In this modern day and age, you'd be hard pushed to find a business, big or small, that doesn't have at least some semblance of a web presence. Whether you're a huge, multinational conglomerate, or just starting out with a fledgling enterprise, a website is an absolute must if you want your customers to know that you actually exist.
If you're looking to go it alone as a personal trainer, setting up your own website will markedly improve your chances of attracting clients, and let them know all about yourself, what you do and the services you can offer. Whether you opt for a full-on bells-and-whistles site, or a simple social media page, getting your name out there on the Internet will further your reach and improve your prospects – here's how to get started.
The name of the game
First of all, you'll need to decide on a name for your business that you can then register as a domain. This name will act as the URL for your website, so ideally, it will tie in with personal training, fitness and health. What you name your business or services is completely up to you, but try to come up with something snappy, relatable and memorable – no one will remember a site simply called 'Tim's Training', but could well remember 'Onfit Training College', so use your imagination.
Setting up your own website will markedly improve your chances of attracting clients.
Take the register
Once you've decided upon a name, it's time to register it. To do this, you'll need to pay a small fee to an official domain name registry. With any luck, your chosen domain name will be available (i.e. nobody else has thought of it first!) so hand over your dollars and reserve the domain for a certain period of time – this can be as little as a year, or up to 25. It's completely up to you, and what you can afford.
Finally, you should sign up with a reputable web host. These are the guys that will look after your website in an online capacity, and they can even help you to design the site itself, with the use of online templates. If you aren't too confident with the intricate technical side of website design, this is something of a godsend – or you could find a professional website designer to help you out…
A design for life
There's nothing more off-putting than a badly designed website that looks as though it was put together in 1998 – your potential clients will be turned right off and look elsewhere. Luckily, there are several online tools to help you create a clean, modern-looking website and, if you have the resources, you can even hire a professional to give you a helping hand. Once you've settled upon an awesome design, it's time for the exciting stuff – filling your site with fresh content, getting integrated with social media and all that other good stuff. We'll take a look at how you go about this in our next article.
