In 4 years, LDN Muscle has sold £1.2M worth of fitness guides and workouts from its business that started as humble blog. In 2013, the four founders began sharing fitness knowledge online as a blog. Before they knew it, they had a large following. In the same year, they became a business and began selling their main product, The Cutting Guide. In a profile by Forbes, founder Tom Exton explains how the business got started.
“It was a by-product of hours, weeks and months of dedication to putting out, what we hoped would be interesting, honest free content.”
Over time, the blog followers became willing to pay for this interesting honest content. The business now has three major products, The LDNM Cutting Guide, The LDNM Bulking Bible and the LDNM Bikini Guide. The weekly workout guides have been sold by the thousands. Each retails for about £60. Smaller guides are sold for £6 to £8 as well. Followers became so invested in the honest content provided that they began shelling out money for more of it.
Even as the business grows, the founders are maintaining a rapid pace of blog posts. If you visit their blog, you’ll see that barely three days elapses between posts. Many of the current posts focus on healthy eating options. Others profile readers that have benefited from using the LDNM guides. Each page has about 12 posts and there are 39 pages. LDN Muscle has over 400 posts to guide readers to its site! Older posts, which drew in the original blog followers, focus on weight lighting topics. These posts are still paying off.
There are some lessons to be learned from LDN Muscle and its blogging success.
Build trust with readers by providing good content.
LDN Muscle began by simply providing insights into bodybuilding. Once readers began trusting the blog posts, the business was able to branch out into selling guides. Most businesses already have a product to sell. However, providing good useful content on relevant topics can build trust with followers. These engaged people are more likely to purchase products from a trusted source.
Providing free help can be beneficial in the long run.
The founders talked with Forbes at length about how much time they spent answering questions on the blog and social media. Followers appreciated this personal attention. When the founders decided to monetize with paid guides, they could use the goodwill of their followers to sell more guides. They earned it!
Not all businesses are built around providing content. But high quality blogs can help most businesses build a rapport and a level of trust with customers. LDN Muscle is a great example of how utilizing a blog effectively can build a business.
