How To Earn Passive Income For Yoga Teachers

Whether you want to expand your skills or simply earn some extra income, there are lots of ways you can earn passive income as a yoga teacher. 

Wondering where to start? We’ve compiled a list of the best sources of passive income for yoga teachers to get you started, covering:

• What Is Passive Income For Yoga Teachers?
• #1- Create A Subscription Service For Pre-Recorded Yoga Classes
• #2- Create & Sell A Yoga eBook Or Guide
• #3 - Join A Yoga-Related Affiliate Scheme
• #4- Rent Out Your Yoga Studio Space
• #5- Create And Sell Yoga Stock Images
• #6- Start A Yoga YouTube Channel
• #7- Monetise Your Yoga Blog
• #8- Start A Yoga Podcast

Another great way to increase your earnings is by taking further qualifications, such as OriGym’s Level 4 yoga teacher training course. Enquire today, or check out the full range of courses we offer by downloading our free course prospectus here. 

What Is Passive Income For Yoga Teachers?

Before we get into how to earn passive income for yoga instructors, let’s first establish exactly what ‘passive income’ is. 

Passive income is a source of income that continues after the work itself is complete. 

In other words, it is something that requires some effort to establish, but will then provide a long-term source of income that takes very minimal effort to maintain. 

This is therefore different to a standard way of earning, where you earn money at the rate at which you work, according to the effort you put in. 

For example, working a certain amount of hours per week to receive a certain salary from an employer is a standard form of income.

In terms of yoga teaching, earning passive income is a great way to supplement your regular income from teaching in-person or online yoga classes. 

However, if your passive source of income becomes successful, then you may even be able to use it as your main employment! 

Sounds appealing? Let’s get into our top 9 ways to earn passive income as a yoga teacher! 

#1- Create A Subscription Service For Pre-Recorded Yoga Classes

One of the best ways to make passive income for yoga teachers is to create pre-recorded classes that students then pay to access. 

Whilst it requires some effort to make the video initially, it is a great source of passive income in the long-term. 

This is because it requires little to no maintenance once you have published your videos. You will only have to market it to ensure that students keep buying and watching them! 

It is important to note that pre-recording classes are different to livestreaming your yoga classes as an online yoga teacher. With pre-recorded classes, students are not restricted to taking the class at the same time as you are teaching it, or ‘live’.

Students can access your classes from anywhere, at any time. 

Pre-recorded classes are therefore a great way to expand your range of potential students, such as those who want to practise in their own time from the comfort of their own home. 

So, how do you use pre-recorded classes as a source of yoga teacher passive income?

The best way that you can do this is by offering your pre-recorded classes as part of a subscription service. 

This is when students pay a set monthly or annual fee for access to an online library of videos. They are usually accessed via your website or a mobile app.  

It is a great source of passive income as you can keep making money from something that you have already done the work for. 

For example, say you recorded a class 2 years ago, students could still be paying for and watching that same video in a year’s or even 5 years’ time! 

Here are the 3 main steps involved in setting up this source of passive income for yoga teachers:

1. Film your pre-recorded yoga classes

This could be in your own home, in a studio space or even outside. 

Wherever you choose, make sure that you are clearly in view, so that viewers can see what you are doing.

As for sound, you can either use a microphone and talk whilst you are teaching the class, or film the class without sound and record a voice-over to edit over the top. 

If your budget allows, you may also want to invest in the following things to improve your filming quality, such as:

• A good quality DSLR camera
• A tripod 
• Professional lighting 
• A high quality microphone
• External memory card to store your videos  
• Background props such as plants

If you don’t yet have the budget for these more advanced filming tools, then a smartphone will get the job done!

You should also make sure to do a ‘test shot’ before you start filming. Simply set up your filming space and practice recording a short 30 second sequence, including lighting and audio. 

You can then watch back your test shot to see if you need to make any changes before filming your whole class. 

This will save you a lot of time in the long-run. For example, it can help you avoid mistakes such as filming a whole class then realising that your microphone wasn’t working!  

It is also a good idea to make a note of the lighting and audio you used, so that when you come to film again, they will seem as consistent as possible. 

Whilst the initial filming process may seem time-consuming, what makes this a great source of passive income for yoga teachers is that the money you will continuously earn from this one-time effort will be worth it!

2. Edit the videos for your pre-recorded yoga classes

It is essential that your videos are of a high quality and edited correctly. If you are using a voice-over, this is when you will need to stitch this together with your footage. 

You may also want to add some gentle background music over the top, or other features such as watermark of your business logo. 

Some software you can use to edit your videos are:

• Vimeo
• Apple iMovie
• Lumen5
• Animaker

Most of these have a free version, or you can pay a small fee a month for some additional features. 

3. Upload your videos onto your website

If you haven’t already, you will need to create a website to upload your videos onto. 

We have a whole article here on how to build a personal trainer website (link when live), all of which applies to making your yoga teacher website. 

But some of the main website builders you can use to do this are:

• Wordpress
• Wix
• SquareSpace
• Go Daddy

4. Price your subscription service

This is where you can determine exactly how much yoga teacher passive income you make!

The best way to price your subscription is by offering a monthly or annual package. 

How much you charge for your packages depends on factors such as:

• How much it cost you to film your videos
• Your experience level (i.e. if you have just qualified you should charge less than a more experienced teacher). 
• The length of classes
• Whether you are including any other features, such as online workshops or other resources. 
• The type of yoga (i.e. if you are teaching a more advanced or specialist type of yoga, you can justify charging more). 

We have a whole guide there to creating personal training pricing packages, which can be applied to your yoga video subscription service.

A great example of a yoga teacher who has set up a subscription service for pre-recorded classes is Cat Meffan, who has created The Soul Sanctuary- a library of pre-recorded yoga classes. 

As you can see, she has created a library of 536 yoga classes that students can access by purchasing a membership- either monthly or annual.

On her website, she has detailed exactly what is included in the membership, and the prices of the monthly and annual memberships.

As you can see, she has charged £14.99 per month, or £139.99 for a year. 

Cat Meffan is already a fairly established yoga teacher. So if you are just starting out, you may want to charge less, starting at £10 a month for example.

As you become more established and your business grows, you can then start to charge more. 

For the annual option, she has also stated what the monthly equivalent would be and how much they would save. This helps persuade a potential customer that this is a better option for them, which results in a higher revenue for you! 

She has also offered a 7-day free trial which is a great way to attract customers, as they can try out your classes before they commit to a payment plan. 

A free trial is also a highly cost-effective way to market your subscription. Whilst it provides a lot of value for the customer, it does not cost you anything extra, since you will have already done the work by creating your videos. 

Plus, considering that 43% of customers forget to cancel free trials and continue paying for subscriptions, it is very likely that those who take the free trial will actually turn into a longer term paying customer! 

5. Market your yoga subscription service 

Once you have uploaded and priced your pre-recorded classes, the main chunk of the work is done.

However, you should still make the effort to market your classes. This is what will keep people signing up and paying for your videos, so that you can keep reaping the rewards of this source of yoga teacher passive income.

We have a whole article here on yoga teacher marketing outlining different methods of marketing your yoga business. 

But in general, one of the best ways to market your subscription service is via your social media channels.

To take the above example, this yoga teacher has used Instagram to promote their class subscription. As you can see, they have included a link to sign up to their newsletter, where they can then promote the subscription further. 

They have also posted yoga-related content, but all with the aim of promoting their subscription. 

For example, they have posted about a yoga pose. In the caption, they have then linked this to their subscription service by stating that users can find more content like this by signing up to the Soul Sanctuary membership. 

They have also included a Call To Action, “Click the link in our bio for more details”. This therefore directs a potential customer directly from Instagram to her website, where they can then turn into a paying student!  

Posting something like this requires minimal effort, and you could even use scheduling software such as Sprout Social to schedule all of your posts in advance! You can then sit back and reap the benefits of this source of passive income for yoga instructors. 

#2- Create & Sell A Yoga eBook Or Guide

Another great way to earn passive income for yoga teachers is to create and sell an eBook or guide. 

This can be on a variety of topics, such as:

• A specific type of yoga e.g. yin 
• A specific type of asana e.g. backbends
• A non-physical element of yoga e.g. meditation, philosophy 
• For a specific demographic e.g. the elderly 
• For a specific level eg. beginners
• A guide for other yoga teachers e.g. teaching tips

Whichever topic you choose, it should be something that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. This will not only make the writing process easier for you, but it also helps you establish yourself in a particular niche of the yoga industry. 

For example, if you write an eBook about prenatal yoga, then this will help build your credibility as a prenatal yoga teacher. 

You can then start to build up a name for yourself as a reputable and expert prenatal yoga teacher, meaning that you can then start charging more for your classes. 

So whilst you can make money from an eBook through direct sales, it can also indirectly increase your earnings by helping you establish your niche! 

In terms of how much to charge for your eBook, it depends on factors such as:

• How established you are as a yoga teacher- i.e. if you have just qualified, you cannot justify charging as much as a more experienced teacher
• The topic- i.e. you can charge more for a more specialist topic
• The length- i.e. the longer the book, the more you can charge 

For example, if it is your first eBook and it is fairly short, you should think about charging as little as £1 to £3 per download. 

However, as you get more established, you can then start to charge more, around £20-30. 

For example, the yoga teacher below has created an eBook on ‘strength through yoga’, charging £29.99. 

Although the main effort is in writing the book itself, you will still need to make sure to market your eBook afterwards on your social media and website. 

For example, as well as being on their website, the yoga teacher above has marketed their eBook on their social media by creating a story highlight for their eBooks.

Again, this takes a small amount of effort, but is an easy way to maintain this passive source of income as a yoga teacher, as it will keep people purchasing your eBook and therefore making you money! 

#3- Join A Yoga-Related Affiliate Scheme

When it comes to how to make passive income as a yoga teacher, you may not have thought of delving into the world of sales.

But in fact, this is an easy and lucrative way to make a long-term additional source of income!

To do this, you will usually have an affiliation or partnership with a particular brand or product.

We have a whole article here on personal trainer affiliate programs, which can be applied to yoga teachers. 

But in summary, an affiliate scheme or programme is when you sign up to act as a representative for a particular brand. 

You will then receive a discount/referral code from them, which you will share with your students and social media followers. You may also have to promote the product or brand through posts, or by including a link to their website on yours. 

If someone then makes a purchase using your code, you will receive commission on that purchase. 

For example, this yoga teacher is an affiliate for a yoga mat brand, Liforme. She has made an Instagram post where she has linked to the brand in her caption and given her discount code.

If someone then uses that code to buy a yoga mat from that brand, she will receive a percentage of that sale. 

The average Liforme yoga mat sells at around £100. So say affiliates get a 10% commission on every purchase they make, this amounts to £10 per sale. 

It may not seem like a lot, but if she made just 30 sales a month, that’s an extra £300 she will have earnt in passive income as a yoga teacher! 

She also has a ‘Shop’ section on her website. 

Here, she has then given more details about the yoga mat brand she is an affiliate. Again, she has given her discount code, as well as a link to the brand’s website.

So, for a small amount of effort (i.e. doing a few social media and website posts), you could establish a great form of long-term income! 

To join an affiliate scheme, you may be approached by the brand themselves.

For example, if you are a yoga influencer, or simply have a strong social media presence, a brand may find your profile and send you a direct message asking if you want to be a brand ambassador and join their affiliate scheme. 

Alternatively, you can also reach out to brand yourself. You can do this by messaging or emailing them, or many brands will have a section on their website where you can sign up to their affiliate program. 

For example, this yoga clothing brand has an affiliate section on their website. As you can see, they have detailed exactly what the program involves, and how much commission you will earn. 

Some of the types of yoga-related products and brands you could be an affiliate for are:

• Yoga supplements, i.e. vitamins such as ashwagandha 
• Superfood powders, e.g. spirulina, maca, vegan protein powder
• CBD products
• Essential oils 
• Cruelty-free/vegan skincare products
• Crystals 
• Yoga equipment such as mats
• Yoga clothes

The main thing to remember is that whichever company you work with, it is relevant to both yoga and to your brand. People will be able to tell if you are working with a brand purely for money, or if it is not authentic. 

In other words, the companies you partner with should be in line with your own values and your brand identity. After all, authenticity and honesty is one of the main things that makes a good yoga teacher! 

For example, if you became an affiliate with a protein brand usually associated with the gym and intense weight training, this would not typically fit with the values and brand of a yoga teacher. 

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#4- Rent Out Your Yoga Studio Space

If you are a yoga studio owner, then this is a great yoga teacher passive income idea for you! 

This is an easy way to make passive income, as you can charge rent to other fitness professionals to use your space, such as:

• Freelance yoga instructors looking for a space to teach their classes
• Sound therapy sessions
• Dance classes
• Meditation classes
• Other wellness events 

You could either do this through word-of-mouth (i.e. by networking in your local yoga/fitness community), or by listing your space to rent on websites such as UK Therapy Rooms. 

In terms of how much to charge for your rent, this depends on factors such as:

• The size of your space
• Location (i.e. a busy city has more competition so you can justify charging more)
• The facilities offered (i.e. whether you include the use of equipment)

For example, this yoga studio is charging £15 per hour, or a flat rate of £70 a day. 

If you have multiple rooms in your studio building, you could also charge different prices for different rooms according to their sizes:

If someone is interested in renting your space, they can then contact you directly via UK Therapy Rooms. 

This is therefore a great way to earn passive income for yoga instructors as whilst you will have to put some time in to create your listing on a website such as this and correspond with people who want to rent your space, the long-term pay-off is worth it!

For example, say you charge £15 an hour for rental of your yoga studio. If someone rents your space for a 2-hour dance class once a week, this could give you as much as £30 a week, or £1260 a year! 

#5- Create And Sell Yoga Stock Images

Another easy way to earn passive income for yoga teachers is to sell your photos as stock images. 

Stock images are images that are licensed and available to buy for commercial use.

So instead of creating images for a specific use, stock photography is about creating a library of more general images that users can then choose from. 

Stock images can be used for a variety of purposes, such as websites, journalistic articles, social media and other marketing materials. 

These are usually found on stock image websites such as Shutterstock and Adobe, where users can search for a specific image and then pay to download each image.

Using stock images is a lot cheaper than if you were to hire a professional photographer for a specific image. 

For example, say someone is writing an article about yoga, and they want a yoga-related image to use. Hiring a photographer, models and renting a space would cost a lot, just for one image. 

Instead, it is a lot easier and cheaper to download an image from a stock image website for a much lower price! 

So, how is stock photography a form of passive income for yoga teachers?

Well, whilst you will need to make the initial effort of taking the photos, you can then use them to make money from them for a long time.

Once you have your photos, you can then upload them to a stock image website. Users will then pay to download an image, and the creator of that image will receive a percentage of this fee. 

Exactly how much you earn depends on the rates of the stock image website you use, and how many of your images are downloaded. 

But to take Shutterstock as an example, they pay their contributors according to a ‘level’ system. The more of your images that are downloaded, the higher your level. 

You will earn between 15% and 40% commission, depending on your level. This works out at around 10p to up to £6 per download. 

With this in mind, say you started at 50p commission per image and you got just 10 downloads a week, this would give you £5 extra income a week, or £260 a year. 

This may not seem like a lot at first, but that £260 could pay for outgoings such as equipment, marketing or even simply for buying yourself a new yoga mat!

As you start to become more established in stock photography and move up the ‘levels’, you could start to earn in the hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year from your images! 

Here is how Shutterstock pay their contributors, according to Photutorial:

It is therefore worth putting the time in to upload more images, as this will increase your level and therefore increase your earning potential! 

Some tips for making good stock images and increasing your downloads are:

• Use keywords. When you upload your images, make sure you use appropriate keywords so that users can find your images more easily. 
• Make sure your images are of a high quality. Users are more likely to download high quality images. 
• Research popular current trends, e.g. popular yoga poses, that users are more likely to download. 
• Find your niche. A search term such as ‘yoga’ will bring up thousands of results on Adobe and Shutterstock, meaning that there is a lot of competition between contributors. The more specific you can be, the more likely it is that you will meet someone’s specific search term and your image will get downloaded.

#6- Start A Yoga YouTube Channel

With more and more students wanting to practise yoga from the comfort of their own home, starting a yoga Youtube channel is a great way to earn passive income for yoga instructors!

Whilst it does require some initial time, effort and investment to start your channel, once you start to post regularly and gain subscribers, it can become a highly lucrative and easy source of passive income!

More specifically, you will need to have at least 1000 subscribers before you can start to make money from your YouTube channel. 

You also need to have had over 4,000 hours of your content watched in the last 12 months. 

Once you meet this criteria, your channel will then be eligible to join the Youtube Partner Program. This is what allows you to include adverts in your videos, which is how you will make money! 

This works by companies paying Youtube to have their advertisements shown before, during or after a Youtube video.

For example, this Youtuber has an advert showing before their video plays:

Companies pay Youtube on a ‘click per impression’ basis, which means that they will pay every time that their advert is displayed on a video. 

If an advert is shown on one of your videos, Youtube will pay you 68% of what the advertiser has paid. 

For example, if a company has paid Youtube £100 for an advert, Youtube will pay you £68!

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the average rate that companies pay Youtube per advert view is $0.18 (around 15p). 

This means that you can earn around £15 per 1000 advert views, which equates to around £3 per 1000 video views.

This may not seem like much, but over time this can really add up, providing an easy source of passive income. 

So, it is clear that you have to build an engaged audience of subscribers before you can start making money from Youtube. Here are some tips for doing this:

• Identify your target audience. This will help you build subscribers and create content that is targeted towards them. 
• Find a niche. There are thousands of yoga Youtube videos, so you’ll be up against a lot of competition if you stick to general, broad topics. Instead, focus on a particular area or type of yoga. 

This not only means that you will have less competition and therefore more views, but it also means that the audience you do attract will be more engaged and likely to subscribe to your channel, rather than just view your video once.

For example, this Youtube channel specialises in pregnancy yoga and fitness. 

As you can see, they occupy the first 2 results that appear for the search ‘prenatal yoga’, since they have been able to specifically target this keyword.

Users are more likely to click on the first few results they see, meaning that their videos will get more views. This means that they will get more advert views, and therefore earn more money!

• Create professional, high quality videos. It is worth investing in equipment such as a professional camera, lighting and microphone to make your videos more professional. 

You should also use a good quality thumbnail image, to catch user’s attention and make them more likely to click on your video over someone else’s.

• Market your channel on other platforms. Make sure to include links to your channel on other marketing platforms such as social media and your website. This will help drive traffic to your videos, resulting in more views and more money! 
• Optimise your videos for SEO. Make sure to optimise your videos by using keywords in your video titles and descriptions, as well as posting regularly. 
• Post varied content. As well as typical follow-along yoga classes, other content such as daily vlogs, tips and discussions are a great way to keep your subscribers interested, engaged and watching your channel! 

Check out our guide to personal trainer video marketing for more tips on how to make effective Youtube videos. 

#7- Monetise Your Yoga Blog

Another great way to make passive income as a yoga teacher is to make money from your yoga blog. 

This is an easy way to earn some additional income as a yoga teacher because it is likely that you will already have a blog anyway!

Exactly how much passive income you earn from your blog depends entirely on how much time and effort you are willing to put into it. 

But as a rough guide, according to ProBlogger, this is how much money the average blogger makes:

As you can see, 10% don’t earn anything at all, and most people earn under $10!

However, the survey found that most bloggers in the top earnings bracket of over $1000 had been blogging for around 4 years. They were also mostly full-time bloggers, and had a lot of time and money to dedicate to it. 

With this in mind you should therefore remember that earring a lot from a blog will take time!

We have a whole article here on how to make money from fitness blogging. 

But in summary, you can make money from your blog by:

• Sponsored blog posts. This is where a brand or company will pay you to do a post about them, or to be featured in a post.

For example, yoga teacher Cat Meffan has a blog post sponsored by Tesco:

As you can see, she has clearly been paid by Tesco to do a blog post advertising their new vegan food range.

Whilst she has had to include a disclaimer by saying that the post contains a paid advertisement, the post still fits in with the theme of her blog (i.e. yoga, fitness, healthy eating etc.)

This means that she still appears authentic and real to her followers. 

If you were to do a sponsored post on something totally unrelated to yoga, this would be immediately obvious to readers that it was not a genuine blog post and that you were only doing it for the money! This could then damage your reputation not only as a blogger, but as a yoga teacher too. 

• Affiliate links. Unlike a sponsored post where you are paid a set fee for writing a post about a brand, you can also include an affiliate link in a blog post. 

This works in the same way as joining an affiliate scheme, as we explained in point 3 of this article.

This is when you write about a product or brand, and include an affiliate link. If readers click on that link and make a purchase, you will receive a percentage of that sale. 

• Adverts on your blog. This is simply when companies pay you to have an advertisement for their product or brand on your blog. 

These are usually in the form of a banner at the side or top of a website page, such as the example below:

As you can see, this blog has adverts around the top and side of the page, but they don’t get in the way of the blog post itself. 

How you put adverts onto your blog depends on your website builder. But if you are using Wordpress, Ad Inserter is a useful plugin that allows you to customise how and where ads appear on your website. 

How much you earn from ads depends on the company. But typically, companies will pay bloggers/websites depending on either how many views or how much engagement their ads get. 

For example, a company may set you a rate of 20p per click. If the ad generates 500 clicks a day, then you will make £10 a day, or £300 a month!

This is therefore a great way to make passive income as a yoga instructor, since all you have to do is insert the ad onto a blog post that you would have written anyway! 

#8- Start A Yoga Podcast

If you’re a yoga teacher, you may not have thought about starting your own podcast! 

This is something that can start out as a hobby or ‘side hustle’, but actually has the potential to be one of the most lucrative ideas on this list! 

To start a yoga podcast, you will first need to have a niche or topic that you want your podcast to centre around. 

There are hundreds of yoga podcasts out there, meaning that there is lots of competition. So, the more specific you can be with your topic, the more likely it is that you will stand out in the podcast market. 

Whichever topic you choose, you should ensure that it is something you are both passionate and knowledgeable about. 

This could be a specific type of yoga, or another element of yoga such as philosophy and spirituality. 

For example, this podcast is on the history of yoga, and each episode they cover a particular element of yoga history. 

Alternatively, you could have a more general, conversational podcast, where you cover a different topic each episode.

For example, this yoga teacher has a podcast focusing on ‘storytelling and talks’ about yoga and wellbeing. 

Once you have chosen your podcast topic, the next stage is to get the equipment and software you need to start recording:

• Headphones
• Microphones
• Editing software such as Garageband 

You could also outsource these things, for example you could find someone to edit your podcasts on a freelance platform such as Fiverr. 

Once you have recorded your podcast, you will then need to upload it to a platform such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 

You will then need to market your podcast on your social media and your website. 

For example, the ‘Yoga Girl’ podcast above has a whole page dedicated to her podcast, where she has provided a link to listen to each episode. 

Once you have made and published your podcast, you can then start to use it to make passive income as a yoga teacher. 

The main way to do this is through adverts. 

This is when a company essentially pays you for ‘air time’ to promote their product. They can appear before, during or after the podcast.

There are 2 ways that an advert can feature in a podcast:

• The host talks about the product
• You use a pre-recorded advert from the company themselves 

How much you charge companies to use their advert on your podcast depends on the size of your audience. 

For example, according to Audio Network, for a podcast with 1000 listeners, the average rate for a 30 second ad was $18 (approximately £15). 

So, if you included 2 ads per episode, you can make up to £30 an episode. 

To find adverts that are appropriate for your podcast (i.e. to do with yoga), there are several platforms that link podcast creators to appropriate brands, such as Midroll and AdvertiseCast. 

It may not seem like much, but if you keep regularly making podcasts, this can add up! 

This is therefore a great source of passive income for yoga teachers because once you have made the initial effort to create a podcast, people will keep coming back and listening to it, so you can keep making money from the adverts. 

Before You Go!

So, we hope you now have some inspiration for ways you can earn passive income as a yoga teacher.

Looking to increase your earnings further? Become a Level 4 yoga teacher with OriGym and you can do just that! Enquire today, or download our free course prospectus to browse the full range of courses we offer.