How To Make a Career as a Fitness Instructor on YouTube

Fitness instruction is booming on YouTube. That means health-conscious viewers have a range of personal trainers to follow, whether they’re interested in cardio, muscle building, or any of the body-sculpting workouts one can find online.

While fitness instructors give massive value to viewers, they’re not uploading workout videos just for fun. In addition to helping their subscribers get fit, many are also monetizing their expertise on YouTube.

Fortunately, there’s a concrete method toward YouTube monetization, and creators of any niche can embark on the journey. Once a YouTuber attains 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of Watch Time, they become eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. This allows creators to place advertisements throughout their videos, and in return, they could earn Google AdSense revenue.

If you’re a personal trainer or fitness instructor, you can reap these benefits too. Many fitness enthusiasts are already doing it, and we want to show you the methods they use to increase their YouTube revenue.

So, are you ready to dive in? Let’s take a look at three fitness YouTubers who’ve found brilliant ways to make money on the platform.

THENX: Making More Money with Paid Memberships

THENX is a popular YouTube Channel run by Chris Heria, a fitness trainer who specializes in calisthenics. Oh his channel, he uploads tutorials that emphasize using your body weight to train and build your strength.

As a viewer, the first thing you’ll notice about Chris’ workouts is how complex they are. He frequently covers handstands, muscle-ups, and the planche (suspending your body above the ground in a parallel fashion using just your arms).

Because of his advanced talent, Chris’ channel has huge acclaim - 6M subscribers and more than 384M views. To see what I mean about 'advanced talent', check out his shoulder exercise video below:

While THENX has a massive audience, its revenue streams can be repeated by small to midsize YouTubers.

For the first stream, Chris sells various workout merchandise, such as weighted vests, gym bags, and water bottles. For the second, he offers a workout membership plan to his viewers, billed at $9.99 monthly. When customers purchase this upgrade, they get access to a calisthenics workout library, exercise technique guides, and training programs.

Chris also has a THENX app filled with calisthenics workouts. It’s free to download and has several tutorials, but there’s an option to upgrade to the membership mentioned above. So altogether, Chris uses his YouTube channel to advertise three money-generating services. He shares these products in the description of his videos, as shown below:

One of the perks of running a fitness channel is that you’ll always have useful, evergreen videos to upload. Because getting in shape is a journey, health-conscious viewers could watch exercise content for years to come.

If you’re willing to help them along the way, YouTube is the place to do it! Stick by these goal-oriented viewers, and you could make some serious money as a fitness YouTuber.

Heart Alchemy Yoga: Live Yoga Classes via Zoom

Michelle Goldstein is the co-founder of Heart Alchemy Yoga, a channel with 104K subscribers. As a yoga instructor, she uploads tutorials on almost every iteration of the practice, including Bikram (high heat), yin (slow-paced), vinyasa (flowing postures), and power yoga (vigorous).

When the coronavirus pandemic was officially declared, Michelle responded with more at-home yoga tutorials to help viewers stay safe at home. In the video below, titled “Power Yoga Workout: 30-Min at Home Cardio Flow,” she demonstrates a series of yoga poses:

Amazingly, Heart Alchemy Yoga is a volunteer organization that runs on donations. Therefore, Michelle relies on monetary contributions from viewers and in-person clients alike.

In addition to that, Michelle hosts live yoga classes via Zoom. In the screenshot below, you can see that she encourages viewers to email her about sign-up details. It’s not clear whether she accepts payment for those lessons, but for your business, you absolutely can.

Live-streamed workouts aren’t new, but they’ve gotten more popular due to COVID-19 and recent state lockdowns. For example, fitness studios that temporarily shuttered in March shifted from in-person training to live video instruction almost immediately.

When you join YouTube as a fitness instructor or trainer, keep this in mind. Video content is exploding on the web, and people are only going to want more of it in the future. Because of that, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to monetize your video workouts.

Cycling with Gabriella Guevara: Subscribe and Ride for $1

Gabriella Guevara is a rhythm cycling instructor. On her YouTube Channel of 38.1K subscribers, she uploads spin workouts set to upbeat music, such as pop, hip-hop, and EDM.

For many of her workouts, Gabriella shows up with her stationary bike, neon lights, headset mic, and a playlist of awesome music. Each workout is high-energy, and you can witness that in the 45-minute 'Quarantine Ride' video below. During the workout, Gabriella motivates viewers to push through their fatigue and keep spinning:

Gabriella monetizes such workouts in three powerful ways: merchandise, nutrition coaching, and a subscription service. She includes a link to her website in the description of her videos, which allows viewers to purchase these services.

Of all her offerings, Gabriella’s subscription plan is the most interesting in terms of revenue. For a trial price of just $1, customers can sign up to access all of Gabriella’s spin classes. That amounts to more than 65 rides, and if customers decide to stick around, she receives the post-trial fee of 14.99 per month.

But that’s not all. Her website has a merchandise section, which contains cycling-themed T-shirts of $22 or more. There’s also a section for custom nutrition coaching, and those packages are between $65 and $80.

In total, Gabriella has at least four ways to make money from each video: AdSense revenue, subscriptions, merchandise, and coaching.

As a workout enthusiast, you can achieve the same thing on YouTube. All you have to do is use the fitness knowledge you already have to create valuable content and grow your brand.

Extra Ways Fitness Instructors Can Make Money On YouTube

Now that you know what other fitness channels are doing to make money, let’s boost your income even more. Outside of the platform, there are plenty of ways to monetize your fitness expertise. Those include:

• Starting a fitness blog (that’s monetized with ads)
• Becoming an influencer to get brand sponsorships
• Applying to speak at virtual fitness conferences
• Hosting online fitness boot camps
• Setting up a Patreon of pay-to-view fitness videos
• Selling downloadable workout plans
• Selling fitness products as an Amazon Associate (affiliate marketing)

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to make money as a fitness YouTuber. To give your business a strong digital presence and cash flow, start your YouTube journey today!

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