Why Nobody Except Your Mom Reads Your Fitness Blog

Written on April 20, 2011 at 2:32 pm, by Eric Cressey

I got an email from Dean Somerset last weekend if I’d be willing to write up a post for his blog about how I built up a popular fitness blog myself.  I thought it over, and while I like Dean and enjoy reading his blog, I really didn’t think I was the right person to write such a piece.  There are folks who are much smarter when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff that goes in to running a blog – from WordPress updates, to HTML formatting, to SEO optimization.   And, there are certainly folks out there who have monetized their blog far better than I ever will.

That said, I do feel that there was one incredibly valuable point I should make to the aspiring fitness bloggers out there:

If you don’t have good content, your blog won’t get consistent traffic.  It’s really that simple.

I started this blog in early 2006 with really no idea what I was doing on the technology side of things.  I loved my job and was passionate about teaching – and writing gave me an avenue through which to do it.  Sometimes, I wrote about what I knew well, and sometimes, I wrote about topics where I wanted to improve – and researching them and teaching them to others was the best way to get better in these areas.  Before I ever hired someone to make my site look pretty, I’d built up a solid following of people who knew me purely for my content, enthusiasm, and accessibility to readers.

A trend I see with “rookie” fitness bloggers nowadays is to design a spectacular site from the get-go and devote all their resources to SEO optimization, pop-up ads, Google Adwords, and the like.  Unfortunately, these efforts are sabotaged by these bloggers’ poor grammar/spelling and, more significantly, a complete lack of valuable information to offer to readers.

In any industry, you look for commonalities among those who succeed at what we do.  For ease of calculating “success,” let’s just use Alexa ranking.   You can learn more about it (and download a free toolbar) at www.Alexa.com, but for the sake of brevity, just understand that it is a measure of the popularity of a website.  Get more hits, receive more inbound links from popular sites, and have people spending more time on your site, and your Alexa rank will go down (a lower number is better).  Google is #1, Facebook is #2, Yahoo is #3, and so on.  It’s not a perfect measure by any means, but when you are dealing in the top one million sites or so, it’s generally accepted to be pretty good. I’m lucky to be at around 101,000 right now, and have been as high as 89,000 in the past.

If you’re in the top one million or so, you’re likely doing some very good traffic – and certainly enough to monetize your blog.  My buddy Tim Ferriss’ blog, for instance, currently has an Alexa ranking of 3,644, and he’s an absolute ninja on the entrepreneurial side of things, with two New York Times bestsellers and ownership stakes in the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, and several other companies.  He’s a success, in part, because every single one of his posts (and books) provides outstanding content that readers not only enjoy – but pass along to their friends.

Translating this message to the fitness industry, look at a guy like Charlie Weingroff.  He might be one of the few guys out there who understands technology less than I do, and there is absolutely nothing flashy about his site.  To be candid, it’s pretty basic.  You know what, though?  Charlie is an extremely bright (and strong) dude with a ton to teach, a passion for teaching it, and a knack for relating complex information in a user-friendly manner.  I don’t think his blog has even been out for a year, yet he’s ranked around 639,000.  And, he’s used his blog to make his expertise known, build a loyal following, and launch a successful product (which is outstanding, by the way).

There are several other fitness bloggers who’ve become “top one million” success stories purely with content.  John Berardi dominates with Precision Nutrition (64,000), which has been built with science, integrity, and an ultra-personal touch to great content all along.  My business partner, Tony Gentilcore (706,000) kicks out great content and entertains people like crazy.  My good friend Mike Robertson (103,000) is an awesome teacher and genuinely great guy.  Nick Tumminello (537,000) innovates like crazy to build a following, and Chad Waterbury (475,000) only recently created his own web presence and has used content to quickly ascend the ranks.  Nate Green (202,000) is an excellent writer who has carved out a great niche for himself and built a great following at a young age because of his unique content.  Mike Reinold (400,000) has built a great following in a smaller internet segment (physical therapists) with consistent content featuring up-to-date research, attention to many different clinical perspectives, and a specific focus on upper extremity dysfunction.  These guys all offer something others don’t.

You know who hasn’t built a big following?

• The random fitness dudes who send Facebook friend requests to my wife because they have mutual friends – and these guys want to build their lists.  I’ve yet to meet a single one who is in the top 2 million.

• The “fitness business guru” who emailed me four times, called my office twice, and snail-mailed me once (each of which was ignored) to try to get me to promote his product, which he guaranteed would make personal trainers “rich.”  His website ranked at higher than 6.6 million – which essentially means that he has zero traffic other than himself (and he’s probably just checking in to see if he’s gotten his first hit yet).  Instead of focusing on content (and moving out of his parents’ basement), he’s putting the cart in front of the horse and trying to sell a product on a topic (success) that he doesn’t even understand.

• The random dude who wants to exchange links with me or be added to my blogroll so that he can improve his rankings without doing a thing, much less providing some value to me (or society in general).

The only thing that’s worse than sucking at what you do is sucking at what you do and spending time and money to draw attention to it.

I started out thinking that this would be a short, to-the-point, blog, but as I now realize, that one little point was actually a very big one.  Pretty websites and behind-the-scenes tinkering are undoubtedly important components of taking an online presence to the next level, but the truth is that they don’t matter a bit unless the content that accompanies them is useful and entertaining.

If it’s not, then you’ll have a hard time even getting Mom’s attention.

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Nate Green’s Hero Handbook: Cool (and Free) Read with No Strings Attached

Written on February 15, 2011 at 6:50 am, by Eric Cressey

I’ll be brief today, as I have a lot going on, and frankly, Nate Green can better explain what he has going on than I can.

Nate’s a great dude and excellent writer, and he’s doing a free giveaway at his website of his “Hero Handbook,” which is basically a how-to guide that covers everything from personal, to physical, to professional development.  So, whether you want to get strong, get lean, get self-employed, or get a girlfriend/boyfriend, it’s a good read.  I really enjoyed it.

No charge; it’s just a sweet free gift Nate’s made available as a thank you to his readers.  It’s so thorough that it deserves more than just a “Stuff You Should Read” column, so I’m giving it an entire blog.  Check it out: The Hero Handbook.

Quick Fixes to Common Training Injuries

Written on August 11, 2010 at 8:59 am, by Eric Cressey

Call it a law of weightlifting: no matter how careful you are, at some point you’re gonna get hurt. Now you probably won’t decapitate yourself with a barbell or tear a pec or even rupture your spleen—the weightlifter’s injuries are rarely that cool or sudden.

Nope, you’ll probably just end up with a bum shoulder, a pinched elbow, a bad back, or creaky knees, all the result of years of faulty movement patterns, poor training habits, or just general wear and tear. And while these injuries are always frustrating, they’re often manageable.

Because it’s hard to build a good-looking body when you’re hurt, I talked with Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson about how these body parts probably got jacked up in the first place, and asked them for simple strategies to get you healthy.

Continued Reading…

6 Dirty Tricks to Instantly Increase Muscle and Boost Performance

Written on March 8, 2010 at 5:56 am, by Eric Cressey

When we were seven, my friends and I loved to eat spinach. Not because we liked the taste. God no. Raw spinach tasted like, well, leaves, and the goop we’d spoon out of the can was vile, smelly stuff. No, we ate spinach because Popeye ate spinach.

It made him instantly muscular and powerful-a can of spinach and he could punch through brick walls. We could only imagine how it would transform our pre-pubescent bodies into superhero physiques. We shoveled it down our throats, testing our gag reflexes, and satisfying our mothers.

Continue Reading…

The Tao of Cressey

Written on January 18, 2010 at 9:08 am, by Eric Cressey

“… Tao is often referred to as ‘the nameless’, because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words.”

Aw, what the hell, we’ll give it a shot.

No questions, no time limit, and no stone unturned. Training? Nutrition? A little piss and vinegar? It’s all here.

The following is what happens when you get on the phone with a top-level strength and conditioning coach and hit “record.”

Read more…

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What’s in Store for 2010?

Written on January 1, 2010 at 5:36 pm, by Eric Cressey

Happy New Year, everyone!

I thought I’d use this first post of 2010 as a way of looking forward to what’s on tap at EricCressey.com for the year.  In true “Random Thoughts” fashion, here we go:

1. Nate Green just interviewed me for what I think will be a great feature at T-Muscle in the next week or two.  It will be similar in structure to this piece Nate did with Dave Tate, which definitely turned out to be an entertaining read.  Keep an eye out for it!

2. Speaking of interviews, I’ll be doing one with Brian Grasso for the IYCA on Tuesday.  Brian’s a very forward-thinking guy and I’m excited to catch up with him.

3. Speaking of T-Muscle, I’m finishing up my “What I Learned in 2009″ article this weekend.  It follows the articles I wrote for 2006, 2007, and 2008.

4. Also coming up in the next month or so will be the release of the DVDs of Mike Reinold and my seminar from November: Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Rehabilitation to High Performance. It’s being edited as I type this.

5. This January 24, Cressey Performance will be hosting Neil Rampe of the Arizona Diamondbacks for his seminar, .  You can register HERE, or for more information on Neil’s background, click HERE.  If you’d like to see a seminar agenda, please just email me at ec@ericcressey.com.

6. I’ll be presenting in Tampa, FL (Jan); Winchester, MA (Jan); Las Vegas, NV (March); and Vancouver, BC (March); and Boston, MA (May) in this first part of 2010.  Check out my schedule page for more information on these events.

7. I’m very anxious to hear more of the feedback on Assess and Correct, which has already sold in more than two dozen countries.  This is a product I truly believe will help a lot of people, and the short-term feedback we’ve received since its release in October has been tremendous.

8. At Cressey Performance, our staff has started up what (for lack of a more masculine term) we’re calling the Staff Book Club.  Each staff member will present on what he learns in a different book each week.  I think it’ll be a great way to cover more material and keep us all accountable to each other on getting our continuing education done.

9.I’m pumped for more content from Matt Blake in 2010.  He’s been a fantastic resource for all our athletes and I’m excited to share with you all how Matt and I collaborate to make our pitchers better.  I think it’ll make for some great content.

10. I’d really like to continue to grow both the newsletter and blog.  You can sign up for notifications on both fronts to the right of the screen, if you haven’t already.

11. I’m really pumped for all our guys who have found great college choices; it’s an exciting time for both the 2010 and 2011 guys.  Most recently, CP athlete Adam Ravenelle committed to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship.  Adam’s been with us since before his freshman year, and we’re all really proud of him.  He actually joins another CP pitcher, Tyler Beede, who committed to Vanderbilt just a few weeks ago.  Both guys are in the class of 2011, and join Barrett O’Neill (University of Virginia) and Joe Napolitano (Boston College) as our early committees from that class.

There should be plenty more guys with exciting news along these lines in the months to come as well.

12. I’m really excited to watch Cressey Performance grow in the months ahead.  While I was certainly thrilled at the growth we saw (15%) in 2009 and I hope it continues, I am most thrilled at how many clients we’ve seen change their bodies and their lives since they started up, and how many friendships we’ve seen cultivated inside CP. If you’d have told me a few years ago that we’d have over 25 people in on Thanksgiving morning, for instance, I would have told you that you were crazy!

In addition to our clients’ accomplishments, I’m so proud of our staff. I could never do what I do without such great guys working alongside me, and the best part is that they are insatiable in their desire to get better.  We’re constantly getting better and it makes every new day fun.  The best part is that I feel like it’s something that’s carried over to our interns, too; there are some really talented people with bright futures coming through here.

13. I’m very excited for the new CP website, which should be done in a matter of a few days.  Along those same lines, there is a pretty sweet training and testimonial montage being pulled together about our Elite Baseball Development program.  I was actually getting pretty fired up just watching some of the footage that had been gathered thus far.

14. I can’t wait to attack all the books and journal articles that are in my stack of “Things to Read” right now.  There’s too much material to cover, but never enough time!

15. Last, but certainly not least, it’ll also be a very busy (but exciting) year for me personally in 2010, as my fiancee Anna and I will be getting married this October.  And, even before we get to that, we’re planning to buy our first home in the next 4-6 months.  Obviously, we’re already doing a lot of planning!

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to all of this – and probably a few surprises along the way.  Best wishes for 2010, and stay tuned!

The Squat: Good Exercise Gone Bad?

Written on December 3, 2009 at 6:16 am, by Eric Cressey

A few weeks ago a video of strength coach Mike Boyle presenting at a seminar hit the Internet, and boy did it piss some people off. Why? Just take a look at this quote from Boyle:

“This is going to be the hardest thing for people to accept. The muscle-head crowd, the T-Muscle crowd…they’re gonna be like, ‘Mike you’re saying don’t do squats any more.’ Yes, I’m saying don’t do conventional squats any more.”  I watched the clip again. No more squatting? But isn’t it the king of lower body exercises? Just what the hell was going on?

So I called Boyle to get his thoughts. Then, because I wanted to hear other points of view, I called Dave Tate, Christian Thibaudeau, and Eric Cressey.

Click here to read more…

Mythbusters Vol 1

Written on March 4, 2009 at 10:02 am, by Eric Cressey

Let me be clear about one thing: with the possible exception of anything that comes out of Larry King’s mouth, there are no unimportant interview questions. Every question or comment serves a purpose, whether it’s to get the interviewee to open up, show emotion, unleash new information, or just get back on track. Everything matters.

But I recently learned that sometimes I should just let the guy ramble. If he wants to rant, my job is to shut up and make sure the tape recorder keeps rolling.

Most of the guys I interview are great at going off on tangents. And while the resulting transcript is often a jumbled mess of opinion, applied research, and hard-earned experience, occasionally I get something unexpected: an idea for a completely different article based on the unrelated information or opinion. To paraphrase Rod Stewart, every tangent tells a story.

This is a collection of those tangents and tidbits from Dave Tate, Chris Bathke, Matt McGorry, Eric Cressey, and Craig Weller.

Continue Reading…

Built for Show

Written on November 26, 2008 at 6:00 am, by Eric Cressey

You’ve probably come across Nate Green’s name over the past few years – either in my newsletter/blog or at T-Nation.  He’s established himself as a guy who knows his stuff, but also has a great writing style that is both entertaining and informative.  And, most specific to the product in question, Nate looks a lot of issues that nobody else considers.

I was fortunate to get an advanced copy of his new book, Built for Show, and I really enjoyed it.  The program itself is fantastic.  Those of you who enjoyed my Maximum Strength book would like it as a follow-up program, particularly if you’re interesting a bit more interested in the physique side of things than pure performance benefits.  The program includes four unique training phases to keep your progress moving full-speed ahead.

And, for those of you who haven’t picked up a woman since the Reagan administration, you’d be wise to take Nate’s advice.  Nate discusses the psychology of attraction quite a bit, and it’s actually really interesting stuff.  I will be the first to admit that I never had much (if any) game with the ladies, so I’ll defer to the expert (Nate) to elaborate on this crucial point from the book:

Take a look at the current men’s magazines and notices what’s on the covers.  You’ll see a ton of references to biceps, ripped abs, and a bigger chest – but those are three body parts women don’t really care about as much as you’d think.  If you go back in time, you’ll find that women are biologically programmed to be attracted to men who show more status and dominance.  One way to show that dominance is to have an imposing, strong body.  Take a look at your training and ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing.  I know this might sound sacrilegious, but maybe your question for the ultimate six-pack, biggest guns, or becoming so big that you frighten small children aren’t the greatest goals for you after all.  If you want girls, and you want a capable, athletic, muscular body, then Built for Show was written for you.

Check it out, folks; at less than $14, you can’t go wrong – at the very least for a very entertaining read:

Built for Show

The Round-Up Interviews: Eric Cressey

Written on October 11, 2007 at 6:42 pm, by Eric Cressey

It’s time to play catch-up with the T-Nation authors. Nate Green does the asking, and in this case Eric Cressey does the talking.

Continue Reading…

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