Most teachers who sell lessons online do it through someone else’s platform. A marketplace lists your class next to a thousand others, takes a cut of every sale, and keeps the relationship with the student. You get a payout and a first name. Selling from your own website changes the economics and, more importantly, the relationship.
You keep the whole sale
Marketplaces and course platforms charge between 10% and 50% of each sale, or a monthly fee plus a transaction cut. When your lessons sell through WooCommerce on your own site, the only fee is your payment provider’s, usually around 3%. On a $49 program sold 40 times a month, that difference is several hundred dollars, every month, for the same work.
You own the student
A student who buys on your site gives you their email, buys under your name and comes back to your address. You can email them about the next program, invite them to a workshop, or ask what they want next. On a marketplace that data belongs to the platform, and the platform will happily show your student another teacher’s class.
Programs sell while you teach
A live class earns once. A recorded program earns every time someone finds it. A short series you record once, say six twenty-minute sessions on the lower back, can sell for years to students who were never in your room. The students who already trust you from class are the first buyers, and they tell friends who live too far away to attend.
It fills the gaps in a studio week
- The student who travels keeps practising with you instead of pausing for three weeks.
- The beginner who is nervous tries a short free program at home before walking into a class.
- The regular who wants more buys a focused series on exactly the thing they asked about after class.
- The injury that keeps someone away from the mat becomes a gentle at-home program you sell to them.
What it looks like in practice
With BOS Lessons the setup is one afternoon. You upload your audio or video lessons to your BOS dashboard, group them into programs, and drop a shortcode on a page of your WordPress site. Each program becomes a WooCommerce product, so you use the payment provider you already have. When someone buys, the program opens for them immediately and they land in the player on your site, signed in. No emails to send, no links to manage.
Start with one program. The one students keep asking for after class is usually the right one. Record it in a quiet room with a phone, price it like two drop-in classes, and put it on your site. The first sale usually comes from someone you already know.
Your website is the one place online where you are the only teacher in the room.
If you teach yoga, Pilates or meditation, there is a page on how BOS fits each: selling yoga classes online, an on-demand Pilates library and audio programs that play with the screen off. For the recording and hosting side, read how to sell yoga videos online from your own website.
Apply for a BOS account to try it on your site, or see the live demo first.