To run live classes online, pick one fixed weekly time, decide whether people pay per class or through a monthly membership, get your sound and light right before you buy a better camera, and use the same simple structure every week. On WithMe you can stream the class from your browser with Go Live inside a membership post, a digital product or a course lesson, with live chat and an automatic recording. If you need to see your students, sell places in a Webinar or a group Coaching Call held on Google Meet or Zoom instead.
WithMe is $25 per month billed annually (UK £25), with a 14-day trial and 0% WithMe commission. Stripe and PayPal fees still apply. More than 8,000 creators use it.
Which way should you run live classes?
Go Live is a one-way broadcast. You stream from your browser, students watch and type in the live chat, and the class is recorded automatically. It suits yoga flows, workouts, art demos and lectures, where people follow you rather than show you their screen or their posture.
A Webinar or a group Coaching Call is a shared meeting on Google Meet, or on Zoom where Zoom is available on your account. Everyone can turn their camera on, so it suits tutoring, small-group coaching and classes where you correct form. WithMe does not record these meetings.
Many teachers use both: a recorded Go Live class for the whole membership, and a small paid Meet or Zoom session for people who want feedback.
How should you schedule a weekly class?
- Pick one day and time and keep it. A class that moves every week loses people faster than a class at an awkward time.
- Choose a length you can hold every week. For most movement and art classes that is 30 to 60 minutes, including a few minutes for questions at the end.
- Check where your students live before you choose the time. A Webinar booking email shows the date in the buyer's own time zone, but a time that lands at 3am for half your list will still be empty.
- Plan a term, not a single class. Four or eight weeks with a theme gives people a reason to join now and to keep coming.
Drop-in or membership: how should you price live classes?
Drop-in pricing is a price per class. On WithMe you can sell a place in a Webinar session, paid or free, with a limit per time slot, or sell a single live class as a digital product with Go Live, which keeps the recording in the same product.
Membership pricing is a monthly or yearly price for every class. You can sell up to three paid membership tiers, monthly or yearly, with an optional free trial, and post each week's Go Live class to the tier that includes it.
Price the membership so it is clearly cheaper than coming to every class as a drop-in. For example, if a drop-in is $15 and the membership is $39 a month, three classes a month already make the membership the better deal. These figures are an example, not a recommendation for your market.
Use the two access settings on a Go Live post to make tiers different. Your top tier can watch live and ask questions in the chat, while a cheaper tier gets the recording once it is ready.
What camera, audio and lighting do you need?
- Sound first. People forgive soft video but leave when they cannot hear you. A clip-on lapel microphone is the best first purchase for movement classes, and a USB microphone works well at a desk.
- Light from the front. Face a window or put a light behind the camera. A bright window behind you turns you into a silhouette.
- Camera: a recent phone or laptop camera is enough to start. Before you press start, the stream page lets you choose which camera and which microphone to use, so a plugged-in webcam or microphone can be picked there.
- Framing: for yoga and fitness, show your whole body, feet included, and choose landscape. For art, point the camera at your hands and the page. For tutoring, frame yourself from the chest up. Go Live lets you choose portrait or landscape.
- Connection: sit close to your router, close other apps that use the internet, and do a short test stream before the first class.
How do you run a weekly class with Go Live on WithMe?
- Create your membership tiers, or the course or digital product the class belongs to.
- Add a new post, choose Go Live as the media type and add a thumbnail. Each class is its own Go Live post.
- For a membership post or a digital product, set Live Tier type for who can watch live and Post Recording Tier type for who can watch the recording.
- Start straight away, or set a schedule date and open the post's menu at class time and choose Setup Live Stream.
- On the stream page, allow your camera and microphone, pick the devices, choose portrait or landscape, and press Start transmission. Live chat becomes active as soon as the broadcast begins, and you see how many viewers are watching.
- Press Stop transmission when you finish. The recording is saved automatically and plays in the same post, product or lesson.
How do you run classes on Google Meet or Zoom instead?
Create a Webinar product. Set repeating weekly hours, one-off dates, or both, and set Maximum attendees per time slot. It starts at 5 for a webinar and applies to every time you offer.
Charge for a place, or make it free with Reserve a free place. Each time gets one shared Google Meet room, a Zoom room where Zoom is available on your account, or your own booking link.
After booking, the buyer gets an email with the date in their own time zone, the join link and Add to calendar. Reminder emails go out about 10 minutes before the start and again as it starts.
How do you keep students coming back every week?
- Remind them yourself. WithMe does not send an alert when you go live, so send a broadcast the day before with the time and the link. Each person gets at most one broadcast or timed sequence email from you a day.
- Post the time in your community each week, and ask members to reply with what they want to work on next.
- Use the same opening and closing every class, so people know what they get and when they can leave.
- Point people who missed it to the recording, so a missed week does not become a cancelled membership.
What is not included?
Go Live has no repeating post, so you create one post per class. You can run one live stream at a time. Streams come from one camera and one microphone in your browser: there is no screen sharing and no stream key for OBS or other streaming software. There is no automatic going-live alert to members, and Go Live is not available inside a community. The Webinar and Coaching Call products hold meetings on Meet or Zoom and do not record them.
How much does WithMe cost?
WithMe is $25 per month billed annually (UK £25), with a 14-day trial and 0% WithMe commission. Stripe and PayPal fees still apply. Free migration of up to 10 GB of your courses and members comes with the yearly plan. One plan covers courses, memberships, community, coaching, webinars and digital products.
Live class questions
What is the best way to run live classes online?
Keep one fixed weekly time, a clear price, good sound and front light, and the same class structure each week. On WithMe, stream with Go Live inside a membership post, or sell places in a Webinar on Google Meet or Zoom when you need to see students.
Should I charge per class or use a membership?
Offer both if you can. A drop-in price lets new people try a class, and a membership priced below four drop-ins a month rewards regulars. On WithMe a drop-in can be a Webinar place or a Go Live digital product, and a membership can have up to three paid tiers.
Are live classes recorded?
Go Live classes are recorded automatically and play in the same post, product or lesson. Webinars and Coaching Calls held on Meet or Zoom are not recorded by WithMe.
Can students see each other or turn on their camera?
Not in Go Live, which is a one-way stream with live chat. Use a Webinar or a group Coaching Call on Google Meet or Zoom when students need their cameras on.
What does WithMe cost?
$25 per month billed annually (UK £25), with a 14-day trial. WithMe takes 0% commission. Stripe and PayPal fees still apply.
Start your 14-day trial at https://www.withme.so/become-a-creator.
Related reading
- Start your 14-day trial
- How to live stream to paying members
- How to host and sell a paid webinar
- How to sell yoga and Pilates classes online
- How to sell fitness programs online
- How to sell memberships online
- Video lesson: create a membership site
- How to run a live Q&A for members
- Live streaming platforms for creators
- How to sell replays of live sessions
