For a long time, creating a self-study online course was positioned as a reliable business model for yoga teachers.
You created the content once, sold it at a mid-range price point, and with the right funnel in place, it was supposed to scale. That promise was repeated so often that it became almost unquestioned.
But over the last year in particular, it has become increasingly clear that this model isn’t working the way many yoga teachers were told it would.
And that’s not because people don’t want to learn anymore. It’s because several fundamental conditions have changed at the same time.
When that happens, effort alone doesn’t fix the problem.
What Actually Changed in the Online Course Market
Several things shifted at once.
Buyer behaviour changed. People make decisions faster now, but they’re also more cautious. Many have bought courses before, often more than one, and didn’t follow through. As a result, trust is lower, patience is lower, and tolerance for vague promises is much lower.
At the same time, AI changed how information is accessed. People can now get explanations, ideas, outlines, and even personalised suggestions instantly. This doesn’t replace teachers, but it does remove the perceived value of information on its own.
Add to that market saturation. Most people interested in wellness, health, or personal development already own multiple courses, books, or memberships. They don’t lack input. They lack structure and follow-through.
The result is that the middle price range — where a course is too expensive to be an impulse buy but not supported enough to feel transformational — is disappearing.
People either want something small and contained, or they want something that offers real support and accountability.
Why This Isn’t About Working Harder
This is the part many yoga teachers need to hear.
If your course isn’t selling the way you expected, the answer is not necessarily more content, more posting, or more launching. In many cases, the structure itself no longer matches how people buy or change.
In the wellness world especially, most people already know what would probably help them. They’ve read articles, gone to classes, and tried different approaches.
What didn’t create lasting change was not a lack of information, but a lack of a clear framework, accountability, and ongoing support.
That’s why people invest in premium experiences now. Not because they want more to consume, but because they want help staying with the process.
Are Online Courses Really Dead?
No. Online courses aren’t dead.
But their role has changed.
Five years ago, a self-study course could sit at the centre of your business and generate consistent income on its own. That’s much harder now.
What works better is a different structure.
Smaller, more specific offers can act as an entry point into your work. These aren’t meant to do everything. They help people understand your perspective, experience how you teach, and get a quick, meaningful win.
Behind that, there is one core premium offer that provides structure, guidance, and accountability over time.
And it’s important to be clear about what that actually means.
This is not about taking a course and adding a few live calls.
It’s about designing an offer that packages your expertise, your method, and your way of working into a clear transformation, and then supporting people through that process so they’re not left to figure it out on their own.
That’s the real shift.
Why Premium Group Programs Work So Well in Wellness
People are no longer paying primarily for access to content. They’re paying for guidance, structure, and accountability. They want to know that if they commit, there’s a container that will help them follow through.
In yoga and wellness, this is especially obvious.
Most people already know what would probably help them. What they haven’t had is a framework they trust, a method they can stick to, and someone holding them to the process when motivation drops.
That’s what premium group programs provide. And that’s why they’re working when so many other offers aren’t.
How to Choose the Right Program Idea
Once you accept that a signature group program makes sense, the next question is what that program should actually focus on.
This is where many yoga teachers get stuck, not because they don’t have enough ideas, but because they try to jump too quickly to the final answer.
It helps to slow the process down.
A good place to start is your own background and lived experience. Not just formal training, but the things you’ve spent years navigating yourself, practising consistently, or supporting others through. These are often the areas where trust already exists, even if you don’t consciously name them as expertise yet.
From there, look at what people actually ask you for help with. Not abstract interests, but real-life struggles that come up again and again in conversations, messages, or after class.
Then ask a grounded question: is this a transformation that would meaningfully improve someone’s day-to-day life, and is it something they would realistically invest in?
At the same time, check in with yourself. Is this something you feel interested in guiding people through over a longer period of time? Something you’d be willing to refine, teach, and talk about without feeling drained?
At some point, a decision needs to be made. Not to find the perfect idea, but to choose one idea and commit to developing it.
Clarity tends to come from choosing and shaping an offer through experience, not from waiting until everything feels certain.
The Bigger Picture
If you step back and look at the bigger picture, the pattern is clear.
The issue isn’t that online courses stopped working. It’s that information on its own is no longer enough.
What people are looking for now are offers that provide structure, guidance, and accountability. For yoga teachers, that usually means moving away from isolated self-study courses and toward a clearer offer ecosystem, with one supported, premium program at the centre.
That’s the model I see working now, and it’s the model I’ve built my own business around.
Join my FREE Masterclass
If you want to understand how this comes together in a real business, I’m offering a free masterclass where I’ll walk you through how premium offers, free trainings, and low-ticket offers work together as one coherent system to create consistent sales.
In the masterclass, I’ll cover:
- what makes an offer truly irresistible
- how to design a transformational program people genuinely want to commit to
- how a simple evergreen funnel can support your business without constant pushing or burnout
