5 years Fitvolution – how time flies

Another year has passed and it’s time to review what has happened in the past few months.

Exactly five years have passed since I published the very first article on this blog on the topic “What is fitness?” “.

Fitvolution is gradually becoming not only one of the largest, but also one of the oldest fitness blogs in the German-speaking countries. Since the overlap between the two groups is quite large, enduring power definitely pays off here.

A lot has happened in these five years, which I especially notice when I look at it from afar. I did not deliberately change the content of my first article to always see how my writing style, and therefore my blog, has changed during this time.

In today’s article, I want to follow the annual tradition of looking back at the past year and looking to the future for the current year.

What happened last year

If I had to draw a conclusion in one sentence, I would say that 2019 started very strongly, and from the middle of the year it has become a little more capricious. Ultimately, this is mainly due to the fact that I again decided to do more than was realistically achieved. In life, things always come in between and not the way you planned. But I not only set goals for myself, but also regularly pursue my priorities. So I always know where I can go when I am in doubt. Overall, I am satisfied with the development.

fans, subscribers and readers

The number of readers continues to develop positively. When I think about how we celebrated 9,000 Fitvolution visitors back in June 2015, it’s impressive that in 2019, on average, ten times as many readers visited the site.

The highlight was June 2019 with over 140,000 readers on the site. Since then, the number of readers has decreased slightly, which is also due to the fact that in the second half of the year I focused more on FiBloKo. Social media followers have barely changed over the past year, despite a lot of activity, while newsletter subscribers continued to grow steadily and I almost made up for the losses caused by the (voluntary) GDPR measures.

Design and structure of the page

I additionally optimized the design and layout of the site last year. My goal was to make the site more modern and user-friendly, and I think I did a pretty good job. The new header logo now makes it even easier for a new visitor to understand who is behind the blog and what I’m talking about here.

Also, it was about making the site faster and easier to use on my mobile. This is certainly not ideal, but much better than a year ago. However, I must review every article and every page. For this reason, after a little searching, you can still find some pages that are not fully optimized yet.

Changes this year will also be noticed by readers who regularly post here. However, I find the comparison with the 2015 version of the site particularly impressive.

This is what the 2015 homepage looked like:

Third FiBloKo took place

FiBloKo is very closely related to Fitvolution and now takes up most of my time. In 2019 I was able to do it for the third time in Hannover, and it was again a very big event. Again, I find it very impressive what has emerged in our fitness blogging community on Facebook. This time we are smaller than we hoped, with about 70 participants, but at least a few more participants than the previous year, and the feedback from the participants was very positive. For this reason, I look forward to taking this event one step further next year.

The amount of time I have to spend preparing, organizing and conducting this event is certainly not enough elsewhere. The result was that some of the previously mentioned effects on the blog happened.

My second book. Muscle Building Basics

Over the past year, I have been writing my second book over and over again, which was ready in a few weeks and finally went on sale today. In addition to the Kig Dog Killer, which helps you overcome your inner Pig Dog and reach your goals, you can now also use Muscle Building Basics to get your first real “No Bullshit”. “Get a guide to building muscle effectively.

Currently, only the base package is fully available. Value and Premium packages must be available no later than March 31st. will also be available. However, they may already be available at a special price.

goal / actual goals

To complete the review, I’d like to take another look at all the goals I’ve (publicly) set for myself. These are all goals from my last 4 Years Fitvolution birthday article and other articles over the past year that I found or could remember. This goes for both the sporting goals and the goals of this blog and the company behind it.

✔ Moving Fitvolution UG from Eichelberg to Adendorf (near Luneburg)

✔ I have made some improvements to the page. It is now slightly faster and for the most part easier to use on mobile devices. There are a few more things to do and a few more pages to redo, but most importantly, I did.

✔ With more social media engagement, I wanted you and my other readers to get a behind-the-scenes look. Even though I fell behind with what I wanted to create with my Instagram and Facebook posts, I achieved my goal with (almost) daily posts.

✔ I have successfully become accustomed to exercising in the morning and have benefited from the benefits. However, I keep trying to find solutions to some of the shortcomings.

✔ I ran the Ulm Marathon in September, my first marathon since my leg injury.

✔ At the same time, I managed to find the best shape in my life. Better take a look at my Instagram profile if you haven’t followed me yet and see pictures of all my changes.

~ 38 new blog articles have been posted. This is less than the 45 I set out to do, but more than the 32 I had a year earlier.

~ I was planning to offer my second muscle building product for sale. However, not all building blocks are complete. For this reason (as mentioned earlier), only the basic digital eBook package is still available

X Unfortunately, I have not been able to achieve the desired growth on my social media. I was hoping for more, especially on Instagram. However, due to lack of time, I was also unable to implement much of what I planned. However, since my priority is and remains the blog, I decided to come back here.

X I decided to work on a blog. In addition to my main job, this is just getting a little too much for me. However, if I want Fitvolution and FiBloKo to continue to grow, I need to get even more support. At the moment I am still doing most of the things. The topic will definitely accompany me this year.

How things will go in 2020 with Fitvolution

So many over the past year. Then we want to look to the future now. I have some cool stuff for 2020. Next, I want to give you an overview of some of the key points of what will happen here in the next few months.

Write 25 new feature articles

New articles will appear regularly that aim to bring you really important things in various subject areas. This should help you live a healthy life easier. I want to try to target the relevant key topics as much as possible where I can really bring real added value.

So there should be at least 25 brand new blog articles in 2020.

Regularly review old articles

Why always reinvent the wheel? Fitvolution currently has nearly 250 articles published. Some may use a new coat of paint. Things change over time, and I could write a little differently about some topics today than I did then. In some cases, my level of knowledge and / or the level of technology has simply changed.

Here I will focus on the most read articles. In addition, I will also be republishing articles that I think deserve more attention. Sometimes a new coat of paint can help.

I have not yet decided 100% in this regard. However, I think in the future I will probably be redoing one or two older articles per month.

Write more guest articles

When I was a blogger, I was quite active when it came to publishing guest articles. Although I even got requests last year, none of my guest articles appeared on another blog. That should change this year and I’ll take the time to post some of my content on other blogs and online magazines, including Fitvolution, the fitness blog for busy people.

Also this year I want to try to achieve one of my big goals and be published in a large (online) fitness magazine. I still don’t know how best to do this. So if you have a good idea or advice and / or someone knows, do not hesitate to write me a comment or email. /

Further development of the foundations of the pig killer and muscle mass

As previously mentioned, I will be finishing up my basic muscle building services and premium packages in the next few weeks.

I received a lot of positive feedback from readers of my first book, as well as some suggestions for improvement. I will probably include this in a second extended edition in the coming months. For example, one of the building blocks that has so far been neglected is negative or limiting beliefs. For the second edition, I also want to focus more on my personal negative experiences with my inner bastard.

If you have already bought the pig killer through Digistore24 or must do so within the next few months, you will receive a free update from me as soon as the new version is released.

FiBloKo fourth

FiBloKo will take place again in 2020, and we have set ourselves the goal of making the event in 2020 much bigger than it was already in 2019. Accordingly, FiBloKo will likely take some time this year. However, I will try to make better use of the potential interactions with my blog here. If you are doing something in the sports and fitness area or thinking about starting something in this area, do not miss this event!

FiBloKo Podcast

I would not have thought that myself, but in fact I go under the podcasters. Together with Thorsten from aus Durationblog.de, I started recording the first episodes of the FiBloKo podcast a few days ago. This podcast is likely to be of interest to only a small subset of my readers. The main focus here is on the business behind the blog.

We will deal with all kinds of podcast topics that are relevant to anyone looking to become more successful online in sports and fitness. If that interests you, be sure to listen. Your best bet is to subscribe to the FiBloKo newsletter and you’ll be the first to know when the first episode comes out.

Don’t do it yourself

In areas where I am not very good at, I want to get even more support in the future. There are simply things that other people can do much better and faster. This way I can focus on my core competence and make the best use of my time.

Also, I’m currently thinking about advertising an internship. Perhaps in this way I will find someone who is interested in this topic and can support me here and there, and learn several things from me at the same time. In the medium term, I could also suggest hiring a working student on Fitvolution and FiBloKo topics.

Conclusion on Fitvolution in 5 years

As you can see, a lot has happened in the past year. As we look back at how it all began five years ago, I am very proud of what this blog has become.

I hope I can help you and my other readers with my articles, books and other content for at least another five years to achieve your goals and live a healthier and healthier life. For this, I am still very interested in providing as much content here as possible and continually developing the site.

You, as my reader, are my top priority. So if you have a request or suggestion on the topic, please send me an email at [email protected]. Also news on Instagram or Facebook. I am very happy to accept this.

Regards

And don’t forget: your health is your health