Very few studios will actually consider you for a position if you aren’t a member of their community. As you may have learned in your teacher training a big element of yoga is the community but it is also discipline. When you practice at a studio, you have time to become a part of their community, you also have the ability to decide if it is the right community for you.
Many teachers attempt to reach out to studios they have never been to for teaching jobs and either never receive a response or are not considered seriously because those making hiring decisions simply don’t know them.
When you show up consistently and take classes, you interact with other and that allows you to more organically be connected for a teaching job.
A caveat to this gyms. Many teaching positions at gym’s you can simply walk into and apply for with a resume or reach out online.

The best thing a new teacher can do is create opportunities for themselves. Whether you work at a company or you live near a park, you have easy access to a place to bring students, that is often times free. You can set your student rate and spread the word out to family, friends, and coworkers. You might be surprised, but people will actually show up to support you in your teaching journey. This also shows potential studio manager that you take initiative, which will help you down the road in landing a teaching spot on schedule.

You paid a teacher to learn from, that makes them a perfect source for recommendations on where to try to teach and how to approach different opportunities. The teachers you study with are also an excellent source to ask if they need an assistant for their upcoming classes and workshops. Having a mentor is invaluable and often times the best way to get connected into a particular studio. Having someone to vouch for you will help open doors a little more easily than simply trying it on your own.

While every new teacher would love to see their name on a studio schedule, there are so many other opportunities to teach a regular class when you are just getting started.
Gyms are a great place to start as you are often able to encounter new to yoga students and they can become lifelong clients and friends on your yoga journey. Companies big and small often offer wellness programs and typically go with people that are recommended to them, so don’t be shy asking family and friends. Hospitals often have gyms and run classes on a daily basis which is an incredible place to teach people of all walks of life and can help shape you as a teacher.

Many fitness related stores are already offering weekly yoga classes. The next time you pick up a pair of stretchy pants, throw your name in the ring with a few of the employees, they are typically the ones that make the decisions on who teaches when so becoming friendly with a few will help your chances.

A lot of yoga teaching jobs are actually posted online through sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. While these are less likely to be studio teaching positions, they are often well paid regularly scheduled classes through corporations.

Free classes are a hot topic in the yoga world. While yes they can help you get your name out there, they actually devalue yoga significantly. If a student can attend a free class often, what is the incentive for them to actually ever pay for a yoga class. It is best to consider free offerings very carefully.
If a free class is to benefit a charity or cause, then go full force into it! Afterall, selfless service is part of the path of yoga! If however, a studio requires you to teach free classes in order for you to be considered for a teaching position, turn around and look elsewhere. You have paid for knowledge and a skillset, you have spent time, effort, and energy, you deserve to be paid accordingly.
Being a new yoga teacher is exciting! You have so many opportunities to teach you simply have to put effort into making the most of the opportunities that are available to you. With a little time and hard work, you will be teaching regular classes in no time!
Bre Nourse is an RYT 500 yoga teacher and wellness writer. Find out more about Bre at www.brenourse.com

The first step is to sign into YouTube with the Google account you’d like your page to be associated with. Then head to YouTube settings and click create channel. You have the option to create a business or personal page, but we recommend creating a business page because it gives you more branding options. Then, select a category for your page and your channel is made!

When you do this, a new Google Plus account will automatically be created for you. Make sure you choose a name and URL that align with your brand— they matter!

After you have the basics down, you can focus on branding. YouTube allows you to have channel art, mainly a large cover photo similar to a Facebook cover photo. For best results:

There are several ways to optimize your videos for maximum exposure. The most important way to get a volume of traffic is to produce consistent, high-quality content. You also need to use SEO-optimized titles, descriptions, and keywords on your channel and on each video. Ideally, your videos will show up as search results on Google, not just YouTube, to get more traffic.

Google tends to use video results for how-to searches, reviews, tutorials, and anything related to sports or fitness. For example, searching “how to do yoga” yields 3 video results on the first page.

Here are a few top tips for optimizing your videos:

To learn more about SEO optimization, check out these resources

Case Study: Yoga with Adriene

A simple search for “yoga” in YouTube results in Yoga With Adriene as the only recommended channel. Eleven out of the nineteen videos on the first page are Yoga With Adriene videos.

Suffice to say, her channel is doing something right!

So what’s her secret?

We can’t expect our channel to grow to over 2 million subscribers over night (hers certainly didn’t!) but she follows many of the best practices detailed in this article, to great success.

Bonus: check out Adriene’s tips for getting your YouTube channel started.

Search traffic is fantastic, but it’s not the only way to get your content seen on YouTube.

You may want to skips ads for any number of reasons. Maybe you feel uncomfortable with having certain types of products associated with your videos or you simply don’t want people to be “sold to” when they’re trying to do yoga.

The ads do allow you to generate revenue and continue producing high-quality videos. But there are certainly other ways to make money from your channel, including brand partnerships and directing traffic to your website.

If you decide to monetize your account, you can control the types of ads displayed to eliminate ads that are inappropriate for your target audience or ads from your competitors. You can limit the format styles of ads that are displayed by going to Creator Studio > Channel > Upload Defaults > Ad Formats. To learn how to control the types of ads on your videos, click here.

Do you have a yoga YouTube channel? Whether you’re just starting out or have been making videos for years, comment below and share what works for you!

If branding is all about creating an emotional response, then it’s essential to know who you are creating an emotional response with. That’s why identifying your niche is a critical step along the path toward developing a successful online yoga brand. However, conceptualizing a niche can be difficult.To make this process easier, ask the following 2 questions:

Who am I?

Define yourself as a studio, instructor, brand, or some combination of all three. Make a list of your skills. Then, find unique ways to combine those skills so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

For example, maybe you left a job as an event planner to pursue your love for yoga. Upon reflection, you may feel like you were an average event planner, and now you are a novice instructor. When taken together, however, you might just find that you have the potential to be an exceptional yoga retreat planner.

Finally, make a list of your passions. Is there a way you can offer your unique skillset in a way that brings you closer to what you are most passionate about?

Who are they?

Once you feel confident in the skills, services, and/or products you want to offer, it’s time to consider who your ideal client or customer will be. This process may take some time, and it’s best to let it unfold organically. Meditating on this question and journaling about it in the morning and evening will slowly shed light on the answer. As you brainstorm, challenge yourself to write at least 5 persona profiles to capture the essence of 5 unique individuals in your ideal audience. For example:

Lily, age 34, married to husband John, mother of 2.

Lily is a conscientious mother who always wakes up early enough to pack a nutritious lunch for both of her daughters. She always meditates before getting ready for work, even if it is only for 5 minutes because that is what Deepak Chopra recommended in his book, Super Genes. Being a working mother leaves little time for yoga practice, so she often streams classes for free online. However, she always makes it to her local studio on the weekends to take advantage of the heat and energy of her friends.

Drafting personas is critical for at least 2 important reasons. First, it provides an opportunity to think about who, specifically, is a good match for your brand. As you write, you will be forced to explore the validity of the personas. Does this person exist, and do they actually think and behave this way?

Second, as you refine and validate your personas, you will develop specific targets for which content marketing strategies can be formed. For example, Lily’s persona above may provide inspiration for a 5 Minute Meditation guide that you can promote to busy moms on Facebook. Or you might decide to create an infographic on the top 10 healthiest foods to pack for kids’ lunches. In both cases, Lily’s persona serves as a guide to develop effective content.

For additional ideas on promoting your brand with engaging content, check out these effective content marketing strategies.

Think about what designs, colours, and tones you connect to. Then, revisit the personas you drafted in step one and think about what designs, colours, and tones your niche connect to.

Consistency is key here. Your image should be the same across all of your digital platforms, including colour selection, logo, language, and media.

The good news is, there are plenty of free tools available that you can use to develop your image. Check out this article on 3 free tools to create a stunning colour palette.

Logos can be a bit more complicated, but don’t let that stop you. You don’t have to break the bank to get a logo professionally designed. You can do it yourself! In general, keep these thoughts in mind:

There are several different free platforms you can use to design your logo, including Canva and Wordswag.

Learn more about designing the perfect logo from DesignShack or Creative Bloq.

There are 3 keys to building your tribe: listen, share, and learn. Listen to what your audience is saying. Share content they respond to. Learn from what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Consistent engagement is the best thing you can do to build your brand because it shows your audience that you want to create community. For example, you may want to make a habit of doing these things every day on Instagram:

For more tips on engaging with your audience, explore these links:

The last thing you’ll want to do is research! Find social media pages that align well with your brand, and look for opportunities to share or learn from their activity. For example:

The inspiration is endless. Take notes about what you like and dislike about what different accounts do on various platforms, and incorporate those into how you build your own tribe.

Branding yourself is easier today than it has ever been. However, with that ease comes the potential for things to spiral in a negative direction.

Just as a successful viral campaign can win new followers and heart share, so too can one negative experience create a crisis for your personal brand.

Developing and building your personal brand takes an immense amount of effort, so be sure to anticipate and plan to diffuse negative events. Big brands call this process crisis management, but individuals are wise to adopt the same strategy to protect their reputation online.

Check out these articles to get some ideas:

Have you tried branding yourself or your studio using the tips in this article? Comment below and share your experiences!

When it comes to building your audience, think grassroots. This type of marketing has been around since the early 1900s, when political activists focused on creating powerful local movements to effect broader change on the national level. The same can be done in today’s digital landscape. Rather than pay for Followers (which are likely to be spammy accounts), create group message threads within Instagram with like-minded accounts. As part of the movement, have everyone agree to send their most recent posts to the group thread so others can view, Like, and share it. When organized effectively, these message threads can quickly amplify your Instagram reach within weeks. Best of all, organizing groups of like-minded people can only improve engagement, idea sharing, and overall quality for everyone involved.

Below are a few ideas to help you create quality groups to improve Instagram reach:

Analytics is a great way to maximize your Instagram efforts. Take a moment to review the metrics and apps below, then think of ways to incorporate them into your own Instagram marketing strategy.

Before reviewing Instagram apps, it helps to first understand what metrics are available to help you meet your Instagram marketing goals. Key metrics include

Iconosquare. Formerly known as Statigram, this app is popular among average users and big brands alike. Iconosquare includes access to a desktop app, making it easier to review and manage important analytics on your computer’s big screen. Best of all, Iconosquare allows users to quickly and easily share their Instagram feed on their website or Facebook Company Page via custom tabs and code.

SimplyMeasured. Many influencers agree that SimplyMeasured provides the best high-level summary of Instagram account activity. Unlike Iconosquare, SimplyMeasured is a web-based tool, meaning you will have to create an account and run the program through your web browser. In this free report, you will find 2 months worth of analytics data, including average engagement (measured per post), comment keyword analysis, top locations, and much more.

InstaFollow. This mobile Instagram analytics tool is available to both iOS and Android users. Influencers love InstaFollow because it tells you more about your followers, which ultimately helps you build a bigger following. With this app, you can track users who follow-back, unfollow, and manage relationships based on follower activity. Download for Android or iOS.

Union Metrics. Another web-based analytics tool, Union Metrics offers a rich data report in just under 2 minutes. This app provides exceptional insights, such as identifying the best time of day to make a post (according to your account’s engagement data). Union Metrics offers both free and paid subscription options, so you can try the service before committing.

Crowdfire. This free Instagram app has many of the same features as the apps listed above, like follower analysis and other relationship building tools. However, Crowdfire can also be used to send push notifications to remind you to post. This unique feature is ideal for anyone who wears more than one hat during the day, as it helps you stay organized and engaged with your following.

Of course, Instagram is just one of many social media marketing platforms available to yoga studios and instructors. To learn more about comprehensive social marketing, visit this article on Social Media Marketing for Yoga Professionals.

Often times, yoga instructors and studios simply want the opportunity to share their practice with new students. However, it’s important to consider how your goals may evolve over time. Perhaps your studio will eventually want to create an inspirational newsletter. Or, maybe you will develop new health supplements or yoga props. Examples of Facebook marketing goals might include:

Take time to develop a strategy that encompasses not only your immediate goals, but future goals as well. Be specific as possible, and write down your goals to force yourself to remain mindful of them with ever Facebook interaction. To learn more about developing SMART goals, visit this article on Social Media Marketing for Yoga Studios and Professionals.

The key to building your Facebook audience is to make it easy for your page to be found. Put your best foot forward by following the 5 tips below:

In addition to your website and blog, a Facebook Company Page makes an excellent channel for content marketing. Facebook’s media-rich interface makes it easy for both Fans and Friends-of-Fans to see your newest blog articles, infographics, press releases, videos, and other posts. Moreover, sharing your content on Facebook is the first step toward forging genuine relationships with new prospects (See Step 4 below).

However, the best Facebook Pages are those that are carefully curated. No single professional or brand can produce all the content that their audience needs. As a rule of thumb, Facebook marketers often post in a 3:1 ratio—for every 3 posts that promote a self-made piece of content, make 1 post to share content from an authority your audience will find valuable. For yoga professionals, those authorities might include well-known spiritual leaders, like Deepak Chopra, or sustainable food providers, like local grow-ops. Refer back to your strategy (See Step 1 above), and align yourself with causes, public figures, and brands that will help you attain SMART goals.

So, what kind of content should you produce for Facebook? For specific ideas and strategies, visit the following article on Content Marketing Strategies for Yoga Studios and Instructors.

Next, remember that Facebook is a social media. By providing great content, you will eventually build a captive audience that will proactively return to your Facebook Page to check-in and see what you’ve been up to. One of the best ways to encourage this kind of audience relationship is through educational materials. In a Facebook marketing eBook for HubSpot, Social Media Manager Brittany Leaning (@bleaning) explains:

“When we post educational or entertaining content about inbound marketing as a whole, we generate tons of leads, because we reach more people, and give ourselves the opportunity to warm them up to the idea of doing business with us without shoving our software down their throats.”

For most yoga professionals, this approach should sound familiar. Create a safe space to learn, and students will return. To be successful with Facebook marketing, yoga studios and instructors must take that same philosophy online. Focus on building long term relationships—through educational content, or other curated media—and your audience will stay engaged. Engaged audiences are the best audiences because they are home to the types of people who will Like, Comment, and Share your content to Friends. Over time, your audience will steadily grow.

However, there are limitations to the organic (non-paid, unsponsored) growth you can expect from Facebook. In Step 5, we will see how Facebook ads can further share your content with a vast yet highly-targeted audience.

As we learned above, the organic reach of Facebook posts fell to about 6% in 2014. To put that into context, imagine you spent 1 year building an audience of 100,000 Fans on Facebook. In 2014, you would reach just 6,000 of your Fans with a single post. Today, that percentage is likely to be even lower.

Using the Facebook Ads Manager, yoga instructors and studios can find their ideal audience using the following targeting methods:

Keep in mind:

Facebook will automatically adjust its estimates for Total Reach as you specify a different location, gender, age, and interest parameters. Take notice of how this reach changes, and use this data to learn more about your potential audiences. For example, how does the Total Reach (audience size) of New York women who like Yoga compare to men in that same region? Which is more popular among men and women in Brooklyn, Yoga Journal or Mind Body Green? Be curious, and toggle the settings in the Ads Manager to learn more about different region-specific audiences. Take note of the most popular people, brands, and causes. Ask yourself: What can I learn from the things that are already popular (and unpopular)?

First, consider the following list of common reasons why people usually opt-in. Then, take the time to think about what inspires you. Think of your social media marketing strategy. What are you most passionate about? Take time now to consider how your passions can be conveyed in a unique way, and you will undoubtedly create email content subscribers will look forward to reading.

Why people subscribe:

As you brainstorm, remember to look to other brands and professionals for additional inspiration. Below are a few examples of successful health and wellness industry email campaigns that utilise a combination of the values listed above.

Take a moment to visit the websites above, and notice how they promote their newsletter as a way for visitors to remain informed, inspired, or entertained. Subscribe to a few that interest you, and evaluate the emails as you receive them. Are they delivering on the promise that got you to subscribe? If not, how could they be improved? Make notes, and generate ideas to implement in your own email marketing strategy.

A comprehensive email marketing strategy can be broken down into 3 key stages: Opt-in, nurturing, and selling. Taking a tactical approach to these stages will not only build your subscriber base, but also increase your ability to gain new sales, students, and in some cases, form long term friendships!

Encourage people to opt-in. In the noisy world of the Internet, a new subscriber opt-in is one of the most valuable things you can hope to achieve. The most effective opt-in strategies share many common elements, which may include the following:

Nurture relationships with content. Next, use original content to become a dependable source of information, inspiration, or entertainment to your subscriber base. Remember that your relationship with subscribers is a two-way street.

Nurture your relationships by being thoughtful, engaging, and communicative. In addition to delivering dependable content, always include ways for subscribers to start a conversation or offer feedback. One way to accomplish this task is to always feature your social media accounts within the email. Then, create hashtags that subscribers can use to tag any posts they make about the content. Create a sense of community!

Finally, always remain mindful of the original intent of your email campaign. If you ask subscribers to opt-in for a weekly email, resist the urge to send more than 1 email per week unless it is absolutely necessary. By the same token, always draft, upload, and schedule your campaigns in advance to avoid missing days or falling behind (more on that in Step 4).

Knowing when to sell. Yoga is a deeply intimate practice, which is why it might seem difficult to “sell” yourself, your studio, or your products. However, yogis are people, and they need products and services. Remind yourself that your subscriber base is comprised of individuals who have voluntarily opted to receive regular emails because they like what you stand for. Honor that relationship, and promote your products and services accordingly.

In general, follow the 90-10 rule: Allocate 90% of your email content to delivering on the promise you made to get opt-ins, but feel free to use the remaining 10% for secondary content. If your email campaign promises weekly class updates, use the headline, body, and main image of the email to do just that, and save the bottom 10% for a sales coupon. On the other hand, if your online yoga store offers an email newsletter to keep up with the latest sales events, use the major elements of the email to promote the sales and encourage website visits, and use the bottom 10% to feature your newest Instagram photos. Look for ways to be creative, but honor your relationship with your readers by staying true to the original intent of your email newsletter.

A well-crafted email message can accomplish a variety of important goals. When drafting your message, follow the tips below to develop an engaging headline, body, and supporting elements.

Avoiding your subscriber’s Spam folder is a major challenge. For more tips and tricks, visit this article by KISSMetrics.

Using email marketing software to schedule your campaigns is important for at least 3 reasons. First, it helps you log and manage important subscriber information, like name, email, and preferences. Additionally, email software provides a dashboard that can be used to schedule messages in advance, making it easier to nurture relationships without ever forgetting to deliver content. Perhaps most importantly, it provides a platform through which campaigns can be tracked (see Step 5 below). Below is a brief list of popular email marketing software that can be considered for nearly any campaign:

Analytics are only available through email marketing software, like the options listed in the section above. Although specific metrics might vary from service to service (and package to package), there are 3 vital metrics that can significantly shape the success of your campaign. If the service you are using does not offer these insights, you should consider investing in one that does.

Unsubscribes:
This metric tells you how many people opt-out of your newsletter. A sudden spike in this metric might indicate that content is no longer in alignment with the way the new

The Internet’s most popular yogis all have one thing in common: They have defined themselves according to their strongest beliefs and skills. To this day, I cannot think of Ashtanga yoga without also thinking of the graceful movement and ever-smiling face of Kino MacGregor. When it comes to handstands, I immediately envision the coral colored tattoos of inversion expert Dylan Werner. And when I approach my meditation cushion, I always hear the soft and Earthy tone of Deepak Chopra, whose collaboration with Oprah has brought meditation to the masses through yearly 21-day meditation challenges.

So before you begin building your social media presence, learn a lesson from these amazing individuals: Focus on what you love, and think of how to share it with unparalleled passion.

Once you define yourself, take a moment to think about what you want to get out of social media. Revisit your website goals, and consider ways that social media might help deliver new people into your conversion funnels. If you do not have a website strategy, take a moment to review this article on how to build your website and funneling strategy.

When formulating goals, take the SMART approach. This tactic uses the acronym S-M-A-R-T to help you set goals with maximum effectiveness. Essentially, each goal should be:

To summarize, let’s compare the following goal:

Gain a lot of followers on social media.

With the following SMART goal:

I will engage with Twitter users for 15 minutes every day, so I can build my following to 1,000 users or more by the end of the month.

Note that when you make a SMART goal, the goal itself becomes a roadmap that defines who will do the work, how they will do it, and what benchmarks will be used to measure success.

Next, consider how you might achieve your SMART goals, given who you are and what you want to deliver. For example, Kino MacGregor encourages followers to keep a regular yoga practice by sharing her daily flow and insights. Dylan Werner encourages students to chase scary inversions by posting pictures of complex arm balances, along with inspirational messages about the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone. Each of these professionals have a similar goal—to build a community of like-minded yogis— yet they use content in unique ways to develop relationships with different types of students.

One thing we can learn from these two professionals is that, although we may share similar goals, the strategies we use to achieve those goals are going to be unique. Below are just a few additional examples of how yoga instructors might use unique strategies to accomplish common goals:

Developing an effective strategy is often challenging. However, remember that fear, anxiety, and insecurity are the enemies of creative power. Take time to center yourself every morning, and use techniques like journaling, meditation, and heart-opening yoga poses to find your center and cultivate bliss. Have faith that ideas will come, and trust in your natural ability to connect with like-minded individuals. For more ideas on how to build a following online, visit this article on Content Marketing Strategies. 

As you define and refine your strategy, it will help to know where your ideal audience spends their time online. Consider these statistics on the following major social media channels for yoga professionals:

Evaluate the above platforms, as well as other secondary channels that might have smaller communities of users. Think yoga-specific blogs, forums, and even news aggregator websites like Reddit. Finally, select no more than 3 networks to focus on every day. This will keep you from feeling over-extended, and it will help you focus on what truly matters: Building community through genuine engagement.

When it comes to building a following, always remember: Quality is more important than quantity. “Networking is always important when it’s real,” explains world renowned author and marketer, Seth Godin, in this video interview. “And it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake.” Think of social media users as new friends who you meet at a party. You would not use new friends as a means to an end; similarly, you should never waste time or energy simply accumulating followers with whom you share no connection. Instead, take the time to build genuine relationships through engagement, curation, and conversion.

Engagement. Follow like-minded people and look for opportunities to start a conversation. Like or share posts, offer your own perspective, suggest additional resources, and ask questions that will facilitate an insightful discussion. In time, you will establish yourself as a knowledgeable person who others can engage and follow, too.

Curation. Take time to curate exceptional content that others will find helpful, entertaining, or otherwise useful. To offer the most diverse perspective, be sure to feature content from leading authorities alongside your own. Most brands like to follow the 3:1 rule: for every 3 promotional or personal posts you make, be sure to post 1 piece of non-promotional content from a 3^rd party expert. For yogis, that could mean a dietitian, researcher, or medical professional who is passionate about holistic health and wellness. Think of your social media page as an art gallery—you are the curator, and you should take great pride in making your gallery an inspirational experience!

Conversion. Always give followers an easy way to find your most helpful resources. This might mean providing contact information, website links, or links to other social media profiles, depending on your conversion goals. It might feel strange to promote yourself directly but remember: If you take the time to establish genuine relationships, your presence will create value that others will deeply desire.

Tools can help, or they can hurt. Consider using tools that help to identify opportunities to build valuable relationships and achieve your goals. Avoid using tools that automate social media engagement, because nobody wants to interact with a robot. Below is a brief list of social media tools designed to help organize, analyze, and optimize your efforts.

Content marketing is a digital advertising tactic that uses articles, images, videos, and other media to engage, inform, and build trust within new audiences online. Whether you’re trying to get new students, increase your email newsletter subscriber base, or sell more yoga mats through your website, content marketing is a proven method for connecting, nurturing, and converting new opportunities online.

Whereas main website pages are used to profile your business, products, and services, blog articles are a flexible type of page that can be used to promote secondary content that builds your brand image, authority, and trust. Blogs are a great place to share news stories, interviews, product reviews, and even deeply personal opinion editorials.

The best blogs have a clear voice that resonates with its audience. They also become the central hub from which most content marketing materials are published, then shared. Taking this blog-first approach to content marketing has two big benefits. First, it builds your direct audience by regularly supplying readers with unique and engaging content. Additionally, it makes it easier to accumulate backlinks as other brands and bloggers share your content, since they will link back to your blog when citing the material. As you accumulate backlinks, your overall website will gain authority and your search rankings will increase. Learn more about Search Engine Optimization for Yoga Professionals.

A good picture is worth a thousand shares, which makes infographics one of the most effective content marketing tools available. These large images help readers understand big ideas in a short amount of time. Here are 5 tips to get started:

Develop content, then offer it to a 3^rd party for promotion on their website, blog, or social media in exchange for a link back to your website. Guest blogs are a critical component of any content marketing strategy, because they simultaneously increase your reach while improving search engine rankings (by accumulating backlinks).

However, guest blogs must be approached with caution. Many search engines, most notably Google, have made it clear that colluding to skew search rankings can cause ranking penalties and/or removal from search results. The best way to protect yourself from penalty is to ask: How can I create value through collaboration? Do your best to create unique and valuable content, and you will likely be rewarded with good relationships, positive feedback, and better website authority.

Below are a few ideas for yoga professionals in search of guest blog opportunities:

Video creation and consumption will only continue to grow as more and more people gain access to smartphones and high speed internet. Fortunately, yoga and online video are a perfect match. Video is an excellent medium for demonstrating poses, sharing sequences, and providing tips for injury prevention. It’s also a great way to capture intimate interviews, directly from your yoga studio, on the topics and ideals that you find most important. Think of ways that you can inform, educate, and engage with new followers online using video content. Then, begin capturing video using a basic camera or smartphone. Download a free video editing software, and share your footage on your blog and social media.

The best online newswires do not accept promotional content for distribution, so crafting an effective press release that also promotes your brand, website, or products can be tricky. Reserve this content marketing tactic only for when there is a newsworthy event with which you can align yourself. For example, if there is a yoga festival coming to town, you might consider launching a press release to promote the event, announce you will be in attendance, and share why the event is important. Press releases build awareness for your brand while also providing valuable links to your website and social media accounts.

An effective social media post begins with excellent content. Any of the items above—blog articles, infographics, videos, or press releases—can easily be promoted via sponsored social postings. Best of all, tools like the Facebook Ads Manager allow you to target users in certain locations with specific demographics and interests. Create quality content and get the targeting right, and you will quickly earn Likes, Comments and Shares from those who see your posts. Friends of those users will see the activity, helping you gain exponential access to circles that might have otherwise been unreachable.

Exceptional content begins with a thorough understanding of the audience you are trying to reach. Take time to consider the gender, age, location, and interests of your ideal audience. Think beyond the yoga studio, and ask important questions like: Where does my audience shop? Do they like to eat out? Will they pay more for eco-conscious products? The more you understand what motivates your audience, the easier it will be to develop content that makes them stop, click, and convert.

The Internet is an incomprehensibly large collection of pages, images, and videos. Despite the vast amount of information that is created on an hourly basis, there is still plenty that is missing. Gather ideas and feedback from friends, students, and online sources. If you can determine what your audience needs—but cannot find—you can quickly become a valuable information provider.

Remember: Search engines can give you free website traffic, as long as you’re ranking well. Always look for opportunities to optimize your content with keywords to accumulate top tier rankings and long term visibility. This is the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. Consider SEO only after you have already taken time to understand your audience, asked what they need, and developed original content ideas. Then, prior to publishing, review your work for opportunities to update the copy with appropriate keywords.

To learn more, visit this article on SEO for Yoga Professionals.

If you’ve followed steps 1 through 5 above, then you should have no problem believing in your content. Be sure to share your work, thoughts, and inspiration! Think of ways to distill your work into a short Tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram post, then share across each platform. Tag others who have inspired you, and ask questions to facilitate discussion. Or, think of ways to expand upon your content, and create long-form articles to submit to other online journals, forums, or message threads. Believe in your content, and get excited to use it to form new relationships online!

Content marketing is time consuming. You can’t afford to waste time developing content that doesn’t truly wow your audience. Fortunately, free tools like Google Analytics can give you insights on how website visitors interact with your content. As you develop content, use this tool to assess how well your content performs in terms of attracting new visitors, keeping them onsite, and accomplishing conversion goals like class enrollment or newsletter signups.

In order to learn SEO, it’s vital to first understand how search engines work. Often, we search for things on the computer or mobile phones without really thinking about how the information is returned to us. However, understanding that process is the first step in learning how to leverage the power of search to promote your studio, classes, or products online.

Indexing: Search engines continually scan the internet for new and existing web pages. This process is called indexing. Search engines like Google and Bing crawl from page to page, using virtual robots to report back on the content they find. This information is gathered, categorized, and stored in a virtual index.

Query analysis: Next, the search engine analyzes the query entered into the search box according to the keywords and phrases it contains. It then references its index and lists the pages that appear to be the most relevant to the query. That is the main reason search results appear so quickly. Search engines do not scan the Internet every time you enter a search term. Instead, they quickly return relevant results from an existing index that is continually updated.

User experience improvement: Search engines—particularly Google—have evolved considerably since first being introduced in the late 1990s. Today, new features like search suggestions, images, and even live Tweets are being displayed within search results to make it easier for people to find exactly what they are looking for.

A word of caution: Search engines are a business. Their primary goal is to improve customer experience by returning the most relevant results. Search results are often modified using things like user location, browser history, and search history. Savvy marketers keep this fact in mind, and they anticipate the always-changing landscape. As a best practice, always target a diverse set of keywords with a variety of unique pages (see section Creating Content for Search Engines AND People).

Now that you know how search engines work, you might be thinking: How can I predict what people will search for? After all, if you can predict the exact queries someone will use to find your products or services, then you can rank well by building content that looks like a good match. Enter: Google Keyword Planner.

Google Keyword Planner is a tool that anyone can use to gather statistics on how many times certain keyword phrases have been searched on Google. For example, if you operate a yoga studio in Manhattan, you may use this tool to determine if potential clients are more likely to search for “yoga studio Manhattan” versus “best yoga studio in Manhattan.” Simply enter both terms, review the results, and optimize your website page for the best phrase. That could be the phrase that is searched the most, or it could be the phrase that resonates with your competitive advantage. For example, if you offer a free week of yoga for new students, a related query like “free yoga classes in Manhattan” might be your best choice!

Once logged in, select Keyword Planner from the Tools drop-down menu. There are 3 different ways to use this tool, and each option is listed below the Find new keywords and get search volume data subheading at the top of the page. For our purposes, we will focus on the 1^st and 3^rd options:

Once you gather data on all the keywords and phrases you would like to target, it’s time to think of how to incorporate them into specific website pages.

Keywords in hand, it’s time to create content that will not only rank well, but that will also truly help those who find it. This process consists of 3 important stages: Dividing keywords, drafting pages, and performing basic on-page SEO.

Example 1: Yoga studio in New York

Example 2: How to do pigeon pose

Example 3: Best yoga mats

For additional tips and advanced optimization techniques, visit this resource by industry leading search analyst MOZ.

Search engines use a complex algorithm to determine how relevant website pages are to specific search queries. In addition to the on-site factors mentioned above, search engines will also evaluate how your page is view by other websites and other people. These factors are often referred to as off-site factors, because they include things like Google reviews, social media mentions, and hyperlinks that point to your page from another page on the Web.

At the time of this publication, links to your website are among the most important factors search engines will use to determine how well your page will rank. Although there are many factors taken into consideration, it’s helpful to simplify the equation as follows: Relevancy, authority, & quality.

There are more than 300 factors that search engines, like Google, use to determine rankings. To learn more, visit this off-site SEO resource and learning tool by MOZ.

As yoga instructors, we know the value of building genuine relationships firsthand. SEO should be approached in much the same way as leading a yoga class. Take time to reflect on who you are and what you stand for. Dial-in to your audience by performing some keyword research and competition analysis—that is, search the keywords you are interested in, and learn from what others are doing well (and poorly).

Of course, it might take several months before search engines index your page, analyze your authority, and place you within the search results. Even then, it is a long and competitive journey to the top. To make SEO as effective as possible, proactively promote your content in ways that encourage others to share it. Challenge yourself to think outside the box. For example, studios may use QR codes to direct-link students to online resources that they can then Tweet, post, and share—all of which are actions that improve your perceived authority to search engines. Or, independent teachers can use Facebook ads to geo-target an “eat locally” guide to yogis in their city. Have faith that creating valuable content will always drive genuine, organic traffic. In time, search engines will recognize your effort and reward you with better rankings.