How to Make Money as a Personal Trainer (9 Best Ways)

Hey everyone! Today I have an awesome guest article from Tyler Read on how to make money as a personal trainer. It's a good read if you're looking to learn more about the fitness industry, or if you're a current fitness trainer looking to diversify and increase your income. Enjoy!

Personal fitness training is a demanding career with a lot of opportunities. As a trainer, your goal is to tap into these opportunities and increase your income.

However, this is rarely the case because you are always short of time, split between helping your clients, getting more clients, and scaling your business. It’s a challenging task for one person.

Despite the bleak situation, there are several ways you can meet your clients’ goals, reach out to new clients, meet your financial goals, and still have time for yourself. It’s all about choosing the right strategy.

“How do I do that?” you may ask.

Sit tight and let’s explore nine ways you can make money as a personal trainer:

1. Work at a Gym

The gym is the traditional work environment for a personal trainer. It is a good starting point to do some networking, get mentorship, and learn more about the industry. You’ll master your craft and have a client base before opening your studio or diving into an alternative source of income.

The payment may not be as good, but you’ll have a stable client flow, thus a reliable source of income. So dress up every morning and show up for work.  

You’ll have a better chance to work at any gym if you have a personal trainer certification from a recognized agency. If you only have the experience, consider enrolling for a certification. A free nsca cscs practice exam can guide you through your studies and prepare you for exams.

2. Use the Membership Model

Marketing the same product repeatedly to the same clients can be exhausting. Not to mention the frustration when clients cancel their sessions.

To save yourself the agony, create a membership plan where your clients can subscribe and pay upfront for a specific period. 

The packages could range from weekly, monthly to quarterly plans. You can also set up online payment systems for convenience. 

This model reduces cancelation and promotes commitment among clients. Besides, you’ll have a steady flow of income.

3. Start Online Fitness Coaching

Taking your services online is the most practical way to scale your fitness business. Here is why:

• You can work remotely
• You’ll increase your audience reach 
• You can provide general and personalized workout plans without staying in the gym for hours.
• You can grow your income exponentially.

Launching online fitness coaching with previous experience in training clients offline can give you a strong starting point. You’ll use your offline clients’ testimonials as proof of your previous work.

Your offline clients can also transit to online programs. If they are impressed, you’ll always get referrals.

So, how can you make money online as a fitness coach? Let’s find out. 

3a. Sell Personalized Workout and Diet Plans

Successful online personal trainers make ridiculous figures by monetizing their workout and diet plans for their most committed clients. 

You can create follow-along workouts on YouTube and provide a link to your website for premium personalized plans. Apart from that, if you monetize your YouTube account, you can make extra cash when people watch your workout routines.

We all know the role nutrition plays in health and fitness. So if you have a nutrition certification as a personal trainer, you can tie your coaching to nutritional guidance and give your clients a holistic approach to fitness. This increases your earning power.

3b. Try Affiliate Marketing 

As a personal trainer, you’ve probably used different products and equipment. If some stood out, you could recommend them to other people. 

Take advantage of your website traffic and promote these products as an affiliate marketer. 

Affiliate marketing allows you to make a passive income. It involves promoting a product or service on your website, and when someone makes a purchase, you get a commission. It could be 5%-10% of the product price. 

Dylan note: Affiliate marketing is my favorite way to make money blogging. If you’re interested in affiliate marketing through a website/blog, check out my tutorial on how to start a blog. 

3c. Sell an eBook

The key to success in online coaching is creating engaging content that answers your audiences’ concerns. The most innovative way to do that is to repurpose your blog content into an ebook.

Analyze your blog posts to identify the posts that attracted the most reactions or shares and expound on the subject. Since your posts revolve around one niche, you can identify several blog posts to build chapters of the ebook. 

Go ahead and promote your ebook on your website and through email marketing. Do not forget to use social media platforms, whether it’s through the groups you are in or your personal account. 

If it’s a subject that people are passionate about, you’ll make sales. 

3d. Dropship Fitness Products 

Dropshipping allows you to sell a company’s product without stocking the products. Once a client makes a purchase, you pass the order to the company, and they ship and deliver the product to the client directly.

Think of the many products and fitness equipment you use daily. Go online and Google for the products’ manufacturers or wholesalers. Look for the ones that offer dropshipping programs. You can partner with one and start an eCommerce website where you list their products. 

Unlike affiliate marketing, where you get a commission for every purchase, in dropshipping, your profit is the difference between the actual product cost and the price you listed on your online shop.

4. Launch a Fitness App

With the advent of mobile phones, your clients can carry their workouts wherever they are. That’s where a fitness app comes in handy. A workout app gives your clients more value, and with one, you can scale your business further. 

To build an app, follow the authoritative blogs that give an in-depth, step-by-step guide to build a fitness app. If you are not vast with software engineering, consider hiring a freelancer.

An app will benefit the clients you work with directly and other fitness enthusiasts across the globe. One can download it and subscribe to one of your plans.

5. Host a Workshop

Workshops allow you to earn by providing helpful information to a group of people. 

To make the most of your workshops, target a specific group of people. Also, focus your workshop on a specific area of your training program. For example, how to keep up with fitness goals after childbirth.

Provide in-depth information on the chosen subject. When your clients find value in your workshop, there’s an increased chance of subscribing to your fitness programs.

Workshops provide the platform to interact with many people. So, market your services.

You can schedule your workshops programs quarterly or monthly to grow your client base continuously. 

6. Be a Brand Ambassador

As a personal trainer, please walk the talk. The reason some people join your fitness class is that they want to look like you. Your physical appearance is a statement. So, take it seriously. 

Fitness companies are online looking for brand ambassadors for their unique products. Set yourself up for such opportunities. Promote your work online. 

Let your Instagram account attract these companies. Optimize your profile on LinkedIn for such opportunities. Reinforce the same on other social media platforms.

7. Modeling

This is another opportunity worth considering. If you are a trusted and physically fit personal trainer, you can explore modeling. 

Most of these opportunities are often short term. So, you can look for a part-time offer as you continue with your fitness training programs. 

8. Organize Boot Camps

A good number of people cannot afford one-on-one training with a personal trainer. Thus, a boot camp is a great alternative because its rates are low, and the workouts are done in groups. 

A boot camp session takes between 45 min – 1 hour. So, you can have several sessions in a day. However, you must invest more energy in marketing. The bigger the numbers, the better because it is charged at a group rate. 

To cut down the expenses, you can conduct the training in a park. However, if you rent a hall or other training materials, be sure to include the expense in the clients’ fees. 

For a successful boot camp, do yourself a favor and let your clients pay upfront. You don’t want to chase clients’ for payment after 45 minutes of intense exercise.

9. Provide In-Home Personal Training Services

One-on-one training is a lucrative way to make money as a personal trainer. Clients who have the luxury of training at the comfort of their home don’t mind paying more for the service. You can double or triple your charges because you’ll spend time in the traffic and use fuel.

Finding and retaining a one-on-one client depends on your quality of service. If you provide exemplary services and help your clients reach their fitness goal, you will get more such clients through referrals. 

The Ball Is in Your Court

After all is said and done, it is your turn to take the initiative and implement these strategies. You can start as a fitness gym instructor and progress to an in-home personal trainer. 

Armed with real-life training experience, you can launch your online business while simultaneously working with offline clients.

How far you can grow your business and income as a personal trainer is totally up to you. Be innovative and aim for the stars.

Tyler Read 

Tyler Read is the owner of ptpioneer.com which is a website dedicated to helping people get started in the personal training industry. He helps people discover, study, and pass their fitness exams. Check out his free videos for the latest trends.