Knowing that so many amazing entrepreneurs have hesitated to teach online was the impetus for this gear guide: We wanted to create a one-stop resource for anyone who felt ready to create an online home for her business, but wasn’t sure which tools she’d need to launch. We’re hoping to provide you with a simple roadmap for bringing your business online, pointing you toward the gear you need while keeping the process as actionable as possible.

Just as you might expect from its name, micro-blogging is the practice of creating information-packed, short-form blog posts that accompany Facebook, Instagram, or even Pinterest posts. Doing this allows you to convey important news, helpful tips, and other rich content quickly and effectively, without cooking up a traditional, 500-800 word blog post. Research shows that users tend to read only 20% of the content they’re shown, so short and sweet is definitely the way to go. Pairing a quick, information-packed story with a compelling visual increases your chances of capturing audience members’ attention.

Your website is often the first thing potential clients see when they’re researching your brand, so naturally, you’ll want to focus on building a site that aligns with your aesthetic, mission, and values. But regardless of your specific design wants and needs, there are a handful of guidelines that will help make any Squarespace site look spectacular and function well.

It’s a tough time to be a wellness practitioner. Many of you have been forced to close your brick-and-mortar studios for an indefinite amount of time, and figure out new ways to keep your businesses afloat. Namastream can help you create the virtual studio of your dreams, but as the business owner you’ve got to choose how to charge. And since many Namastream teachers are both new to online classes and deeply empathetic humans, we’ve gotten a ton of questions about the ethics of pricing during a pandemic. Including how to accept donations to your wellness practice.

At the start of our entrepreneurial journey, we bought into the hype, hired out dozens of tasks, and assumed we were on the right track. But recently, we’ve streamlined our team and taken over jobs that were once delegated to virtual assistants, team members, and agencies, and it has been THE VERY BEST decision we could have made for our business.

Should I Create a Separate Instagram Account for My Business? Wouldn’t it be nice if launching a new social media account for your business actually led to meaningful interactions with your prospective clients? How fabulous would it be if upgrading your Instagram presence to “business class” was clearly and unquestionably beneficial to your business?

So many Namastream teachers reach out to us asking, “How can I possibly be successful when there are so many other yoga teachers, health coaches, fill-in-the-blanks, online already?” The answer we always give is, “But they’re not YOU.”

There are a lot of Facebook Pixel resources floating around the Internet, but many of them are overly complicated and weirdly vague. (What’s up with that?)

When we recently announced that Namastream teachers could begin installing a Facebook Pixel on their studio sites, we were immediately peppered with eager questions from our community. How should they do this? Is it essential? What are the benefits? How will it help them grow their online businesses? And just what the heck IS a Facebook Pixel anyway?

How to Light Your Yoga Videos on the Cheap: If you want to create professional looking videos for your virtual studio, good lighting is mission critical. Lighting is an art form that can seem intimidating when you’re first starting out as an online teacher. (For many of us, chatting happily into an iPhone camera feels worlds different than filming in a studio with a big, bright, professional lighting setup.) But there are some super simple yet effective ways to control and manipulate lighting in your yoga or fitness videos.

When you’re creating a new online offering, it’s awfully tempting to stick to a format you know well and try to wedge your content into it.

But that can lead to watering down your best ideas, or presenting them in a way that feels awkward or unnatural to your community. You’re be better off by focusing on the end-goal: What do you want this content to accomplish? What should it DO for your clients? Those questions should guide your product design choices, even if they drive you toward a delivery setup that’s a tiny bit outside your comfort zone.

Music is an integral part of many wellness classes, and can be especially important to online instruction.

The right playlist adds depth and personality to a yoga video, helping set the tone for the class and creating a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere for the student. But music use can be tricky. Especially if you want it to be fully legal (which, of course, you do!)Playing music during a live or recorded class is considered to be a “performance,” which means if you do it without the proper licenses in place, you can get slapped with hefty fines! It’s easy to think that, as a small studio or single teacher, you might be able to fly under the radar.

As a wellness practitioner, you might be under the impression that you should market yourself to everyone you encounter. Just about every single person on the planet could benefit from what you have to offer, right?

Instagram has maintained its status as a social media mega-force for several years running—quite an accomplishment in this ever-changing digital landscape! And yet, we entrepreneurs, bloggers, and businesses have become frustrated by the platform’s limitations, especially when it comes to linking back to our own websites. Many of us post a single link in our bios, but this workaround can feel clunky and limiting.

Crafting an effective, on-brand lead magnet is no small task. You want this free piece of downloadable content to encourage email list subscriptions, but it also needs to address a real need among your followers. It takes time, insight, and creativity to cook up an opt-in that does its job properly.