Dedicated Runner Goes the Distance for Online Training

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

During the apocalyptic year, we'll call 2020, one for the record books, I have been trying to keep habits that help me be physically and mentally strong. I don't know about you, but I've had various challenges and just been a little bit depressed and anxious and stuff this year. So in my area, at least, most of the gyms and yoga studios have been closed for many months now or they're only open in limited form or sometimes it's like they're open for this week, but then all of a sudden next week, they're closed again because we've had another outbreak or whatever. So thankfully, something that I'm grateful for, one exercise I can do without a gym or studio is running and it's actually my favorite exercise, so that's convenient. I haven't been able to do any races since January, but I've been increasing my weekly mileage to more than I've ever done before.

I am not a serious runner by any means, so for anybody out there who's a real runner, I respect you, but for me, this is real progress. So it's been good. I actually just came back from a run this morning before sitting down to write the notes for this story, which is conveniently about running. Well, it's actually about a runner, a government contractor and experienced runner, enters himself after a marathon, then decides to start a blog. We could say, in fact, he races to start a blog, helping others avoid the same fate, ending up on track for his own success.

This guy's actually doing really, really well. I hired him myself to write a program for me, so technically I know him, but it's more in the relationship of, you know, I paid him to do a program for me. So we're going to look at this story, dedicated runner goes the distance for online training. That story is coming up in just 30 seconds. Jason Fitzgerald began running as a freshman in high school back in 1998.

He continued to train and compete for over a decade until he graduated college in 2006. Over that time, he became an expert in the art of putting one foot in front of the other. His obsession with the sport became somewhat of a running joke among his friends. He would read all the books, had multiple trainers and was always looking ahead at how he could be stronger, faster and better. But after graduation, real life came racing up behind him and it was time to get a full time job.

He settled into a position as a government contractor. Running was delegated to more of a hobby than a competitive pursuit. Nevertheless, it was a hobby he took seriously and one that brought him a lot of joy. Around the same time he started his career, he started exploring the new world of online communities. For the first time, Jason realized it was possible to build an online business based on your passion.

He became determined to do just that and register the domain strengthrunning.com. Not quite sure at that stage what he'd do with it. In the end, it was a running injury that gave him the sole motivation to get started. Jason had set a goal of running the New York City Marathon. The training went well, as did the race itself.

Afterwards, though, he developed an injury, an IT band injury to be precise, that put him out of action for six months. That was tough, but the injury had a silver lining. He used the time to assess what went wrong, and he was determined to never let it happen again. That led to Jason developing new training techniques and workout routines. His training eventually became less demanding, but produced better results.

After seeing his own improvement, he devised a plan for his strengthrunning website. He would convert the dormant domain name into a blog sharing tips and strategies to help runners avoid injury. With a WordPress theme and free Mailchimp account, Jason launched the site in April 2010 for less than $200. He was off and racing. Now, he didn't want his site to end up at the back of the pack, so from the very beginning, he worked to avoid that fate.

First, he made sure to write articles based on keywords that people actually search for. He used Google's research tools to help with this. For example, instead of titling an article "My Gym Routine," he would title it "Gym Workouts for Runners - Functional Strength." Even so, he knew that building Google traffic takes time, and he wanted his site to sprint out of the gate. So Jason contacted other fitness and health blogs, offering to write guest posts. In exchange for providing content, he could leverage their reader base and obtain valuable links to his site.

Sites are a form of currency to Google, and generally speaking, sites with more links rank higher in the search results. Next, he created Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts, and cross-posted his content to those platforms. As the months went by, his traffic climbed. It wasn't until four months later, though, that Jason realized he was on pace to get paid. That first payment was just $5 from an affiliate sale.

Not much, but it served as a revelation. Jason had validation that this was a legitimate way to make money, so he increased the speed of his training, hiring contractors to help him improve the site's design and fix some tactical issues. All told, he spent another few hundred dollars before the year was out. By then, he'd also picked up a coaching client through the site. He spent the next year running reps — more content, more guest posts, and more traffic.

A year later, he put together a training product as a joint venture with a colleague, which sold well. Incredibly, after just one more year, Jason was making enough money through the site to quit his job and go full-time. He had gone from government contractor to side hustler to full-time blogger in just two short years. It was perhaps a new PR. For our non-runners out there, that means a personal record.

You might also hear personal best or PB. Still, Jason didn't stop there. After realizing the value in selling his own products, he started creating more. Now through StrengthRunning.com, he sells guides on topics such as mental toughness, strength, and nutrition — all aimed at runners who want to improve their performance without getting injured. Combining affiliate sales with product sales now brings in multiple six figures from his website every year.

It's safe to say Jason has taken the lead in the StrengthRunning marathon. Big congratulations to Jason, and if you are out there looking for an example of an online community that has grown and grown over the years as he has refined things and continued to develop content, this is a great example. Go take a look at StrengthRunning.com, which of course we'll link up in the notes as well. I was looking at it the other day on my YouTube show, actually, just talking about it with our listeners — well, I guess our listeners/viewers. One of the things I noticed was Jason has this challenge that I think I have as well in the sense that he's been doing this a while, and he's got a lot of stuff there.

None of it is bad. It's actually all good and helpful. He's got lots of testimonials, he's got lots of little media logos for all the different features he's had, lots of different programs, but there's just so much it's sometimes hard to figure out what is the most important thing here. He's got a really good headline on the site, like if you look at the top, but in addition there's just a lot of other stuff going on. It's not that it's overly cluttered, it just could be perhaps a little bit more clear.

As I said, I have the same issue myself, so it's something I think that a lot of people go through after they've been doing this a while. So hopefully I'll find a way to improve, and perhaps Jason Wilkins, we're all trying to improve over here. My encouragement to you is audit what works and do more of that. So if you end up in that situation, what is most effective if you've got six programs? Which programs are bringing in the most people or serving your customers, your clients the best?

Don't be afraid to let go of older ones, because as mentioned, we can all always improve, whether it is in exercise or our website or the business that we're trying to build or whatever else. So I'll leave you with that today. Solution is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1347. Come check it out.

If you've got a comment or question for the show, that would be at sidehustleschool.com/questions. Hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Much more is coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.