More and more yoga teachers are exploring how they can teach yoga online. As digital technology evolves, it’s easier and cheaper than ever before for yoga teachers to create their own online yoga classes (and reach a global audience with it!).

All these development are especially exciting because teaching yoga online can add a whole new layer to your life and business. It allows you to generate new, passive income streams to build a fulfilling, more sustainable yoga teacher life and business - without burning out somewhere along the way of teaching 20-30 classes a week to pay the bills, freaking out about taking holidays and finding no time and energy to nurture your own yoga.

Teaching yoga online has lots of potential and benefits:

• Generate new, steady income streams

• Connect with a bigger audience

• Increase your online visibility and find more clients

• Provide real value for your audience

• Stand out in an over-saturated market of yoga teachers

• Boost your SEO

• Work more location independently

• Have lots of fun embarking on a new, creative project

… only to name a few.

Sounds exciting? YES. For sure. Sounds a bit scary and overwhelming? Yep, that too. In fact, tech-fears, overwhelm and perfectionism are some of the biggest obstacles that prevent yoga teachers from getting started with teaching online.

That’s why I wrote down 8 tips for you on how to get started teaching yoga online. If you are a yoga or pilates teacher (or wellness/health practitioner) wanting to explore video for your business, read on.

1. Your website is the foundation

Your website should be your starting point. It’s the foundation of your online presence and online teachings. Through your website, clients garner a sense of you, your brand, your style of teaching and the values that are most important to you as a yoga teacher. Make sure that your website is professional and easy to use across all devices (desktop, mobile, tablet). It should tell your story and allow people to easily connect with you. If you’re unsure how to set up your website, this blog post details the 8 biggest mistakes to avoid on your yoga website and may be a great read for you.

2. Produce your own yoga videos and online classes

Video content is the most popular content online at the moment and is tipped to be even more relevant in the upcoming years. Great video content allows you to connect with your audience on a much deeper level and provide real, educational value for them. Video content is also favoured by most social media platforms, which can boost engagement and help you become more visible online, reaching new potential clients. YouTube or Vimeo are great platforms to host your videos and share them with your audience and clients.

And the best part is: you don’t need expensive equipment or major tech-skills to create your own yoga videos. To make video creation/marketing more accessible for yoga teachers, I’ve poured all my heart, knowledge and experience from working 1-to-1 with yoga teachers on their own video creation, into creating a course on this topic: How to create professional yoga videos and online classes on a budget (all you need is a phone and laptop!).

I’m sharing my proven yoga video production process, the exact equipment I use for my videos, common mistakes and pitfalls, and all relevant tech- and editing-tutorials in this new, self-paced course. Click the link below to learn more.

3. Leverage social media (but do it mindfully)

For yoga teachers, the most relevant social networks are Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Uploading video content and online classes to your social media account(s) can be a great way to stand out in a busy, overpopulated online space, while providing quality content and value for your audience. It can be a super short sequence or a longer flow/class, anything is possible - your business, your decisions. However, always keep in mind that your social media community is not really your community. As you might have experienced already, the algorithms keep changing all the time, so it gets more and more difficult to actually reach people.

4. Grow your email community

Your email subscriber list is the most important way to build your community. Unlike on social media, this is really your community - something your subscribers can feel a part of. When a person signs up to your email list it’s like they are saying: ‘Hi there, I like your work and I’m curious to learn more about it.’ So once you have your first online offerings and classes, email marketing will be one of the most effective ways to find paying clients and promote your offerings authentically.

QUICK TIP: Start building your email list as early on as possible, not only once you have your online offerings ready. It takes quite some time to build an engaged email community and you want to nurture your email list and also provide lots of great, free value to them.

5. Start a yoga blog on your website

Yes, having a website is super important, but it’s just as important to keep your website regularly updated with interesting, thoughtful content. Writing blog posts on your expertise or topics of interest is a brilliant way to share your message and connect more deeply with your audience. You should commit to posting at least 1-2 blog posts a month to build your audience. A blog can also help you to establish yourself as an expert and even get speaking gigs or new clients/jobs. And, of course, it’s a great way to share your online teachings, once you have built an audience.

QUICK TIP: Promote your blog posts on your social media accounts and within your email marketing to increase your reach.

6. Host a virtual yoga retreat or workshop

You can easily host events and classes online through meeting tools, such as Zoom or Google Hangouts. And the best part is, they don’t have to take months of preparation. Why not try and create a regular virtual meetup for your community or clients, to talk about all things yoga? Or you could host a virtual self-practice workshop, to support your community along their own yoga journey. You can get really creative and explore different ideas and concepts – different things work for different people.

7. Create a signature online class series

Selling signature courses or class series online can be a great way of generating passive income for your business, so it’s definitely worth investing the time and effort into. You don’t need a videographer or expensive equipment to create your yoga videos. All you need is a phone, a laptop and some free editing software (see point 2 and my yoga video creation course).

I do recommend getting a tripod for filming, but you can get decent ones for only £10-15 Pounds. Depending on the file size and your tech skills, you can either sell your signature courses on your own website, maybe even as part of a membership program. Or you can simply host them on another online course platform.

QUICK TIP: Great platforms to look into for hosting your online yoga course are places like Udemy, Teachable or Namastream.

8. Start before you're ready and focus on progress, not perfection

Believe me, I know how scary it can feel to get out there and embark on a new, creative project. That’s basically all I’ve been doing for the past 3.5 years, going through a complete career change and starting up my own business.

When something is outside our comfort zone, it’s easy to keep on procrastinating it. After all, procrastination is a form of fear, or a result of it. However, I can say that I truly live by the motto: start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.

Really think about your big vision for your business (and life) for the upcoming years (I’m talking 5-10 years). If teaching yoga online is something you are curious about, give yourself the permission to explore it, without having the perfect plan all mapped out in your head before, taking baby step after baby step.

I’m a big fan of micro-challenges. Think about the smallest step you can take that gets you closer to your goal of teaching yoga online. Maybe you can start with filming your first videos for Instagram stories (they only stay online for 24h, so it usually feels a bit less scary). Oftentimes the first step is the most difficult one, so keep on exploring and stay curious, working with an attitude of healthy striving instead of paralysing perfectionism.

Any questions, ideas or feedback? Let me know in the comments below or hop over to Instagram.