Are you a yoga instructor looking to expand your reach and generate more income? If so, creating an online yoga course is a great way to grow your business. By taking your classes online, you can provide access to students from all over the world, even if they can’t physically attend your classes.

Why do you need to have a clear plan, and what will happen if you don’t?

It is so important as a yoga teacher to be diversifying your income. Diversifying your income means creating several offers to reach your income goals. Those offers can include your group yoga classes, a workshop, an online yoga course, private classes, and retreats. 

To give you an example of a typical suite of offers and how it can work for you as a yoga teacher, my client, Krista, planned her income goal to reach USD 6000 in January. It felt natural and possible for her to reach this income as she is a student of my core program, Elevate, and this is precisely what I teach inside.

One of her offers is an online self-paced course and that was truly the missing piece for her. We integrated this with different options that can suit her clients but also her desire to teach less 1:1 and make more income.

Almost everyone living in a western country has now a computer and is looking at solutions to their problems online and I am sure you do too.

Creating a course is not just a good idea for now but for your future too. You will never regret having spent 2 weeks recording videos when you still make income from it years after. 

I enroll every month students in the online yoga courses, I created years ago and receive 100% passive income from it. Nothing is done live, the content is great and all it took was 2 weeks from start to finish for each course I have ever recorded.

In this blog post, I want to walk you through the 6 steps you need to create your own yoga course. Because without a plan, you are going to get confused and overwhelmed and will not end up finishing your course and so never growing your income or impact.

Step 1 – Outline Your Course

The first step in creating an online yoga course is outlining the program’s content. You can start by deciding what topics you want to cover, such as basic poses and breathing exercises, or more advanced topics like meditation and philosophy. You should also decide on the length of the course, how often it will be held and what type of format it will take (live or pre-recorded). 

This first phase is your data collection phase. Open a Google doc or a note on your phone and write:

1. Who is this course for? That can be women suffering from painful menstruation, people running marathons and wanting a faster recovery, or anything that is niche. There is no point in creating a course called yoga for beginners because if you do not have 200 thousand followers, that will not work. It is too general, and it is almost impossible to find where someone that does not do yoga but will want to do yoga is on the internet. If you cannot easily find your people, you will not easily sell your course.

2. Decide what is the theme of the course and the problem you solve. Maybe your course helps your students recover faster after a marathon or ditch pain during menstruation.

3. Now you can choose the duration of your program. How long will they have access to this course? Is it lifetime access or is there a timeframe they can access the content? This is very important when doing the outline because if they have lifetime access, you might structure the course differently than a four-week course.

4. Ask yourself if you will be the only teacher or if you need more teachers for your course.

Step 2 – Gather Materials

Once you have outlined the content of your course, it’s time to gather materials for it. This includes things like videos of yourself demonstrating poses, written instructions for each pose, images of each pose, and any other materials your students may need. If you are teaching live classes via video conferencing software such as Zoom or Skype, make sure that you have a good internet connection and sufficient lighting so that students can clearly see your instructions. 

Now that you know who it is for and what problem your course will solve, it is time to map out your program. I have an entire free workbook you can get to outline your course. Click HERE to get it.

To do this outline, you need to think about the organization of your course. 

Does it make more sense to have something divided into modules or per week?

This will depend on your course goal and transformation. I have courses that follow both and it all works great if you choose the correct one for your audience and the problem you solve.

Think about how much time will people need to go through your course.

How much time to focus will they have per lesson?

Start to outline the goals and obstacles of each phase of your course.

What do they need to get the results you promised?

Step 3 – Set Up Your Platform

Now that you have gathered all the materials needed for your online yoga course, it’s time to set up a platform where you can host your classes and deliver materials to students. Depending on the size of your class and what type of format it will take (live or pre-recorded), various platforms can suit different needs and budgets. Explore different options before making a decision on which one works best for you. Read this blog to see the best platform for you.

Step 4 – Promote Your Course

Once everything is set up, it’s time to start promoting your course! Utilize social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), email newsletters, and word-of-mouth marketing techniques to get the word out about your new offering. Make sure that potential clients know why they should choose your course over others by emphasizing its unique features (ease of use, convenience, etc.)

Step 5 – Price Your Course

Now comes the important part – pricing! When setting prices for each class session or package deal offer discounts for early booking or loyalty rewards to encourage repeat customers. Be mindful not to undersell yourself; research industry standards in order to come up with competitive yet fair prices for each lesson/package offered.

Creating a course comes at a cost. Ask yourself, how much will it cost to create my course? Will I hire someone to design my slides or record them in a studio that I rent? Even if you choose to not use any of those paid options, write it down.

Do I need to pay for an online course platform to host my program and if yes which one? How much does it cost?

Doing everything yourself alone is possible but you will need to spend lots of time researching of course to find the best option for you. This is why having a coach supporting me at each step was a lifesaver when I started.

Step 6 – Monitor & Evaluate

After launching your online yoga course be sure to monitor its performance in order to gain insights into customer behavior and satisfaction levels as well as identify areas, where improvements could be made, to ensure long-term success. Use metrics like ‘course completion rate’, ‘average customer spend’, ‘customer retention rate ‘ & ‘customer feedback scores ‘to track progress & evaluate overall performance.

How to keep moving forward when you feel stuck?

Before wrapping this up, I want you to know that it is normal to feel scared, unsure, or overwhelmed. All the students inside Elevate do feel a mix of excitement and scared when they start creating their online course, and this is because you are stepping up.

You are stepping up as an expert and you might not see yourself as one just yet. That’s okay! Your mind is playing a trick on you. Growth always comes with discomfort. Always.

What we do during this discomfort will lead to success or failure. When you are creating your course, remember to read this blog. Remember that it is ok to feel overwhelmed, and if you need to take an hour break and think “what would the best version of me do right now?”. “What do I need to grow right now and move through this discomfort?”

Wrap Up!

Creating an online yoga course doesn’t have to be difficult; with a clear plan and careful execution, anyone can create one relatively quickly! With these 6 steps–outlining content needs, gathering materials, setting up a platform, promoting, pricing & evaluating —you’ll be well on your way toward launching a successful digital product. Keep doing more research as necessary but don’t let perfectionism get in the way; the key is just getting started.

If you feel stuck in your yoga career and want to get more income and impact, Elevate Program is for you!