Quick Guide: Start A Blog for Your Yoga Studio

In this blog we will focus on how to build a blog, how to create content for it and how to share it with your network and the rest of the world!

By now we know that there is so much to write about when it comes to your yoga studio. In our previous blog you could read all about what social media can do for the promotion of your yoga studio. In addition to using social media, blogging can be very beneficial to increase your online following so that more people will get to know your yoga studio.

Not only is it fun to collect all info, news and articles in one place, but it is also a great marketing tool. When you frequently publish relevant information for your (potential) yogis, your yoga studio will soon get more attention.

1. Create a blog for your yoga studio

There are several options available when it comes to creating a blog. But one system is definitely the most popular: WordPress. With WordPress you can create a blog in a couple of simple steps. Your blog will be online in 5 minutes and in 10 minutes you can have your first post published.

Before you start creating your blog, you may consider the following. If you have a website for your yoga studio, you can ask your website administrator to add an integrated blog to your website.

We are not going to discuss all the technicalities here. But in a nutshell: it is possible to have your blog published on WordPress, your website address will then be:
yogastudioname.wordpress.com

or you can choose to integrate the WordPress system in your website. It is then part of your website, so the blog address will be:
youryoganame.com/blog (or blog.youryoganame.com)

Both have pros and cons. Are you new to blogging? Then go for the easy option and choose to create a blog on WordPress.

Go to Wordpress.com and click on ‘Get Started‘

In a few simple steps your blog will be online! 

A couple of tips:

• Pick a simple name for your blog, like ‘Blog of Your Yoga Studio Name’
• Create an admin account to use while setting up your blog (called Admin) but also create a personal account for posting blogs.
• Choose a fun theme for your blog. Theme as in the design theme of your blog. At Wordpress Themes you can browse through different WordPress themes.

• Look at other WordPress blogs for inspiration for designs and settings.
• When you’re stuck with something, search for ‘WordPress + your question’ on Google. There are probably more people who have experienced similar issues and have already found a solution which they may have posted online.

2. Writing blog posts and publishing them

When you have created your blog it is time to start adding blogposts.

It is probably a good idea to have 1 to 3 blogs published on your WordPress page before you start promoting and sharing it on your website or social media.

All topics that we discussed in our previous blog about social media are equally suited to be published on your blog. Even better, from now on you can share your blogs directly on social media!

For example, news about events, experiences from your members or more information about specific types of yoga that you are specialized in.

It can also be a good idea to create local content. For example, announcements about a workshop you are teaching in your community centre etc. These blogs are more likely to be picked up by potential new yogis in your local area. After all, yogis outside of your local area are not very likely to become members.

Capture everything

Get started, capture everything that is happening in your yoga studio in a blog with and add photos from classes, students, yoga postures etc.

Create the habit of using as much text as are using photos. Some people don’t like to read from a screen. So especially for people who are more visually oriented it is a must to have clear headings and images that add to the story.

If you can, you may use videos as well. With your smartphone you can record high quality videos which you can upload on YouTube. You can then embed this video in your blog.

Create a monthly video or tutorial

Create a video of a new yoga posture each month. Write a short step by step instruction and publish this on your blog together with the video. Instruction videos are also called ‘tutorials’.

Record a relaxing meditation or yoga nidra

You can also use audio. It is really easy to use your smartphone or laptop to make recordings. You could record a relaxing meditation, yoga nidra or simple instructions which your students could follow at home. You can add a title, some text and your blog post is ready to be published. You can google ‘how to create a podcast’ to learn more about this.

Announce everything about your yoga studio

Use your blog to announce anything that is happening in your yoga studio. Move coming up? Classes in the park? Collaboration with another yoga studio or local organization? Add a photo and blog about it! Of course there are plenty of other things to blog about. Take your time and use your creativity to create blogs that suit you. You will notice that with time it will get easier and you will start to enjoy the process of creating new blogs.

Share something about yourself

Every now and then write a more content based blog about topics that you are currently exploring yourself. This could be for example about workshop you recently attended, an inspiring book, photos, artwork etc. You can also create a series of blogs on this and publish them in set intervals.

Let your yogis do the talking

Let your yogis do the talking. You can ask some of your members who might be interested in doing that to write a review about their experiences. You can ask them what they get out of your classes and why they have chosen to join your yoga studio. Add a nice picture and there you have your new blogpost.

Search for inspiration somewhere else

For inspiration you can always look at other people’s blogs. There are so many blogs out there about every possible subject. Do you love cooking? Get inspired by cooking blogs. Love pets? You will be surprised about how much is out there!

3. Sharing your blog with your network and the rest of the world

Now you’ve published some blog posts you want to share them with as many people as possible. In principle potential new yogis should be able to come across your blog through Google. However this chance is quite small. There are many yoga-related blogs out there so in all the Google search results it is not easy to stand out.

In order to for potential new yogis to find your blog more easily, you have to put in some effort to increase your Google ranking. How? Read all about it here:

How to Make Sure Your Yoga Studio is Found on Google

There are also plenty of other ways to land on your blog-page besides Google. Here are some guidelines that can help you with that. There are of course other things that you can do yourself, but following these guidelines should help you to get a nice readership.

Place a link in the main menu

Your blog should have a prominent place on your website. For example by including it in the main menu of your website. In principle it shouldn’t be problematic when your blog is located in a different domain (that is, it is hosted by WordPress and not by your website). Your main menu could look like this: Home – About our yoga studio – Book a class (schedule in Momoyoga) – Contact – Read our blog

Add a link in your email signature

Add a link to your blog in your email signature. In most email software, but also in webmail like Hotmail and Gmail, you can add a signature automatically to each outgoing message. Normally you would use this for your contact information, but it is a very good idea to also include a link to your blog.

Share on social media

Share all your blogs on social media! You can add a little description, the title or a quote from your blog and simply share the link through Facebook and Twitter. Like this you reach all your social media followers at once. When they are enjoying your blogs they will probably ‘like’ or share them. This increases your readership considerably (and with that, the chance for potential new yogis to come across your studio).

Integrate share buttons

Make sure you integrate ‘share buttons’ on your blog. These are small icons placed on your blog with which your readers can easily share your blog on social media or via email. This seems complicated but with WordPress it is really quite simple. To add this functionality to your blog you just have to install a plugin. Read more about how to install plugins on your WordPress blog here. The plugin you have to use is called ‘Social Media Feather’. In a couple of clicks you have added the social media buttons to your blog. This is a one-time investment which will surely pay off! You facilitate your readers to share your blogs which will automatically increase your readership.

Use the RSS functionality

When you are using WordPress your blog has a RSS functionality. We will not go into all the technical details here, but RSS gives your readers the opportunity to ‘follow’ your blog. That means that if you publish new content, the readers who follow you will automatically get to see this new post. Read more about how RSS works here.

Refer to your blog everywhere

Refer to your blog on any type of communication. You are probably used to including a link to your website on your flyers, stickers, business cards, subscription forms, ads etc. Now you can include a link to your blog as well.

Include in your email newsletter

Send out an email newsletter to your members every now and then, and include the titles and links to your latest blogposts. Are you publishing a new blog every week? Then it is a good idea to send out a newsletter every month with the last 4-5 links to your blog. You can also add other people who are interested in your yoga studio to this mailing list. You can ask people to leave their email address when they join you for a trial class or an event. For setting up and sending out newsletters you can use dedicated software. There are many types of software available but we recommend you to use MailChimp.

Want to learn more about Mailchimp?
In this blog article we explore how to create and send out email and email marketing. 

We hope that these tips and tricks will help you to take the promotion of your yoga studio to the next level. Want to learn more about blogging, creating and publishing content? Contact us with your questions or remarks!

Do you want to know more about the promotion and marketing of your yoga studio? Then do read this blog article about what social media can do for the promotion of your yoga studio.

Good luck with promoting your yoga studio!