Is this idea the best way to start?

[on_my_own]

Any tips or advice are more than welcomed. I have started a website where I will post blogs/articles, videos, and pictures with things relating to women's fitness and health etc. This website will also carry all my women's themed fitness apparel. I've started a FB, twitter, and instagram page also, but that's still very new and I will work on building a social media presence. In the meantime, I figured a good way to start to promote my website would be to post on fitness forums and various blogs relating my website. Does this sound like a viable idea to start getting off the ground? :confused:

[DennisChang]

Sounds good. You may want to post on any kind of female forums, not just fitness forums. Your target group is female of a certain age range, not just female who are very concern about fitness.

[DeniseTaylor]

That sounds like a great start! You're already ahead of 80% by just getting started.

Now keep in mind that the fitness industry is highly competitive. Try to find someway to set yourself apart. Perhaps a marketing campaign, a theme or some clever idea could help.

Other than that, I recommend that you be patient while continuing to work your ideas. It takes time for things to take off and if you see overnight results, great. But if not, that's nothing to be worried about. Just keep persisting until you start to break through.

Good luck!

[Harold Mansfield]

Any tips or advice are more than welcomed. I have started a website where I will post blogs/articles, videos, and pictures with things relating to women's fitness and health etc. This website will also carry all my women's themed fitness apparel. I've started a FB, twitter, and instagram page also, but that's still very new and I will work on building a social media presence. In the meantime, I figured a good way to start to promote my website would be to post on fitness forums and various blogs relating my website. Does this sound like a viable idea to start getting off the ground? :confused:
Yes, it's pretty much the text book basic ideas that everyone starts out with. In some ways yes, you need the practice, but I honestly wouldn't expect any huge returns.

First of all posting your own links on forums gets pretty old to everyone after while.
Second, it's not as easy as you think you get a popular website to post your articles. It's possible. Very possible. And a great way to get exposure. It's just not easy. You have to really take the time to write something well that is original, entertaining, or informative to their readers. Not merely a promo piece for your own company. Most people won't post that, unless that's what they do.

Yes, you could grind through building your social media profiles numbers which we all know takes time. By then hopefully you have learned enough marketing and sales to turn at least some of those followers into customers.

The bottom line is you need a marketing plan. Not just starting the social media accounts, and blogging...but what your plan of attack is. What you will post to them to get people interested and engaged? How consistent you will be? Are you going to also advertise? Are you promoting any deals or specials campaigns? How will your social media profiles factor into that?

Also, are you using the proper social media profiles to connect with the demographic you are trying to reach? When I saw clothes I first thought Pinterest, but you've chosen Instagram. Why is that? Have you done research that says Instagram's demographic is more in tune with what you're looking to attract? Or did you just guess because you personally like Instagram?

Instagram is a mobile app. Is your entire infrastructure mobile friendly? I mean 100%. Are people going to see one of your uploads on Instagram and go to your website and have a completely horrible experience trying to read more or purchase something on their phones or tablets?

These are things that people don't think about. Most don't usually have a plan. They just throw some things out there and hope to get lucky. And sometimes you can. But most people don't. The people who are successful online have a plan, and execute it well. Every few people actually just get lucky.

In the meanwhile, while you are putting together a plan, yes you should at least do the basics just to get some back links flowing and work out the kinks.

[David Hunter]

You may want buy some ad space on websites that tailor to women.

Also, since you're selling women's fitness apparel, you may want to do some direct mail. Buy a list of women who have purchased fitness/nutrition magazines and send them direct mail linking back to your site. Be sure to have some kind of offer to get them to your site.

[coryrwest]

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. All of what I say worked for me time and time again, but not every business is the same.

I would say that then you are starting out, not to waste your time on FB, twitter, etc. I say this because there are other things you could be doing that will give you a MUCH higher ROI in the short-term than FB and twitter. Time is a non-renewable resource. FB and twitter are nice for outreach and connecting with customers, but (in my experience) rarely lead to paying customers.

If I have to tell you one thing that you should be doing right now and spending most of your time on is building an email list. Email lists are like gold for any business. It allows you to communicate with your customers on a regular basis and offer them something of value consistently so when the time comes to pitch a product they are more likely to buy then someone visiting your site for the first time.

Now the exception to what I said above is if you are funneling interested prospects from FB and twitter to your email list. Then it is probably worth it to spend your time on it. Right now (especially in the beginning) you should be focusing your efforts on growing an email list.

What exactly are you selling on the site besides apparel?