How To Start a Successful Yoga Blog: Tips From BWY Yoga Teacher, George Watts, Who Has Published 300+ Posts Since 2010
It’s no longer a luxury to have a blog on your website – it’s an absolute, 100% necessity. If you’re not blogging, you’re behind the times. Google loves websites that have blog posts.
Let’s get started…
Step 1
Learn About Blogging
Here are 41 Quick Blogging Tips to get you started…
- Include photos of yourself in yoga poses
- Create an EPIC blog post out of your next yoga lesson plan
- Get ideas for blog posts from your students (e.g. wrist exercises if a student has weak wrists)
- Tests blog post ideas on Twitter first
- Write about stuff you want to learn more about (e.g. yoga for golfers)
- Use each blog to build your free yoga newsletter
- Finish blog posts with a “join my class” call to action
- Finish blog posts with a “sign up to my newsletter” call to action
- Finish blog posts with a “like my Facebook page” call to action
- Provide a download to a yoga lesson plan
- Be consistent (write a blog post every week or two)
- Be different
- Allow your personality to shine through
- Don’t write to impress (formal writing is boring)
- Write like you talk (conversational style)
- Write eye-catching headlines
- Make the blog post worth bookmarking
- Make the blog post so darn good that your visitors email it to their friends
- Find a niche (e.g. yoga for runners or yoga for golfers)
- Write about something you love (e.g. yoga for runners)
- Add the blog post URL to your Business Facebook Page
- Add the blog post URL to your Twitter
- If you have an image of yourself in the post, add it to Instagram
- Add images. People love images
- Keep an eye on web analytics (are your blogs working?)
- Allow easy following (RSS feed)
- Get personal
- Talk about your failures, pains and struggles
- Spell check it
- Get someone to proof-read it
- Edit it (Google loves it when you edit your old posts)
- Use royalty-free images
- Turn the blog post into a Youtube Video
- I use Camtasia, green screen, yeti & Logitech c920 HD webcam to create Youtube Videos
- Turn your youtube videos into a Yoga DVD and publish it on Amazon
- Have somebody evaluate your blog and give you constructive feedback
- Share something personal to show you’re a real person
- Enjoy yourself (put some music on when you write)
- Research like a crazy person for the blog post you’re writing
- Research what other yoga teachers are doing on their blogs
- Always over-deliver (give away more than expected on the blog post
Step 2
Which Blogging Platform
If you’re not using WordPress, you may want to consider using it, because it is widely recognised to have the best SEO (search engine optimisation). There’s a reason why most websites are WordPress sites.
Well, actually I came up with eight reasons to use WordPress…
- Easy to use
- Free themes
- A lot of different layouts
- Loads of free plugins
- Easy to add images
- Easy to categorise posts
- Visitors can comment
- Visitors can share your posts
Step 3
Pick Your Topics
The first thing you need to do is choose which topics (“categories” in WordPress lingo) you want to blog about. What are you particularly interested in? It’s a whole lot easier to write blog posts about topics you’re on fire about. The good thing is that you’re a yoga teacher expert (pat yourself on the back), and have lots of topics you could get tucked into.
Possible categories:
- Anatomy
- Contests & Giveaways
- Fitness
- Healthy food
- Human Body
- Morning routines
- Personal development
- Practice challenges (e.g. 30-day core challenge)
- Yoga Equipment
- Yoga for athletes
- Yoga for football players
- Yoga for golfers
- Yoga for Pregnancy
- Yoga for rugby players
- Yoga for runners
Step 4
Write EPIC Posts
These days you need to write EPIC BLOG POSTS to be noticed by Google.
EPIC Definition
Heroic or grand in scale or character
There is a saying about blogging: “Content Is King.”
And it’s true!
There is nothing that gets Google more excited than an EPIC blog post. These days limp, half-hearted, mediocre blog posts just do not cut the mustard. Your EPIC BLOG POST needs to be filled with useful information that the viewer of your yoga website can immediately use (e.g. how to perform a certain pose). If you don’t have a website I can help you, or look online for a yoga website designer.
Keep these points in mind
Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
If you find an interesting blog post somewhere online, write a similar post injecting your own personality.
Top Notch Advice
Give your readers top-notch advice. Don’t be afraid to write a lot about a niche subject (e.g. the anatomy going on within your bottom when practising boat pose).
Add Humour
Don’t be afraid to add a touch of humour. For example, if you’re writing about ‘boat pose’, you could include a bit of humour about the anatomy going on within your bottom to create killer buns. You could then include a photo of your bottom if you happen to have particularly tight buns (obviously make the image as humorous as possible otherwise people could think they’re on a different kind of site).
Add Images And Video
Add images and videos. People are visual creatures and love to browse with their eyes.
Bullet Points
People like reading bullet points, so include them.
Share Your Story
Share your own stories to engage your readers. This also helps brand you as an expert.
Make It Long
The longer the better. I’ve been blogging for many years, and long blog posts always get more shares and likes. If you write a long post, try to make it as entertaining and educational (edutainment) as possible.
Make It Actionable
Make sure your reader can take action on something (e.g. how to get killer buns practising boat pose).
Step 5
Promote Your Posts
The very second after you publish your EPIC blog post, immediately do the following to promote it…
It’ll only take you a couple of minutes and it’ll be well worth your time.
Step 6
Email Your Students
Email your students asking them to put the following on their Facebook pages:
Hi [Student’s Name]
I just wrote a new blog post called [YOUR BLOG POST NAME] today. Could I be a bit cheeky and ask for your help? Could you like this post [URL of your Facebook post that has a link to your blog post]? It may be useful to your friends who are interested in practising yoga at home.
Step 7
Be Proactive On Twitter
Go to twitter.com/search.
Type in the keyword(s) that are related to your blog (for example: “yoga poses for runners”).
Search results from Twitter.
Check their profile.
Reach out to them in 140 characters (e.g. Hi, you previously tweeted Yoga Poses For Runners. Maybe you’ll find this article useful: [YOUR BLOG POST URL])?
Step 8
Seek Out Similar Blogs
Become an active commentator on other yoga blogs. Don’t spam! Leave useful comments that attract people to read your blog. Getting into discussions doesn’t take much time and drives laser-targeted visitors to your blog.
Step 9
Link Building
Go to Google.com and search for queries like: “intitle:YourBlogTopic inurl:resources” or “intitle:YourBlogTopic inurl:links”.
Now go to the contact page and send the following email:
“Hi [FIRST NAME]
I was reading your blog this evening and saw that you have a fabulous resource page. So, I’ve added it to my resource page. See it here: [YOUR WEBSITE RESOURCE PAGE].
I have a similar, but a non-competing website that might be helpful or useful to your audience.
See it yourself: YourWebsite.com
If you think it’s useful, please can you add the URL to your resource page?
All the best,
[YOUR NAME]
Step 10
Social Bookmarking Sites
Submit your site to the following social bookmarking sites:
Step 11
Create A Video Of The Post
I would say that this is no longer a choice, but a necessity.
The reason is that Youtube is now the second-largest search engine on the planet. Only Google is bigger.
It’s easy!
All you need to do is record a short video about the blog post (I use a screencasting software called Camtasia), and upload it to YouTube. Write a good description under the YouTube video. Be sure to add a URL link in the first line of the description of your website. That will get you more clicks on your website.
