Most of us are in lockdown. Yoga studios in the Netherlands had to close their doors last week. Nobody would have seen that coming 4 weeks ago. Today’s situation might seem hopeless, but I believe you can survive and thrive in these times of crisis.
What if your business could grow today? When everyone else is curled up watching the news on their couch. I believe this is the time to build a digital business. This is the time to diversify and digitise your knowledge and skills. Even in the future, when everything is opens up again, you can still have that online revenue stream. Your business will come out of this crisis 10x stronger.
The first step in taking your business online is trying it out. It's the only way for you to test what works and what doesn't. So I wrote a quick guide for you to set that up.
Step 1 • Create a Google account (for Youtube)
Go to https://accounts.google.com/ and select "create account". From there you can set up a Google account.
Step 2 • Login and create a Channel on Youtube
Go to https://youtube.com/ and select "upload video" or "go live". It will prompt you to create a Channel first. On the screen you can fill in your studio details.
Step 3 • Verify your account
Google wants to know that you are a real person and not a robot. You need to verify this by confirming a code you will receive on your phone. Great! you've completed the first important part. Setting up your Youtube Channel.
Step 4a • Setup auxiliary stuff
It takes 24 hours to activate your channel's ability to live stream. But during your time waiting we can already setup some other things.
Besides a laptop or computer, you will need a suitable webcam. Ordering a webcam now can take up to 2 weeks delivery, so be fast.
Step 4b • Install broadcasting software
We also need to install broadcasting software. We recommend using OBS (Open Broadcasting Software). It is available for free for both Windows and Mac.
Go to https://obsproject.com/ and select the operating software you use.
Once installed you need to setup your webcam and scene in OBS.
Add a Video Capture Device (if none is selected) by pressing the "+" icon at the sources panel.
Select your webcam or camera at the device dropdown. We can leave the rest of the settings as is. Press "OK" to confirm.
If appropriate, make sure your video is fullscreen. If not, click on the video and drag it out to the corner to fill the screen up.
Step 5 • Setup your camera / webcam / computer
A good frame with the appropriate lightning make a huge difference when it comes down to capturing video. Make sure you, as a teacher, are in frame so your students can see what is going on.
The frame that is displayed in OBS is also the frame that your students will see. Make sure there is enough light coming from behind the camera. Setting it up in front of a (big) window is a good alternative for studio lights.
Step 6 • Setup your Youtube Live Channel
After 24 hours, you can start using your Youtube channel for Live streaming.
Go to https://studio.youtube.com/ and login. We are going to do a test run.
In the top right corner, click "create" and then "go live".
Fill in all the data above. Note that you can schedule a stream for later. But we won't do that for now. Click "Create Stream" to continue.
Step 7 • Connect OBS (which we setup earlier) to Youtube
Great! Almost done! The only thing we have to do is copy and paste your stream key into OBS in order to connect.
Copy the key above and open OBS. Inside OBS, we are going to paste the stream key in the settings. Open the OBS settings by going to OBS > Preferences and navigate to the Stream tab.
In the stream tab, set the service to "YouTube / YouTube Gaming" and the server to "Primary YouTube ingest server". Here you can paste your streamkey copied from Youtube. Confirm your settings by pressing "OK".
Step 8 • Go LIVE!
The moment is here! We can go Live! Press "Start Streaming" in OBS. Then go back to Youtube. On Youtube, you might have to wait a few minutes until your video stream shows up. Once it does, press "Go Live" on Youtube.
Congrats! You are live streaming now! You can copy and share a link to your students by pressing the arrow on the left side of the "stop livestream" button. You can end the stream by pressing the red button. Youtube will prompt you to save the session. You can do this and save the video for later.
Is all of this too hard for you? Don't be afraid and ask one of our developers for help. You can reach out to them using this link.
Thats it! That wasn't so hard was it? One last thing. Next week. Around the 1st op April, we are launching special live streaming & video recording functionality in our studio management tool, Blossom. You are very much welcome to try it out yourself. You can sign up for Blossom now. It's free to try, without having to use a credit card. No strings attached, we promise.
Or reach out to our team if you have any questions regarding this.
A setback has often cleared the way for greater prosperity
– Team Blossom