My online video training program of internet marketing for martial arts schools and martial artists came about when I combined two of my passions.

I have been involved in a several martial arts styles over the past 21 years and have been building my own and other peoples businesses online and offline for the past 9 years.

I love martial arts and all the various styles; each has their strong and weak points and I’ve always believed it’s a great idea to learn at least a few different styles to strengthen all areas of your personal fighting skills.  Having trained with different instructors I noticed that all of the people I met lacked the skills for marketing their martial arts school. 

It never bothered me personally because I prefered training with a smaller group to get more one on one time with the instructor.  But I did feel sorry for the martial arts school owner as they seemed to be putting in a lot of effort and still struggling to meet the overheads every month.

Internet marketing for martial arts schools is still uncommon territory for most school owners.  The best martial arts websites are owned by martial arts suppliers and martial arts organisations like UFC or NAPMA.  This is because these groups treat their business like a business.  They know that internet marketing is powerful and cost effective when it’s done properly so they invest in getting it set up.

For small martial arts schools and older instructors it seems like too much time and money to even start walking down that path and joining the already established.  But right now is actually one of the best times for local marketing online.

A powerful combination has emerged in the past 12 months. Web 2.0 websites such as twitter and facebook have made networking with like minded people easier than ever before while at the same time Google, Yahoo and Bing are working to provide higher value to small local businesses online.

It will take a lot of effort to get your martial arts school ranking highly around the world on any search engine…

BUT, it takes very little work to get your business appearing on the first page of google for people searching in your local area.  These are the people you want to find out about you.  You can quickly and cheaply get your website and your martial arts school appearing on computer screens within a couple of miles of your business location.

Forget about trying to reach around the world and focus your online marketing to your local area. 

If you wanted to place a traditional print ad in a newspaper to attract students would you spend huge money to have the ad run all across the country or would you spend a fraction of the cost to have the ad appear in your local newspaper that is delivered to people that live just around the corner from your martial arts school?  Obviously the local approach is going to work best and this is exactly the same way you need to approach internet marketing for martil arts.