by Matt Weik
The short and quick answer for this is absolutely a YES. In fact, it’s a YES to both a fitness YouTube channel and podcast. They’re FREE to start! Some so many people are a wealth of knowledge and who have a ton of value they can bring to an audience, but for one reason or another, they decide to sit on the sidelines and not create content? Why?! There’s no better time than today to start a fitness YouTube channel or podcast.
What’s Holding You Back from Starting a Fitness YouTube Channel or Podcast?
There is never a shortage of people who are thinking about starting a fitness YouTube channel or podcast. However, they seem to allow things to get between them and their first step – many times, it’s not even a valid reason why they aren’t moving forward.
Regardless of whether you want to start a fitness YouTube channel or a podcast, don’t think you need to have a bunch of fancy equipment and spend thousands of dollars on a set and equipment. Many people can create a very professional-looking production and get amazing sound quality directly from their smartphone.
Start off with the barebones until you get some episodes under your belt and are sure you’re going to stick with it. That being said, don’t think that just because you post something that it’s going to blow up, and you’re going to have a million views or listens. There could be months that go by before a video or episode gets thousands of views. Don’t get frustrated, just keep cranking out the content, and the market will tell you if they like your work.
Once you grow your audience, THEN it may be a good time to think about investing in some new equipment if you really feel it’s necessary.
Why Should You Start a Fitness YouTube Channel or Podcast?
Honestly, why not? If you have the knowledge and that knowledge can add value to someone’s life, why wouldn’t you want to create a fitness YouTube channel or podcast?
Do you want to teach people about human anatomy that people can apply to their workouts and muscle-building goals? Maybe you want to discuss different training protocols? Or perhaps you want to talk about different ways that people can build muscle and/or lose stubborn body fat? It doesn’t matter which direction you go with your fitness YouTube channel or podcast, the key is to get started and put out as much content as possible and to have fun with it.
Assuming your content helps people, expect your audience to grow fairly quickly over time. Don’t let your knowledge go to waste, use it to help people!
How Can You Leverage Both Video and Audio at the Same Time?
If you are recording a video for a fitness YouTube channel, did you realize that by clicking your mouse a few times, you can take your video and extract the audio from it and upload it to podcast platforms in literally almost no time at all? It’s true! So, why wouldn’t you want to be able to get your information out to even more people with virtually no extra work required? A lightbulb should have just gone off in your head.
It just makes sense. Depending on if you are using a Windows or Mac-based computer or laptop, there is a bunch of free software out there that allows you the ability to extract the audio from video files. Simply download the software you want to use and go from there. Depending on how big your video file is, the audio extraction should only take maybe a minute (sometimes more if your video is 60+ minutes).
Should you want to increase your audio quality for the podcast files, download Audacity – a free audio editing software. With this software, you can minimize and eliminate background noise, normalize and control audio quality to avoid clipping, cut out dead space in the audio, and tons of other features. The sky is the limit if you have the time to play around with it and edit your audio.
In terms of the video file, you could also download free software or invest in something more expensive (like Final Cut Pro) depending on your current budget. While visual aspects and effects can help improve your fitness YouTube channel’s quality and entertainment value, it’s not 100% necessary (especially when you’re just starting out and getting your feet wet).
Can You and Should You Monetize Your Platform?
Monetization is one of those topics where things can start to go sideways. Personally, I have no problem with creators monetizing their fitness YouTube channel or podcast. After all, they are putting in a lot of time on their content to make it the highest quality it can be. However, many others cringe at the thought.
Here’s my opinion on the topic. When you first start out, the last thing you want to do is try to monetize. I mean, heck, you don’t even have a bunch of content that would warrant trying to make money off of it. YouTube can take some time to hit the numbers needed even to be eligible to monetize your channel. Also, don’t look at sponsorships when just starting out either unless you’re already well-known in the industry and a brand wants to get behind you.
Once you build a following and subscribers start rolling in by the thousands, then it may be the right time to monetize your fitness YouTube channel or podcast. And when you do, make sure the ads and sponsors resonate with your audience. Don’t just sign on the dotted line because someone offers you money.
But most of all, you want to have fun with your fitness YouTube channel or podcast. If you’re not having fun, it will show in your content, and people will stop watching. Choose topics or a niche you are passionate about and knowledgeable in and run with it.
