The Digg of the Fitness Niche? – FitMarker fills the Social Media Void

If you’ve been online for any period of time, the terms social media, social bookmarking and even social media marketing probably ring a bell.  I’m willing to bet everyone here has heard of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Myspace, Delicious, etc.  The list is virtually endless.

In lieu of simply being aware of this social media extravaganza, I’m willing to wager that you probably have profiles on most, if not all of these websites.  If you don’t, you either aren’t “in the know” or you simply have no interest in such outlets.  That’s fine as I understand many of them are nothing but a big waste of time for some people.  That’s perfectly okay.

However, social media is a big reason many of us enjoy the internet and it’s largely responsible for how many of us stay up to date with all we’re interested in.  Heck, I know I rely on certain social media niche resources such as Sphinn to keep up with marketing news and while I have a love/hate relationship with my personal Facebook account (I even deactivated for more than a year once), it’s been monumental in my keeping up with old friends, teachers and colleagues.

So, despite some of the Facebook clutter people whine incessantly about, it provides a ton of value to a ton of people and it’s all for free.  Well, it’s free to the end user but it does cost a pretty penny to operate.

Let’s Talk About Value

To me, when I’m reading new material or browsing the web for research or something else I’m interested in, value is of utmost importance to me.  Why?  Because I value my time and I love to spend it wisely.  When I sit down to write an article, I’m spending ample amounts of time to ensure it’s of quality and that I’m providing value to you.

Yea, it’s all about value.

So why do I bring up the topic of social media?  The reason is, as a fitness writer and enthusiast, I’m a big fan of social media.  I routinely use StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter and Facebook for personal and promotional purposes.  I freakin’ love interacting with folks and I’ve made many great friends as a result.  It’s primarily why I write – I am obsessed with building relationships – just ask anyone one of my readers who email me regularly.

Since relationships are of utmost value, that means you, my readers are high on my list of priorities.

If you’re like me and love social media, you’ve probably noticed a similar problem I and an e-friend of mine have been noticing.  It seems every niche has its own social media outlet except for us, the fitness crowd.

Sure, you can go to StumbleUpon or Digg and find a decent article every now and then.  However, they are few and far between; plus, the time spent locating such an article was probably rather difficult and it’s because StumbleUpon covers every niche known to man.

When browsing, you might be reading about how to make a killer homebrew and as soon as you click the Stumble button, you’re reading about how to wax watermelons with white whippersnappers.

I know, it’s sort of annoying, but such is life.

We Sought A Solution

Almost a month ago, FJ (also known as The Fit Jerk, heh) and I were chatting on Gchat about how we loved and hated the traffic from Digg and StumbleUpon.  We’d wake up to see our traffic increase a couple hundred percent only to revert back to original, less-inflated numbers over the next day or so with no new subscribers or readers to speak of.

It was clear that our headlines generated interest as people stumbled the articles, but bounce rates proved hardly anyone was reading our content.  It’s just a perfect example of your typical, a.d.d. web surfer.

So what did we do?  We created a solution.

Turns out FJ did his research.  While I knew nothing about Healthranker, it was the first of the fitness social media circles, but it fell victim to vicious spammers and quickly got penalized by Google, falling way behind and was soon acquired by New Dream Network LLC who seemed to have bought them out and replaced HealthRanker with healthbubble.com.  However, there’s still nothing in terms of a one-stop-shop for all things fitness-related.

The Birth of FitMarker

Yes, that’s right, FJ and JC created a solution.  There is now, officially, a social media site wholly devoted to you, the fitness reader and enthusiast.  Gone are the days of searching high and low for the latest fitness information on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, or wherever.

Gone are the days of having to sift through a neglected feedreader (if you’re like me and forget to use them).

Now you may be asking yourself: “what does FitMarker have to offer me and why should I care?”

It’s simple; allow me to explain a few of the features and benefits of the site.

First things first.  This is called Social Media for a reason; it’s all about you.  And we give you full control over what you like and don’t like.  In fact, much like Digg and StumbleUpon, you can vote for your favorite articles.  On FitMarker, you either “pump” it or “dump” it.

If someone submits an article by Tom Venuto and it’s the shiznittlesnap, go ahead and bump it.  You can even give a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to individual comments on the posted content.  If you spot an article you think is undeserving of exposure, you can have your say, too.

One thing I want you to be completely sure of and have the utmost confidence in is that FitMarker is completely unbiased.  So, despite FJ and I both operating our own fitness websites and the fact we both have certain opinions and viewpoints, rest assured they will not carry over into FitMarker.

FitMarker is not a place for us to give our opinion on the supplement industry or to rag on the magazines.  It’s a place for fitness enthusiasts and content creators to come together and share the wealth of knowledge. Plus, we’ll all get to know each other a little better as well.

One more thing.  We had a small Beta test that spanned 7 days in which we got all the bugs (that we know of) squashed and added some really cool features (such as custom Digg-like buttons, custom avatars, auto-generated thumbnails, member badges, and many others) thanks to all the suggestions we had from our testers.  If you were one of them, FJ and I both humbly thank you for taking the time to help us out!  If you ever make it to Nashville, I’ll buy you a beer, or ten.

So, when you get a chance today, click on over to FitMarker and take it for a test drive.  I really think you’ll like what you see.  See you in the comments!

One more thing:  Check out FJ’s post about FitMarker: Social Media Just Got A Health Boost!