Survey Results: Why Swimmers Swim Bad?

Experts agree that swim technique is the first step to getting faster in the pool. Through a small survey to about 25 different swim coaches across the world and across swimming sectors (club, triathlete, master, college, high school), I realized that there is a huge need for private instruction, but not many opportunities to do it.

Here is some of the feedback from the coaches surveyed:

Average # of people coached :  80
# of people needing private instruction:  100%
# of people coaches believe will pay for instruction: 95%
Average cost per minute for coaching services:  $1 per minute (ex. $60 for 60 minutes)

That means you could be making hundreds, if not thousands of extra dollars a month by simply organizing a few swim clinics!

The problem is that many coaches are only hosting an average of 2 swim clinics a year. Only 2 A YEAR!That means they are missing a great opportunity to make extra money and train more swimmers. We all know that a swim coach cannot give close attention to each individual swimmer  in high a volume team workout, which is why small private swim clinics are so valuable. According to the coaches surveyed, they believe athletes are willing to pay for these services and pay well!

Despite this interest, many swimmers and triathletes continue to have bad technique. It's not that they don't want or can't afford private instruction. It's that the opportunities for one on one instruction with a swim coach are difficult to find.  The swimmers WILL get results and you WILL make extra money if you simply give them the opportunity.

Here's an example:  A month ago I coached two youth club swimmers for an hour and told them to change a couple things with their stroke and turns.  From that one session, both of them dropped 5 to 15 seconds per event and qualified for a meet they wanted to attend. The kids were stoked and the parents were ecstatic. We just have to give people the opportunity to get instruction so they can break bad habits and improve their skills. What good is a doctor if they aren't willing to find out what is wrong with a patient and prescribe solutions to the problem?

I hope this encourages you to get your athletes to sign up for Swim Coach Finder and promote your services. That way they can easily request and pay for your services through the Swim Coach Finder community. Its that simple!

Swim Coach Finder is going to help you in several ways.

First:, 90% of the coaches we surveyed said that they "want and need ideas to promote swim clinics." We are going to provide you with ideas through our weekly blog and offer new ideas on how to promote more clinics every month to your existing swimmers and others outside your client base.

Second, 90% of the swim coaches we surveyed said that they "want and need marketing materials to promote swim clinics." Swim Coach Finder will provide you with a template to create monthly flyers that you can either email or pass out to your team.

Third, 70% of coaches said they would like to participate in a contest competing against other swim coaches. Swim Coach Finder is going to have monthly contests for our coaches to have some competitive fun.

We hope that you will help partner with us by having your swimmers sign up to request your services through Swim Coach Finder. We believe that swim coaches can leverage our social network with your contacts and the result will be faster swimmers, more money in your pocket, and hopefully more records broken.

Take care and thanks for reading the Swim Coach Finder Blog. If you haven't registered yet as a swim coach or as an athlete I hope you will do that today by clicking http://www.swimcoachfinder.com/registration.php

Get More Clients with Email Marketing

Email Marketing 101:

Find out what you should say in your next email to prospective and current members to encourage them to hire you as a coach or swim stroke specialist. Think of yourself as a doctor. You need a small group or private session where you can diagnose problems in their individual strokes and offer solutions to fix them so that they can get faster in the pool. It is difficult to give attention to each individual swimmer in a group setting workout, which is why these smaller sessions are so important. By offering clinics, you can continue to drive revenue to you and your team and help you recruit new members to your swim club or team. Below are the steps that need to be taken for successful email marketing. There is also a mock email of that you can copy and paste and send to your database of contacts. Begin giving private technique clinic sessions today and help bring your team to new levels. The first step in email marketing is to ..............

1. Assemble your database of email addresses. Gather all of your prospective clients and current club email addresses into either a group list in your email account or a Microsoft Excel spread sheet that has their name and email address. If you want, you might name this group or document "Swim Coach Finder Database" so it will stay separate from the other emails you send out to your team now.

2. Create the email, then download or select this group of prospective members and current club members as your mailing list. The following is an example of a simple email you might send.

Hello,
Would you like to achieve your swimming goals this year? I would like to invite you to do a stroke technique clinic with me as your coach. I would like the opportunity to customize your best strokes so that we can meet your goals for this season and year. It makes sense that swimmers who want to get faster must first learn and apply efficient swimming techniques. Experts agree that customizing an athlete's stroke efficiency, buoyancy and energy preservation is best done through personalized coaching instruction. This is why I would like to invite you to get personalized stroke instruction from me. During the session I will diagnose problems in your stroke and work on solutions that will fix those problems and help you drop time and get faster. 
If you would like to sign up for one of these diagnostic sessions, you should first register as a swimmer at a new social network called Swim Coach Finder. Click Here to go to the registration page and sign up as an athlete. Then search for me by name under the "Search for Coaches" tab. Once you have found my profile, simply click on the button that says "Request to Hire" and fill out the form and include the following information:
1. Your goals for the swim clinic. 
2. Location of the clinic. (I prefer to do the clinic at "NAME OF POOL")
3. Timeframe: (how long; 30 min or 1 hour session) and Date: (please give me a few available dates)
4. Session Fee:  I normally charge "$$$" for a 30 minute session and "$$$" for a hour session
Thank you for reading about this opportunity. I look forward to coaching you soon!
Sincerely,
Coach (YOUR NAME)
(YOUR TEAM)

As you can see, this simple email can help you start getting paid for your services today. I hope that gets you excited and that you will forward this email out and begin leveraging this powerful social networking tool. Thanks for reading this blog and I look forward to your comments.
Sincerely,
Justin Perry, Founding Member
Swim Coach Finder

Getting Sign Ups & Referrals

Getting Sign Ups

Now you just need the clients! Swim Coach Finder recommends a three step process to market your clinic after you have posted an ad. The first step is to email all of your past clients, current clients, and prospective clients about the swim clinic you are having.
In the email, make it easy for them to register and find your ad. To do this you need to copy and paste two links into your email. The first is a link to your specific ad on Swim Coach Finder so they don't have to search for it. To do this you need go to "Coaches Specials" and find your ad. Go to the url of your ad (at the top of your screen) and copy and paste it into your email. The second link you need is the registration email which is: http://www.swimcoachfinder.com/registration.php
These are the two links they need to register easily for your clinic and request to hire you for other services.
Make sure that you specify what the clinic is all about, who you are trying to help and how you are going to help them meet their goals and become better swimmers.

Getting Referrals:
This is where the power of viral marketing comes into play. When someone registers, you can find out if that person has a facebook, twitter page, blog or other social network by checking out their profile page on Swim Coach Finder.
When you get that information, go and comment on their page and congratulate them on signing up for the upcoming clinic and let them know that you look forward to coaching them. You also want to mention that if they have any friends or followers who would like to participate, they are welcome to join too. Every friend or follower that your new client has will see your new comment to them and it may generate more interest for you. Be sure that your comments direct them easily to Swim Coach Finder and your Swim Coach Finder ad.
This will help you begin to use the viral effect of the Internet to help you find new prospective clients and build interest in your services. Repeat this process over and over and you will have so many clients you will not know what to do with them!
After the clinic, be sure to thank the people who attended by revisiting their facebook, twitter page, blog, etc. show our appreciation for their participation in your clinic. Ask them to please leave feedback on their experience on Swim Coach Finder and encourage them to pass your information on to other people who may be interested by searching for you in the "Coaches Directory" on Swim Coach Finder.
People who have read your comments on these social networking sites may go to Swim Coach Finder and search your profile and see what your clients had to say about their experience. You then have a new prospective client who may request your coaching services or attend your next clinic.
This is why the power of social networking and viral marketing is so amazing! This is why I said in the beginning that this social network is going to revolutionize and change the swimming community forever. We have taken the best aspects of social networking and recreated them to create a referral machine for coaches all over the world. If that doesn't get you pumped, then I am not sure what will. Get started today by posting an ad and lets change the swimming world together. 

How to Market Your Next Swim Clinic

How to Market Your Next Swim Clinic:
First off I would like to say thank you to everyone again for becoming early adopters of this new social network that is going to revolutionize the swimming community.
Today I want to tell you how to market your next swim clinic through Swim Coach Finder and get people to sign up for the special swim clinic you will host in the upcoming weeks.
Before we go into the how to's; let me first explain the importance of getting clients through Swim Coach Finder and how that will help your business in the future. When new swimmers and tri-athletes come to the site and search for a coach on Swim Coach Finder they are going to search for someone who has a good track record on the site. They are going to look at the comments posted by those you have coached and they are going to look at your overall ratings. These, along with your credentials, are going to determine if an athlete who does not know you is going to hire you. You can have the best resume in the world, but if there are no comments, it will be a harder to sell to potential clients.
A little known secret is to first get those who already know you to hire you through Swim Coach Finder. Pick people you know will give you great reviews and then invite to coach them.
Your first reviews are very important and it is important to give every customer an over the top customer experience so they can tell others about the positive experience they had with you on Swim Coach Finder. The expectations are high and you need to be prepared to meet and exceed them.
Why do these reviews help you? When you get great reviews on Swim Coach Finder, that helps your rankings and puts you higher on the list when prospective clients search for a coach in the Coaches Directory.
For instance someone who has no experience coaching on Swim Coach Finder is going to be listed a lot lower than someone who has 10 people they have coached. In addition, if two coaches have both coached 10 people, then the one who will be ranked higher will be the one who has higher ratings and reviews.
Another reason these ratings are important is because new swimmers and tri-athletes coming to swim coach finder to look for a coach might not want to settle for someone who has less than 4 stars. These athletes can search for coaches who have ratings of 4 stars and above and then look at the feedback to make their determination.
Getting in the top search bracket in the Coaches Directory and having the most reviews and highest ratings is the cheapest and best way to get the maximum number of new clients from the Swim Coach Finder community.
All that being said, let me tell you how to get started and market yourself with Swim Coach Finder and get clients for your next clinic.

Getting Started:
1. Log into your profile and click "post an ad." Fill out the information about the clinic and then press "submit." Look at the ad under "Coaches Specials" and make sure it looks and sounds ok. If you need to make a change then just click "My Ads" in your profile. Under "My Ads" you should see your ad and an option to click "edit" and change the necessary information.
2. Next, upload a picture of yourself from your computer through the "Edit Account Info" tab in your profile. This is the uploaded picture that people are going to see when view your profile or ad. You may choose to use a logo instead. Keep in mind that people like to look at the picture of the person they are hiring because it makes them feel a little more secure.
When people see your ad under "Coaches Specials," they can either send you a message or immediately request to hire you. The athlete has to fill out a form that tells the specific date, time, location, price of the clinic. When you accept their request this brings a binding agreement between you and the athlete. The athlete pays you by credit card or their paypal account through their profile that they have created.
3. Next, you need to create a PayPal account if you don't have one already. If you do have a PayPal account, you need to log into your account and figure out what email you registered under with PayPal because this is how you are going to receive your funds. You need to update the PayPal email address in your profile under the"edit profile" tab.
When an athlete pays the fee for your services the revenue goes into a Swim Coach Finder escrow account. Swim Coach Finder takes out our 10% fee and then sends you the net revenues. Then you can either save it or transfer it to your bank account through PayPal. Getting directly paid by the client in this method, before services are rendered, eliminates cashing checks, going to the bank, making sure you collect, and leverages your ability to take credit cards without merchant service contracts and their associated monthly service fees. All you have to do is show up and do what you do best - coach - and you have the peace of mind that the money has been taken care of beforehand.

WE NEED MORE SWIM COACHES

This is an online update from Swim Coach Finder
Hello Swim Coach Finder Community,
 I want to thank everyone yesturday who opened up the Swim Coach Finder email and signed up. We have had tremedous success on the first day of launch getting swimmers and triathletes througout the U.S, U.K. and Australia who need swim coaching services.
 Swimmers and Tri-athletes are spreading the word out virally about Swim Coach Finder and we are trying to keep up with the demand. 
We need more swim coaches to keep up with the demand of swimmers and triathletes who need a swim specialist all across the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. We would like you to consider registering right now and then activating your account.
Swim Coach Finder is executing a marketing plan that has already made us number one on Google search and is spreading virally like we have never seen before. We need swim coaches to become early adopters of this social network that connects swimmers and triathletes with swim coaches for the purpose of swim instruction. The reason is because these athletes expect to get access to great instruction and you get to capitalize on all the hype.
 Please sign up today and be the first swim coach to represent your area because I guarantee you, it will pay off when this social network becomes mainstream. If you wait till then, you will be on the losing end of the game because their will be another coach to claim your territory and we don't want that to happen to you. 

Intro Blog about Swim Coach Finder

Hello and thanks for reading this blog that is going to tell you about the Swim Coach Finder Community
Swim Coach Finder is a webbased social network that connects tri-athletes with swim coaches for the purpose of private swim technique instruction.

About Swim Coach Finder Swim Coach Finder makes accessing personalized swimming instruction easy and affordable. It makes sense that swimmers and tri-athletes who want to get faster in the sport of swimming must first learn and apply efficient swimming techniques. Experts agree that customizing an athletes stroke efficiency, buoyancy and energy preservation is best done through personalized coaching instruction. Through the Swim Coach Finder network, swimmers and tri-athletes can search, advertise, arrange and receive coaching services, as well as pay for and rate private swimming stroke instruction from top coaches around the world. Swim Coach Finder allows coaches to market themselves to new, existing, and former clients by searching and competing for the business of athletes who need their services. Through our safe and secure payment site, coaches can receive direct deposit payment for their services, receive referrals, and compete for top rated reviews and comments from clients. Benefits: 1. Swimmers and tri-athletes can request a private stroke instruction session with their coach by searching the directory or classified ads and requesting services. 2. Swimmers and tri-athletes can search for coaches who have specific capabilities like video analysis, collegiate or Olympic experience, VO2 Max analysis, etc. 3. Swimmers and tri-athletes can get great deals on private swim session by creating a classified ad describing the services needed and the price they are willing to pay. Coaches can search these ads and bid, compete, and win the opportunity to coach the athlete. 4. Coaches can market themselves through Swim Coach Finder by creating discount coupons or special offers advertising their specialized coaching techniques. Athletes can contact the coach directly with questions. 5. Athletes can pay for services through our safe and secure website through a direct deposit into the coach’s Pay Pal account. 6. Athletes can review and rate their experience with a coach, which helps others in the Swim Coach Finder community make purchasing decisions. Athletes can also make positive or negative comments about their experience on the Coaches profile page. You are receiving this email which is an exclusive invitation that lets you join this social network free. Also for a limited time coaches who post ads about themselves or upcoming clinics only have to pay $.99 for the ad post and only $15 to purchase our premium services which ranks you in the top coach search in your area for the next month. Click on the logo above and sign up today. You Tube Video About Swim Coach Finder For Tri-athletes and Trainers

Justin’s personal message:
I hope listening to the You Tube Video and reading about swim coach finder gets you excited to see what you can achieve by using this social network.
Swim Coach Finder is FREE for you to sign up and join today.
Swim Coach Finder is completely FREE for Swimmers.
We collaborate with coaches and clubs and this is how we build our revenue streams by creating private swim instruction job opportunities to anyone in the world, at any time.
Now we invite you if you are a coach to be apart of our Swim Coach Finder network. When you join our network Swim Coach Finder only charges a 10% commission off every contract made between a coach and an athlete. For instance, if a coach charges $75 to do a clinic. When the athlete pays the coach, Swim Coach Finder will take $7.50 from the $75, which leaves the coach with net revenue of $67.50.
Swim Coach Finder is like a swim clubs and coaches marketing budget. The more clinics a swim coach and team does, the higher they rate on Swim Coach Finder, which in turn helps them make more money. Investing 10% back into the site helps you with your Rankings, Feedbacks, and Making Money, which all help coaches and teams recruit more athletes and achieve their goals. .
To put it simply, Swim Coach Finder brings viral marketing to the sport of swimming.