I still remember the first time I discovered there was more than one type of yoga. It was on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. I had read about a place with fantastic views up the mountain where they practiced yoga, and after convincing my partner for a session, off we went to “Ashtari Yoga Retreat Kuta Lombok.”
I laughed a lot. To give you some context, I had done some yoga classes, but my partner had probably done one or two at most. And then we started the class; all the yoga poses were super fast, and there was no time to keep up unless you already mastered this type of yoga. Seeing my partner’s face and the situation, I got the giggles, and so did he. Things to learn! Haha, anyway, that was when I started to investigate more about yoga and how to practice it, and I found out that what we half-did up the hill in Lombok was Ashtanga – or so I think.
There are many types of yoga, each unique. I’ve only practiced 4 or 5 different kinds, and as you know, they vary a lot although the essence remains. They are focused on different types of people according to their needs, capacities, and especially, the moment they are in.
The same happens when designing a website. Depending on your objective and the moment you and your brand are in, you will need one type of website or another. With this in mind, I have associated 5 types of yoga with 5 types of websites aligned with each practice to help you choose the type of website that best suits you right now.
1. Hatha Yoga – Minimum Viable Website
Hatha – in Sanskrit, “Ha” – sun (masculine) and “Tha” – moon (feminine), is a perfect practice for yoga beginners, where you see many poses from different types of yoga. Let’s say it’s a generic and more relaxed yoga – although this, of course, depends on the teacher and the studio where you practice. It combines asanas (yoga poses) with pranayamas (breathing exercises).
The minimum viable website is a website with basic needs. It is faster to create and perfect for beginnings. It is based on the Lean Startup methodology (by Eric Ries), which seeks to meet the primary needs of customers with minimal investment and the fastest execution to bring that product or service to market and be tested for further adjustments to better meet the ideal customer’s needs.
It’s very important to include a Lead Magnet (valuable free content that you could charge for, which people would be willing to pay for but decide to give away, why? – to capture potential clients who are willing to pay you for a more significant service. In the end, whoever consumes it should think, if they’re giving this much value for free, their paid content must be excellent) on this website to start capturing emails and engaging with your ideal client, especially to know what you need to change within your brand strategy.
Do you have a yoga project in mind and want to carry it out to test how the market responds? Then this is your website. Additionally, by analyzing interactions and how your audience responds to it, you can adjust the website to meet your needs because a website is not static.
2. Vinyasa Yoga – Blog Website
Flow is the keyword we could use to describe Vinyasa yoga. It involves various poses at a constant and fast pace (but not as fast as Ashtanga), perfect for exercising the entire body. During the practice, breath and movement are united. Flexibility in philosophy and sequence of poses is what characterizes this discipline.
And what is the perfect match for Vinyasa yoga? A branding website that is as comprehensive and flowing as this discipline: a website where your personal brand is at the forefront, where your values, emotion and predominant promise, brand philosophy, and services are perfectly focused on solving the problems of your niche, highlighting the benefits of your proposal. (Note that the personal brand should be implicit in all forms of communication of our brand, be it the website or social networks).
On a blog website, you will showcase your brand coherently, giving more importance to the blog, where you will flow more, and where you can update and give advice on yoga poses to your community. The blog part, the most fluid, will have the most importance on the website. A blog with videos, texts, different formats adapted to your audience. With YouTube videos for daily practices and explaining in detail which you recommend doing depending on the time of day or the personal situation of each person. This doesn’t mean that in this type of website, you will only show articles, not at all. You will also show your services, your working methodology, and who you are so that people know you and have clarity about your project.
This is your website if you want to unleash your teachings and share them with the world. A place to teach flow.
3. Ashtanga yoga – website with online school
This is a more dynamic yoga that requires more strength and endurance – the one I think I did on a mountain in Lombok, Indonesia.
The movements are very fast and not recommended for beginners in yoga because it requires having practiced conscious breathing a lot and also because being so fast, you must have a complete understanding of the poses to avoid possible injuries.
Ashtanga yoga fits well with a more substantial website, from a yoga brand that already has some trajectory and wants to take it to the next level and launch a new online monetization service where the initial time invested will be rewarded in the long run.
It can be either with an online school or a membership, depending on the goals sought. The idea is to start with a school and depending on how it flows, the number of people consuming the material and its quantity, move to a membership where you go by the volume of people buying. But of course, it all depends on the goals you seek in your personal brand.
So you know, if your online personal brand is established and you are ready to take a step further, this is your option.
4. Iyengar yoga – minimalist online store website
Iyengar yoga is probably the most spiritual practice. It makes extensive use of yoga accessories and is excellent if you have an injury or chronic illness to strengthen and improve that area. Poses are taught from perfect body alignment and are held for several breaths.
The goal of this yoga is to achieve total balance through the perfection of the poses or asanas.
It is the perfect combination for a minimalist online store website, with ample white spaces and a light touch of colour. This is a type of website that does not have many frills. Predominantly neutral colours (white, black, grey, cream, earth), always with a main colour that acts as an accent but remains soft to achieve the perfect harmony that Iyengar yoga incorporates in its practices.
It is a website that is perfected little by little, where the work is constant, and the goal is not speed but the balance of each of its elements. With very clear monetizable concepts or services. It is an online store where the purchasing process is simple and constantly perfected and adjusted to the client through periodic reviews. A website that is always strengthening, just like its associated practice of Iyengar yoga.
This type of website is perfect if you seek simplicity and if your values relate to nature.
5. Bikram yoga – landing page website
Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga, is ideal for those who like more intense workouts. It is a sequence of 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises practiced in a room at 42 degrees Celsius, usually for 90 minutes – I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds interesting. Due to the room’s temperature, you gain more flexibility, and it is also good for detoxifying and eliminating toxins. It is therapeutic yoga that helps with concentration, making you stop thinking for a while, improving balance, determination, and patience.
Just as Bikram yoga helps deepen practice and is intense, the website that fits this discipline would be a landing page website. A site that intensifies the message we want to communicate through a clear communication message with a good lead magnet. Typically, a landing page serves to promote a course or a specific product and is 100% focused on sales. Not very extensive, this website always has strategically placed Call to Actions (CTAs), explaining in detail the benefits you will gain from purchasing the product or service.
This website is for you if you only sell one specific thing and want to get to market quickly or if you already have an established website and are launching a new product. Then it is advisable to design a landing page, always maintaining consistency with the main website’s brand, where only this new launch is displayed, its benefits, the objective, and who it is aimed at. In the end, the intention is to clear up any doubts our potential client may have about this specific offering.
As you have read, although these 5 websites have been separated, just as with yoga, where some disciplines draw from others, the same happens with websites, they combine perfectly with each other. The important thing when choosing what type of website or combination is best for your brand is to have a clear understanding of where you are, what your values are, your brand philosophy, your monetizable and non-monetizable concepts, your niche, your predominant emotion and promise, your unique value proposition, and how your communication will be.
If you want to know more about your personal brand before starting with your visual branding and/or your website, write to me at hola@pilarios.com.
