If you’re a yoga teacher looking to grow your business into something more, why not consider hosting online yoga teaching classes? If you still need convincing, here are a few reasons why online yoga courses have become so popular over recent years:
- It allows yoga professionals to make revenue from anywhere, at anytime.
- It opens up an opportunity for yoga instructors to diversify their revenue streams.
- It adds flexibility to a yoga business while still offering recurring revenue.
And the way in which yoga instructors can be successful is by using some of the best online course creation tools available. These course platforms for teaching online are designed to help you host live and on demand yoga classes, as well as run your entire yoga business operations from the software. These operational tasks include marketing, eCommerce, customer data, customer messaging, etc.
Now, not all video on demand platforms offers the same features. So, it’s essential that you do your homework before choosing your online yoga membership platform. But before we get into what some of the best platforms for online yoga classes are, let’s start with the basics of understanding what it means to teach yoga online.
Teaching Online Yoga Courses: All You Need to Know
Providing flexibility for you and your yoga students
Teaching online yoga courses can be an extremely rewarding practice. Here at Mastera, we work with countless yoga instructors who say that the online yoga teaching business has been a positive move for them. This occurs because online businesses allow you to have a flexible schedule while still earning revenue across multiple streams. The best part is that these multiple revenue streams are all managed within a single platform. Your yoga students will also be able to book classes that suit them and access your video on demand library whenever they like.
Saving you time, helping you run your yoga business efficiently
Video monetization platforms help entrepreneurs and instructors manage their company without having to keep track of things manually. It streamlines tasks, and, most of all, helps you gain time back to do what you love – create those online yoga classes! Paid or free online course creation tools also track your customers, their habits, behaviors, and payments. These analytics can help you evaluate which content and promotions resonate with customers so that you can use what works going forward instead of using a “spray and pray” approach.
Offering various video monetization models for teaching yoga online
Another thing to think about is your video monetization models. When you transition your yoga teaching business to the virtual world, you’ll notice that the membership pricing model starts to raise your revenue with ease because it’s a model that everyone is very familiar with. Think of Netflix as an example. Everyone is very familiar with paying a monthly fee to access VOD (video on demand) content whenever they like. Online yoga classes work in a similar way. All you have to do is set up your student plans, make the content available to members, and keep adding content to your teach yoga online platform. It really is that simple!
What Online Yoga Classes are in Demand?
The reality is the yoga industry has grown enormously over the past decade. This is great news for yoga instructors because if you’re looking to start teaching online yoga classes, you’re in luck! The demand is already there. But the trick is this: You must tap into a yoga niche. This way, you’re attracting a specific target audience, and people looking to practice your niche will actively be seeking instructors like yourself.
Here are a few yoga courses that are currently in demand:
- Yoga courses for beginners: This is a popular online course because many students would prefer to try virtual yoga before exposing themselves to other yoga students. If they feel comfortable, then they’ll pursue more yoga in the future. This is a good opportunity for you to get many people signed up for your course and make them feel relaxed with you as their teacher and mentor.
- Introduction to meditation: Meditation is often seen as a practice that is difficult to do on your own. Some students prefer to have an instructor help them concentrate and teach them techniques that will help them become more successful. Online classes can be ideal for meditation.
- Introduction to pranayama: This is one example of many “intro” courses that people seek out online. These courses appeal to students who are already familiar with basic yoga techniques and want to upskill in a yoga niche like pranayama.
- Yoga for pregnant women: As wellness becomes an increasingly popular topic in our daily lives, people start to see the value of practices like yoga when they’re pregnant. This is already quite a niche, but the demand for pregnancy yoga is definitely there.
- Yoga for stress relief: With work environments being more stressful than ever, people look to yoga to ease the mind and relax after a long, taxing day. This is catered to the working-class customer segments, and virtual yoga classes are always preferred – because they can attend from wherever they are during their busy days.
How to Make an Online Yoga Course for Free
Like everything else in the world, you can create something for free or choose to pay a monthly fee to gain access to a more professional online teaching platform. But for now, let’s start with the free option.
How can you create online yoga courses for free?
Well, there are a few tools you can use to help you do this:
- Use YouTube videos: Most people go to YouTube when they want to start a video series. All you have to do is record your yoga class and upload it to a dedicated channel on YouTube. Then, send the video link to friends and family to watch and follow on their own.
- Use free design tools: Tools such as Canva can help you add thumbnail titles to your videos. You can also use Canva to create supporting yoga guides and resources.
- Use existing equipment: In order to start teaching yoga online, you’ll need to record yourself. Video recording equipment can get really expensive. But if you use what you already have, you won’t need to break the bank. Use your current smartphone, natural light, and plain wall backgrounds to save dollars.
- Get a Zoom account: If you would like to start live streaming yoga classes, simply get a Zoom account. Once you are logged into Zoom, send everyone the link to your class a few days prior to the live stream, and teach friends and family yoga in a Zoom session.
- Sign up for a free version of an online teaching platform: If you want a more streamlined online yoga course creation tool, get the free version of an online teaching platform. This will be slightly limited, but you can easily upload, manage and host your yoga courses. At a later stage, you can always upgrade to a paid version of the VOD platform.
How to Make an Online Yoga Course Successful
Before we look into some of the best platforms for teaching yoga online, let’s analyze how you can make your online course successful. There are a few simple but effective tips to help you out:
- Choose your niche: We spoke a bit about having a yoga niche earlier in this blog. In order to stay relevant and relatable, you must have a niche. This allows you to sell yoga courses to people who really are looking for them. This narrow winding path of audience targeting helps you market to the right type of people at the right time, with the right message.
- Create business goals: Even though it may seem like a simple business model, selling courses online is actually starting a business! So, take some time to create SMART goals for yourself and understand that aiming for these goals will help you build your business with an ideal path ahead.
- Plan and deliver rich content: Teaching yoga online is all about the content! You need to take time to create a content calendar, find various yoga topics you’d like to talk about online and engage with your audience. This can occur during lessons, over social media channels, and on your website.
- Engage with students: Keep users informed and educated by speaking to them often! This goes above the usual chat over a live stream. You should make an effort to touch base with them via email or text and guide them to their yoga goals.
- Continually market to your audience: Create a long-term marketing strategy that speaks to several phases of your business. Your strategy should outline your core messaging, digital channels for your owned media (website and social media profiles), as well as your paid media (advertising). As time goes on, start to personalize your marketing messages based on your students’ preferences. There’s real value in this.
The 6 Best Platforms for Teaching Yoga Online
And now that you have the foundation for teaching yoga online let’s look at the best course platforms for teaching online! The reality is that there is a plethora of white label video on demand platforms out there, but only a few offer the biggest bang for your buck. Let’s look at these now:
Mastera
Mastera is a video experience platform built for modern instructors, creators, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. The video monetization platform is all about empowering people to be able to monetize their passion. Mastera’s team is also very well-versed in the health and fitness industry, and, as a result, many of its clients are yoga instructors, Pilates instructors, and personal trainers.
Key Features:
- Unlimited content, customers and video hosting
- On-demand video library
- Recurring revenue through memberships
- 0% Transaction fees
- Selling physical and digital merchandise
- Customer messaging
- Mobile app
- Integrated email and text marketing
- Zoom integration for live streaming
- Full reporting
- Contract-free
Pricing:
- Starter: $39/month
- Premium: $99/month
- Elite: $199/month
- Enterprise: Custom
Uscreen
Uscreen is well-known for its high-quality live streaming capabilities. The platform offers customers a customizable and branded mobile app and allows people to create communities within the platform. This software is all about seamless live streaming and engaging with customers. Uscreen does have one catch: You have to pay 0.50 per subscriber monthly, which can be expensive as your yoga business grows.
Key Features:
- HD live streaming
- Community creation
- Mobile app
- Reporting
- User feedback gathering
- Reporting
- White label video on demand platform
Pricing:
- Basic: From $79/month + 0.50 per subscriber per month
- Growth: From $159/month + 0.50 per subscriber per month
- Uscreen Plus: Custom
Thinkific
Thinkific is a popular platform amongst businesses today. It is known for its pricing tiers that allow instructors to choose a plan that is well suited to them. The platform focuses on providing you with the ability to build and sell online courses in conjunction with managing a community. You can also customize your web themes and domains on Thinkific. Thinkific is fairly priced, although it is pricier than others on this list.
Key Features:
- Automated check-ins for students
- Built-in discussion forums
- Flexible course types (private/expiring, etc.)
- Does not need a WordPress LMS plugin
- Advanced features like quizzes are available on higher-tiered plans.
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month
- Start: From $74/month
- Grow: From $149/month
- Expand: From $374/month
- Plus: Custom
Teachable
This is one of the most well-known online yoga membership platforms today. Teachable is designed to help any creator and offers a free plan to users who want to learn more about the platform. It is known for its user-friendly interface and ease of setup in just a few minutes. You should note that not all features are available on cheaper plans, and if you want advanced features you will need to upgrade.
Key Features:
- Ease of use
- Sell courses rapidly
- Student feedback gathering
- Email marketing
- Selling coaching merchandise
- Reporting
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month
- Basic: From $29/month
- Pro: From $99/month
- Business: From $249/month
Kajabi
Kajabi is a video monetization platform that empowers creators to make and sell all types of content. These types of content include online courses, podcasts, and coaching programs. The platform also provides customers with a suite of marketing tools to rapidly create campaigns and sales funnels. Although, it is good to note that Kajabi is more expensive than most other VOD platforms on this list.
Key Features:
- Event hosting
- A variety of templates
- Ability to add surveys and quizzes to courses
- Advanced marketing tools
- Customer support via chat
- Sales funnels
Pricing:
- Basic: From $1199/month
- Growth: From $159/month
- Pro: From $319/month
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is a platform that is designed to help you sell and promote your online courses. It is best known for its ready-to-use templates, which can be customized according to your desired fonts, images, and logos. The platform also allows you to use ebooks, interactive videos, assessments, and surveys in your courses.
Key Features:
- Ready-to-use templates
- Social networking
- Responsive designs
- In-depth and various learning activities
- Around-the-clock customer support
Pricing:
- Starter: From $24/month
- Pro Trainer: From $79/month
- Learning Center: From $249/month
- High Volume and Corporate: Custom
Get the Best Teaching Experience with a Premium Online Yoga Studio Platform
With more and more fitness enthusiasts becoming interested in virtual learning, the demand for yoga instructors has risen astronomically. If you’re a yoga instructor and thinking about starting your online business, we have two things to say to you:
- You’re on the right track, and;
- Don’t wait! Get started today!
Here at Mastera, we can help you get started with the right foot forward. All you have to do is reach out to our team, and we can schedule a demo with you whenever it’s convenient for you.
If you want to learn more about teaching yoga online, check out our Ultimate Guide to Teaching Yoga Online here.
Happy teaching!
Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera