Over the years I've received a lot of feedback, both good and bad, from yoga teachers who have attended teacher training programs across the country.  Most people love their teacher training programs, and praise how much the training has deepened their understanding of yoga, their personal practice, and their understanding of the human body.

However, I consistently hear negative feedback from folks who are looking to become  yoga professionals, who state that their yoga teacher training didn't prepare them to become full time yoga teachers.  A large part of running a yoga business, or how to pursue teaching as a full time career isn't addressed.  Teachers even lament that the few teacher training programs that offer a workshop, barely scratch the surface.

To address a number of teacher related issues, I decided to address some of what is missing in these teacher training programs in a 3 part post for TeachAsana.   TeachAsana is a blog dedicated to providing resources for yoga teachers.

Here are the 3 posts for you to check out:

• Part 1: Marketing 
• Part 2: Public Speaking
• Part 3: Class Management

BizeeBee has been reaching out to ask many yoga teacher training programs as it comes in contact with.  We've tried to offer  workshops, but training centers turn us down, because they think there just isn't a need.  It's up to you as a teacher to bring it to their attention.

If you're interested in pursuing teaching or training as a full time position, be sure to ask what sort of ongoing professional development workshop or resources your program will provide to assist you as you establish yourself as a new teacher.

You know you need a website for clients to find you, and look up the services you offer.  While you'd love to hire a web designer to create one for you, a well designed website can cost you at least $2000.  So if you're just getting your business off the ground then you might want to DIY (do-it-yourself).  There are a lot of great tools out there to use to build a website quickly.

We've taken a look at some of the DIY platforms available, which can save you lots of time and money, and chosen ones where novices or those who are less than tech savvy can feel comfortable and make progress!  Here are a few of them:

• moonfruit
• jimdo
• squarespace
• weebly

If you'd like to have a logo designed check out 99 Designs.  You can also add some imagery to your site by using professional quality stock photos from sties like shutterstock or fotolia etc.

Basic Information

A website is a reference for potential clients and customers.  Therefore, it should have the following basic information:

• Location
• Hours and Days of Operation
• Contact info: phone number and email address
• Pricing of Services

Contact Info

People too often don't want to put their telephone number or email address, and instead use a contact form.  While many do this for privacy concerns, you will have to consider it against potentially losing a customer who feels like they are just entering their info into a void, instead of having easy-to-access contact info.  I've noticed a few tech savvy studio owners who setup a Google Voice account, which gives them the option to either forward calls to their cell phone.  The same can be done with a business email address.

Your Studio's Story

What really gets potential customers interested in your business, is YOU!  Tell a story about how your business came to be, who the founders are, and what the mission is.

Description of Services

If you want to go the extra mile and establish a deeper connection with a potential customer then don't just inform, but educate them as well.  For example, if you offer a particular style of yoga, provide a description of the style, its benefits, and how it differs from other styles of yoga being taught.

Customer Testimonials

If you're a new business, its hard to establish credibility with new customers.  The easiest way to create confidence in the minds of potential customers is by putting up a testimonial of regular customers, and how they have benefited from your service.

Finally, realize that your business will evolve, you'll add and remove services, offer specials, or hire additional staff.  Your website should reflect those changes.  Keep it as  up-to-date as possible, so that your customers can also stay easily informed, and you'll be able to continually attract new ones!

Getting started

At yoga teacher training class we discussed the importance of having a professional online presence. This is a “quick start guide” because it's a starting point - numerous resources available online go deeper in each of these topics. This is also just one perspective that applies across professions - your instructors definitely know a lot more about this, so reach out to them with questions.

I use the term “online presence” in contrast to a specific tool like "website" -  there are a variety of online tools out there and it's the sum or combination of them that comprise your full "online presence." The questions below emphasize the word “unique” because each person will have a unique set of goals and thus a unique mix of online tools that would help achieve those.

Why create an professional online presence?

Your students, prospective employers, and peers are increasingly interacting with your presence online, so take a few steps to show yourself in the best possible light. Examples...

• First impressions: Students and prospective employers can do a quick online search, so your web presence is an opportunity to give them the info they need to choose you.
• Validation: Prospective students may see a post about you on their friends’ news feeds and decide to try out your class next week. A current student thinking of attending your workshop is curious about your expertise in the topic.
• Ecommerce: Someone sign up for your class online before you see them in person, or someone across the country may buy your book from your website.

First, let’s take a step back

A useful web presence captures who you are, best showcases the content you produce or re-post, and helps you achieve your professional goals - all within the time you have available to set up and maintain it.

There’s a quote “Form follows function.” Take a few minutes to step back and articulate a few basics before diving in. The questions below help you think about the “function” you’d like your online presence to play in your career, and consequently help navigate the many tools, or the “form,” your online presence can take.

The more clearly you define your expectations, the more success (and fun) you’ll have doing this. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers to the following questions right now, these are just to get you to start thinking.

Function: What are my unique goals?

Who are you?

Deep question you may have asked yourself many a late night, but here are a few quick questions that may help shape the persona you’d like to convey with your web presence:

Form: What are the most effective online tools to achieve my unique goals?

Pick your theme

Your theme encompasses aspects of the questions in the previous section and will be a consistent thread across your multiple web presences. You don’t necessarily need a theme, but it’s a simple step that overall makes you more memorable and look much more professional. Choose a theme that shows your uniqueness. Your theme does not have to be immediately tied to your expertise, but preferably something one of your peers is not already directly using.

Your theme will affect a number of elements in your web presence. Here are a few examples, but your individual mix might not need all of these:

• Name of your Facebook page
• Twitter name
• Blog name and corresponding domain name
• Colors of your blog
• Profile pictures - E.g. Based on Yoga Garden’s theme, all pictures of teachers have trees in the background
• Business cards
• Email signature

If you’re not ready to choose a theme quite yet, choose something general for now like your name, the style of yoga you teach, and your favorite color. This way you can make it more specific later on, but it’s harder to do the reverse.

Here are a few great examples of themes that convey a lot in just one line. I’m sure there’s a lot that went into each of these choices, but here’s a quick snapshot:

• Seeking Samadhi SF: audience needs to “get” that reference, shows that Erin engages with yoga on a deeper level and that she’s based in SF
• Devi Wears Prana: audience who “gets” that pop culture reference, shows Michelle has a sense of humor, sparks readers’ interest, very unique.

* Note: If you’re looking for more resources on choosing your theme, it’s also referred to as “personal brand(ing).” I use the term “theme” in this article because it’s much less scary and more authentic.

What tools are out there?

Ok so you have your goals and your theme - you’re well on your way! Now let’s go into a few tools that are out there, so you can choose among them to create a unique mix of tools to fit your unique goals.

The following table is just enough info for you to get a taste of each online tool - each tool has many more features than the ones listed here, people's opinions vary on the pros/cons, and one can learn more about each of these in much greater depth.

Let’s put this in action

1. What mix of these tools fits your goals?

• For example, maybe for now setting up an About.me page and a Facebook page is all your have time for, but maybe in a few months when you have more time and experience you'll set up a blog.
• Also, focus on social networks where you already hang out (if at all) in your personal life, otherwise it will be hard to motivate yourself to post content to those places.

2. Once you have determined which tools you'll use, schedule time to set up each account.

• Make it easier by planning to do this in a few  shorter sessions.
• Make it fun by going to your favorite cafe with a friend or curling up in your favorite pajamas.

3. How often do you think you can create and post fresh content? Be honest, set realistic goals, and hold yourself to them. You may want to start small and build it up later on.

FAQ’s and Tips

FAQ’s on having a separate vs. unified online presence
Q. I already have a personal Facebook profile - should I create a separate Facebook page for my professional presence?

A. See what makes most sense for you, but lean towards creating a separate Facebook page. It depends on who you’re Facebook friends with and what you post.

• If you post a lot of personal stuff to your Facebook profile, it might be more appropriate to have a separate page.
• Also, the content that may be of interest to your yoga students might not be interesting to your friends and family - that article on pranayama might not be top of mind to your Uncle Joe : )

Q. I already have a blog for something else, like my primary profession, hobby, or a personal journal - should I create a separate one for yoga?

A. This depends on your goals and how yoga and the other “else” tie together. A few examples:

• How comfortable are you combining your personal journal with your professional presence? Unless your theme is centered around really raw authenticity (example outside of yoga is Penelope Trunk), I would recommend keeping them separate.
• How is the other profession or hobby related to your theme? If they reinforce one another and especially if the combo makes you more unique and compelling for both, keep them together. If the 2 web presences have entirely different goals and audiences, keep them separate.

Tips

• Simple is 100x better than janky. A polished About.me page with very little content looks, or simple but active Facebook page, is more professional than a multicolored blog that hasn’t been updated since 2008.
• Quality is 100x better than quantity. Fewer but high-quality blog posts and article re-posts are much better than many but low-quality posts. If your audience has to sift for themselves through high/low quality content, they will tune out. They are also more likely to explore the rest of your site and refer it to friends if they know it’s all good stuff : )
• Be very honest with yourself of how much time you have to both SET UP and MAINTAIN a web presence. Set aside time to set up these tools - you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. Create a schedule with yourself of how often you’ll create or re-post content.
• Find examples of other yoga teachers’ or other professionals’ web presences you like. Go with what works.

Looking forward

Yoga plays an important part in your life and you’re looking to share it with others - instead of being a haphazard time sink, your online presence can be a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals. Enjoy!

This was originally a post on Tech Muse Now.

About the guest blogger: Bernadette Cay is a product marketing manager at Google. She is passionate about the intersections of technology, entrepreneurship, and mindfulness towards making an impact. She holds a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University and completed 200-hour RYT yoga teacher training. Follow her on Twitter at @bernadettecay.

You pour a ton of love and thoughtfulness into your studio. Do you give the same amount of attention to your web presence? From the perspective of a practitioner, your web presence can be a powerful way to help new students choose your studio, engage students as part of your studio community, and be a helpful resource to support ongoing attendance.

Help me choose your studio
When I moved to San Francisco, my search for a yoga studio began with a quick online search to see which studios are near my residence or workplace. There were many more yoga studios in SF than I had expected.

As I checked out the websites of nearby studios, I implicitly assumed that a yoga studio’s website was a reflection of the yoga experience it provided. Here are a few things I was looking for:

• Does the studio’s website reflect what I’m currently looking for in yoga? Along the spectrum of yoga being a purely fitness activity to a purely spiritual experience, where does this studio fall?
• Does the studio offer the style of yoga I’m seeking? The only terms that sound familiar are “yoga,” “vinyasa” and “bikram.” “Hatha,” “jivamukti,” and “yin” may be a good fit for me too; if your website explains what they are and how they are unique, I might be more inclined try them out.
• Does the studio’s website look “put together”? Similar to the way you evaluate an online store’s website before making a purchase, a studio’s polished website builds a prospective practitioner’s trust. A professional-looking website is a positive indicator of the quality of the studio’s operations and service. With numerous online tools and freelancers available, a professional-looking website can be affordable investment.
• Based on the photos of the studio, does this look like a safe space where I would feel comfortable and even look forward to visiting?

I also check out local review sites like Yelp to make sure there were no major or recurring negative feedback. Like the neighborhood cafe, the yoga studio is my “3rd place” outside of home and work to recharge, so I’m looking for a space that feels right to me. One class is all I need to see if a studio is a fit, so I often did not take full advantage of each studio’s intro packages.

Help me stay connected to your studio’s community
A yoga studio is a community. A practitioner joins your studio’s unique community when they start going to your studio. The flyers around the studio may not catch my eye when I’m there in person and focused on getting ready to practice, but it’s great to know I can subscribe to your studio’s email newsletter to keep up with upcoming workshops, retreats, offers, and learn about other services the studio provides such as massages. I have the flexibility to read it on my own time and forward it to a friend who may be interested in an event. I may not attend an event right away, but I can at least get a sense of what type of events your studio offers for future reference.

Help me attend more classes
Even after choosing to try your studio based on its web presence, I access it on an ongoing basis to check out the schedule.

• It’s great when a studio keeps its website updated. Given the ease of use of available web tools, I assume that at least one person on the studio staff has the ability to update the website directly and regularly, especially regarding scheduling changes.

• I go straight to the section of the website I’m interested in, so if your studio makes a scheduling change, it prevents confusion if you update both the home page as well as the schedule page and state clearly what date the changes go into effect.
• A mobile-optimized site can help me come to class more often. Given the nature of my work schedule, I decide on short notice whether I have a chance to go to class. A mobile-optimized website makes it easier for me to access your studio’s schedule when I’m on the go.

In summary, your studio’s web presence can provide a huge help to practitioners, by providing the information they need to choose your yoga studio, keeping them connected to your studio’s community, and helping them attend more classes.

About the guest blogger: Bernadette Cay is a product marketing manager at Google. She is passionate about the intersections of technology, entrepreneurship, and mindfulness towards making an impact. She holds a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University and completed 200-hour RYT yoga teacher training. Follow her on Twitter at @bernadettecay.