The Undeniable Appeal of Memberships for Yoga Teachers

Memberships have a magical allure, especially for yoga teachers. When I started my first membership, I was excited about creating an ongoing journey with a community. There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a community evolve over months and years that feels perfectly aligned with yoga’s philosophy of continuous practice.

Then there’s the community aspect. Even online, membership students connect with each other, celebrating milestones and creating a digital sangha that extends beyond just their relationship with you.

And we can’t ignore the business appeal – that recurring revenue is incredibly attractive. When you’ve experienced the feast-or-famine cycle of one-off workshops, there’s nothing quite like knowing that on the first of every month, that membership income will hit your account.

Despite these benefits, I’ve discovered that memberships are genuinely one of the most challenging business models to maintain. This isn’t discussed enough in the yoga business world.

The Psychological Sales Barrier

The sales conversation gets complicated fast. Many yoga teachers think offering a membership at just $27 a month will be an easy sell – it’s less than the cost of a single in-person class in most cities! But here’s what they miss: they’re not just asking for $27. They’re asking for a commitment, and that changes everything.

When someone considers joining a membership, they’re evaluating themselves as much as your offering:

“I love this teacher, but will I actually show up consistently enough to justify the monthly fee?”

“What if my schedule gets crazy next month? I’d feel guilty paying and not using it.”

“Am I disciplined enough to practice regularly without in-person accountability?”

This creates significant psychological friction. Even at an affordable monthly price, people hesitate because they’re committing to a relationship with both you and their future self.

The Content Creation Treadmill

Every single month, without fail, you need to create new classes, new workshops, and new materials. You barely finish the current month’s content before you have to start planning the next.

I remember finishing content for my membership one evening and feeling this immediate wave of pressure about what I would create for the following month. That content treadmill never stopped, and it started to steal the joy from the work. I was creating because I had to, not because inspiration struck.

The Problem With “Just Practice”

In today’s economy, people are making careful choices about their spending, and here’s the uncomfortable truth: most yoga memberships don’t actually solve a specific problem.

Most yoga teachers create memberships that are essentially saying “come practice with me regularly.” It’s a beautiful offering that aligns perfectly with how we understand yoga – as an ongoing practice, a lifelong journey.

But from a consumer perspective, it’s a tough sell. When someone is looking at their monthly expenses and deciding what to keep or cut, the “just practice” membership often falls into the “nice to have” category rather than the “need to have” category.

Students tell their teachers, “I love your classes, but with prices going up everywhere, I need to focus on essentials right now.” And teachers can’t even argue because they understand – a general yoga practice, however wonderful, doesn’t solve an urgent problem in their students’ lives.

Today’s online consumers are increasingly focused on specific solutions to specific problems. The open-ended, “just practice with me forever” model, while aligned with yogic philosophy, often struggles to compete for monthly budget dollars.

The Power of Specific Solutions

This realization is what led me to guide my yoga teacher clients toward low-ticket offers, and the difference was immediate and striking. Instead of asking someone to commit to an ongoing membership with an open-ended purpose, a yoga teacher could create a focused program that promises a specific solution to a specific problem.

For example, rather than “join my yoga membership,” you could offer “Relieve your lower back pain in just 15 minutes a day with this 2-week program.”

The shift in response is dramatic. Suddenly, you’re not competing with Netflix and Spotify for monthly subscription dollars. You’re offering medicine for a specific pain point.

Other effective examples a yoga teacher could create:

1. The Sleep Reset Protocol: Get My Proven 30-Minute Bedtime Routine to Fall Asleep Instantly & Wake Up Energized
2. The Morning Flow Blueprint: A Simple 30-Minute Yoga Sequence for All-Day Energy (Even If You’re Not a Morning Person)
3. The Desk Warrior Formula: Follow My 15-Minute Daily System to Eliminate Neck Pain & Fix Your Posture Once and For All

What makes these offers so compelling is they name a clear problem and promise a tangible outcome. At a one-time price point of $37, they’re an easy “yes” for someone experiencing that specific challenge.

Think about the psychological difference: When someone sees a $37/month membership, they’re thinking about commitment and wondering if they’ll use it enough. When they see a $37 one-time back pain solution, they’re thinking, “My back hurts now, this might help, and it’s just $37 once.” The decision becomes much simpler.

From a marketing perspective, specificity is your friend. With a specific problem-focused offer, you can speak directly to people experiencing that issue, using language that makes them feel truly seen and understood.

The One-Time Creation Advantage

This year in January, I spent about two weeks creating my low-ticket offer. I recorded the classes, created the supporting materials, built the sales page, and then… I was done. The creation part was complete.

Let me share some real numbers: To date, that program has generated nearly $7,000 in revenue. I spent about $5,000 on ads to promote it, so the profit margin hasn’t been huge yet.

But here’s where it gets exciting – in just the last two weeks, I’ve been optimizing those ads, and right now every dollar spent is generating over 1.5 dollars in return. My marketing is improving, but the product itself hasn’t changed at all. I didn’t have to create any new content.

Compare that to the membership experience: creating new content every month, and in return, getting a relatively small monthly payment from each member. And if a member leaves after two months? All that custom content is essentially “wasted” from a business perspective.

When we look at the math and factor in time and energy as valuable resources, the low-ticket model simply works out better for most yoga teachers.

The Scaling Potential of Low-Ticket Offers

Another huge advantage of the low-ticket model is scalability. Once you’ve created your offer and dialed in your marketing, you can scale in a way that’s much harder with memberships.

Now that I know my ads are generating a positive return, I can gradually increase my ad spend without creating any new content. My conservative goal for this year is to scale up to $10,000 monthly in ad spend, which at my current conversion rate would generate about $15,000 in revenue – potentially $5,000 in profit each month from a product I created once.

The beauty is, if I want to take a month off, the funnel keeps running.

Memberships face real challenges when it comes to scaling. When they start growing, teachers quickly discover that more members mean more of everything – more questions, more technical issues, more diverse needs to address.

I remember reaching about 100 members and feeling completely overwhelmed by the operational side. Each new member added to my workload. With the membership, the operational complexity increased right alongside the revenue, which limited how much I could grow without hiring help.

Building a Buyer Audience: The Hidden Benefit

You’re building an audience of proven buyers, not just subscribers or followers. And there’s a world of difference between those two groups.

When I looked at my numbers, it really was driven home for me. The people who had purchased my $37 course were much more engaged with my other content. They opened emails more often, clicked on links, and responded to questions.

Someone who purchases your $37 course has demonstrated three crucial things:

1. They value their business enough to actually invest money in it (not just time watching free YouTube videos)
2. They believe in your expertise enough to trust your solution
3. They’re willing to take out their credit card and make a purchase decision

I spent years building an email list of freebie-seekers, but a small list of actual buyers has proven infinitely more valuable.

The most exciting part? I’ve had people go from my $37 course to invest in my premium program and mentorship experience – from $37 to $3,997 in a matter of days.

What To Do If You Already Have a Membership

If you already have a membership running, you might be wondering what to do with this information.

First, check in with yourself about how it feels delivering your membership. Does it feel juicy and joyful? Do you wake up excited to create new content and engage with your members? Or is it draining your energy, feeling more like an obligation than inspiration?

Also consider whether you see a future for it and if you have a clear plan to grow it. A membership without a growth strategy can quickly become stagnant as members naturally churn over time.

If you’re feeling conflicted, here are a few options:

Create a low-ticket offer as an entry point: Use your membership as an upsell. This works well if you make your membership a bit more premium so it’s clearly differentiated. Your low-ticket offer solves one specific problem, while the membership provides ongoing support.

Transform your membership into a premium program: Instead of an open-ended membership, you could create a 12-month program designed to reach specific results. This shifts the offer from “ongoing practice” to “achieving a defined outcome,” which can justify a higher price point.

Whatever you decide, make the transition with integrity and transparency. Your existing members have already shown their commitment to you, and honoring that relationship is paramount, even as your business model evolves.

Finding the Right Approach for You

After sharing all of this, I want to be clear – I’m not saying memberships never work for yoga teachers. They absolutely can be successful in certain circumstances.

I have clients who run thriving yoga memberships, and they tend to have these factors in common:

• They already had a devoted following before launching their membership
• They are clear on their messaging and who their membership is for
• They truly enjoy consistent content creation – it energizes rather than depletes them
• They’ve built robust systems to manage the operational aspects efficiently

If that sounds like you, a membership might be the perfect fit for your teaching style and business goals.

But for many yoga teachers, especially those just beginning to build their online presence or those who want more freedom in their schedule, a low-ticket offer provides a more sustainable entry point.

Here’s how I recommend starting: Identify a specific challenge your ideal students face. Create a focused solution that delivers a clear result. Price it accessibly as a one-time purchase. Then focus your energy on getting that solution in front of the people who need it most.

The beautiful thing about this approach is that it doesn’t close any doors. Once you’ve established this foundation and built a community of buyers who love your teaching, you can always add a membership option later for those students who want to continue their journey with you.

Making Your Decision

The choice between a membership and a low-ticket offer ultimately comes down to what’s sustainable for you and truly valuable for your students.

I spent so much time trying to force the membership model to work because I thought that’s what I “should” be doing. Closing both of my memberships were some of the best business decisions I’ve ever made. The second time especially, I realized how much energy it was taking while bringing in comparatively little income.

As you’re making this decision for yourself, consider your unique teaching style, how you feel about ongoing content creation, your technical comfort level, and most importantly – your energy. If your business model constantly depletes you, you won’t have anything left to give your students, no matter how beautiful your offerings are.

Ready to Create Your Low-Ticket Offer?

If you’re ready to explore the low-ticket model, I created Low-Ticket Mojo specifically to help yoga teachers create their first low-ticket product that they can sell again and again.

Low-Ticket Mojo is a full course that teaches you:

• How to create your own irresistible $37 product using my Product Discovery Framework
• How to write high-converting sales copy that makes your offer impossible to resist
• How to set up a complete funnel with order bumps and upsells that maximize every sale

Plus, you’ll get amazing bonuses including my Low-Ticket Offer Inspiration Vault with 25 specific offer examples for yoga teachers.

Your investment? Just $37 – yes, the same price point I’ve been talking about throughout this article. I wanted to make this accessible to every yoga teacher who’s ready to break free from the membership hamster wheel.