MORE ON FITNESS MARKETING WITH TIPS BOOKLETS