LMScast: Recent Episodes
Chris Badgett
LMScast is a podcast for innovators like you in the WordPress LMS e-learning community. LMScast is produced by Chris Badgett, part of the team behind the #1 WordPress LMS plugin called LifterLMS. Each episode brings you valuable insights with one goal: to help you generate more income and impact through a learning management system built on WordPress. LMScast is for you the entrepreneur, the teacher, the expert, or the online marketer.
In this episode of LMScast, Chris Badgett and Craig Shoemaker discuss how course designers and education entrepreneurs can boost revenue without continually pursuing new clients. The conversation is on developing more compelling offerings, enhancing the customer experience, forging deep connections, and adjusting to an AI-driven future while maintaining the human aspect.According to Craig, one of the most common errors made by course designers is to concentrate only on making a course rather than establishing a comprehensive product. By providing only one pricing choice and neglecting to incorporate upsells, order spikes, premium tiers, or surprise bonuses that thrill clients, many firms lose money. Chris concurs that the offer is the cornerstone of any successful education company as flaws in the offer have an impact on all other aspects of marketing and sales. The significance of looking beyond the original transaction is another important subject.
According to Chris Badgett, effective LMS and eLearning companies gain valuable clients by serving as strategic business partners rather than just creating websites. Agencies should charge for a systematic discovery process that produces a clear blueprint before any work starts, rather than diving right into development or offering planning for free. He likens it to building a custom home, where no expert begins work without first drafting architectural blueprints. Before investing in a major project, this strategy guarantees that the agency and client are in agreement, minimizes misconceptions, and establishes expectations.Creating a professional sales process, or what Chris refers to as a sales motion, is one of the episode's main themes. Agencies should initially qualify new clients using a brief application form before scheduling sales calls or submitting offers. The form should indicate whether the possibility is a good fit for the agency's specialty, has a reasonable schedule, and has the funds to support the project. Chris proposes that agencies could infer budget by understanding the client's audience, business size, and present operations rather than directly asking about it. Similarly, the ideal clients are those that have a clear strategy and enough time to carry it out well rather than those who expect a project right now. Chris suggests a two-step dialogue procedure after a lead is qualified.
Chris Badgett and Steve Woody from WP Fusion have an uplifting discussion about entrepreneurship, the strength of the WordPress community, artificial intelligence, personal growth, and creating a meaningful online company in this episode of LMScast.Steve talks about his amazing path from web developer and agency owner to bestselling book, business adviser, and first WP Fusion contributor. He considers how moving outside of his comfort zone and actively participating in the WordPress community profoundly changed his personal and professional life.
Chris Badgett discusses how AI is transforming the development, administration, and use of WordPress websites. He discusses leveraging AI technologies like Claude and ChatGPT to communicate directly with WordPress rather than manually navigating dashboards and menus with John Turner, the author of WPVibe.ai, in this LMScast episode.One of the main topics of discussion is how AI can speed up and simplify WordPress administration. With WPVibe, users can integrate AI with their WordPress websites to carry out activities like developing courses, adding and enrolling students, upgrading plugins, doing accessibility and SEO audits, producing content, altering websites, and even designing new WordPress themes. Chris emphasizes how HR departments, agencies, freelancers, and LMS owners may find this particularly helpful.
Chris Badgett discusses six useful and very successful methods for improving the online course and membership website checkout process in this LMScast episode.According to him, checkout optimization is one of the most effective ways to boost income without boosting marketing expenditures because around 70% of visitors who reach the checkout page never finish their transaction. Chris starts off by emphasizing the effectiveness of cart abandonment recovery and demonstrating how automated follow-up emails may entice prospective buyers to finish their purchase. Based on LifterLMS's personal experience, he discloses that this tactic has recovered almost $319,000 in lost revenue, illustrating how even a minor increase in checkout conversions may have a big effect on business expansion.
Effective communication, according to Chris, is the cornerstone of a successful remote business and ought to be regarded as one of the most crucial principles of business. He demonstrates that effective communication enhances cooperation, leadership, customer connections, and overall business performance based on his more than 15 years of experience managing LifterLMS as a wholly remote firm.He highlights that writing is an essential communication skill since it facilitates idea organization, improves documentation, generates more powerful marketing material, and even facilitates more efficient use of AI tools. Chris also describes LifterLMS's methods for maintaining remote teams' alignment without overburdening them with meetings. He talks about quarterly planning using the Shape Up framework, organized monthly all-hands meetings that highlight individual, client, and business successes, and the practice of recording ideas in shared Google Docs before they are forgotten.In order to keep everyone on the team informed and improve teamwork, he advises using Slack for open, public discussions rather than private messaging wherever feasible.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett discusses why any serious YouTuber should create an online course rather than depend solely on YouTube revenue. He contends that the toughest part is over for creators who have already developed an audience; the next stage is to transform that following into a business they own.By utilizing LifterLMS to offer courses from their own WordPress website, producers can make a steady income without relying on sponsorships, ad revenue, or shifting algorithms. In his discussion of the distinction between renting and owning a platform, Chris explains how marketplaces such as Udemy may restrict long-term growth, price, branding, and customer connections. On the other hand, creators have complete control over their content, student data, email list, price, and company when they own a WordPress website. Instead of relying on outside platforms, he urges YouTubers to create digital assets under their own control.Additionally, he suggests that rather than attempting to teach all they know, designers should focus their courses on a single change. YouTubers should listen to audience inquiries, study comments, use polls, or create waitlists to evaluate their ideas before devoting time to developing a course. Rather than waiting for perfection, Chris suggests beginning with a single, basic course, launching it immediately, and making improvements over time.
Chris Badgett talks about the limited-time LifterLMS Infinity Bundle Lifetime License in this LMScast episode and explains why professional course designers, education entrepreneurs, agencies, and training companies would find it to be a worthwhile purchase. The LifterLMS Lifetime Deal is available from June 23 to Thursday, June 25.He emphasizes how the lifetime license offers lifetime support, limitless website usage, continuing upgrades, security improvements, and access to all existing and future LifterLMS add-ons, all without the need for recurrent membership costs. Chris adds that LifterLMS keeps innovating by introducing new features and add-ons, guaranteeing lifelong clients enjoy growing value over time without incurring extra expenses. He stresses that because the offer may drastically lower long-term costs, it is especially appealing to companies that want to use their LMS platform for a few of years.Chris also explains the rationale behind providing a lifetime license, pointing out that LifterLMS decided to address recurring customer demand for a one-time purchase option even though subscription models are frequently more lucrative for software firms. He clarifies that the lifetime license is a relationship with devoted clients since the organization prioritizes providing value to users above optimizing business profitability. He also emphasizes advantages like lifetime support, help desk services, and Office Hours Mastermind calls, where consumers may speak with the LifterLMS staff directly. Chris clarifies that LifterLMS provides prorated upgrade discounts to current clients, making the switch from an annual plan to a lifetime license more simpler. In general, he conveys the idea that a lifetime license may assist online education companies secure future upgrades, save money, and reliably develop their learning platforms throughout time.
Ryan Moore, the founder of PressPrimer and a previous leader at Uncanny Owl, discusses evaluation, one of the most important but often disregarded facets of online learning, in this LMScast episode. Ryan contends that whether or whether students really learn, remember, and apply the material being taught is the fundamental test of a successful learning program, despite the fact that many LMS conversations center on course development, marketing, and student registration.By offering sophisticated assessment tools that concentrate on gauging learning outcomes, student performance, and information retention, Press Primer was developed to assist instructors in going beyond simple quizzes and completion monitoring. Instead of attempting to become another all-in-one LMS platform, Ryan continues, Press Primer adopts a specific approach to evaluation. Specifically, the solution focuses on making WordPress quizzes and assignments better.
Chris Badgett and Emily Middleton from WPCourseGuide examine the quickly changing effects of artificial intelligence on online learning, course design, WordPress, entrepreneurship, and the nature of employment in this episode of LMScast. They talk about how AI is enabling creators to develop courses, produce content, build software prototypes, and automate complex tasks more quickly than ever before. Chris provides real-world examples of utilizing AI to produce comprehensive product specifications and functional software prototypes in a matter of minutes, while Emily discusses how course designers may utilize AI tools to develop course structures, lesson content, and learning materials.They stress that while AI makes it easier to create, it also increases the bar for quality, making knowledge, originality, and well-considered user experiences more crucial than before.
Chris Badgett argues in this LMScast episode why LMS and CRM should be handled as a single, integrated system rather than as distinct tools by any professional online learning company. He highlights that whereas CRM technologies handle marketing, automation, and customer connections, platforms like LifterLMS handle the learning process. WP Fusion, which serves as the connection layer that synchronizes student activity with marketing platforms and enables sophisticated automation across WordPress-based educational websites, is the missing component between them.
In this LMScast episode, Jonathan Denwood talks about how WP-Tonic makes it easier for instructors, coaches, owners of membership sites, and educational institutions to create robust WordPress-based learning management systems without having to deal with complex technical settings.He clarifies that WP-Tonic is a comprehensive solution that includes managed hosting, premium plugins, CRM tools, email marketing systems, templates, support, and website development services. Jonathan emphasizes that their hosting packages include with useful technologies like LifterLMS, FluentCRM, WP Fusion, and other automation and performance tools, which help customers save money and avoid the hassle of handling numerous subscriptions and integrations on their own.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett discusses how clever popups may be effective tools for increasing course sales. Also, learner success on an LMS website. Chris illustrates why popups should assist, support, and customize the student experience rather than just interrupting users for marketing goals by using Popup Maker in conjunction with LifterLMS.He investigates tactics including employing targeted upsells or cross-sells following course completion, providing discounts or lead magnets to reluctant customers, and recovering abandoned carts with exit-intent popups.Chris places a strong emphasis on student engagement in addition to sales, demonstrating how popups may greet new students, promote community involvement, assist students in picking up where they left off, or offer extra assistance when students seem to be having trouble with a subject.
since they help you reach audiences that you would not be able to reach on your own. Additionally, he stresses that consumers start their trip long before they are prepared to make a purchase, so companies should provide content for earlier phases of the customer journey rather than just product-focused searches.
outputs all of which are particularly helpful when working on big projects like entire books, courses, or sales pages.In addition to the chat interface, he breaks down the larger Claude ecosystem, which includes tools like Projects for work organization, Claude Design for making slides, visuals, and even interactive lessons, and Cowork/agents that can connect with tools like Google Drive, email, or analytics to automate workflows and produce insights. He emphasizes useful applications for course designers, such converting student support letters into new lesson ideas, translating courses for international audiences, developing sales pages and email sequences, summarizing and making FAQs, and building quizzes from lesson content.
Most membership sites collapse under their own complexity. In this solo LMScast episode, Chris Badgett breaks down the three-part alignment model that keeps the winners standing: business model, pricing, and offer stack. You will learn four core subscription models, three alternative ones, and how to price with good, better, best tiers instead of guessing. Real examples from Funk Roberts, Ziv Raviv, Tim McIvor, and SaaS pricing legend Patrick Campbell. If you run (or are about to launch) a membership site on LifterLMS or any WordPress LMS, this is your gut check.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett takes a deep and honest look back at more than 12 years of creating LifterLMS, detailing seven big blunders that molded both the product and his evolution as an entrepreneur. He starts out by discussing content and SEO, stating that one of his first regrets was not learning how to write effectively for search engines earlier.Even while the team regularly produced blogs, videos, and podcasts, he subsequently came to the conclusion that they might have had a greater early edge in search visibility especially in the cutthroat WordPress ecosystem, had they produced more strategic, technically optimized textual material. He then discusses supplementary aspects that are under-marketed. Although LifterLMS is well-known for its ability to create courses, he notes that many users were unaware of the full potential of the platform since significant features like memberships, social learning, and coaching tools were not adequately articulated.
In this episode of LMScast, Chris Badgett offers an important perspective change for anybody making online courses: you should conceive of yourself as a media firm rather than merely a course designer. He says that since systems like ChatGPT and Claude can rapidly give answers and learning resources, knowledge is no longer scarce in today's environment.Because of this, merely packing content into a course is no longer sufficient to succeed or stand out. Instead, people's attention and trust have become limited, particularly in a digital world that is overrun with content, short videos, and subpar AI-generated content. This makes it more difficult for instructors to keep students' interest long enough for them to finish courses, which are inherently lengthy and need dedication.
In this episode, Chris Badgett explains how AI will significantly reshape online courses by making creation faster, cheaper, and more accessible, while also increasing competition and lowering average quality due to an influx of generic AI-generated content. He emphasizes that although those who use AI as a co-pilot, combining it with their own brand, voice, and expertise, will stand out and deliver higher-quality courses, those who rely solely on AI will suffer.He highlights that the value of information diminishes as it gets simpler to provide, and the true premium moves to human components like coaching, community, accountability, and change. AI will also make it possible for more flexible course delivery, intelligent student assistance, and customized learning experiences. It will be crucial for creators to post public material and maintain visibility as marketing and discovery grow more competitive and move toward AI-driven platforms. Additionally, Chris promotes openness and human supervision while cautioning about ethical issues, including authenticity, false information, and data privacy. Ultimately, his main point is that creating a comprehensive, AI-augmented education company with a human connection at its core is more important for success in the AI future than simply selling courses.
process that evaluates the length, context, and purpose of the content, applies instructional design frameworks such as Bloom's Taxonomy, and creates assessments and lessons that are appropriate for various learning levels.
In this episode of LMScast, learning and development specialist Lee-Anne Ragan, who has over 40 years of experience working with international organizations, such as the United Nations, shares useful tips for designing more successful and captivating learning opportunities. According to her, many course designers fail because they don't always understand how people learn best, not because they lack knowledge.In order to assist trainers in creating well-rounded learning programs, Lee presents her SAKE framework, which stands for Skills, Attitude, Knowledge, and Experience. While many courses place a lot of emphasis on knowledge such as theory, frameworks, and information, Lee highlights that students really appreciate experiencing the most, which means having the chance to put what they've learned into practice after the course.
Chris Badgett discusses how course designers may choose which e-learning materials should be paid for and which should be free in this episode. He emphasizes that while many producers are afraid to share too much information for free, free material is actually crucial for gaining a following, developing credibility, and creating authority.Introductory ideas, concepts, brief advice, blog entries, tutorials, webinars, podcasts, or mini-courses that assist individuals in learning about the subject and grasping its fundamentals are examples of free content. These tools serve as a marketing engine that attracts new students to the ecosystem and motivates them to continue participating. Conversely, sponsored material need to concentrate on providing learners with deeper results and actual transformation. This includes advanced lectures, certificates, coaching, community access, organized, step-by-step training programs, and effective templates or tools that enable students to accomplish a particular objective more quickly and with greater assistance.
page. The founder's character and principles are the foundation, but as the team expands, each member adds to it.Culture will develop whether or not you want for it to. The secret is to intentionally mold it with a distinct vision, goal, and guiding principles. Hires, firings, product choices, and even crisis management are filtered via LifterLMS principles, which include clear communication, extreme ownership, continuous improvement, reducing friction, community, and prioritizing student success. Chris compares what seems strange to those ideals in order to determine the mismatch. They also talk about recruiting people based on their character rather than their abilities. Character and value alignment cannot be taught, but skills can.
Kurt Von Ahnen discusses in this LMScast episode that continuing education (CE), which is one of the most reliable and scalable options in online learning, is basically corporate training provided in accordance with certification or licensing criteria.He draws attention to the fact that professionals in fields like healthcare, real estate, and technical professions need to renew their certificates on a regular basis, which generates steady income for CE providers. In addition to providing compelling features like credit tracking, expiration management, recertification, and group-based bulk sales, Kurt illustrates how utilizing WordPress with LifterLMS can significantly cut costs by citing actual cases of businesses overspending on enterprise LMS platforms for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kurt Von Ahnen from MANANA NO MAS, demonstrates in this LMScast episode that even if you are certain of your knowledge, you must validate an online course. Since he thought his ideas would succeed, he acknowledges that as an entrepreneur, he used to detest validation. However, experience has shown him that ignoring validation results in a waste of time, money, and energy.He highlights the need for creators to think like entrepreneurs and consider long-term viability, profitability, and demand in addition to their passion. One of his best lessons is about pricing: when he first offered his program for $1,500, it didn't sell because people thought it was too inexpensive rather than because it wasn't worth it. Significant price increases resulted in higher sales, demonstrating that assessing perceived worth and willingness to pay is part of validation.
In this LMScast episode, Kurt Von Ahnen discusses the challenges of rapidly establishing an online course and the typical errors that hinder developers. He clarifies that the most significant obstacles are frequently psychological rather than technical, including the expert's curse, impostor syndrome, and overanalyzing before beginning.Kurt stresses how crucial it is to have a well-defined plan before using the platform. Frustration and stalled launches result from the fact that many course developers purchase tools and start creating without first defining their content, structure, or delivery method. Kurt highlights the importance of attention and time dedication. He cautions against attempting to construct courses in brief, dispersed time blocks, stating that frequent disruptions impede progress and make the job appear more difficult than it actually is.
In this LMScast episode, Kurt elaborates on the notion that corporate training is a continuous process that changes with the company rather than a one-time event. He argues that many businesses put off documenting their procedures because they think things will change all the time. However, when teams expand, this kind of thinking frequently results in confusion, inefficiency, and knowledge loss.Kurt Von Ahnen is known as a highly skilled corporate training and e-learning specialist who has worked with LifterLMS for more than ten years. Before working directly with the LifterLMS team and starting his own company, Manana No Mas, which focuses on LifterLMS and WordPress-based training solutions.
According to Emily Middleton, the way she operates WP Course Guide is purposefully distinct from a standard agency or freelancer model since she bases her company on close, intimate connections with her clients.Her early exposure to entrepreneurship through her family and her long-standing relationship with LifterLMS, which provided her with a strong feeling of commu nity, trust, and mentoring from the start of her career, have had a significant impact on her approach. Emily also explains key LMS website making strategies using WordPress.As a result, she views each project as a part of a greater human tale rather than a straightforward technical assignment, treating clients as partners and frequently as friends, and engaging emotionally in their success.
Chris Badgett offers a comprehensive overview of the top WordPress plugins in this episode for creating and expanding an LMS website that goes beyond the LifterLMS core. He begins by emphasizing that LifterLMS itself handles almost all of the fundamental LMS features, such as creating courses, student dashboards, user accounts, memberships, e-commerce with PayPal or credit card payments, group sales, and engagement tools like achievement badges, certificates, gamification, and behavior-based emails.
refers to generating enormous value via the resolution of significant issues rather than exploiting people. Because conventional educational systems concentrate on teaching knowledge (mechanisms) rather than addressing why someone urgently needs that information, pain is frequently misinterpreted in the classroom. In actuality, they purchase pain alleviation and a clear route to a better result rather than classes, coaching, or memberships.
and comprehend their requirements, goals, and frustrations. Chris clarifies that many business owners erroneously concentrate on their product or method rather than the results that their clients need, and he advocates delving deeply into details like quickness, assurance, understanding, or preventing unfavorable outcomes.
Marcus Carter returns in this episode of LMScast to provide a detailed look at how he turned decades of conventional English instruction into a scalable online learning company driven by LifterLMS and WordPress. Marcus, who has taught for more than 30 years, describes how the COVID epidemic compelled him to switch from traditional language schools to virtual ones. His tentative TikTok videos and lack of camera confidence eventually developed into a powerful social media presence, which helped him see the possibilities of digital courses as a long-term business strategy.
Chris Badgett explains the main distinctions between cohort-based and self-paced online courses in this LMSCast episode, assisting course designers in selecting the approach that best suits their objectives.
Chris Badgett outlines a comprehensive, useful process for utilizing ChatGPT to create an online course that centers around your special skill.He emphasizes that while depending exclusively on AI results in generic. Low-value course content. ChatGPT should enhance your creativity rather than replace it. In order to determine the course's path. He starts by selecting a targeted, outcome-driven topic and creating a distinct student avatar.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett shares the growth of creator burnout poses a danger to the prosperity of companies that rely on human ingenuity. Content development, editing, uploading, marketing, analytics, audience interaction, and customer service are all tasks that many producers attempt to manage on their own, which results in mental and physical strain.In addition to decreasing productivity, creativity, and consistency, this unrelenting pace can eventually cause artists to lose touch with the love that first motivated their work. Not only does burnout damage the individual, but it also negatively impacts the company, resulting in decreased quality, lost opportunities, and slower growth. In order to thrive, artists must create sustainable processes that prioritize high-impact work, assign or automate repetitive activities, and produce material in batches rather than continuously.
In this LMScast, Alex Standiford from Siren Affiliates shared, developing incentive affiliate systems that compensate affiliates, instructors, and content producers according on performance, engagement, and conversions is the secret to increasing the number of courses and memberships sold.Instead of using a single one-size-fits-all approach, course authors may build up many tailored programs by using Siren Affiliates in conjunction with LifterLMS. In addition to offering beginner-friendly programs for new promoters, this enables you to provide bigger commissions to professional affiliates. With the help of the platform's multi-instructor revenue sharing feature, instructors can earn royalties automatically based on lesson completion, course engagement, or subscription performance.
which can put strain or stress on certain students, Kimba explores the psychology behind well-known platforms like Duolingo and explains why its leaderboards, buddy hunts, streaks, and badges function. She presents the concept of many player types achievers, socializers, explorers, and killers and explains why it's crucial to comprehend these characteristics before introducing any game elements.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett shares details about the biggest sale of the year for course creators: LifterLMS’s all-November sale (Black Friday through Cyber Monday), which runs from November 1 through December 1 (Cyber Monday). It’s our biggest sale in 12 years, and it’s live now on Black Friday Deals page.This year, LifterLMS is offering 60% off any bundle or add-on, plus $4,000 in bonuses. The event is intentionally spread over the entire month to reduce one-day pressure. Use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY25 to enjoy 60% off all LifterLMS products.
Chris Badgett speaks with Robert Lunte and Dana Sleeper from CourseCreek, a full-service eLearning provider that assists people and businesses in making money out of their knowledge through excellent online courses, in this episode of LMScast.According to Robert, Course Creek offers each customer a customized, high-touch experience by delivering everything from marketing and LMS creation to consultancy and instructional design. He tells the tale of a customer who constructs horse arenas and wishes to instruct others on how to make horse footing correctly.
Chris Badgett offers a very personal tale in this LMScast episode that relates endurance running to entrepreneurship and personal development.He ran 100 miles from Vermont via New Hampshire to his home in Maine at the age of 47, completing a significant objective for which he had been preparing for more than two years. This self-sponsored ultra run. Which was encouraged by friends, his business partner Jason Coleman, and his wife, was more of a personal challenge than a competition. The fact that Chris had battled persistent back pain for the most of his adult life. Which was entirely resolved by regular fitness and strength training, adds even more significance to the accomplishment.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett shares about marketing automation. According to Chris Badgett, marketing automation is the foundation of a scalable online education company. Its role is to generate leads, cultivate relationships over time, and turn those leads into paying students for coaching, academies, memberships, or courses.In order to automatically offer value and engage users in follow-up sequences, he suggests first creating an email list using straightforward registration forms or integrated platform code, followed by helpful automations like RSS-driven newsletters and lead-magnet distribution (PDFs, checklists, or free mini-courses). Chris recommends concentrating on three lists instead of dozens of them: prospects, free users, and paying customers. Then, using tags and custom fields, audiences can be segmented and focused nurturing sequences that mostly deliver value and occasionally present offers are sent.
Chris Badgett argues that in-person interactions are a powerful tool for internet businesses. Get away of your computer and spend time with your consumers where they already congregate.At Retain, a conference for membership-site owners (creators and instructors using technologies ranging from LifterLMS to Kajabi), he presents a new example from England. Instead of sponsoring or pitching, he just turned up to listen, which resulted in more in-depth discussions with devoted clients like Funk Roberts and KPC (Slick Business) as well as open discussions with potential clients who were fed up with inflexible, expensive systems.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett highlights how each model works for various kinds of entrepreneurs as he compares the benefits and drawbacks of membership sites against stand-alone online courses.With a one-time payment structure, a standalone course usually provides students with access to a specific collection of learning resources, such as videos, tests, PDFs, and occasionally certifications. Recurring revenue is not automatically supported by it, despite the fact that it is simpler to build and maintain great for focused entrepreneurs that wish to improve one major service.
in which they possess important knowledge but find it difficult to communicate it effectively, leaving students feeling overloaded or disinterested. Chris explains the importance of using a teaching framework, a repeatable structure for each lesson that keeps students engaged, makes the content easier to create, and ensures clarity.
Chris Badgett offers his advice on creating and running an email list that now has over 100,000 subscribers in this episode of LMSCast.He makes the case that, when compared to social media, email is the most reliable and efficient marketing medium since it is used by everyone and can be utilized for prospecting, nurturing, sales, and customer support. Chris emphasizes that although having a larger list frequently results in higher revenue, the caliber of members is significantly more significant than the number.
Ziv Raviv explained how he started his business ten years ago with a podcast, which paved the way for him to pursue coaching and online courses. After learning about LifterLMS, he expanded into creating over 300 courses in a variety of micro-niches, such as balloon art, the floral industry, children's entertainers, relationships (Generous Marriage), and copywriting (Daily Cookie). Ziv's first course was just a Google Doc with unlisted YouTube videos. He clarified that by narrowing his focus so much, he was able to establish credibility and trust in close-knit groups, which produced unexpected outcomes, such as generating over $1 million from the balloon art specialty alone, which has just 3,000 members globally.
In his LMScast solo episode, Chris Badgett discusses the new safeguards in LifterLMS 9.0 and delves further into the significance of WordPress LMS website security.He describes how tools like Akismet spam detection, sophisticated CAPTCHA integrations with Cloudflare Turnstile and Google reCAPTCHA, and IP blocking for repeatedly unsuccessful checkouts help guard against bots and fraudulent activities. By implementing secured media, Chris also resolves a persistent WordPress problem with the Media Library, guaranteeing that only enrolled students can access course materials and downloads.
Victor Julio Coupe reveals in his LMSCast interview with Chris Badgett that his strategy for sales, particularly in the SEO space, differs much from the conventional, hard-pitch method.According to him, the market is already weary of frequent outreach via email, LinkedIn, and other platforms, frequently from independent contractors or even artificial intelligence (AI)-generated profiles. He discovered that, regardless of language or location, cold pitching rarely succeeds as a result of this saturation.
In this LMScast, Zach Katz from GravityKit presents Gravity Board, a WordPress add-on for Kanban project management that integrates Trello-like features into your website.Zach Katz founded GravityKit, a business that creates robust Gravity Forms add-ons like GravityView, which gives customers extensive options for how to display and manipulate form data on their WordPress websites. Using customisable phases like to-do, in progress, and done, Gravity Board, which is built on top of Gravity Forms and GravityView, lets users graphically organize tasks.
He thinks that everyone has an innate ability to lead, whether it be in the form of managing a team, a small group, or even just one other individual.
Greg Zakowicz offers a useful, data-driven strategy to assist course developers in expanding their audience and boosting enrollments through successful multi-channel marketing.Greg highlights the significance of moving beyond conventional email campaigns by including SMS, online push alerts, and personalized messaging into a unified approach. Greg has more than 20 years of expertise in e-commerce and lifecycle marketing.
In the episode, Lindsay Halsey from Pathfinder SEO delves at the ways artificial intelligence is changing search behavior and the implications for website owners, particularly those creating online training programs or e-learning platforms. She explains that with the rise of AI-generated search results such as Google’s AI Overviews and conversational modes users often get direct answers without clicking through to a website. Because of this change, websites find it more difficult to become visible using traditional SEO alone. However, Lindsay emphasizes that this is merely a new challenge and not the end for content providers.
In this LMScast episode, Andy Jack from Candle Digital explores the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence in e-learning in the LMSCast episode.He specializes in assisting subject matter experts in transforming their expertise into effective virtual learning environments. He highlights that we are in a new era with opportunities for personalization, virtual tutors, and reflection-driven learning by drawing a connection between the early internet and the current generative AI explosion.
In this LMScast, Founder Karen Wisch of Graphics by Design talks about how she transitioned from traditional graphic design to web development. She began her profession in design when computers were widely used, and once a customer requested a website, she progressively moved into web programming. Karen finally started using WordPress after learning it on her own. She talks about an exceptional effort with the Missouri Credentialing Board, which certifies practitioners in Missouri who treat drug use disorders. About seven years ago, the Board was managing license renewals and continuing education (like the MARS course) entirely on paper.
Chris Lassiter of LearnAINow joins Chris Badgett in this episode of LMSCast to demonstrate how AI is revolutionizing web development.Chris is now developing online courses that show individuals how to create websites completely with AI without using conventional coding. One of his initial classes covers making a website with a new tool called Bolt.new, buying a domain through Route 53, and utilizing AWS to host a website. Chris provides a live demonstration of Bolt.new during the show, which creates full-stack websites using React and JavaScript utilizing AI agents that are probably driven by Anthropic's models.
In this LMScast, Taco Verdonschot presents Progress Planner, a proactive solution for website optimization and maintenance made just for WordPress users, including developers, agencies, and site owners.Taco makes a compelling analogy when he says that creating a beautiful website is only the first step, much like growing a garden. To remain healthy and functional over time, both require frequent care updates, cleanups, and continuous enhancements. This is the role of Progress Planner, which functions as an omnipresent and persistent setup wizard that keeps helping users even after the initial site creation is finished.
Remkus de Vries, a WordPress performance specialist and strongman athlete, combines technical know-how with a holistic outlook on life and health in this episode of LMScast.He talks about his curatorial WordPress weekly, Within WP, and his work on performance tools like as Scanfully. Remkus highlights the need to be genuine online in order to encourage feedback and personal development, in addition to fostering connection in a remote work environment that is frequently isolated.
In "The Future of Online Education in an Artificial Intelligence World," Bud Kraus examines how the field of digital learning is changing as a result of artificial intelligence. Bud Kraus, who has worked as a WordPress specialist and educator for decades, emphasizes AI as a potent tool that may improve student engagement, automate repetitive activities, and customize instruction rather than as a substitute for instructors.Bud Kraus is a seasoned instructor and content developer in the WordPress community, having taught WordPress and web design in person and virtually for more than 14 years. In this LMScast episode, he highlights how AI may be used to develop learning environments that are tailored to the requirements of each individual student while simultaneously posing significant ethical, data privacy, and digital equity concerns. He also has a podcast channel.
In the latest LMSCast episode, Chris Badgett reintroduces Mark Westguard, the creator of WS Form a robust and adaptable form-building WordPress plugin.Mark Westguard, the creator and principal developer of WS Form, a robust and developer-friendly form-building plugin for WordPress, founded it. Mark and Chris explore advanced applications of forms beyond the typical contact form, emphasizing their potential to improve learning websites and streamline intricate workflows. With over 150 customizable templates and more than 90 integrations, WS Form allows users to connect with platforms such as Mailchimp, CRMs, Make, Zapier, and others.
In this LMScast episode, Matt Medeiros shares all the tips about podcasting WordPress. Matt Medeiros highlights that the success and longevity of a podcast come from genuine interest and care, not just from treating it as a marketing tactic.With a history of involvement in the tech and open-source communities, Matt Medeiros is a veteran podcaster, WordPress expert, and digital media strategist. Matt highlights the difference between this and hosts such as Chris Badgett, who truly appreciate human connection and see each episode as a chance to learn, develop, and interact in a significant way with others in the WordPress, online learning, and entrepreneurial communities.
In this LMSCast episode, Brad Williams from ThemeSwitcher Pro talks about the motivation for and workings of ThemeSwitcher Pro, a WordPress plugin created by his agency WebDevStudios.Brad Williams is a seasoned WordPress expert and the co-founder of WebDevStudios, a leading WordPress development agency that has been building high-quality websites for over 17 years. The plugin tackles a frequent difficulty encountered by numerous website proprietors: the shift from traditional, classic WordPress themes to contemporary, block-based themes utilizing the Gutenberg editor.
In this episode of LMSCast, Chris Badgett interviews Raquel Karina, the founder of Wonderland Curious and the creator of PressConf, a new WordPress conference aimed at businesses that seeks to replace PressNomics. She shared how to build a community.
Emily Middleton explains her different approach to creating online course websites and learning platforms, which involves working live with clients over Zoom instead of relying on the conventional freelancer model of email exchanges.According to her, this live collaboration facilitates real-time feedback, minimizes miscommunication, and reveals crucial details that might otherwise go unnoticed such as clients’ doubts regarding pricing strategies or course structure. Through real-time collaboration, she can propose more astute business choices, like providing recurring memberships for enhanced scalability or fine-tuning marketing headlines to address the customer’s pain points directly.
Chris Badgett and Kurt von Ahnen explore the key mindset, strategy, and execution patterns that separate successful online course creators from those who struggle, highlighting the importance of clear audience focus, practical curriculum design, and staying connected with learners. They emphasize that building a sustainable education business requires continuous improvement, disciplined habits, and a willingness to engage directly with customers—whether through coaching, community, or selling to groups and companies.
In this LMScast episode, student confidence coach Anita Van Rooyen describes how she used LifterLMS to target groups rather than individuals in order to effectively sell over 5,000 course enrollments.Instead of promoting to students individually, she collaborated with educational institutions and schools to provide her confidence-boosting activities in large quantities. She made it possible for companies to enroll and manage whole student cohorts using LifterLMS's group enrollment functionality, with group leaders managing registrations and monitoring progress.
James Kemp's genuineness and depth in this LMSCast episode, which discusses what it truly takes to create and develop a product that serves millions of people, is what makes it so ideal and genuine. In this LMScast, James talks about how he went from working as a web designer at a small business to being the Core Product Manager at WooCommerce. His tone is really accessible and grounded.He candidly discusses the difficulties, trials, and epiphanies that molded his journey rather than only highlighting his accomplishments. James provides insightful information about how WooCommerce strikes a balance between usability and complexity, particularly for novice and expert users, demonstrating a thorough comprehension of both product design and user experience.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett and Michael Wolf share a passion for online education, technology, and personal transformation.Michael Wolf left his job in corporate sales to co-found Golden XPR, a learning platform devoted to personal change, and Empowering Now. Through the use of ancient languages and systematic research, he explains how his goal is to assist move the world from "greed to grace" by getting deeper insights.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett and Jill Schulman discuss leadership, bravery, and overcoming fear in both personal and professional growth.Jill Schulman is an educator, business leader, leadership specialist, and former U.S. Marine Corps officer who places a strong emphasis on both professional and personal development. She entered the business sector after serving as an officer in the Marine Corps, where she swiftly advanced to leadership roles but soon came to understand that leadership is a talent that needs constant learning and improvement.
In this episode of LMScast, Chris Badgett talks with Nick Usborne about his initiative, Your Awesome Life Story, a website that helps people, especially those over 50, record and save their life experiences for those who come after them.Nick Usborne has decades of expertise in the field and is a prolific author, educator, and course developer. In order to preserve family history and make sure that priceless experiences, lessons, and memories are not lost over time, Nick emphasizes the need of documenting personal narratives. He talks about how many people lament that their family's legacy is lacking since they didn't document their parents' or grandparents' stories before they died away.
In this LMScast episode, James LePage and Chris Badgett explore how AI is changing WordPress, online education, and coaching.James LePage, who has experience in web development, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence, is a prominent figure in the AI and WordPress fields. From creating websites for neighbors to managing a prosperous organization that specialized in WooCommerce and online learning systems, he began working with WordPress as a youngster.
Chris Badgett and Jim Hankins discuss how Jim and his wife, Doreen, developed a flourishing e-learning firm in the firearm safety teaching area. Training was an important part of the company when they first opened as a gun store. They eventually discovered their love for teaching and switched to weapon safety instruction. Doreen swiftly rose to prominence as one of the best educators in the field. Using her knowledge to expand their company. To assist other instructors and other companies increase their web presence. She even penned a book called "The Firearms Marketing Toolkit".
For education entrepreneurs, Chris and Jason stress the value of community building as a long-term commitment and a development strategy. A free community may be a very effective marketing strategy by fostering trust and authority.A community must, however, be focused on the areas where the target audience currently interacts, whether in person or online, if it is to succeed. They emphasize that social media calls for real interaction and active dialogue in addition to content posting.
In this LMScast, Chris and Jason talk about how LMS technology has advanced and how LifterLMS revolutionized online learning by fusing course administration and content production in a seamless manner. In the past, educators had to produce structured material using independent e-learning authoring tools, which they then had to export and import into an LMS.By developing on top of an already-existing content management system, LifterLMS, however, removed this unnecessary step and increased process efficiency. They stress how crucial it is to strike a balance between offering an all-in-one platform and preserving flexibility so that customers can combine LifterLMS with other tools they already use and modify it.
In this LMScast episode, Jason Coleman and Chris Badgett discuss teaching tactics for online courses, with an emphasis on how to interact with novices.They discuss the value of comprehending the "beginner's mindset" and the difficulties associated with being an expert. One important issue they raise is that it might be challenging for specialists to relate to novice students, which can result in too complex course content.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett and Jason Coleman explore the various responsibilities that successful education entrepreneurs must juggle in this discussion.They emphasize sales and marketing in particular, as well as the role of the entrepreneur. Chris explains a straightforward technique for figuring out what the pain points of customers are. Entrepreneurs may leverage these pain areas to produce useful content, deals. Also marketing materials by breaking them down into smaller problems.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett and Jason Coleman explore the importance of developing subject matter expertise as an education entrepreneur, highlighting important tactics and procedures.By comparing this path to handicrafts, they highlight how mastery necessitates a strong, lifetime dedication to education and ongoing development. This dedication goes beyond first-time interest and necessitates constant interaction with business advancements, continuous learning, and an openness to change and try new things.
In this episode of LMScast, Tim McIvor, the developer of SchoolPsych.com, a website that offers professional development for school psychologists, joins Chris Badgett. He discusses how to build continuing education.Tim talks about how he went from working as a school psychologist to starting a charity organization and then starting a company to satisfy the demands of his industry for continuous education. Recorded webinars are available on SchoolPsych.com to assist school psychologists in completing the 75 hours of professional development needed to renew their licenses.
In the LMSCast episode, Chris Lema discusses the idea of motivation and explains that it is not an external factor that varies but rather an inherent component of an individual's wiring.In the WordPress and technology communities, Chris Lema is well-known for his leadership, business strategy, and motivating ideas. He is the CEO of Motivation AI. He emphasizes that each person has a unique kind of drive that is ingrained in their DNA by equating motivation with fixed characteristics like height or eye color.
In this episode of LMScast, host Chris Badgett interviews Jason Yarusi, a successful real estate investor and entrepreneur. Jason's journey to building a $30 million real estate portfolio is a story of transformation, perseverance, and strategic action in apartment syndication. He shares his path from an unfulfilling start in life, which included working in bars and dealing with personal issues, to creating a real estate empire specializing in large apartment complexes.
In this LMScast episode, Wes Tatters and Michael Eisenwasser present Rapid Cloud, a hosting solution created to meet the particular requirements of high-concurrency, dynamic WordPress websites.Michael Eisenwasser offers extensive experience in creating social networking solutions for WordPress, having co-founded and operated BuddyBoss for more than 14 years. The infrastructure of Rapid Cloud was created by Wes, a well-known server architect in the WordPress community, to meet the particular requirements of systems like BuddyBoss and LifterLMS, where users see customized content. With platforms like BuddyBoss and LifterLMS, where each user gets tailored information like unique newsfeeds, course progress, or quizzes, traditional hosting frequently falls short.
In this LMScast episode, Jeff Chandler discusses his experience fostering community, authenticity, and enthusiasm within the WordPress ecosystem.Jeff Chandler is the founder of WP Tavern, a leading hub for WordPress news and community engagement. He talks about how, for him, food became a unifying factor, creating a specialized community through common interests such as the WP Foodies group.
In this LMScast episode, Steven Sauder talks about how he overcame the difficulties of becoming an entrepreneur, started his own marketing firm, and started his podcast, "Through the Dip".Steven Sauder is a seasoned businessman, Steven Sauder founded Hustlefish, a digital marketing firm that specializes in paid advertising, SEO, and website creation. He talks about a crucial "dip" he had when trying to quickly grow his firm by spending substantially in infrastructure and employing account directors, only to watch the plan collapse because of poor sales and excessive expense.
In this LMScast episode Gina Hoyt, discusses her innovative use of LifterLMS in building a travel agent certification program.Gina Hoyt is a passionate professional at Avoya Travel Academy, where she is instrumental in developing future travel agents. The academy provides prospective travel agents with a basic education, giving them the know-how to succeed in the field.
In this LMScast episode, Aaron talks with Chris Badgett about AI for course creators. He shares the journey of developing DocsBot.ai, from creating a proof-of-concept chatbot trained on WordPress documentation to building a powerful tool that enables companies to leverage their own documentation for content creation, customer service, and more.Aaron Edwards is the creator of DocsBot.ai, a cutting-edge chatbot driven by AI that improves document management and business assistance. Aaron explains the fundamental idea of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which blends generative.
In this LMScast episode, Dustin Hartzler discusses creating a performance continuing education business. Dustin launched a firm focused on continuing education for functional medicine, which will be directed by Dustin's wife, Melody.Dustin specializes in starting and expanding continuing education companies, especially in the wellness and healthcare industries. He is from Your Website Engineer. He describes how he and Melody built Functional Medicine CE from the ground up, frequently experimenting with various formats to see which ones work best for their target audience.
478: Announcing Cyber Monday Lifetime Deal & LifterLMS Black Friday Sale by Chris Badgett
In this LMScast episode, Eric Davis gives a concise rundown of sales funnels and explains how WordPress and LifterLMS customers can maximize their earnings by using the Upsell Plugin.Eric Davis is the founder of Upsell Plugin, a tool designed to help businesses maximize sales by optimizing their checkout processes. He explains that a sales funnel is a set of procedures intended to lead potential buyers through a buying process by employing strategies like order bumps, upsells, and down sells.
In this LMScast podcast episode, Chris Badgett welcomes Mark Szymanski, co-founder of MJSTV, to discuss various aspects of content creation, agency work, and the WordPress community.Mark Szymanski is a co-founder of MJSTV and a dedicated WordPress Consultant and Digital Educator. With extensive experience in creating tutorial videos. He specializes in the WordPress environment, helping individuals and businesses effectively harness the platform's potential.
In this LMScast episode, Funk Roberts shares insights into his journey as a fitness influencer and entrepreneur. He also shares strategies for building strong online communities by focusing on results and tribe-building techniques.Funk Roberts is the founder of the multi-million dollar Over 40 Alpha Brotherhood, co-creator of the Tribe Method, and co-author of the Tribe Secrets book. He’s a certified digital marketer and community expert with over 20 years of experience in building thriving online communities and membership sites. Funk has shared the stage with industry leaders and recently won an Expy Award from the National Association of Experts, Writers, and Speakers.
In this LMScast episode, Kurt Von Ahnen offers insightful advice on how to grow online education companies, especially when it comes to focusing on bigger, business-to-business (B2B) prospects rather than just individual customers.
In this LMScast episode, Education Entrepreneur Bradley Morris shares his creative journey, beginning with a low time when he operated a t-shirt business and dropped out of college, which helped him learn the importance of thankfulness.His artistic career started in 2007 with the release of his viral "Gratitude Dance" video. Bradley became interested in meditation throughout the years, leading seminars and retreats before turning to recording meditations for an audio library that brought in passive revenue.
In this LMScast episode, Shahjahan Jewel shares the story of how FluentCRM started as an internal tool for WP Manage Ninja before becoming a full-fledged product. He also shares insights about marketing automationShahjahan Jewel is the owner of WP Manage Ninja, a business recognized for developing well-liked WordPress products including FluentCRM, Fluent Forms, Fluent Bookings, and Fluent Support, was founded and is led by Shahjahan Jewel. Shahjahan highlights that Fluent CRM offers powerful marketing automation and CRM functionality at a far cheaper cost than SaaS options like ActiveCampaign since it was developed with small businesses, creators, and WordPress users in mind.
In this LMScast episode, Brain Hogg shares about his career journey. His journey is a combination of technical expertise in teaching and community development for the software development area. Brian Hogg is a developer at LifterLMS. He started his career at very young age and gained experience of 20 years in technical area by traditional education in computer science, self-learning and its practical application.
In this LMScast episode, Matt Medeiros from The WP Minute shares that formative events he experienced as a child inspired his passion in music and radio. Matt became motivated to engage in these interests by his uncle's passion for building his own radios. And his father's profession as a radio presenter. His choice to start a podcast was influenced by his history, questions about possible income sources. And want to establish ties within the PHP community.
In this LMScast episode, Dale Berkebile discuss about his goal to get people to own creativity and make the world a better place. He says that the main goal of his work is to help people become creative and forward-thinking leaders, because he believes that change can't happen without leaders.Dale Berkebile's website is "Brandwise". Dale was moved to write about his search for meaning in life after reading "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek. He worked on his vision for five years to make it better so that he could get the right people and turn away the wrong ones. His emotional and work lives are meant to be balanced, and he wants to make a difference in both.
In this LMScast Chris Lassiter shares his own experiences with BuddyBoss and LifterLMS tools on their customer visits. Chris Lassiter is an experienced WordPress professional and AI enthusiast. He is the owner of Learn AI Now. Chris guides individuals on navigating and customizing BuddyBoss, ensuring they can confidently utilize the platform to its fullest potential. These days, applications on a mobile device allow BuddyBoss and LifterLMS to be accessed.
In this episode LMScast, Erica Nash has taught the creation of courses, web design, and design in general for a long time. Erica Nash, an web designer and course creator with a lot of experience. She is motivated by her passion of learning and her conviction in the potential of education to change people's lives. whether she is teaching high school or operating her own company.
In this LMScast episode, Derek Ashauer emphasizes the need of maximizing WordPress LMS websites and Tracking conversions. Derek Ashauer is from ConversionBridgeWP.com, a platform that integrates with various analytics tools and WordPress plugins to streamline the process of tracking and improving conversions. From his vantage point, a sale is any activity a user plans to do such as clicking on an icon, email subscription, purchase of goods.
In this LMScast episode, Sandy Ellingson talks about her path from early childhood development to becoming a significant person in the RV business in an interesting conversation with Chris Badgett.Sandy Ellingson is a vibrant professional with a broad background in technology, finance, early childhood development, and the recreational vehicle sector. Sandy describes how she moved from technology and banking to facilitating better collaboration between RV manufacturers and parks, particularly during COVID-19.
In this LMScast episode, Jason Coleman discusses insights into entrepreneurship, starting a consulting business. Also about important ideas from his company's journey route map. In 2006, he and his wife Kim started their own consulting business. Jason Coleman, CTO of LifterLMS and co-founder of Paid Memberships Pro. At first, they focused on e-commerce solutions, but later they switched their focus to Linux. Because of this, they made Paid Memberships Pro, a membership tool that became open source in 2012. By 2016, they were handling a virtual team of 15 people thanks to the help of this plugin, which helped them become a plugin-centric organization.
In this LMScast episode, Will Middleton talk about his path from high school dropout to successful solopreneur by the time he is 22.Will Middleton is from WP Course Guide. Will talks about how he first felt unsatisfied with regular schooling and how he decided to become an entrepreneur because he was afraid of living an empty existence. His introduction into the WordPress community happened when the CEO of LifterLMS extended an opportunity to him to work as a freelance copywriter.
In this LMScast episode, Christian Taylor from Craylor Academy discuss his path to YouTube, which began as a pastime when he was roughly ten years old. Christian describes his present arrangement as a primarily single creator who receives help from two independent contractors, a creative director and a video editor. He discuss about Monetizing YouTube channel with online courses.
In this LMScast episode, Mihail Stoychev explains that NitroPack began in 2013 with a focus on optimizing websites for the OpenCart platform.Mihail Stoychev is the co-founder of NitroPack, a company focused on website optimization. The spark was a request from a big e-commerce business that was losing customers owing to sluggish website performance. Recognizing the necessity, they created an early plugin for image optimization and simple caching, resulting in a considerable increase in site loading speed.
In this LMScast episode, Kurt Von Ahnen delves into the intricate process of migrating from traditional SCORM-based learning systems to more agile platforms like WordPress integrated with LifterLMS.Kurt is a LifterLMS user and LifterLMS expert. His expertise includes handling SCORM content and migration initiatives, in addition to dealing with platforms such as WordPress and Lifter LMS. He describes the difficulty of balancing large expenditures on historical SCORM material with the requirement for modernization, emphasizing the unwillingness to throw away priceless assets.
In this LMScast episode, Zack Katz shares a comprehensive overview of Gravity Forms and its associated plugins developed by Gravity Kit. Also he shares how to create a app for your LMS website with Gravity view.Zack Katz is the founder of Gravity Kit. He is a prominent figure in the WordPress community known for his contributions to Gravity Forms and related plugins. In this episode, He highlights how Gravity Forms can be used for more than just standard contact forms; they can also be used as entry points for other kinds of apps on a website.
In this LMScast episode, Alex shares information on Siren Affiliates, a platform made to enable collaborations outside of conventional affiliate networks.Alex Standiford is owner of Siren Affiliates. He highlights how adaptable Siren Affiliates is, able to work with a variety of collaboration models outside of affiliate marketing. It facilitates content programs, for example, in which partners produce material directly on the platform to impact visitor engagement and generate revenue depending on particular criteria, such as views or interactions.
In this LMScast episode, Kay Peacey discusses her knowledge and perspectives on creating and managing the Active Campaign Academy, an online learning environment that teaches users how to make the most of the Active Campaign marketing automation platform. Also she shares about the Masterclass presentation.Kay Peacey is an Entrepreneur and educator. She is from Active Campaign. Her experience in education led her to naturally gravitate into teaching, even though she began her career as an Active Campaign consultant.About two and a half years ago, Kay made the decision to launch a membership-based Academy in place of regular classes. She ca
Calvin emphasizes the significance of overcoming emotions of inadequacy and having a significant influence while offering insights into the transforming path of business as a spiritual quest. He discuss about coaches and course creators in this episode.Calvin Correli, co-founder of Simplero. He provides entrepreneurs with useful tools and community assistance via Simplero's integrated platform. He emphasizes how courses, coaches, and communities may help entrepreneurs on their path to become their second hero by offering them both spiritual and practical assistance.
In this LMScast episode, Miriam Castilla shares insights about wealth, abundance, and the relationship with money in the conversation.Miriam Castilla works as a coach, speaker, and businesswoman. Her engineering education gives her a distinct viewpoint in the areas of plenty, wealth thinking, and money management. She uses her personal experience of being able to travel for four months out of the year without worrying about money to illustrate her definition of wealth and abundance—having options beyond money. Where money doesn't limit what one can or cannot do.
In this LMScast episode, He described how you can easily sell your online course and membership to people in China with China payment plugin. He shares about the China Payments plugin and its integration with LifterLMS.Brandon Ernst is the founder of Gaucho Plugins. The China Payment Plugin is also developed by Gaucho. He clarifies that the China plugin makes it easier for non-Chinese companies or organizations that utilize Stripe outside of China to conduct online transactions while selling to Chinese consumers using WeChat Pay and Alipay.
In this LMScast episode, Sally Crewe shares her journey and the evolution of NurtureDash, an all-in-one business solution based around a WordPress website. She also discussed about Health Practitioner Business.Sally Crewe a background in graphic and online design and is an accomplished designer and entrepreneur. She is well knowledgeable about WordPress and its features. When Sally saw that practitioners, especially those in the field of nutrition therapy, needed more straightforward answers, she decided to venture into the internet business arena.
In this LMScast episode, Barbara Thomason shares insights about social-emotional learning (SEL) within the niche of preteen education and development.Barbara Thomason is a social-emotional learning (SEL) specialist and the creator of Joy Circles, an initiative that helps preteens build confidence and vital life skills. Barbara also talks on the unique difficulties preteens have in today's world, emphasizing how incidents like the COVID-19 epidemic affect their mental and social health.
In this LMScast episode, Madame Alexa describes how she went from working as a teacher in a program that immerses students in French to launching her own online language learning website. She decided to make her own interactive games and activities to fill the resource vacuum for younger learners in French immersion programs, with the goal of helping them acquire the language more successfully.Alexa is owner of Madame A's. She talks about how she creates classes using a combination of interactive features, video tutorials, and other activities to keep kids interested and learning at their own speed. Madame Alexa also discusses the technologies she uses, such as Elementor for WordPress website design, Genially for interactive activities, and recording tools for providing voice instructions.
In this LMScast episode, Judy Butler discusses about legacy estate planning and the need of having a thorough plan in place to protect families from hardship when inevitable death occurs.Judy Butler is an expert in legacy estate planning and is associated with guardiansgift.org. Her area of expertise focuses in offering educational programs and training procedures that enable people and families to proficiently manage estate planning. She highlights the importance of having an honest, humorous conversation while debunking some popular beliefs and superstitions around the subject.
In this LMScast, Tiago Faria, a coach and course developer, emphasizes the value of a client-centered strategy in getting outcomes. Tiago Faria starts out by emphasizing how crucial it is to define the target niche and pinpoint pressing issues that need to be resolved. Tiago encourages the use of customer interviews to get insight into clients' goals and difficulties, which enables the creation of offers that truly resonate.
In this LMScast episode, Harry Spaight shares insights into selling courses. He stresses the importance of adopting a sales strategy grounded in honesty and customer service.Harry Spaight, a speaker and author of the book "Selling with Dignity," advocates for a servant-based approach, particularly in an era where many people harbor disdain for salespeople. He advises overcoming mental health challenges like impostor syndrome by steering clear of a salesy image and focusing on comprehending buyers' needs.
In this LMScast episode, Josh Spector discusses his strategy for assisting professionals in expanding their businesses, especially concerning the skill sessions model. Additionally, he shares tips on how you can grow your expert business.Josh Spector is an experienced and practical specialist in the realm of business growth. In a succinct manner, he highlights the need of offering targeted and useful material. The one-hour Zoom video lectures throughout the skill sessions include subjects including creating clients, creating products in a day, newsletter social playbook, and defining a specialty.
In this LMScast episode, Brian Casel shares online coaching business tips using Clarityflow. Brian discusses Clarityflow, formerly known as ZipMessage. The Clarityflow platform was initially developed as ZipMessage, an asynchronous messaging solution. After a year in business, they decided to rename the company Clarityflow and focus on the coaching market.Brian Casel is the founder of Clarityflow, a well-known software creator, businessman, and entrepreneur with expertise in internet business and coaching.
In this LMScast episode, Rytis shares about how to increase Course and membership sales with Omnisend. Rytis provides information about Omnisend, a comprehensive e-commerce marketing solution. Rytis Lauris the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend, all in one e commerce marketing. He provides insights into OmniSend's functionality, integration potential with platforms like WooCommerce and WordPress LMS solutions such as LifterLMS, LearnDash all the LMS that integrate through WP Fusion, which has a great integration with Omnisend as well.
In this LMScast episode, Jonathan Denwood talks about the benefits of utilizing WordPress for serious membership websites as well as some things to keep in mind. Jonathan Denwood is the founder and CEO of WP-Tonic, a WordPress-focused company offering services and hosting options for WordPress websites. He provides ideas and points of view on using WordPress to create and grow high-value online training courses. He highlights several topics, such as the advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress for membership websites, what to look for in an MVP, and suggestions for website development and marketing tactics.
In this LMScast episode, Vic Dorfman shares his unconventional journey from being a classical musician to venturing into the online business world. And also he shares how to build a word class membership site.Vic Dorfman is the founder of MemberFix.rocks and MemberHost.io. Vic was a classical violinist until his path changed and he adopted a digital nomad lifestyle after reading "The 4-Hour Workweek". When he first started his web company, he worked as a freelancer doing SEO and content writing.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Lassiter shares his experience with WordPress and AI. He also discusses the effectiveness of his website, built with LifterLMS, and provides insights on how people can build a mobile app for their LifterLMS website.Chris Lassiter is an experienced WordPress professional and AI enthusiast. He built an AI course website called 'Learn AI Now,' a customized learning platform constructed using LifterLMS. His website, Learn AI Now, helps users learn more about AI and how anyone can easily use AI to create courses.
In this LMScast episode, Dr. Jared Sinclair from Sinclair Performance Institute discusses how to build capacity, navigate change, and improve performance as an education entrepreneur or WordPress professional.Dr. Sinclair discusses the intricate relationship between discipline and motivation. He views discipline as an extrinsic motivator, essential for maintaining momentum when intrinsic motivation diminishes. Emphasizing the need for a clear 'why', he advocates for structured routines and systems to stay motivated, especially on challenging days.The conversation then turns to the dynamics of team motivation. Dr. Sinclair highlights the importance of aligning team efforts with valuable outcomes. He suggests that effective leadership involves setting clear expectations and empowering team members, thereby fostering a sense of agency and commitment.In the context of education and coaching, Dr. Sinclair points out the significance of facilitating meaning-making for students and clients. He emphasizes the role of educators in helping learners synthesize information independently, which is crucial for sustained motivation and effective learning.Dr. Sinclair introduces the SMAC framework (Systems, Motivation, Accountability, Communications, Knowledge) as a comprehensive approach to expanding both individual and organizational capacity. This framework serves as a guide for identifying and addressing key areas that impact performance and growth.A highlight of the podcast is Dr. Sinclair sharing a success story from his professional experience. He recounts how strategic planning and operational organization significantly transformed a non-profit organization, underscoring the power of well-implemented strategies in achieving organizational goals.The episode concludes with Dr. Sinclair addressing the common challenge of imposter syndrome, particularly prevalent among course creators and entrepreneurs. He advises focusing on strengths and passions, and taking incremental steps towards goals. This approach, he suggests, can help overcome doubts and lead to meaningful progress and success.
In this LMScast episode, Sandi Gauder discusses the important subject of accessibility for online learning and website development.Sandi Gauder is an expert in online accessibility with over 15 years of experience. She is a web developer, trainer, and designer. Sandy adds that 15 to 20 percent of people are thought to have disabilities, highlighting the difficulty in obtaining reliable information on this demographic.
In this LMScast episode, Nick Usborne delves into the deep effects of emotional intelligence and AI on successful communication, with a focus on course building and copywriting.Nick highlights self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management as the four key categories that comprise emotional intelligence. He emphasizes how important emotional intelligence is in creating trust, which is a necessary condition for both profitable sales and enduring client relationships.Additionally, he talks about the differences between manipulative strategies and ethical, emotionally intelligent copywriting, arguing in favor of an authentic, listener-focused strategy.
In this LMScast episode, Andy Whitaker explore the landscape of eLearning standards, focusing on SCORM, AICC, and XAPI for WordPress LMS.Andy Whitaker from Rustici Software. Andy also gives a historical overview of Rustici Software, highlighting its SCORM origins and later extensions to accommodate other standards, such as XAPI. One of the key factors in Rustacy Software's rise to prominence as the primary resource for SCORM-related information was the deliberate purchase of the SCORM.com domain.Andy advises seeing WordPress as a single platform that can natively create and handle many content kinds, including standards-based co
In this LMScast episode, Roger Rosweide discuss about his creation of the Wildcloud platform, which lets users utilize WordPress to create websites that resemble Shopify or Wix.Roger Rosweide is a co-founder of Wildcloud. He is also an expert content writer. Wildcloud, an agency turned platform, integrated contemporary DevOps techniques to expedite website development.In response to user demand for Learning management platform creation, LifterLMS and Wildcloud have partnered to present the LifterLMS Blueprint on Wildcloud.
In this LMScast episode Chris Badgett CEO of LifterLMS will discuss about the LifterLMS Black Friday deal. LifterLMS is currently hosting an extensive Black Friday sale, offering a generous 50% discount on all products, accompanied by additional bonuses totaling $2000. This substantial discount will be applicable throughout the entire month of November, providing an excellent opportunity for every user to avail themselves of this deal. The discounted courses provided by LifterLMS include offerings such as the Black Friday Sales and Marketing Playbook and the YouTube Traffic System Training.
In this LMScast episode, Robert Windisch discusses his knowledge of utilizing WordPress to create multilingual websites.Robert Windisch is the founder of Inpsyde, the largest WordPress agency in Europe. Robert participates actively in the WordPress community and is a specialist in the creation of multilingual websites. MultilingualPress is a solution that Robert's company has created, and because of its scalability and performance, it is advised for enterprise-level projects.He emphasizes how crucial it is to comprehend that there are other ways to get multilingual functionality in WordPress, and the best strategy relies on the particular needs of the project. He suggests using translation plugins like WPML for more basic websites, since they make the process of translating text and managing its surrounding parts easier.
In this LMScast episode, Christopher Stammer shares insights about their specialized online training program, "Level Up," developed in partnership with TRSA for frontline supervisors in the commercial laundry industry. And they used most powerful LifterLMS plugin for this.Christopher Stammer is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Training Innovator. He's from Volu Interactive. He also has a unique LMS project in the industrial laundry niche. Lifter LMS powers this unique training project, which provides supervisors with important skills like as leadership, communication, decision-making, problem-solving, and root cause analysis.
In this LMScast episode, Sarah Duran discusses her viewpoint on independent employment, establishing goals, and her podcast and newsletter.Sarah assists individuals in developing meaningful, independent job that supports their preferred lifestyle. She's on the Hustler's Manifesto podcast, if you're interested. She may be found at fruitioninitiatives.com as well.She highlights the advantages of working for oneself, like having more control over one's time and finances. She also emphasizes the value of self-awareness and accountability when working independently.Sarah suggests starting with self-reflection to comprehend one's aspirations, what they want to accomplish, and why they perform their work. She emphasizes the need of defining flexible, short-term goals, often within a six-month time period. To react to life's volatility, these goals must be often reviewed and modified.
In this LMScast episode, Kim Coleman discussed the value of sabbaticals for business owners, especially those in the software and WordPress industries.Kim Coleman is a business partner and frontend developer at LifterLMS, as well as the owner of Paid Membership Pro. She is a WordPress entrepreneur with a strong background in product development, team management, and marketing. Kim leads frontend development for the core open-source plugin and oversees more than 75 Add-Ons.Kim described how sabbaticals provide a significant chance for entrepreneurs to recharge and obtain a fresh perspective by taking a step back from the daily grind. She also discussed her cooperation with Jason, her husband and company partner, emphasizing how sabbaticals may allow for
In this LMScast episode, Matt Pritchett describes the services they provide as well as how SendWP is a transactional email solution for WordPress websites. Matt Pritchett from SendWP. He is a software engineer with more than 12 years of experience developing websites and applications. Matt is also a non profit consultant and business owner.SendWP service is primarily intended to solve the issue of email deliverability that frequently affects website owners and course developers who need to send transactional emails such as welcome emails for new students, receipts for purchases, and customized emails.
In this LMScast episode, Caleb O'Dowd discussed about marketing tactics, concentrating mainly on how to make sales-boosting deals. Additionally, he shares ways to encourage additional purchases. For those who design courses, serve as coaches, or work for organizations that support them, this is very important.Caleb O'Dowd is a marketing expert and entrepreneur, author and founder of Multi Channel Marketing. Caleb O'Dowd underlines the need of comprehending the potential objections that clients may have to your product before developing an offer that does away with those issues.He describes this strategy as making a "mafia offer," which is an offer that is so alluring that it is difficult for anybody to reject.
In this LMScast episode, Morgan Gist MacDonald covers a variety of topics related to content development. On the basis of long-term interests and market demand, she highlights how crucial it is to decide whether to write a book or create a course.Morgan Gist MacDonald is an entrepreneur, investor, author, and the Founder & CEO of Paper Raven Books. Morgan also highlights the need of systematic content preparation, which begins with a list of ideas from a brain dump that may be subsequently efficiently arranged. She advises using a linear strategy when it comes to content organization, especially for book chapters, to maintain a logical and sequential flow.
In this LMScast episode, Sarah Noel Block shares her experience in marketing and also discusses marketing strategies for course creators. Sarah Noel Block is a marketing pro that focuses on assisting companies, especially educators and online company owners, establish successful marketing strategies. She is From Tiny Marketing. She is well-known for her proficiency in content marketing and digital marketing. Additionally, Sarah has served as the host of the "Tiny Marketing Podcast," where she offers insightful marketing advice.
In this LMScast episode, Christiaan Pieterse shares his journey and importance of Maxi Blocks. With stunning templates from Maxi Blocks, you can build websites more quickly.Christiaan Pieterse is Co-Founder of Maxi blocks. It's a page builder and template library. Maxi Blocks helps to add amazing template to your website and with the help of page builder , there is a option to modify those template.He and his wife overcame the difficulties of remote web design work over time, finally switching to a white-label web design strategy. They streamlined the process by serving as in-house web designers for other companies in this model.Maxi Blocks is subsequently created as a response to further simplify web design, providing users with a library of patterns, blocks, and icons to personalize and construct full websites.Maxi Blocks, which are built on top of Gutenberg, offer building blocks that may be joined to create patterns, which in turn comprise full web pages, improving accessibility and effectiveness.
In this LMScast episode, Vova Feldman shares his experience about the WordPress products and this Industry. He also discussed about his new podcast channel plugin.fm.Vova Feldman, founder of Freemius, a WordPress company. He is a passionate entrepreneur. He talks on how many profitable businesses that deal with software products typically have backgrounds in business or marketing, which enables them to give priority to factors like price, marketing, and customer service.Vova also discuss about a problem that he frequently runs into: software product creators and developers undercharging for their goods.
In this LMScast episode, Pua Pakele shares her experience about online coaching and course business in 2023.
Pua Pakele is an expert at course Creators, website designer. She is from RBL Media. Pua creating websites and graphics since 2014 for entrepreneurs who are building, and scaling their small enterprises as well as those who are developing online courses.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett shares about the valuable business tips with Internal training. He shares about LifterLMS new add-on that called “Private Site”. Private Site is a valuable tool for businesses
Chris Badgett is the CEO of LifterLMS, a learning management system, and has over 15 years of experience with WordPress. He talks about how this premium plugin may protect sensitive data by locking down a company’s online training materials behind a secure login, highlighting the plugin’s function in building internal training portals.
In this LMScast episode, Donata and Hans share insights about privacy and legal issues that need addressing in website policies, particularly in relation to an eLearning business. They discuss how to protect an eLearning business from fines and provide valuable guidance.
Hans Skillrud and Donata Kalnenaite , the founders of Termageddon, a tool for managing privacy policies. Termageddon assist companies in creating privacy rules for their websites and products. This tool makes sure that companies have the proper disclosures and legal terminology in their policies, assisting them in avoiding fine and legal problems associated with privacy laws.
In this LMScast episode, Malorie Nicole shares her experience and expertise as a coach.
Malorie Nicole is the host of the "Abundantly Clear Podcast" show. She is a coach and a mindset expert, dedicated to assisting people in their business and personal growth journeys through her insightful guidance and advice
In this LMScast episode, EZ Smith shares his WordPress and web design journey and about his popularity on Twitter.
EZ Smith is a WordPress Expert, WP Developer, and Entrepreneur. Smith provides WordPress technical consultancy, offering solutions to small agency or B2B marketing teams to improve their business.
In this LMScast episode, Shannon Mattern discuss about web designer academy. She shares about the technique to grow an web designer business.
Shannon Mattern is a business coach and educator in the web design industry. She is the owner of Web Designer Academy, a platform that provides business coaching and training for web designers.
According to Shannon, many web designers possess the technical know-how necessary to create excellent websites. But struggle with aspects of their jobs that are more related to business, such as customer relations, pricing, and marketing. These designers may increase their income
In this episode of LMScast, Melissa Love shares her experience with her new WordPress project and discusses how to deliver online learning to thousands of students using WordPress.
Melissa Love, the founder of The Design Space Co, is a course creator and expert coach. She is also a theme builder and designer. Recently, she helped her friend migrate a photography education site to a new platform and implemented LifterLMS.
Melissa shares that Cole is a friend of hers and an accomplished marketer who gave her helpful advice on how to start online courses. Due to a missed opportunity to mentor photographers, Cole had previously sold his company but then acquired it back. To help with the site makeover and migration, Melissa's agency was engaged.
In this LMScast episode, Ken Theriot, shares his journey into audio and how he became a course creator and how to produce professional audio for courses.
Ken Theriot is an audio professional and course creator. He is the owner of Home Brew Audio, a platform aimed at teaching people how to do audio recording at home. Ken initially started recording music as a teenager and sought to improve the quality of his recordings.
Ken offers guidance for both beginner and more experienced course authors on audio setup. For beginners he advises to start with live instruction utilizing programs like Zoom. He highlights the need of having decent audio quality for filmed videos nevertheless. He advises utilizing a microphone that is placed near to the face. This might be either a USB microphone that is directly linked to a phone or computer or a separate microphone that is attached to the device.
In this LMScast episode, Arnas Donauskas discuss and shares about WordPress Hosting.
Arnas Donauskas is the product owner of Hostinger, a web hosting company. Hostinger offers the most affordable WordPress web hosting services. They provide hosting packages specifically designed for WordPress websites, offering better performance, enhanced security, and improved compatibility for WordPress sites.
In this LMScast episode, Iggy Perillo discussed the concept of emotional intelligence and its four key components.
Iggy Perillo is founder of WSL Leadership and a leadership coach. She is an expert in emotional intelligence and supports anyone who want to teach and deliver their message in an emotionally intelligent manner.
Iggy Perillo outlines the idea of emotional intelligence, which involves relationship management, self-awareness, self-control, and cognitive empathy. They talk on the important role that emotional intelligence plays in how we engage with others, develop relationships, and win people's respect.
In this LMScast episode, Melanie Ramone shares her journey from being a wedding planner to helping service-based entrepreneurs.
Melanie Ramone is a speaker and coach fir wedding planning industry. Melanie with a background in wedding planning, she has shifted her focus to supporting new entrepreneurs and service-based businesses as they grow. She started by organizing weddings in Mexico and Italy, and despite early resistance to her charges, she eventually found success by convincing Americans to get married in Mexico.
Melanie's knowledge piqued the interest of wedding professionals attending conferences and summits. The Association of Bridal Consultants then engaged her to open a chapter in Mexico. As the Director of the state, one of her responsibilities was to share her knowledge with others in the industry. However, when she researched existing teachings, she noticed that no one was addressing the business side of the wedding industry, including the challenges of pricing and dealing with people questioning the value of services.
In this LMScast episode. Eli Natoli discusses how she got started in the field of course creation. Also how she chose to launch her online courses through pre-selling.
Eli Natoli is a course creator, business coach, and expert in pre-selling. She is known for her expertise in helping course creators develop and launch successful online training programs. Eli is also on Udemy. Eli discusses how they decided to develop their first course in an effort to generate passive revenue and get away from the irrationality of their business.
She also talks about how Udemy, one of the major sites for publishing and launching courses, has helped her. Eli underlines the importance for efficient marketing and promotion and calls attention to the fallacy that just creating a course will draw students.
Eli's expertise lies in helping course creators navigate the challenges of the course creation process, especially in terms of marketing and validating their course ideas.
In this LMScast episode, Dr. Carrie Rose shares her experience and background in online course creation and education.Dr. Carrie Rose is a educational leadership and course development expert. She is also the author of the book "The Completed Course" and can be found on her website, of-course.us. The path that Dr. Carrie Rose has been on has sparked her interest in teaching and making a difference.She thinks that online education may significantly improve people's lives all around the world. Dr. Carrie Rose imagines a society in which everyone completes online courses and achieves the desired outcomes, therefore strengthening their families, their money, their emotions, and their physical and mental well-being.
In this LMScast episode, Troy discuss the journey as an entrepreneur and how he has remained focused on helping agency owners start, grow, and scale their businesses.Troy Dean is an entrepreneur and business coach known for his expertise in helping agency owners start, grow, and scale their businesses. He is the owner of Agency Mavericks. Troy gained popularity through his podcast, WP Elevation.
In this LMScast episode, Stephanie Hudson shares her experiences and benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the context of course creation and website development.Stephanie Hudson is a business coach, entrepreneur and author of Bertha AI. She is author of The Sizzle. According to Stephanie, generative AI can assist course designers in overcoming the difficulty of putting their knowledge and experience into a systematic and orderly framework for their courses.She discuss that Bertha.ai offers a variety of features for creating content, such as course summaries, course descriptions, titles, and even website components like call-to-action buttons, special value propositions, product descriptions, about pages, and FAQs.
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett shares his thoughts on the block editor for WordPress. Also he discuss about the new theme of LifterLMS called "Sky Pilot".Chris Badgett is the CEO of LifterLMS, a learning management system, and has over 15 years of experience with WordPress. He believes that the block editor has come a long way since its inception and is excited about it. Chris explains that he loves the block editor and that Lifter LMS has built a theme for e-learning sites called Sky Pilot. Which uses all the modern technology for building sites.Sky Pilot is a fully responsive WordPress theme designed specifically for e-learning websites. It uses the power of the WordPress block editor, allowing users to easily customize and design their website without needing any coding skills.He explains that Sky Pilot is unique because it has an exclusive focus on online learning websites, unlike themes that try to do everything. He emphasizes that by participating and contributing to the cutting edge of where WordPress is going, Sky Pilot can leverage the benefits that come with it.
In this LMScast episode, Jake Davy shared his experience and expertise in using Instagram for marketing and lead generation.Jake Davey is a social media expert who specializes in Instagram. He is the owner of a website called go.jakeadamdavey.com. He helps businesses, entrepreneurs, and experts grow their audience and run successful businesses on Instagram.Jake explains that Instagram is different from other social media platforms because it focuses on mobile use and has a range of built-in tools that allow business owners, entrepreneurs, and experts to connect with a global audience, grow their audience, and run a full business. He also notes that Instagram users can use clickable links in their bio, stories, and direct messages. In terms of the different Instagram features, the feed is the main way users grow their audience by sharing posts, pictures, and reels. Instagram stories are a screen experience that allows users to share short-form videos, while direct messages are a more powerful way to move people towards a sales conversation
In this LMScast episode, Eric shares his experience with using LifterLMS for creating online courses. He also talks about the hosting issues he faced with major hosting providers and the high costs involved in upgrading plans during traffic spikes.Eric Gracieta is owner of WP Unchained, a managed WordPress hosting service. Eric created WP Unchained to solve the hosting problems of clients. Eric's agency is called Brockway Production.He talks about his solution to this problem, WP Unchained, which is a "done-for-you" hosting service that looks at the site's pain points and tries to solve them. He explains that hosting LMS and CRM websites can be more challenging as they may need more powerful servers to handle spikes in traffic and CPU utilization.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, Ryan Lee shares his experience and knowledge running a simple, successful, family-friendly microbusiness that focuses on providing information to customers or clients.Ryan Lee is a skilled entrepreneur, and business coach with over 23 years of expertise in membership sites, coaching, online business, and internet marketing. You may visit him at RYAN LEE. To get his renowned daily (ISH) Newsletter, anyone can sign up.Through his coaching, training courses, and membership websites, he has assisted innumerable company owners and entrepreneurs in starting successful and lucrative companies. Ryan Lee is renowned for emphasizing simplicity and creating enterprises that are enduring and satisfying to manage. He just sold his nutritional firm, Rewind, and is now concentrating on assisting business owners in streamlining and expanding their operations.
In this LMScast episode, David Cole and Sama shares about their experience on building a website like edX. Also how they manage their learning management platform.David Cole, the founder of The Tutor Resource. The platform is growing day by day, and now has around 1,000 users. Also Sama helps David to refine the site and make it more user friendly to give an easy solution to students.David explains that the Tutor Resource is a unique LMS platform that allows creators to embed and host their lessons on various platforms. They have used the best LMS plugin LifterLMS to control everything.
In this LMScast episode, Carla Meeske, discusses the definition and origins of shamanism, how one can discover their shamanic destiny, and her personal journey of integrating the worlds of online marketing and shamanism.Carla Meeske is a shaman and teacher of shamanism owner of the website spirithealercircle.com and SpiritHealer. She offers courses and coaching through her website. She teaches people how to communicate with their spirit guides to bring about healing and enhancement in their energy medicine practice.
In this LMScast episode, Daniel Levis shared his experiences about building and growing a successful business and online coaching. He talked about the importance of having a clear vision, a solid strategy, and a strong team.Daniel Levis, founder of The Science of Client Getting, emphasizes the importance of developing systems to build automated client getting and client serving systems that allow businesses to grow and scale. He is a business consultant who helps coaches, consultants, advisors, and solution providers to grow their business.
In this LMScast episode, Nancy shares her thoughts on how entrepreneurs can embrace change. And make the most of their circumstances, especially in light of the pandemic. She discusses how people can shift from delivering their message on stage to delivering it effectively in a virtual setting.Nancy Giere is an expert in instructional design and helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into profitable online programs. She is an entrepreneur herself and provides consulting services, coaching, and training to help others create effective online courses. Her website, NANCY GIERE, offers resources and information on her services.
In this LMScast episode Chris Davis shares several insights and tips for entrepreneurs and business owners. He discuss about marketing and business automation.Chris Davis is the founder of Automation Bridge, an online education platform that offers training and resources for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to automate their marketing and sales processes. He is an experienced marketer and sales automation expert.Chris Davis talks about how he realized the need to meet people where they are in terms of automation and not just talk at them with jargon. He emphasizes the importance of humility and aligning with the mission of education.
Aaron Edwards is a special guest on the LMS Cast, a podcast about creating, launching, and scaling online training programs. He shares about university website creation, Web3 and AI image generation.Aaron Edwards is the founder of Web3 WP . He is the CTO of WPMU DEV, a company that offers premium WordPress plugins, themes, and hosting services. He has expertise in WordPress development, customization, and maintenance.Aaron discuss the latest developments in Web 3, digital assets, and the recent collapse of the FTX exchange and FTT token. Aaron believes that the underlying technology of Web 3 is what matters and not speculation and investment. He founded Web 3 WP, a community that experiments with Web 3 technology and learns how it could apply to WordPress or open-source.Aaron thinks that there are always bad actors in any technology, especially in newer ones that people don't understand well. In his opinion, the centralized players or third parties that handle the tokens are the main culprits. People who have their own wallets and store their tokens themselves are safer.
In this episode Mark shares about his background in web development and how he got into WordPress. He talks about his experience with building an online wedding planning website and WordPress Forms. And then getting into licensing and white-labeling that product for sale through companies like Conde Nast.Mark Westguard is the co-founder of WS Form. A WordPress form plugin that provides an easier platform for building complex forms. He has been in the web agency business for over 26 years and adopted WordPress about eight to ten years ago.
In this LMS cast episode, Matt shares his background in the membership site niche and how he accidentally discovered his interest in building membership sites while helping clients with digital products.Matt Inglot is the owner of Tilted Pixel and producer of the Freelance Transformation. He is a entrepreneur, speaker, and business coach who has over 15 years of experience in the web development industry. He has also authored several books and courses.
In this episode, Bri Seeley owners of The Entrepreneur Coach Bri Seeley shares her background as a former fashion designer. And her journey to becoming a coach who helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. She talks about her passion for entrepreneurship and how she believes it is the path to freedom.Bri Seeley is an entrepreneur and coach who is passionate about entrepreneurship and helping other people be successful through it. She believes that entrepreneurship is the path to freedom, and loves helping other people walk that path.
In this episode, Susan Wos shares how she helps people hire compatible employees for their businesses using enlightened hiring methods. By providing expert advice and guidance, she helps businesses maximize success by attracting the right fit for their company.Susan Wos is the owner of a software called "Enlightened Hire" which helps licensed professionals and students take control of their job search. Her focus is on the spa niche, including salons, spas, barbershops, and other related industries. She has a YouTube channel.Susan is a 28-year veteran hairstylist and former salon owner. She started offering personal advice and job listings for licensed professionals in the salon, spa and barbershop industry in 2018. The main issue surrounding high turnover in these industries is miscommunication and not being able to clarify what the job entails and what the employer offers.Susan's software aims to resolve this issue and help licensed professionals and employers find each other more easily.
In this Episode, Melinda Kitto shares how she helps people communicate their offerings in a way that resonates with their audience. According to her, the fundamental block people have with messaging is that they are too focused on promoting what they have to offer and not thinking about what will make their audience care and want to act.Melinda Kitto is a copywriting and messaging expert. She offers services such as writing, editing, and content creation through her website, melindakitto.com. Melinda also has a YouTube channel where she shares tips and insights on effective messaging and communication.Her motivation is to help people overcome the challenge of messaging and crafting offers for their online training programs, courses or coaching programs. She wants to help people find their voice and effectively communicate the value of their offerings to their target audience.
In this episode, Funk Roberts owner of Funk Roberts Fitness Inc and YouTube Channel helps people by providing them with fitness and business advice through his various fitness programs and businesses. Funk Roberts is a 53-year-old fitness entrepreneur who has successfully run two 7-figure businesses. He is also a recent recipient of the 2-Comma Club Award, an award given to entrepreneurs who have achieved a minimum of one million dollars in a single funnel. Funk offers a variety of workout programs, fitness tips and advice, and motivational content to help people improve their health and fitness. He runs a monthly membership website called Over 40 Alpha Membership for Men Over 40, with over 14,000 members, dedicated to helping men over 40 excel in health, fitness, weight loss, business, and life. He has over 20 years of experience and has helped over 1 million fitness enthusiasts, combat fighters, trainers, and coaches reach their fitness goals. Funk's mission is to help another one million men in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond regain their manhood, boost testosterone, build their best body, and live a healthy, happy, and productive life. He is a certified master metabolic trainer, certified MMA conditioning coach, fitness nutrition coach, core conditioning specialist, kettlebell training specialist, pain-free performance specialist, and mindset coach. He has also released an online kettlebell workshop and course for beginners.
In this episode, Lisa Bloom shared the power of storytelling in communication, specifically how it can help in creating and launching a successful online training program. She emphasized the importance of authenticity in storytelling and how it can create a deeper connection and trust with the audience. She also mentioned how a lack of storytelling can make communication feel transactional or inauthentic.Lisa Bloom is a story coach and author of the book "The Story Advantage: How to Leverage the Power of Story to Succeed in Business and in Life". She teaches how to use storytelling as a powerful tool for communication and building trust and connection with clients, and achieving success in business and personal life.Lisa also mentioned how a lack of storytelling can make communication feel transactional or inauthentic. She also shared her knowledge on how to use stories to articulate. What you do in a way that attracts clients. And how to get clear and confident about how your business helps other people. And to achieve what you're really here to do in the world.
In this episode, Tammy Lane shares her expertise and experience in creating and scaling high-value online businesses through her knowledge in funnel building and Facebook advertising. She provides insights on how to create and market an online course, as well as her personal journey of overcoming challenges in setting up a sales funnel. She also offers a software tool and a sales funnel toolkit to help people build sales funnels and achieve their business growth goals.Tammy Lane is a CPA and the founder of Funnel Cures. A website that offers a software tool for building sales funnels. She also has a background as a course creator. And has created a business training course for small business owners on how to manage their finances.
In this episode, Paul Charlton shares how he helps people by creating courses and content related to web design and WordPress, with a focus on dynamic content using tools such as advanced custom fields and jet engine.Paul started building websites and using multimedia tools like Dreamweaver and Flash animation in his work as an adult educator. From there, he started a design business focused on web and graphic design, branding, and more.He has a passion for helping others learn and expand their skills and has combined that with his interests in web design and WordPress to create courses and content for others. His niche is focused on dynamic content using tools such as advanced custom fields and jet engine, which allow him to build custom post types and connect custom meta fields to create a wide range of websites.He has an honest approach to choosing the best tools for the job and believes WordPress is moving towards a more block-based system with the introduction of Guttenberg and the upcoming WordPress 5.8 release. He prefers self-hosted solutions rather than relying on third-party platforms.
In the podcast interview, Sherry Walling shares her personal experiences with grief and how it has affected her as a business owner. After losing both her father to cancer and her brother. Sherry found herself immersed in a world of sickness, mental illness. This prompted her to start writing about her experiences with grief, leading to the publication of a book on the topic.Sherry also discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant increase in the number of people experiencing grief. This grief can stem from the loss of plans, security, or even health and safety. Sherry refers to this as the "strange world of grief," as it can feel like an alternative reality that exists alongside our everyday lives.She believes that it is important to talk about grief and to recognize its impact on entrepreneurs and business owners. By acknowledging and addressing grief, we can better support ourselves and each other as we navigate difficult times. By doing so, we can work to create a more understanding and supportive business community.
Frank Kane is a LifterLMS user and founder of Sundog Education. is a highly successful education entrepreneur who has found great success on the online learning platform Udemy. He has over 600,000 students and 15 courses available on the platform, which have generated over 2.7 million in revenue. Frank's journey to becoming a course creator began when he was a senior manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. When he and his family decided to move to Florida, he left Amazon and started doing freelance work. One of those gigs was in curriculum development for a company in New York City, where he created a data science course. Udemy reached out to Frank to create courses on big data topics, and he ended up creating his own course on data processing. Since then, his business has grown significantly, and he now teaches a variety of topics including data science, machine learning, and Python programming. Frank's success on Udemy shows the potential for growth and income that can be achieved through creating and selling online courses. His experience serves as inspiration for other entrepreneurs looking to enter the world of online education and create their own successful courses.
Making money through online courses is easy. But, getting continuous profit and having a long-term business through these online courses is not that simple. You must improve online courses for fast and better results.That’s why, in today’s podcast, we have come up with an expert course creator, Holly Chantal, who will share everything regarding improving online courses. Apart from this, you will also find some handy resources from Holly Chantal that will help you optimize your online courses.So, check out the following podcast and get life-changing tips and tricks to improve your online courses with Holly Chantal.
Meet Christine Kloser from getyourbookdone.com, a special guest on this episode of LMScast today with our host Chris Badgett. Since 2007, Christine has mentored and taught aspiring writers how to finish their books, publish them, promote them, and transform them to become confident.Christine is what she refers to as a "transformational author," and she encourages others to undergo personal transformations through writing their books. Each author acquires more clarity and confidence about what they must express through the journey. They answer to revelations like what transformation they want to see in themselves as they write and what influence it should have on the readers as she guides them through a quadrant of transformational questions.Visit freebookwritinghelp.com to view Christine's free content, and getyourbookdone.com has a comprehensive description of her services. Visit capuciapublishing.com if you wish to get in touch with her publishing team.
The competition in selling courses online is increasing tremendously. Because after the pandemic, the demand for getting and making courses increased. Therefore, it’s hard for young entrepreneurs to profit from this business. The reasons behind this hardship do not know how to start, practical strategies, and properly implementing those strategies. Due to solve this problem, today we have arranged a podcast with John Ainsworth, who has excellent proficiency in marketing and selling courses online. In today’s podcast, he will share how course creators can sell more courses online. So, check out the whole podcast till the end and sell more courses online.
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In this episode of LMScast, Chris Badgett is joined by Julian Juenemann from Measure School (https://measureschool.com/). Through his website, Julian develops and offers Google Analytics training courses.
Google Analytics was first released as a free enterprise tool for users to track the effectiveness of their ad campaigns. Due to the difficulty of development, it became outdated and is now being replaced by GA 4.0. Google Analytics is a great tool to identify where your users are coming from and what they are doing on your website. But Google Tag Manager enhances your data by adding trackers on your actions and outbound communication and gives you more refined results on analytics.
Subscribe to Measure School’s amazing youtube channel and also check out "Measure Master," their program for marketers who want to take data tracking to an advanced level.
Earning money through digital products is the most adapted business nowadays. Because you have a higher chance to succeed in this business if you know how to do it correctly.
Nevertheless, you might fail to generate the targeted revenue from this business. There might be various reasons behind this failure such as lack of effort, experiments, planning, strategies, etc.
No worries, we have Nancy Badillo to cover. She is a successful digital marketer who knows how to generate revenue through digital products. In today's episode, Nancy Badillo will share with us how she generated $52,000 in her first month by selling digital products. So, check out this podcast to earn money like Nancy Badillo
Get to learn from our guest Ken Marshall from revenuezen.com on how to overcome the challenges of education entrepreneurship through proper marketing & SEO strategy. This post will also get you advice on Backlinks, Youtube SEO, Keyword Research, Social Media Influence, and more. You'll discover what works and what doesn't and how to adapt your approach accordingly. By the end of this talk, you'll have the knowledge and skills to take your education business to the next level - so don't miss out!
It is crucial to generate predictable revenue from your business. Without recurring predictable revenue, you can’t effort to run a business for the long term no matter how many resources you have. Your business will be closed sooner or later.
Therefore, it is good to do research or talk with an expert before starting your business. Because they had overcome the problems that you will face while creating a predictable revenue business.
So, we have arranged a podcast with Liam Austin who has expertise in running predictable revenue-generating workshops, webinars, or virtual events. In this podcast, he has shared with us how to earn predictable revenue from any virtual events.
Also, he shared some free resources where you will get helpful guides to start a predictable revenue-focused business. So, check out this podcast and know everything about generating predictable revenue.
Today we are joined by Craig Hewitt from Castos, one of the top WordPress and global podcast hosting services. In this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett, he has provided some quite interesting insights regarding the podcasting industry and how-tos.
How may a podcast be used most effectively? When should you begin producing podcasts? Podcasts can captivate your audience and the best part is that you can easily make at least 4-5 different pieces of content for your brand's marketing from a single episode. Course creators benefit most because it opens a window of discussion with potential learners and you can share free resources to create value. Individuals who listen to or know you from your podcasts will eventually get pulled to you.
Craig offers training on how to utilize podcasts as a marketing or public awareness tool in addition to having a monetized podcasting platform.
Hearing about a successful WordPress development agency always seems fascinating and encouraging. But starting an agency is not as easy as it seems. Although, proper guides can make the whole process a lot easier for you.
So, we have had a podcast with Anil Gupta, who shared the real-life experiences that helped him to build an excellent WordPress development agency. Anil Gupta is the CEO and Co-Founder of Multidots, the leading WordPress development agency.
In this podcast, you will get to know how he created Multicollab, his groundbreaking product. Apart from this, you will also get a guide on how to start a Multidots like WordPress development agency.
A training program boosts efficiency and productivity. It can be both physical and virtual. But, due to many reasons, people have felt that online training program is more effective than offline ones. Therefore, the demand of getting online training is increasing rapidly and so is your possibility to succeed in this business.
But, How can you set up an effective training program? What tactics should you follow to get success in this business?
No worries, today we have come up with a podcast with Bradley Morris who is from Magic Media. In this podcast, he will share with us how he has created his online training program, Magic Kids.
Featuring in this episode of LMScast we have the outstanding yoga instructor Cate Stillman from yogahealer.com. She began her career in 2007 as a curriculum developer and instructor, leading individuals on a path of recovery through the ancient Indian medical practices of Ayurveda and Yoga. Cate has emerged as an evolutionary thought leader, worldwide tribe builder, and author.
She shares a guideline to remember for course designers who are presenting challenging material to their students. Make the idea as clear-cut and well-known as you can. As an example, Cate strives to explain everything in a more scientific way using everyday language while using progressively less Sanskrit.
Here is another nugget of knowledge from her teaching strategies for course designers. According to her, individuals are unable to focus on someone talking for more than a short period of time—perhaps five minutes at most. In order to make studying more engaging, she incorporates as much visual learning as she can into her lessons.
Starting a digital agency is not as hard as it seems. By doing proper research and utilizing knowledge, you can easily start a digital agency.
You have to always focus on one thing and that is spending too much time on building a creative project or too many projects will going to delay everything. Besides, it will vanish the resources that you need to put into marketing.
We have discussed all the challenges, obstacles, and how to scale along with the steps to plan properly to start a digital agency in this episode.
Today's special guest is Les Watson, accompanied by our host Chris Badgett. Les Watson from Get More Time will explain how to gain back an hour every day today. Because they don't have time, many people in our area are lost. In this episode, Les Watson is here to assist those individuals.
A productive hour can be achieved with proper planning. Get More Time enables you to extend an hour's duration. Time slips away with each breath we take. You need effective time management in your life if you really want to achieve your goals.
Les Watson is a student of David Allen, to speak about him. You should also read Les Watson's wonderful book, Get An Hour Everyday.
In this Episode of LMScast, we have our guest Natalie Anne Martin from natalieanneads dot com who will be guiding us on how to run Facebook ads successfully. She is a Facebook and Instagram ad specialist who has been assisting course creators and coaches to run ads in the right way. Natalie Anne helped many course creators to expand their email lists and generate sales through ads.
You can also learn how to run Fb ads through a checklist prepared by Natalie Anne Martin that you can find at natalieanneads dot com /free-ads-checklist.
Loren Fogelman is our guest on this episode of LMScast (www.businesssuccesssolution.com). Since 2009, she has provided pricing, financial guidance, and accounting services to businesses and organizations. Loren thinks that raising prices through value creation is the best way to increase revenue.
What is value? Since this is what draws users to your platform, it is crucial for course developers to get this right. The difference between a learner enrolling in your course and moving to a course marketplace will be determined by the value of your own brand or the value that your multi-instructor platform can create.
How can you raise your prices? Recognize your target audience and the people you get along with the best. Then, by specializing in that, you can simply develop value pricing for your services. Share that with your niche's larger audience.
In this episode of LMScast, we are joined by our host Chris Badgett, co-creator of LifterLMS, and Derek Ashauer, founder of WPsunshine and Ashwebstudio.com. In addition to designing websites for clients, Derek also develops plugins out of repetitive tasks or extracurricular activities.
LifterLMS and the Confetti plugin are now integrated. With the help of this plugin, you may celebrate an action your learner has taken on your website by displaying a burst of confetti when the learner has finished a course, for instance, or got an A on a test. Confetti offers six distinct styles as well as customizable features like color duration and others.
Your LifterLMS-powered eLearning platform may benefit from adding this functionality to enhance user experience. Some of our course designers have been offering language learning to young students. They certainly smile when learning is given an entertaining twist.
Derek has a tip for all agency owners. Always respond to clients' inquiries on their terms. It's crucial to adapt technology to the client's level. Most clients probably find web design intimidating, which is why they turn to you. Therefore, you must first reassure them that you are aware of their needs before fulfilling them.
David Cole, a curriculum entrepreneur who operates entirely online and lives on the road as a digital nomad, joins us on this episode of LMScast. Our host Chris Badgett from LifterLMS, is here as usual.
The majority of language learners that use Cole's services are young children from China. He connects parents with instructors at thetutorresource.com to teach the ESL curriculum to students. Cole utilizes LifterLMS differently from others. Cole essentially charges instructors a fee for utilizing the LifterLMS system to connect them with the students. The instructors mostly use it for screen sharing to teach the students and on-screen painting, in addition to using the plugin's primary functions.
Additionally, Cole maintains a personal blog at ouroffbeatlife.com. He and his wife lead a nomadic lifestyle of constant travel, and he manages his business online. They are coming up soon with a course where you can also learn how to make the transition to a nomad life if you want to.
Vic Drover from Watchful joins Chris Badgett, our host, on this episode of LMScast. You can manage, backup, update, and secure your sites quickly and in line with your schedule with the help of their tool. It saves hours for agencies or professionals who need to maintain many sites at once for their clients or business.
It makes it simpler for you to return to live operation without losing anything if something goes wrong with your website. What is included in the backup? To ensure the health of the site they do security scans, scheduled updates, uptime tracking, traffic reporting and more. The security scan looks for viruses in all of our website files, the index, and the frontend. It also determines whether your website is blacklisted to users who are accessing it.
Vic Drover can be contacted via the contact form on watchful.net. The free account is actually free. Additionally, you can search for WebSite Watchers on Facebook to find a group dedicated to website upkeep.
Lesley Sim from NewsletterGlue.com joins our host Chris Badgett from LifterLMS on this episode of LMScast. You can publish your newsletter right inside WordPress thanks to their plugin. Engaging your students with newsletters can be a very effective method of generating value for course creators.
Newsletter Glue excels at doing two things. Automatically sending the newsletter after you write a blog article, and because you create the newsletter using WordPress, it cuts your publishing time in half. Your distribution is doubled as Newsletter Glue allows you to publish your newsletters as blog posts, giving them a second life and increasing website traffic.
The plugin distinguishes itself from CRM platforms by improving and streamlining the sharing of the newsletter content. CRMs, however, put a greater emphasis on lead management and segmentation. So, integration between these two can give you improved results.
For this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett, we have Adam Preiser, the creator of the immensely popular Presto player for WordPress. The best learning management system on WordPress, LifterLMS was recently integrated with Presto, the most sophisticated video player on WordPress. Videos are a crucial component of online learning, and this combination is the best of both worlds.
Presto has a number of fascinating features that are useful to both LMS designers and users. Using it, you can annotate chapters, keep track of view progressions down to the individual user, and the user interface is actually conscious of its embedding destination on a website.
Adam can be found at prestoplayer.com. CartFlows Inc. was co-founded by Adam as well. His goal is to make top-quality how-to videos for digital entrepreneurs.
For this edition of the LMScast featuring Chris Badgett, the founder of LifterLMS, we got in touch with Jon Phillips of Holygrailwp.com. This will be an exciting episode because Jon will show us how to speed up our websites and how he came up with a fantastic formula to do it. What a coincidence that Jon enrolls students in his courses using LifterLMS!
Jon discovered this through taking on the challenge and by making mistakes. Jon is more of an experienced user than a WordPress developer. His professional background is as a fitness coach, and WordPress and LifterLMS happened to cross his way when he started to teach courses online.
Learn how Jason Gracia (www.swyftsites.com) builds effective websites for coaches that effectively benefit his clients in the coaching business in this episode of the LMScast podcast, hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. A coach or a consultant can use Swyft Sites to create their business websites without having to do any of the work themselves.
It can be intimidating to build your own website. There are a lot of options available that sound "simple" and promise that you can get your website by pressing a button. It isn't really the case. The area where Swyft Sites set themselves apart is they understand your needs and obtain necessary information from you. Finally, they build a solid backend to support your business while maintaining a user-friendly front end for website conversions. They consider it to be a potent instrument. So, when they hand over a website to their clients, it can start functioning on every business endpoint that was promised, from sending automated emails, to CRM or booking sessions - everything works right off the bat.
On this edition of the LMScast podcast, hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS, Michael Short of GoWP discusses outsourcing for agencies. GoWP was established by Michael, the company's creator and a leader in the outsourcing sector, with a wide range of resources and skills to assist businesses in outsourcing their gaps.
So, if you are trying to create a learning platform with LifterLMS, this session would give you valuable insight into how you could outsource some of your requirements. Perhaps you don't require a resource on a full-time basis, or the help you have access to is not very skilled. However, for a limited period, you can hire a highly qualified resource through outsourcing who will propel your learning platform company forward without breaking the bank. Additionally, courses, presentations, & designs are essential components in creating a robust learning environment. Hiring freelance design specialists can benefit your landing page and course teachers.
Learn about how one can scale up his or her course and membership sales in 3 years in this LMScast episode with a blue-collar dude at heart named Josh Hall, hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Entrepreneurs can turn their passion into a money-making business with joshhall.co and LifterLMS.
Josh is a chill entrepreneur, a lifestyle businessman, and a family man who was really excited about building an online community. He gravitated towards entrepreneurs and online mentors who are a little more like-minded. He took a counterintuitive approach by signing up with James Schramko, the author of Work Less, Make More. He found that a “webpreneur” sounds a lot better than a web entrepreneur so he stuck with that. His business model is not something that’s negotiable for him to revolve around the lifestyle because he gives importance to time, freedom, and definitely financial freedom.
Josh mentioned a pro tip earlier about how he nails that first impression and makes people comfortable in his membership. He makes sure the members of the community feel like they’re super welcomed. He also ensures that they’ll get community support from other folks. The best part about being a member of an online community is that one can start sharing what he or she knows and help others. He also focused on how one can go to the next level and not be a stressed-out entrepreneur. For example, it doesn’t matter what one uses for monthly training or yearly planning.
Josh considers the current year as the creation year to continue with his podcast and boost his YouTube channel. He will also consider revamping, tweaking, fine-tuning, redoing, and spending a lot of time refining his three years old business course.
Welcome to a fresh new episode of LMScast. We have Sam Michie from Social Bluebook with us today. We have discussed brand collaboration ideas and strategies for the course creators and coaches and help them generate more money.
One of the common questions we have received from our audience while discussing brand partnerships, product placements, and similar topics is- am I big enough to how many followers or subscribers are enough to call me a micro-influencer or an influencer at all. They mean when is the right time to start reaching out to brands for partnership. In reply to this question, Sam said this is also a misconception that you need to have a certain amount of subscribers or followers.
The reality is that there is no hard and fast rule. The way the companies differentiate or categorize nano-influencers, micro-influencers, and so on differs case by case. So, whenever you’re getting a good response to your content and think that you have a strong place in a group of people, that is the right time. The right time is when you feel like it. The reason behind him implying this statement is companies technically can license user-generated content as intellectual property and use them in advertisements. They even hire agencies to develop user-generated contents to use as social proof. So, in these cases, your follower or subscriber count is not going to be in the contract. In those cases, only your content quality, planning, and creativity are going to get preference.
The discussion above generated a question in our mind- how is this different from affiliate marketing? Sam explained that affiliates received the commission only if a sale or conversion is generated. Usually, they do not get paid for generating content to sending traffic. But when you’re making content directly in a partnership with a brand or the brand has an intention to use your content as intellectual property, you’re going to get a flat fee and that would be upfront before your content goes live or sometime after that. There will be no calculation based on the impact of the content you made.
We have discussed a lot more in-depth details that are essential for every content creator out there. Please listen to the podcast and comment on what you think. We would love to know your thoughts and answer all the questions you have.
Kay Peacey is back again on LMSCast as a guest! She is from slickbusiness.co. She is a shining example of an expert, somebody who really cares about their community. She has built a successful training-based membership site around her expertise on ActiveCampain. She took a whopping 5 years+ time to record the course materials for ActiveCampaign. So, you can imagine how much value and insight we are going to get from her.
In this episode, we are going to learn about what she has done so far, her decision-making process, some of the important bits, etc. We will also try to know about the training stack she uses, the product suite, and many more!
At the beginning of our discussion, she tells us about the free resource which is her Facebook group named Automate Your Business With ActiveCampaign. Then she told us about the wonderful free training course she made with LifterLMS. If you’re curious, you can find the course by searching Accelerated ActiveCampaign. We got to know about one of her major achievements with her ActiveCampaign academy that is available on the slickbusiness.co website.
One of the notable discussions on this podcast is about Melissa Love and Kay Peacey both using LifterLMS and collaborating with each other, helping each other in different business aspects. They even worked together using the EASY Framework! And FYI, Melissa has also been a guest in our podcast a couple of times!
There are some very detailed discussions about strategy and pricing but we will not give a spoiler here. Please listen to her directly explaining the whole story with a very detailed process.
We are back again with a brand new episode of LMSCast. In today's episode, we are going to listen to Ziv Reviv and learn how he made a 6 figure membership site and the golden keys that helped him to make 377K in revenue last year!
Ziv is a serial entrepreneur. One of his awesome projects is Balloon Artist College. Here, he teaches to become a balloon artist. You can take it as a career, or start your own business as a balloon artist! This really is a micro-niche and it definitely works. AtLifterLMS, when someone asks, "Can I do this? Will anybody buy my course?" We use Ziv and his Balloon Artist College as a solid example of how much of a specific niche you can pick and what the percentage of success can be.
In this podcast, we went deeper into what keeps Ziv going, how he conditions his mind to keep up the flame and not get totally burnt out, how to plan ahead and when to give yourself a break. One of the major takeaways from him was focusing on the customer-first approach that can work in all kinds of business and it will definitely pay off in the long term. We have discussed some of the common misconceptions and why an entrepreneur should invest more time in marketing and sales.
If we have to summarize the learnings from Ziv, then we could say that there is no better way of focusing than finding clarity and having a helping mindset. Be it coaching business owners, building a course business, or just organizing your day-to-day life and making the best use of 27 hours a day(listen to the podcast to know how)!
We really liked the Daily Cookie service which saves a lot of time and effort by being consistent in communication with your customers. Their writers are very professional and offer great quality work. You should definitely check out the Balloon Artist College website to know about so many cool ways you can use balloons in so many different social events.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS, Brian Casel shares how he thinks about effective communication online and how he ran his company with completely asynchronous communication instead of live meetings along with what some of the best strategies are for effective asynchronous communication such as in your online course or membership website.
Brian shares insights into how some of the best conversations and collaborations happen asynchronously. At Brian’s previous company that he recently sold, he had a team of 25 people and they almost never had live meetings. They used video messaging, email, and private messaging and group chat on slack.
ZipMessage is a way for people to have conversations via video threads by recording videos to each other in their browser. The initial idea for ZipMessage was for a user to send somebody a link, just like a calendar link, but instead of booking a meeting he wanted to be able to have them just record. They can click the link, come to a webpage page, and record right into the browser. Then, they send that message back and forth via threads in the conversation down the page. That way progress can be made on a project and questions can be answered faster without having to coordinate at a specific time accommodating different time zones, schedules, etc.
To learn more about Brian Casel, be sure to head to ZipMessage.com. Brian also has a podcast called Bootstrapped Web over at BootstrappedWeb.com, so if you’d like to get a behind the scenes view of what's going on at ZipMessage, that's a great place to go. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Chris Benetti from MembersPRO and Quick Convert in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he and Chris Badgett discuss how you can get more top of funnel leads for your online course or membership website and convert htem into paying customers. Chris also shares his story of entering the online business world and building out his own products.
Chris shares a great quote from Henry Ford of "Whether you think you can or can't, you're right.". As an entrepreneur, if you think you're not good enough to do something, then you are probably ultimately right. You put the limitations on yourself. If you go into the world every day with optimism and a good attitude, then ultimately you are going to create that scenario for yourself.
If you’d like to learn more about Chris Benetti and his projects be sure to head to MembersPRO.com and QuickConvert.io where you can see what Chris’s platforms have to offer and the great resources he has available there. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Jonathan Denwood from WP-Tonic on this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LIfterLMS where Jonathan shares ingiths into his client project the Fantastic Fingi Global Summit and how that all came together. Jonathan runs the awesome WP-Tonic podcast, but also the other side of the business where he hosts sites for clients and offers a wide range of setup services.
Jonathan shares insights into how he helped with teh website creation of the Fung Summit. The team behind the documentary has a lot of experience with documentary filming, promotion, and distribution, but less experience on the web side of things. That’s where Jonathan can lend his expertise to coordinating the tech of the web design. Something we often take for granted is the expertise course creators have in the education aspect of things especially LifterLMS users who know how to create custom websites with page builders and customer relationship management systems.
To learn more about Jonathan Denwood, be sure to check out wp-tonic.com. Go check that out and go check out the FungiGlobalSummit.com. It's an excellent example of building a virtual summit that later becomes a premium product in the form of a course. One of our company values at LifterLMS is called Remove Friction, and that's exactly what Jonathan has done at WP-Tonic by giving people an incredible solution to save so much time, energy, and money. Thanks for joining us!
Learn about the best LMS plugin to create and sell courses online in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. LifterLMS is the most powerful, flexible, independently-owned-and-operated learning management system for WordPress and in this episode we dive into the 6.0 launch and what that brings for online course creators using the LifterLMS plugin.
LifterLMS has been in the market for almost 8 years helping people building WordPress LMS sites for clients and for DIY experts who want to create and sell things online, such as courses, coaching program, remote learning schools, and company training portals.
LifterLMS 6.0 had a lot of focus on the certificate builder. If you're not already using certificates, we recommend it as a great way to add a element and a motivation element to your online learning content. Certificates can be awarded when a learner completes an individual course, or if a user completes a group of courses similar to how an advanced degree program works using the course track feature LifterLMS offers.
The most powerful certificate building system available inside and outside of WordPress is in the 6.0 release. You can build any kind of certificate you can imagine leveraging the power of the modern WordPress block editor. We added a new custom block of our own called the Certificate Title Block so that you can kind of create a fancy intro top part of your certificate.
There’s also an update to the LifterLMS PDFs product, where you can allow users to download certificates as PDFs without the need for a PDF Layer integration which used to be required. There’s also PDF generation techonlgoy on orders where learners can export a PDF invoice for tax purposes.
We’re joined in this episode of the LMScast podcast by Robert Jacobi from the Cloudways hosting company. Robert leads up WordPress for Cloudways, so he oversees community events, product offerings, marketing, etc. as it pertains to WordPress for Cloudways. In this episode, Robert joins Chris from LifterLMS to discuss what Cloudways has done for software innovation in the WordPress space and why you may want to consider using Cloudways for your next WordPress and LifterLMS project.
Robert shares insights into the hosting landscape’s evolution over the last 20 years and what an open source product like WordPress has done to democratize website creation and built a massive ecosystem over the last 20 years to make website building and now with LifterLMS, online course building accessible to everyone.
You can learn more about Robert Jacobi and the develpoerments he has going on at Cloudways, be sure to head to Cloudways.com. Over the past few years, Cloudways has really come up in the ranks as a popular host for LifterLMS projects. People raving about the support, the entry point, the affordability, and all the options and customizability and choices they have. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, we’re joined by Facebook Ads expert Shelby Fowler where she shares how online course creators can leverage outbound Facebook ads in their businesses in order to get more cold traffic to their websites.
The top mistake people make with Facebook ads is not spending enough money, especially if you are doing your own ads, and you don't have a background of advertising.
Shelby shares a great example that if you have a webinar or a presentation, a masterclass or a five day challenge, and your running ads right now, the average cost per registration is probably somewhere between $8 and $12.
The second common mistake is that the creative on the ads is not great. A lot of ads are just not catchy enough. Many people are constantly consuming content on Instagram and Facebook, and everybody is vying for your ideal client's attention. When creating ads, it’s important to understand that there are other people running ads and in addition to that, their family members are posting, their friends are posting, and celebrities are posting to get their attention.
To learn more about Shelby Fowler and the awesome work she does be sure to check out FempireMedia.com, and you can find her Fempire Ads Agency where you can learn how to leverage the power of Facebook ads for your online course or membership website. Thanks for joining us!
Join us on this episode of the LMScast podcas throated by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS where htis week we’re featuring online course builder and freelance entrepreneur Kurt Von Ahnen where he shares how he creates successful online course websites for clients, tech infrastructure, and how he has found success int eh WordPress ecosystem.
Chris and Kurt chat about WordPress, online courses, working with clients, and tech infrastructure. Kurt recently completed a project for a client called Inner Treasure Hunt, which can be found at InnerTreasureHunt.com. Cloudways is Kurt’s go-to host of choice now through the experience he’s had with them. Kurt was with a starter host for over a decade, but as his projects got more involved, bigger, and more integrated, he realized that there were more opportunities for conflicts and things to go wrong.
After looking at every host out there for LMS sites, he saw Cloudways had a good option that was affordable and met his minimum requirements. So he gave Cloudways the first chance with ChallengeConnection.com and had been really happy with the way that project rolled out, and has now expanded that as his recommended host to clients.
To learn more about Kurt Von Ahnen, be sure to head to MananaNoMas.com. His client project that recently launched can be found at InnerTreasureHunt.com. He built that with Cloudways for hosting WordPress, LifterLMS, WooCommerce, Elementor, Groundhogg for the CRM platform and a few other niche tools. Kurt can be found by the name Manana No Mas TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. He’s everywhere and available on all those channels. We encourage you to like, subscribe, follow, on YouTube and other platforms you’re on. Thanks for joining us!
In this LMScast episode, Chris Badgett from LifterLMS and Linda Puig, creator of the program Your Audience, Your Way, discuss how to build your audience in alignment with your personality type. Linda explains how to build your audience through other people's networks and social media.
Linda Claire Puig is an internationally recognized marketing expert who helps solo-business owners develop profitable relationships and portable businesses that go with them wherever they want to go. Linda has taken her own business abroad for months at a time to locations that include a medieval-era Italian village, the grand cities of Paris and Rome, the Andean highlands of Ecuador, Bali, Australia, Prague, Lisbon and many more.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, we’re joined by Facebook Ads expert Shelby Fowler where she shares how online course creators can leverage outbound Facebook ads in their businesses in order to get more cold traffic to their websites.
The top mistake people make with Facebook ads is not spending enough money, especially if you are doing your own ads, and you don't have a background of advertising.
Shelby shares a great example that if you have a webinar or a presentation, a masterclass or a five day challenge, and your running ads right now, the average cost per registration is probably somewhere between $8 and $12.
The second common mistake is that the creative on the ads is not great. A lot of ads are just not catchy enough. Many people are constantly consuming content on Instagram and Facebook, and everybody is vying for your ideal client's attention. When creating ads, it’s important to understand that there are other people running ads and in addition to that, their family members are posting, their friends are posting, and celebrities are posting to get their attention.
To learn more about Shelby Fowler and the awesome work she does be sure to check out FempireMedia.com, and you can find her Fempire Ads Agency where you can learn how to leverage the power of Facebook ads for your online course or membership website. Thanks for joining us!
Join us for a discussion with Chris Badgett and Micah Mitchell about how Infusionsoft, Keap, and ActiveCampaign users create powerful automated WordPress based membership sites with Memberium and LifterLMS. Memberium is a WordPress plugin that is deeply integrated with your CRM and helps you build powerful, automated membership sites.
Memberium controls access to what pages and resources on a website are open to the public or are only available for certain members. The deep integration between Memberium and your CRM allows you to use the actions people take on your site to trigger actions from your system, like providing them with a discount.
Micah has a long history in the Infusionsoft community, and Memberium has a partner implementation program to help people build and automate all the different things on their sites. Working with an expert can help speed up the setup process that can be technical and complicated at times.
One strategy you can take with a membership site is if you have a free ebook on your web website as a lead magnet, you could make that into a free mini series that’s protected on your site. Protecting the content in that way with a membership can give it a higher perceived value.
You can learn more at Memberium.com. Their support is helpful, so feel free to reach out. Micah encourages people that if you have something to share, to please share it with the world. Make your course, and don't let anything stop you. Thank you for joining us!
We’re joined by Todd Brown in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares some expert strategies for growing your online course and membership website via marketing methods based on great ideas. Todd created a philosophy called the E5 Method, and he shares how you can use that to optimize your marketing and get on the right track for your online education website.
A marketing campaign's big idea is the message that underlies all elements of a campaign to resonate with the audience you’re going after. It is something that resonates with your audience and is the source or reference for the methods and messaging of your marketing campaign.
Every marketing campaign, promotion, and marketing message has an idea behind it. The copy, the words, the phrases, the message, and the headline of those marketing messages are just expressing the idea. But behind every message is the big idea. What ultimately determines the success of a marketing campaign is rooted in the people in your audience resonating with your idea or message emotionally.
You can learn more about Todd Brown and the E5 Method at E5Bundle.com. His best stuff is in there. The E5 bundle has a bunch of stuff that you can go through that will give you a really solid understanding of what Todd and Chris talked about in this episode, but is much more in depth in his book. Thanks for joining us!
Advertising expert Liana Ling joins us in this LMScast episode to discuss ideas for how to market your online course and scale with Facebook ads. Liana is from Power Up Strategy, where she helps empower business owners to get as many clients or customers as their hearts desire.
Liana understands the overwhelm many entrepreneurs feel, and she’s really big on repurposing content. If you create something once, use that content as many times as you can, and do it intentionally. For example, if you record a podcast, take the transcript and summarize it into a blog post. Cut portions of the podcast into short videos to put on Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Pinterest. Put the full video onto your YouTube channel and on LinkedIn. And you can also use software to push these out and to schedule them ahead of time. And you can take quotes and soundbites and make images with the quotes on them and put those all over the place.
The most resilient and most sustainable type of the funnels that Liana has worked with are the ones starting with freebies to build up your audience, and then selling to them through your emails on the back end. Liana’s advice is to just jump in, test, and have fun. Show your joy. It comes through, and people will respond to it.
To learn more about Liana Ling check out her website at PowerUpStrategy.com. She’s also on Instagram as The Lead Gen Queen, so you can reach out to her there, too. Thanks for joining us!
Nonprofit niche website builder Carol Stambaugh joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators and website building freelancers can serve the nonprofit niche by understanding the needs, mission, and profitability options of nonprofit organizations.
Carol shares her story, along with some great community building tips she’s used over the years to build up WordPress communities and nonprofit groups. She shares insights into how she got started in the nonprofit space and building websites for nonprofit businesses, along with some industry insights you may want to consider when entering the space.
Growing a community and community marketing are two large and important areas to online course creation. Stability early on is important to fostering a growing community. Being overly accessible to everyone by having all different times available for meetings can actually end up with less community stability. The consistency really helps with scaling. If you’re doing live/online events that time or format can change, but having general inconsistency will often end up with high community churn.
To learn more about Carol Stambaugh be sure to head to RadiateForGood.com. She’s also on Twitter at @carolstambaugh, and her email is carol@radiatewp.com. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by entrepreneur Craig Zingerline in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares insights about how he teaches startup founders high growth strategies for scaling their businesses.
Growth University is a website where startups and founders go to learn a lot of the holistic elements around growing their startups. Craig takes a very stage and industry agnostic approach and has put together a series of training programs that help startups across the board learn customer acquisition, activation, learn about how to measure and track retention, how to do product-led growth, and how to run experiments. Craig shares how he founded Growth University, and what challenges and opportunities he’s encountered in the process.
To learn more about Craig and his Free Growth 101 program, head to GrowthUniversity.io. And you can reach him by email at Craig@GrowthUniversity.io. If you have growth questions, Craig does 15 minute office hours all the time for free, so feel free to email him for more information about that. You can also find Craig on Twitter at @CraigZingerline, and you can see some of the fun stuff that he posts about everything from product-led growth, to activation, to entrepreneurship, founder struggles, and all that great stuff. He’s also on LinkedIn at @CraigZingerline. Thanks for joining us!
Podcast host and agency owner Jonathan Denwood joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast to share how online course creators can make the process of launching easier by partnering with an agency that provides a full stack tech solution for WordPress site owners.
Jonathan shares industry insights into what makes WordPress a competitor in the eLearning ecosystem with platforms like Kajabi and Teachable. There have been some evolutions in WordPress that have made it able to outmatch those other platforms in terms of technical possibilities and customizations. Jonathan and his team have put together packages in order to allow you to leverage the power and flexibility of WordPress while also paying less than what Kajabi or Teachable offer.
If you’d like to learn more about Jonathan Denwood, head to WP-Tonic.com and check out his hosting options and the tools he offers. They have great pricing for what you can do with their packages. If you're looking for the simple path in the Goldilocks zone, as Jon describes it, you're getting the best, and you're not over-complicating it. Save yourself the months or years of shopping and trying all these different tools and just trying to figure it out and maybe 20 weeks of your life on YouTube trying to decide and just go with one of these plans. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined in this episode of the LMScast podcast by Nik Hawks and Lee Selman from Gristle King, where they teach people how to configure Helium rigs to provide coverage in their area for the Internet of Things and earn a tradable coin. Nik and Lee have been running a 1-1 consulting practice for a while and are now leveraging online courses in order to more broadly educate the market and leverage their time answering questions many people ask. They share the journey of how they got into Helium and into LifterLMS for their online course website in this episode.
Nik and Lee built their course because Helium is a big and complex environment and ecosystem, and as you get into Helium and you start to deploy hotspots, you've got to figure out where do you buy them, what do you do with them, how do you set them up, how do you know that you're in the right location, how does the whole thing work, what what's good what's bad, when they go down, how do you troubleshoot them, what's next on the horizon. There are so many things going on, and Helium itself is a really dynamic company. So they started with LORA and now they're pushing into 5G, which adds a totally different spectrum of the radio or set of frequencies on the radio, and so there's a whole new set of rules around that. That’s what Nik and Lee cover in their paid online course and coaching programs to students who are interested in being involved with the network, in addition to the intro and general overview they share in this episode.
Be sure to head to GristleKing.com, check it out, look around, see what you think. You can always look at Explore.Helium.com to look at the map and see what hotspots are out there. If you decide you want to get deeper, Nik and Lee have built the entire website for you, so check it out at GristleKing.com. Thanks for joining us!
Join us on this episode of the LMScast podcast where WordPress training team member Courtney Robertson shares how she teaches people of all different languages, learning styles, and careers how to use WordPress and contribute in the WordPress ecosystem.
A common trend we see in online education is where the value is often not in information, but in the curation of information and the results people achieve. Courtney shares her experience with that in this LMScast where she breaks down how she and her team contribute to the WordPress core product, and what evolutions she’s seen in the space over time.
To learn about Courtney Robertson check out CourtneyEngle.com. She also does a lot of great work over at Learn.WordPress.org. You can also find Courtney on Twitter at @CourtneyR_dev. Thanks for joining us!
Sales expert Jon Schumacher joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators can make more sales and convert more prospects into paying students. Jon specializes in sales in general, but also structuring around the sales conversion event. He shares insights into what needs to happen in order to generate sales in the current economy and time.
When it comes to success in sales, 80% of the campaign comes down to whether you’re matching the right person with the right offer in an offer that’s so good for their situation that they'd be stupid not to take it. That's 80% of the success of a selling or marketing campaign. The other 20% are aspects like your persuasion skills, your copy skills, the frosting on the cupcake, communication, and messaging. One of the largest mistakes we see is having the wrong offer in front of the wrong person will always leave you asking, "What happened?" That's the highest level as far as what to think about before you do any kind of sales or marketing campaign.
If you’d like to learn more about Jon Schumacher, be sure to head to JonSchumacher.com and WorkWithJon.co to see what he’s up to with his personal brand. You can Google “Jon Schumacher webinar” and you’ll find him there, too. Thanks for joining us!
WordPress pro Alex Standiford joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how he runs an agency, teaches plugin development, and homesteads debt free from his RV in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Alex is coming to us from his new homestead in New Mexico. He's the creator of a WordPress plugin development course at wpdev.academy. Alex has been around the WordPress community for a long time, and he’s also an expert at AffiliateWP.
Alex shares his journey of working an in-person job to becoming a digital nomad, where he’s now living in a camper with his wife on their property that they’ll be building out as he makes money running his digital agency doing plugin development and running his online course teaching others how they can do the same.
The idea of distributed work and working remotely had just been so thoroughly ingrained into the DNA of WordPress, and that really spoke to Alex. He started going to WordCamps and started doing plugin development, and really tapping into WordPress to eventually build his course teaching others how to develop plugins.
To learn more about Alex Standiford head to wpdev.academy and check out his blog at AlexStandiford.com. He’s on Twitter at @AlexStandiford, so you can connect with him there as well.
Michael Wiley transformed his life by flipping mobile homes and teaching others how they can do it, too. Check out this episode of the LMScast podcast where Michael shares how he pulled it off, and what you can learn about the process of turning a hustle into an online course or membership website.
Michael is an education entrepreneur who wears all five of the hats, which is really hard to do. To have success with an online course or membership website, you have to have an entrepreneur, an expert, a teacher or coach, a techie, and a community builder. We dive into how he pulls it all off in this episode.
To learn more about Michael Wiley, be sure to check out FlippinMobileHomes.com. He also has a YouTube channel, so head over there and subscribe to check out what Michael’s coming out with in his niche to promote his course content. Go over there and like a video. It will really help him out with the algorithm. And if you want to join in the public group Michael runs and network with some people and learn about investment opportunities, join Michael over in his Facebook group at Flippin Mobile Homes. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Paul Ace in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares insights in how you can scale your online course or membership website with conversational commerce, which will help you eradicate roadblocks to scaling.
Paul has a seven-figure audit tool. You can use that resource to go through your business checklist and what your score is to see what you may be missing from getting to the next level. If you're at six figures wanting to get to seven figures, or even seven figures and you want to get to eight, this audit will be for you.
You can also connect with Paul’s team over SMS or over email about your results, and you can book a call off of that if you’d like to connect further. If you feel like you’re burning a lot of money in your business, head to amplifyccom.com. Click on the video at the top to watch that, and then click Book a call under the video. You can book a call personally with Paul, and if it's a good fit you can do something together and make some magic happen. To check out Paul’s podcast be sure to head to www.amplifyto7figures.com or search on iTunes for Amplify to 7 Figures. And you will be able to see Chris Badgett featured on there, too.
We’re joined by Jono Petrohilos in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares how he found success with his personal training business and transitioned that into a successful online course platform.
Jono used to be a fitness trainer, and he ran a face-to-face bootcamp working at a franchise. When he started out, he was ranked as the worst in his franchise organization. He attended other trainers' workshops, took courses, read books, and did everything he could to work his way up to the top in his franchise, and eventually opened up another location. After seeing others successful with courses, he built his first course called How to Run a Successful Bootcamp.
In 2014 his course platform started focusing on online trainers and not just individuals who wanted to get fit, and in 2018 he grew that to about a million dollar a year business. That’s when he started to get over the fitness side a little bit, as he was no longer running the bootcamps and was spending all his time online working with funnels in sales and marketing. Jono’s passion shifted from fitness to online course creation and promotion.
To learn more about Jono Petrohilos head to Facebook and look up the Course Creator Community Facebook group and find his podcast Course Creator Community Podcast on iTunes. Whatever social platforms you usually use, type in Course Creator Community, and you’ll find Jono’s group.
Juliana Meyer from SupaPass joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS where she shares how online course creators can create apps the easy way instead of spending six figures or going down a rabbit hole that doesn’t end up working well to create an app for their website.
We get asked a lot in the WordPress world and the LMS world about how to build a companion mobile app for a WordPress website. And a lot of people go down the rabbit hole, and they just end up getting stuck or they do some research and find a mobile app developer and it ends up being over six figures to develop. Juliana founded an easier way to make that happen. And in this episode she takes us to school on creating mobile apps the easy way.
SupaPass is for any content that you're making. So if you've got a podcast, it can also have your podcast in there. If you've got music, if you've got an audiobook, if you've got blogs and articles, you can store all your content together. You can build a community there and have a pay for it or you can have a subscription. You can do patron donations, but you keep 100% of all the money. There's no revenue share. It's completely your platform.
Be sure to learn more about Juliana Meyer and the great work she’s doing to democratize app development for everyday people, be sure to head to SupaPass.com. And if you’re interested in chatting with them about your goals and challenges, feel free to message them through the website or jump on a call with them.
We’re joined by special guest Daniel Vargas in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Daniel and Chris talk about how Daniel works with members of the LifterLMS community to build academy websites for their customers with advanced marketing and CRM integrations.
Daniel started Laboratorio de Éxito after the pandemic started in 2020. Then one day Daniel worked on a referral job helping someone in the real estate world sell her training courses. At the time, Daniel had an academy that he was building with LifterLMS and Keap, after many trials of many tools, so he knew exactly where to start on her project to get her training courses sold.
After many other site building referral projects, Daniel decided to create Laboratorio de Éxito to help people create momentum and based on the momentum that they create, to scale their businesses. Daniel emphasizes the importance of integrating with a CRM tool, in his case, Keap.
The main part of Daniel’s business now is building marketing strategies for customers. One of the resources he provides is recording calls with his customers around marketing and selling their products, and he has those calls available for the rest of his customers to build that sense of community and educate by answering questions people really ask.
Daniel Vargas is an awesome guy at marketing automation in WordPress and LifterLMS. His company name is Laboratorio de Éxito, and you can find that at LaboratoriodeExito.com. You can also find him on YouTube at Daniel Vargas, MKT and at DanielVargas.com. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Cristian Raiber in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Crisitian shares his story of transitioning his WordPress agency business into a theme and plugin development business where he offers many products for WordPress users. We have many members in the audience and our community who run freelance WordPress practices and agencies, so this episode is a great story about how you can grow into a plugin development shop if you’re currently a freelancer or agency interested in going down that path in the WordPress space.
Cristian thought he knew theme development inside and out working as an agency, since he was building themes for about five years. When he submitted his theme to the WordPress repository, he submitted another 63 updates because that's how many issues he could spot in his code. That's how many things were wrong according to the WordPress guidelines. Once it got approved into the WordPress repository, he made serious money starting off on day one, with the first month at about $15K.
After a drop off in their sales with high competition in the theme space over the past few years, Cristian and his team at WPChill are now 100% focused on plugin development. They still maintain two theme shops from back in the day and still offer updates and support for those clients who want to continue using those themes. But focusing on niche plugin development to solve problems brought up in the community has been a way for them to stay afloat in the space and grow their business.
To learn more about Cristian Raiber and the products he offers at WPChill, be sure to head to WPChill.com.
- Modula: Get a beautiful gallery on your WordPress site in less than 3 clicks!
- Strong Testimonials: The #1 WordPress plugin for collecting, managing and displaying testimonials.
- Download Monitor: The easy way to manage digital downloads in WordPress
- KB Support: The ultimate help desk and knowledge base support tool plugin for WordPress
- Kali Forms: The powerful & user-friendly WordPress form plugin.
Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Katie Keith from Barn2 Plugins, and she shares how you can create a document library in WordPress in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS.
Katie shares the story behind Document Library Pro and what the inspiration for that product was. At Barn2 they developed a way to show WooCommerce products (and any post in WordPress) in a table format that’s searchable for users. But it didn’t work well for documents, just post types. So they ended up building a product dedicated to documents that looks like and works just like their product Post Tables Pro, but for documents such as PDF, video, or audio files.
Barn2.com has a bunch of really great WooCommerce plugins, as well as some table related plugins, which Chris and Katie are going to get into and talk about what all that means in this episode. At Barn2 they have come out with a document library plugin, called Document Library Pro, which is really useful for people creating training based membership sites and online courses. At Barn2.com you can learn more about Katie Keith, the Document Library Pro plugin, and all the other developments they have going on. Thanks for joining us!
Will Middleton from the LifterLMS team joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators can get their first 10 enrollments on their online course websites.
At LifterLMS, we’ve put together a summit focused on helping course creators get their first 10 enrollments. We have 5 speakers: Jenni Jacobs, Melissa Love, Ziv Raviv, Chris Badgett, and Will Middleton, who each share 2 lessons about designing your course outline, building a community, field expertise, entrepreneurial aspects, and the technology.
Often the first 10 enrollments can be the hardest as you’re validating your course offer and trying to get people into your program. Many entrepreneurs online give up after not successfully getting 10 enrollments. The strategies shared in the Enroll Summit will help you cross that threshold and get students onto your website to validate your offer and start getting feedback.
Be sure to head to Academy.LifterLMS.com/Enroll to sign up for free in the Enroll Summit. If you have less than 10 enrollments on your online course site, we recommend checking out this free summit with some great info on getting the first 10. There’s some great info in there even if you’re above 10 enrollments. You may get some great takeaways for your online course websites. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by language entrepreneur Marcus Carter in this episode of LMScast where he shares how he has found success through his online course website teaching English to Spanish speakers. Marcus shares his story of teaching in-person classes to going online and marketing on platforms like TikTok.
Growing up in the UK, Spain is the place his family went on holiday, and that’s where Marcus ended up deciding to settle as an adult and where he met his wife. Marcus has worked as a teacher for many years teaching people of all ages language learning skills.
One of the largest obstacles he noticed was the different way students learn languages and the materials available to them at different levels. And that’s where he dove deep into language learning methodologies and how he could facilitate learning the fastest. He eventually developed his own language learning method that he currently teaches live on Zoom and in his online courses.
Marcus does a lot of marketing work on TikTok and Instagram Live. Getting TikTok users and Instagram users who are interested in learning English, he’s able to funnel them to his Telegram group where he markets his course offerings.
If you’d like to learn more about Marcus Carter and the great language learning content he has, be sure to head to CarterSchoolOfEnglish.com. Thanks for joining us!
Divi design expert and digital entrepreneur Josh Hall joins Chris Badgett on this LMScast to discuss how website designers can create digital products to accelerate their growth. We’ve featured Josh on the podcast before, and this is his third show. So be sure to check out his other episodes after this one.
If you’ve been around the WordPress and Divi space, you may recognize Josh’s name or face from Facebook groups or his YouTube channel. But if you haven’t met Josh before, he’s based in Columbus, Ohio, and he’s a dadpreneur who lives with his wife and two lovely girls.
Josh hosts a suite of courses at JoshHall.co around website design and freelance to agency building. Josh shares how he created his student center and forum where he interacts with members who’ve purchased his programs.
Work-life balance is something we see as a common theme for successful online entrepreneurs who manage to avoid the burnout that can sometimes come with working in the online course or WordPress space. Josh shares some insights on how he manages the balance and some takeaways you may be able to implement as you build your business online.
To learn more about Josh Hall and the great offerings he has for online entrepreneurs who offer design and website building services to others, head to JoshHall.co and check out his podcast, blog, and tutorials he has hosted over there! Thanks for joining us!
Design expert Melissa Love joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Melissa is a LifterLMS power user, and we have another podcast episode with her, as well as a case study and a webinar. She’s also featured on our latest Enroll Summit online course where you can learn about getting your first 10 enrollments on your course website.
To learn more about Melissa Love, be sure to head to TheDesignSpace.co where you can learn how to build stunning websites as a creative entrepreneur. Also check out: Our last LMScast featuring Melissa: https://podcast.lifterlms.com/how-to-build-beautifully-designed-training-based-membership-website-wordpress-melissa-love-marketing-fix/ Her case study about how she found success in the online space here: https://lifterlms.com/success/marketing-membership-site/ We’ve also done a webinar with Melissa if you’re using the Divi Theme alongside LIfterLMS, the webinar Melissa did will give you some great advanced tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDkQXSWFCg8 We also have our Enroll Summit on getting your first 10 enrollments live now featuring Melissa Love: https://academy.lifterlms.com/course/enroll/
One of the things Chris has noticed about people who are successful with LifterLMS is that they have a clear customer. That customer can change over time, but having a clear target market (photographers in Melissa’s case) enables you to create a specific premium offer for that market. Melissa has launched some other business ventures for people who offer website design services to others. But keeping your mindset in each business focused will really help amplify your ability to have success in the market.
Many course creators and membership site owners can struggle on their launch of a course or even the launch of freebies and lead magnets. The main reason for that in most cases is that they don’t do market research and instead launch what they think the market needs. If you can ask five key questions of your market to determine what they need, it’s a lot easier to position offers in that market that they’ll find valuable and purchase.
We’re joined on the LMScast podcast by Tolu and Stanley from PayFlexi, a flexible payments infrastructure that allows your customers to pay in installments for products you sell, making your products more accessible to more people. PayFlexi does integrate with WooCommerce and even LifterLMS directly, so if you’re a LifterLMS or WooCommerce user already, check out their solution at PayFlexi.co.
The idea for PayFlexi came about 2 years ago when Tolu and Stanley got together to work on infrastructure products for institutes to accept electronic payments, which are mostly just credit. They wanted to create a system to democratize credit-style payments for those who may not qualify for traditional credit.
PayFlexi automatically knows when to enroll that student in a course based on their payment schedule managed by PayFlexi, but paid through your payment gateway on your website.
PayFlexi is based in Lagos, Nigeria, which is quickly becoming a tech innovation center in Nigeria and for Africa. Many tech companies for WordPress have been coming out of Lagos recently, including Paystack which has recently sold to Stripe.
There’s a specific LifterLMS - PayFlexi integration created by PayFlexi, so be sure to check that out if you’re interested in offering payments in installments to your customers. Be sure to let them know you saw Tolu and Stanley on LMScast. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast we’re joined by Adii Pienaar, founder of WooThemes. Adii and Chris talk about how entrepreneurs can live enriched lifestyles from Adii’s life profitability perspective. Adii is also the author of the book Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success.
Adii attributes a big part of his entrepreneurial nature to his ambition, drive, and love of a challenge, along with a thirst for learning. Many failures in business happen when we get stuck in cliches around what an entrepreneur does or should be. We end up striving for a unicorn status in our businesses, which isn’t very helpful for seeing productivity in our work.
Often these cliches, mantras, and memes act as very limiting for our mindset around what we need to do to be successful in business. Forgetting about peripheral things and staying laser focused is what made Adii’s businesses successful. And this did cause him to incur collateral damage along the way and costs in life and to those around him that he wasn’t aware of because he was focused on growth at all costs.
If you’re at a point of struggling to find prosperity in your business, starting with your own values first as the leader of your team will help guide what your next move should be in your business and life.
If you’d like to learn more about Adii Pienaar, be sure to head to Adii.me where you can find his book Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success. You can also find his book on Amazon. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, we’re joined by Neil Richmund. Neil has built many sites for clients over the years in adult education organizations for career training, English language learning, and high school equivalency. Chris and Neil dive into what agencies can learn about serving the adult education markets.
Most people are familiar with the traditional education system of K-12 programs and college. But higher ed is adult education. Every state in the United States has an adult education department, and there are programs all around the United States. Neil is based in Indianapolis, and Indiana is currently a national leader when it comes to adult education.
There are three main areas adult education falls into: - English language learning - High school equivalency or GED - And career training opportunities
Neil shares how he took the world of adult education online from the typically in-person format where people would meet in a huge room with dozens of tables and go from table to table. Neil adapted that to an online format via LifterLMS and Gravity Forms, where students can enroll in a course, go through a questionnaire, upload a photo of their ID, and go through the learning material to achieve the same outcome as the in-person trainings.
One key tip as a website builder is understanding that people using the site may have less digital literacy than you do. So keeping it as simple as possible will help non-techie users navigate and complete a course with little frustration. Often course creators add a lot of bells and whistles to their sites, which can cause a lot of confusion for users. But keeping it simple is important, especially with sites that are multilingual.
To learn more about Neil Richmund and the opportunities he provides for companies looking to build higher ed and adult education programs, be sure to head to NeilRichmund.com. And you can also connect with Neil on LinkedIn and find him in the LifterLMS community.
We’re joined by SaaS Academy sales aficionado Wendell Scott in this episode of the LMScast podcast where we discuss how you can sell high value coaching, courses, and community products. Wendell shares some expert tips for sales in general, but also specifically in the realm of online membership products.
If you haven’t yet considered selling a recurring membership option with a community component and a monthly live call component, you’re likely missing out on the recurring revenue value. Instead of constantly chasing new sales, with a recurring revenue model you can much more easily scale your business.
An important tip Wendell shares for having a great sales engine is having a very specific target customer. At SaaS Academy they have a very specific customer archetype of B2B SaaS companies. They don’t work with B2B industrial supply companies or B2C service companies - just B2B software companies.
Once you have a clear product and target customer laid out, it’s important before even hopping on the phone with your prospects that they really understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. If you can lay out a clear statement of who your offer is for and who it is not for, it really helps to clarify who your target customer is to everyone who visits your page. Many online businesses struggle to get traction due to being over generalized and non-specific.
To learn more about Wendell Scott and SaaS Academy, be sure to head to DanMartell.com. They have a free Rocket Demo Builder there that will allow you to give better sales demos and get higher conversions in less time. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, we’re joined by Dale Berkebile from Hellagood Life. Dale has been in the LifterLMS community for many years now, and altogether he’s been in business for over 22 years. He shares his journey of entering the world of course creation, creating a course that one student purchased, and then managing to utilize mindfulness to keep pushing strong in his business through adversity.
Living in Texas at the time with a 3-month-old son and his business on the rocks, Dale had to find a way to support his growing family, so he wanted to try to create a more evergreen program.
While clearing his driveway of ice, a guy stole Dale’s car, and pulled out into the street. Dale tried to chase down his car, but the guy got too far away. This traumatic event and all the frustration surrounding it caused Dale to fall into a 2-year depression, and for six months he was an angry man and was always pissed off. He realized he needed help and struggled to get any sort of medical help, so he found his way into meditation. And through that, he found sympathy for the person who stole his car and came out of his post-traumatic stress situation.
You can find out more about Dale and the great programs he offers around mindfulness and mediation at Hellagood.life/imposter. And connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook as well and let him know you saw him on the LMScast podcast. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by successful podcast host and WordPress hosted LMS provider Jonathan Denwood in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares insights on the LMS industry and how he’s tackled the challenge of building a full stack managed WordPress hosting company in the past few years.
There are three factors Jonathan identifies that make someone successful in the online LMS site building industry: The personal element - Jonathan has dyslexia, and that’s always made him interested in education and the limitations of the education system. He sees the possibilities of online education and training as a great way for people that don’t fit into the established systems to learn in an environment with many teachers and teaching formats. Growing a market - contributing something to the market and being an influencer in the space by best serving a specific type of customer and building out a tool for their specific market needs. Business stickiness - being able to create a product that clients rely on in a good way where they won’t want to leave your service.
The personal touch aspect of business is often overlooked with online offerings. Jonathan has incorporated the opposite into his business, where he offers unlimited Zoom meetings with him on any questions that come up in the first month of his service offering. That personal touch is a key for creating a successful service-based product.
Be sure to head to WP-Tonic.com to check out more resources Jonathan has to offer on his podcast and blog. You can book a demo consultation on the WP-Tonic website and fill out a short questionnaire that will really help the WP-Tonic team identify your main pain points and how they can help solve those for you. Thanks for joining us!
Prolific content creator and Divi expert Josh Hall joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can use community and coaching to further their offers and create a perfect business model that incorporates upsells and recurring revenue through a membership offer.
Josh specialized in Divi web design, so he has sort of a niche within a niche of not just WordPress users, but also Divi users. Josh breaks down how over time he designed his perfect business model around content.
The two key niches Josh has in his space are people who are brand new to web design, and he teaches people how they can design great websites using Divi, a little CSS, and some other key aspects of the tech side of things. And he has a lot of focus on more advanced courses, like the web design process and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). He also has some content that gets into the business side of running a web design agency and taking it to the next level.
Josh and Chris dive into some advice around Josh’s programs and how he can work with his current memberships and courses to start the transition Josh is going through in business, where he’s starting to hire others to help out in the process of content delivery and community.
You can learn more about Josh by heading over to JoshHall.co, and check out his podcast there which is a mix of design and business related content. He also has a YouTube channel with 23K+ subscribers with all kinds of content around the WordPress and Divi space. Just look up Josh Hall on YouTube, and you’ll find him. Thanks for joining us!
Brad Redding from Elevar joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators can work with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Google Ads for their eCommerce and online course needs. Elevar is the leading analytics and tagging platform built exclusively to help ensure direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify have a data foundation they can trust and scale with. In this episode Brad shares some key tips he’s learned and how they can apply to online course creators looking to navigate the world of advanced analytics tools.
Google Tag Manager is a tool you may have heard of. That tool acts as the conduit to all the other tools like Google AdWords, Google Ads, and remarketing tags. It allows you to tag users based on interactions of pages visited on your website. In the CRM (or email list tool) space, the term tag is used to segment your audience. So if a student enrolls in a course, they’d get a tag in your email list tool letting you know they’ve enrolled in case you want to send out offers to enrolled users or opt to not send marketing emails to enrolled users.
Google Analytics is a platform that allows you to look at page views, whereas Google Tag Manager offers a bit more depth by showing what videos they interact with, if they submit a form, etc. It also allows you to see conversions based on segments. So if you want to see the conversion rate of people who watched the video, you can see that segment.
To learn more about Brad and the great work he and his team are up to, head to GetElevar.com. Their product is focused more on Shopify brands rather than WordPress, but it is a great example of conversion-based priorities in the online business space. They also have a blog with some helpful resources on conversion optimization. Thanks for joining us!
Louisiana fisherman and angler expert Devin Denman joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast where we discuss how he turned his craft of fishing into an online course site where he teaches others about Louisiana inshore fishing. Devin also has a YouTube channel he uses for lead generation and sharing his passion.
Devin’s journey began when he was a kid in the early 90s watching TV and he saw a Mercedes commercial where at the end they promoted their website mercedesbenz.com. Devin told his dad they needed to get a computer, and with that exposure to the World Wide Web the seed was planted that would eventually have him building online courses and teaching others the same way he learned as a kid online.
In junior high school Devin was always connected to the internet in some way, shape, or form. He joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school. He turned 18-years-old in boot camp, he turned 21 on his second deployment to Iraq, and after he got out of the Marine Corps, he went to work for the State Department as a personal security specialist. After 7 years in that position, he discovered he really wanted to try entrepreneurialism and liked the idea of the challenge of creating his own business.
As Devin tried to monetize his fish blog, he worked with selling t-shirts and hated that. He thought about writing a book, but didn’t think it made sense, so he ultimately decided to create an online course. Devin’s value proposition was basically that you can hire a fishing guide for $600-$800 for an eight-hour trip, or for $100 Devin can teach you everything you need to know for inshore fishing.
Devin also shares some tips for how he grew his YouTube channel around Louisiana inshore fishing and what has gone into his YouTube content over the past 3 years, along with how that’s helped his online course business. LAFB Elite is Devin’s membership package where you can access all his courses around inshore fishing.
You can learn more about Devin and his courses around Louisiana inshore fishing at LAFishBlog.com. If you have any questions for Devin, you can also reach him at Devin@LAFishBlog.com. Thanks for joining us!
Chris Taylor from Actionable joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS, and we dive into having a focus on integrating behavior change into online learning rather than just providing content. One of the sayings at Actionable is that, “Learning alone can’t create change.” Real change comes from implementing a behavior change into a process.
When we talk about learning alone not being enough to create change, it’s qualified by how you define learning. Content consumption, even content retention, doesn't do anything. It's the repeated application of the relevant elements of that content that actually leads to behavior change, which is ultimately what it's all about. It's about creating new habits. That's how learning gets applied in the most meaningful, lasting ways.
Online courses can come in different forms. Courses around losing weight or quitting smoking would be examples of an adaptive learning course where the goal is to change a behavior. A technical course would be a course about how to tie a tie where you’d follow the process and then could forget until you need to reference the material again.
Be sure to head to Actionable.co to learn more about Chris Taylor and all the awesome work his team is doing around the science of behavior change. You can also find Chris Taylor on LinkedIn. Thanks for joining us in this episode. Hope to see you in the next one!
Mindset, lifestyle, and meditation mentor Emma Goldie joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast where they discuss how online course creators can reach a state of superflow to help optimize clarity, creativity, and productivity.
At age 13 Emma started mediation, and she has been teaching intensively for 10 years. Most people don’t have time to meditate properly, and getting results from meditation is something that requires going deep, which takes time. She currently teaches something called non-invasive meridian therapy, which uses the meridian points to help release the past imprints. Those imprints could be traumas or even thoughts or decisions that we made when we were young and because we couldn’t handle our decisions in a complex situation.
One big part of meditation for entrepreneurs is around vision. When meditating, we tend to look into the future, and the challenge for entrepreneurs is to bring that future vision into actions in the present. That’s a very rare skill to have, and about 5% of the population is wired in a way where they can do those really uncomfortable things, especially in the beginning when entrepreneurs are often misunderstood.
Superflow is a state Emma describes as the state of being able to have a very clear intention that’s really fixed, and taking aligned action. It’s important to take a look at mindfulness with entrepreneurship, since many entrepreneurs can have a lot of their work seeping into their personal lives, creating a stressful, workaholic nature.
To learn more about reaching a state of superflow in your work, check out Emma’s Reset Your Mindset Challenge at https://emmagoldie.com/reset-your-mindset-2/ You can also find Emma on Facebook and Instagram at @emmagoldiespiritualmentor. Keeping focus and taking aligned action is the key for building momentum. And once that momentum is contained, it has a life of its own. Thanks for joining us in this episode!
We’re joined by Matt Medeiros in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he talks with Chris Badgett from LifterLMS about the world of venture-backed businesses versus WordPress startups. Chris and Matt dive into multimedia formats, and how online course creators can leverage owning the customer experience to deliver learning results on any platform.
Democratization of online media platforms has been happening for many years with platforms like YouTube allowing you to create your own channel, upload videos, and create your own TV show or radio show. WordPress brings the ability to build websites to people who don’t know how to code their sites from scratch.
Matt shares a quote from Gary Vaynerchuk about how everyone should be thinking of themselves as a media company. For $50-$100 you can pick up a good microphone and do peer-to-peer interviews on various topics, and that experience, connections, and networking compounds not only in your skills, but also your reach and ability to produce content.
Matt attributes hundreds of thousands of dollars of agency business to his podcasting and the partnerships he made from his interviews. Podcasting isn’t just a great way to teach others, but also a way to build relationships with others in your industry or an industry you’d like to be in.
You can learn more about Matt Medeiros at MattReport.com. You can also head to Castos.com/PodcastGrader to take a short survey that will give you a score as to where you’re at in your podcasting journey, along with a checklist of how to run a great interview show. They also offer an opt-in to a private podcast that will give you a feel for what the industry of private podcasting is like to see if that may be something you can leverage as a part of your online course or membership platform. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Groundhogg CEO Adrian Tobey in this episode of the LMScast podcast, where he talks about how he was able to create his certified partner program with LifterLMS to train his affiliates and industry partners who offer Groundhogg related services on the practices they employ and what standards they have to meet.
Infusionsoft is an example of a software product that developed a certified partner program early on in their business, and that helps contribute to a software product’s success. Both Chris and Adrian came out of the Infusionsoft community, and they have first-hand experience with how Infusionsoft developed that program to help onboard customers and build an ecosystem of professionals that can offer services for people that want the software, but who need help setting it up.
Throughout the ‘90s, Microsoft invested heavily in training software companies on how to use their products. Microsoft had this as a paid program, where agencies would pay to receive the training, and then the agencies would turn around and sell products to their clients and earn a commission based on their sales to clients.
There’s an interesting line for software companies around what is considered customer success and customer support and what is something customers would need to hire a third-party agency or freelancer to help implement. Adrian draws the line roughly when users are looking for the advanced implementation help that involves setting up complicated funnels with many steps for example, and that’s where an agency would be necessary to be hired in by the customer for more advanced help.
If you want to learn more about Groundhogg CRM and how you can use it to manage all your email contacts, automations, broadcasts, and email campaigns inside of your WordPress website instead of having to head to Infusionsoft, HubSpot, or ActiveCampaign where they host all your data on their servers and charge based on number of users, head to Groundhogg.io and check out what they have to offer.
We’re joined by Moeez from Cloudways in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Chris and Moeez get into what makes Cloudways a good host for online course websites, and some distinguishing factors from competitors when it comes to websites that serve dynamic content with many concurrent users.
Every website owner needs a host, but not every website owner understands the entire hosting process. So Cloudways was made for people who want to relieve the burden of hosting their websites and letting Cloudways manage those things for them. The main distinction between Cloudways and other website hosts is Cloudways’ customer centric approach that helps them simplify the entire hosting process.
Features on Cloudways are built through a lot of research, and a lot of data gets studied and analyzed behind the scenes before a feature is taken live on the platform or in their product. Feedback from the community is a large building block for the offers Cloudways has come out with over the last 10 years.
Moeez shares the core differences between hosting platforms like Google Cloud, AWS, DigitalOcean, and Linode, along with who each solution serves best. If you’re a small blogger or startup online course website with around 1,000 to 1,500 visits per day, a DigitalOcean or Linode high-frequency server may be good enough for you, because it starts from $10-$13 per month, where you don’t need to be paying $30-$40 per month for a small website.
At Cloudways.com, you can learn more about how the Cloudways hosting platform can help you build your online course website on a budget and scale as students join your platform. They have a free area to book a demo where you can see the features Cloudways has to offer for your course or membership website. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, we’re joined by Adrian Nutiu, and he created a course marketplace using WordPress and LifterLMS. Adrian shares his journey from graduating with an accounting degree he didn’t end up using to the inspiration to start his own online education movement to democratize education the same way YouTube and other platforms have made providing information more accessible to the public.
Around 20 years ago after graduating with a degree in accounting, Adrian was intrinsically pulled towards the problems in the education industry, these days around discoverability and democratizing education online. This served as the inspiration for his platform MadBright (formerly Yumva) where experts can increase discoverability for their online courses in various industries.
Adrian highlights some of the reasons he decided to go with WordPress versus a hosted platform or a platform coded from scratch. WordPress has a high level of customizability and is built on PHP code, which is very popular amongst freelancers. That makes hiring out development work affordable, compared to coding a platform from scratch. WordPress also can be a budget solution for those looking to get started on a low budget and with more customization options than typical getting started LMS solutions like Thinkific that are priced around $100 per month and don’t offer the same customization options.
UpJourney is Adrian’s platform where he hosts guest posts and insights from industry experts around various topics from a results-oriented standpoint. Similar to MadBright as a directory for courses, UpJourney works as a blog that sources good information on popular questions.
To learn more about Adrian Nutiu and his platforms, check out MadBright.com and UpJourney.com. You can also connect with him via email at Adrian@UpJourney.com.
We have a repeat guest on this LMScast Vito Peleg from WP FeedBack, which is an awesome tool for allowing your clients to easily give you feedback on websites you’re building for them as a freelancer or agency offering website development services through WordPress.
Much like LifterLMS, WP FeedBack is a software company providing products to freelancers who build websites for clients to help make their communication and building process with clients more seamless.
Educating customers on how to use a software tool is a challenge that many companies in the software as a service space face. Vito ran interviews with customers and realized many of them are using the product the same way they were when they initially signed up, meaning that most of them were unaware of the new features WP Feedback had added since they signed up.
Vito and his team brainstormed around how they could inform their customer base of the new features they’ve developed without spamming them with emails or notifications on their dashboard of the product. They eventually decided that training videos with tutorials and reasoning behind the features would be the best way to offer that library of education around features. Adding those videos on their website through an online course via LifterLMS would be a great way they could track the progress of users throughout the material, where that’s not an option with something like a YouTube playlist.
Vito also shares more insights on how an LMS tool can help serve software companies in educating their customers and reducing churn rates by increasing product activation and product knowledge in the community.
Be sure to head over to WPFeedBack.co to learn more about how you can supercharge your ability to communicate more effectively with clients, save time, and increase your profit margins on WordPress sites you build for others.
Learn about the journey to creating profitable online courses and membership sites with Pete McPherson in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Pete describes the failures he’s faced along the way to reaching success with his business DoYouEvenBlog.com. He now shares his insights and understanding of online business with others through his YouTube channel, podcast, and courses.
Learning from failure is something many people talk about in online business, but rarely something people actually put into practice. That’s why Pete loves covering failure, and how he and the people he knows change their approach after failing.
Most online course creators or membership site owners will fail the first time they launch, but that doesn't mean you should abandon it completely. It means you should analyze, learn, optimize, iterate, and make it better for next time.
It’s important to have a healthy relationship with failure, especially if you’re going to build up multiple streams of income. Because you’re not going to be building just one thing. You’re going to build lots of things, which amplifies the amount of failure you have to get through in order to get businesses, courses, and other projects to stick and be successful. Pete says he has failed around 30 to 40 times on projects in the last 3 years.
If you have an audience online or run a membership website, there’s an interesting trend Pete refers to as the 90-10-1 rule where approximately 90% of your audience is lurking and not interacting with your content, but following posts. Then 10% of users actually interact with posts. And the final 1% create posts and ask questions.
You can learn more about Pete McPherson at DoYouEvenBlog.com. He has links to his other projects there, such as his popular Elementor course, so if you’re interested in learning Elementor as a page builder for your WordPress blog or LifterLMS site, check that out. Thanks for joining us!
We’re joined by Paul Tobey in this LMScast where he talks with Chris Badgett from LifterLMS about how course creators can go live fast by implementing out of the box strategies to develop your product and brand. He shares his story and insights as a serial entrepreneur and course creator for how you can make your products a success.
Paul does a wide range of things, and he has many businesses reflecting the different aspects of areas in his realm of expertise: Jazzmentl.com where he teaches people advanced jazz piano lessons. TrainingBusinessPros.com where he teaches people the best strategies for training employees and clients from topics ranging from digital marketing to corporate training. ThatsAmbitious.com where he has business strategy courses about SEO, Facebook ads, and presentation skills.
Paul graduated from university where he learned how to play, improvise, and write music. He made a living as a piano player performing on the Arcadia record label out of New York City and performed music for 23 years in 17 countries. He had released 8 albums, but in the aftermath of 9/11 he lost his record contract, and at age 42 lost his house. Paul and his wife moved in with Paul’s parents for a few months, eventually buying a house in Brantford, Ontario where he started rebuilding his life as a sales trainer.
Paul shares a lot of great tips in this episode. One insight is how information itself doesn't solve problems, but step-by-step instruction is really key to solving problems. And making sure those instructions are followed correctly.
At ThatsAmbitious.com, you can learn more about the training courses Paul offers, and he has a membership there as well that includes all the courses on his site covering all aspects he has gone through in his businesses to create 3 successful online course websites along with other businesses in the training space. You can also use code LIFTERLMS for 50% off your first month (fully refundable within the first 30 days). Thanks for joining us!
We dive into the journey from 3 years to building 5 online courses and a successful membership site with Becky and Jeremy Launder in this LMScast. Becky has a background working with direct sellers, MLM, Network Marketing Professionals, and anyone who sells products they didn’t create, which is similar to how we have affiliate marketing in the online software space.
Jeremy worked more on the technical side, working in systems development. He worked as an electrical engineer in the aerospace and defense industry for 15 years, and that helped with architecting the training business they’ve now had since 2017.
While Becky and Jeremy’s site ModernDirectSeller.com started in 2017, they didn’t monetize their site by adding a paid membership until October of 2019. They were hosting free resources for people around the direct selling niche for over a year before adding in the monetization aspect via a LifterLMS membership.
One great way to test demand, and how Becky decided what videos to make, was when she heard more than 3 people ask a question, she would make a YouTube video and write a blog post on that topic. Then they put together a five course series with 35 lessons that are in-depth around different aspects of direct selling.
Each lesson on ModernDirectSeller.com is 10-15 minutes each, so they’re not super long and are meant to be done in bite-sized chunks. Becky also wrote a short book called 52 Tips on How to Build a Thriving Direct Sales Business. There are five chapters, and the course follows the same framework as the book.
You can learn more about Becky, Jeremy, and the membership and courses they have for direct sellers at ModernDirectSeller.com. And you can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Modern Direct Seller. Thanks for joining us!
Learn about how to create high quality websites using Divi and WordPress with Keegan Lanier in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he and Chris Badgett from LifterLMS dive into how you can build side hustle recurring revenue in WordPress as a white-label service and create cash flow with online courses.
The Addicted to WordPress podcast started out as a sort of Divi news podcast where Keegan would review and go over the features in upcoming releases of Divi, as they were doing a lot of innovation at the time and releasing new features almost every week. From there it evolved into more content around mastering the Divi theme, WordPress in general, and next level business tips.
Keegan started his podcast on Anchor.fm instead of building a full site himself from the start. This is the same way LifterLMS got started, selling a plugin for WordPress, but we were selling through Leadpages, as it was easier to spin up a quick eCommerce site with Leadpages at the time in 2014. We can get so wrapped up in the solutions we create, that we forget to look at ideas around what could best solve the problem, which may be a third-party platform for a time. Every project is a work in progress, so you don’t have to always go for the final model from the start.
Offering a white-label service to other businesses is a great way to dip your toes into the freelance/agency business. Keegan shares an expert tip that you can build a list of agencies you like and respect, and then email those agencies asking to pick their brain on the tools they use for delivering services and invoicing. You’ll get a jump start in your freelance practice for the best path to go with. You’ll also build the relationship, so if that agency doesn’t want to take on a project, they may pass that lead on to you.
Check out Keegan’s course at Academy.KeeganLanierMedia.com, his website building agency at RefinedCreative.com, and his Addicted to WordPress podcast on Apple Podcasts. You can also find him on Twitter at @KeeganLanier Thanks for joining us!
Elearning authoring tools expert and developer Pankaj Agrawal shares how you can use LifterLMS with SCORM, xAPI, and LRS content to support your LMS website in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Most course creators work with video, audio, text, and images as their main media formats for learning. But as you’ll learn in this episode, there are many other options out there for interactive content you can connect to LifterLMS via GrassBlade xAPI.
You may have heard of the GrassBlade xAPI tool on the LifterLMS store or in the community, but GrassBlade is an ecosystem of separate products and features that allow you to host advanced eLearning content inside WordPress. Articulate and Captivate are tools that allow you to make interactive videos and download them as zip files. Then you can use GrassBlade to upload that to WordPress.
Then with the GrassBlade tool, you can add that content into LifterLMS courses and lessons and have quizzes embedded from your eLearning authoring platform inside your xAPI content. Then that data can be found in the LifterLMS reporting system.
There are a few advantages to using a third-party system to host your eLearning content and porting that in via GrassBlade xAPI. One of those is that you can more easily migrate in the future if you change LMS platforms. Your content would still be the same format with less copying and pasting work for changing platforms. Another advantage is the ability to set progress triggers in a more intricate way. You can mark a lesson as complete after a student has completed a certain number of slides or a certain percentage on a quiz within your iSpring or Articulate content.
You can learn more about eLearning authoring tools, LRS systems, and xAPI at NextSoftwareSolutions.com. And be sure to follow them on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. Thanks for joining us!
Referable brand expert Michael Roderick shares how you can build a brand people talk about with Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Michael founded Small Pond Enterprises where he helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders through the creation of referable brands. He shares some frameworks in this episode you can follow for how to make your brand more referable.
Michael shares his framework for the three core pieces of a brand (AIM): Accessibility (How does somebody outside your brand understand your idea?) Influence (Will people actually do things for you? Will they share your idea?) Memory (How easy is it for others to be able to retell the story?)
A great question to ask yourself as a course creator or product creator is around Michale’s acronym SAD: (Solve a problem, Alleviate a pain, or Decrease friction). If you can easily identify and communicate what problem you solve, pain you alleviate, or friction you decrease, it will be much easier for you to find the core value in your business and communicate that to others throughout your brand.
Time, connections, and money (TCM) are the main things people and businesses are looking to improve. If you can identify what pain you alleviate, problem you solve, or friction you decrease, and show how that helps time, connections, or money, you’ll be well on your way to communicating the value of your product and business with your brand.
You can learn more about Michael Roderick at SmallPondEnterprises.com where he has some fantastic resources around building a referable brand and some more frameworks like he talked about in this episode. He’s also on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter at @MichaelRoderick if you want to connect with him in those places. Thanks for joining us!
YouTube is one of the largest search engines online today. Many people don’t think of YouTube as a search engine, but with that mentality and the ideas Chris Badgett from LifterLMS shares in this episode of the LMScast podcast, you can be well on your way to growing your audience and getting traffic to your online course website by creating content on YouTube.
One huge challenge is many course creators find that once they make their online course, no students buy it. Their site ends up becoming a ghost town.
Angela Brown is a success story we have at LifterLMS. She created Savvy Cleaner, a website dedicated to teaching house cleaners and maids how they can operate their businesses, along with tactics and ideas around the cleaning market. Over the past 4 years, Angela grew her YouTube channel to 95,200 subscribers, and that acts as a huge lead generation tool for her online course website.
The 3 most common problems we see at LifterLMS and throughout the online course industry are: - You’ve completed your website, but don’t have any leads. - You don’t want to manually spend time doing outbound sales by pushing prospects on calls. - You’re frustrated because you may realize after having built your site, you didn’t actually have a go-to-market strategy.
Chris also lays out the opportunities course creators have on YouTube, such as: - Knowledge with creating video content. - Even a small YouTube channel can help you generate high-quality leads. - YouTube videos work as a non-pushy salesman working 24/7.
The YouTube Traffic System Course can be found at Academy.LifterLMS.com, and that’s available to anyone with a LifterLMS Universe Bundle or Infinity Bundle. If you already have one of those bundles and want to be added into the course, send our team a message at Team@LifterLMS.com to get access to that course to learn the essentials of a YouTube-based content strategy. Thanks for joining us!
Stephen Ladek from LMSPulse and the Elearning Success Summit shares some insights on how to build out engagement, gamification, and online summits in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Chris and Stephen dive into the summit Stephen ran in 2020 with 6,000 attendees, and how his summit for this year is focused around the eLearning space.
Stephen has seen his audience grow with people in the K-12 space learning more about possibilities that exist in online-based education. He also has quite a few students in the corporate learning development environment.
Figuring out what goal you’re trying to achieve and isolating what you need to do to achieve that learning goal for your audience is a topic Stephen shares some tips around in this episode. Many educators look at eLearning as a different realm entirely from in-person learning. And while there are differences in the interactions, the online tools don’t define the learning, they’re just enablers for the learning. We can still think about learning from the lens of learning objectives and outcomes, just with a slightly different set of inputs or tools to interact with.
The Elearning Success Summit is coming April 20th-22nd, 2021, so be sure to head to ElearningSuccessSummit.com to sign up for free and join their 3-day event where they’ll cover traditional education platforms, design principles, and building learning into the ethos of your company or audience.
The Elearning Success Summit is for anyone in the instructional design space, K-12 or higher education space, corporate environments, or anyone building learning systems for others. Stephen also has his podcast LMSPulse.com where you can learn more about these topics in the online education space. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast Tara Claeys from Design TLC shares how she has used LifterLMS and WordPress to build websites for schools, camps, enrichment programs, and nonprofits. Chris and Tara dive into Tara’s client site Tiny Chefs, and how they’ve been successful going online with their cooking camps for kids. We also get a sneak peek into Tara’s story working in advertising and marketing before becoming a mom, and how she evolved into the WordPress space.
Working in advertising right out of college in the 90s, Tara got married and moved to Washington DC. Eventually she settled in Chicago where she worked for MCI, a long distance telephone company, with their direct mail marketing. She started to do more work from home after becoming a mom and transitioned into doing her own stationery business for about 10 years advertising through word of mouth and craft shows.
In 2010 she built a website for her business, and in 2013 went to her first WordCamp. That’s when lights went off for Tara where she realized she could build websites as a service for others. She worked with many local small businesses. After realizing many companies she worked with were education related nonprofits, she decided to focus on that market and not work with any other types of businesses.
Tara has been working with a client recently called Tiny Chefs, a company that runs camps and courses for kids learning how to cook. With the COVID pandemic, they’ve gone online promoting their course on social media and have been featured in the New York Times. You can learn more about Tara Claeys at DesignTLC.com and about her client Tiny Chefs at TinyChefs.com. Tara is on LinkedIn and Twitter at @TaraClaeys if you want to connect with her there as well. At HallwayChats.com you can also check in on Tara’s podcast she hosts with Liam Dempsey documenting WordPress community members' success stories. Thanks for joining us!
We dive into how balloon artist and entrepreneur Ziv Raviv built his 6 figure membership site to success in an extremely tiny niche, and what he’s learned from being involved with the community as a course creator, coach, and trainer. Ziv runs a company called Kivi Media where he helps business people, relationship people, and people working in very specific niches to grow the impact they have on people’s lives.
Currently Ziv runs three main training platforms for his businesses. Balloon Artist College is his site where he teaches people how to create incredible balloon art, including life-size balloon sculptures, full outfits, etc. Kids Entertainer Academy is where he teaches people, such as magicians and others in the kids entertainment space, how to better run their businesses. And Generous Marriage is focused on the relationship space.
Each business is like a child that grows year over year to reach new spaces and grow its audience. The first business of the three Ziv started was Balloon Artist College. Then they acquired Kids Entertainer Academy, and following that started the Generous Marriage podcast and expanded to an academy for Generous Marriage. And that site will probably develop into a membership website.
Ziv shares the story behind his companies in this LMScast, along with some of the recent numbers his businesses have been doing over the past few years. In 2019, his three companies did about $277,000 in revenue, with $100,000 from Balloon Artist College, $90,000 from Kids Entertainer Academy, and the rest through Generous Marriage.
If you need help with your business, at KiviMedia.co, you can learn more about the frameworks for success Ziv and his team use to run their businesses, and he also coaches educational entrepreneurs, coaches, and podcasters on monetization. Thanks for joining us!
Entrepreneur and author Dane Maxwell shares key insights and strategies course creators can use to overcome adversity and build up their businesses in either easy or challenging times in this LMScast hosted by Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Chris and Dane dive into mindsets for framing solutions and some big ideas from Dane’s book Start From Zero that you can use to help find the best offers for your students and customers.
Dane describes a system called mechanism-first thinking, where many businesses focus on their mechanism for delivery rather than the solution they deliver. For example, a restaurant that is mechanism-focused would feel destroyed by the recent events with COVID. But a restaurant that focuses on the solution they deliver may spot an opportunity to deliver that same value by a different mechanism, such as delivery.
Many course creators don’t look at the opportunity to outsource solutions to experts in the industry. Dane shares a story of one of his first businesses he started when he was around 20 years old. He asked a guitar player he admired if he’d be willing to be the focus of a course on how to play guitar. Following that, Dane rented a camera and recorded his first course program teaching people how to play guitar from his industry expert.
One great point from this LMScast with Dane is his idea that you shouldn't sell people your values. Many experts try to position their company from the perspective of their values, but when you focus on selling to customers based on their values, the sales process is exponentially easier and a lot less pushy.
If you haven’t already, be sure to head to StartFromZero.com and check out Dane’s book that outlines his golden rule of business in more depth on how you can find a clear customer who wants a clear result and find the mechanism you can use to deliver that result. You can also visit StartFromZero.com/Five to download Dane’s Five Question Framework for finding the best offer. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast Divi expert and education entrepreneurship master Josh Hall shares how he’s built up his following making tutorials, courses, and templates for WordPress and Divi users, and how you can make the transition from online services to online courses in your business.
Josh shares his origin story, along with key takeaways you can utilize to best position your course offerings based on successful services and utilize the power of community building to create valuable membership programs.
Over 10 years ago Josh worked as a cabinet maker for a shop that customized tour busses in Columbus, Ohio. He was also in a rock band at the time and was into arts and graphic design. He got laid off in 2008 when the economy tanked, and he dove further into Photoshop and learning more about the possibilities with that tool. He would do the design work for his band for t-shirts and CD art, and as he was on tour, someone learned he did the artwork for the band and asked how much he would charge to do commissioned art. From there Josh learned he could make money with design.
Aftr that was helping a local church, and they asked if he could manage their website, as no one was doing it at the time. So he learned Dreamweaver and basic HTML/CSS code. And as he learned more about website building, Josh would eventually find WordPress and the Divi theme.
To learn more about Josh Hall, be sure to head to JoshHall.co and check out the templates, courses, and content he has over there. If you’re an expert-type person working in the WordPress space, his content is super valuable for finding what opportunities are out there for expanding your business. If you’re an industry expert, his content is also a great example of how he’s put together some in-demand resources for a specific target audience and monetized his following. Thanks for joining us!
David Vogelpohl, VP of Growth for WP Engine, joins Chris Badgett on this LMScast to discuss how online course creators and freelance website developers can leverage the power of the new WP Engine site templates that allow you to get hosting and a live site in less than 30 minutes. And all you have to do from there is switch out the content, connect your domain, and you’re live!
WP Engine launched site templates as a way to help their customers move faster when creating any website, and a lot of WP Engine customers are creating online course websites and learning management sites to educate their customers. So they included a few LifterLMS sites in their template setup. The WP Engine templates are built off of a theme called Genesis that has many popular child themes that offer more specific design.
You can even use a theme other than Genesis if you’d like with WP Engine. They are still a core WordPress hosting company, they just have the Genesis templates available for expediting the process. But you can always choose another theme and build things from scratch if you want to do it that way.
As a hosting provider, WP Engine has terrific 24/7 chat support. That can be super useful for getting a hand to go in the right direction or if you have a tech conflict on your website.
On LifterLMS.com you can find a case study with LifterLMS user Sally Crewe where she made a course for natural healthcare practitioners, and she then started to offer a service building sites like hers for others. And that became the main focus of her business. In cases like these, site templates are huge for productivity, sales, and delivering a solid product quickly.
At WPEngine.com/Site-Templates you can learn more about what templates are available and how you can use them to power up your WordPress development stack for clients or for your own websites. You can also connect with David on Twitter at @WPDavidV
Thanks for joining us!
Virtual summit virtuoso Andy Cabasso shares some key insights on how you can successfully run a virtual summit for your audience, and what some key elements are to consider when putting your summit together. Andy and Chris talk about the summits Andy has run, and what he has taken away as far as best practices.
LifterLMS allows you to create courses and memberships on your site. But there are some creative ways you can work with it to sell other styles of products as well, such as summits where you may use a membership for signups, but from the student’s perspective, it may appear as a summit in the title and you could have some pre-summit resources and possibly courses from your summit included in your membership afterwards.
At some point you’ve probably attended a webinar, and if you’re familiar with that format, a virtual summit is a webinar on steroids where you have people attend over the course of one or multiple days where various speakers give presentations on different topics. Sometimes these events include workbooks or formulas to achieve a specific outcome for attendees as well.
One of the largest challenges with summits is getting people to register and attend, along with finding speakers. So Andy and his team developed Postaga, a free all-in-one link building outreach tool that will find opportunities for your outreach based on websites relevant to your content.
Check out more about Andy Cabasso and what he’s up to at Postaga.com. You can also find him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Postaga is a really cool way to find people to connect with in your space based on the content you create and build up SEO for your site. Thanks for joining us!
Learn how you can upgrade your web development or coaching services in this LMScast featuring Russ Ruffino from Clients on Demand. He teaches coaches and consultants how they can build up their business by adding high-ticket programs in their service offerings at the $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 price points even if they don’t already have an audience or large following.
At Clients on Demand Russ works with consultants of all types, including business coaches, relationship coaches, fitness coaches, graphic designers, web designers, and career coaches. He teaches them how to get clients and how to attract a continuous stream of customers by selling high-ticket programs.
Russ talks about how most strategies shared about growing your business include pumping out endless amounts of content on social media. Maybe it’s YouTube videos or blog posts, but the idea is that if you build your audience large enough, you’ll have enough organic marketing to make sufficient sales to stay in business.
The approach Russ favors that has worked significantly better for his clients is to start with getting the Facebook ad conversion formula optimized for really making sales. By focusing on running ads to convert, you’re boosting the bottom line rather than the top of the funnel, which will really help you see the core of what you’ll need to do in your business to grow in a sustainable way.
In most cases, Russ’s clients are able to take a prospect from first click to conversion within 24 to 48 hours. His clients are able to get those results by basing their business and offerings around the outcome they create for their clients rather than basing their business on their own expertise or lifestyle.
If you’re an expert or coach in the LMS space, be sure to reach out to Russ at ClientsOnDemand.com/Talk to schedule your live sales call with a member of his team that has been empowering experts to establish and scale their expert business from the ground up for years. Thanks for joining us!
Will Middleton from WPCourseGuide joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast where he shares insights on best practices when starting a YouTube channel or entering the freelance website building space. Will has worked for years with LifterLMS building websites for clients, and he shares what he has learned and how he’s started his transition into a more leverageable stream of income doing affiliate work on YouTube.
At age 15 Will started doing freelance work with LifterLMS writing copy for this LMScast podcast. And after interacting with a company in the WordPress space, he used LifterLMS to build his own online course website, and then offered his experience to others. Starting at $20/hour doing user testing and content migration for LifterLMS sites, Will eventually moved to $50/hour building full websites, doing consulting work, and doing much more advanced use cases of LifterLMS.
Will shares how he was able to learn a bunch of WordPress tools including LifterLMS on the fly while helping clients implement them by focusing on what specific features he knew about and doing some free research to see if a specific setup is possible with a tool, and if so he’d implement it for the client or find some other possible options.
A strategy you can use to get started offering services in WordPress or any space is to offer basic services or what you know, such as copying/pasting work (content migrations), user testing (looking for bugs in the user experience), or even virtual assistant work with tools you know how to use such as Gmail and Microsoft Word.
Be sure to check out Will at WPCourseGuide.com/Lifter where he has a special offer for 50% off for LMScast listeners on his course about how to build super customizable websites using LifterLMS and Elementor. Once you’ve taken Will’s course and built your own WordPress site, you could apply to offer your experience to other LifterLMS users by being listed on the LifterLMS Experts page where you can take on clients and start making money building sites.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast from LifterLMS, Sally Crewe from ThePractitionerPlatform.com shares how she helps natural health practitioners start and grow their businesses. By teaching courses at and offering website building services, Sally has been able to encourage and enable many natural health practitioners to reach the next level in their businesses online.
WaaS is an acronym for Website As A Service. It is derived from the acronym SaaS, or Software As A Service. SaaS is when a company offers software on a recurring revenue model for continued support and updates of the product (LifterLMS, Elementor, WordPress themes, etc.). A WaaS is the same concept, but applied to a company that would host your website and offer you the tools you need for your site (WordPress.com for example).
Sally shares how one of the large advantages of a WaaS service within WordPress for business owners is that it gives you all of the power of WordPress without the hassle of learning how to set everything up. Clients can get into their sites, change out content, and be ready to go. The more niche your business is, the easier it is to create templates that cater specifically towards your audience, removing more of their friction with setting up.
After creating a course for others in the natural healing space on how they can create websites with WordPress to host their own courses, Sally got the feedback from students that they’d much rather pay for someone else to set it up for them and teach them how to use it. That’s when Sally really leaned into the WaaS service.
You can find out more about Sally Crewe and the things she has going on at ThePractitionerPlatform.com and TheOnlinePractitioner.com, where she has her resources for natural healers for creating their businesses and resources on getting your business shaped up and off the ground. Thanks for joining us!
Groundhogg CEO Adrian Tobey joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how B2B business owners can grow their software leads, ARPU, customer activation, and retention by adding online courses to their business to teach users how to use their products. Adrian shares how using LifterLMS to deliver courses has increased customer retention for Groundhogg and has served as a core piece of his content funnel.
Groundhogg is a CRM plugin for WordPress that allows you to manage your marketing, sales, and fulfillment emails all within WordPress. You may be familiar with companies like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign that allow you to send emails and manage your list and automations on their platform. Groundhogg brings all of that functionality right into the back end of WordPress.
Adrian shares some insights on how he uses LifterLMS for his product, and what specific courses they’ve built. As of this recording, he has 3 courses up on his site: - Quickstart Course: Built for new users to help them understand what they can do with Groundhogg and inspire some ideas that lead to much higher customer success. - Course Creator Essentials: A course specifically suited for how course creators can use Groundhogg to manage their email lists easily inside WordPress. - Certified Partner Training: Groundhogg runs a Certified Partner Program where they recommend experts who can help you with Groundhogg on your site. This course serves to train those professionals on how the program works, expectations, etc.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to head to Groundhogg.io to learn more about what Adrian and his team are up to and what you may want to consider if you’re looking for a tool to manage your email list. Adrian is also super interactive in his Facebook group: Groundhogg User Group (Official), so be sure to connect with him there, too. Thanks for joining us!
Chris Badgett from LifterLMS shares some key morning routines he uses to be more productive in the online space, and how online course creators can utilize morning and evening routines to optimize productivity and clarity throughout their days. Creating content and working on the internet often requires a mentality shift around how you interact with others compared to the in-person, live setup. Trying out some new strategies can help a lot with channeling course creation skills, and Chris shares some insights on that in this LMScast.
2020 has been a crazy year with a lot of focus being shifted to the digital space. We’ve definitely seen it at LifterLMS, and if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably seen a similar change going on.
Chris attributes most of his success as an entrepreneur over the past 10 years to his morning routine. By creating consistency early in the day when no one else is awake, he’s able to get the things done that he otherwise wouldn’t be able to get done, such as going on a walk every morning and working out. These things often get pushed to the back burner and are the things that get pushed out of the schedule if something else more urgent pops up. Learn about Chris’s routine in this episode and take away some tips to try for yourself.
Be sure to head to LifterLMS.com if you’re interested in picking up any LifterLMS products for our largest sale of the year at 20% off with the BlackFriday20 code running all November. If you’re already a LifterLMS customer and would like to upgrade, send our team an email to Team@LifterLMS.com and ask for an upgrade with the BlackFriday20 code, and they’ll send that to you with proration for your existing products.
LifterLMS is also running a special promotion if you purchase any products during November. Any products you purchase during November qualify for $2,400 in bonuses of extra resources for your LMS site and exclusive live group calls with Chris. Thanks for joining us!
Learn about how Malcolm Penalty started his own WordPress website agency, and the fascinating project he’s currently working on with the company 1 Million Teachers in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. The 1 Million Teachers project seeks to empower teachers in Africa to help the ever growing population by providing access to the tech they need to help students.
There is a major shortage of primary and secondary school teachers in second world countries all over the world, and by 2030 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) estimates there will need to be about 17 million more teachers in the continent of Africa and 69 million teachers worldwide.
That’s why Hakeem Subair and Rizma Butt decided to start the 1 Million Teachers project and help to empower the needed teachers across the globe to have the resources they need to teach students.
Originally the idea with solving the education problem was to go directly to students. There are many startups and support for students in these countries, but there is a deficit in teachers and leadership to help the students in those areas. That’s why Hakeem pivoted the mission to instead empower the aspiring teachers to best be able to help students where they’re needed.
Malcolm also shares how he initially got into WordPress while looking for a CRM tool that would give him a good jumping off point for sites he would build, rather than having to code everything from scratch. That’s when he found WordPress and eventually started his agency PressTitan to help business owners with the tech aspect of their websites, so they can focus elsewhere on their businesses.
You can find out more about Malcolm Peralty at PressTitan.com, and the project he and Chris talk about in this episode, 1 Million Teachers, can be found at 1MillionTeachers.com. You can also connect with Malcolm over Twitter at @FindPurpose or email at Malcolm@PressTitan.com
Omar Zenhom, founder of WebinarNinja joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss what course creators can learn from his journey, and how utilizing webinars can allow you to have a big impact with your audience and connect with more people than you would with a traditional 1-to-1 approach.
Omar shares his experience of having a father working in sales and how that led to a volatile income for the family, so he decided to go the complete opposite direction and work in education. He worked as a teacher in high school and university for 13 years, and during the last 5-6 years of that he dabbled in making money online and learning the ropes of entrepreneurship and online business.
Since Omar was doing well with teaching, filling in for a position he was preparing to be fully promoted to, he learned from the Dean of the university that they were going to go with an outside hire. And that lit the spark that made Omar fully commit to working as an entrepreneur full-time.
As a full-time entrepreneur, Omar worked running his own business consultancy firm where he helped businesses with marketing, sales, and general practices, and he eventually turned his knowledge into an online course he called The $100 MBA where he outlines all the knowledge he has gained along his journey.
While running webinars for his course, he had many people inquire about how he was running his webinars, and he let them know he had put together a simple program with PHP code just to make the process faster for himself. He decided to test out if others would be interested in the concept, so he ran a beta test offer and was sold out of his 250 seats in 48 hours. And that kicked off the WebinarNinja product and company.
At WebinarNinja.com you can learn more about Omar’s journey and how webinars can help accelerate your growth and connections with your audience. At WebinarNinja.com/Workshop you can also check out when the next WebinarNinja webinar will be to learn if it would be a good fit for your website.
In this LMScast, we have Rohan and Shreejith from the WisdmLabs team, on to talk about what you will want to take into consideration when building your LMS website. WisdmLabs is an agency that does work in the WordPress space around WooCommerce, mobile apps, and eLearning.
If you haven't worked with a web development agency before, agencies help you to implement tools on your website, but often the relationship goes beyond just implementing the tools. An agency will work with you to choose the best tools for your project, and figure out what your goals are and the best way to get your desired outcome for your students.
It's often hard to find the right developers to help implement the tech tools on your WordPress site. But by working with companies that help you strategize on what tools to implement, you’ll end up at a solution that better fits your needs.
With website projects, you’ll find that you can have two of the following: Cheap Fast Quality When you hire for a project that’s fast and cheap, often there will be low quality. When a project is quality and fast, it will end up with a bit of ticket shock with the pricing of what it takes to get the project done.
The WisdmLabs team works with a lot of websites that have recurring revenue built into their business model via subscriptions. This is a great way to go about building your site. If you can add recurring value, recurring revenue makes scaling your site a lot easier.
Working with a technology partner on your site makes it a lot easier to focus on the aspects of your business where you really like to engage. If you like creating content and interacting with customers, working with a tech partner like WisdmLabs makes that something you can do more of by having others handle the tech.
At WisdmLabs.com, you can check out all of the resources they have available and you can learn more about Rohan and Shreejith. You can also tweet to them at @WisdmLabs. Thanks for joining us!
Podcaster and agency owner Jason Resnick from Rezzz.com shares how freelancers and agency owners can find perfect fit clients for their businesses, and what he has learned from his years running a podcast in the online business ecosystem since 2014. Running a podcast is a great way to build up content around your area of expertise establishing yourself as an expert and to expand your network.
Jason shares a key tip for freelancers and agencies in this episode about how often finding perfect fit clients comes down to finding character traits you work well with, rather than finding a specific niche you work well in. When trying to qualify perfect fit clients, freelancers will think about what niches they’ve had good experiences in. But sometimes that doesn't have as much to do with the niche as it does with the character traits that the client had that made it easy to work with them.
If you run an agency or freelance practice, try thinking about what character traits clients have that make it super easy to work with them, rather than what niche they were in. That may give you some more insight on what you should do when qualifying them to see if working together would be a good fit.
If you like working over email rather than live calls, maybe part of your qualifying process is having the client fill out a form rather than hopping on a Zoom call to see how well they can work in that format.
To learn more about Jason Resnick, be sure to check his podcast Live In The Feast at Rezzz.com. He has information on his website that helps you figure out how you can get started on the road to getting the best, perfect fit clients, and how you can change the way you view various social media platforms to figure out the best way to find more customers for your services. Thanks for joining us!
Kurt Von Ahnen joins Chris Badgett in this LMScast episode to share his journey from working in corporate training to running his own independent course creation company.
Kurt had been in the car business for a long time working on the service side of the industry, and when the economy crashed in 2008 it didn’t make sense to work for 14 hours making $30, so he wanted to figure out a way to reinvent himself. He wrote and published his own book on service writing and ended up making contact with Ducati after they read that.
A service writer is someone at a dealership that you’d talk to if you went in to get an oil change, tire rotation, or had a break down with your car, and they would document what needs to be done and pass the information on to the technicians. And specific training on optimizing service writing is a great niche that Kurt has been able to enter in his industry of power sports.
The standard in service writing for training is to have 10-12 service writers fly across the country to meet up live at a venue such as a hotel or school meeting room to go through training material live, but Kurt was able to get hired by Ducati and Suzuki to help them develop online courses to deliver their training content through a more efficient and cost-effective manner.
Near the end of 2016, Kurt was working at Suzuki and was overweight to the extent that he had real trouble riding a bike. So he and his wife signed up for Transformation Camp, and he ended up losing over 60 pounds. Following that, he became really interested in BMX biking, motorcycle racing, and challenge running-style events with his family.
Kurt now applies the knowledge he’s learned from the corporate world and health to his training at Mañana No Mas, where he teaches about service writing, leadership, and health and how they all tie together.
You can learn more about Kurt Von Ahnen and Mañana No Mas at MananaNoMas.com, and you can check out his courses at LMS.MananaNoMas.com. Thanks for joining us!
Jan Koch joins Chris Badgett on this LMScast to discuss how online course creators can grow their communities and niche networks through a virtual summit. Having been in the WordPress space since 2012, Jan has a lot of experience working as a developer, entrepreneur, and educator. He’s recently been running virtual summits and is seeing increasing success, and he shares some great insider tips for running a successful event.
In 2015, Jan learned how he could use a virtual summit to take his freelance website development business to the next level. At the time, he was building sites for clients and had the typical feast and famine cycle. He found that running a virtual summit would be a good way to pivot his business and expand.
The technology to run a virtual summit is at your fingertips. Jan uses Zoom to host meetings and webinars, along with recording them. Then he uses Vimeo to host the videos to add to members' areas after the summit is over.
Jan’s first summit was called Ecom Services Summit. He considers that one a failure, as it had only 700 registrations when his goal was 3,000 registrations. The reason it failed was Jan’s messaging and targeting wasn’t on point. Many course creators struggle with that exact same thing. Clearly communicating the value of your event is super important for messaging to your audience.
Jan shares some methods for making sure you have a great attendee experience, but are also able to monetize your summit through sponsorship packages and possibly having summit recordings in a course format after the summit is over.
Jan runs a Facebook group called WP Mastery, so be sure to check that out and connect with him there. You can also find him on Twitter at @IAmJanKoch. And at WPAgencySummit.com, you can see how Jan is running his virtual summit. If you run a website building agency, you may get some great value out of his summit there.
Dean Holland joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast where Dean shares his experience running an education company, affiliate marketing resources, and his journey as an entrepreneur from being over $60,000 in debt to running six-figure education companies.
At age 16 Dean left school and worked in a restaurant waiting on tables, and over the course of 2 years he moved up to the chef position and then to the management team. He then took the money he had and started a food truck with his industry knowledge and was doing pretty well with that, making between $300 and $500 per day.
A while into his mobile food truck business, Dean was robbed by 3 guys who stole all of his equipment, and that experience left him shaken up and back working in a pub making the same wage he had been before starting his own business. He then turned to finding ways to make money online, such as network marketing and filling out surveys for cash. But that didn’t end up working out for him.
During the years between 2004 and 2008, Dean spent a lot of money on online programs trying to make money and racked up a lot in credit card debt. He consolidated it and paid it off, but then ended up continuing to use the credit cards and found himself $60,000 in credit card debt.
Dean attended a conference where he got the advice to start a blog outlining his experiences with making money online, and that he should stop hiding the truth from himself about his debt. And that is what kicked off his journey of going from being in debt to learning how to find success in the affiliate and online education spaces.
If you’re interested in learning more about Dean Holland, be sure to check out DeanHolland.com where he has his book available called The Iceberg Effect in which he dives into more detail on finding success as an affiliate marketer.
Angela Brown joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss her niche membership site journey and success story. Angela is the founder of SavvyCleaner.com, and she has a podcast and YouTube show called Ask a House Cleaner. Angela shares how she learned the world of online education and completely transformed her business model in order to provide for her family long-term leading up to a future retirement.
The evolution of starting as an expert house cleaner, to becoming a business owner, to teaching other business owners, and moving into the online space to teach at scale is a rough outline of Angela’s journey. But she really breaks down a wealth of tips for course creators new to the online space as to how to acquire the skills needed to be successful in the online environment.
Angela has now trained companies in 31 countries across the globe and over 25 years she has perfected her training process, so she can optimally teach others how to practice the disciplines of cleaning a house and what best practices work best for being successful in her industry.
Creating a recurring revenue membership site is a great way to scale your business. And it’s a lot easier to keep an existing customer than it is to sell to a new customer, so recurring revenue adds a lot of value to your business, and Angela emphasizes how important it is to build out that recurring revenue model. Keep recurring value ideas in the back of your mind when building your site, as that’s what will help you create a culture where people continue to want to engage with your content.
If you’d like to learn more about Angela Brown, check out SavvyCleaner.com and her podcast and YouTube show called Ask a House Cleaner. You can model after what she has set up, and she’s an amazing case study of the power of online education and what a dedicated entrepreneur can do with an idea and the tools to make it happen. Thanks for joining us!
This episode of LMScast is a great discussion between Mark Thompson from PayKickstart and Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They dive into how you can launch products and how important recurring revenue is to scaling your business. Mark is the co-founder of PayKickstart, which is a tool that manages eCommerce and affiliates for product entrepreneurs online, so he shares some great knowledge he has picked up on his journey as well.
Mark makes a great point in this episode that understanding customers’ reasons for churning in your business and not sticking with your recurring payment program is key to making sure you’re able to keep people onboard. If your churn rate is 30-40% per month, then you shouldn’t be putting more resources into marketing the program to get more people in until you’ve fixed the hole in your ship of that high churn rate.
Mark also speaks to managing your relationship with affiliates for your site. One point is that you can reward affiliates for referrals even if they don’t convert. It could be something like $1 per lead, but that is a great way to keep them incentivized to participate in your program. Chris shares how in the LifterLMS affiliate program, and in pretty much every other company’s program, there’s an 80/20 split on commissions where roughly 20 percent of affiliates generate roughly 80 percent or more of sales.
One key takeaway from this episode is that the most successful product launches have a one-time price at the top of the funnel and upsells with at least one that includes the recurring revenue model.
At PayKickstart.com/pricing you can sign up for a 14-day free trial of any of their plans that includes a step-by-step walkthrough of how you can get set up and get your first product live, along with extensive documentation and guides on setting up products and being successful with sales and managing affiliates. Thanks for joining us!
Andriy Haydash shares how he helps entrepreneurs in the online course space build their websites, and some useful models for course creators and membership site owners. In this episode, he and Chris discuss Andriy’s journey as a freelancer running his own practice along with what he has learned about building successful online course websites.
Andriy is listed on Codable.io, which is a freelance directory where you can find WordPress developers to help with your website. He noticed a lot of traffic was going to people looking for help with their membership websites, rather than just general website help. So Andriy decided to focus on the niche of LMS site owners so that he could provide more specific value there and attract higher value clients.
Many people view an LMS website and a membership website as the same thing, when they are a bit different. Andriy explains how a membership site is usually a paywall to gain access to a library of content, whereas an LMS focuses more on the student experience and includes lessons, quizzes, and a more structured program overall.
If you’re working on building a membership website, recurring revenue is a great way to scale profit, but it does require recurring value if you want to keep people engaged. If you don’t have recurring value but you are offering courses, you could alternatively use a membership to offer all courses in a bundle.
One great tip Andriy shares in this episode is that you should try and keep your initial course launch minimal, so you can really see where people are interested in seeing more content. If you build out a suite of features, you won’t as easily see what features customers want, and they may not be at all interested in features you spent a lot of time and money building into your site.
To learn more about Andriy Haydash, you can contact him directly on his website at Andriy.Space. You can also find him on YouTube and his Facebook page as well. Thanks for joining us!
Marcel Petitpas from Parakeeto joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss what course creators and agency owners can learn from utilizing historical data to make decisions and lead to more accurate estimations on projects, and what work is required to build a course or design a site for a client.
Marcel points out how many online business owners forget about the cost of earning their revenue when they calculate their revenue projections in a service-based business. This is often the reason many agency owners struggle with cashflow when they grow their team. With fixed project rates and scope creep, the cost of earning revenue can be much higher than many freelancers and agencies anticipate.
If you’re not performing a clearly defined process for clients, it is often wise to bill by the hour. That allows you to do complex development that you couldn’t scope out as easily and to come up with a price that allows you to have a consistently good profit margin.
A key takeaway Marcel shares in this episode is that you really need to understand your business model. If you offer any kind of service, you don’t have fixed costs, so you need to account for the fact that you need to earn your revenue.
Understanding your capacity as an agency is a huge challenge, and using a tool like Parakeeto that shows you calculated estimates on how a project is likely to perform is a great way to manage projects you take on and what resources you use to complete those projects.
At Parakeeto.com/Toolkit you can download the free template Marcel uses for calculating estimation metrics for his clients. He also has a great podcast at Parakeeto.com/Blog that covers how you can increase your profits as an agency owner and many other marketing tactics.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast, Brad Touesnard of Delicious Brains shares his story of founding several products for WordPress developers. Brad has also created a mastermind ski retreat called Big Snow Tiny Conf, and he shares the genesis of that and some great tips for how you could start a mastermind program to connect with others in your space.
Working online can be isolating, especially if you’re located remotely where there are not a lot of people working from home in your local area. In heavily populated areas there are often WordPress tech meetups and networking events that you can check out. But if you’re located remotely, there are some alternatives to look into. A remote online mastermind can be a great way to connect, and a yearly retreat is another great tool to consider.
Chris and Brad dive into Brad’s four main products built for WordPress developers at Delicious Brains. This is a high-level breakdown of what the products can do for you: WP Migrate DB Pro: copy your WordPress website database over to another website. WP Offload Media: host your media files (images, PDFs, etc.) on a service such as Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage and embed it on your website to improve website speed. WP Offload SES: easily send emails through your site via Amazon SES. SpinupWP: cloud-based server control panel that allows you to create websites without manually installing WordPress and going through the entire setup.
Big Snow Tiny Conf is a mastermind event Brad created where he gets together with other business owners to snowboard, network, and share ideas about business with one another. He breaks down how he put that event together in this episode.
You can find out more about Brad and the developments he has going on at DeliciousBrains.com and BigSnowTinyConf.com. We also discussed Brian Casel who has been featured on the LMScast, so be sure to find that along with the interview with Ken Wallace of MastermindJam. Thanks for joining us!
In this LMScast, we’re joined by Melissa Love, a professional designer who has built some amazing products for WordPress site builders and beautiful layouts for websites. Melissa runs a membership site called The Marketing Fix where she teaches business owners how to get on top of their design and make the process a whole lot easier. She also sells child themes for Divi that can help you jump start your site building process at TheDesignSpace.co.
Many website builders start out by finding a template they like online and switching out text, images, and fonts, and it doesn’t end up looking as cohesive as it did on the template. Melissa always starts out the design process offline on paper, where she’ll draw out a brand guide with colors, fonts, etc. Then she’ll design the layout of the homepage on paper before getting into the browser to start designing things on the website itself.
A lot of website builders are afraid of white space, and they end up packing in so much information that it ends up driving leads away. Melissa shares how when she has split tested white space versus the compact layout, there was a higher bounce rate with information that is packed in with little negative space.
Divi is a popular theme in the WordPress space, and Melissa shares how she was the first person to sell a Divi child theme. A child theme for Divi often includes some page templates, CSS styling, fonts, central color controls, etc. But the concept wasn’t something that was offered as a product until Melissa created her child theme and offered it to the community.
Melissa has a lot of free training on Facebook and Instagram, so if you’re interested in learning more about mastering design for your online course websites, be sure to check her out on those platforms. You can also find her at TheMarketingFix.co and TheDesignSpace.co. Thanks for joining us!
Jilt is an email marketing tool built specifically for eCommerce stores, so if you’re working with WooCommerce with your LifterLMS website, this episode of LMScast featuring Beka Rice is a great one to tune into. Beka is the product leader at Jilt, and in this episode she shares what course creators can learn about building educational products from her experience as a product leader at both SkyVerge and Jilt.
Starting out as a high school chemistry teacher, Beka became involved with the WordPress space in the classroom setting, and eventually ended up writing documentation for WooCommerce products from the user’s perspective. From there she became interested in the development of products in the WordPress space and learned coding and development skills.
Validation and iteration are key to developing a course program that really sticks with people, and Beka shares how having a freemium model with your services can be a fine thing to move into. But if you start out supporting a free tool, you likely won’t end up being able to make the paid product or course a success.
Chris shares how LifterLMS got started as a paid plugin, but then over time ended up transitioning into the freemium model where there is a core free product and paid add-ons to go on top of that for additional functionality.
Finding the right early adopters can really help you get off the ground in a positive direction. Beka shares how staying true to understanding who your customers are and what you’re building is key to avoiding bloat with your program and really staying problem-focused.
You can find out more about the suite of plugins built for eCommerce entrepreneurs at SkyVerge.com, and at Jilt.com you can see the marketing automation tool built specifically for eCommerce entrepreneurs. Thanks for joining us!
Kay Peacey joins Chris Badgett on this episode of LMScast to discuss how online course creators and membership site owners can take advantage of ActiveCampaign for automating their marketing. For those unfamiliar with it, ActiveCampaign is a CRM tool that allows you to store contact records for all of your list (email, phone, name, custom fields, etc.). ActiveCampaign is a great tool for the balance between being a powerful tool and relatively easy to use when compared to Infusionsoft.
There are a few different levels of CRMs we recommend at LifterLMS. Typically the stack is laid out as follows: MailChimp for beginners, ConvertKit for intermediate users, and ActiveCampaign for advanced users. Each CRM has a different level of depth of what you can do with them regarding automations and tagging.
One great tip Kay shares in this episode is that one easy thing you can do when setting up your marketing automation is to have a free lead magnet that can be a blog post, video, or guide that answers a question you see pop up in the community around the products you create content for.
Avoiding going over 5 lists and avoiding going over 50 tags is a great tip Kay shares in this episode to help you prevent yourself from going down the tangled rabbit hole. WP Fusion is also a tool worth checking out if you’re interested in LifterLMS + WordPress + ActiveCampaign, as it does the work of tying them all together and giving you the power to do some cool automations between the tools.
If you’re interested in learning more about Kay Peacey and how you can learn to master the ActiveCampaign CRM tool that will allow you to automate your marketing funnels, be sure to check out her free course at SlickBusiness.co. ActiveCampaign also has a free trial for 2 weeks, so you can take Kay’s course and try out the ActiveCampaign interface to see if it’s a good fit for you. Thanks for joining us!
Tom Fanelli of Convesio shares how online course creators can leverage the power of his game changing hosting technology to make sure your website is always online and has the power to scale effectively and in the most cost-efficient way. Chris and Tom discuss the current state of the web hosting industry, and what course creators are going to want to keep in mind when looking for a great web host.
Tom breaks down the different types of hosting available today from shared hosting that you can find with companies such as GoDaddy or Bluehost to VPS hosting that operates on similar technology, but is dedicated and optimized a bit more for your website. Then you have cloud hosting that encompasses anything that doesn’t fit into the first two categories, such as AWS hosting or Google’s cloud hosting solutions. There’s also managed WordPress hosting from companies such as Flywheel or WP Engine that focus on WordPress rather than hosting your own coded website on something like Joomla (an alternative CMS to WordPress).
Convesio has a very cool self-healing system built in, and Tom explains the details behind how all of that works. In essence, it allows your website hosting server to automatically scan for issues with sites hosted and take steps to repair the issue.
He shares an example of before he started Convesio where this type of tool would have been extremely handy in a situation with a client’s site going down. The example Tom shares was a situation where the site went down at 5:00am and ended up being down for 5 hours. With Convesio, the system would automatically detect the site is down and restart the PHP, and the problem would have been solved in 15 seconds compared to the 5 hours with a system requiring human intervention.
At Convesio.com you can learn more about Tom Fanelli and the game-changing technology they’ve cultivated for businesses looking to host a website online. Thanks for joining us!
Jean Perpillant joins Chris Badgett in this LMScast episode to discuss how online course creators can level up their marketing strategy and web design using photography. Jean is the founder of Design Theory, a digital agency dedicated to consultation for companies around their photography, web design, and marketing.
Chris and Jean dive into how stock photography can kill the brand of a website, and how the most important thing with photography on your website is to be as original as you possibly can and as unique as possible.
Jean shares his story of getting started with Design Theory over 11 years ago, and initially his goal was to create websites for people. But as he worked with optimizing his sample websites, he leaned into his talent for improving the design via images, optimizing text, and optimizing the design overall.
Chris and Jean discuss an example of a parenting course and what could be done as a great graphic or video to communicate to possible customers what the experience of taking a course on your platform may be like. Consumers form judgements about a company or brand based on first impressions, so Jean breaks down this example in a way that could be applied to an advertisement or a graphic for your website that might be used in the parenting niche.
One great concept from author Seth Godin is to be as specific as possible with your marketing message. One example of a highly specific online course would be: “My program is for busy, homeschooling moms with more than two kids who are also living in a rural area.” Having a highly specific customer avatar allows you to target that niche specifically. And when prospects hear your message, they will feel a more personalized experience.
This episode has a lot of great content for course creators looking to level up their design, but if you’re interested in learning more about Jean Perpillant and what he has going on, be sure to check him out at JPDesignTheory.com. Thanks for joining us!
Devin Walker from GiveWP joins Chris Badgett in this LMScast where they discuss how online course creators and entrepreneurs can incorporate donations into their websites. If you’re working on a nonprofit website or any site looking to collect donations, GiveWP offers a great way to do that through WordPress.
Many nonprofits raise money offline, but GiveWP allows you to add donation functionality to your WordPress website with a highly advanced reporting system to show donors and complete donation history. GiveWP offers the ability to integrate with Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, 2Checkout, and many more gateways, so you can collect payments around the world.
Devin shares a few key tips for collecting donations through your website, such as creating a recurring donation option to help scale, and how you can feature your story on your website to help promote the donation options available.
GiveWP also has some great reporting features for donors, such as providing simple donation receipts that donors can pass on to their CPA to itemize on their taxes. They also have the feature of an end of the year report that shows all donations made that year, so if someone makes multiple donations or is doing donations on a subscription basis, they’ll have a complete record of that to pass on to their CPA as well.
As a course creator, you can create some cool setups with GiveWP, such as offering people early access to a course for donating. If you’re donating portions of your proceeds to another cause, you could also say you’ll match donations up to $1,000 to incentivize people to donate, get access, and know that their money is going further to help a specific cause with you matching their donation.
To learn more about Devin Walker and what GiveWP can bring to your WordPress LMS website, be sure to check out GiveWP.com. Thanks for joining us!
StartupBros founder Will Mitchell talks with Chris Badgett in this LMScast about how course creators can deliver group coaching and sell your product before building out your course programs by interacting with your audience on a high level. Will shares his journey and motivation creating StartupBros and his business Simply Organic Beauty, along with some great tips for course creators developing a program online.
Often when building an online course, we see course creators spend months or years building out a course without an audience. And when they launch, they find no one is interested in their program. Will shares in this episode how you can engage with your audience in a live coaching format or through webinars and build your course product from the ideas they bring to the table that they want to learn.
Experimenting is key when figuring out what businesses will and won't work. Will shares an idea out of the book, The Lean Startup, that you need to get as many ideas to the point of failure as soon as possible to see which ideas can hold up and which ones will fall through. Many ideas for businesses and online courses will not work out as well as we expect, but figuring out that an idea isn’t going to work as fast as possible is key to landing on the idea that will work well.
Touching the lives of your audience and making an emotional impact is important for developing life-long customers and keeping your leads engaged. If your customers remember you and like you because the content you give them stands out and is exceptionally valuable, you will build a much better connection than you would by spamming your customers with offers and ending up in their email promotions tab.
At StartupBros.com you can find out more about what kind of online course you should build for your community, and how you can really tap into what your potential customers are looking for. You can also reach out directly to Will at will@startupbros.com. Thanks for joining us!
Zack Katz of GravityView joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can unlock incredible functionality on their websites by taking advantage of how GravityView allows you to display form submissions on the front end of your website.
For anyone new to the WordPress space, Gravity Forms is a form builder in WordPress, and GravityView is a separate tool that allows you to display form submissions on the front end of your website. So if you have a testimonial form on the last lesson in your course, you may want those forms to automatically display on a page once people submit the form. That’s where GravityView is super helpful.
Zack shares some great use cases for GravityView, including how you can utilize the Gravity Forms map integration to create an online marketplace that shows users in a similar area selling products, or you could even create a social network with people in your area who share similar interests to you.
Another use case for GravityView is if you are collecting donations and want to display the latest donors on a page without having to put them there manually. By collecting donations via a Gravity Form, you can also have GravityView post in your directory setup once that form is submitted with the donor’s name and donation amount. You could even have an opt-in box on your form, so they could opt out of being shown on the list if they didn’t want to appear there.
At GravityView.co you can learn more about the setups you can create with GravityView for your online course website. Everything from testimonials, collecting donations, and segmenting leads for your email list, to building an entire directory is possible, so be sure to reach out to GravityView support or their community to see if you can create the setup you’re looking for with your online course website. Thanks for joining us!
Vito Peleg of WP FeedBack joins Chris Badgett in this LMScast episode to discuss how WordPress developers can improve the process of communicating around making revisions on websites with clients. WP FeedBack allows you to have clients highlight parts of the website and go over revisions in a layered manner that makes the process of making changes a lot easier.
Vito and Chris share how they both got their start in the WordPress space as freelancers and have since moved to the product entrepreneur side of things. Twenty years ago Vito built his first website at age 14. He shares the process of how he decided to pursue a career in music by touring the world with his band and went all over Europe. But when he found there wasn’t much money in that industry for him, he ended up building websites for clients and grew his freelance practice from there.
While Vito achieved six figures in his first year running a website development agency and by year three had 12 people in his agency, he found that all of the issues the agency was facing came down to client communications. So he became obsessed with finding a solution to this issue, and that’s where the idea for WP FeedBack came from.
Chris shares how he got started in the WordPress space by having his own blog website and using the skills he learned there to build out a skillset for building websites for clients using WordPress. He eventually built an agency from there targeted towards online courses and coaching websites that would eventually fuel his interest in developing LifterLMS.
You can save a lot of time by using a tool like WP FeedBack to optimize how you communicate with your clients, but Vito and Chris also talk about a few best practices for how as a freelancer you can set deadlines and project limits to not be affected by scope creep and get jobs done on time.
You can learn more about how to simplify the process of getting client feedback and making site revisions at WPFeedBack.co. Thanks for joining us!
Dan Martell joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators and coaches can sell premium programs. Dan shares his journey from starting out in the world of business to immersing completely and starting his YouTube channel, eventually leading to the creation of his massively successful program SaaS Academy.
About a year ago Chris enrolled in SaaS Academy, and he shares what aspects of Dan and his program made Chris very interested and eventually led to the sale. Being a lifestyle entrepreneur was a big selling point for Chris, seeing how Dan highly values family, kids, and friends really was an inspiring factor to Dan’s stack for Chris.
One great quote from this episode is, “The riches are in the niches.” Dan speaks to how he has become very focused on the SaaS company owners as his ideal customers rather than entrepreneurs in general, because it allows him to dive deep into specific use cases and really provide a high amount of value to a smaller audience, rather than trying to have everyone as his customers, as that typically ends up with no one as your customer.
Dan shares why he’s decided to adjust his programs so they are around one year or longer for the full customer journey, because when he was working with six month programs he would find there was a lot of stress to constantly be worried about enrolling new students.
Be sure to look up Dan Martell on YouTube and subscribe to his great content there. He’s got his podcast Escape Velocity that we recommend checking out. You can also find Dan on social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. He tries to use every platform differently, so be sure to connect with him wherever you're at online. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast Terri Tutich shares best practices for WordPress course creators and knowledge from her experience building WordPress websites and being active in the WordPress space. Chris and Terri dive into why backups are crucial, and some other tips from the projects Terri has worked on.
A key WordPress tip Terri shares in this episode is that it is very important to always have backups in place. There are situations that can be out of your control, such as getting hacked due to weak passwords, plugin vulnerabilities, or you may need a backup even if you install a new theme or plugin that changes or deletes content on your site. Having backups in place is something good website hosts will have, but you can also create backups via a plugin, such as BackupBuddy.
Many course creators find themselves hung up on the tech in the process of building their websites. Either they are stuck and don’t know how to work with the tools or they are so invested in the tools and spend so much time getting into the tech that they get burnt out and fail to launch their program. Working with someone like Terri is a great way to avoid getting stuck in the weeds there.
Terri shares the breakdown of her service offerings in this episode as well. She offers backups and updates in a maintenance package as a basic offering for making sure a website is healthy and up to date. She also has workshops where she walks organizations through how to manage their WordPress site with backups, updates, staging sites, and general security best practices.
To learn more about Terri Tuchich and the great things she has to offer, be sure to check out BeyondTheOffice.com. She has a guide to WordPress ownership there, so you can opt-in to learn more about managing WordPress if you’re new to the ecosystem. Thanks for joining us!
Ali Mathis from the LifterLMS team joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss the latest release from LifterLMS, LifterLMS Groups. Ali and Chris talk about the idea behind LifterLMS Groups, the problems it solves for course creators, and the opportunities it opens up for how you can offer your online course programs to companies and organizations.
LifterLMS is now about five and a half years old. Over the lifetime of LifterLMS, we’ve developed 20+ add-ons for course creators, such as additional quiz functionality, assignments, social learning components, and private coaching. Now that the fundamentals of an LMS are in place, LifterLMS Groups allows you to expand your LMS site’s reach by having the ability to offer seats in courses to companies at scale.
One great use case for LifterLMS Groups is industry training for companies. The LifterLMS voucher system filled this role before, where you can create a code employees can use to sign up for a course, but now you can give each company you sell courses to their own branded dashboard, and they can manage students and view reporting directly from your website.
Ali and Chris talk about the future of LifterLMS Groups, and what the LifterLMS team has in development for the tool moving forward. One large feature currently being built out is the ability to sell groups and have buyers get automatic access. Currently that process is manually set up by the website admin, but that will be automated with Groups release 2.0. Another upcoming feature is to have the ability to sell seats in your group with a discount if a customer purchases X number of seats. So if you wanted to incentivize companies to purchase 100 seats in your course, you could apply a discount of 10% when they hit that 100 seat threshold.
To learn more about LifterLMS Groups, be sure to check it out at LifterLMS.com/Product/Groups. Thanks for joining us!
We dive into how writing a nonfiction book can help you get more leads and sales for your online course website with Julie Eason in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Chris and Julie dive into how selling your book through Amazon can be a great strategy for spreading awareness of your course website by using profits from selling the book to fund ads to sell more books and spread more awareness for your program.
Adding a book to your product stack along with your online course is something to consider as a value add to your program as well. Delivering results to your students is important, but how you deliver that value is less important. We talk a lot about how mixed media courses can accommodate different learning styles, and adding a book to your program allows people who prefer to read to learn best.
As an expert creating a course, you’re challenged with turning your years or decades of expertise into something people can use to achieve a result. Many experts building courses can struggle when it comes to instructional design, because rather than teaching students to get results, they’re sharing their expertise, which may not be as useful for overcoming the hurdle standing in your students’ way.
Many course creators who are industry experts struggle when it comes to building a funnel for their program. Julie shares how authoring a book is a great way to take your students from a state of being problem aware to being solution aware. Then you can position your course product as one option for achieving the results they’re looking for.
Chris and Julie also cover the dangers of writing a lousy book, and how while writing a book can serve as a great tool for selling courses, it is also important for that work to be something to be proud of as a stand-alone product.
To learn more about Julie Eason and how you can leverage the power of authoring a book for your online course, visit NonfictionBookAcademy.com/LMScast. Thanks for joining us!
WaaS entrepreneur Michael Short joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how entrepreneurs and freelance agencies can take advantage of the opportunities that come with the rise of websites as a service to build websites for customers.
WaaS companies are becoming more common as we see developers, freelancers, and agencies offering website builds as a product or service offering. Things like turnkey solutions and Shopify are great examples of this. The older way of building websites was connecting with a webmaster who can code you a website. Then we saw WordPress and other companies that allow you to build out your own website. And now we have the emergence of people offering services and out of the box solutions for websites in the WaaS space.
Michael also shares his ventures in WaaS services in the automotive industry providing websites to mechanics, auto detailers, paintless dent repair technicians, car washes, and businesses in that space. His setup teaches them what pictures they need to take and where to put them on the website. They also integrate with Groundhogg for email marketing automation within WordPress.
Removing the friction of setting up a website and going through the process of working with a developer by implementing a way for customers to buy and get set up before interacting with someone directly makes the process cheaper for the customer and easier for the developer. If you are a freelancer working with building websites or an agency building sites for clients, the WaaS-Pro offerings may be able to help you optimize your process and/or become your process for building sites.
To learn more about Michael Short and what he is up to with WaaS-Pro, be sure to head over to WaaS-Pro.com. You can also join his Facebook group to connect with his community there. Thanks for joining us!
Donata and Hans from Termageddon share how you can have an up-to-date privacy policy and terms and conditions statement for your online course website in this LMScast. Legal compliance with privacy policies is something many course creators overlook. Donata and Hans share how important it is for legal compliance to have a privacy policy that is not only compliant with where your business is registered, but also everywhere you do business (sell your courses).
Termageddon is a tool that allows you to protect your website by having a privacy policy that is in compliance with everywhere you do business for just $10 per month. Similar to having backups to protect your website for times when you may be hacked, having a compliant privacy policy allows you to dodge major fines for violating privacy laws anywhere you sell online courses.
One strong point made by Donata and Hans in this episode is that privacy laws are put in place to protect the citizens, not the businesses, so the most important thing to remember as a rule of thumb is to comply with the laws everywhere you do business. If you’re selling courses to people in Nevada and collecting their data, you’ll need to be in compliance with Nevada’s privacy laws.
A lot of small businesses online think privacy laws such as GDPR don't affect them, as they don’t go after small businesses. But small businesses are prosecuted and fined, we just don’t hear about the smaller cases in the news. Fines can range anywhere from $2,500 per violation to 20 million euros.
If your privacy policy may be out of date, we definitely recommend checking out Termageddon.com to learn about how you can easily be in compliance and protect your company legally with your privacy policy. Thanks for joining us!
Rob and Kennedy of ResponseSuite join us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course creators can generate site leads and sales using surveys. Better understanding your audience and segmenting your highly engaged users can be a great way to get sales from the leads you already have. Rob and Kennedy share quick wins and strategy for course creators on how to build up their online course marketing in this episode.
Dedicating part of your sales funnel to customers you’ve already got is a huge part of what Rob and Kennedy recommend when it comes to your marketing. A lot of course creators and people doing business online will focus on getting new traffic, but understanding and marketing to your current audience is a great way to build relationships with hot leads.
Kennedy shares a two question survey template you can use to figure out exactly where your customers are and deliver tailored sequences to them based on where they’re at. Question one is to ask, “How experienced are you with this?” Then the second question is, “What is your biggest challenge?” This template allows you to figure out exactly where your customer is on their journey, and thus how you can help them get to the next level.
You can use the results from your survey to tag your audience accordingly and send them messages based on that. Overwhelm is a big reason people will leave membership sites, so segmenting your audience also allows you to deliver the perfect amount of content to your students.
To learn more about ResponseSuite, what it has to offer, and the great work Rob and Kennedy are doing there, head to https://responsesuitedeal.com/lifterlms and sign up for their two week trial for $1. They also have a free 20 minute consultation call with either Rob or Kennedy to help you figure out what questions to ask and how to get your surveys and segmenting going.
Sheryle Gillihan from CauseLabs shares how her company has been helping nonprofits accelerate their mission and impact the lives of others. In this episode, she breaks down some of the work they have been doing putting together a workforce training program for youth in Kenya using LifterLMS and WordPress.
Sheryle shares the idea of human centered design, which is the process of applying ideas in a very similar manner to the scientific method to problems in business, design, and development. Taking this approach has helped the nonprofits they work with greatly.
In agency and freelance work, it is often important to work with a company to achieve their goals rather than working for a company purely on implementation. Many times companies will ask for something that is not exactly what they need to get the solution they want. Sheryle and her team at CauseLabs really work with clients to figure out the best solution, which helps fit projects within a budget and deliver the results they need.
Sheryle shares the use case she has been working on with CauseLabs using LifterLMS where they have been able to help a nonprofit in Kenya dedicated to helping youth enter the workforce by delivering courses that teach them about electrical, painting, welding, plumbing, and more. The program is targeted mainly towards women, as they are seeking employment in that area, and the platform CauseLabs has set up in coordination with the nonprofit has helped make that education accessible.
Chris shares a quote that “the future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” Using technology to help distribute information to those who need to learn a particular skill is a great way to use a platform like LifterLMS, and it’s awesome to see companies like CauseLabs make that happen.
To learn more about Sheryle Gillihan and CauseLabs, be sure to head to CauseLabs.com. Thanks for joining us!
We are joined by Craig Hweitt from Castos in this episode of LMScast. Castos is a podcasting platform, and Craig shares what he has learned about how podcasts can help online businesses with content marketing and what it takes to have a great podcast setup if you’re just starting out trying to grow your audience.
Chris notes that one of the most common ways people find out about LifterLMS is through the LMScast podcast Chris hosts or by Chris appearing on other people’s podcasts. It is a great form of marketing and relationship building, so as a course creator if you’re comfortable creating the content for a podcast, it can often be a great thing to do.
Many course creators and people who do business online start a podcast aiming to get about 10 million downloads per episode or some huge number like entrepreneurs such as Tim Ferris have for their shows. Craig speaks to how if you even have 50 downloads per episode you have 50 people tuning into what you have to say every week, and that is something rare, especially if you’re targeting a niche market with your program.
Craig talks about how the big place he sees people get stuck when creating a podcast is when they look at all of the tech and systems of the people who have been doing podcasting for a long time, and they think it is too big of a mountain to climb. Getting over the hurdle of getting started and starting to produce content only requires good audio that you can get from even an $80 microphone, or apple headphones do a fine job as well, if you’re just getting started.
You can find Craig Hewitt at Castos.com, and they have a blog there at Castos.com/Blog that has all sorts of resources for helping new and experienced podcasters. They also have a special deal for LMScast listeners. If you use the code LifterLMS50 when upgrading to one of their paid plans, you can get 50% off your first three months subscription. Thanks for joining us!
We are joined by Rodica Irodiu in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Rodica is a developer with ThemeIsle, and she had a large part in creating the Neve theme for WordPress. It has specific LifterLMS functionality integrated in it. She and Chris discuss the Neve theme and LifterLMS, along with how course creators can optimize their sites to create fast, beautiful online course websites.
Many themes in the WordPress ecosystem that offer a lot of functionality don’t integrate well with page builders, such as Beaver Builder or Elementor. This inspired the ThemeIsle team to build a theme from scratch that integrates well with those page builders, but can also offer options around customizing the layout in coordination with page builders.
ThemeIsle started as a company called Coding WP seven years ago in Bucharest, Romania. Over the years they have had a few themes that have done very well, such as the Hestia theme and Zerif Lite theme. With the Neve theme, speed was a major priority. The reason for a focus on speed was that many users who access WordPress websites may not have the best internet. Many web developers do have fast internet, so it is not a problem for them, but optimizing for the end user is important.
Rodica also shares how ThemeIsle as a company works remotely, and what they have learned to make that process work well. In Romania there is a heavy interest in tech education, so Rodica shares how that leads to a high level of talent in that industry based in Romania. Chris did some work in Romania when he was running his digital agency before starting LifterLMS.
At ThemeIsle.com/Themes/Neve you can find the Neve theme created by Rodica and her team. They have a pro version there, but there is also a free version in the WordPress repository. So if you’re interested in seeing how the theme works with LifterLMS be sure to check it out there. At ThemeIsle.com they also have a blog and other resources dedicated to helping WordPress site builders.
Marc is a strategic thinker, copywriting pro, and expert in marketing strategy. He is the founder of Bigger Pie Promotions, a company dedicated to helping businesses market higher ticket programs to their existing customers.
Marc compares sales to basketball. Marketing your course program is similar to moving the ball down the court closer to the basket by passing and dribbling. Closing the sale is similar to shooting the ball. A lot of course creators will try and dive into sales by immediately trying to shoot the ball or close the sale. By thinking about sales in that light, Chris and Marc discuss how course creators can move the ball down the court more, so closing sales is a slam dunk rather than a failed attempt at taking shots from half court.
How you present the pain point you aim to serve with your program to your audience allows you to uniquely establish your expertise in the industry. In order to create a product that solves a problem for students, you need to have insights into what that problem is, what needs to be done to solve the problem, and how your program helps students solve that problem.
The first sale you need to make with customers is the sale of getting their attention. You can get the attention of leads in different ways, but getting their attention is similar to getting control of the ball in our basketball analogy. That is the first step to moving the ball down the court closer toward the basket. People will often follow authority figures in their lives until someone comes along and actually solves a problem for them.
At BiggerPiePromotions.com/Friends you can find the free email template Marc has put together that you can put into effect straight away to start turning your student leads into paying customers. Thanks for joining us!
Freelance business expert and podcaster Matt Inglot shares his experience of creating his freelance business building websites in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Chris and Matt talk about all sorts of business tips for people building websites as a service, and some specific nuance to that having to do with online course websites.
Matt has been in the business of building websites for 15 years, and when he got started he was in college and just needed the money to live and pay for school. So he built websites for clients and expanded his business from there. Matt eventually got to the point in his business where he could afford to have an office, and he ended up backtracking out of that setup and sticking to hiring remotely.
Recurring revenue is a great way to scale your business, and recurring value is a big part of that. Matt and Chris talk about how traditional video courses struggle with creating recurring value if they deliver all of their content and that is all there is to the program. There is no need for students to renew any subscription. Building out a membership site that adds value as time goes on is key to keeping students paying and engaged.
Finding new clients is something freelancers and agencies can struggle with. Matt shares how finding new, high-paying clients often comes down to getting outside of the office and talking with people at conferences, masterminds, etc. Building those relationships is key to finding new clients. Educating yourself on how your clients talk is important for communicating value as well. Most online business owners are looking for services that will increase their bottom line.
You can learn more about Matt Inglot at FreelanceTransformation.com. He has a podcast there for freelancers and agencies looking to find more high-paying clients and eliminate the stress of the job. At TiltedPixel.com Matt has his web development agency about which he shares his experience in this LMScast episode.
In this episode of the LMScast podcast we are joined by David Attard from Collective Ray. David is an expert with SEO, and in this episode he breaks down how course creators using WordPress can improve their SEO.
David shares how keyword research is the most fundamental step to writing an effective marketing piece. Figuring out what people are searching for and what articles appear for those search results helps you better understand the user intent when searching for products similar to yours and what keywords and concepts you need to address in your articles.
There are a few best practices for working with SEO, and in this episode David breaks a few of those down for course creators. Avoiding illegitimate SEO strategies is important, because as search engines improve their algorithms, they will find which sites are using manipulative methods to gain SEO. And those sites end up losing rankings heavily as they get punished by the search engines. Improving your SEO is something that is time intensive, as it often requires writing longer form content and acquiring links, which both take a lot of time to do.
One huge mistake many sites online make is to have a generic opt-in form that says something along the lines of “Sign up for updates” or “Join my newsletter.” That is often too vague, and it is not actionable. Chris and David discuss how nobody will want to sign up for something too generalized like that, so it is important to offer them something very specific and targeted in exchange for a signup. This specific strategy has allowed David to gain an astronomical 40-60% conversion on those actionable popups.
David has a blog post about LifterLMS, so be sure to head to CollectiveRay.com/LifterLMS to check that out. He has all sorts of WordPress tricks, theme advice, and plugin reviews on his site as well, so if you’re the technologist behind your WordPress course site, you can gain a lot of free value by looking around there. Thanks for joining us!
Our guest on this week’s LMScast is Clare Fielder of The Pistachio Club. In this episode she shares knowledge on how course creators can structure their pricing to fit optimally into the marketplace and market their programs effectively. Clare has extensive experience in the corporate world, and also in the world of WordPress and freelance work. She reflects on her journey and shares key aspects of success that are fundamental to a successful marketing effort.
Clare has a background with analyzing shopping behavior, doing branding, sales, and marketing. She would help big companies all around the globe make more money in both online behaviors and in-store. She now works as a website designer helping growing businesses build out their marketing and sales funnels to effectively sell customers.
Many course creators finish creating their course content and they’re exhausted, because they’ve put in so much effort into the creation process. Designing and developing an effective marketing campaign and sales funnel is a huge part of a successful online course website. Clare breaks down how course creators can think about this process to better help students and get more sales of their program.
Understanding your core proposition is something Clare speaks to in this episode. It is important to know what value or transformation you’re offering to people who take your program. That is how you can position your sales funnel to best serve the people who interact with your business.
If you’d like to learn more about Clare Fielder and all of the great templates she has, be sure to check out ThePistachioClub.com/LifterLMS where she has a special offering for LifterLMS listeners. You can also find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/ThePistachioClub and Instagram @ThePistachioClub. Thanks for joining us!
261: How to Launch Your Online Course the Easy Way with Course Maker Pro, WP Engine, and LifterLMS by Chris Badgett
Learn about lifestyle development, living off the grid, and optimal health practices with veteran Gary Collins in this episode of LMScast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Gary dive into the essentials for working remotely and living a simple lifestyle.
Gary shares his journey from growing up in a rural town in California to heading to San Diego State college and into the military from there. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, he ended up becoming a federal agent.
Gary spent the years of his life from ages 20-40 working for the government, so by the time he decided to leave that job, he felt burned out. He ended up starting a health company and selling his house for a loss in order to escape a lifestyle that felt like a trap.
With access to tools like the internet, telecommuting and remote work is now easier than ever. Gary teaches three aspects of living: life’s purpose, financial well being, and optimal health. Health is one aspect of his philosophy that he has had a very personal relationship with, by letting his health decline when he was stressed and felt trapped in his old lifestyle.
There is not a lot of money to be made with healthy people, so there is a lot of incentive from companies to keep people sick and buying products to aid the symptoms temporarily. Gary has practiced the Paleo diet that eliminates highly processed diary, beans, and grains. Making lifestyle switches and getting out of your normal routine has shown to change people’s habits in as little as 3 days.
You can learn more about Gary Collins at TheSimpleLifeNow.com. He also has a free resource available if you’re interested in getting started with the simple lifestyle at TheSimpleLifeNow.com/Freedom.
Kevin Geary shares his journey of moving from a martial arts instructor to becoming a health course creator and online entrepreneur coach in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett.
Starting a brick and mortar martial arts business didn’t work out for Kevin, as he found himself in the feeling of being stuck in a soul sucking job, as many entrepreneurs do. After falling out of shape and ending up about 40 lbs overweight, Kevin decided to follow a real food diet and functional fitness exercise program. He ended up losing the weight, and along the way people inquired about how he was able to pull his transformation off. He took this opportunity to design a program they could follow to get the same physical condition. This eventually turned into an online resource and then a course.
Focusing on the process rather than the end result is one strategy that has worked very well for Kevin. He has experimented with many aspects of his course program, from selling modules individually, to figuring out what the best pricing model is for his products.
There are many course creators who fail in their course creation endeavor because they view the launch of their course as the end of their journey, when there is often a lot of revision and adjustment work that needs to happen to have an effective program. Kevin shares how he has adjusted his program from $9 per month to a $695 course, along with how he approaches removing and adding lessons in his course based on how his audience engages with them.
If you’re interested in learning more about Kevin Geary and how he helps online businesses succeed, check out DigitalAmbition.co. Thanks for joining us!
Jennifer Tamborski joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can improve their digital marketing game and become viable influencers in their space. Jennifer shares her story of becoming an expert in the world of digital marketing. She and Chris also discuss sales funnels, product launches, and paid ad strategy for course creators.
Many course creators view marketing as an elusive concept that is difficult to master and to get customers walking through the door. Jennifer shares how marketing does not have to be difficult if you don’t make it that way. She views marketing through the lens of it being analogous to marriage. There is a fair deal of relationship building that goes along with making a sale before you ask for the sale. This can vary depending on the price of your program, but often you’ll need to get your prospect to interact and communicate with you in some way before they purchase your full program.
How you design your sales funnel can change dramatically based on who you’re selling to. If you’re selling to people who have opted to follow you or have purchased products from you in the past, the sell may be faster than if you are working on warming up cold leads that found you from a Facebook ad.
Your students’ comfort level and interaction expectations also affect whether you should host a webinar, have an introductory course, or have live presales calls to meet your clients and see if your product is a good fit for them. Jennifer and Chris dive into all of this and what you should consider.
To learn more about Jennifer Tamborski, be sure to check out VirtualMarketingExpert.com. You can also find her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram if you’re connected with those networks. Thanks for joining us!
Our guest for this LMScast episode is Pedro Cortés. Pedro works in website design and messaging for SaaS companies. In this episode he shares some expert tips for course creators on improving messaging, and how you can get more leads and close more sales for your training based membership site.
Pedro and Chris discuss the key terms of marketing and sales, and how optimizing the core principles on your online course website will lead to more sales of your products.
Chris and Pedro go through some fundamental aspects of web design, such as the differences between your homepage and a landing page on your website. Utilizing landing pages on your website allows you to have targeted messages for a specific audience about a product or service you offer. They also touch on the definition of conversion, which is the process of having a prospect take action on a specific offering, such as opting in to get a free ebook or signing up for a consultation call.
Assembling a clear and focused product message allows you to gain more trust with your audience, and it makes it easier for prospects to determine if your product or service is right for them. You want your ideal customer to think, “This product was built exactly for me.” Outlining your process in very clear terms helps you get this result.
The core of advertising to your ideal audience is appearing in channels they frequent. Pedro shares examples of this positioning, and how you may want to work with direct mail if you are working on a course for real estate agents, as they are very familiar and in tune with that medium.
Pedro offers a free strategy session at Cortes.Design if you'd like to book a call with him to see if you’d be a good fit to work together, so be sure to check that out if you need help with your messaging. If you have any questions, you can also feel free to shoot Pedro over an email at Pedro@Cortes.Design. Thanks for joining us!
In this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS, SEO expert and marketing strategist Brendan Hufford shares insights on how course creators can build up their SEO and marketing skills.
After earning a degree as a teacher, Brendan worked as an assistant principal. He thought teaching was fine, but he ended up gaining an extra 25 pounds and developing an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. He ended up switching to a different school to fill in a teacher role and ditching alcohol. Brendan had a friend reach out to him to ask if Brendan could help with SEO for his photography website, and after 6 months his friend made an extra $42,000.
Interacting with people and answering questions is something Brendan loves to do, so he ended up creating an online course after many people had been reaching out to him via Slack with questions about SEO.
One of the best ways to build your course content is to engage with the communities your audience engages with. If you go into Facebook groups with people you’d like to serve and search through what they struggle with, you can build solutions for those issues.
Brendan shares how he created a series of free live videos for an audience on SEO and how to get started. He used this as a method to test how people engaged with his content, and he built out his course from the ideas generated from his workshop.
Brendan speaks to the mentality of always selling even after the sale with your online course and teaching style. If you build each step of your course with the intention of selling students on moving onto the next module, you can create high engagement with your content.
At 100DaysOfSEO.com you can find Brendan’s 30-day challenge where he walks you through how you can upgrade your SEO. He also invites you to tweet any SEO questions you have for him on Twitter to @BrendanHufford, so be sure to check him out there as well. Thanks for joining us!
In this LMScast, Esther Kiss shares how course creators can gain publicity through influencer marketing, and what it takes to become an influencer in your industry. Chris and Esther discuss how course creators can maximize their publicity efforts and build a brand around themselves and their business.
There are now a lot more podcasts and niche media sources than there were 10 years ago. Esther shares how targeting new media outlets will often increase your ROI more than trying to gain publicity from traditional media outlets with a broader audience such as TV, radio, and magazines.
Understanding what type of content you’ll share on your interviews is important to make sure what you’re saying is relevant and resonating with the audience. If you are guesting on many podcasts you’ll want to make sure you aren’t repeating the same thing over again, as many people who listen to podcasts may search for other appearances you’ve made and listen to multiple episodes. And with guesting on a news station on TV you’ll want to consider that you only have about two to three minutes of time, so focusing on your core message is important there.
Esther speaks to how being proactive when approaching a media outlet is key to gaining publicity. United Airlines had major damage to their reputation in the media due to an incident where they had a passenger dragged off of a flight. As a publicity expert, Esther took the opportunity to gain publicity by making appearances to talk about what United Airlines can do to best remedy the situation.
We recommend checking out Esther’s 12 question assessment at BornToInfluence.com. It will let you know what the next steps are for you to take with your business and where you are on the road to gaining publicity for your program. If you have any questions you can also feel free to email Esther at Esther@BornToInfluence.com. Thanks for joining us!
Program creator and virtual assistant trainer Kathy Goughenour shares her journey from leaving the corporate world to earning over six figures by starting her business training virtual assistants in this episode of the LMScast podcast hosted by Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Kathy also shares some tips that will help you know what to look for in a VA for your online course or membership websites.
Kathy was not seeing the growth in her career that she was looking for as the marketing manager for a Fortune 500 company, so she ended up quitting her job and working as a virtual assistant for real estate agents. This was back in 2001, so Kathy was a real pioneer of the virtual assistant business. Around the housing market collapse in 2008, Kathy had a team of VAs and was working with 70 clients. She then decided that rather than training VAs for free she would turn her knowledge into an online course, and she has now been training VAs through her program for over 10 years.
Kathy started off small with her online course, and that is one best practice for building a successful online course. By starting with just a very basic program and a very basic website, you’re able to grow your program directly based on student feedback. And that is often the best way to design an effective and profitable program.
Kathy shares a few best practices for course creators on starting out with a virtual assistant, and she shares how her program can help you get in touch with a virtual assistant if you’re interested in taking on some help with your online course website.
To learn more about Kathy Goughenour and the programs she has created for virtual assistants, check out ExpertVATraining.com. If you’re interested in connecting with a VA for your business you can email Kathy@ExpertVATraining.com and she’ll hook you up with a 15-20 minute consulting call with one of her experts, and they will send you over a list of 3 virtual assistants that would be a good fit for you to interview and choose from.
Sayan Sarkar joins Chris Badgett in this episode of LMScast to discuss how course creators and membership site owners can implement offline marketing methods and sell high ticket eCommerce and consulting to businesses. Sayan has a lot of experience with building and scaling businesses in the health and supplements niche, and in this episode he shares his journey with that along with what he has learned from the process.
We hear a lot about social media marketing and all sorts of cutting edge strategies for marketers, but taking a step back and examining where your prospective audience spends time consuming media can inform who you market to and how you market to them. Sayan shares how his uncommon strategy of working with editorial advertisements in newspapers serves as the best marketing strategy for his companies based on who he’s trying to serve.
One reason offline marketing works so well for Sayan is that he prefers to sell high ticket programs and work with clients one-on-one. This allows him to see feedback directly with implementation and get to know his clients goals to better deliver the results they’re looking for.
Understanding how your customer describes in their own words the problems they face is key for a successful marketing campaign.
Sayan breaks down his direct response marketing method, and how he has worked with newspapers to test out what marketing messages work best for his clients and how to scale from there. He has done a lot of work with call centers that field call-ins from newspapers as a means to tell which papers are the best to continue buying ads in.
You can learn more about building a successful health, eCommerce, or consulting business with Sayan Sarkar at SarkMediaDirect.com. You can also find him on Facebook at Sark Media Direct. Thanks for joining us!
Champion accessibility advocate Susan Wheeler-Hall joins Chris Badgett in this LMScast to share her story of becoming an entrepreneur with a disability, and how the online world really brings accessibility to the workplace for many disabled people. Susan shares tips for making your website accessible for people with disabilities.
Susan’s disability has always taught her to find another way to do the things in life that are not so simple on the surface. In her early 20s she decided to go into social work, and found her disability could help her in that line of work.
Susan sells accessibility training courses to festivals, theaters, and restaurants. Her website for that is LifeSmarts.ca. Susan built out that website with LifterLMS and heavily utilizes the cloning feature of courses to copy over most of the content, and she tailors it from there to match the industry or company she is working with.
Susan shares the basics for creating an accessible design on your website, and how that will allow people with visual impairments to view your website. She also shares the tool she uses called UserWay to add a level of accessibility beyond what the default WordPress gives you out of the box for people with visual disabilities.
Taking learning disabilities into consideration is something to do as well when providing course materials. Offering learning material in different media formats can help people work with your content in their preferred learning style. As an example, if you have video courses, you may consider doing a summary write up along with an MP3 file.
To learn more about Susan Wheeler-Hall be sure to check out her websites SusanWheelerHall.com and LifeSmarts.ca. Thanks for joining us!
Chris Badgett is joined by Elizabeth Pearson in this episode of the LMScast podcast where they discuss how you can transcend a crazy busy lifestyle and spend more time on what is truly important to you.
Elizabeth is a speaker, success coach, and author who specializes in working with women entrepreneurs and executives to increase their income by an additional six figures within a year. In this episode, Elizabeth shares her story and how her process of discovery has helped her form her philosophy for working with women to guide them through the process of tapping into their true passions.
Many online business owners, especially course creators, have a lot on their plate and a lot of things that need to get done. This leads many to become overwhelmed, and most of the time our schedules are packed and we’re too busy. Elizabeth addresses how time management is key to success, and what needs to be done in order to free up a stressful schedule.
Supporting others with your course content is something we talk a lot about in the online education space. It is very easy to become discouraged when we see the success of another entrepreneur’s project, but Elizabeth brings to light an awesome mindset shift: There are billions of people in the world, and most of them are looking for help or support in some way, so there are plenty of opportunities to provide that support and build a successful business.
Moving from a corporate environment to an entrepreneurial one can be a big jump for many people. Elizabeth shares her experience with that switch and how the loneliness was one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. She also talks about how hiring a business coach is a great way to get on the right track fast.
If you’re interested in getting in touch with Elizabeth and learning more about the course and coaching she offers, you can book a free discovery call with her at ElizabethPearson.com. Thanks for joining us!
Marisa Murgatroyd shares expert tips on engagement and making money by helping others get what they want in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Creating a successful program is something many course creators struggle with, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult process.
One thing many online business owners end up doing poorly is not focusing on one product, one marketing channel, and optimizing a product for a specific audience. Marisa recommends doubling down on a single product line before trying to scale everywhere, because at the point when you’re not making a lot of money with your business, you don’t yet have the clarity to make a large marketing machine work.
Creating a product that genuinely connects with the audience is a huge challenge in business. Rarely is the answer to create a podcast or start writing a blog, because you have to start with where the best connection is made and use media formats as a tool to add value and cultivate a relationship with the people you serve.
In the online course space, we often refer to a course full of information as a resource course. These types of courses are often the least effective, as they provide a great deal of information, but the facilitator aspect is not there and thus people struggle to get the results they’re looking for from them.
Marisa covers the 10 principles that provide good experiences for people in your program (experience escalation) and 10 principles that lead to the opposite effect and leave people with a poor experience (downward death spiral). In this episode she shares some core principles of her framework. They are built around the Zig Ziglar quote, “You can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”
To learn more about Marisa Murgatroyd be sure to check out LiveYourMessage.com/Lifter. Thanks for joining us!
Clif Griffin joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss creating a conversion optimized checkout for WooCommerce. Clif and his team have built a plugin that allows you to have an easy flow for customers buying through WooCommerce. He shares their inspiration and story of developing their plugin CheckoutWC and how it may be able to help you if you're working with WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to turn your website into a store where you can sell products. LifterLMS does have a checkout system, but we also have an integration with WooCommerce if you’d prefer to use that. One key benefit WooCommerce adds to a site is the ability to work with a cart system. There are also many add-ons for WooCommerce that allow you to customize various aspects of the user experience. And if you’re working outside of the United States, you may find you need specific tax calculations or a payment gateway that LifterLMS does not integrate with directly.
The WooCommerce checkout page out of the box is generic, and it is not very user-friendly or customizable. In this episode Clif shares how his plugin CheckoutWP allows you to work with the WooCommerce checkout system and develop a user-friendly experience for customers.
Clif and Chris discuss the popular online store building tool Shopify, and how that has standardized the checkout experience for store owners online. The WooCommerce out of the box experience is not as fluid as it is with Shopify. CheckoutWP allows you to have the great ecommerce experience like Shopify has but with WooCommerce.
To learn more about Clif Griffin be sure to check out CheckoutWC.com. They have a 7-day free trial, and as a bonus for checking them out you can use the code ‘LifterLMS’ at checkout for an additional 10% off your order. Thanks for joining us!
Author Ryan Levesque joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss his new book Choose, and how course creators can find a niche to serve. Ryan identifies some great questions to ask when you’re starting a business or building an online course or membership site that will guide who you should serve and how you can serve them best.
When Ryan got started with his first online business, he laid out a list of ideas around things he was not passionate about and he decided to focus on orchids and learning what people who worked with orchids struggled with, and he built content to help them through that struggle.
The beginner's mind is something that industry experts often struggle with understanding, although beginners are who a lot of their courses are intended for. Entering a space you know almost nothing about allows you to create content that purely addresses basic issues people in that industry face.
Preselling a course or membership is also something Ryan speaks to in this episode. Ryan sees preselling as a terrific way to validate your course and address students' understanding of material if you build your course as students go through it.
Ryan breaks down the five market must haves in this episode. The market must haves is a series of tests to help you figure out whether a market is worth creating a business within: 1. Evergreen Market - Will your business be viable 10 years from now? 2. Enthusiast Market - Are people open and proud to participate in this market? 3. Built-in Urgency - A brief window of opportunity. For example: infant pictures. 4. Future Problems - Are there other problems you can help your audience solve going forward? 5. Players With Money - Is yours a market where people spend a lot of money?
At ChooseTheBook.com/LMScast you can pick up a free copy of Ryan’s book Choose along with the audio book and over $200 in free bonuses, so be sure to check that out as it covers what we discussed in this episode and more.
Coach, speaker, and podcast host Tammy Gooler Loeb joins Chris Badgett in this episode of LMScast to discuss strategy behind coaching and managing time effectively. Tammy shares her story and converses with Chris about why people have a tendency to dislike their jobs, and what holds many people back from achieving goals they strive for.
Historically occupations were solely to bring in money and put food on the table, but we live in a very different time now. While it is important to ensure you have the resources to take care of the practical matters of life, there are a lot more different options for careers now than there were decades ago.
In the modern economy, there are many different ways to get to where you’re trying to go. 50 to 70 years ago, the only option people had for education was going to high school, college, and onto career from there. Now we see more people than ever trying out multiple careers in their lifetime, and there are more educational resources available, from online content on YouTube to online courses.
Tammy teaches a course called Time Management Is Self Management where she dives into how the choices you’re making and how you choose to spend your time is directly correlated to the outcomes you get for yourself and those around you. We often focus more on things that are urgent rather than on things that are important. When we do that we easily become stressed and thus become less efficient.
Tammy also shares what she got out of her MBA, and what aspects of that have helped her in business and life. The most handy tool out of an MBA for Tammy was an understanding of accounting and finance. Doing her own bookkeeping and understanding financial statements was something that has been useful for her when running her own freelance coaching practice and developing courses and programs from there.
If you’d like to learn more about Tammy Gooler Loeb head to TammyGoolerLoeb.com. Thanks for joining us!
Best selling author, YouTuber, international speaker, and business coach Sean Cannell joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can strengthen and utilize the content creation skill to grow their audience, build relationships, and sell more courses.
At any given point in time, only about 5-10% of your target market is ready to purchase a solution. There is still the other 90% that may be one the fence, but they aren’t ready to purchase at the moment. By positioning your content to help others in their time of need on a platform such as YouTube, you have an opportunity to build up that know, like, and trust factor and get someone on your email list or lead qualifying engine or sales funnel.
The best content for marketing is consistent, high quality, quick, and valuable. Creating content is similar to working out. You may go to the gym and have a great workout, but you won’t see any results until you’ve been working at it for months or sometimes even years. Sean shares a great quote to complement the idea of persistent practice, “The master has failed more times than the amateur has even tried.”
Sean speaks to the value having a passive means of making money can bring to a business. Affiliate programs offer a great way to make money on products and services you may already be recommending to clients. Joint ventures and collaborations are also a great way to expand your reach and provide value to your audience.
You can find Sean’s channels on YouTube called Video Influencers, Think Media, and his personal channel Sean Cannell. He also has a book called YouTube Secrets, and that can be found at TubeSecretsBook.com. Thanks for joining us!
Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss the upcoming LifterLMS Advanced Video add-on to be released on September 15th of 2019. Ali and Chris dive into the feature set included in the LifterLMS Advanced Video add-on and what new opportunities it can bring to your course website.
Where to host your videos is something Ali and Chris cover as well in this episode. You can upload videos to your WordPress website, but often this can slow your website down. So we recommend hosting with a company such as Vimeo Pro or Wistia Pro. If you are trying to launch your course on a budget, you can also host an unlisted YouTube video, but that has lower security when compared to Vimeo Pro or Wistia Pro.
One feature we have seen a lot of requests for is the ability to not allow students to complete a lesson until they have watched the entire video. That feature is included with LifterLMS Advanced Video, so if that is something you’d like to include with your courses, that option will soon be available.
Another neat feature in the LifterLMS Advanced Video add-on is the ability to brand your video player to your company. If you’d like to match brand identity and brand colors throughout your website, you will have that option on video players now. New video analytics will also allow you to tell watch time, and you can view that data in the LifterLMS reporting. Students will also have the ability to pick up in a video where they left off if they leave the site and return to watching later.
We are offering a discount on the Advanced Video add-on if you purchase before the release on September 15th, 2019 of 15% recurring discount, so $169/year rather than $199/year. And if you purchase the Infinity Bundle between July 16th and September 15th, 2019 you’ll get three free months added onto your license. Check that offer out at LifterLMS.com. Thanks for joining us!
Success coach and equine alchemist Nafissa Shireen shares her journey entering the entrepreneur space and adapting from the corporate world. Chris and Nafissa have a conversation around authenticity and how to cultivate a lifestyle that works for you and your business.
Nafissa works specifically with entrepreneurs that are around the six figure mark and who have had business success, but not enough to create financial freedom. They have come closer to just creating a job for themselves. They have the foundation for success in business, but they need to grow and get to the next level.
In this episode she shares insights on authenticity, and how to channel that and have that contribute to finding the right path for your business and growth. Nafissa is an equine expert, so she spends a lot of time with horses, and she finds that horses are a brilliant indicator of whether people are authentic in how they are acting. She shares stories of horses understanding authenticity in humans and how they have proven to be a great indicator in her life and the lives of those she works with.
In this episode Nafissa speaks to how success in a corporate environment and success in a freelancer or entrepreneurial environment are radically different. In a corporate environment, failure is often not looked upon well. But within entrepreneurship, success is rarely found without a heavy amount of failure. That is just one example of how a fear of failure instilled by interaction with a corporate environment can stunt the growth of an individual trying to make a living or grow a business through their own leadership.
You can learn more about Nafissa at NafissaShireen.com, and you can find her on YouTube as well.
In this LMScast BobWP shares his story of how he entered the WordPress ecosystem and created a successful blog and podcast dedicated to helping WordPress users build thriving websites and businesses. Bob also shares his course creation failure case study, and he and Chris engage in an uncommon conversation around when to try something new with a course creation venture.
Bob started working in graphic design in 1989 and ran a marketing design agency with his wife Judy for 17 years up to the point where Bob started working with WordPress and doing live training dedicated to teaching others how they can get their sites functioning with the platform.
Bob decided to build a course around the knowledge he shares with his community, and it didn’t end up working out for him. People were not interested in paying for the content he was offering in his course. Chris and Bob discuss how having a course is not the only way to monetize a business, and Bob has proven that by working with more affiliate marketing strategies and leaving his core blog content free.
WIth Bob’s blog, he focuses a lot on WooCommerce. He noticed Google was sending him a lot of traffic for his posts related to WooCommerce, so he expanded his content in that direction. That is a great idea course creators can implement in their businesses. The idea of sticking to what works, focusing on that, and expanding in directions that add value and interest customers.
Tools like Analytify, ThirstyAffiliates, and Google Analytics have helped Bob out with link placement and figuring out the best directions to go and what content is performing well, so be sure to check those tools out.
You can learn more about Bob at BobWP.com and WPContentMarketing.com. He has a blog and podcast packed with information relevant to WordPress website builders, and he specializes in WooCommerce. If you’re working with those tools, be sure to find him there. Thanks for joining us!
Course building expert Amy Porterfield shares a goldmine of strategies for course creators in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Amy is the founder of the Digital Course Academy, and she dives into the knowledge she has gained from making millions with her online courses and helping others create theirs.
One struggle many course creators face is becoming demotivated by managing too many aspects of their business. Once Amy built up her team and stepped into the role of the visionary of her company, it made a huge difference in how she loves her business more. By delegating the stress of managing 100% of her operation, she is able to focus on and enjoy content creation on a whole other level.
Amy has a terrific framework for a course creation business that she shares in this episode. The framework consists of three course types you can incorporate into your business. The starter course, the spotlight course, and the signature course. Amy shares how each of these differ and how you can incorporate each into your business.
Amy and her team use a project management tool called Asana. Having these processes and tools in place to make sure processes run smoothly is something necessary to course creation operations where you are working with multiple people. Even if you are working on the project yourself, a project management tool can serve you greatly with staying organized and on track.
You can learn more about Amy Porterfield at AmyPorterfield.com where you can also find the Ultimate Course Creation Starter Kit she has developed to get your course off the ground with a solid foundation and the tools you need to scale.
Adrian Tobey of Groundhogg joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast where they discuss validation, marketing, and how the new Groundhogg CRM for WordPress can work within your website to make managing your lead funnel and students simple.
The inspiration for Groundhogg was to remove the friction and frustration from the marketing management side of a business operating within WordPress. It is easy to get lost in the software when running an online business, so having an all-in-one WordPress solution can be extremely valuable. Groundhogg also provides a visual and linear way to design customer journeys.
In this episode Adrian speaks to the importance of validation over the technical aspects and tools you use on your website. A lot of course creators focus on the details of what individual tools can do, rather than investing the majority of effort into finding an ideal customer avatar and delivering results to them.
Adrian also shares a roadmap to building a strong funnel for customers and what things you will want to consider. Laying out your ideal customer avatar and journey you want that customer to take with a pen and paper is the first step, and then you can use a tool like Groundhogg to organize emails, offers, and what pieces of interaction you will implement to make that customer journey work.
From analytics to funnel management, Groundhogg can do a lot for a WordPress website or online course business in its infancy. You can collect metrics on everything from open rates, interaction with your site, and local time of users. Adrian shows a demo of these features in this episode, so check it out on podcast.lifterlms.com if you’d like to see more of the ins and outs of a Groundhogg site.
You can find Groundhogg on Twitter and Facebook at @groundhoggwp. They have an active Facebook group, so if you have any questions feel free to drop them in there or email Adrian at Info@Groundhogg.io. Thanks for joining us!
Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss the new Recommended Resources page designed to help point course creators and membership site owners in the right direction for tools, from microphones to the best hosting for LMS sites.
Chris shares the story of creating his first course, and some insights he has learned over the years about creating effective course sites and the tools needed to solve problems for your students.
Chris’s first online course was about how you can create the perfect omelet. He created it while house-sitting for someone. He shares his experience and motivation behind creating that course with his computer and a video camera. If you’re interested in checking out his course, you can find that on Udemy.
Chris emphasizes the value of minimalism with an online course website and how that can prevent you from getting overwhelmed. One of the most effective ways to navigate all of the noise in the online content creation ecosystem is to focus on delivering results to your listeners and students and adding tools to your process as you find they will be useful for your program.
There are places you can implement tools easily, such as scheduling meetings. It can be difficult to manage time zones for meetings, especially if you’re working with people around the world, so implementing tools such as Calendly and Google Calendar can help if that becomes an issue for you.
You can learn more about the Recommended Resources for LifterLMS users at LifterLMS.com/Recommended-Resources. Thanks for joining us!
Michael Greenberg of Call For Content shares great tips with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS about monetization and advertising for course creators, coaches, and consultants in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Chris and Michael dive into some tips and tricks for positioning your content and becoming an authority in your space.
There is a lot of value in positioning your business in a small niche. Michael shares the story of his father’s real estate practice, and how he has managed to create an effective niche by serving a group of 10,000 individuals or less. Michael’s father works in real estate, but more specifically St. Louis, Missouri real estate. And even more specific than that, multi-family commercial investment real estate in that local area.
Michael’s playbook on authority marketing goes in depth on how you can find a niche group of customers to serve and position yourself effectively in that area. You can find that at CallForContent.com.
Chris and Michael also discuss ways you can get your name out there and market to your audience by partnering with others who serve an audience that is adjacent to yours. You can also have guests on your webinars, courses, or other training materials who have an audience that would be well served by your content.
One interesting thing Michael does when creating his eBooks is that he tries to make sure most people are not going to read them. By creating very specific content that is highly interesting to a small set of people, he can generate a lot of authority in that space.
At CallForContent.com you can find out more about Michael and the playbooks he has created for online business owners who are interested in marketing their products and services. He has a 30-minute office hours on the site where you can schedule a session to strategize with him about your business as well, so be sure to check that out. Thanks for joining us!
Brad Williams and Lisa Sabin-Wilson from WebDevStudios share knowledge they have gained from working in the LMS development space in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. Lisa and Brad have developed internal training for Starbucks, the National Parks Service, and INTAP.
A common theme from guests on LMScast is creating and simplifying processes. Brad and Lisa utilize near regimented processes to work with clients, especially in the discovery phase when they are learning about a client’s needs and project requirements. Having specific processes outlined for your business helps to scale and make the work you do simpler and more effective.
Lisa shares what she looks for to create an effective discovery process with a client at WebDevStudios. Often a productive discovery includes learning what the client is looking for with the student process and experience. Some LMS site owners will want a quiz system, content dripping, a social aspect, student management, etc., so figuring all of that out from the start and laying out a solid roadmap makes the build process significantly easier to work through.
WebDevStudios has been working with websites and LMS sites for 11 years, and over that time they have scaled up to 32 employees. They share some things to look out for when growing your business, and why processes are crucial for smooth and successful project and client work.
Working with people who really understand and appreciate what you are doing is also an important aspect of a strong team, especially a remote team, as we often see in the WordPress world. Having a core team of people you trust to lead facets of your company down the road is a culture you will want to cultivate.
You can learn more about Brad, Lisa, and everything they have going on at WebDevStudios.com. Thanks for joining us!
Cory Jenkins and Jonathan Hall share with Chris Badgett the process behind creating the Course Scheduler plugin for LifterLMS in this episode of LMScast. Cory and Jonathan are prolific product creators in the WordPress and Divi space. The inspiration for their products is typically inspired by pain points they have and see in the WordPress ecosystem.
The Course Scheduler plugin allows you to have students purchase a course at any time and have the ability to take the course during the specific start and end dates you set. This tool can be very useful if you are interested in running a course once a month, once every three months, once a year, etc. By running your LifterLMS courses in this fashion you gain access to some great group learning opportunities that recreate the class learning style of traditional education.
It is easy to become burned out and overloaded when working online. Cory speaks to how having fun with your services and products is a good way to get a read on whether your projects are improving your lifestyle. Creating great products is hard to do when the business owner or driving force behind the project is stressed and not operating at 100%.
Giving back to the community you serve builds trust, authority, and reciprocity. Aspen Grove Studios is constantly releasing tutorials, free resources, and helping people out in WordPress communities on Facebook. Divi Chat and WP The Podcast are a few resources they have for producing free content for the WordPress ecosystem.
To find out more about Cory Jenkins, Jonathan Hall, and the developments at Aspen Grove Studios, be sure to check them out at AspenGroveStudios.com. And they have a suite of Divi products and services at Divi.Space
Ryan Moore from Uncanny Automator joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can make their courses more student-centric and create a more engaging learning experience by integrating LifterLMS with other learning tools, such as your CRM, other plugins, and other websites, with Automator.
Automator is designed to help you create a course experience for your students that works for students who are struggling with some content, and also works well for students who are really advanced. The Automator plugin allows you to deliver the right type of experience and the right type of interventions to students, and make sure they can learn at their own pace and perform well with the content they are learning.
Ryan and Chris dive into the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and how they work with the different types of online courses. Students who are intrinsically motivated to take a course will tend to engage with the program, because they are interested in making a change or learning a skill. An internal training setting is an example of an extrinsic form of motivation for students taking a course. Learning design for your course site will change based on which form you are using, so it is important to know who your course site is designed to teach.
Blended learning is a way you can incorporate tools on your website, as well as off your website, that help engage learners. This can take the form of offline classes, live training, or engagement outside of your site, such as on social media. Automator can help you coordinate and integrate with tools outside of your website to bring together a blended learning experience for students.
To learn more about Ryan Moore and Uncanny Automator be sure to check out AutomatorPlugin.com. If you have any questions about Automator and if it is a good fit for your website, you can reach out to the Automator team on their website. Thanks for joining us!
Expert affiliate marketing manager Dustin Howes shares insights and strategies for online course creators on how to build strong affiliate armies with Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast. Dustin shares his background in affiliate management, and he and Chris go over some great ideas as to what you want to keep in mind when building an affiliate program for your course or membership.
Chris and Dustin discuss the different types of affiliate programs. There are managed platforms such as ShareASale, Commission Junction, and Impact. Managed platforms offer advantages such as collecting W9 forms and making sure everyone is paid, whereas a plugin like AffiliateWP does allow you to manage your own program, but there are more responsibilities that come along with that.
Recruiting affiliates is another challenge website owners face. Dustin recommends using a CRM dedicated to affiliate management, such as BuzzStream. The idea behind this CRM is to manage your relationships in the marketing realm separate from the CRM, such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign, that you use for leads.
Affiliate armies are not built overnight. You have to think in the long term when creating an affiliate program, because your affiliates may not create their first piece of content for a few weeks after joining your program. And then it will take time for their content to start ranking in search engines.
Dustin recommends sending out two newsletters a month to your affiliates. One will outline the promotions and coupons you will be having for the month, so they can get prepared by creating content. The second newsletter will cover strategies they can implement to grow their business as an affiliate.
You can find Dustin Howes at Coalition.Marketing and on LinkedIn. Thanks for joining us!
David Shriner-Cahn joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how course creators can smash through the plateaus they face in business and overcome unexpected roadblocks. David shares key observations he has made about successful entrepreneurs from his podcast Smashing the Plateau.
A common roadblock for course creators is the concept of expert syndrome. Experts in a field are often exited by solving the high-level and often complex problems in that field. This can lead to teachers presenting too much information to students or presenting that information in a confusing manner. David and Chris cover some ways you can put yourself in the mindset of a student to best teach them the information they need to get the results they are looking for from your course.
David and Chris dive into the benefits of securing time in your schedule to focus on things that do not produce client work for your business. One trend David has noticed with successful entrepreneurs he has interviewed is they make time to strategize. Even 30 minutes a day of time you give yourself to reflect and decompress can go a long way.
A book recommendation David shares for course creators is The 80/20 Principle. In it the author discusses how in business and in life 80% of our success comes from 20% of our activities. The author also discusses how you can reverse-engineer this principle to create the kinds of outcomes you’re looking for in your business.
David also emphasizes the value behind having a set of questions you ask your best clients and customers in order to hone in on what they are struggling with and how you can add value to their operations. One way you can do this with clients is to schedule a meeting with each one once every quarter to go over how it is going.
To learn more about David Shriner-Cahn, check out his podcast Smashing the Plateau. You can also find him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Thanks for joining us!
Online marketing expert Daniel Daines-Hutt from Amp My Content joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss best practices and marketing strategies for online course creators and membership site owners. Daniel shares some terrific content marketing strategies he uses to generate mass interest in his products and services.
One struggle course creators can face is the equivalent of writer's block. Daniel talks about how you can create a routine and use templates to create your content. This helps a lot when creating long-form content. Sitting down to write a massive blog post or produce a course can be a daunting task if you don’t have the structure in place.
Daniel shares the structure he uses to create his blog posts that can reach 30,000 words. He starts out by writing out notes on a piece of paper and forming those into chapters and topics to cover. From there he uses a recorder like Camtasia or Snagit to record himself talking, and he will talk through the steps and then write the first draft of the blog posts, followed up with around 15 or more edits.
Chris and Daniel also dive into a some advanced marketing strategies for paid ads. One key point Daniel emphasizes is the importance of figuring out how much a customer is worth to your business. If you know how much a customer is worth, then you know how much you can spend to acquire them.
One common deterrent for content creators online is if someone has already created a course, blog post, YouTube video, or other media on your topic. But Daniel points out that the value from content comes with the transformation it provides.
You can learn more about Daniel Daines-Hutt at AmpMyContent.com, and you can check out his paid ads blog post at AmpMyContent.com/promoted-content/. You can also find him on Twitter at @inboundascend. Thanks for joining us!
The URL Dr., Kim Merritt, joins Chris Badgett of LifterLMS on this episode of LMScast to discuss how course creators can best use video animation to enhance the quality of their video content. Kim shares an in-depth layout of her process for creating animations, as well as some tools she uses to make it all come together.
Chris and Kim dive into the things you can do with your marketing strategy to promote your LMS site in a wholesome and effective way. When presenting videos in courses if you don’t have a walkthrough on screen or a product you can physically show, you will need to create some other form of visuals.
Kim shares a bit of her backstory with how she got started using animation about 5 years ago with creating video animations teaching her marketing clients, and they hired her to create those video animations for them.
Creating videos that combine different video types, from the talking head, to animation, to PowerPoint, is very powerful for creating easily consumable content for your students. This is especially important with course content that students are not intrinsically motivated to consume, such as internal training.
Chris and Kim talk about the process behind taking knowledge and expertise and turning that into effective course content. Kim works with incorporating various scenes and characters together in animation and splicing that together with live video. You can also utilize gamification features, such as LifterLMS notifications and achievements to extend interaction with your content to areas of your site outside of videos.
To learn more about Kim Merritt be sure to check out TheUrlDr.com, and you can find her on the LifterLMS experts page at LifterLMS.com/Experts. Feel free to reach out to Kim if you'd like to see if she can help you out with creating video content for your courses.
SEO expert Lindsay Halsey joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss SEO for online course creators and membership site owners. Chris and Lindsay dive into the pillars of SEO, and what kind of approach you can take as a course builder and content producer online.
One major question about SEO in the world of online courses and memberships is whether or not content that is locked down can be indexed by search engines. Lindsay addresses this and the answer is no. In order for content on a page to be indexed, it needs to be fully visible without having to log in.
Most course builders have the content creation aspect of marketing down. The next step is positioning yourself to be seen by potential subscribers who can get value out of that content. Chris and Lindsay talk about how meeting people at their point of pain is highly effective for sales, so you will want that to be reflected in your marketing.
Yoast SEO is a free plugin for WordPress that allows you to add in meta descriptions to your posts and get statistics on how your pages will be likely perceived by search engines. Lindsay uses Yoast SEO premium herself, but Yoast is definitely the industry leader in the SEO plugin space, so we definitely recommend checking that out.
At Pathfinder SEO, they go through a scoring rubric with you to identify the singular pieces of low hanging fruit for different websites to prioritize SEO efforts. The rubric helps to focus in on the major aspects of SEO you can improve to increase traffic immediately. Keyword-focused page titles and meta descriptions is one commonly missed opportunity with site owners.
To learn more about Lindsay Halsey, be sure to check out PathfinderSEO.com. You can find her on Twitter at @Linds_Halsey. Thanks for joining us in this episode!
Mike Morrison from The Membership Guys joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Mike and Chris talk about the key aspects of memberships, and what makes the combination of content, culture, and community come together.
The tips Mike emphasizes in this episode are huge for course creators. Many specialists have a tough time teaching to beginners, because of a phenomenon we refer to as the expert’s curse. The expert’s curse expresses the assumptions industry experts make about what students know about something they may not be familiar with.
WordPress tech can be complicated at times for non-techies, with all sorts of terms that refer to various aspects of business (with some technical, and some casual). Mike clears the water as to what a membership site is and the different types of membership sites out there. With LifterLMS you can utilize memberships to hide content behind a paywall.
One aspect of creating an engaging learning experience for students is not dumping a bunch of information on them that is not currently relevant. We frequently refer to this type of course as the ‘resource course.’ The resource course can be useful, but it is much more common for students to find success with a results-driven course.
One huge part of online education, and memberships specifically, is the community. One thing Mike does with The Membership Guys is to constantly ask the community what they want to learn about or do with their sites. Creating content the users want to learn about helps you as the teacher keep your finger on the pulse of what is valuable for people.
You can learn more about Mike Morrison and The Membership Guys over at TheMembershipGuys.com. Mike is also a return guest to LMScast, and you can find the other LMScast we did with him at Podcast.LifterLMS.com (episode 158).
Tina Todorovic from the social media management platform Social Web Suite joins us in this episode of LMScast to discuss social media marketing for online course builders and membership site owners with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team.
Tina shares some great strategies backed up by metrics that she has learned about current social media trends and optimal times for posting. Different social media platforms have different times of engagement. If you are only posting once per week, then the best time to post is Wednesday for all social networks, on average. It seems like an odd time, but the metrics back it up.
Finding the optimal time to post for your business is something that is important to do. If your audience tends to stay up later at night or prefer to consume your content later at night, then tailoring your marketing plan to post at those later times will help to attract more students.
Instructional content is most commonly prefered to be consumed in the mornings. Running promotions about your course at those earlier times for your prospective audience is a great marketing strategy. The evening time is better for content geared towards entertainment, as most people are exhausted and want to relax.
Many online courses and communities harness the power of Facebook groups and pages. Setting up a Facebook page rather than just posting on your Facebook wall is important for building brand awareness. Facebook groups are useful for cultivating a community around your business. As an online course creator, it may be useful to set up a group around your course rather than, or in addition to, a page. Groups are great for receiving feedback, which is crucial for keeping your course alive in the long run.
To learn more about Tina and Social Web Suite, be sure to head to SocialWebSuite.com.
LifterLMS is having some promotional events to draw attention to Teacher Appreciation Week and the recognition of the teaching aspect of online course creation. LifterLMS is a software company, and many course creators get too wrapped up in the technical tools to create a course and the attention to the results ends up getting left by the wayside. Ali and Chris from LifterLMS dive into the teaching aspect of course creation in this episode of the LMScast podcast.
Delivering results is the baseline and guideline successful course creators follow. Feedback is aspect of learning that helps you correct students’ paths and get results. If you are not working with them and coaching them live, the biggest challenge for online teachers is figuring out whether or not the content you are creating is getting results for your students.
We are in a period online that Chris refers to as the results revolution where people don't really want information. Information has become more of a commodity, and it is no longer very valuable as it is. Students typically enroll in a course to achieve a specific transformation or behavior change in their lives, or they are learning about a complex process.
Mapping out your course in such a way that students can see mini results on their way to larger results can open the feedback loop and make it a little more clear as to whether students are seeing progress or not.
Ali and Chris also cover the different styles of teaching and how different teaching styles impact the learning content in different ways. The mark of a good teacher these days, especially in the online world, has to do with the application of information and seeing if the teaching actually works to produce results.
If you are listening to this during teacher appreciation week starting Monday, May 6th through Friday, May 10th 2019, then be sure to look out for special promotions and the blog posts we will have out about the event. Thanks for joining us!
Chris Bintliff joins Chris Badgett on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how online course marketing and sales is not really rocket science. Chris Bintliff is a consultant that works in companies rather than for companies. He shares useful mindsets to utilize when approaching marketing and selling courses in order to speak to the customer where they are.
“Little hinges swing big doors.” Chris Badgett shares some insights he has learned when tweaking the dials and challenging fundamental assumptions in marketing and business. Bringing strategy rather than just acting as a button-pusher is key to delivering your client’s true results as a consultant.
Many companies use a lot of I-focused statements that describe the business itself. This phrasing creates a cognitive load for your audience, which means they have to figure out why your message matters to them. If you can start with the customer and work backwards in your marketing it will help you communicate the problem and pain you are trying to solve more effectively.
By focusing your marketing message on the customer rather than who you are, you change the mood of the sales conversation. Chris Bintliff explains the CARE framework he uses to classify his prospect funnel and means of lead generation: C - Clueless, but curious customer. A - Attentive prospects willing to give their email in exchange for a PDF or guide. R - Responsive or ready prospects are willing to spend time in a webinar or consultation. E - Engaged customers who are willing to give their experience in the form of a testimonial or case study for you to bring to the top of your funnel.
To learn more about Chris Bintliff you can check out his agency at NotReallyRocketScience.com. He also has courses over on NotReallyFlightSchool.com that cover all sorts of relevant topics for course creators such as automating your marketing funnel to learning about specific industry tools.
Ken Wallace of MastermindJam joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett, CEO of LifterLMS, to discuss how masterminding can improve your odds of success by networking with other business owners who can give you advice and hold you accountable to what you set out to accomplish.
Ken is the founder of MastermindJam, a peer-to-peer mastermind platform that focuses on groups of four to five people. In this episode Ken and Chris talk about the different types of groups, and what goes into creating a successful mastermind.
With mastermind groups, you have the ability to come to your meetings with your cards open and trust that the people there can share their experience and help you with issues you are facing in your business. Mastermind groups are not going to solve everything, but they help hold you accountable and give you the advice you need to grow.
Mastermind groups can help you grow at any stage in your business. Beginners should meet on a weekly basis, as your ideas for your business change dramatically from week to week when you are first starting out. More established business owners may only need to meet with their group once per month.
Many entrepreneurs live an isolated lifestyle. Mastermind groups can be a great way to connect with people who understand problems you face and how to overcome them. MastermindJam has great tools for figuring out which groups you would best fit into.
At LifterLMS we have an Office Hours Mastermind call once per week where power users can meet up to discuss tech issues, strategy recommendations, and more. That is a feature in the LifterLMS Infinity Bundle, so be sure to head over to LifterLMS.com and check that out. We also recommend looking into MastermindJam.com to learn more about the world of connections you can make over there with other like-minded entrepreneurs.
One of the five hats course creators wear is the community builder. Tanner Moushey joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss why you may want to consider using the BuddyPress plugin to add an extra layer of engagement for students on your website.
Tanner is the founder of iWitness Design, and he has been in the web development space for many years. He specializes in creating interactive websites and websites that incorporate BuddyPress for the social engagement aspect of design. In this episode he shares what he has learned from working on development projects.
Tanner created a website to serve as a platform for his church called Study.Church. He built this solution to address the clunky process his pastor would carry out where he would send weekly Bible study documents, and people could print them off. This system would occasionally have issues if the pastor accidentally sent the wrong study, so Tanner built a solution to help make this process easier for their congregation.
Engaging with a community can be an extremely valuable aspect to the learning process. Tanner shares a story from when he was doing remote college and he ended up failing a class, because the whole curriculum was a book. He was tasked with learning the information to pass the exams, but since there was no online or offline community, not enough information was reinforced for him to be able to utilize it later on.
Tanner does note that you want to do a good amount of planning and invest some strategy into figuring out how you can best utilize BuddyPress, rather than jumping in and adding BuddyPress to your site and going from there. With newer themes available for WordPress, you can get pretty far with your site without having to engage someone for customization.
To learn more about Tanner Moushey be sure to head over to iWitnessDesign.com and Study.Church. You can also find and connect with him on Twitter at @TannerMoushey
Justin Wise of Think Digital joins Chris Badgett in this episode of the LMScast podcast. Chris and Justin dive into best practices for developing course businesses, and a bunch of tips and strategies for marketing. Justin shares some frameworks he has learned from working in the online marketing space since 2007, and what he has seen and validated with projects he’s worked on.
Justin and Chris talk about how the process and tactics behind reaching your persona with your purpose. Starting out looking at business tactics and tech to make the process work is a common occurrence, but it is often ineffective, because that is starting without a solid foundation.
Many businesses and courses fail, but it does seem like they are product focused rather than purpose focused. If you have a setup where you are purpose focused, then you can change the product without it really affecting your ability to succeed with your business.
A lot of course creators also start by creating the course before validating. Justin emphasizes the importance of validating before creating a course and exactly what you can do to validate a course. Validation can be a simple process, but it is one that many people skip or over complicate.
Entrepreneurs can get discouraged when they have an idea that doesn’t pop. Justin emphasizes how that is normal, and coming from a point of being purpose driven in your business means there is less of an issue when a product does not work out. This is also another reason why validation is an important thing to do before putting in a lot of work to create your entire product.
Creating a network of affiliates is something some course creators and membership site owners try to take on prematurely. Affiliates are a great way to scale a business, but they are not a solid starting strategy, especially early on. Attracting great affiliates is also something that is important when creating an affiliate network.
You can find Justin Wise at ThinkDigital.co and on Twitter and Instagram at @JustinWise
Grant Weherley of MonetizeMyExpertise.com joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss strategies for making courses, and how you can market courses once they are live. Chris and Grant cover all sorts of ground relevant to all types of course creators.
Chris and Grant talk about the five hats problem for course creation, and how the instructional designer hat plays a huge role in how well course content is communicated. Many experts believe they can create a good course solely because they know their topic inside and out. What they can forget to factor in is the instructional design, video editing, marketing, and all the things that are separate from the topic of the material.
One huge benefit to including others in the process is that they can give you insights on the perspective of a beginner. The expert’s curse describes the common misconception course creators have where it’s assumed that everyone knows what they do, and they assume knowledge the students do not yet have.
Educating customers before they purchase your course is huge for capturing engagement. Chris and Grant talk about some strategies you can use to earn the right to sell someone once you have your product in front of them. Grant also shares some considerations for pricing your course.
Grant shares the process they go through at Monetize My Expertise for content development and project strategizing. One very effective method he shares for generating course content is to have interview or teaching calls where someone can pick your brain about a certain subject to identify what areas are most confusing to people and what may need to be addressed in more depth overall.
To learn more about Grant Weherley be sure to head to MonetizeMyExpertise.com, and you can set up a call with a member of his team to learn more about if they can help you bring your course to the level you want it to be at.
Service provider, course creator, and software entrepreneur Sam Brodie joins us to share his journey from entering the WordPress world to selling his web design agency in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Sam shares his story of creating JurisPage, and what business builders should focus on if they are considering selling the business.
Sam shares his personal experience in business with the importance of choosing a niche and doubling down on it. JurisPage is in the legal niche, and a lot of law firms and lawyers have bad websites, so there is a great opportunity to fill a need and help them as a design and marketing company.
Sam shares what he has learned about why a niche company makes you more valuable to other companies for value adds when considering acquisition. Being productized as a service is also helpful, because you have a consistent lead flow, a consistent process, and a consistent product.
Sam’s largest tip for service providers in this episode is to incorporate recurring revenue and establish partnerships with other people in your industry. When looking for an industry to focus on for offering web design services, Sam looks for three things: domain expertise, the size of the market, and the ability of that market to pay for marketing services.
Chris and Sam talk about how platforms like Udemy are great for lead generation, as it has a whole network of courses and users looking for content on specific topics, but they are not the best places to make money. So you may want to consider putting up an introductory or mini course over on a hosted platform and funneling that into a premium service, membership, or course on your LifterLMS site.
Be sure to check out Offsprout.com to learn about the page builder for freelancers and agencies. You can find Sam’s course Productized: How to Build a 7-Figure Web Design Business at: https://www.udemy.com/user/sambrodie/
Educator and podcast host Joe Casabona joins us again on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to share some great insights for online course builders and entrepreneurs. Chris and Joe dive into several topics in this episode from the five hats problem to the expert’s curse and finding sponsors.
Joe focuses on solving the problems that students have as the metric for success, rather than course completion rates. He measures those metrics by reaching out to students during various points in the course and asking how it is going and what projects learners are working on that the course can help them with.
Creators tend to try and hide their mistakes when creating educational content by editing errors out. While it may seem like having occasional errors in your video can severely damage your credibility as an expert, it can actually add more relatability to your videos. Your students are likely going to stumble along the way, and if they see you stumble and figure it out live it can help them to feel less discouraged when something unexpected happens to them.
Gathering sponsorships for your content can be a great opportunity for podcasts or courses to help boost your budget or act as an income generator in itself. Joe shares his method and some tips for reaching out to businesses about sponsorships. One effective method Joe has found is reaching out to companies that his guests mentioned in the episode. This gives the business a nice opportunity for some cross promotion if it comes up naturally in conversation.
To learn more about Joe Casabona, be sure to head to Casabona.org and CreatorCourses.com to see Joe’s courses on all different facets of the WordPress ecosystem. You can connect with Joe on Twitter and most social platforms at @jCasabona. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of LMScast!
Kathy Zant from the Wordfence security plugin for WordPress joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss ways online course creators and membership site owners can secure their sites to protect from hacking. Chris and Kathy cover why security is important for WordPress and some strategies hackers are currently using.
Wordfence is a security plugin for WordPress. One of the key features of Wordfence is the firewall that is going to look at traffic coming to your site and analyze whether it is malicious activity, and can block that activity from coming to your site. The premium Wordfence security plugin also has a real-time blacklist that can help block traffic coming to your site that has been identified to be malicious on someone else’s site that is using Wordfence.
WordPress sites are a large target for hacking online, because so many sites online are built on WordPress. This means that hacking tools are more advanced with finding vulnerabilities in WordPress. Kathy speaks to the importance of updating your themes and plugins as that is one common way bots can get into your site.
There are many things that hackers can do with your site once it is broken into. It is common for hackers to place an affiliate cookie on your visitors’ browsers when they view your site, so when your visitors purchase a product from an online marketplace such as Amazon, the hacker makes some illegitimate commissions on the sale. With cryptocurrencies becoming more popular in the past few years, they can use your computer to help mine for cryptocurrencies without your permission.
The free Wordfence plugin walks you through how to get set up with making your site more secure and informs you if there are any malicious files currently on your site. If you want to learn more about WordPress security and Kathy Zant, be sure to head to Wordfence.com and Zant.com. You can also connect with Kathy on Twitter at @KathyZant
In this episode of LMScast, Ali Mathis and Chris Badgett discuss what the new WooCommerce 2.0 for LifterLMS brings to the platform, and why you may want to consider using WooCommerce for your LifterLMS site. Ali and Chris talk about the tradeoffs and what separates WooCommerce from the other LifterLMS payment gateways.
We do not recommend using WooCommerce for your LifterLMS site unless you are looking to sell physical products with your courses or memberships, you are looking to integrate a cart system, you need a payment gateway that will work for your country that is not offered by LifterLMS, or you want to have a multi-vendor setup.
The new WooCommerce 2.0 from LifterLMS allows you to now associate individual access plans with WooCommerce products or product variations. You can also now have one-time payment products that expire after a certain period of time without using WooSubscriptions. You do need to use WooSubscriptions if you are wanting to do recurring payments with your LifterLMS courses or memberships.
The LifterLMS WooCommerce extension 2.0 was in beta for three months before its official launch. Chris and Ali talk about the LifterLMS beta testing group and how you can get involved with that if you want to help test and provide input for the development of the products LifterLMS releases.
Many LifterLMS users are interested in creating a course marketplace that allows instructors to sign up and create courses. Chris talks about the WooCommerce multi-vendor and how you can use that to help tie that marketplace together. With tools like WooCommerce, LifterLMS, the Astra theme, and a page builder, you can create great looking course marketplace sites.
WooCommerce is one of the largest eCommerce systems on the internet. We encourage you to go check out the WooCommerce extension for LifterLMS in our store. You can purchase it for $99 a la carte or it is included in both the Universe and Infinity Bundle. Thanks for joining us in this episode of LMScast!
Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how you can avoid technology hassles with your self hosted WordPress LMS website with Chris Badget of LifterLMS. Chris and Jonathan dive into various tech tips you can employ to optimize your LifterLMS site, and they discuss Jonathan’s turnkey solution that takes care of the whole setup for you and provides you with awesome tools to run your online course company.
WordPress is similar to a Swiss Army Knife in that it can accommodate a lot of different setups. The disadvantage with WordPress as an all-in-one solution is that it has a reputation for being slow, so optimization of your site is important for speed and user experience. Chris and Jonathan talk about various things you can do to speed up your site, along with plugins and themes they recommend.
There are a lot of moving pieces that come with a fully functional online course or membership site. Jonathan’s WP-Tonic Turnkey Solution is meant to provide you with everything you need to get off the ground with the best breed of plugins, themes, and hosting options available on the market today.
Integrating with a customer relationship manager (CRM) is a large step for an online course business. WP Fusion is a software that allows you to integrate your WordPress website with 24 different CRM options from ActiveCampaign to Infusionsoft and Ontraport, so be sure to check them out as well. It is a piece of tech that both Chris and Jonathan endorse.
Once you are finished with this LMScast episode, be sure to visit Jonathan’s site at WP-Tonic.com and you can find his turnkey solution for LifterLMS that includes Beaver Builder Pro, image compression by ShortPixel, hosting on the Google Cloud platform, 24 hour security via WebARX, WP Fusion, and all kinds of other tools that will get your site up and running, so you can start educating and earning online.
The course whisperer Cindy Nicholson joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss best practices and tips for creating course content that people will buy and get results from. Cindy and Chris dive into all aspects of course building, from laying out your curriculum to targeting your students with a solid marketing plan.
The behavior change course is one of the most popular and most effective courses if done correctly. Cindy gives some tips on how you can make engaging content that gets your students results. Chris and Cindy talk about some of the most common mistakes course builders make and how you can avoid them.
Understanding the difference between a consumer and a learner is important for teaching online. Consumers are typically looking for entertainment or interesting information, where learners tend to have a specific goal they are trying to achieve. With that in mind you can formulate your content to have call to actions and exercises that can help your students to use what they have learned.
The single biggest mistake Cindy sees with course creation in general is that teachers give their students a large amount of information without much direction on what to do or how to apply the content to produce relevant results. We refer to that as the resource course, and it can have a lot of cool information. But most students are looking to achieve a result when they purchase a course, so it is important to focus on delivering that result.
Occasionally course creators will start out with a suite of courses where they are offering 3-10 courses on their site when they first start selling. This strategy can work, but it is harder to pull off. We recommend that you start out with one flagship course and improve that over time until the point where there is a need for a second course.
To learn more about Cindy Nicholson be sure to head to TheCourseWhisperer.co
Rebecca Undem joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can build communities and strong support networks from rural areas. Chris and Rebecca dive into all kinds of strategies and best practices for online course creators who experience isolation.
Rebecca shares her journey of returning to the rural area she grew up in, and how she created the Small Town Survival Kit to help moms when they are in those times when you’re feeling lonely, isolated, misunderstood, and frustrated. In the work that Rebecca does, she reminds people that the size of your life doesn’t have to be determined by the size of the town that you live in. With the online technology available today you don’t have to be limited by the limits that are present in your immediate environment.
Being an education entrepreneur can be isolating, especially if you are an online entrepreneur in a small town where there are not any local events or Meetups of individuals who truly understand where you are at from a business perspective.
A lot of programs online are about finding a shortcut to do something. Getting in shape and making money are two topics where this happens a lot. In order to run a program like that you have to keep up a facade, and it doesn’t come across as genuine. Rebecca feels that a lot of course creators start by thinking about what they can do that people will like rather than building their brand about being the most authentic you can be.
You can find Rebecca’s Survival Kit at RebeccaUndem.com/survival-kit. She also has a book called How Mommy Got Her Groove Back that tells the story of how Rebecca learned to embrace the ‘not plan’ and deal with the chaos that arises during parenthood.
Jason Hsiao from Animoto joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast to share insights on doing video marketing on social media for course creators and membership site owners. Chris and Jason dive into topics from engagement to creating targeted campaigns for Facebook.
Jason shares how it is important to focus on engaging your audience within the first few seconds of your video. Keeping your content short and using captions is also important for letting your audience know what you want them to do and keeping their attention for as long as possible.
For starting off with video marketing Jason recommends Facebook, because it has the largest user base and offers the most advanced tools in terms of allowing you to target a specific audience that is likely to be interested in your content. It is also very easy to get started with Facebook ads, as you can start testing results for only $20 if you have a highly targeted campaign.
Many entrepreneurs are self-conscious about creating content when they first start off. Making mistakes can actually improve your content as it makes it more human, and thus more relatable for consumers. Jason and Chris talk about how embracing your imperfections can work to your advantage.
Entrepreneurs often find themselves discouraged by the low number of views they get on videos when first starting out, but focusing on creating high-quality content will ensure that in time the quantity of views will catch up.
To learn more about Jason Hsiao and the Animoto software, head to Animoto.com and check out what they have going on over there!
Author and learning design expert Julie Dirksen shares some amazing tips and strategies for course creators in this information-packed episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Julie and Chris talk about everything from building high impact courses and getting lasting results, to effective coaching strategies for education entrepreneurs.
Developing proficiency to the point of unconscious competence is something Julie talks about in her book. It is the ultimate form of learning something. When you can automatically do something without thinking about it you have developed unconscious competence. Many people experience this when driving home from work on a route they’ve driven a lot where they sort of black out and enter autonomous mode, but they end up making it home without any problems.
Chris highlights the four blueprints that most courses fall into: behavior change, learning a process, resource course, and the case study course. Julie shares the main gaps that are present in learning and how you can address each one to help your students achieve their desired outcome.
Just conveying a piece of information is unlikely to change the behaviors of your listeners. Julie refers to this in her book as the information gap, meaning that what is holding your students back is a lack of information. However this is rarely the case. Smoking is harmful to the body, but informing a smoker of that is unlikely to change their behavior.
To learn more about Julie you can visit DesignBetterLearning.com and UsableLearning.com. Be sure to check out her book Design For How People Learn. It is available on Amazon, and Julie has a thriving Facebook group of individuals discussing the concepts in the book and more. You can also connect with Julie on Twitter at @UsableLearning.
CEO of 3 Hellos Robin Harris joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team to discuss how you can navigate the digital ecosystem, presell products, and the problems that occur with a culture of free services. Robin and Chris dive into the importance of how you structure your sales funnel and communicate with prospects within that funnel.
The real genius of the internet is not so much the information that is available; it is the connection to people across the world that is truly valuable. Chris and Robin talk about honing in on your core topics when building courses and how that can serve you greatly when building up a community online.
As a course creator, it is important to be in touch with what your audience’s needs in order to really serve them. Chris and Robin talk about the concept of expert syndrome and techno babble. Those terms both refer to an expert talking over the head of the student to the point that the students can’t understand. Connecting with your community can really help you validate your idea and get a grasp on what your potential customers know about what you plan on teaching.
Many people think of their sales funnel as their website, but the sales funnel comprises much more than just your website. Robin dives into the power of starting a conversation on Facebook and ending it on your blog as a great top of your sales funnel. You want to speak to your customers where they are at in your funnel rather than constantly pressuring them to purchase.
You can find out more about Robin Harris at 3Hellos.com, and you can find her on Twitter at @RobinMHarris21 and on Facebook and LinkedIn as well.
Thomas Levy and Chris Badgett of LifterLMS review the CaboPress business mastermind conference in this episode of the LMScast podcast. CaboPress is hosted in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and is organized by entrepreneur Chris Lema. Thomas and Chris have been to the conference four times now and are here today to share what makes it one of the best WordPress business conferences.
Many online business owners spend most, if not all, of their time working online. Networking, building connections, and strategizing about the business are all important aspects to success that tend to lie offline. CaboPress takes place at a five-star resort, and every aspect of the trip from lodging to food is covered. All you have to do is purchase a ticket to CaboPress and a plane ticket to get down there.
Events like CaboPress are a great place to get feedback and learn about metrics other companies measure. Chris and Thomas share what they do in order to get the most value out of conferences. One thing Chris does to prepare is doing research on individuals who will be at the Conference, so he knows a little about what they do before they meet.
The LMScast podcast is a great example of what Chris does to extend the value and connections of the conference by interviewing individuals he meets. Thomas had not come to CaboPress with a problem he wanted to learn how to solve, but in conversation he learned about issues that were paining him or preventing him from doing the best work that he had not considered before.
If you are interested in learning more about CaboPress, head over to CaboPress.com. After you’re done there, head to LifterLMS.com to learn more about new developments and how you can use LifterLMS to build online courses and membership sites. Thanks for joining us!
Tom Libelt form the Smart Brand Marketing Podcast joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss online course marketing that works. Tom is a serial entrepreneur with a background in music and filmography. He and Chris discuss marketing strategies you can incorporate into the fabric of your course to engage students and generate leads.
Chris and Tom talk about the five hats problem with course creators having to do five jobs as an expert, community builder, teacher, technologist, and entrepreneur. Many successful courses outsource one or more of these jobs, as it is rare to find someone who can do all five jobs well.
For most course creators, online marketing is what will ultimately lead to sales for the courses they create. Tom and Chris discuss how it is important to build your course with the marketing in mind. This mindset will be what allows you to get in the customer’s mind and deliver the most value in your course by focusing on the end results the student is looking at when buying the course.
Tom recommends you give away some content for free on platforms like YouTube and Facebook to see if you can get people to engage with your topics and test out your demographics. Tom is a proponent of paid advertising as a way to reach as many people as possible. Chris and Tom dive into the different paid ad formats available today that produce the best results for course creators.
Chris and Tom talk about all of this and more in this episode of LMScast. To learn more about Tom Libelt, head to SmartBrandMarketing.com and WeCreateOnlineCourses.com. You can connect with Tom on Twitter at @TomLibelt and you can find the digital nomad movement he is a leader in at YourOwnWayOut.com.
Ellen Martin of CourseLauncherHQ.com joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can design programs around outcomes and strategies you can use to build successful online courses. Ellen shares her story of how she created a business serving online course creators, and what drives her core education philosophy.
When you are focused on generating results for your students, it can be helpful to design with the end in mind. If you start at the finish line and work backwards from there, it is much easier to create content that flows nicely. Ellen and Chris talk about creating a program rather than a course itself.
Many experts have so much knowledge in their heads that they feel they need to dump it all out into one course. In doing so they forget why their customers want to sign up for their course, which is typically to follow a process to achieve a certain result or to learn things that allow you to create lasting change in your life and the lives of others.
There are all kinds of educational resources available to everyone today via the internet, but it is still really hard to get adults to learn things that they don’t want to. In the online education space we see a large amount of resistance from people when education is presented to them in the form of quizzes, assignments, and homework. Chris and Ellen touch on ways you can make your courses more engaging via gamification and incentivization.
Ellen has been a natural teacher her whole life, and she has had a vision since she was young to provide education to underprivileged children. To learn more about Ellen Martin be sure to check out CourseLauncherHQ.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook at @CourseLauncherHQ and Ellen Martin.
John Turner of SeedProd joins us in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to share his journey entering and finding success in the WordPress space. John and Chris cover a wide variety of topics, from finding a niche to succeeding with a freemium product or service.
SeedProd does allow you to design your landing page from scratch, but you can also choose from a template list, modify the text, and launch if you want to make it very simple. SeedProd is also connected to Unsplash, so finding images for your site is as easy as possible for the users.
Chris highlights the importance of building your content before deciding what tools you will use to deliver it. SeedProd can be very valuable for you if you do map out your content before figuring out how you will deliver it. You can put up a landing page and start generating leads before you launch.
Getting feedback early in the development process can prove to be very valuable for your project, because you don’t want to create content nobody wants. The feedback you get can help you change the product while there is still room to influence the general direction.
Education on your product or service is key. Even if you put a landing page up with no course live, you can start to improve your SEO value and product awareness on platforms like social media with blog posts.
Be sure to listen to this information-packed LMScast with John Turner. You can find John on Twitter at @JohnTurner, and be sure to check out his podcast on HookedOnProductsPodcast.com. To learn more about SeedProd you can head to SeedProd.com
Avery White of Third Person Creative joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team to discuss the value behind learning from other forms of media to improve your content creation abilities. Avery shares his story, from earning a degree in computer engineering to running his company that helps creatives make money through pursuing their passions.
Avery is hoping to create a synthesis of content that inspires creative people to learn about other art mediums and gather inspiration from unlikely areas. As a writer, Avery thinks it is important to learn from other creative media formats like dancing, photography, and sculpting.
As a course creator it is important to know the level of understanding your target audience has. Avery has created a course that breaks down how to build a WordPress website click by click right from opening a browser window. He created screenshots and made it very easy for his students to follow along. Easily consumable content will help your students stick with your program and not get overwhelmed.
One key reason Avery is great at running Third Person Creative is that he is focused on providing value to his customers and partners rather than squeezing every dollar that he can out of the internet. When you focus on getting results for your students rather than what will make you money, it opens up a lot of opportunities for success you may not have otherwise considered.
To learn more about Avery White head to ThirdPersonCreative.com, and you can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @tp_creative and on Facebook as well.
Founders of LifterLMS Chris Badgett and Thomas Levy discuss how you can succeed with the new WordPress 5.0 update. Along with the release of WordPress 5.0 comes the new Gutenberg page builder for the LifterLMS core. There has been a lot of buzz around this release and how it will affect the WordPress space.
If you already have a page builder like Elementor, Beaver Builder, or Divi, then Gutenberg won’t really affect your site much. Thomas has put together a plugin called LifterLMS Blocks. It is not yet up for public consumption, but once Gutenberg is rolled out it will be free for the public.
Page builders like Elementor allow you to use templates and create saved layouts and you can do the same thing in Gutenberg. If you have a cooking blog where you constantly post recipes, you can use a template in Gutenberg to organize your post layout, so instead of having to re-write your post layouts from scratch you will have an easy jumping off point.
Thomas shares some insights on the more technical details that go into using a page builder with LifterLMS generated pages and courses. WordPress produces everything from pages, blog posts, and courses as post types, so LifterLMS introduces some more complicated post types such as lessons, quizzes, and questions into the mix. So there will be an opportunity to do some custom building in LifterLMS that you would not have been able to do before Gutenberg if you are not a developer.
Be sure to head over to WordPress.org/Gutenberg and check out their demo of the software! You can also head to poopy.life and create a free WordPress install and try out Gutenberg and LifterLMS in the same environment. If you are using Gutenberg on your site with LifterLMS, be sure to reach out to us and let us know any creative ways you have found to use it!
Gary Fox from WP Slide Sync and Gravy For the Brain joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can learn from the world’s biggest brands and scale up a niche subscription platform.
Chris and Gary dive into some best practices for course creators, and Gary shares his journey of creating courses for voice-over artists at GravyForTheBrain.com. Mindset is a large part of creating valuable content for your students. One important example of this is to think of students as clients rather than customers, because then you really focus on getting them results rather than making a sale, and that is when true learning happens.
Engaging people in your content is more challenging than it has ever been before. With all of the noise on the internet, everything is trying to get your students’ attention. Gary and Chris talk about how it is important to bring new ideas to the table and add value to your community. Teach in the mindset of a conversation rather than a broadcast.
Chris and Gary dive into why you should think of your customers as clients rather than customers, because then you are in the mindset of delivering results. If you do private coaching with your course or membership site, it is very important to do pre-meeting prep work to truly understand your client’s needs and make the best use of their time.
WP Slide Sync gives you the ability to sync your video with a PowerPoint presentation, so your students can click around to the parts of the video they want to see without having to invest a lot of time and effort finding the exact starting point in the video themselves. It is an interesting way to enhance longer video experiences for learners. You can find it at WPSlideSync.com.
Ali Mathis and Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team discuss how you can use WordPress form plugins with your LMS website to create custom registration pages and have students submit forms as part of lessons. Chris and Ali dive into the newly released form plugin integrations for LifterLMS.
Along with the major update to the Gravity Forms integration, LifterLMS released integrations with three new forms plugins: Ninja Forms, WPForms, and Formidable Forms. Each of these form plugins are slightly different, so Chris and Ali talk about some of the differences and how they all integrate with LifterLMS.
The forms plugins are similar, so one is not necessarily better than the others. It is just about which is the easiest and most intuitive for you to use. If you are selling a course in multiple languages, you can check the translation on the WordPress plugin pages in the repository to see if it has been translated for your language.
One example of a case where you would want to use a form for a custom registration page would be if you were selling a course with a t-shirt and you needed to know size, color, and shipping address for the shirt. You can also use conditional logic with a form to recommend specific lessons within a course based on how the student fills in the form.
Gravity Forms does not have a free version of their plugin, but Ninja Forms, WPForms, and Formidable Forms all have free versions. In order to integrate a forms plugin with LifterLMS, you need to have the LifterLMS integration as well as a license to the forms plugin itself.
If you’re interested in trying out these new forms integrations, the products are sold on our store at LifterLMS.com/Store. The integrations are also included in the Universe Bundle and the Infinity Bundle, so if you already have an active license to either of those products you can head to LifterLMS.com/My-Account to download the integration.
Spencer Forman of WP Automation Lab joins us on this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss marketing automation and learning personalization for course creators. Chris and Spencer dive into how you can integrate your WordPress website with outside tools to convert prospects into paying customers.
Marketing automation concerns itself with exclusively the top of your sales funnel to the bottom of the funnel for new prospects. Spencer and Chris dive into exactly what this means for your LifterLMS site and how these tools can be integrated with WordPress to create a personalized and engaging experience for potential customers.
There are many different aspects to a successful online course site. Social media interaction, email engagements, and gamification are just some parts of a membership ecosystem that can be integrated with a CRM, apart from the content itself. Chris and Spencer talk about the various pieces of an online course site and how you can integrate them together with automation tools.
Spencer has been working as a WordPress consultant for a while, and he has learned that perhaps the simplest way to find success as an entrepreneur is to start as a consultant and talk to people and find out what their greatest pain point is and offer them a solution that highlights one key benefit that will solve their problem.
To learn more about Spencer Forman and WP Automation Lab head to WPAutomationLab.com, and you can find him on Twitter at @WPLaunchify.
David Blackmon of Aspen Grove Studios joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can launch a successful online course, generate multiple income streams, and build a team. David shares his journey from working in the newspaper industry to owning a successful company in the WordPress-Divi space.
Divi is a WordPress theme created by Elegant Themes. There are almost a half a million active users on the Elegant Themes website, and most of those people are developers or they’re building sites for clients. So there are probably millions of sites online today that are using the Divi Theme.
Elegant Themes, the company that made Divi, had 87 other themes they created before Divi. This is a great example of how you don’t need to stress about being perfect when launching your very first project.
If you are looking to create an online course around a tool online, you may consider building around a tool that already has a huge audience like Divi. Many people get intimidated by a product that already has a large following, because they think there is not enough room for them to really succeed. David challenges this assumption and encourages anyone who is interested in entering a large community to carve out a niche and test their product or service.
Another part of building a successful business is networking. WordPress has an awesome community built around it. Events like WordCamp are great places to get to know other users and learn about new developments in the WordPress space. Chris and David speak to the importance of attending these types of events and getting out from behind the computer and out of the office.
To learn more about David Blackman, be sure to listen to this LMScast and check him out at WPthePodcast.com and AspenGroveStudios.com. And he is active on social media, so be sure to connect with him there, too.
Online course builder and SEO expert Brendan Tully joins Chris Badgett of LifterLMS on this episode of the LMScast podcast to discuss how you can speed up your website, improve your SEO, and create online course content that motivates students and delivers results.
Chris and Brendan dive into how you can create effective educational content. Many online course creators focus too much on creating as much content as possible or delivering the most information possible. In most cases students are looking for results, so having a results driven approach to educational resources will make your content more valuable to those who take the time to listen.
If you run workshops or do in person classes for a long time you will find yourself saying the same things over and over again. The inspiration to turn his work into an online course came from Brendan noticing he was doing just that. He was working with local businesses in Australia primarily, but now with his course he can reach a worldwide audience.
Genuinely engaging with your audience is becoming more relevant in online business communities. With so many automation tools online today, people want to know they are engaging with a real human. So interacting with people live and over the phone is a great way to market and sell products. Chris and Brendan talk about tools they use to engage with their audiences.
Speed of your WordPress website is huge for keeping people on your site. You won’t necessarily get more sales if your site is faster, but you’re probably losing sales right now if your site is slow. To learn more about how you can improve the speed of your WordPress site head to WPSpeedFix.com.
If you have a website that sells stuff and you’re looking to up your SEO game, then check out ParetoEcommerce.com. That is Brendan’s master class on how you can improve your presence online with several SEO and marketing strategies that are quick to implement and deliver results fast.
Founders of LifterLMS Thomas Levy and Chris Badgett talk about the in-person WordPress community and what they have learned about the power of contributing from leading events and organizing WordCamps. Thomas was the lead organizer for WordCamp Los Angeles in 2018, and Chris is one of the lead organizers for WordCamp Portland, Maine this year.
With most tech conferences Thomas had attended before 2015, he would stay near the back of the room and work on his computer, only halfwa paying attention to what was going on. Once Thomas volunteered at his first WordCamp in 2015, he realized the power of contributing and how that led to much better networking and relationship building experiences.
WordCamp is typically a $40, two-day conference where speakers give presentations on various topics from development to best practices for basic WordPress users. There are WordCamp conferences all around the world, and they happen all year round. Many people travel around and attend conferences worldwide.
If you have never been to a WordCamp, we encourage you to check one out. The $40 cost usually covers lunch for the two days, and you can hear all kinds of great speakers and meet others who use WordPress as well.
The idea of WordPress is accessibility and an open environment where people can experiment and create. The WordCamps reflect this idea, so even if you’re not a developer you can still get a lot of value out of these camps, as there are three talks happening simultaneously that are broken down into three broad categories: developers, business, and users.
Chris and Thomas will be at the upcoming conference in Portland, Maine with some LifterLMS swag and the LifterLMS rocket cutout and helmet you can use to take pictures with the founders of the software.
Diane Halfman joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how course creators can overcome extreme stress and unlock creativity through clarity with the spa life. Diane and Chris dive into strategies you can use to relieve stress to make a much larger impact.
Diane learned about the spa lifestyle when she was working as a police officer often working in stressful environments. When she had the opportunity to relax and prioritize her wellness, she noticed her productivity and impact elevated. She created a coaching program around the spa life and teaches business owners, authors, and anyone who is looking to reduce stress in their life how to create a relaxing and empowering environment.
Creating time for relaxation is important, but it is even more important to respect that time you’ve set aside and actually do it. Chris and Diane share several stories from their lives and the lives of others they know where relaxation and stress management lead to greater success in business and life.
Sometimes when creating courses or working on projects that have set deadlines you don’t always get the time everyday and that’s okay. Diane believes in the concept of work hard, play hard, but you have to be sure you make time for the play. As Chris mentions, it is better to manage energy not time.
Diane shares some strategies on how to use quizzes on the front end of your site to gain insights on your customers problems before talking to them directly. This allows you to find out what areas of their life or business they need help with and figure out a rough outline of the best way you can support them.
To learn more about Diane Halfman you can head to DianeHalfman.com. And take her life reset quiz at LifeResetQuiz.com to learn about what areas you need to focus on to manifest the life you desire.
Bradley Morris of the Great eCourse Adventure shares strategies for how to create engaging online courses in this episode of the LMScast podcast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Bradley dive into topics from how Bradley entered the online education industry to how you can build a community around your product or service online.
Bradley dropped out of college in 2005 to create an online business to sponsor himself to play professional golf. After getting involved with meditation and personal growth, he experienced a radical shift in his perspective and life habits. He started touring North America and speaking after his video called the Gratitude Dance went viral on YouTube.
Bradley was burnt out after teaching over 500 workshops on meditation and wellness around the world. He created an online course to encapsulate his knowledge, so the meditation knowledge he was sharing wouldn’t die. After that Bradley started creating more online courses and teaching others how to build theirs as well.
The Great eCourse Adventure is Bradley’s training for course creators on how to create binge-worthy online courses that capture the engagement of students. What makes the Great eCourse Adventure unique is the settings, stories, and themes behind the course.
Bradley and his partner Blair decided to build the Green Screen Magic course to help education entrepreneurs learn all about how to use green screens and editing softwares just like they did in the Great eCourse Adventure. You can find the Green Screen Magic course on https://demo.lifterlms.com/
To learn more about Bradley and the awesome products and services he offers, head to eCourseAdventures.com. You can also find his masterclass where he teaches his philosophies about creating engaging learning at CoursesWorthSharing.com/Masterclass
Chris Davis of ActiveCampaign joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team to discuss the business of internal training and strategies for course creators online today. ActiveCampaign is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, and Chris Davis is the Director of Education there. Chris and Chris talk about what internal training is, and how you can use it in your company to promote growth.
Social media has changed the interactions between companies and customers in a huge way. Chris Davis uses how people understand ActiveCampaign and what they say on social media to inform his internal training methods for how he trains employees at ActiveCampaign.
Passion is a big part of the learning process. Many people have negative experiences with the idea of an online course because of their dislike of their experiences with formal education. When you are learning something like riding a bike, playing basketball, rock climbing, or learning anything you are passionate about, it seems very easy to absorb information, because you are intrinsically motivated. Chris and Chris dive into how you can foster that learning environment for your students.
Chris Davis emphasizes the point that if you can get your learners to walk away with just one nugget of wisdom from your course, then it is worth the price of admission. One solid takeaway is enough to justify the price of admission. Chris is also a fan of lifetime access, as it allows your students to not feel pressure to complete everything fast and end up missing out on valuable information.
To learn more about Chris Davis and the things they have going on at ActiveCampaign, head to ActiveCampaign.com. And be sure to check out ActiveCampaign.com/learn to learn more about ActiveCampaign and business in general on their podcast.
CEO of the Association of Internal Control Practitioners Tom McClurg joins us on this episode of LMScast to share tips and strategies for how you can make your online course or membership site business a success by managing it from the top. Tom and Chris Badgett from LifterLMS dive into what the AICP is all about and what Tom and his team have put together for business owners and managers.
Tom has experience working in finance, money lending, debt collecting, business development, consumer credit law, and procurement, and he has been on various strategy committees of one of the major banks in the UK.
Tom and his colleagues at the AICP work to teach anyone in business management how they can cultivate the best opportunity for success. Tom believes that poor management and governing in businesses has caused many companies to go out of business in the past few years.
The AICP team have put a lot of work into the material they’ve built over the past few years. They are currently running a successful online education company with 15 courses and several other learning tools, but they don’t yet have video in any of their courses. Many course creators don’t end up following through with launching, or even testing, their course ideas, because they don’t have video for their courses. Tom and the AICP are a great example of how you don’t need video to get your course off the ground.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Association of Internal Control Practitioners you can head to TheAICP.org
CEO of Joseph Studios Daniel Klein joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how to implement WordPress LMS internal training platforms into the operations of Fortune 500 companies. Chris and Daniel talk about the versatility of LifterLMS and how it can be a phenomenal solution for business training programs.
Creating a culture of learning and improvement is important for creating long-term growth in any company. LifterLMS is a great tool for fostering that environment. It also makes it so there is a single point of failure in the learning process, meaning that if one employee quits or gets a promotion the whole system won’t fall apart, because the education is still there.
LifterLMS is a great tool from an auditing perspective too. Because with regulations like HIPAA compliance, FDA compliance, and FAA compliance, you have to have proof that employees are taking the training, and the reporting in LifterLMS allows you to see who has completed what training and how they performed on quizzes. You can then print out the reports and hand them to the auditing agencies.
What sets Joseph Studios apart is their solution-based approach, rather than a transactional approach to designing solutions for companies. Meaning they create a quantifiable experience and process for improvement, defect management, and remediation, rather than just delivering a product and walking away. It is more of a partnership experience that is mutually beneficial for both parties.
You can find out more about Daniel Klein at JosephStudios.net
Founder of Globalocity Doris Nagel joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team to share her experiences forming partnerships in business, and strategies you can use to form mutually beneficial partnerships in the online course industry.
Globalocity is passionate about helping companies do a better job of selling through partners to reach new markets. Building partnerships is one of the best ways to make indirect sales and reach as many people as possible. Doris and Chris talk about the advantages to creating partnerships even with your competitors who have complementary skill sets to you.
If you partner with others in the online course space, it is a win for everyone. You look smart for being connected to experts, the experts you bring in gain exposure to your audience, and your audience benefits by gaining knowledge in a new subject that is relevant to them.
Doris shares that building trust and establishing mutual benefit are the two keys to building strong partnerships. People don’t typically buy products just to have products. They purchase products or services to solve a problem or fill a need. This is where partnering with your competitors can be an advantage. If you compete for different customers in an industry and you partner, then you can provide an all-in-one solution.
To learn more about building partnerships in business, head to GlobalocityServices.com
Founder and CMO of Elementor Ben Pines joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett to discuss how you can use Elementor to build well designed online course and membership websites. Ben and Chris dive into what the core elements of design are with Elementor, and Ben shares some of the experience he has gained with creating the software that has taken the WordPress community by storm.
Elementor is a page building software that allows you to customize the layout of your site in a very visual manner from the front end. What makes Elementor different is that it allows you to work with the dynamic pages on your sites. The company was created two years ago and already has over 900,000 active installs in WordPress.
Creating campaigns that are focused on big updates and new product releases is a great way to spread word of your products and services. Chris and Ben also talk about how celebration times are large opportunities to sell, because you build rapport with people when you know how to celebrate. It is like being the host of a party.
Chris and Ben also touch on some issues you may face while scaling and what you can do to handle changes in your team, traffic, volume of inquiries, and support in a fast growing company like Elementor. Choosing the right people to do the right jobs is a large part of finding success when scaling your company.
Finding inspiration for your design is important for really taking advantage of your vision for your product or service. Ben shares some places like Dribbble and One Page Love where you can check out some different landing pages and find the inspiration you need to start designing your site. The biggest mistake Ben has seen is when someone who is in charge of marketing doesn’t have any idea about design and just stacks up things without paying due attention to what has been proven to work.
To learn more about Ben Pines and Elementor head to Elementor.com, and you can find their theme builder at Elementor.com/Theme-Builder.
Micah Mitchell, creator of Memberium, joins us in this episode of LMScast to share his journey from owning a lawn mowing business to creating cutting-edge software that integrates WordPress with Infusionsoft and ActiveCampaign. Chris and Micah dive into some course creation best practices and strategies you can use to make your courses and membership sites more engaging.
Memberium is a middleware software, meaning it integrates two other softwares together. Memberium is built for the advanced user who wants a lot of control over activity happening from the CRM Infusionsoft. Chris and Micah talk about how you can use Memberium, LifterLMS, and Infusionsoft to keep your students on track and engaged with your courses.
Micah shares the strategy he uses to make his content more engaging for students. He creates note cards and goes through his learning content as the customer would. This strategy delivers several insights into what content you should make clearer, break down, or even cut from your online course.
Often times with monthly or weekly podcasts or webinars you find that the content becomes very similar and less engaging. Micah shares some great advice for how you can make content evergreen by utilizing hot seats, bringing in guests, or engaging with your audience in interesting ways.
Creating sales hooks is often the hardest and most crucial aspect of selling any product. With online courses, copywriting is key to success because it is how you will communicate with your customers before and after they buy, and it is ultimately what will make the sale in most cases.
If you’re interested in learning more about Micah Mitchell and the awesome things you can do with Infusionsoft and LifterLMS head to Memberium.com.
Jonathan Farley shares his entrepreneurial journey from working in medicine and losing track of his health to making an amazing recovery with his knowledge of the human body. Jonathan turned his knowledge into an online course with LifterLMS and has made around half a million dollars while helping others develop healthy lifestyles after gastric sleeve surgeries.
Jonathan knew that the clinics that were helping people to lose weight weren’t telling people the information they needed to hear. Rather than saying eat this, eat that, etc, Jonathan would tell his students why they needed to eat healthier foods. It is much easier for your students to figure out what to do if they truly understand why they’re doing it.
After having a gastric sleeve procedure, Jonathan went from 400 pounds to 175 pounds in nine months. The reason Jonathan was so successful with losing that extreme amount of weight is because of his knowledge of medicine and how the body works. So he decided to share that knowledge with other people.
Jonathan is working on several other amazing projects he shares in this episode. He took the knowledge he gained from the bariatric site and is now helping kids in other countries who are impoverished and giving them the knowledge they need to build themselves out of their current situations. Jonathan is also working on a platform for personal trainers around the world to create their own online courses without dealing with the technology aspect.
To learn more about Jonathan Farley you can head to FarleyProMedia.com where he helps experts turn their knowledge into a business without having to deal with the complicated technology aspect of online courses.
Tal Gur shares the secrets to the art of fully living through commitment, goals, beliefs, investment, and immersion in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Tal shares his journey with authoring several books and creating freedom for himself and others around him.
Really defining what success means to you is important when entering the world of entrepreneurship. Financial freedom could mean $2,000 in passive income per month if your expenses are less than that. Evaluating what is important to you is key with finding success.
Increasing certainty that you will attain your goals and execute on habits can be done by establishing a network of like-minded individuals. Tal emphasizes the importance of seeking to advance in a certain area rather than seeking information. Figuring out why systems work rather than learning how specific systems work is important, because then you gain an understanding of operations that can be applied to any situation you find yourself in.
Tal shares expert tips for how you can engage your students and get your learners results. Students often suffer from information overload, and a more efficient way of learning would be to immerse yourself and your students in one or two key indicators of success and focus on those. When your goals are more specific, it is easier to reach them.
Freedom is a natural state and an eternal war. You should constantly find ways to put yourself into empowering states. When someone makes you feel angry you have to view it as if you are allowing them to make you angry. This gives you control over whether or not you’re really mad and gives you a major lifestyle advantage by having better mood and circumstantial control.
To learn more about Tal Gur head to FullyLived.com and OneYearToFreedom.com. You can also connect with him on social media.
John Locke, SEO expert and founder of Lockedown Design, joins us on this episode of LMScast to discuss SEO for course builders, membership site owners, and coaches with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS.
John specializes in SEO services for all types of businesses and he shares some key insights and tips for how you can generate long-term traffic to your online course or membership site.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it is how search engines like Google determine how relevant your website is to someone searching for specific keyword terms. So if you type into Google, “How to create an online course” Google will show the sites that have the best SEO at the top of the page. The better your SEO is the higher you rank, and you recieve more traffic to your site.
Content marketing and SEO synergize very nicely with online courses and membership sites. One of the best and easiest content marketing strategies for online courses is to give away one or two of your best lessons in your course for free, so search engines can find your free content and direct potential customers to your site.
Chris and John talk about several other SEO strategies such as building relationships with authorities in your industry to boost the number of sites that link to your site and several other tactics you can use as an online course creator to show search engines that you deliver the most value to customers.
To learn more about John Locke and the SEO services he offers, head to LockedownDesign.com and you can find him on Twitter at @Lockedown_
Head to LifterLMS.com to learn more about how you can get your online course or membership site off the ground fast!
Expert WordPress consultant Sallie Goetsch joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss optimization in online course website design, event management, questioning client decisions, and using online courses as a consultant.
There are four types of people necessary for building online courses: Technologist, Expert, Teacher, and Community Builder. It is important to focus on your strengths when building a course, so you can deliver the most value to your students and be clear on the result you are delivering to your students.
Sallie shares her story of how she got into the WordPress space and what it means to use a self-hosted course platform like WordPress and LifterLMS versus a hosted platform like Udemy or Teachable. Chris and Sallie also delve into what opportunities there are in the online education industry for consultants.
When you are working with clients, it can sometimes be intimidating to contest them on the decisions they want to make. But as Sallie illustrates, it is your duty as a consultant to give the client their ideal result, so it is better to have a discussion about their decisions at the start rather than waiting until they have a product that doesn’t make them happy or get them the optimal result.
To learn more about Sallie Goetsch head to WPFanGirl.com and you can find Sallie on Twitter at @SallieGoetsch
Using YouTube for online course advertising is a huge opportunity in the online course space at the moment and that is what we discuss with Matt Medeiros in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team. Matt Medeiros is from Pagely and the Matt Report, which is a podcast Matt hosts about all things business and WordPress.
Matt has been interested in radio and video for much of his life, and he decided to invest big into those forms of media when he first saw them surface in the early 2000s. Today it can be hard to remember a time when people were not taking pictures and videos of themselves everywhere they went, because iPhones and other smartphone technology is everywhere now. Video marketing is becoming more popular and more widely used by business owners and content creators. Chris and Matt dive into the principles of AIDA (Attention, Interest, Decision, and Action) and how they can work within videos to help you teach more effectively and close sales.
Near the end of the episode Chris and Matt wrap the conversation up by giving away a lot of tips and strategies for great online video marketing. Engaging your students is key with education marketing, and consumers connect with sales people they know, like, and trust. Video is a great form of media you can use to build up that liking and trust in your customers.
If you are interested in finding out more about Matt Medeiros and business strategy online, head over to MattReport.com and YouTube.com/TheMattReport
Jeff Large of Come Alive Creative and Come Alive Academy joins us on this episode of LMScast to share how you can come alive as an expert, get leads, and unlock your voice with podcasting. Chris Badgett and Jeff talk about how podcasting can take your business to the next level and how you can get started creating a podcast.
Jeff has been podcasting for many years now, and he has learned the ins and outs of what makes a podcast successful. And he shares some of his strategies and services with us here today.
Customers buy things from people they know, like, and trust. Podcasting is a great way to show expertise and market to students before they buy your course. Jeff shares some awesome tips for how you can relate to your customer and build trust. Chris and Jeff also talk about what it means to market your course effectively and how you can build long-term success as a business owner.
Come Alive Creative is a turnkey solution for podcast strategy, production, distribution, and promotion. Jeff and his team work with people to help them with any of the production process that they may have trouble with. You can also learn everything you need to know to plan, record, edit, and launch your podcast from Come Alive Academy, where Jeff and his team teach you how to go through the process of creating a podcast.
Head to ComeAliveCreative.com and ComeAliveAcademy.com to learn about the services and courses Jeff and his team have available over there! You can also find Jeff’s personal podcast at JeffLarge.com or find him on Twitter at @realJeffLarge
Conversational copywriting expert Nick Usborne joins Chris Badgett of LifterLMS in this episode of LMScast to discuss the power behind copywriting. Nick and Chris talk about the purpose of copy and how you can use it to optimize the way you communicate the value of your product to buyers.
People are constantly bombarded by salesmen. And when people realize they’re being sold to they tend to put up their defenses, and it becomes almost a fight between the salesman and the buyer. Nick offers an alternative approach where you sell in a conversational manner.
If you are inquisitive with your customers and really focus on what their needs are, then you will end up building more rapport with them and selling more of your product or service. Even if the buyer doesn’t purchase from you today, they will remember you and probably buy in the future or recommend your products to others.
By engaging your customers you get them to sell to themselves. When you are not constantly trying to trick your customers into buying and slugging them with extra bonuses, you can establish a real relationship with your customers.
Social media has changed copywriting in a major way. Previously the easiest way to reach consumers was through TV ads, but with social media there are many more outlets you can use to reach consumers and connect with your audience. Social media also opens up the conversation between the sellers and the buyers in the form of product reviews and online communities.
Nick shares several tips in this episode on how to optimize how you write copy by talking about the core fundamentals of copywriting. To learn more about Nick Usborne you can head to NickUsborne.com and ConversationalCopywriting.com to find out about the online courses he offers on copywriting.
Expert webinar host Joel Erway joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team to discuss what webinars can bring to your content marketing strategy for your online course or membership site.
Joel is the host of several podcasts, and today he shares the strategy he uses to engage customers and build rapport in his webinars. His strategy breaks down into the acronym A.R.E. (A.A.A.R.R.E): Authority, Attraction, Awareness, Rapport, Relationships, and Exchange. He shares in detail how he goes through each step in this episode, so be sure to take notes.
When you are in a selling position it is important to put the buying decision in the hands of the customer and avoid pressuring them to purchase your product. Joel highlights how buyers remorse is a very bad thing to have your customers experience and fostering long term relationships will help you sell more in the long run.
It is important to communicate to your potential customers why you are qualified to talk to them and why they should spend their time listening to you and possibly purchasing your online course or membership site. It doesn’t have to be complex, but communicating how you can help your customers is key to capturing their attention.
Joel created Slide Sell to make it easy for people to see what is possible with webinars. He has a vault of information to act as inspiration for people planning to host a webinar. You can find that at TheWebinarAgency.com.
If you want to learn more about hosting webinars and content marketing in general, head over to TheWebinarAgency.com. Also check out Joel’s podcasts Sold With Webinars and Experts Unleashed podcast.
Unlock freedom and growth in your business by learning how to work with virtual assistants in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Barbara Turley of The Virtual Hub joins us in this episode to discuss some best business practices for education entrepreneurs and share some secrets to success when working with a team.
Many entrepreneurs struggle with overwhelm from all of the work they have to do. Barbara created The Virtual Hub as the solution to this problem. Barbara puts great emphasis on pairing her clients up with virtual assistants who have a complimentary skill set to create optimum efficiency.
When growing your business, it is important to create a series of habits and traditions to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Barbara has a lot of experience with this, and she and Chris dive into depth on the different strategies you can use to create a successful team.
Expert syndrome is the condition where someone is so advanced in their field that they forget that everyone else does not know as much about a given topic as they do. We see expert syndrome constantly in entrepreneurship, especially in the tech space.
Streamlining communication within your company is very important to achieving success in the long term with a team. It all comes back to habits and creating those traditions around daily or weekly meetings with all of your staff even if it is just for ten minutes will show dramatic increases in productivity. By creating an environment with consistent check-ins you optimize your company’s efficiency greatly.
To learn more about Barbara Turley and The Virtual Hub head to TheVirtualHub.com and you can find them on Facebook and Instagram at @TheVirtualHubLTD.
Chris Badgett and Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team talk about the release of the LifterLMS Assignments add-on in this episode of LMScast. In this episode the roles are reversed, and the guest Ali Mathis interviews our host Chris about what assignments can do for your online courses.
One of the most powerful marketing strategies for online courses is to sell the result the student receives. Sometimes you need to see the students take action on what they learn in your course and assignments are a great way to do that.
There are two assignment types you can use with LifterLMS. The essay assignment allows your students to write out papers, and they can save their results in LifterLMS as they work so they don’t have do write out a whole essay in one sitting.
The upload assignment type gives you the ability to have students upload videos, photos, audio files, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and more. Opening up a feedback loop between you and your students can be very powerful when creating successful online courses.
Pricing your digital products can be a tough thing to do. Chris and Ali talk a bit about the factors you should take into consideration when deciding how much to charge for your online education products.
If you want to integrate LifterLMS Assignments into your courses, head to LifterLMS.com/Product/LifterLMS-Assignments. You can also check out all of the other cool features LifterLMS has to offer by going to LifterLMS.com.
WordPress product creator Nathan Tyler shares some great insights and tools for course creators in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They discuss the strategies they use to connect with their customers, and what different hats course creators and membership site owners wear.
Nathan has developed many products for WordPress users and course creators. Chris and Nathan discuss three in this episode: Simply Schedule Appointments, StagingPilot, and Draw Attention. Each of these products offers a unique way for you to make your WordPress sites more efficient and easy to use.
Simply Schedule Appointments is a great way to schedule coaching calls, client consultations, etc. It has the polish of the best calendar applications and the functionality of the best WordPress calendar options.
Staging Pilot is a staging environment for your WordPress site that automatically runs software updates on the staging environment and notifies you if the updates would break anything visually or functionally on your site before installing the updates on your site.
Chris and Nathan also talk about creating engaging content, and Nathan’s product Draw Attention is a software you can use to create interactive images on your site. Head to WPDrawAttention.com to check out their demo.
The best marketing is a good product. Chris and Nathan dive into what it takes to create a product that is engaging for your customers. For course creators there are five roles: expert, community builder, teacher, technologist, and entrepreneur. Be sure to listen to this week’s episode to learn more about Nathan Tyler and what technology solutions are currently available in the WordPress space.
Trailblazing entrepreneur Debbra Sweet shares her personal journey through life threatening injury and turning vision into victory in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS.
Debbra has been in the business culture her whole life with her family, so she has seen a lot of changes in the business world since the 1970s. One of the largest changes is how people used to compartmentalize their personal and business life. Your overall well-being plays a major role in how you perform professionally, so Debbra focuses on all aspects of her clients life when she does consulting, and she shares some valuable tips you can use to improve your overall state of well-being.
Chris and Debbra talk about the principles of VCP (Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability) as it applies to course creators. Visibility is the thing that course creators struggle with most of the time and Debbra shares some insights on how you can add more value to your content and gain much better visibility with your online course or membership site.
A lot of entrepreneurs build their businesses in a way where it cannot function without them, and that can be very dangerous as your business grows. Debbra talks about how you can make sure your business is functioning optimally, and she also shares some of the key tenets of business she has accumulated over her career.
You can head over to DebbraSweet.com and check out the consulting work Debbra offers. You can find Debbra on many social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. She is also offering a free 30 minute goal achievement session to the LMScast audience, so if you want to take her up on that offer head over to her site and shoot her an email and tell her that you are an LMScast listener!
Ali Mathis and Chris Badgett of the LifterLMS team discuss how you can increase understanding and learner results in this episode of LMScast. Chris and Ali talk about the newly released Advanced Quizzes add-on for LifterLMS and the expanded functionality of the quiz builder in the most recent update of the LifterLMS core software.
Quizzes and tests are essential for making sure your students are truly understanding the content in your course. Now it is easier than ever to create quizzes using the LifterLMS quiz builder. You can build your quizzes with three question types: multiple choice, true/false, and picture choice.
Chris and Ali also dive into the added features that come in the Advanced Quizzes add-on. Fill in the blank, short answer, reorder pictures, and the scale questions are just some of the new question types that come with Advanced Quizzes. You can also add manual grading into your course and collect testimonials with the new add-on.
Building a feedback loop with your students in order to track how they are learning is important for delivering the most value possible to them. The Advanced Quizzes Add-on is a great way to enhance the student learning experience.
You can get started with LifterLMS by heading to LifterLMS.com and checking out the 30 day demo site where you can try out all of the premium tools the LifterLMS team offers. There is also a 30 day money back guarantee with the LifterLMS add-ons, so there is no risk in trying them out!
Josh Haynam of the revolutionary quiz building software Interact joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can generate leads for your online course or membership site.
Josh and his co-founder Matt were working as web consultants building websites, doing SEO, and building content for clients. They noticed their clients only seemed to be concerned about one metric, and that was how many new email subscribers they had. Your email subscribers are reminiscent of a rolodex, so that is something they understood.
Noticing the clients’ emphasis on the email list gave Josh and Matt the idea to build a software company focused on building up email lists. The Interact software allows you to create survey-type quizzes like, “What type of fruit are you?” that you can put on your website and set up with Facebook ads.
Chris and Josh dive into the value behind online quizzes and how they can benefit you as a course creator. You can use quizzes to qualify your leads, so you can figure out what customers your course would be relevant to. Interact quizzes can also be used for personalization. You can set up a quiz and market to leads differently based on how they answered the questions by setting up what is called a sequence.
Head over to TryInteract.com and create a free account to check out all of the quiz templates and see if you want to build a quiz for your online course!
WPCrafter.com is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to WordPress tutorials for non-techies, and the tutorial legend behind the site, Adam Preiser, joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to share his journey with creating the channel and leading a massive community of WordPress users.
Adam posted a few videos on his personal channel for how to use a WordPress theme in 2013. He had no following and no subscribers, but people still watched his videos because he was putting out content on a software people were trying to find information on at the time.
Adam was inspired by this to create the WPCrafter.com YouTube channel, and he started to post tutorial videos about all things WordPress. The content Adam puts out on YouTube is 100% free and he uses that free information to teach, market for his channel, and market some of his online courses.
Putting yourself in a position where you are giving out free content before you are selling something can help to boost your credibility and conversions in a major way. YouTube is a phenomenal platform for hosting your videos and giving out that free information to your potential customers.
Chris and Adam talk about some strategies you can use as a course creator to reach as many people as possible and market for your courses by using YouTube SEO and engaging with Facebook groups centered around the free content you create.
Head over to WPCrafter.com and the WPCrafter YouTube channel to see more of Adam’s tutorial videos. You can also find the WPCrafter Facebook group and engage with the community he has built up over there.
Cofounder of Brainstorm Force and creator of the Astra theme Sujay Pawar joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Sujay talk about professional web design for course creators, page builders, and the Astra WordPress theme for LifterLMS.
While in college Sujay offered SEO services to website owners in his free time. He noticed most of his clients used WordPress to build their websites, so he teamed up with a business partner to offer SEO and WordPress customization services to clients. They started making a few plugins for WordPress, added developers to their team, and over time assembled Brainstorm Force, which now employs 30 people.
Chris and Sujay talk about front line obsession and what it means to be in touch with your customers as a business. Sujay and the Brainstorm Force team take solving the customer’s needs very seriously when developing and designing their products.
Originally the Astra theme was just a theme used for testing out new Brainstorm Force plugins and services, but the team realized that it may be a theme WordPress users would like to utilize. So they polished up the Astra theme, and now you can download it for free in WordPress.
Astra now integrates with LifterLMS beautifully, and many course creators use it as their go-to theme. The Astra theme has support for LifterLMS sidebars, and it offers you a high level of customization on your site. Brainstorm Force also offers an Astra Pro add-on for those creators looking for more customization with the styling of the site.
Head over to BrainstormForce.com to learn all about the suite of products and services they offer, including: Convert Pro, Schema Pro, WP Portfolio, and Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder.
Founder of BlogVault and MalCare Akshat Choudhary joins Chris Badgett on this episode of LMScast to discuss professional security and backups for course creators. Akshat and Chris dive into some of the different ways you can protect your online business from malicious software.
Like everything in life, you can never have absolute security with your online business. But it is still important to take enough precautionary measures to make sure you can survive an attack. Having backups is one key way you can bounce back from an attack to your site, so making consistent backups is definitely worthwhile.
Most online hacking attacks are done by automatic systems that scan millions of sites on the internet and seek out potentially vulnerable ones. Chris shares an experience he once had where hackers placed pharmaceutical ads on his sites, and when he was logged in as the WordPress admin, he couldn’t see them.
One of Akshat’s companies BlogVault is a way for WordPress users to backup their sites and ensure that if anything happens to their site they will have a backup to lean on. BlogVault has ways for you to do daily automatic backups for your site.
MalCare is Akshat’s other company in the cyber-security area. MalCare is described as a complete WordPress security solution. Analyzing data from over 250,000 sites is how MalCare can detect if there is ever any malicious software on your site. With MalCare’s one-click cleaner you can instantly remove the malware from your site with no hassle.
Building products around the customer is the best way to satisfy customers and adapt as the customer’s needs change and evolve. As Chris and Akshat discuss, customer service is especially relevant for course creators who want to create sustainable growth.
Thomas Patrick Levy from the core of the codeBOX team joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Thomas dive into the approach they take when developing LifterLMS and building products around it.
Reducing the friction in the course creation process is a key vision for LifterLMS. Chris outlines how important it is to LifterLMS development to create the most efficient process for you as the course builder, but even more importantly for your students.
WordPress is a great platform with many awesome functionality opportunities via different themes and plugins. It is important to have good hosting to cover the necessary functionality pieces that your WordPress site needs to have in order to run LifterLMS smoothly. Thomas get into some of the details as to why your hosting is important, and what specific things your host needs to do to ensure your site runs smoothly.
The course builder is one of the really novel things about LifterLMS. The course builder is flexible so you can adjust your course layout to fit your teaching style, where you wouldn’t have as much wiggle room with a hosted course creation platform. Thomas and Chris really discuss the evolution and origins of the course builder from the start of LifterLMS.
Thomas shares some of the different aspects of LifterLMS from a developer’s standpoint. He talks about why he makes some of the decisions he does with the platform for functionality, and what his approach is to modifying aspects of the platform.
Chris and Thomas talk about all of this and more in this episode of LMScast. Head over to LifterLMS.com to learn about new updates and the add-ons that are available for LifterLMS.
Incorporating quizzes and assessments into your online courses is now easier than ever with the LifterLMS Advanced Quizzes add-on. Chris Badgett of LifterLMS shares the exciting news of the Advanced Quizzes add-on launch, and talks about the different ways you can use exams in your online courses.
Adding tests and quizzes into your online course curriculum really takes your platform to a new level. They are crucial to your online course if you are offering the opportunity to earn a certification, and they vastly increase engagement from your students.
Certifications are a great way to incentivize students to finish your course, and it gives them proof of competency in a certain subject matter like online marketing. In order to give out certifications you want to know that your students are really understanding the course content, and quizzes are a great way to do that.
Establishing a feedback loop with your students is a big part of engagement, which is crucial for success with an online course or membership site. Quizzes and tests allow you to get feedback from your students, and it demonstrates to them how the content they are learning can be used in the real world.
A ton of new features have been added to the LifterLMS platform recently. You now have the ability to assign different roles to users on your site, such as the instructor’s assistant and LMS manager. These roles have different permissions on your WordPress site, and now with multiple instructors your LifterLMS website can scale with your business.
If you’d like to come on the LMScast and share your experiences with LifterLMS quizzes or your online certification program, let us know and we would love to have you on.
Online marketing expert Jasmine Powers joins us on this episode of LMScast to discuss how you can get more leads and students for your online course or membership site with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Jasmine shares a little bit of her story entering the online marketing world, and what she has learned from her experiences on how to make sales by building relationships and having conversations on Facebook.
Sometimes sales conversations can feel forced, and this happens a lot with all of the automation that happens online now. Chris and Jasmine talk about some sales approaches you can use to make selling easier and more fun. When you focus on providing a service to someone rather than getting them to buy your product, you end up selling more because you can explain more about how your product works while you have the customer’s best interests in mind.
It can be advantageous to offer different packages with your online courses. Jasmine highlights the value behind offering a free package, a paid passive course, and also a premium VIP consulting package with access to a mastermind group.
When running free or live events, it is important to lay out what it is you will be talking about during that time, and not to give away too much information with your free content. Jasmine and Chris emphasize making your packages as clear as possible for what you’re offering. If you aren’t totally clear about what you are offering, it allows a customer to step in and sort of seize control of your free, live call and define the product’s value from their own perspective. Losing your footing like this when hosting an event is a position you never want to be in.
Expert course creator Janet Kafadar joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Janet shares her insights on instructional design and tips on how to prepare slides for teaching online courses. Chris and Janet talk about the many roadblocks that stand in the way of entrepreneurs building courses online and how to bypass them and create engaging content.
Janet has been working with experts in various fields to turn their knowledge into online courses for around four years now. She shares the story of the formation of her company and the key tips she has learned about course design.
Many people who build online courses focus solely on the content and not enough attention is paid to the instructional design aspect. Chris and Janet emphasize how important it is to put a lot of work into the course design and functionality upfront, so less editing and revising of course material to fit in with the outline is required later.
Course building can appear to be a daunting amount of work when viewed as a whole, but it can be broken down into segments. And with proper planning up front, a lot of the hardships can be alleviated. Janet shares the strategies her company uses to build courses with their clients, and how you can employ similar strategies to improve your course building abilities.
To learn more about Janet Kafadar visit JanetKafadar.com/quiz where you can take a free quiz that will help you to determine the next steps you need to take in your course creation.
Pippin Williamson of AffiliateWP, Easy Digital Downloads, and Restrict Content Pro joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss learning, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Chris and Pippin talk about affiliate marketing, delegating responsibilities, and competition in business.
Pippin comes from a family that is very nature and technology-oriented, so as a kid he spent a lot of time outside, and he developed a passion for software development. He shares his story for how he made his way into the WordPress space and how he goes about building businesses and creating products.
Affiliate marketing is something that poses a challenge to many business owners. It is important to vet your affiliates carefully and lay out clear guidelines for what they can write about and advertise. Chris and Pippin talk about how affiliates contribute to your brand in a major way, so you should set up careful rules and make sure your affiliates don’t do things that will damage your company’s brand or image.
Delegation is key to success in most businesses. Many entrepreneurs and business owners have trouble delegating the responsibilities within their business. Pippin shares his experience with delegation and the process he went through when learning how to take a step back and let his employees handle tasks and situations that arise within a company.
Erin Flynn joins us on this episode of LMScast to discuss the key ingredients to building online courses, memberships, workshops, and communities online with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Erin discuss the value of guest experts and creating consumable content and community around your product or service.
While working as a web designer, Erin noticed her clients complaining about experiences they have had with web developers and designers in the past due to a lack of communication. Erin started a business helping web designers and developers with the business and communication aspect of the services they provided.
She created and compiled several email templates web designers can use to communicate with their clients when they are difficult to deal with. Chris and Erin talk about the different products and services Erin offers on ErinFlynn.com and how they can help you deal with bad clients and grow your business.
It is important to remember when building a course that the purpose of taking an online course is to develop a skill and/or solve a problem someone is facing. Erin emphasises how key it is to give your students a way to put the knowledge they’ve acquired into action. This results-driven approach makes it clear to your clients what they will get out of a given course.
Syed Balkhi of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, WPForms and so many more amazing products joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Syed talk in depth about building teams, sales funnels, and the power of pop ups on your WordPress website in this episode.
Syed is an online entrepreneur who has created awesome products that contribute in so many ways to WordPress creators. You have probably stumbled across and used his products at one time on someone’s website, or you may even use them yourself.
Building a strong team is important for the success of any business. Syed and Chris talk about what goes into hiring a great team and giving them the tools they need to succeed. It can be hard to figure out when to hire out someone to delegate work to when you are running your business online. At the start you will have to do a lot of, if not all of the work yourself, but it is important to delegate it out as soon as possible so you don’t end up resenting your work and then becoming burnt out.
Chris and Syed talk about creating sales funnels and how you can maximize the value you get from each of your customers. The easiest people to sell to are the people who already buy your products. Upselling and cross selling your customers to other products you offer can help to maximize your profits. One of the easiest ways to do this for membership site owners and course creators is to offer a more in-depth, personal training on a topic or a mastermind group.
Dre Armeda joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur in the WordPress space. Chris and Dre talk about the key aspects of good online courses, and Dre shares his story and the transformational learning experience that Jiu-Jitsu has given him.
Dre Armeda is one of the founders of Sucuri which is an internet security company that provides protection from DDoS attacks, infected malware, search engine blacklisting, and more. Dre has worked in information security in the military and in a public energy company after he left the military. That is where he met his Sucuri business partner Daniel Cid.
It is important to be solution-minded when creating and positioning your online course, because most people are only problem aware, and when you present them with a solution to a problem rather than a product approach it will vastly increase your chance of selling to them. This also allows you as the creator to step into your customer’s shoes and really get a feel for their problems and have a better understanding of what problems they need solved.
Having hobbies and side passions in your life is important for keeping your mind sharp and for alleviating stress that can arise in your business life. Dre is really into Jiu-Jitsu in his free time. He got into it when his oldest daughter wanted to try it out, but she wanted Dre to do it with her. Practicing Jiu-Jitsu has helped Dre to improve his health and develop how he thinks in a more strategic manner. And it has changed his life in so many other ways, including what he eats and his demeanor in general.
Chris and Dre talk about all of this and more in this episode of LMScast. To learn more about Dre you can find him on Twitter @DreMeda, and head on over to Sucuri.net to learn more about the information security tech solution they provide.
Sherry Walling of ZenFounder joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss wellness as an education entrepreneur. Chris and Sherry talk about the different mental health risks associated with owning your own business and how to deal with the stresses and anxieties that arise.
Mental health and wellness are very important for business owners because they often live very chaotic and stressful lives. This mental health is often not heeded by entrepreneurs as it should be. Sherry Walling is one of the founders of ZenFounder, which is a Podcast that teaches you about mental health topics relevant to entrepreneurs.
ZenTribes are groups of six to eight entrepreneurs who meet every week for eight weeks and then once per month after that for six months. The groups are led by Sherry, and she works with the entrepreneurs to work out the stresses and wellness issues they face in their daily lives as business owners.
Being an entrepreneur poses many stresses, and it can be a lonely road. Building habits that get you outside of your work and your comfort zone is important for your mental health as an entrepreneur, because you can run a serious risk of burnout and diminishing creativity if you don’t replenish your mental resources and give your brain a break.
Chris and Sherry talk about all of this and much more in this episode of LMScast. You can also learn more about Sherry Walling by visiting ZenFounder.com.
Grant Weherley of Monetize My Expertise joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss professional online course production and the essential elements that shape an online course. Chris and Grant also talk about how specialization in your business can improve your ability to deliver strong results by focusing one or two key topics.
Grant Weherley is the founder of Monetize My Expertise. He works with individuals who have a vast amount of knowledge and expertise in a certain area to turn their knowledge into income. Monetize My Expertise is a course production company, so they create things like the lesson setup, quizzes, and more.
Chris and Grant talk in depth about the four essential aspects of course building. The first being expertise or knowledge on a given subject. Second is the course production, which is how the course is laid out, put together, and taught. Third is the technology behind the course creation, for example: LifterLMS, video editing software, cameras, etc. Last but not least is the marketing that goes into the course.
Grant shares the process they use over at Monetize My Expertise to create courses with their clients. Most people only possess one or two of the fours aspects of course building, but it is important to recognize which skills you have and what skills you need to acquire, or find someone else who has them.
Chris and Grant create the comparison of course building to construction. Building a course is like building a house - you may know exactly what you want it to look like, but unless you’re an architect, you will not be able to build it alone.
Chris Badgett and Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team join us on this episode of LMScast to discuss the combination of course quality, speed to market, and low stress that comes with the LifterLMS Done For You service and LifterLMS Expert program.
The LifterLMS Done For You service was recently re-launched, and it is back and better than ever. The LifterLMS Done For You service is a service where the LifterLMS team essentially builds your course website for you and inserts a course filled with filler information. Then all that is left for you to do is fill in the blanks with your knowledge and expertise, install a payment gateway, and get the word out!
One of the most crucial aspects of an online course is the design and production, and sadly this is the aspect most easily overlooked. It is often not enough to be an expert in an area to make an online course. You also have to know how to format and teach the course, and with an ever changing industry such as the internet you have to be on the cutting edge. This is where the LifterLMS Done For You service and the LifterLMS Expert program work their magic.
The LifterLMS Experts program is a network of online course creators and WordPress experts who know LifterLMS like the back of their hand. These experts can help you out with any problems you have, whether it is adding a payment gateway or modifying detailed aspects of the LifterLMS Launchpad theme.
Chris and Ali also talk about the different packages associated with the LifterLMS Done For You service. These packages are known as the Universe Bundle and the Infinity Bundle. They discuss these in depth in this episode, and you can head over to the LifterLMS.com website to learn more about these package deals.
Brand strategist and teacher at Minnesota State University Moorhead Katie Ellenberger joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how you can achieve great design for your business and create a powerful brand. Chris and Katie talk about a lot of topics regarding brand design that are relevant to course creators and business owners.
Katie works as a creative brand strategist at Spark27 Creative. She works with companies to develop their brand and craft creative marketing strategies. Katie also works as a teacher at Minnesota State University Moorhead where she teaches branding.
There are many things to take into consideration when building your website and business as far as branding is concerned. Chris and Katie talk about a lot of these aspects including color schemes, working with designers, getting in touch with you key message, and more.
A lot of people don’t launch their business, course, or membership site because they are afraid that it isn’t perfect and that will be their undoing. This is not actually the case most of the time, because companies will see further development as time goes on. So it is nearly impossible to have a perfect idea to start with. Chris and Katie discuss some different strategies you can use to build your ideas into a business, such as mind mapping as a strategy to avoid linear thinking.
Phil Derksen of WP Simple Pay joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Phil talk about WP Simple Pay and how you can use it to test out your ideas for products and services on a basic WordPress website. They also talk about all of the unique functionality of WP Simple Pay.
Phil Derksen is the founder of WP Simple Pay, and it is a WordPress plugin designed to create fast checkout on your WordPress website. The payment aspect of WP Simple Pay is facilitated through Stripe, which is a system used to encrypt and collect credit and debit card payments online.
The great thing about WP Simple Pay and Stripe is that Stripe takes all of the sensitive information the customer puts in, and they are responsible for the privacy of the credit card numbers. Stripe also can translate the currency and language of your payment gateway in case your site didn’t already do that. With over 135 currencies, Stripe allows you to accept credit card payments from almost anyone in the world.
Chris and Phil talk about all of the different ways you can use WP Simple Pay to set up a checkout without having to deal with setting up shopping carts. You can create monthly subscriptions, one-time payments, payments for a certain period of time, and more.
You can also use a basic WordPress website with WP Simple Pay to validate your ideas before diving all in and creating a whole product around it. Chris and Phil talk about the importance of validating your ideas with service-based products or live events before creating a course around it. You can also use WP Simple Pay to cross-sell or upsell your current customers to your other products and services.
Mendel Kurland of GoDaddy and Camp Press joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to talk about how to design events and leverage in-person Meetups for community building and training. Mendel shares his story of how he created Hiking with Geeks and Camp Press.
Hiking with Geeks is a Meetup for people who are in the technology space. People generally will meet at a hiking trail and hike for a few hours and network with one another. It is an inclusive, free activity that is meant to help people in the technology space bond and build relationships out of their normal context. Hiking with Geeks currently has around 17,000 members and roughly 10 to 50 people show up at each event.
Camp Press is another company Mendel started with the purpose of getting out from behind the computer and networking with other entrepreneurs. Camp Press is a longer excursion where a group of people go on a trip together for three or four days in a camping setting. Camp Press is usually a teamwork oriented bonding experience for the people involved.
Disconnecting from your normal life and routine can help to clear your mind and alleviate stress as well. Mendel specifically hosts Camp Press events at campgrounds where there is limited or no WiFi connection to force a focus on what is happening at the event. Mendel also creates a casual feel with the camps so you can kick a ball around, read a book, or relax around the fire. This also allows people to open up in the setting with their own interests.
Chris and Mendel discuss some tips for course creators, like how you should focus on your customer at every point in the development process, because they are the ones benefiting from the product so it is important to keep their best interest in mind at all times.
Mendel works at GoDaddy, and he is very passionate about GoDaddy’s products and services. You can check out what he and his team are working on at GoDaddy.com/pro.
In this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS we discuss a mastermind event case study about Chris Lema’s CaboPress. Thomas Levy and Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team join Chris in this episode to share their experiences at CaboPress and talk about some unique insights in the world of online learning.
Thomas Levy is the cofounder of LifterLMS, and he is the Head of Development. Thomas writes the code that makes LifterLMS a reality. Ali Mathis is the Director of Projects, which means she handles the Done For You service, and she manages the trial of LifterLMS.
CaboPress is an event that took place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was held at a resort and had about 50 to 100 people attend. Chris Lema was the host. Chris is a speaker who is very active in the WordPress community. He covers topics like WordPress products, selling, and community building. You can check him out on his website at ChrisLema.com
CaboPress is unique, because most of the meeting sessions take place in a pool or around a dinner table, so emphasis is placed highly on conversation and is heavily influenced by the people in the group. Traditional seminars and events have you sit in chairs in a conference room for hours listening to speakers, but CaboPress is a combination of a mastermind group and a seminar.
CaboPress is a truly unique experience where you can learn more about the WordPress industry and build relationships. Getting out from behind the computer screen to network within the community is truly powerful.
You can learn more about all of the happenings at CaboPress in the LifterLMS blog post about it here: blog.lifterlms.com/CaboPress-Growth
John Doherty of Credo joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to talk about marketing versus sales and how you can optimize the SEO value of your online course or membership site.
John Doherty is the founder of GetCredo.com, which helps businesses connect with people who can help them with online marketing. SEO is one of the largest forms of marketing on the internet right now, so that is something John knows how to do very well.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engines such as Google index your website based on things like relevant links to your site and the keywords contained on your site and how well they relate to the terms searched by the user. Your SEO ranking is how high your website ranks based on these standards compared to other sites. Almost all of the traffic driven by search engines is given to the sites that are on the first page of Google, so it is important to have good SEO value.
John has been working with businesses on marketing and lead generation mostly, but he is working on helping companies not only get leads, but also to turn them into sales and recurring customers. Chris and John discuss some of the different aspects of marketing and sales.
Pricing your products can sometimes be difficult when you have a product with a non-quantifiable ROI (Return on Investment). You will want to assess what the product is worth to your customers, and find a balance between what they can afford and the value it delivers. Chris and John talk a little bit about how you can find an optimum price for your product or service.
Kim Shivler reveals 23 instructional design and business practices for user centric course creators in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Kim get into how you can make your online learning content more effective and how you can better engage your students.
Kim is teacher and instructional design consultant, as well as an expert in online courses and WordPress. Kim started developing HTML in 1995, and she was involved with an IBM worldwide team. So she has a long past with online consumer content. Seeing a lack of balance between the business and learning ends of online education, she decided to step in and offer her consulting services for online learning content creators. Kim works with people to make their products more effective and profitable.
Most consumers will buy an online course to acquire a new skill or learn how to solve a problem they’re having. It is important to test out your course from a learning perspective before launching it so you can figure out if you need to make any changes or pivots. If you were teaching a class in person, you would be able to see whether or not your audience understands what you’re saying. This is harder to do with an online course, because normally you don’t see your students. So having tests or quizzes will help you figure out if they are absorbing what you are teaching or not.
Quizzes and test will also give your students a chance to apply the knowledge they’re learning, and recalling the information you’re taking in greatly improves your memory of it. It could be beneficial to use different teaching styles in your courses for people with different learning styles. Usually if you have your lessons laid out with visual aids, text, and videos you will reach the most people.
Chris and Kim talk about all of this and much more in this episode of LMScast.
Mike Morrison of the Membership Guys joins us in this episode of LMScast to talk about building engaging online courses and membership sites with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Mike talk about the ways you can use your knowledge and expertise in order build membership sites that generate recurring revenue.
Mike is a part of the Membership Guys, which is a membership site that teaches people how to create and manage their membership sites. They also have a podcast where they share strategies and tips for creating engaging membership sites.
Chris and Mike outline the differences that exist between online courses and membership sites. They discuss the mentality that you need to have when creating an online membership versus building a course. Membership sites are like marathons that provide continuous, ever-evolving value, and an online course is more of a finished product that you will generally buy once and gain access to all of the content inside.
Creating a community around your membership site is one of the key factors to its success. Mike shares some examples of events you could host to build your community online. Holding a non-topical event, such as going bowling with local members of your online community, can help establish your brand and break the ice with people. You could host a meal at a restaurant with members of your community where you let them ask you questions for a few hours.
When you have a membership site, it is expected that you provide ongoing value, but that does not mean that you have to continuously produce video lessons or new concepts. You can create things like worksheets and checklists for your students to aid in their progress. Chris and Mike talk about redefining ‘providing value’ so that you can remove the connotation of feeling pressured to constantly be producing more and more content.
Molly Mahoney join us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to talk about using Facebook as a course piloting software, and how confidence is key when you are delivering course content. Molly and Chris talk about all of the useful features Facebook has to offer course builders. They also discuss what it means to be a ‘salesy weirdo’ and how to avoid that.
Molly and Chris share backgrounds in that both have a common aspect of being involved with cruise ships, and they both share their stories of what they did professionally before diving into the world of technology and online learning.
Building up confidence in yourself and your course material is crucial to producing a good online course, and Molly shares some of the techniques she has created in order to build confidence. We often focus on the negative aspects of our personality or appearance, so Molly has created a fun exercise called the ‘Quesadilla of Awesome.’ In this exercise you pick out all of your positive traits and the things you like to do. Then you make a list of these things and focus on them when creating an online course or developing a brand.
Working your interests and personality into your brand is very important when creating content online. It will make the product appealing to you, and if it is appealing to you then someone else is bound to like it as well, because people are often attracted to others who share a similar worldview and philosophy.
Not being a ‘salesy weirdo’ means that you don’t use cliche sales tactics when talking with customers. Developing a relationship with your clients before trying to sell anything to them is a very important and often overlooked aspect of sales. Chris and Molly talk about the steps you can use to make your brand unique and how you can avoid repelling potential customers by being a ‘salesy weirdo.’
Patrick Stiles of Vidalytics joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Patrick discuss what Vidalytics is and how it can provide you with advanced features and high-tech analytics for your videos. They talk about different marketing strategies you can use for your course or membership site and how to keep your students engaged.
Patrick shares his story of how he dropped out of high school, entered college, worked as a contingency recruiter and entered the world of software development. Chris and Patrick dive into advanced marketing strategies and how selling the result is key to success in sales.
Vidalytics is a video hosting platform that provides you with intelligent analytics for how your videos are performing. Vidalytics tells you where in your videos people are rewinding, skipping, and leaving your video. There is an autoplay for mobile devices, so when a student finishes a video the next one plays automatically. There is a banner you can put on the top of your videos so you can communicate a message to a student when they are becoming disengaged or suggest the next video to them.
What makes a customer purchase a course and what makes them stay are two totally different factors. Keeping your students engaged is very important. If you were teaching a class in person and 75% of the students left before the class was done, you would be asking all sorts of questions like, “What do I need to do to keep you engaged?” and, “What do I need to explain better?” It is easy to overlook this engagement when you are teaching online, and the high quality analytics Vidalytics provides you with help tell you how your videos are doing and when students are dropping off.
To learn more about what Patrick and his team are doing check out http://lifterlms.com/vidalytics
Gavin Zuchlinski of Acuity Scheduling joins us on this episode of LMScast to discuss how to put membership presales calls or coaching call scheduling on autopilot with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Gavin discuss how scheduling appointments and coaching calls can be made simple and stress free.
Acuity Scheduling is a product Gavin created in order to help his mom with her massage therapy business. A lot of business owners have difficulty with scheduling, especially when you have clients or employees in other time zones. Most businesses have accepted that having scheduling challenges is just something they will have to put up with, but Gavin decided that he would create a solution to scheduling chaos and thus Acuity Scheduling was born.
Acuity is designed for business owners who care about making money and the professionalism of the product. It is for businesses that have scheduling as a day-to-day necessity for their business. Gavin shares his story of how Acuity Scheduling has grown from being a software solution for massage therapists to an all around solution to scheduling for businesses.
Chris and Gavin talk about the versatility of Acuity Scheduling. Acuity can sync with your Google Calendar, iCloud, Office 365, and Exchange, so it can prevent double booking and balance your work and personal life. It also allows you to accept payments through Stripe, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net, and more.
The largest package with Acuity also complies with HIPAA laws in case you are working in the medical or health fields with your appointments. Acuity syncs up with other time zones as well, so if you have employees and/or clients in other time zones Acuity clears up the confusion with calculating appointments with them.
You can check out Acuity Scheduling at AcuityScheduling.com/lmscast to receive an extended free trial offer and to learn more about this awesome, extremely versatile scheduling tool.
The social learning add-on for LifterLMS is here, and today we talk about how you can add social learning to your online course or membership site. Chris Badgett and Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team discuss how you can implement social learning into your online products, and how that can help your students learn.
A lot of the best learning experiences we have come from times when we were working with other people in a group. Humans are social creatures, so learning is often enhanced when we are working in a social environment. The social learning add-on for LifterLMS gives you the ability as the course creator to create social learning groups of two or three people to as many as twenty or fifty people.
This is similar to what many people do with Facebook groups for courses or membership sites, but now you can integrate that group feature into the very fabric of your online product. Coaching is a big way people learn, and the peer coaching that can occur when you have a social learning feature worked into your online course can help personalize the content and learning experience to the individuals taking your course. This makes it more memorable, and they are more likely to ask questions and finish the course or participate in the membership site.
When you have more users on your site and you add more advanced functionality, you may face some complications with hosting. Chris and Ali talk about some of the different hosting options and what you will want to look for or ask about in your hosting company when you have a lot of users on your site.
The Social Learning add-on can be used in almost any type of course or membership environment, so head over to LifterLMS.com to check it out and feel free to shoot us a message with any questions you have about the product.
Milana Leshinsky of Simplicity Circle joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They talk about building your business and finding success without sacrifice.
Business can sometimes be very complicated and stressful, especially when you are an entrepreneur facing these complications alone. Milana believes there is a simpler approach that can be taken to entrepreneurship that can free up the stress and pressure. That is why she has created Simplicity Circle and has built up an online community around the concept of simplicity in entrepreneurship.
Milana is an immigrant form Soviet Ukraine, where she was trained as a classical musician. She moved to the United States and became a web designer and programmer. Once Milana realized that was not her thing, she started a business in coaching and online marketing. She found that she likes doing this line of work much more. Pursuing the business that makes you happy is a big part of entrepreneurship, and Milana shares her story of how she went from a job that made her miserable to making the same amount of money at a job that she loves.
Chris and Milana discuss the four main factors that make you successful as an online educator. They dive into how you can take a simpler, more effective approach to each of these factors. Creating a clear starting and ending point will also help you tremendously as an online educator, because it will help you stay focused and stay clear on what your goals are with a particular product.
Chris and Milana talk about time management and how that pertains to staying stress free. They talk about specific strategies you can use when putting together your online content so that your customers can easily digest and apply the content to their lives.
Check out all of this and more in this episode of LMScast. You can find Milana at SimplicityCircle.com/GetStarted.
Mark Asquith of Excellence Expected and Podcast Websites joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS to discuss how to build a marketing funnel for your online course or membership site. Chris and Mark get into the value behind being yourself and being present when constructing your online products.
Asking yourself why you do the things you do in life and course building is very important. Mark shares his experiences with coming into contact with his ‘why’ and how that changed his life, and how it has given him the drive to get to where he is today. It is also important to inquire about what other people’s ‘why’ is when you are seeking advice from them. This can help you determine whether they’re passionate about what it is they are selling you. Take this into consideration when you are creating content online. Make sure that your customers can clearly see what your why is when you create content.
Chris and Mark discuss many different styles of sales funnels and how you can integrate them into your marketing strategy to make more conversions. Adding what are known as tripwires can help get a customer to buy your product by establishing trust through discounted or free content. Mark also shares some excellent advice on how to create your course by positioning your content around the result the client wishes to buy.
Mark and Chris talk about the value behind creating a plethora of online content, such as blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and eBooks. When you have a lot of content online about a particular subject, you establish yourself as an online presence in that space, and it will raise the likelihood that when a customer has a question about a particular problem you will be there and have the answer for them. This can still be valuable even if the customer doesn’t have a question right now, because whenever they end up having questions you will be the one they associate with having the answer, so you will have an opportunity to sell to them at that point.
In this information-packed episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS we discuss the online education results revolution with expert business mentor Adam Urbanski. Chris and Adam talk about how to turn your done for you service into a scalable online course.
Adam is from TheMarketingMentors.com where he teaches skilled entrepreneurs how to turn their expertise into a business. Adam has worked with many entrepreneurs and has consolidated a formula for creating a profitable course online. Delivering results is the main focus of buyers in the economy today. Many buyers today don’t want the fluff. They don’t want the process. They just want the result fast, and they’re willing to pay for it.
Being able to solve problems and being resourceful are two major skills necessary for success as an entrepreneur and course creator. Sadly, the current setup of the school system does not teach people how to be creative and solve these problems. The system teaches people to learn and follow a set of established rules. But today the rules change so quickly that by the time you learn the established rules they have already changed and no longer apply.
Chris and Adam get into what it takes to create effective training online. In order to create effective training, you have to be able to consistently, predictably, systematically, and profitably produce results. Accepting full responsibility also is a very key part to running a business or being an entrepreneur, because when you learn to accept this level of responsibility, you can learn how to ask the right questions which generally revolve around what you can do as the course creator to better suit your clients.
Taking action is a major part of content creation as well. Adam says that, “implementation is fundamental, information is supplemental. If you don’t bring action plans into your course, then all of the information you teach can easily go to waste.
Pro podcaster and community builder Adam Silver shares expert tips on how to create a community around your online course in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Adam shares his story of how he got involved in the WordPress community and how in person Meetups have greatly influenced his WordPress experience.
Chris and Adam discuss the benefits and downsides of giving your customers lifetime access to your course versus limited time access. They also talk about the differences between evergreen content and content that dates itself. They get into some of the different situations where you may want to grant customers different access levels and times based on the relevancy and expiration date that your content has (when it outdates itself or is no longer applicable).
Adam has two podcasts called The Get Options Podcast and Kitchen Sink WP. He shares his experiences with creating and running these podcasts. He shares strategies that you can use to make your own podcast to add to your online content suite or market for your content.
Adam also has a company called ConciergeWP where they take care of your WordPress website so you can focus on other aspects of building your business. Adam also hosts a WordPress Meetup in his community for people in his local area to get together and share ideas and connect about a common interest. Sponsors will also occasionally pay to host one of these Meetups to gain access to Adam’s audience, but to maintain the authenticity of the group Adam stresses taking only the sponsorships relevant for his group members.
Chris and Adam talk about this and much more in this episode of LMScast.
Facebook ads expert, membership site owner, and mastermind creator Kamila Gornia joins us to share her story and discuss expert marketing tips on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Kamila get into the details of how Kamila has built up such a strong online brand. She has maintained the authenticity that being herself and expressing her creativity in business has brought to the table.
Kamila has been doing marketing since she was twelve-years-old. She focuses primarily on marketing consulting in her business. But she has done a lot of general business consulting, because when discussing marketing, her customers have had questions about pricing and creating offers. This has led her to focus on the creative process behind business strategizing.
Kamila has focused a lot of her course and membership site content on integrating the artistic mind and the business mind. There is a lot of skepticism in the field of entrepreneurship about mixing business with pleasure, but leveraging your interests to empower your success in business can prove to be very beneficial.
Chris and Kamila discuss the five steps to creating a business: Think up, set up, blow up, scale up, and free up. They talk about what specific points along the way many people get stuck in course creation, and how to overcome those challenges. A lot of first time course creators don’t think they have enough experience in an area to create a course when someone who is more experienced in that industry creates one that is more advanced. In that case Kamila explains that you have to understand that the people who are taking your course are coming in with no experience, so you can still serve a community where you don’t have as much authority as someone else.
Kamila and Chris discuss all of this and more in depth in this episode of LMScast.
Calvin Correli joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Calvin shares his story and how he approaches life and business from a spiritual perspective. He shares how he has integrated the mindset of putting himself in the customer’s shoes in order to create a product that is efficient and easy to use for the consumer. Chris and Calvin dive into these topics in great depth in this information-packed episode of LMScast.
Calvin’s business, Simplero, is an all-in-one online software tool that businesses can use for almost everything they need on the digital front. Simplero acts as your consultant and business partner. They provide you with advice on things such as email marketing automation. Simplero also comes with a website, affiliate tracking, statistics on revenues and so much more. It is really an all inclusive answer to conducting business online.
Chris and Calvin discuss connecting with your spiritual side and figuring out what your true motivations in business are. Calvin repressed his spiritual side for many years, and he shares how he found his moment of clarity by learning about himself and consulting with a spiritual teacher. Often times we find our ego getting in the way of our true happiness, and being in touch with your spiritual side in business and life can help you achieve success without being too concerned with other people’s opinions of you.
When conducting business, it is important to always make sure you are comfortable doing what you are doing. When you are uncomfortable, you will often find that something is not right with the situation at hand, and if you consult the deeper source of your uncomfortability you will probably find that the partnership or business deal is not right for you or someone else involved.
Learn how to sell and manage courses and coaching with LifterLMS Private Areas. Chris Badgett and Ali Mathis of the LifterLMS team discuss the new Private Areas add-on in depth on this episode of LMScast. They get into the different features the add-on has to offer, and they talk about where the idea came from and who it is for.
The Private Areas add-on allows you to sell a course, and then to also sell a more expensive version of the course that includes a personal level of coaching. The private area is where you can communicate directly with your student and help them out with any questions they may have or offer them more advice specific to their situation.
The idea for Private Areas originated with a suggestion from a member of the LifterLMS community. They wanted there to be an area where the course creator or coach could have a private page per student per course in order to give them some additional help in areas specific to them that are separate from the rest of the course content that everyone gets.
We floated this idea around in our LifterLMS VIP Facebook group, and a large number of people thought that would be a very useful tool to have. You can contact your students directly via Facebook or email, but it can be hard to hold someone’s attention and focus when there are so many distractions in the online space already. It also doesn’t help that contacting them via different tools can make things more complicated and can help to discourage them from continuing with your course. Using Private Areas help to increase engagement.
Course completion is something that every course provider seeks to have for their customer, and offering them the ability to have a personal contact line with the coach is very useful in that respect. But you can also integrate Private Areas on your membership site as well. Chris and Ali talk about how this add-on can work for you for both courses and memberships.
Online church volunteer training entrepreneur Scott Magdalein joins us to discuss living the life of a digital nomad and creating customizable training courses on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS.
Having the freedom to travel and own a business that is not bound to a location is one of the best aspects of being an online entrepreneur. Scott has taken advantage of this opportunity to travel by boat with his family. They are currently anchored in the northern Bahamas. Chris shares his experiences with traveling around in an RV with his family for nine months. They discuss the positive and negative aspects of living a life on the road or water. They get into what some of the difficulties they have faced are and how they overcame them.
Scott has an online course to train church volunteers and teach them the basic skills they will need to lead a children’s ministry or the position they are volunteering for within the church. Scott has taken an interesting approach to his course’s setup. He has already created some training skills such as how to change a baby’s diaper. But what makes his course unique is that he also has given the church itself the ability to add in content that might fit their church specifically, such as policies that their church has.
Chris and Scott discuss how Scott has made excellent use of filling a very specific problem. Training church volunteers is something churches have been doing for decades, but Scott has brought a more efficient and easy to use method for doing this to the table. He serves a very specific niche, and he focuses on the absolute best ways to serve that niche. That is a large part of success in an industry.
Joe Casabona shares his experience with teaching technology, the art of metaphor, and his journey with online education in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They discuss interesting ways to make your courses engaging and memorable for your audience.
Chris and Joe discuss Joe’s love of teaching. He has taught at the University of Scranton, and he has done a lot of teaching online. Joe majored in computer science, and he earned a master's degree in software engineering. Joe also has a podcast called How I Built It where he interviews entrepreneurs and examines how they built up software businesses.
Joe has an online course on how to build a WordPress website using Beaver Builder. In that course he uses an interesting teaching style where he builds a website in the videos for the course and explains the features he uses, but he does not go too far into depth on the features he doesn’t use for that website. This makes his course much easier to follow, because he has a reason for why he uses the specific features he does. And by attaching that meaning to the features he makes the content more memorable and engaging.
Chris and Joe get into the difference between a resource course, a process course, and a behavior change course. Joe’s course fits into the process course category, because he is explaining a process as he goes through it himself. A resource course is generally more valuable for someone who already knows about the subject matter at hand and is just receiving a library of knowledge. Most people will take a process course with a set end goal in mind anyway, so mostly it is not necessary to provide them with a library of knowledge.
In this episode they talk about all of this and much more, including the difference between face-to-face interaction and learning from recorded videos or pre-created content.
Podcasting expert Bill Conrad joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Bill shares his story and some tips for podcasting he has acquired through his years of podcasting. They discuss ways entrepreneurs have disrupted the conventional flow in order to add innovations to the world and sometimes save lives through doing so.
Bill attended West Point, and he was a crew chief on a helicopter. He also attended flight school at age 27, after applying five times. Bill got out of the active service after nine years and started doing some construction work, because he had always liked three-dimensional design and construction. He became half focused on the military after 9/11, and when he wasn’t doing military work he would be helping his wife’s real estate companies build.
Chris and Bill discuss new media and how it has played a role in our economy with podcasting and course creation as available ways to learn online. New media includes pretty much all of the media sources that were introduced to us with the integration of the internet. So podcasting, online courses, social media, and YouTube are all forms of new media.
Chris and Bill also get into the way of thinking entrepreneurs have, and how causing disruption to the natural flow can create a lot of value and sometimes save lives. With Uber having been integrated in Reno, Nevada, the DUI rates have gone down 25%, and fatality rates have gone down there as well.
Bill has a podcast aimed to help real estate agents get better training. He also has an online course that is free at this time about how to start your own podcast in four hours or less with just an iPhone. He is also soon to be rolling one out that is about starting a podcast in two hours with an iPhone and a Mac.
Jonathan Denwood of the WP-Tonic and Mail Right podcasts is our guest on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Jonathan shares his story of how he became interested in the online education field. Chris and Jonathan discuss some expert tips on how to enter the world of online marketing, building relationships in the online education community, and how to beat your competitors before the battle even starts.
Jonathan got started with WordPress when it was around version 2.8. He was building websites for a lot of small businesses, with a few medium-sized clients. At the time he was living in northern Nevada and infrastructure was booming, so business was great. It was hard to find a booking at any kind of restaurant in the week. But within a six month period all of that disappeared.
Jonathan was going to look for some more clients when his future co-host Bill Conrad, a man who was big into podcasting, suggested that he start a podcast with Bill as his co-host. That project sat around on the drawing boards for six or seven months, because Jonathan wasn’t motivated to do it. But from that he learned that it is the first step that means the most, and the biggest enemy he has is doing nothing.
Chris and Jonathan discuss the importance of doing research before entering a field in the online education industry. Making sure you know your opponents in business is very important. It is also necessary to be doing things differently or better than them. They talk about this in depth and more in this episode of LMScast.
Course creator Joseph Michael joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Joseph shares his story of how he went from working at a corporate job to making his way into the online education industry. Chris and Joseph also discuss some tips on how to find your niche and how to build a community.
Joseph has created multiple courses, including Learn Scrivener Fast and Easy Course Creation. He got started in the online education world when he was working his corporate job and he was looking for something to do on the side, but he was turned down for multiple jobs delivering pizzas. He learned about Scrivener and he noticed that many people had a lot of questions about how to use the software. One of the people in the community commented that they would purchase a course on how to use Scrivener if one was available. Joseph was not an expert on how to use Scrivener, but he decided to create a course on it while he learned how to use it.
Finding the time to work on online courses is difficult. But Joseph overcame that obstacle by working during his lunch breaks at his job. There is currently a lot of opportunity in the online education field, because companies that make a software generally are not the same people that teach you how to use it.
Joseph and Chris talk about niching down to make your course target a very specific audience. This helps your course be heard through the noise of all of the other courses. They discuss this in depth and many more tips in this LMScast episode.
Nicole Holland is our guest on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Nicole is an expert on how to guest on other people’s podcasts. Podcast guesting is an incredible way to grow your audience, gain new customers, and build relationships within your industry.
Podcasting is one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your site and build up a recurring audience around your product or course. But creating a podcast is not always the easiest and most convenient way to drive that traffic to your site. Being a guest on others’ podcasts can help you market to a large variety of people and create a diverse audience around your product or course.
Nicole has two podcasts, and she was a foster parent, course creator, marketing strategist, and online coach. She currently focuses on helping people get booked on others podcasts and coaching them on how they can get the most out of their experience there. Nicole has accumulated some great knowledge and expert tips on how to be a good podcast guest, and she shares some of them in this episode.
Nicole and Chris discuss unique marketing strategies and how you can implement them into your online course work. For example if you are selling a fitness related product for 40-year-old men, then you’re less likely to be successful if you market to them where everyone else is (on other fitness related sites or fitness related social media.) But if you take a different approach and research where 40-year-old men typically hang out or something they typically do and you market to them there, you are much more likely to get them to buy from you.
Dr. Charles Parker from Core Brain Journal is our guest on this week's episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Charles discuss building a brand around your product and the mind science behind that. They also get into the current state of the health field and some course opportunities in that area. Charles also has a podcast (Core Brain Journal) where he discusses topics in the medical field with other professionals.
Branding comes down to a very personal level for humans, so it is important that your audience has a way to wrap themselves around your message and really relate to it. Creating that specific branding that is only associated with your course or product is how you are unique in your industry and can stand out from competitors.
The health field is constantly evolving. And the relationship between doctors and patients is changing, because the patient is generally more enlightened than patients used to be. Creating courses in the health field helps to inform the everyday consumer about various illnesses and health conditions. Chris and Charles highlight the multitude of course creation opportunities currently available in health fields.
When creating courses it is also important to communicate your points effectively. Course creators are often experts in whatever it is they are teaching, so knowing when to break down concepts for normal consumers is a key aspect of teaching. On the other hand, it is also sometimes valuable to skip explanation of terminology and ideas when you are speaking to other professionals. The health field sees a lot of this divide between professionals and everyday people when some courses are made for doctors and some are made for the average consumer.
Tom Morkes of Insurgent Publishing is our guest on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Chris and Tom talk about event based marketing and product releases. They discuss getting affiliated with others in your industry and how to develop partnerships, joint ventures, and promotional content.
Tom is the founder and CEO of Insurgent Publishing, which is a strategic consulting company that focuses primarily on launches of products and events around releases of products. The company has worked with many influential entrepreneurs of today, including Jonathan Mead, Andrew Warner, and Dan Norris.
Chris and Tom help simplify some of the challenges that people who are not familiar with modern internet marketing face. One of the best ways to advertise your course or product around the time of its release is to have a launch or release event. These events can help spread awareness for your product and thus leading to more traffic and more conversions.
They talk about actionable steps to take to launch your course. Chris and Tom discuss developing relationships with other people and experts in your industry. Having these partnerships can help you with spreading awareness for your products because you can promote them to your audience and they can promote your product to theirs. When you do this with others in your industry, you will likely both have an audience interested in what the other has to offer. So the customers they refer to you will likely have a higher rate of conversion, meaning they are more likely to buy your product or course.
Christina Hills from WebsiteCreationWorkshop.com joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. Cristina shares her story of her entering the online workplace and with teaching WordPress to non-technical people.
Christina worked for George Lucas’ company Industrial Light and Magic as a special effects person. She quit working there when she had her baby. She learned how to use 1ShoppingCart, which is a online store shopping cart application. She became an expert in that and would create shopping carts for people and give them the code they could insert into their online store.
She found many people thought working with their website was too complex, and they had poor relationships with their web designers. This inspired Christina to teach people how to use WordPress so they could create their store on their own, and they would know how to modify it. She has been teaching online for 10 years now. Christina transitioned into working with newbies who are non-technical. She teaches them how to use WordPress to create websites.
Chris and Christina dive into the four core pieces of making a course, and they highlight Christina’s experience with each part. Christina strongly believes that having a passion for what you are selling is crucial to having success and happiness selling it.
Mike Hayes is featured in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett from LifterLMS. They discuss the on demand economy and how it is the prevailing state of the current economy. Mike also shares his story of working for NBC to interviewing innovative entrepreneurs.
The economic crash of 2008 caused about 2.6 million jobs to be lost. This was the rise of the entrepreneur, because the goal of entrepreneurs is to solve a problem, and at this time the economy was riddled with them. It was also during this time that full time jobs lost a massive amount of validity, because companies like Uber and Airbnb became bigger than companies like Hilton. Chris and Mike discuss this shift in depth.
They also get into Mike’s story from walking to New York and getting a job working at NBC for ten years. He also interviewed innovative entrepreneurs like Oprah Winfrey and Steve Wozniak. Working with these people gave him the inspiration to start his own entrepreneurial ventures.
The on demand aspect of the gig economy is also one of the key pieces of success. Having the ability to provide value to people whenever they demand it opens up a great potential for something like online courses where your customers can buy your information at any time.
Chris and Mike discuss the equivalence of infomercials in the old economy to online courses in the new economy. They talk about how your courses can serve as distribution, where infomercials would solely serve as advertising. It is also a lot cheaper to do work that would have taken a lot more money in the old economy, so taking risks is easier to manage.
Justin Wilcox joins us in this information-packed episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They dive into creating successful products, drawing on knowledge Justin has acquired through his endeavors with testing and selling to the consumer market.
Justin is the founder of FOCUS Framework, which is a guide you can use to take the stress off of creating an online business. It allows you to break things down and take challenges step by step. The FOCUS Framework also helps you answer questions you may have early on in business about marketing, networking, and more.
Blogging is a powerful and relevant medium in the online marketplace today. Chris shares how blogging led him to the LMS world and how he was able to use his blog posts to test the market for interest. Justin also has experience with blogging, and he has a blog called Customer Dev Labs.
Testing the market for product interest is necessary to do. One of the biggest, most common failures in business is creating a product without testing the market and finding out afterward that there is no real interest in what you’ve created. Justin shares his strategies for testing the marketplace by offering a service before it is created.
Brian Hogg and Chris Badgett of LifterLMS discuss leveraging events and uncovering demand for an online course idea in this episode of LMScast. Brian shares his story of how he got started with web development and how he got to where he is today.
Brian got started when he was 15-years-old when he developed and produced a Bingo game that people could download and play together on the server. At its peak the game had about 800 users at one time playing. He was also able to make some money through advertising on it as well.
Brian is a big player in the WordPress community. He develops plugins and has a course on how to publish professional plugins on WordPress. Chris and Brian talk about being the best at something specific and how you can be the best at something by being very good at multiple different things.
As Chris and Brian discuss, podcasting and blogging are great methods of content marketing, and it is a great way to get started in a particular space. They talk about how Brian attended an electronic music conference and picked up enough knowledge there to start his own podcast about creating electronic music for beginners and for promoting some lesser known names in the industry.
Nate Wright from Theme of the Crop joins us in this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They discuss the difference between design and functionality of your website. Chris and Nate also dive into how you can market better online by creating a website that is easy to use and takes advantage of SEO value.
Theme of the Crop is a plugin and theme delivery company that provides high quality and compatible themes and plugins for restaurant websites. Nate started working on the business in late 2013 and has built it up to what it is today. The themes and plugins solve specific problems restaurants might face.
Using your website to give discounts, coupons, and other things like that can also help with analytics. Chris and Nate discuss the current opportunity for connecting local businesses to the online world.
The styles websites have can be good or bad for whatever purpose they are trying to serve. It is important to not get too caught up in things like animations and slideshows. It is better to focus more on functionality and putting yourself in the mindset of the customer to provide the best experience.
Hiring developers and other employees to work on your product can be hard at times, too, because you may not know what to look for in them. Chris and Nate discuss that and give you some tips on characteristics to look for in developers.
Brian Casel from Audience Ops joins Chris Badgett of LifterLMS in this episode of LMScast. They discuss the similarities and differences between productized services and online courses. They get into the strengths and weaknesses of each and how the combination of both can be very valuable.
Brian is the creator of a company called Audience Ops. They write content and summaries for your blog. Soon they will be releasing content marketing tools and a calendar software.
Chris and Brian dive into merging a productized service with online courses. They discuss how using consulting knowledge to move over into a productized service can provide much more value. It can also move your business to becoming more of a passive income source. Combining a productized service with a course around the same subject can also be extremely helpful, because companies willing to pay more money to have it done for them can do that. You can also serve the smaller budget startups that can only afford to pay less, but can do the work themselves.
Done for you services are what Audience Ops has used to create their name in the online industry. Tiered done for you services are valuable, because different customers can pay different amounts for what they want done for them. The done for you services can also allow you to make a template for employees and serve a wider audience base.
James Laws from Ninja Forms discusses using forms and delivering a clear message to your audience in the online course world with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS in this episode of LMScast.
User interaction in online courses and membership sites is continuously growing. One of the best ways to engage users is by using forms. James’s business Ninja Forms helps you create forms you can use to engage and pick the brains of your students.
James has had an interesting journey in his career fields. He started out as a grocery store clerk, then was a vacuum salesman, then a pastor. James met his current business partner when he attended one of James’s services, and their friendship grew into a business partnership. In this episode James discusses the experiences he has had with keeping morale high and maintaining a stable business.
Chris and James discuss the biggest mistakes business owners make and how James has dealt with and gone around them. One of these mistakes is not properly budgeting and spending too much during the ‘on’ season for a business. This can happen in any business, but when you experience the exponential growth online businesses can have, it can become difficult to not overspend.
They talk about building up rapport in your business space by providing free content such as blogs and podcasts. Establishing credibility is very important, and having free content will help your advertising and product growth.
This episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett features Shaun James from Pentester University. They discuss security for your course platform and website. Chris and Shaun share their experiences with hacking and how to protect yourself from it.
Shaun teaches people how to do penetration tests on websites and systems. Penetration testers are hackers that get hired to test security flaws in a system and they inform the customer about these risks in order to help prevent a real attack.
Shaun loves the cybersecurity business, and he has ever since he was young. He loves solving puzzles, and that is exactly what penetration testing is. Shaun shares his journey from learning penetration testing himself to how he started to share that information with others and gained a large following. He is now teaching people how to do penetration testing with online courses on his website.
There is always a small risk that you will get attacked by a hacker when you are online. You should learn how to prevent and mitigate attacks, but you should not shy away from the internet all together. Shaun and Chris discuss the different type of security attacks that can occur to your course platform and how you can go about preventing them.
Hackers can gain access to your information through wifi connection and bluetooth, so it is important to be aware of that possibility. They also talk about what you can do in order to protect your computer’s camera and microphone from being hacked.
AJ Morris from Liquid Web joins Chris Badgett of LifterLMS on this episode of LMScast. AJ shares his journey from working in a school environment to becoming a product manager at Liquid Web.
Liquid Web is a hosting platform that provides you with easy accessibility to backups for your website. Liquid Web also has iThemes Sync, which allows you to manage all of your WordPress sites from one place. You can install and update plugins across all of your sites at one time.
The goal of a business is to create customers. So it is important to understand the mindset of the customer when you are trying to sell to them. Understanding how your team understands the mindset of the customer is also important, because they are the ones creating the product for them. Chris and AJ toss this idea around, and AJ shares tips from his experience as a product manager.
Working with people who have less experience in a certain area than you can be frustrating. Chris and AJ riff about how patience and putting yourself in the customer’s or student’s shoes will help you work well with them.
John Shea joins us on this episode of LMScast with Chris Badgett of LifterLMS. They discuss the pros and cons of self hosting courses versus those on course marketplaces.
John Shea is a serial course entrepreneur who has created courses using both course marketplaces and self hosting. He shares his story of how he got into creating courses. John started out on Udemy and branched off into Skillshare, and now he is doing some work with self hosted courses.
The online marketplace will allow you to do less work with marketing and advertising, but you have to play by the rules of the company, including what your price points are. On the other hand, hosting yourself can make advertising and building connections more difficult.
John shares some of his strategy he uses to build online courses. He and Chris talk about negative feedback they have received and how they have dealt with using that feedback in order to improve. John also tells some ways that you can generate income from a free course through affiliate marketing and other routes.
In this episode of LMScast Chris Badgett of LifterLMS interviews WordPress and freelancing expert Carrie Dils. They discuss Carrie’s journey from running a small blog to running her own company and teaching courses on Lynda. She also tells of her experiences with podcasting.
Both Chris and Carrie agree that podcasting has helped them significantly with becoming teachers. Getting in front of a camera and delivering content to an audience has helped them become more comfortable with the teaching environment and has made them better communicators.
Carrie has many roles in her business and life that she has to fill. She shares her process of switching mindsets in order to accomplish different goals and fill different roles. Carrie believes anyone can join the WordPress space, but having a unique niche and personality is what makes you successful.
Chris shares his origin story and how he became interested in WordPress and course development. Carrie also shares how she learned how to use WordPress on Lynda and now is teaching others how to learn WordPress with the same platform. Carrie is releasing a book about her journey soon called “Real World Freelancing. A No Bullshit Survival Guide.”
Mike Weiss from the Client Engagement Academy joins Chris Badgett on this episode of LMScast. Chris and Mike discuss the current state of the online education industry. They talk about the low completion rate of online courses and how digital badges can help solve that problem.
Mike shares some statistics on the completion rates of courses and some tips and tricks as to how digital badges can help improve that rate. He also tells some of the strategies his company uses to raise the completion rates of their courses.
Chris and Mike discuss how digital badges are becoming relevant in not just the online workplace, but in the physical workplace as well. Employers are starting to use online courses in order to train employees. Some are also taking that to the next level and requiring it for application. The digital badge can act as a proof of a skill that is currently scarce in the online workplace.
Mike also believes that it is essential to understand the statistical data of your company and your courses. You should set up a way to find out the velocity at which people go through the content in your course, and how tests and quizzes are a great way to do so. Providing options your students would like to have for the flow of content is important to their success as well.
In this episode of LMScast, Chris Badgett of LifterLMS interviews Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative and Inspired Imperfection. She shares her knowledge of the branding and design aspects of business. Jennifer also shares some tips on providing clarity in your business and how that can lead to greater success.
Deciding on and defining the purpose, values, and personality of your company will help the company take shape. It will also help clients get on board with your product by sharing a story that resonates with them. Owning your values and personality will open you to some promotion opportunities with others who share those values.
People will most likely have preconceived notions about what you do and what your business is about. This makes it especially important to be crystal clear with them about what you do. Clarity in promotion will also help with getting customers on board.
Chris and Jennifer talk about the steps that course creators should use to create a brand and design for their course. Most of this includes outsourcing, because then you can put more energy into what you do best. You can gain a lot of leverage out of course templates, which are formats filled with sample information and you only have to change out that information with your course information.
Focusing on customer experience should remain the number one priority. Do not hesitate to go to market just because your design is not perfect. You can launch a pilot of your course with a small number of people if you want to test your content.
Attending events with other people and promoting your product at networking events and conferences is a great way to make connections and sell material.
Charles Byrd shares his journey with Evernote in this LMScast. He shares how it has helped him stay organized in his business and daily life. He and Chris Badgett discuss how Evernote can help an online course creator with aspects of business that are necessary for success.
Evernote is an application that can be downloaded on all of your devices. It allows you to take notes and access the information anywhere you are. This level of organization helps with time management and contributes to the efficiency of the course creator's life.
Chris and Charles talk about how Evernote can help you build relationships with clients and partners, improve your own skills, manage time, and build your online community. These are all essential aspects of the course creating business that Evernote can help with.
Charles has used Evernote to integrate all of these parts into his business and has become more successful as a result. He covers examples and talks about how this universal tool has improved his life by helping him manage his time and reduce stress.
In this episode of LMScast Chris Badgett talks with Ali Mathis about the Done For You set up service that is offered through LifterLMS. They also clarify the definitions of some terms that are used in course creation that can sometimes be confusing.
With the LifterLMS Done For You set up service, the LifterLMS team will work with you to get your course launched as quickly as possible. There are different service packages you can purchase with different levels of set up assistance so you can focus on creating the content and doing what you do best.
Working with someone through this service has many benefits, as Chris and Ali discuss. The LifterLMS crew has a lot of experience creating courses, so they have gotten it down to a science. This means that they can avoid mistakes that the novice course creator might make. They can also work with you to get your course up and running in five to ten business days.
You can find out more about the LifterLMS Done For You set up service by visiting lifterlms.com/dfy
Thank you for joining us for this episode of LMScast!
In this episode of LMScast, Brad and Andy from The Great eCourse Adventure talk about how they bring their own brand of uniqueness to the the realm of online education courses. They discuss their journey from creating courses that were within ‘the blueprint’ to thinking outside the box and developing their own style.
The current online education industry is full of informational course which can be boring. Many people who buy these courses are swamped with information and get overloaded, causing them to become bored and tune out. Brad and Andy talk about how their approach to the industry engages customers by providing them with interactive features, narratives, themes, and jokes. This makes their courses memorable and help students better understand the material.
Brad and Andy share how they discovered the vast benefits of adding personality to courses and how that makes the business more exciting for them and for their audience. They are also working on creating a culture and community around their courses. They want to change the way people view course creation by turning it into an art form or craft. This will help avoid the get rich quick scheme mentality.
Brad and Andy are changing the way the producers and consumers of courses view the industry by leading the way with their creative teaching strategies. They are also examples of people who don’t need to take a vacation from their lives, because they do what they love on a daily basis.
You can learn more about Brad and Andy at TheGreateCourseAdventure.com.
This episode of LMScast covers finding success in your area of passion through finding your niche and producing quality content. David Payette of Payette Forward shares his journey from the Apple Store in New York to living his dream in Hawaii. Chris and David discuss the critical elements that make blogs and online courses successful.
Blogging is a very powerful form of communication. David has used the knowledge of fixing iPhones that he learned from his experience with being a technician at an Apple Store to create a blog that teaches people how to deal with iPhone issues. He used Google AdSense to monetize his blog, and this has generated a great amount of income for him. One of the reasons David is successful in the blogging industry is because he writes about something he is passionate about, and he testifies to how passion in what you do will take you a long ways.
In business planning for success but preparing for failure is important. Working with others will help you get through rough patches in business. Other people can also help you to manage fears, stay realistic, and stay motivated. David talks about avoiding shortcuts and tricks in SEO and content production, because they will ultimately hurt you.
You will learn numerous tips on how to improve and monetize your content, optimize SEO, and most importantly produce results. You will also receive tips regarding trends found in successful courses and marketing. Continuous improvement is one of the most valuable things you can do in business and in life in general.
You can learn more about David’s blog at PayetteForward.com.
In this episode of LMScast Robby McCullough, a co-founder of Beaver Builder, shares the story behind successful the WordPress plugin. It started out as a side project for the creators, but since then it has evolved into a very popular page builder.
You will learn about the importance of having an online community around your product or service. He shares how he found his business partners and how they got to the point they are at today with their business.
Robby thinks the partnerships that you create in business will help guide your success in a major way. He shares his story about how Beaver Builder developed a partnership with GoDaddy. Robby also discusses relationships within the business and how partners can work together to optimize productivity and minimize stress.
Nurturing your online community is very important. Power users in your community are linchpins to its success, so empowering your power users will help your community flourish. It is a great point in your online community when it is able to become largely self-sufficient.
You can find out more about Robby McCullough and website building with Beaver Builder at WPBeaverBuilder.com. You can learn more about LifterLMS at LifterLMS.com.
This LMScast with Shawn Hesketh covers the product creation and constant improvement necessary to provide the best experience to your customers. Shawn is the creator of WP101, which is a blog, course, and WordPress plugin dedicated to teaching people of all experience levels how to use WordPress.
Shawn started WP101 as a video series in 2008. At first he was not making any money from it, and the process of maintaining it was long and tedious. He found that the most valuable approach anyone can have when providing a product or service is constant improvement and the reception of feedback. In order to do this Shawn created a large support community online that he is active in.
This podcast includes details about Shawn’s journey, his success strategy, and tips on how to be successful with your product or service. It also covers the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life relationship and how Shawn does this. This episode talks about the ways that Shawn makes money from his product externally from his own website and blog.
You will learn about building your online community, receiving feedback from that community, constant improvement, and sustaining a healthy relationship between your work life and personal life. You will also receive tips regarding reflecting on and improving your process.
Find out more about Shawn Hesketh at WP101.com, and learn more about Chris Badgett at LifterLMS.com.
This episode of LMScast with Bjork Ostrom is about the importance of consistent, high quality content in online courses and membership sites.
Bjork and his wife Lindsay created the successful membership site Food Blogger Pro. Bjork and Chris discuss the importance of constant improvement and refinement in courses and membership sites. They also talk about creating quality content as well as some tips on how to keep your online community engaged.
You will learn about ways to improve upon your current approach to reaching people online through your course or membership site. You will also learn some great tips for starting out in a marketplace and finding a niche if you are a beginner or if you are looking for a new field to delve into. Bjork shares some phenomenal tips that he and his wife use in their business right now.
Find out more at LifterLMS.com and FoodBloggerPro.com
This is an information-packed episode of LMScast featuring Tin Can API, eLearning authoring tools, LRS, H5P, and more with Dennis Hall of Learning Templates.
Dennis created the LifterLMS xAPI as an add-on for your WordPress site that gives you more functionality and allows you to create your courses and reports with no programming skills required. He begins by explaining what an API is and what it’s for - a tool that connects things together – and tells how xAPI and LifterLMS integrate to access eLearning services.
You’ll learn about the Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Record Store (LRS), and how xAPI maintains privacy for student information. They cover competencies and activities based on learning objectives, and how LifterLMS xAPI works with H5P to create rich, interactive courses, lessons, and quizzes. Using Tin Can API, eLearning authoring tools, LRS, H5P, and more with Dennis Hall's LifterLMS xAPI, he solves common problems, and gives you access to new integrations and features. Find out more at LifterLMS.com.
This episode of LMScast is about living the education entrepreneur dream lifestyle without compromising values with Danny Iny, eLearning entrepreneur from the Course Builder's Laboratory, founder of Mirasee, and author of the book Teach and Grow Rich.
Danny’s philosophy is based on deciding what you want to do, knowing your values, and letting them drive you. Your values should be an exciting part of your work that lets you reflect your best self. Making small iterative changes with lots of little wins along the way will ultimately make everything better.
Students are discovering they can learn directly from experts without going to a university, but they still need the human touch for real transformation. We’ll discuss ways to achieve that one-on-one experience through providing support that’s still cost effective.
The point of becoming an online education entrepreneur is to build a business based on meaningful work that lets you make a beneficial impact in the world through online education. Becoming an educational entrepreneur does take time and a lot of work, but the end result will be an exciting, fulfilling lifestyle doing work you care about.
Learn more about living the education entrepreneur dream lifestyle without compromising values in Danny Iny’s book Teach and Grow Rich, at Mirasee.com and at CourseBuildersLaboratory.com.
This LMScast features an interview about engaged Facebook groups, Divi, and LifterLMS with Eileen Lonergan. Eileen runs the Divi Theme Users Facebook Group and is a co-owner of the Elegant Marketplace website. Divi is their showcase WordPress theme that integrates with the LifterLMS course development platform.
Eileen was working with Google AdWords and WordPress themes when she discovered Divi. She liked it enough to learn it in-depth and blog about it. Seeking community, she started the Divi Facebook Group, which has grown to over 19,000 users in just 3 years.
This podcast covers aspects of building and running groups, like using the existing tools in Facebook or a WordPress add-on like BuddyPress to build a community for your online course, aspects of being a moderator, setting boundaries for your time and accessibility, and working with other group administrators.
You’ll learn about building and running online groups, finding your ideal students, integrating LifterLMS and Divi with WordPress, and building for your niche. Plus you’ll get great tips for course creators just starting out.
Find out more about engaged Facebook groups, Divi, and LifterLMS with Eileen Lonergan at ElegantMarketplace.com and at LifterLMS.com.
There are several ways people can access your online courses or memberships. This LMScast describes 4 access models for courses and memberships, and you’ll learn how to choose the right ones for your applications.
The first access model is lifetime access. It’s best for evergreen reference content that doesn’t change and doesn’t require direct interaction. It can help you make the sale, but it’s not scalable. If your content requires updates and support then consider sustainability before offering lifetime access.
The second access model is limited time access expiration. It’s a temporary contract that lasts for a set period of time and then ends. The user is deleted from the course, but their account remains available if they want to take another course from you.
Third is the specific access window with a start and end date for everyone taking the course. It’s a great way to train a group within a set time limit. And the fourth access model is the specific launch, or ability to buy window, in which you set a limited time to buy. This works well for launching a new course. You can also combine the specific access window with the specific launch window, and even layer your access models with payment models.
These 4 access models for courses and memberships are built into LifterLMS so you can create and sell your online courses using just one solution. For more details on access models visit the LifterLMS blog at blog.lifterLMS.com
In today’s LMScast you’ll learn to connect your learning platform to your CRM with Jack Arturo's WP Fusion, and you’ll get a look at the benefits of doing business as a micro, multinational, digital nomad.
Jack Arturo created WP Fusion to interconnect WordPress to CRMs, LMSs, and other marketing automation tools. It allows LifterLMS to share contact information and tags with your CRM for your courses, services, and other products. And it’s an open source solution that you own with the option of paid support and updates.
WP Fusion applies tags that trigger actions in your CRM, LMS, shopping cart, and automated services. It bridges WordPress plugins and facilitates reporting. Jack wants to see more system standardization, and being a digital nomad is key. He’s a functional member of an organic, non-hierarchical network of mobilized people working on integrating tools and resources together. They’re changing the way the world does business, and you can be part of it if you’re willing to evolve.
Connect your learning platform to your CRM with Jack Arturo's WP Fusion starting with the LifterLMS course development platform. You can try a demo at demo.lifterlms.com
This LMScast covers SEO basics for online course creators with Scott Magdalein of TrainedUp. There’s enough knowledge in this episode to get you started using SEO for your own website right now.
Scott started using SEO when he created the TrainedUp tool for ministries, now a growing online course platform. Here he and LMScast host Chris Badgett share their collective experience with creating search engine optimized content and ranking on Google.
Unethical black and grey hat SEO practices can get your site banned, blacklisted, and removed from the internet. Create good content and build a trustworthy white hat reputation by being relevant and authoritative, and use original content like SEO-rich blog posts. Blogs offer searchable pages that generate traffic and linkbacks, and they can attract interest by highlighting content from your courses. Images and media, anchor text, and the blog title itself all pull in viewers with SEO-based text and titling.
We’ll also discuss tools like Yoast, Moz, and Majestic, as well as pitfalls like linkbacks to spam sites, invasive pop-ups, dead-end pages, and duplicate content.
Get started now with these SEO basics for online course creators with Scott Magdalein. And learn how the LifterLMS course development platform can help you design your online course platform with SEO built right in from the start. Try a demo at demo.lifterlms.com
This LMScast explores elite learning environments and the Outlier 360 Project with Peter Fallenius on outliers and how understanding them can make you more successful.
Peter defines outliers as people who perform at genius level. His Outlier 360 Project examines motivation, meaning, survival, and success towards creating outlier style business and learning environments that promote leadership, learning, and team building. Outliers make their lives more meaningful through autonomy, competence, relatedness, and by doing things with simplicity, excellence, and elegance.
This podcast will show you how outliers think, act, and learn differently from other people. You’ll learn how outliers learn from failure and gain knowledge through ROI (Return on Ignorance), and why a consumer mentality and focus on gaining wealth prevents you from being successful.
Discover the essence of elite learning environments and the Outlier 360 Project with Peter Fallenius. And learn how the LifterLMS course development platform can help you design an effective learning environment based on Outlier 360 principles. Try a demo at demo.lifterlms.com
Whether you’re offering online courses, looking for an agency, or you are a WordPress service provider, this LMScast covers how to work with WordPress and service agencies with Matt Medeiros of Slocum Studio in Boston. Matt also hosts the Matt Report and PluggedIn Radio.
Anybody can use WordPress to get a website working, but getting your site up and available may take longer if you don’t hire an agency to help, especially if you’re new to WordPress. Professional help will be a top consideration, even if that’s watching YouTube video tutorials. Plus you’ll need to get WordPress, a good LMS like LifterLMS, and a solid theme.
Know your goals, capabilities, and core values so you can drill down to the minimum viable product and stay focused on it until it’s done. But launching is not the end of the process and hiring an agency may still be your best solution for ongoing marketing, support, and improvements in the always-on internet environment. The best agencies will perform a discovery process to design your website conceptually to meet your goals and deliver your best business solution.
You’ll learn even more about how to work with WordPress and service agencies with Matt Medeiros offering advice on communication, pricing and billing, setting boundaries, establishing trust, and managing expectations. For more details visit the LifterLMS blog at blog.LifterLMS.com.
This LMScast features ways to create high-ticket programs with Frank Bria, creator of the High-Ticket Program. Frank lists his keys to building a high-end course, and advises switching to outcome based thinking and pricing based on delivered results and demonstrated life-changing value with the services you offer.
Identify the outcomes your courses provide and you can show prospects that you have a map and a plan to take your customers to the outcome they seek. Frank explains how the SAM Framework for resolving customer objections provides the skills, accountability, and mentorship they need to get results with tools like a mastermind group, email program, and Q&A sessions.
We’ll uncover the fears that can prevent you from making the transition to starting your online course business, and discuss how to think about pricing so you are well compensated for the results your courses provide. You’ll also learn the 5 building blocks needed to create high value programs. Plus we’ll tell you how to get Frank Bria’s High-Ticket Program blueprint with details for his 3 steps to create high-ticket programs.
Our new LifterLMS 3.0 release features a new access plan engine that lets you generate a variety of pricing models. This LMScast covers the top 10 pricing models for online courses and membership sites and offers advice on making your best choice.
In this LMScast you’ll learn about these 10 pricing models:
• One-time payment • Flat recurring payment • Payment plan • Free with membership • Members-only pricing • Dollar trial • Free trial • Service fee and recurring payment • Launch pricing, sale pricing, special occasion • Free course or membership.
Hear about each of these top 10 pricing models for online courses and membership sites pricing models in the podcast, and learn how to decide which is best for your specific situation. You can also visit the LifterLMS blog at blog.lifterlms.com for a detailed, illustrated discussion of these pricing models and how to build them.
This LMScast details creative uses for online courses outside of the internet marketing space with Jeff Long of the Online Course Coach Podcast, expert in video, web development, teaching, and corporate training. He tells why video is a vital element to your courses, and lists applications beyond general education.
Online courses are great for public speaking entrepreneurs, as courses can be created from books and videos they already have. Product manufacturers and other businesses benefit from courses and videos to streamline onboarding and training, and for customer support, while establishing their brand as an industry leader.
The LifterLMS platform itself uses a demo course for internal training of new hires, and as a customer introduction to the platform. Most of their software purchases occur after customers view the demo.
Jeff shares lots of valuable tips in this podcast, and he has a complete course for creating videos for your courses quickly and within your budget at easyvideoforcourses.com. The LifterLMS course development platform makes it easy to implement your own creative uses for online courses outside of the internet marketing space. Try the demo at demo.lifterlms.com.
If you’re ready to hire a web development team for your eLearning business, this LMScast covers some points to consider for getting the right web team for your project. You have many options to choose from, from freelancers to agencies. It will be expensive and painful if your web company fails, so it’s important to work with the right service from the start.
The most common issue customers report is confusion, frustration, and alienation due to a lack of communication from their web developer once a project is underway. At codeBOX we build custom eLearning platforms based on the LifterLMS platform. Before we start your project we conduct a discovery interview to find out what you really want to build, and create a timeline and estimate for you. Our project manager answers emails daily, and calls each week with a progress report.
You’ll most likely work remotely with your development team, so choose a service you trust. It’s tempting to hire low-cost services in other parts of the world, but it’s a wiser choice to pay a little more now to make sure you’re getting the right web team for your project. At codeBOX web development services we’re committed to becoming your technology partner now and in the future.
The world is evolving in their approach to education, and so is LifterLMS. This LMScast will explain our vision for the future of online education, the new LifterLMS 3.0 and beyond.
Chris employs a philosophy with his children called “unschooling,” which advocates exposing learners to a variety of learning opportunities to discover what really interests them, including learning from mistakes. We made one of those mistakes when we announced the LifterLMS 3.0 upgrade without explaining why major changes were made.
Our mission is to democratize education in the digital classroom through personal leadership, rapid learning, and connection to others through progressive technology. We made some tough decisions in pursuing that vision that need to be explained, and in this podcast we offer the reasoning behind adding paid extensions and removing some free services, and we provide options for our users to maintain control of your transition process.
The new LifterLMS 3.0 software release is a major upgrade, and inevitably some things will be backwards incompatible. To deliver on our vision for the future of online education, we’ve made progressive decisions for LifterLMS 3.0 and beyond. We want you to enjoy everything we’ve introduced based our users’ feedback. This podcast is a start to that.
Today’s LMScast features the top 10 themes from the Online Course Creation Summit with Devin Slavin outlining major points of course creation from leaders in the industry.
People who primarily work online are often isolated, so in 2016 Devin gathered 40 course creation experts for an Online Course Creation Summit to discuss design, creation, and marketing for successful online courses. Devin’s business model for the Summit, as well as the Course Creation Network and bootcamp, is founded on partnership instead of competition.
This podcast covers the top 10 themes from the Summit: Theme 1 - Engagement by creating courses people will use Theme 2 - Pre-selling and working with a test group Theme 3 - User experience and course flow Theme 4 - Community building and progression Theme 5 - Focus on results and student outcomes Theme 6 - Authenticity in student engagement Theme 7 - Automation, segmentation, and tracking Theme 8 - Technical platforms and choosing the right one Theme 9 - Live engagement through stream platforms Theme 10 - Certification for proof of completion
At LifterLMS our focus is democratization of education through online learning. We strive to make our LifterLMS platform and codeBOX services accessible and affordable. These top 10 themes from the Online Course Creation Summit with Devin Slavin will help you focus on providing real value to your students with engaging courses they will buy and use.
Self-doubt may be keeping you from doing the work you want to do. Today’s LMScast is about confronting imposter syndrome and turning your negative experience into positive value.
Imposter syndrome is a feeling that you don’t know enough to be an authority, but you’ll learn through doing that value and expertise are gained through failure. Even if someone else is covering your area already, your unique knowledge and experience are valuable to the masses of other people who will benefit from what you know. Your failures, solutions, and observations are different from anyone else’s, and that gives you credibility.
You may have imposter syndrome if you make excuses, delay your work, or self-sabotage whenever you begin a new project. You might start thinking you should copy your competition, but it’s being yourself and doing things your way that prevents you from being an imposter. And it’s open and honest sharing that will resonate with the people you want to connect with.
You can build your confidence by visiting forums in your subject area and discovering how much you actually know. And you can teach beginning level courses without being advanced, so start where you are and build from there. As soon as you take positive action, you’re on your way to confronting imposter syndrome. Remember, you’ll only get better as you do the things you’re meant to do.
You’re closer than you think to starting an online course or membership site. In today’s LMScast Esther Marie of Esther Marie Creative tells how to build an audience for your membership site or online course with no list. If you’re a beginner, then listen up!
Esther creates online courses for clients. She started with a membership site called Virtual Assistant Internship based on her contributions in a niche Facebook group. She knew her target market because she was part of it, and knew where her audience was based because she was already there herself.
Building on her credibility as a thought leader, she created her own Facebook group, offered a couple of webinars that converted into her membership, did a beta test with three initial students, and was then ready to offer a course and a full-feature membership site. She reinvested her starting income into expanding the business and is now thriving. And she did all this with no email and no marketing budget.
In this podcast Esther shares her startup story and gives you tips on targeting your niche, leveraging the beta test, setting pricing, providing value, and staying relevant. She’ll show you how to build an audience for your membership site or online course with no list by sharing what you do, building community, and establishing your leadership for a niche you’re already part of.
Whether you run an established online business or are just beginning, you want your online course business to be as professional as possible. Today’s LMScast tells you how to level up your LMS, online course, or membership website business using resources you have, and how to plan your next steps.
Starting out with a low budget, your simplest and least expensive starting point is an inexpensive hosting account. Add free tools like a WordPress site and a development platform like LifterLMS and you can deliver and sell your online course. The ultimate solution is, of course, a custom LMS built to your specifications with full support such as our codeBOX service provides to already successful online businesses. Let’s talk about what you can start doing now.
Your primary consideration is hosting and there are decent lower-cost services, but they simply don’t provide all the support you’re going to need. A provider like WP Engine offers managed WordPress hosting with backup, support, and testing features you require for growth. Next, start planning now for the team you want to build, because as you grow your business you won’t be able to effectively do management, system admin, development, sales, design, and content all by yourself.
WordPress and LifterLMS make creating an online course approachable and affordable, but make sure you plan on how to level up your LMS, online course, or membership website business from the start.
In this LMScast Chris Badgett can help you decide between learning management system all-in-one software vs. an integrated software solution for your learning management system, online course, or membership site requirements.
There are turnkey all-in-one solutions offered by some companies that may or may not serve your needs. For many people, our LifterLMS course development platform provides everything they need. In most cases there’s no complete solution right out of the box, so you’ll want to explore integrated systems that bring together a variety of third-party tools.
We provide a hybrid WordPress-based service for LifterLMS that integrates all the services you need into a custom integrated all-in-one solution, and we’ve just released a LifterLMS add-on for Gravity Forms. It’s one of the best information gathering tools for simple or complex forms, testing, surveys, and signable forms. Plus it readily works with a wide variety of other solutions. Find out more about Gravity Forms from our blog entry at blog.lifterlms.com/gravity-forms.
Whether you employ learning management system all-in-one software vs. integrated software solution, or a custom solution by our LifterLMS service, your online success depends on your ability to share information, develop online courses, sell products, or create software. Let us help you find your best solution!
This is our 100th episode anniversary edition of LMScast, and today’s topic challenges you to ask yourself, what level teacher leader are you? Leadership instructor and author Chris Badgett will help you understand what kind of teacher and leader you are and how you can improve.
The first level you operate from is positional, meaning you are a leader because you occupy the role of teacher for your course. Your authority may take a positive or negative form depending on circumstances, with positive reinforcement being preferable if not always possible. The next level of leadership establishes your authority through your credentials, experience, and proven expertise. At the highest level, your reputation alone will attract students to your online courses.
Having your answer for what level teacher leader you are gives you a place to work up from. That investment in yourself will make you a better teacher and leader, and we’ll continue helping you do that for the next 100 episodes of LMScast and beyond.
The best online learning experience requires a live element, and today’s LMScast explains how to do livestreaming with online courses, membership sites, and more. Livestreaming allows for real-time online interaction through any device that can access the internet, and it’s an extremely effective support feature for your course.
It’s easy to get started with livestreaming using basic services like YouTube Live, and then step up to Livestream or Ustream to schedule broadcasts and view analytics. But at some point you’ll need a custom setup for minimal latency and total control over your broadcasts. codeBOX web development can help you optimize your livestreaming experience.
Livestreaming is especially effective in blended learning environments, providing that human touch that demonstrates that you take a real interest in your students. Offer online office hours and schedule live discussions to meet your students and respond to their needs through adaptive, personalized learning solutions. Students will also be able to interact with each other in a real-time online community environment.
Visit us today at gocodebox.com to find out more about how to do livestreaming with online courses, membership sites, and more, or to discuss which codeBOX custom online course solutions you need.
If you have an online business, the time will come when you need custom membership site, online course, or learning management system development and design services. In this LMScast codeBOX owners and team members discuss what they do and how they can partner with you.
The LMScast program began with the release of the codeBOX LifterLMS platform in 2014. LMScast was designed to help users get the most out of the LifterLMS software. Technical users really loved LifterLMS, but most people just wanted to focus on their business and needed a custom development service to get them online.
codeBOX provides that service now to help you define the scope of your project and develop the technical system required to support your goals. They begin with their unique discovery process whereby they really get to know you, your business, and your vision before helping you expand and refine your idea, co-creating a plan, and setting a budget and timeline for your project.
You’ll benefit most from professional development services once you’re already successful and ready to move upward with our innovative team of expert programmers, developers, and designers. When you need custom membership site, online course, or learning management system development and design services, the codeBOX team members want to be your long-term technology partners. Visit our website at gocodebox.com to learn more about our services.
This LMScast departs from the usual focus on business to address a more altruistic purpose for becoming an educational entrepreneur. Today Chris Badgett shares his online course creation freedom secrets for creating a livelihood by helping others.
As Sufi poet Hafiz wrote, "The small man builds cages for everyone he knows, while the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners." You can be the one to drop those keys and set people free by sharing your valuable skills, knowledge, and expertise through your online courses. This could become your authentic life purpose.
That’s what LifterLMS is for us. It’s a key to help you discover and unlock your intrinsic value and make that connection with the people who want to learn from you. We’ll give you the tools to fully utilize the Internet to share your passion for your niche globally.
There are no limits here where education, entrepreneurship, and technology intersect. Create your own sub-niche, find your people, and support yourself through helping them. Let LifterLMS partner with you to help you become an educational entrepreneur. Visit us at lifterlms.com/my-online-courses for more online course creation freedom secrets.
Today’s LMScast tells you how not to fail as an instructional designer or eLearning consultant by balancing the three fundamental elements that make up your online course. You must have expertise, instructional design, and a functional online delivery system or your course will fail.
You may actually be an instructional designer or an expert in your specialty area, but you’re still only contributing a third of what’s needed. If you’re a solopreneur trying to do all three tasks yourself, you’ve really got your work cut out for you. And in each case you still need an optimal learning management system to package and deliver your courses.
Like a three-legged stool, if you’re missing the expertise, instructional design, or LMS element then your online course simply won’t stand up and function. And if you’re only skilled or knowledgeable in one of these three areas, the other two legs are going to be short and your business will be unstable.
Partnering with a company like LifterLMS can ensure your requirements for expertise, for instructional design, and for online course packaging and delivery are fulfilled. Watch our introductory video at lifterlms.com/my-elearning-technology-partner. We’re ready to help you build your course and make it successful.
Internal training courses are a great way to help your people grow. This LMScast is about new highly effective smart corporate training and organizational development systems that allow your managers to focus on higher-level tasks instead of onboarding and training.
Most businesses still train new employees by having them shadow a current employee, or worse, throw them into the job to sink or swim on their own. Training tools are still old and clunky, like employee manuals and checklists of tasks and duties. It’s a dry and uninspiring process.
Your training will be much more effective if your people are excited and invested, and online courses give you the ability to bring that color and engagement to the task through gamification and incentives. You’ll also be able to capture the value of your internal knowledge and expertise resources by designing them into your courses and scaling them for repetitive long-term use.
Pulling your system of internal online courses together isn’t as complex as it sounds. You can hire a service like our Boost service, and we’ll set it up in just five days, ready for your key people to add content and media. Improve your business, help your team grow, and capture value with smart corporate training and organizational development systems. Visit us at lifterlms.com/my-corporate-training to find out more.
There are many opportunities open to digital technology professionals, and one of those is online course development. In this LMScast we’ll show you 3 business models for online course entrepreneurship for WordPress and other technologists.
Technology, coding, and programming courses are always changing and often the only way to stay current is self-instruction or online courses through services like Codecademy or Treehouse. You can teach technology courses, too, and these 3 business models will help you get started.
In the first model you simply teach a course on the language or technology you know best. The second model is to offer a platform to publish other people’s courses for a fee or commission. Your third option is to put together online courses for other people who don’t want to learn the technology to build their own. You can provide services for fitness, business, music, or any other industry.
Use these 3 business models for online course entrepreneurship for WordPress and other technologists for a fresh start on doing what you do best. If you want to get busy teaching, we can set up the course platform for you with our Boost service. Find out more at http://lifterlms.com/my-wp-courses.
Today’s LMScast will help real estate professionals teach courses online with a look at the top 3 online courses residential real estate brokers and agency owners use for business growth. Methods of buying and selling homes are changing. If you know how to leverage the internet, social media, and web presence you can teach others.
Online real estate courses generate leads, build relationships, and make you a market leader. They can be fee-based or free. You can focus on creating content, prospecting, or scaling vital relationships.
Three great courses you can offer include guidance for people who want to do for sale by owner (FSBO), help for first-time buyers, and in-depth training to sell for maximum profit. Often your courses will convince people they need to hire a professional instead of handling real estate transactions themselves. And since they now know you through your courses and trust your expertise, they’ll most likely hire you.
Providing real estate courses will help others make good decisions about their real estate activities and you’ll sharpen your own skills in the process, especially your ability to communicate effectively with your clients. You can even use your courses for training inside your own organization.
You will need a delivery system for your courses, like our LifterLMS course development platform. And creating your courses doesn’t have to be a large-scale project, especially if you use our Boost service to get your courses online in just five days. Go to lifterlms.com/real-estate-courses/ for more useful information on the top 3 online courses residential real estate brokers and agency owners use for business growth.
This LMScast explains how online courses can help you grow your SaaS business with 3 ways SaaS product companies win with an online course strategy.
Online courses just make sense for SaaS to provide in-depth instruction for new users and instruction for software upgrades and added features so customers get the most out of your tools. Offering value through a free introductory course encourages customers to opt-in and create an account. The same course functions as customer onboarding support.
You can use the very same course as your employee onboarding tool to quickly bring new employees up to speed. Then create training courses for customer service skills, outbound sales, and prospecting. After documenting these steps for beginners you’ll have much greater clarity about your own products and processes. Online courses also grow your business by supporting your software, generating leads, reducing churn and encouraging customer loyalty. Courses help your employees to assist customers, improve products, and build your company.
Even if your business is not SaaS, online courses can help you support your customers and employees, and improve your products and services. Our LifterLMS course development platform and our professional Boost service team can get your courses online in as little as five days. Visit LifterLMS.com for more information on the 3 ways SaaS product companies win with an online course strategy.
This LMScast tells you how to grow your online course business with affiliate marketing, a system that invites other people to earn a commission from you by channeling paying customers to your website.
You issue an identifying link to your affiliate that they distribute to prospective customers via email, social media, and blog comments. Clicking the link triggers a tracking system that monitors site visitors and rewards the affiliate for each customer they send you that completes a purchase. You can realize 15% to 40% higher income by incentivizing others to do marketing for you this way.
Our LifterLMS platform works with the AffiliateWP and iDevAffiliate affiliate management systems. AffiliateWP lives on your WordPress website where you manage affiliate accounts and commission structure. iDevAffiliate is a hosted solution for your affiliate accounts, tracking, and commissions.
Affiliate marketing is not a magic bullet, but if you put in the time and effort to build a diverse team of effective affiliates you’ll reap real benefits. You especially want to attract super affiliates in your industry who are marketing experts and offer them a worthy commission for the business they bring you – business you wouldn’t otherwise get.
Also consider collaborating with other businesses that serve the same market as you but deliver different products and services. Become affiliates for each other for mutual benefit. It’s a triple win when they look good, you look good, and the customer is happy with you both.
Knowing how to grow your online course business with affiliate marketing will help you expand the success of your eLearning business.
You can teach a language online, and this LMScast will introduce you to 3 business models for online language learning course creators to show you how.
Language learning is in great demand for global careers and travel. If you speak multiple languages you have a valuable skill to share. Following are 3 business models you can build your language course on.
Before you start, visualize the student you want to teach. Then target your course for that niche such as tourists, business executives, or digital nomads. Think about specifics like Nepali for mountain climbers, or English for the hospitality industry.
Next, choose your course model. An MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is open to anyone who wants to pay and take the course, and it’s completely online and available worldwide. A blended model combines online content for most of the core learning, with face-to-face sessions for support. And a flipped classroom concept puts students in control of their learning while the instructor provides online content with occasional virtual meetings for individualized support.
If these 3 business models for online language learning course creators excites you but you don’t have technological skills, our Boost service at https://lifterlms.com/boost/ will get you started. For more information on language learning courses, go to our LifterLMS Language Learning Courses page at https://lifterlms.com/language-learning-courses/
Lots of musicians are successfully teaching music online, and you can, too. This LMScast shows you what to consider if you want to make an online music course. Your first step is to realize that you can do this. Then you can decide how.
There are more options online for teaching music than ever before. You can reach a worldwide audience using a passive course package, or arrange for active, live instruction through a service like Skype. All you really need to get started is internet access and the ability to teach.
You can start by putting together a low-cost music course package with video, audio, and printable PDFs for sheet music or other visuals. You create this once and sell it repeatedly. Live interactive training involves your time and participation, so you can charge accordingly for this extra value. Focusing on a niche is also a much better idea than being too general.
You do need decent quality sound and video, but it doesn’t have to be top studio quality. Your teaching style and methodology are your greatest assets. So consider this if you want to make an online music course: You’ll reach a global audience with few obstacles, on your terms. If you’re technically inclined or have limited funds, try a demo of our LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com. Or if you just want to teach music right now try our Boost service to get you started right away at lifterlms.com/boost.
This LMScast presents the health and fitness online course opportunity for personal trainers and anyone with a passion for fitness and teaching. The demand for information and training in this area is expansive and growing, and you can be part of it.
With an online course you can reach a global audience far beyond your local gym, box, or yoga class. Whether your area of expertise is CrossFit, endurance, bodybuilding, nutrition, or specialty areas within larger categories, your potential for teaching and for earning income is boundless. In fact, micro niches are most successful, as they offer information that no one else does, and niche learners are willing to pay more for that value.
Of course, your most valuable asset is your passion for fitness. You just need an internet-ready course package for your regime. You can use our LifterLMS course development platform to build, manage, market, and sell your online courses. If you just want to get busy training, our Boost service will build your course for you - done and ready to go.
We’re here to help you get past the technology barrier and enjoy the health and fitness online course opportunity. Choose a platform like LifterLMS or a service like Boost to make your online courses a reality. Experience a demo of LifterLMS for yourself at demo.lifterlms.com.
If you’re getting ready to create an online course, this LMScast with Chris Badgett will get you started. You’ll learn how to launch a business, marketing, or leadership online course even if you’re not a web technician.
An online course will let you share your business and marketing experience, skills, and expertise with people around the world and earn income from your course. All you need is a 3-part foundation to build on.
The first element is the instructor. Your skills and expertise supply your course value, but you need to be a good communicator who can teach others. Next is learning content that presents what you know through clear, accessible instructional design people can learn from.
Now you’re ready for a course delivery system. You can build and manage your course yourself with our LifterLMS solution, or if you simply want to teach your course, our Boost service can get you started quickly and comfortably.
Learning how to launch a business, marketing, or leadership online course begins with your instructional abilities and great course design. Try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com, or find out how our Boost service can get you started right away.
In this LMScast Chris Badgett advises you to ask, am I making a membership site, online course, or learning management system? There are differences between these formats you’ll need to know before you build your site.
A membership site is a simple content resource that requires a fee to access its newsletters, files, media, and other products. An online course is basically a class delivered through the internet that teaches students a subject, technique, or skill. A learning management system, or LMS, is a complete course offering with grading, testing, evaluation, and certification, plus other means of tracking and validating a student’s progress.
You may choose to start a simple membership site with a plan for scaling up to a full LMS in the future. Or you may want a blend of formats. But you can see the importance of knowing which kind of site you want to build before you even consider web hosting, technology, or software.
We’ve designed LifterLMS to help you create any of these options and ensure engagement with your audience using gamification, themes, media, easy integration with other tools, and interaction between students and instructors.
Get clear on the question of, am I making a membership site, online course, or learning management system? Then try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com to see how our development platform can help you build it.
This LMScast with Chris Badgett explores the concept of antifragile online education and how to benefit from progressive global transformation, as Nicholas Nassim Taleb has explored through his compelling series of books.
Benefits of the antifragile state are attained through counter-intuitive actions combined with a random “black swan” event.
What if you’re developing online courses when suddenly global interest shifts from physical classroom instruction to eLearning? Your online courses are now in extreme demand.
This is already beginning to happen as students seek alternatives to student loan debt and the limitations of classroom-based education. Add a growing force of disillusioned graduates who can’t get jobs and are retraining to generate independent income.
Whatever your subject area, our LifterLMS development platform will help you become antifragile by creating courses that are relevant now, with or without a black swan event. Try a demo of LifterLMS today at demo.lifterlms.com and see how we can help you realize your antifragile online education business.
Today’s LMScast discusses morning routines for teachers that help you generate more time and energy for your online course development. The way you start your day can make a profound difference on how you feel and how well you function.
If you feel like there’s just never enough time to curate and create your course content, establishing good habits is a simple and powerful way to get more done in less time with quality results. It all comes down to taking care of yourself first. This is especially crucial if your life is stressful and chaotic, and if you are working around a full-time job.
A morning routine is as much about boosting energy and reducing stress as it is about increasing your time. Building your routine is an ongoing process, so start with just one simple task. Focus on activities that increase your physical, mental and emotional/spiritual well being. Exercise and nutrition, reading and meditation, and creative visualization all contribute to ensuring you have a productive and satisfying day.
Morning routines for teachers leverage the power of habit for consistent rewards that make you a more productive person. It also helps to choose helpful, powerful tools to build your courses, such as our LifterLMS development platform. Try a demo of LifterLMS today at demo.lifterlms.com to see how it can work for you.
This LMScast will outline how to monetize your skills, passion, and life experience with online courses. It all begins with who you are, what you know, and what you’re already doing.
If you’re currently teaching, then you just need to learn how to expand on that through online courses. Qualify your primary need as independent income, the freedom of autonomy, or creating a legacy for your skills and knowledge. Current students can continue to train with you online, and you’ll reach a much broader audience than you ever could in person.
To get started, either build and sell your own courses using a platform like our LifterLMS plugin for WordPress, or use a development service like our Boost option to get you set up and running quickly. Either way, your courses will be based on your own content, preferences, and passion.
Engagement is crucial and your online teaching style is key to getting and retaining students. Learning how to be at your best in an online learning environment will take some trial and error, starting with where you are and what you want to accomplish, your level of technical expertise, and your commitment to continuous growth and improvement.
Listen to this podcast to find out how to monetize your skills, passion, and life experience with online courses using LifterLMS or Boost, then try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com to see how it can work for you.
This LMScast will show you how to think about the role of the learning management functionality versus the design of the online learning environment. You’ll also learn about the release of the new LifterLMS LaunchPad WordPress LMS theme.
Choosing the right WordPress LMS theme and plugin for your course platform is crucial to its success.
There are several things to consider when choosing a WordPress LMS plugin and theme. Functionality belongs in a plugin, and design belongs in a theme.
If you are using a WordPress LMS plugin like LifterLMS, then it’s logical to use a theme created by the same company who makes the core plugin.
Today’s LMScast will tell you how to create passive income for offline businesses by sharing information and tutorials online for your products and services. If you have a website-based business you’ll benefit from this discussion, too.
Buyers do online research before buying even simple items, so make it super easy for them to learn about everything you offer. If you’re an instructor or trainer, then online courses are a natural step for what you do and will allow you to reach a much larger audience than you can face-to-face.
Maybe you already know how to build online courses. You can offer your experience as a consultant, designer, or developer to other businesses just getting into eLearning, especially those in your own niche.
At any level, a learning management system like LifterLMS will help you present your business professionally, from basic how-to videos to multi-part training courses.
How-to videos establish you as a trusted expert that people feel good about. Your instruction may help some people do their own repairs, but more likely they will decide it’s too much work and hire you to do the task for them. If they want to DIY their project, they will likely buy their parts and supplies from you.
Learning how to create passive income for offline businesses through online instruction will bring you more customers, and a tool like LifterLMS will make the task even easier. Try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com and see what our course development platform can do for your business.
This LMScast will show you how to name your online course so students will notice you and take a closer look at what you can offer them. Just as a book title or email subject line can make you want to read further, your course title should have the same effect.
Choosing a name for your course is crucial to its success, so have patience and see how the course develops to choose a title that represents you well.
There are several things to consider in the naming process. Test how the name sounds when you say it out loud, because a reader will “hear” it in their head as they read it. You want a name that’s different from others to reinforce your own unique teaching style and content. Usually a short, simple name is more memorable, but if you want a longer name make sure it’s necessary to describe the specifics of what you’re doing. You can make an old concept sound new and instill curiosity with creative wording, or focus on results with active terms in your title. And niche-specific language is a great way to reach a target market.
Your course title is a form of branding as it defines your scope as well as your course, so choose a name you could expand upon beyond a single instance. How you name your online course is important, so take time to create the best title possible. And remember to try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com to see what our course development platform can do for you.
Today’s LMScast presents Designing Your Digital Classroom in Step 5 of the Ultimate Course Creation Framework series. In the course so far you’ve created a Rapid Enrollment list, seen the Magical Education Intersection, pre-sold a Collaborative Course, and learned How To Teach Online.
In this final step of the mini-course it’s easy to over complicate your approach, but remember the best solutions are the simplest. You really only need email to get started because the core of online education is the conversation between you and your students. Be the best teacher you can be, and the rest will follow.
The 3 stages of online course growth begin with the collaborative course for testing content. You’ll build relationships and generate new leads with an email mini-course. Finally, your complete evergreen course will shine with a learning management system like LifterLMS to create, sell, and deliver your course, then manage your content, students, and business all in one place.
Your personality and style of teaching are the most important part of your courses, so don’t try to polish your delivery too much in hopes of attracting more students. Be yourself, and all the right learners will come to you.
The internet has already proven its ability to bring people together. Step 5 - Designing Your Digital Classroom will help you present a real online learning experience for your students and yourself.
Sign up for the Ultimate Course Creation Framework series today at lifterlms.com/courseclinic, or text the word “courseclinic” to 33444. And try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com to build appealing online courses.
This LMScast covers Step 4 in our Ultimate Course Creation Framework series with How to Teach Online. You may be a great classroom instructor, but online teaching requires a whole new approach.
In the last 3 Steps we made a Rapid Enrollment list, discovered the Magical Education Intersection, and pre-sold a Collaborative Course. In Step 4 you’ll learn how to bring your best abilities into the online teaching environment. Your students will come to you from a global community of cultures, age groups, and learning styles with a short attention span and limitless distractions.
To keep online learners engaged, you must understand them and adjust your presentation to keep them focused and interested. Visual learners need compelling video and imagery, while kinesthetics require activity through gamification and mobility.
Remember to build breaks into your design so students can stay fresh and receptive. And make sure you address the Why, What, How, and What If questions that make your course valuable and relevant.
Step 4 - How to Teach Online will show you how to present your course content with energy, personality, and fun for an experience in learning your students will keep coming back for. Start your course design with this mini-course, then build it with a dynamic development platform like LifterLMS.
Sign up for the Ultimate Course Creation Framework series today at lifterlms.com/courseclinic, or text the word “courseclinic” to 33444. And try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com to build your best online courses.
Today’s LMScast features Step 3 of the new Ultimate Course Creation Framework series. Collaborative Course is about the benefits of pre-selling and makes use of the interest list and market research you did in Steps 1 and 2.
The purpose of pre-selling a test version course is to get feedback from active students that will help you develop a much more successful complete course and increase its potential to sell. It will give you valuable perspective by meeting, exceeding, or falling short of your expectations. Based on our own pre-selling experiences, especially with our LifterLMS course development platform’s success, we believe it’s a vital step in building your online courses.
In Step 3 you’ll put together an email campaign for your pre-sell course offering based on market research from Step 2, and you’ll send it to your student interest list from Step 1. You will only enroll a few students, because you want them to benefit from your personal involvement, and you need their valuable input to improve your course. You’ll increase opt-ins with incentives and rewards for early investors.
Keep your campaign brief: Send the application, select your students, and start delivering content. Be a great instructor, show them what you’re worth, and they’ll help you create your ultimate course offering.
Step 3 - Collaborative Course is the halfway point of the Ultimate Course Creation Framework. Get started with Step 1 - Rapid Enrollment today at lifterlms.com/courseclinic, or text the word “courseclinic” to 33444. And try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com to build your best online courses.
This LMScast continues our new 5-step Ultimate Course Creation Framework for your eLearning business with Step 2 - The Magical Education Intersection. This is where what you want to teach meets what your students want to learn.
You may think your course idea is awesome, but is there a market as hungry for your subject as you are passionate about it? Market research will show you what aspects of your expertise are in demand so you can channel your efforts and resources into courses that will sell.
There is a wealth of marketing information at Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, as well as Amazon.com and YouTube. Read discussions and comments in your subject area to see what people wish was available to them but aren’t finding enough of. If you can give that to them, there’s your hungry market.
Contact your prospective students in the Rapid Enrollment list you created in Step 1 of this mini-course. Send them surveys, Skype with them, or even meet them for coffee to learn firsthand what they hope to get out of your courses. Then build the courses they want to take. It’s the same process we followed in developing our popular LifterLMS course development platform plugin for WordPress, because it results in delivering the best product for your customers’ needs.
Step 2 - The Magical Education Intersection is where you’ll learn how to find and serve the demand for your knowledge. Get started today with the Ultimate Course Creation Framework mini-course at lifterlms.com/courseclinic, or text the word “courseclinic” to 33444 to get Step 1 – Rapid Enrollment. And try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com to build your best online courses.
Today’s LMScast presents an overview of our new Ultimate Course Creation Framework, a 5-step outline for building your eLearning business.
Beginning with Step 1 - Rapid Enrollment, you’ll make a list of 100 prospective students for your first marketing campaign. It may seem scary, but it’s a necessary foundation for success.
Students have choices today beyond the traditional classroom-based curriculum, and increasingly they are opting to learn online. Rapid enrollment helps you ensure they will choose to take your courses by helping you gather feedback from your prospects list that you can use to make your courses attractive and beneficial.
Doing this right will take hard work and hustle, but we’ll help you avoid making it tougher than it needs to be by showing you how to reach your intended audience, setting goals to achieve the income you require, and keeping you motivated. Plus, upcoming LMScast episodes will cover each progressive step of the 5-step Framework.
Get started today with the Ultimate Course Creation Framework mini course at lifterlms.com/courseclinic, or text the word “courseclinic” to 33444 to get Step 1 - Rapid Enrollment. And try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.lifterlms.com to build exceptional online courses.
Until now online coaching has been limited to blogs, email lists, eBook sales, and online meetings. This LMScast will transcend those old-school limitations as Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett tell you how to use online courses to get more leads into your coaching business.
The 3 main areas of coaching are relationships, business, and health. The coaching market is saturated with dating game players, fitness trainers, and business consultants, and if you promote yourself using conventional methods you will be ignored as just another coach. But if you bring fresh, exciting content to the party, you will attract attention.
Online courses get noticed, and a free mini-course is a great way to let customers see what you can offer them. A beginner’s guide or step-by-step how-to course will showcase your knowledge, style, and personality. Video, images, and lively dialog present you as a real person and build rapport with your target audience. They’ll trust your expertise and be willing to pay you for more of it. And they’ll tell others about you.
Stand out from the masses of online coaches by learning how to use courses to get more leads into your coaching business. Start today with Chris Badgett’s list of 6 free bonus courses to help you choose your first courses and put them together using a platform like LifterLMS. Text "coaching1" to 33444 to get the link. Try a free demo of LifterLMS at demo.LifterLMS.com as well and see what our course development platform can do for you.
We're very excited about this special LifterLMS 2.0 release edition of LMScast! Our mission is to democratize education in the digital classroom, and we're happy to announce that LifterLMS 2.0 is out, and it's free!
The LifterLMS team is grateful to our customers who have been providing feedback that's helped us continue improving LifterLMS. We wanted to give back to the eLearning and WordPress communities, so you can now head over to LifterLMS.com to get your free copy.
There are also some exciting new features in version 2.0, like vouchers and membership automatic enrollment and automatic enrollment options for lessons. You can head over to our blog at blog.LifterLMS.com to read more about all those new features.
We also have more great things coming soon for LifterLMS, and we're excited to be able to continue expanding the eLearning community!
Thank you from the entire LifterLMS Team for joining us on this journey as we build great things together!
Our LMScast today is all about how real estate brokers and agency owners can get leads and sales through online courses. This episode will open up a world of possibilities for any business to benefit by offering online courses.
The two best ways to attract customers are differentiation and positioning. Demonstrate your expertise and give people the opportunity to know you, like you, and trust your advice. Online courses let you do all this without coming off as a salesman by freely sharing valuable, relevant information and anticipating customers’ most common questions and concerns.
You will shine as a progressive agent by using social technology to reach potential customers. Polished, professional online courses created with a development platform like LifterLMS are far more impressive than yard signs, billboards, and newspaper ads. Offer courses that address the most common questions you get from new clients, like first-time home buyer tips and ways to get the highest price when selling a home.
The LMS platform also allows you to monitor who is using your courses and how they are progressing, so you can contact them and offer your personalized services when they are most receptive. They’ll get to know, like, and trust you through your courses and will be more likely to choose you as their real estate agent, and will also refer you and your courses to others.
Once you know how real estate brokers and agency owners can get more leads and sales through online courses, you can position yourself as a standout real estate agent people want to work with. Get started right away with the video courses, course guide, and checklist at the LifterLMS website, or let our Boost development services handle the technology end for you. And try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com to experience our course development platform for yourself.
This LMScast will help you decide between an email mini-course versus an evergreen WordPress LMS course. Learn the advantages and applications each format offers and choose the best course type for what you want to teach.
Email mini-courses are a great way to get started fast by offering simple, introductory content you can deliver through automated email. You can also test content and get feedback to create an evergreen WordPress LMS course. With a development platform like LifterLMS you can offer features like student login accounts, discussion forums, tracking, testing, and certification.
However you build your courses, you have to market and sell them, and that comes down to selling yourself as an instructor. Students need to feel a connection with you, and an email mini-course can establish that rapport. Students who like you, trust your expertise, and enjoy your teaching style are far more likely to progress into your in-depth LMS-based courses.
Curriculum determines which format you should use. You can deliver detailed information and theory for behavior modification courses using an LMS format, while an email mini-course is better for basic step-by-step guides. Our LifterLMS platform lets you add on tools to create and automate an introductory email mini-course that integrates and upsells to an expanded evergreen course.
Our Course Blueprints mini-course at LifterLMS.com can help you decide between an email mini-course versus an evergreen WordPress LMS course. Try a demo of LifterLMS as well to experience how the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress helps you make your good courses great.
Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett talk about how to organize online course production in this LMScast episode. Joshua has created 4 classes to teach you how to organize your course development process by making an outline before you start putting it all together.
Building a structured framework saves time and frustration by keeping you on track and progressing smoothly. A tool like WorkFlowy will step you through the process, or simply make a Word document. But you really need a map to follow instead of wasting time and energy flailing, and working from an outline will make your courses flow.
Develop the basic curriculum based on your students’ needs and requirements. Then do research, build lessons and decide on content. Make multiple passes so your mind can assemble and refine each segment, and work within your high-energy windows. You want your delivery and presence to be dynamic to maintain student engagement, retention, and completion.
Working from an outline prevents you from trying to do too much in too little time by defining tasks into workable steps. It also aids everyone working with you in creating audio, video, and visuals by defining your concept and batching and coordinating their tasks. Your courses will be much more appealing as a result of organizing and pre-planning all production elements.
Building a course involves curriculum, content, publishing, and marketing, and Joshua’s classes will show you how to organize your online course production. Using a development platform like the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress will make your experience much more satisfying. Try a demo of LifterLMS and see for yourself what it can do for you.
This LMScast with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett is about presenting great content for eLearning communities. We’ll show you how to build an engagement machine with both learners and prospects in mind.
An engagement machine is a dynamic system for keeping in touch with current students and prospecting for new ones. It lets you share information in a one-to-many format by repurposing content for multiple distribution channels to reach a broader audience.
Actively discover and/or build communities. This is a powerful way to bring value to current students as well as show prospective new students what you can offer them by contributing useful, accessible information to ongoing discussions.
Learn to use video as a primary tool. Video is a superior knowledge transfer device, because it’s the next best thing to being there in person. It allows you to connect in a real and personal way with your viewers and establish vital trust relationships.
Engage with social media communities where your students already live and interact, or build your own. Offer opt-in email newsletters, podcasts, and blogs for interested prospects. Find and create opportunities to present yourself directly with clarity and expertise.
Finally, maintain your human touch by taking just 10% of your overall time and effort for personalized one-on-one communication. Make a phone call, attend a meeting, be present for your students in some way.
The LifterLMS platform includes all the tools, options, and support you need to start learning how to build an engagement machine with learners and prospects. Try a demo for free and see what LifterLMS can do for you.
In this LMScast Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett share their predictions for 2016 eLearning industry trends, the LifterLMS project, and WordPress and online education in general. They discuss 3 definitive aspects: the importance of user experience, the expansion of WordPress, and the growth of the eLearning market.
WordPress is on its way to becoming a primary online education content management system. The developers of LifterLMS are leveraging their understanding of the LMS user’s experience to build new, innovative tools based on a progressive, functional, and adaptable framework.
One new offering from LifterLMS is LaunchPad, which makes the process of adding themes to your framework easier than ever. Opening the software to the development community allows for an endless supply of outstanding themes for the product.
Learner experience is often overlooked, but designing for learners determines the ultimate quality of online courses. Users can learn a great deal about what their students need through monitoring usage of lessons and quizzes, and by tracking site analytics.
A broad spectrum of customers and businesses are using WordPress for courses and training, and mobile devices make eLearning accessible on a global scale. The new LifterLMS support service, Boost, creates and publishes your online courses fast so you can enter the market sooner.
From individual edupreneurs to large companies, the 2016 eLearning industry trends will inspire you to get on board with online courses using tools like the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress.
You’ll find fresh ideas for course development in this LMScast episode with Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett. In this discussion you will learn how to use online courses to create a community around your product or service.
Joshua and Chris recently interviewed Kim Albee, founder and president of WP Marketing Engine, about how she onboards new customers and receives valuable feedback using the LifterLMS development platform integrated with BuddyPress to provide discussion forums, training, and user guides for her marketing automation software.
Online courses add value in helping new clients get started, and users often find solutions in community forums, so you spend less time on customer service. You can also find testimonials and case studies from your client’s postings. The LifterLMS demo at demo.lifterlms.com is a fine example of an online course used as a promotional application, as customers get to explore the software fully before they buy.
Online communities engage users through innovation and shared experience while giving you valuable input toward improving your products. Your FAQ section also provides you with a basis for online course design.
Watch previous LMScast interviews with Kim Albee and with Michael Eisenwasser of BuddyPress to learn more about how to use online courses to create a community around your product or service. And try out the LifterLMS demo to experience what it can do for you.
Most entrepreneurs dream of having a passive income stream, and creating online courses is one way to create passive income. But actually taking the knowledge you have and getting it into an online course can be daunting. In today’s LMScast Joshua and Chris go through the 5 steps to creating a killer course.
The first step is giving your students a specific breakthrough or learning outcome. When you focus on the specific outcome your students will get from your online course, you’re creating a clear starting place, and you will increase engagement with your students.
Step two is to use a course structure that makes sense for your content. There are different course blueprints that fit with a course that is intended for behavioral change or for one that is reference-based or for a process-based course. The map you lay out to guide students through your course will make a big difference in their engagement and success with your material.
Applying blended learning for different learning styles is step three. Not everyone learns in the same way, and you’ll increase student engagement and course completion when you utilize a multimedia format for your courses. With LifterLMS it’s easy to include images, videos, audio files, downloads, and quizzes along with your text.
The next step is to increase student interaction and interest through gamification. When you introduce the badges and certificate a student can earn when they are first starting your course, you are positioning those to the student up front as awards they can work toward and earn. Setting up the path of achievement in this way makes the learning process more fun for students and encourages them to achieve those awards.
The final step is to find ways to keep students engaged, even after they have left the course. In order to keep your tribe strong, you need to keep the conversation going with your students and show them that you care about how they’re doing.
When you follow the 5 steps to creating a killer course, you’ll be creating an exciting and compelling learning environment for your students. And when your students are learning and having fun, they’ll be engaged and want to come back for more!
In this LMScast episode Christopher Badgett and Joshua Millage talk with founder and president of WP Marketing Engine Kim Albee about how to use online courses to add the value of training and support for your products and services. Kim uses LifterLMS with WP Marketing Engine to create training, user guides, and community discussion forums for their software users.
Onboarding new customers is a smooth process with WP Marketing Engine. When a new customer subscribes to the marketing engine platform service, they create an account. Then LifterLMS assigns them to a membership category, gives them access to the courses and community for that level, and manages their progress.
Training is presented in short, clean course segments with clear user guides and responsive support. Basic level members have open access to introductory classes, user guides, discussion forums, and media libraries. A Pro Class is available for an additional fee, and Conversion Pro members get priority technical support. Then LifterLMS sends information and offerings to customers at their membership levels.
Providing online courses for your products and services establishes communication and trust with your customers, encouraging them to pursue higher levels of training and community participation. Kim Albee is enthusiastic about the value that learning how to use online courses added to their business, and integrating with LifterLMS helped WP Marketing Engine realize their goals for user support.
Christopher Badgett talks with BuddyPress expert Michael Eisenwasser in this LMScast episode. Michael runs BuddyBoss.com, and he’s here to discuss how to build online social learning environments using BuddyPress.
BuddyPress lets you expand the eLearning experience with a dynamic Facebook-style interactive space. The LifterLMS course development platform offers built-in BuddyPress integration so you can easily include social learning in your course design. And BuddyPress is fully customizable to your specific needs.
You can emulate the classroom experience in your online learning environment, or employ blended learning by combining online coursework with in-person class meetings. Social learning also makes interactive education available to students who don’t have physical access to a classroom. Providing a social element is especially helpful for teaching niche subjects, and beneficial for students who are unfamiliar with online learning.
There are extra administrative tasks for social learning environments, such as promoting and building your community, setting access permissions, eliminating spam, and moderating group discussions and activities. But with planning and implementation you will be able to support a thriving social network of fully engaged eLearners.
BuddyPress is a free, open source WordPress plugin, and Michael encourages course developers to download it and discover all it has to offer. Once you learn how to build online social learning environments, you’ll realize just how valuable they can be to your online course offerings.
Many people encounter “beasties” of fear and doubt that keep them from building their businesses. In this LMScast Christopher Badgett interviews MamaRed Knight of Tame the Beasties in a delightful discussion of how to repurpose your content into online courses and get past “expertitis.”
In her years of experience MamaRed has learned that the message comes first, and technology exists to deliver it. If you know who and what to teach, you can then decide how. She suggests starting by visualizing your ideal student and talking with them to discover what they like and dislike in their learning experience.
Next you can create content and build your course based on “tweet-sized tidbits” of what you know about your subject. Those tidbits can be repurposed in a variety of ways by starting simply and working your way up, or by starting with everything you know and simplifying it into basic tips.
Disabling doubts and fears are like “beasties” that prevent you from reaching your full potential. You may think you don’t know enough, or if you have “expertitis” you know too much to organize your thoughts. MamaRed’s mission is to help you learn how to repurpose your content into online courses and get past “expertitis” so you can present your knowledge and passion effectively, and have fun doing it.
Our LifterLMS course development platform lets you easily and intuitively build courses that are personal, interactive, and engaging. We can help you put the fun into online learning!
In today’s LMScast Chris Badgett talks with Sebastian Cazacu about product management and project management for education entrepreneurs. Sebastian is a project management consultant and trainer who expanded into the online courses business a few years ago. His expertise in project management can help as you’re planning and strategizing your online courses.
Many people get confused when they think about product management versus project management. Managing the product means actually to manage the business, because the product is the value generation engine in your business. So whenever you say product management, it means you're managing all aspects of your business involving the product, starting with envisioning, creating, and selling the product, and also delivering and supporting the product. All these aspects are related to the product as the core part of your business. And for an education entrepreneur, the product is their course or education product.
Project management means to manage the work that you need to do in order to achieve various objectives as you advance your business. When you're executing a project, the result of that project will be the product.
When applying a product management versus project management approach, it’s important for education entrepreneurs to establish a product life cycle. The first phase is to clearly strategize your product into something you can create an action plan for. The second phase is to experiment and test your assumptions about your product. The third phase is growing your business and improving your processes.
Education entrepreneurs should consider which learning management system they’re going to use before finalizing their online course strategy, because their choice of LMS will also help shape their product through the tools and features available in the LMS.
Our LifterLMS course development platform has built-in features to let you engage with students, combine courses together into a certification program, and offer a free sample lesson as part of the course marketing strategy
You can get more information about Sebastian’s planning guide to help education entrepreneurs make better choices as they strategize their business at EducationProjectRoadmap.com.
Sharing your passion and expertise is key to keeping your students motivated and engaged. In this LMScast, Tim Cooper of eCourseDomination.com joins Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett for an in-depth discussion of engagement and online learning tools and strategies.
Tools like Blab and Periscope give your courses an in-person feel with features like live video and direct interaction, Q&A, and feedback. You can see if students understand your lectures or are having difficulty, which is especially helpful for students with language barriers or cognitive challenges. With these tools your courses will have presence and a level of accountability not easily achieved through text and graphic content alone.
Engagement tools make introductory courses more attractive by showcasing your knowledge, personality and teaching style. Students can really connect with you and will be more likely to take your fee-based courses. These tools are also great for interviews.
As an instructor your purpose is to help your students achieve the learning objectives they signed up with you to reach without losing interest or momentum. Engagement is vital to keeping them in process, and dynamic tools like Blab and Periscope give you one more teaching method to cover multiple learning styles.
Make sure your courses are personal, interactive, and fun in ways that other courses don’t offer. Our LifterLMS course development platform has content integration built in so you can include these interactive tools for engagement and online learning easily and intuitively.
Building online courses requires attention to details of design, marketing, and delivery, but it’s even more important that you have a vision for what you want your business to become. In this LMScast episode with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett you’ll learn how to connect online courses together for increased income and impact.
You may already have a list of potential courses in mind or in the works that you want to create, but have you thought about ways to interrelate them? Sure, you’ve projected on beginner, intermediate, and advanced course sets, but most students satisfy their curiosity with the first course in a subject. However, they might be excited about related but attractively different courses.
Buyer psychology indicates that people don’t want to buy multiples of one item, but they will purchase sets of complimentary items. This type of upsell works with learning opportunities as well. A package deal of complimentary courses can be very attractive to a customer in the mood to purchase.
It’s amazingly easy to incorporate basic business and promotional strategies into your online course listings with a course development platform like LifterLMS, because automation and presentation capabilities are built in and ready to use.
Learning how to connect online courses together for increased income and impact will enhance your student experience and expand your business. The LifterLMS course development platform lets you discover and leverage the power of your full potential.
When you offer online courses through your own WordPress LMS site, you get to keep the majority of that revenue. But there are advantages to offering some of your content on large online course marketplaces as well. In this LMScast Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett explain how you can leverage online course marketplaces to drive traffic to your own WordPress LMS.
Online course marketplaces like Udemy have audiences that may be different and larger than yours, so you can reach more people when you leverage their systems for lead generation. One way to leverage an online course marketplace to drive traffic to your own LMS site is to offer your beginner’s course on their site, but to keep your more advanced courses on your own site. This strategy lets you keep the bulk of what you’re teaching on your own site where you own and control the content, and you can charge a premium for it and keep the majority of that revenue.
Be sure to read the fine print in the terms and conditions of the online course marketplace you use so that you stay within their restrictions.
You can increase engagement with your students on your own site in ways you can’t on online course marketplace platforms. On your own site you can use a LMS plugin like LifterLMS to utilize gamification in your courses and to send automated emails and drip content.
If you already have online course content on your own WP LMS site using a plugin like LifterLMS, you can easily put together a course in a marketplace like Udemy to start getting more leads and driving traffic to your own site.
Success in online course development depends on knowing what students want and providing that experience. This LMScast episode with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett details how to create with the customer in mind by thinking beyond your own ideas and seeing from their perspective.
In designing your courses you need to think about who you are serving, what you are solving and how your approach will be different. The most important aspect is to know your customers, and the best place to start is by segmenting your market. This allows you to drill down from the general market to an individual end-user persona. From here you can determine what kind of student will be interested in your courses, their lifestyle and interests, and whether you can actually make a profit from this market.
Your best research will come from finding your interest group and talking with them. Get their feedback and preferences, listen to them with an open mind, and start building rapport. Base your course design and innovation on what you learn from your target audience.
Beyond that, look at what other edupreneurs are doing and take notes on what is working for them – and what isn’t. Base your initial course offerings on your findings, then project on how you want to see your business grow.
Find a balance between envisioning what you want to build and learning how to create with the customer in mind. Our LifterLMS course development platform will help you develop your courses based on these principles.
This LMScast episode will tell you how to create an online certification program, reasons to target niche markets, and how to ensure your certification courses offer real value. The global eLearning market is a virtually untapped opportunity, especially for niche interest areas. Your expertise and passion can reach a world of people who need to learn what you can teach them.
There are several approaches you can take for your certification programs. If you are an expert in your subject or skillset, then you can establish your own certification for that area of interest. If your company sells a product that requires special expertise, the company can offer certification for its products and services. Or if you have a high level of competence in a product that another company offers, you may develop a certification program for their product or service, get it approved by their governing body, and present it to their users.
The LifterLMS WordPress plugin is a versatile and robust platform for building certification programs using traditional linear progression, or related elective courses, to meet specified certification goals. And with the new Course Tracks feature you can group courses into curriculums and automate delivery of achievement markers and certificates of completion as students meet course requirements.
As you determine how to create an online certification program, remember that your students are your primary focus. Whatever approach to certification you choose, your success depends on the value your courses provide through delivering a quality learning experience and final proof of competency.
You want to make sure your great course content is not diminished by bad delivery. This LMScast episode outlines three course blueprints for modern instructional design that works. We also tell you how to take advantage of our free mini course in design structure.
First, let’s define instructional design as the structure in which you build your eLearning environment to successfully progress students from their current level of understanding to a higher point of expertise.
You want to choose the right instructional blueprint for your course content according to your subject matter and the best way to present it. There are three basic blueprints: behavioral change, learning a process, and referencing information.
Behavioral training teaches students to achieve a goal by changing their behavior. Learning a process employs step-by-step tutorials on how to perform a task. Reference information is an in-depth study of a subject area.
Joshua Millage has created a free mini course to show you how to build your courses based on these three instructional designs. Just text message the subject “courseblueprint” to address 33444. You will be asked to enter your email address. We’ll then send you a link to the introductory course video.
Remember, our LifterLMS development platform is designed to allow you to build your courses using these three course blueprints for modern instructional design that works.
If you are evaluating LMS platforms for building online courses, you need to listen to this LMScast episode about learning management integrations vs. built-in features and how they apply to building online courses.
Features are built into a platform and thus are immediately compatible with that system. They provide a functional foundation but can limit your scalability, since they are built into the software. Integrations are add-on applications that connect your system to other platforms to expand your capabilities. They provide flexibility for growth and expansion.
It’s important for you to know what you want to do as you look at options for building your online courses. Our LifterLMS WordPress plugin is designed so users can create basic courses that work with existing features or freely customize the platform however they choose. We include basic features to get you started quickly and integrations to allow connectivity with other powerful systems, including progressive new applications.
The LifterLMS team also works with the open source community for development, upgrades, and support, especially for commerce options, extensions, and theme frameworks. Much like WordPress, LifterLMS is designed to help you address your needs for accessibility, scalability, and flexibility between learning management integrations versus built-in features as your eLearning environment expands. You can try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com and see for yourself what it can do for you.
This LMScast episode outlines the top 3 mistakes eLearning entrepreneurs make and ways you can avoid them. This applies to both new and seasoned edupreneurs.
The biggest problem most people have is with time lost to struggling with obstacles. Trying to figure things out on your own wastes valuable time, energy, and resources. Looking ahead to eliminate those obstacles from the start is the best approach. Make sure you have a market for the courses you want to present, then choose a turnkey system like our LifterLMS WordPress plugin for your course development.
The next greatest problem is over complexity, and it’s a common pitfall with the seemingly infinite capabilities and options that current course building platforms offer. Plan ahead to include only the most necessary elements required to deliver the core information you want to present. Keeping your courses simple and to the point ensures a learning experience your students will enjoy.
Finally, trying to do it all alone is frustrating, time consuming, and completely unnecessary when you can simply ask for guidance from others who have already solved the same problems. With the LifterLMS platform you get simple instructional tutorials and videos, plus support from our software development team. Seeking help will get you through the course building process quickly and painlessly.
The LifterLMS team is dedicated to changing the way eLearning is done. We want to help you avoid the top 3 mistakes eLearning entrepreneurs make and support you in achieving edupreneurial success. Try a demo of the LifterLMS course development platform at demo.LifterLMS.com and see for yourself what it can do for you.
This LMScast episode outlines the ways current growth cycles of exponentially advancing technologies in learning management systems relate to you in developing your online courses. These concepts are based on those outlined by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler in their book, BOLD, and apply to technology as well as business.
The classic business innovation life cycle includes stages of implementation from innovators to early adopters, early majority, and latecomers. Exponentially growing technology follows the same patterns through digitalization, disruption, deception, demonetization, dematerialization and democratization.
Technology becomes exponential through digitalization. This disruptive technology lets you build an educational system online, which dematerializes and democratizes global access to learning. It demonetizes eLearning, too, as you only need a web host, WordPress, and a learning management system to create, market, and sell your courses.
The initial hype of deception delays adoption for many people, but eLearning has proven to be effective and profitable. The online course environment also fulfills the need for connection and communication more powerfully than ever before, as social media platforms like Twitter have shown.
Online learning management systems offer you the opportunity to create and shape the quality learning experience you want for your students, and to profit from sharing your knowledge and expertise.
The LifterLMS course development platform is designed to help you build your courses based on the growth cycles of exponentially advancing technologies in learning management systems. Try a demo of LifterLMS at Demo.LifterLMS.com and see for yourself what it can do for you.
We’re excited about introducing the LifterLMS Weekly Free Giveaway! Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett tell you how to enter and what you can win in this LMScast.
The LifterLMS team is passionate about online education, and we depend on feedback from our user community. The more users we can collaborate with, the more innovative and useful our software becomes. So we will be giving away developer’s licenses for everything we make.
At LifterLMS we believe our course development platform and support software is the best of its kind, because we really listen and respond to innovative education entrepreneurs like you. Here’s what you can win:
You get a 5 developer’s license for each of the following that can be used on 5 sites:
• LifterLMS – Learning management system and course development platform • Stripe – Credit card acceptance and processing extension • Infusionsoft – Business automation system extension • MailChimp – Automated email marketing service extension
Our users have been a vital resource in helping us make LifterLMS an amazing online course development tool, and we want to show our appreciation through this weekly giveaway. You can help us expand our community and make LifterLMS even better by using our software and sharing it with other edupreneurs.
Entering is easy – Just go to LifterLMS.com/giveaway and follow the simple instructions. As you share the giveaway link with other users, you increase your own chances of winning. We’ll announce a winner each week, and you can enter again and again.
Our LifterLMS course development platform and support software lets you quickly and easily develop effective online courses, and we appreciate your help in introducing the LifterLMS Weekly Free Giveaway. It’s going to be a fun event, and we’re looking forward to welcoming you into our user community.
If you’re looking for WordPress LMS themes that work with WP learning management system plugins, then listen to this LMScast episode as we talk about understanding the purpose of themes and making the best choices for designing and developing your online courses.
Themes and plugins perform different tasks. A plugin executes a specific function, while a theme creates the visual experience for the user. A lot of current designers are building plugin-type functionality into their themes that makes them difficult to use with some plugins.
The LifterLMS plugin is compatible with most themes, but some of the existing themes recommended for use with this plugin are the WooThemes Canvas design theme and the Genesis framework by StudioPress. The LifterLMS development team is also designing their own theme, which will be available soon. The development team is also working on an advanced framework for developers called Lifter Launchpad, plus they are releasing an online course-specific web application.
WordPress LMS themes that work with WP learning management system plugins make developing and scaling your eLearning courses much simpler, especially if you use a course development platform like LifterLMS.
You can attract, convert, and maintain students for your online courses using effective email campaigns. This LMScast with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett will help you learn how to understand email options in learning management systems, and how you can use the LifterLMS platform to get started.
The 3 basic categories of email campaigns you will learn to leverage are marketing, transactional, and onboarding. Marketing emails are used to describe your course offerings to prospective students and help them decide which courses to take. Transactional emails handle purchase verification and welcome messages. New students are then oriented into the course with onboarding emails.
Automating essential email tasks becomes crucial as your course offerings increase, so LifterLMS has email handling built in. It is also compatible with systems like MailChimp and Infusionsoft to allow you to scale your eLearning business. It’s important to keep your systems simple, so focus on the options you need most to implement and grow your online courses.
Begin by writing your email messages as if you are talking directly with students, and think about the kind of experience you want them to have with your courses. Visualize an entire university operating inside of your learning management system: marketing, admissions, students, instructors, and areas for students to interact with each other.
Starting out with LifterLMS allows you to develop and manage one or two courses right away. Then as you learn how to understand email options in learning management systems more completely, LifterLMS can expand through its compatibility with other platforms. Try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.lifterlms.com and see for yourself what it can do for you.
Your online courses will benefit greatly from your understanding of the concepts behind exponential education entrepreneurship. In their book, Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis explain exponential entrepreneurship, and this LMScast episode outlines their 3 core factors that will make your course offerings exceptional.
Technological entrepreneurs have built billion dollar enterprises using three progressive factors that you can use for your online course development: • Exponential technology • Flow dynamics • The power of the crowd
Exponential growth expands quickly, and is made possible by technologies like the Internet and mobile phones. These developments have made eLearning accessible to a global audience, so your online courses can be available to just about everyone on the planet.
Flow dynamics is a framework for creative thinking that you can use when designing course content and shaping the learning experience for your students.
The power of the crowd describes crowd funding and community building. Each of your students is an individual, but together they form a learning community. You can use that understanding to create an eLearning environment that supports both.
These concepts of exponential education entrepreneurship work together to form a dynamic balance of technology, flow and people, which is driven by your own passion for your subject. Working with this knowledge gives you unprecedented power in developing your eLearning course, especially if you use a course development platform like LifterLMS.
The way an online course is designed has a big impact on how engaged students will be with the material and whether they will complete the course. In this LMScast Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss how to use the Fibonacci sequence for instructional design to set the pace for your course.
Keeping students engaged and motivated can be a challenge for teachers, and your course completion rate could suffer if the cadence of your content does not match with students’ interest levels and how they naturally learn. If you deliver your content too slowly, students could become bored and lose interest. But if you deliver too much content all at once, students could become overwhelmed.
Students are the most interested and motivated right after they’ve decided to take a course, and that motivation settles down as the course goes on and students are consuming your content. The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. Starting with 1, the sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on. This sequence occurs frequently in nature, such as in the spirals of a snail’s shell and the arrangement of seeds on a sunflower.
Using the Fibonacci sequence for instructional design will match well with the way students naturally learn and their interest levels. And you can build the sequence into your course by dripping content in this type of pattern, with more content delivered at the beginning of the course and then slowly spacing the content out a bit more as the course goes on.
LifterLMS is a learning management system plugin for WordPress that has built-in functionality to handle drip content and engagement. You can use the system to space out your content, automatically email students to encourage engagement, and award badges and certificates for lesson or section completion. You can try a demo of LifterLMS at demo.LifterLMS.com to see for yourself what it can do for you.
If your dream is to make a living from home with your own location independent business, then you need to hear this LMScast. Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett tell you from their own experience how to be a digital nomad by creating and selling online courses.
A location independent business runs from wherever you are. One option is to create online courses using a development tool like LifterLMS to build your courses and automate basic tasks. You have to work and you have to hustle, but you can learn to do this by realizing there are different ways to generate income.
Start by forming relationships with people who share your interests so you can create the valuable courses they want. Next learn about online business so you can build it yourself without paying someone else for those services. Then start creating your course.
Pre-selling a pilot course to a few students is a great way to start. Your test group will teach you how to build a successful course, and they will enjoy having your full attention. You can start making $1,000 to $2,000 each month, and your earning potential will increase as you scale from there.
You have to know why you are doing this and how you want your life to be. A clear vision of what you could do with a flexible work schedule from home or while traveling will really drive you. Looking at existing online course lists at sites like Udemy will help you decide how to put your course together.
The best thing about a location independent business is profiting from something that excites you and sharing it with others. Our LifterLMS course development platform will help you build your courses quickly and easily so you can enjoy your students, your interests, and your life.
If you are looking for course building software, this podcast will help you in your evaluation process. This LMScast episode with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett focuses on WordPress LMS reviews in online forums and how users feel about the LifterLMS course development plugin.
There are several vital points to consider when choosing a course development platform. The most discussed topic in user forums is ease of use and investment of time in building their courses with available development tools. The LifterLMS Course Builder interface is clearly a winner with users who find the tool fast and easy to use, and visually attractive as well.
You also want to choose the best tool the first time, so you don’t ever have to start over and rebuild your courses and support systems in a new platform. One of the best indicators of a solid tool is the team of developers who created it. The LifterLMS development team is a diverse group of people who are passionate about learning, and who consistently gather feedback from online reviews and also maintain their own user forum. They make frequent platform upgrades based on the needs and wants expressed by a wide variety of LMS software users.
You may be thinking of offering free online courses right now, but what if you wanted to offer paid courses in the future? It would be wise for you to think ahead and choose a constantly evolving LMS system that you can grow and expand with. Make sure your software choice also includes an integrated eCommerce system that is easy for you to implement and simple for your students to use. The LifterLMS platform has eCommerce built in, and users love its stability and simplicity of use.
Lots of LMS softwares limit you to using their software bundles with limited options. With LifterLMS, your choices are open and limitless. You can integrate elements from your own course materials, quizzes, certificates, external resources -- including multimedia -- and completely customize the look and feel of your online course environment.
Compare for yourself all the LMS options available, read all the WordPress LMS reviews in online forums, and you will find that LifterLMS is clearly the best course building tool you can buy. We even offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide you don’t love it. Try the free demo and discover what LifterLMS can do for you at demo.lifterlms.com.
Have you considered adding a social network to your online learning system? This LMScast looks at BuddyPress Courseware for WordPress and how it works with learning management systems like LifterLMS.
BuddyPress is a social network development plugin designed for online learning environments. A social network can enhance your online courses by allowing students to create profiles, participate in course discussions, and stay in touch with their instructors. It also provides for blogging, activity feeds, visual media, and private messaging, much like Facebook.
Your network can include groups, subgroups, and forums for specific courses, as well as a social network for everyone in your system, plus free access and paid membership areas. It’s an exciting option, but only if you have a need for it. A social network requires a lot of direct involvement and could be more work than it is worth for your learning environment.
If your students are enthusiastic about their subjects, giving them a place to discuss that with other equally involved students will enhance their learning experience. A social network also helps new students become involved more quickly, and provides a place for support and mastermind groups.
An online learning-based social network makes instructors more accessible to their students, and students can more easily interact with each other no matter what their daily schedules are like. BuddyPress Courseware integrated with a course development platform like LifterLMS can help you create a thriving, successful eLearning community for your students.
Today on LMScast we're starting an interview series with people who we admire in the learning management system space, and who are just altogether incredible people in online education. Listening to customers’ feedback and measuring results is important for moving a business forward the right way, and we value the feedback from our LifterLMS customers. Today Joshua Millage discusses online education with Diana Young.
Diana is a LifterLMS customer, and she shares her experience setting up a course with LifterLMS and her initial surprise with how easy the software made the process of creating the course. She was skeptical at first, because all softwares say that they’re easy to use. But she was pleasantly surprised that LifterLMS really delivered and made it easy to set up her course!
Some people think online education and internet marketing are all about making money. While other people want to teach in order to help spread knowledge and make the world a better place. Those two perspectives can exist in harmony, and an online entrepreneur can make money at the same time they’re teaching and helping other people.
It can be easy to get confused by the difference between beliefs and values. In Diana’s mind, a belief is a way that you think the world is. Whereas a value is a vision of a way the world could be. So what we believe tends to shape our behavior, but what we value tends to shape our choices.
We have some amazing members of the LifterLMS community. If you are a customer listening to this interview, and you have an incredible story that you'd like to share about what you're doing with LifterLMS, we’d love to hear about it. You can reach out and find us at www.LMScast.com, and we can schedule a time to tell your story here on LMScast.
If you don't own a copy of the LifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin, you can purchase a copy at www.LifterLMS.com. We'd love for you to be a part of our community and share your wisdom with the world.
If you are a Tim Ferriss fan and an eLearning developer, you need to hear this LMScast episode which outlines his 5 principles for accelerated learning and how they apply to building online courses.
Tim Ferriss is a best selling author whose books include The 4 Hour Work Week, The 4 Hour Body, and The 4 Hour Chef. His new TV show is called The Tim Ferriss Experiment and includes an episode about how he achieves accelerated learning. Our LifterLMS WordPress plugin is designed on these principles, and anyone who is developing online courses will benefit from knowing them.
Principle 1: Deconstruction, means breaking overwhelming skills down in order to process them easily, as you should do when designing your online course.
Principle 2: Selection, is based on the Pareto Principle and means to focus on key elements of a subject. This will keep your online course design from becoming too information-heavy.
Principle 3: Sequencing, means to try new and different approaches to learning that make failure less painful, so students are more likely to make an attempt.
Principle 4: Stakes, is about setting a goal with consequences, such as tests that determine whether a student progresses or not.
Principle 5: Simplify, means offering students one unit of a subject to master before going on to the next one.
These 5 principles of accelerated learning allow Tim Ferriss to do the amazing things he does, and they will work for you in developing your eLearning course, especially if you use a course development platform like LifterLMS.
Are you a parent who wants to spend more time at home with your kids? This LMScast episode explores the advantages of generating passive income for stay at home moms – and dads, too – by building and selling online courses.
You don’t have to be a teacher or a computer professional to build online courses. There is software available to help you do all of that intuitively, including marketing and fee processing. All you have to do is identify a subject you know about (and you probably know more than you think you do), get a learning management system like our LifterLMS, and put your course together.
You can create courses about cooking or camping, skills for parents of kids with special needs, family travel – the possibilities are endless. And you can build and manage your courses from wherever you call home, be that a neighborhood, a homestead, or traveling around the world.
Passive online income provides you with the flexibility to call wherever you are, or want to be, “home.” You can build and manage online courses at any stage of your family’s growth. And if you are already a stay-at-home parent, administering your online course now and again can be a refreshing diversion from full-time parenting.
Building online courses to establish passive income for stay at home moms, dads, grandparents, or other caretakers is not difficult, especially with a course development platform like the LifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could teach music through the internet? Well, you can, and this LMScast episode will tell you how to create and sell music lessons online quickly and easily.
Why should a music instructor consider offering online music training? First, the internet is a natural environment for music, as it allows for streaming interactive audio and video and almost universal access. Learning music is a step-by-step process that requires hours of practice, and your online music courses can provide students with a variety of drills, audio and video clips, musical notation, and other tools to help them learn at their own pace and practice as much as they need to, whenever they need to.
Providing online music courses allows you to teach more students in more places in less time than ever before. You can use it as a supplement to your in-person sessions, or you can provide complete courses that students can access who otherwise could not work with you at all. You can also do live training online, and interact with your students via messaging and other communications. From beginners to advanced musicians, you can create detailed courses for every level of expertise and add variety to practice sessions.
Plus there is the income you receive from course fees as well as the extra time you can be available for the students you see in person. And building online courses is not difficult, especially with a course development platform like our LifterLMS WordPress plugin. Not only does it make online course building an intuitive, creative process, the system even handles sales and marketing for you, so you can center your attention on your students and on the music.
Once you learn how to create and sell music lessons online, you will be able to share your passion and expertise with more musicians in more ways than ever before.
Consulting services conventionally involve customized solutions for each client, but how much of what you do for most people you work with is repetitive? This LMScast episode will show you how to productize your consulting business with online courses and packaged services.
Productizing your consulting is accomplished by packaging sets of services that target the standard needs of 80% of your clients. Clients are given a limited set of service options to choose from based on what you have found that most clients need. Packaging your services this way can save you significant time and increase your returns. You will also have more time to devote to the few clients who truly need specialized solutions.
You probably lose quite a few clients who simply cannot afford your professional fees, but there is an alternative solution you can offer them. In a weekend or two using a WordPress learning management system (LMS) plugin like LifterLMS, you can create online courses to help clients do for themselves much of what you would normally do for them at a fraction of the cost. By down-selling a lower-priced solution you will gain income and attract a new customer base.
Also, offering a free introductory course can be a lucrative lead-generation device. It will demonstrate your expertise and educate potential clients about what is actually involved in the level of service you provide. Clients will be willing to pay more once they know the value of what you can do for them.
Building an online course is not difficult with a course development platform like LifterLMS. It supplies you with all the tools and resources you need to put courses together simply and intuitively. It also handles course fee payments and progresses users through each stage of learning without direct involvement from you.
Whatever kinds of consulting services you provide, you can learn how to productize your consulting business with online courses you create with a learning management system like the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress.
If you have wondered if you could make money with your YouTube channel, but didn’t know what to do, this LMScast episode will show you how to monetize your YouTube channel in a whole new way.
Most people go the route of posting their videos, then becoming a YouTube partner, which allows pop-up ads to run at some point during the video. If your video goes viral and you attract an incredible number of viewers, then you might make some money. However, the reality is that most videos won’t generate the traffic necessary to realize much income this way.
There is another more direct, less intrusive way to make more money from fewer viewers with your YouTube channel, and that is by offering online courses. You simply post a few introductory videos to generate interest in your subject, and then direct viewers to your site where they then pay fees to take your courses online.
If you have already made videos about your subject then you have content ready to convert into online courses that people will pay for, and using a learning management system (LMS) like LifterLMS makes that process simple. And if you target beginners with basic courses to bring them up to speed, they will likely continue on into your intermediate-level courses.
You don’t have to be a professional instructor to create online courses. In fact, a lot of people prefer to learn from someone who is less polished and more accessible. And instead of editing out any mistakes you make in your video, use those as teaching opportunities. Your students will likely make those same mistakes, so they need to learn how to handle them.
No matter what it is that you enjoy and want to share in your videos, you can learn how to monetize your YouTube channel by offering online courses you create with a development platform like the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress.
Most people do not need a 40 million dollar enterprise-level eLearning solution to create and distribute their online courses. In today’s LMScast, Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett tell you how to create an eLearning marketplace clone and also discuss the importance of disruptive innovation for edupreneurs.
A marketplace clone is a less expensive, less complex version of a standard institutionalized product or service. Udemy is an example of an established platform for the eLearning marketplace. Instructors develop and distribute their coursework through Udemy, which provides an extensive array of resources, but also dictates policies and fee structure for users.
WordPress is a prime example of the power of disruptive innovation, which provides access to functional, customizable tools for a greater number of people at minimal cost. Users who want personal control of their content and income drive the creation and success of disruptive innovation solutions.
A competitive marketplace clone for eLearning can be built for WordPress using a plugin LMS development platform that allows developers to produce online courses using WordPress. A marketing and distribution service can then be employed to promote and sell customized course offerings.
Costs for such an implementation are minimal in comparison to enterprise systems, all the basic tools are there to create dynamic content, and instructors remain independent from external restrictions and fees while enjoying full control of their online courses. Learn how to create an eLearning marketplace clone with a development platform like the LifterLMS plugin for WordPress in this LMScast episode.
There are some very common mistakes when making an online course. In today’s LMScast, Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett list the most basic pitfalls course developers make and how to avoid them.
Edupreneurs embody a mix of entrepreneur, developer, marketer, and educator, and each discipline can present different sets of problems. Most course developers fall into a few simple traps when putting their course offerings together. Learning where to focus your energy and resources most will help keep you from making those mistakes yourself.
First, determine whether you have a significant audience for the information you wish to offer. A good way to do this is to pre-launch your courses while you are in the development stage. You can gain valuable feedback from users and see how well it sells before making a larger commitment to your complete course offering.
Making your course content too general diminishes its value, because that level of information is already available elsewhere, often for free. Target specific areas of your subject and focus on delivering detailed education and training for that specialized area.
Don’t get so involved in the subject matter or the technology that you lose sight of the end users. Your focus must be on finding out what they want and need, and making sure you provide the results they require. Otherwise your customer base will disappear.
You can easily address these potential mistakes by creating your online courses with a simple yet resource-rich LMS like our LifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin. LifterLMS allows you to get the most out of progressive eLearning technology and resources while focusing on course development and delivery that get results.
Creating a successful eLearning package requires the DNA of an education entrepreneur. In today’s LMScast, Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett discuss the traits of educators and entrepreneurs, and how they can learn to become successful edupreneurs. Specifically, an educator has a core passion for their subject matter, and they want to share it with as many people as they can reach. An entrepreneur’s primary drive is to promote and sell a product that will benefit many people. Both are passionate and want to reach an audience, but educators generally don’t know about selling, and entrepreneurs are not necessarily good teachers.
To be successful, an edupreneur needs to have traits of an educator and an entrepreneur. This can be realized with an active commitment to taking small, experimental steps toward gaining new skills. With the proper tools and a desire to succeed, teaching and selling can be learned.
When developing a tool to help each of these people to fully apply their strengths while developing new capabilities, the designer needs to understand what educators and entrepreneurs already know, how they do their work, and what they need help with in order to develop fully functional applications for them. A WordPress learning management system using LifterLMS makes it easier for each to achieve their end goals while becoming complete edupreneurs.
In today’s LMScast episode, Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett talk about the 3 E’s of online education, which are all about how you can create a successful online course and how you can really change someone’s life and help them improve in some way. The 3 E’s of online education are: Educate, Entertain, Execution.
Education entrepreneurs can apply the concept of results in advance in order to keep their students engaged with the online course content. Making the material interesting and fun is often overlooked by educators. And execution takes the course materials out of the intangible realm of ideas and into action steps the student can take with the material they learned.
The 3 E’s of online education are the secret to how you can take your online course to the next level. And after listening to this LMScast episode you’ll be ready to start implementing the 3 E’s in your next online course.
In eLearning it’s vital for teachers to be able to engage with their students in order to know if they’re learning and understanding the material. Today’s LMScast with Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discusses how to use technology to scale the human touch between teachers and their students in online courses.
The lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin allows you to use automation to scale your interactions with your students. You can set up the engagement system to meet your unique needs and to give you more productive time.
For Infusionsoft users, there’s also an add-on for lifterLMS that integrates with Infusionsoft. The integration will allow use of the ecommerce system in Infusionsoft, and campaigns inside Infusionsoft can be set up to trigger engagements based on students’ activity. This creates the foundation of a learning management system with a deep Infusionsoft integration for WordPress sites.
Creating an eBook requires a break from traditional thinking, but learning how to monetize a book with online courses is a simple, effective way to introduce your eLearning offerings to potential students. Today’s LMScast with Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett discusses how to make your text content more readable and add interactive support media so that your information becomes far more accessible than ever before.
Presenting text in quickly readable chunks instead of long paragraphs is a basic formatting technique for digital consumption. Online publishing provides low overhead costs for writing, publishing, and promoting your eBook, which can include existing course content through your WordPress learning management system using lifterLMS. This also allows potential students to get a feel for your online course environment.
Your ultimate goal is to provide students with whatever they need to succeed in your courses, and the eBook format allows you to provide content in a variety of media so each student can access your information in their preferred learning style. If you have already written a book you can expand it into a full online course offering. And if you have already created your online course, then you can easily create an attractive introductory eBook synopsis based on your existing course content.
In eLearning your primary objective is to help your students access and understand the information they need in a learning style that works best for them. Including multimedia in your course design achieves this goal. Learn how to embed audio in your WordPress LMS in this LMSCast presentation with Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett.
There are many options for including audio in your course design, starting with simply using existing WordPress media hosting capabilities. If you have higher traffic, you can use premium audio hosting for greater capacity and capability. Mobile audio is vital for your course offerings to allow students to take course content with them and listen wherever they are.
Providing audio content is simple and does not require expensive equipment. You can create audio files using basic technology you already have. The most important thing is to get started, and a WordPress learning management system plugin like our lifterLMS makes it easy to integrate audio and other media in your online course design.
Producing a successful podcast is a huge undertaking. It requires a commitment to quality and consistency, but it can also generate income. Learn how to monetize a podcast in this LMSCast presentation with Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett.
The current availability of information is immense, and not all of it is credible. For most people, finding what they really need to know can be overwhelming. Content curation as the gathering and organization of reliable information is therefore a valuable element of both blogging and podcasting. Curating that information further into the structure of an online course offering makes it even more accessible and, therefore, more valuable.
The lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin helps you generate income by selling advanced online courses to your podcast audience that are informative and relevant to your subject area.
Video is the closest thing we have in the online learning environment to a real human interaction, because you get both audio and visual connection with your students. But there are some pitfalls to be aware of when choosing how to host videos for your online courses.
In this LMScast podcast episode Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss hosting your LMS videos on Wistia or Vimeo versus using YouTube, as well as how to get your videos into your WordPress LMS. It’s important to keep in mind the speed of your website, protecting your video content, and the mobile responsiveness of your videos.
With the lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin, it’s easy to use videos to enhance your online course lessons so you can build a better connection with your users.
Do you want to make more money with your blog? In this LMScast podcast episode Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss how to monetize your blog with online courses delivered through a WordPress learning management system.
While you’re creating free content for your blog posts, you’re building knowledge in your subject area, which you can then monetize by offering online courses. In some markets offering courses for beginners is a huge opportunity, so you don’t necessarily need to be on the cutting edge of your field to be profitable with an online course.
You can create online courses to monetize the expertise you’ve built in your market through your blog, and the lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin makes it easy for you to create and sell courses online.
LMS gamification promises to become an important tool for making online courses more effective. In this LMScast podcast Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss how gamification helps students retain more of the course material presented to them, and offers more motivation and interest in their learning process than traditional classroom methods provide.
Gaming has become a significant part of our culture. Most people are already comfortable in gaming environments and associate the activity with pleasurable experiences. Gamification employs challenges and rewards for quizzes and recaps, so there is positive incentive to push past barriers to gain points, badges, and other tangible indicators of success. Competition is also motivational, as students can evaluate their performance relative to others taking the same courses.
The lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin includes the option for LMS gamification, which provides incentivization and encourages interaction with course information eLearning students need to learn, while making the learning process satisfying and enjoyable.
Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss the exciting eLearning opportunities offered by the Tin Can API for high-level data storage and exchange for online course programs. What is Tin Can API? It's the standard application program interface used for data storage and sharing in eLearning.
Tin Can API collects and stores data used for tracking and reporting student records, program information and other related data. The API connects the LMS to the LRS for information storage, and then makes connections for multiple remote LRSs to exchange that data.
The lifterLMS WordPress learning management system plugin provides centralized course and student data storage and management, and is compatible with Tin Can API. Software compatibility and system scalability are crucial considerations when evaluating an LMS plugin for your WordPress eLearning environment, so choose the one that allows for continuing expansion and seamless integration.
In this podcast Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett introduce listeners to the Learning Record Store (LRS) and Application Program Interface (API) for high-level data storage and exchange. For eLearning entrepreneurs, a WordPress learning management system plugin like lifterLMS provides required data storage and retrieval now, and also allows for expansion and compatibility in the future.
What is a LRS? The LRS provides centralized course and student data storage and management, plus report generation, data tracking, and sharing of information and resources with other institutions. API software such as Tin Can API allows one LRS to connect to another LRS to exchange data and resources directly.
Software compatibility as well as system scalability are crucial considerations when evaluating a LMS plugin for your WordPress eLearning environment, so choose a learning management system like lifterLMS that will provide necessary data storage and retrieval now, and allow for expansion and compatibility in the future.
Listen in as Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss tips on how to increase engagement in your online course and how a learning management system like lifterLMS simplifies effective online course design.
Your use of basic design elements in building your online course will either engage focus and comprehension, or create distraction and confusion. The way you structure content using text and formatting, images and streaming media, and integrated resources determines the effectiveness of your eLearning environment.
Without careful curation of your content, your pages can look like a randomly assembled scrapbook. Assure that you are achieving student engagement by making the most of eLearning design and technology using a learning management system like lifterLMS to build your online courses.
There are several points you need to consider when choosing a learning management system. Listen in as Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett outline the most important tips for evaluating and choosing a WordPress based LMS, and how lifterLMS provides all these elements.
Some of the basic requirements for any LMS include simplicity and ease of use, reliable functionality, creative control, and learning assessment capabilities. This podcast focuses on essential LMS functions and features, plus challenges and resources specific to delivering your content in a WordPress environment.
Remember that your LMS will be used by a variety of people with varying levels of expertise. LifterLMS makes WordPress-based course design simple and effective by providing the intuitive access and seamless integration, scalability, functionality and reliability you require.
Do you want to take your WordPress LMS to the next level this year and make more money? We can help you learn best practices for improving your LMS. To start off the new year, we’re laying out a roadmap of where we’re heading with our podcast.
We’ll be doing more interviews with thought leaders in the WordPress LMS, learning and education, and entrepreneurship arenas. We also plan to cover specialized topics relating to eLearning and how to get the most from your LMS.
Through building the lifterLMS plugin, we’ve learned a lot about the unique needs of eLearning entrepreneurs. We’re passionate about building a LMS community, and we’d love to get your input on what you’d like us to cover this year to help you grow your LMS business!
Does your online course design engage users? Listen as Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss blended learning ideas you can use with WordPress based lifterLMS learning management system. An effective online course is built with a cohesive mix of multimedia, quizzes, and student interaction in an online environment similar to Google Hangouts. This podcast focuses on how to design eLearning courses that engage students by using integrated course design and a variety of existing resources. Each user learns differently, so offering information in a variety of formats ensures that individuals learn in a way they understand best. lifterLMS makes course design simple and effective by providing easy access to resources and seamless integration.
In today's episode "How to Create Courses for Various Learning Styles" we discuss the power of creating courses for different people.
017: Don't Make these Top 4 Mistakes When Creating a Wordpress LMS site by Chris Badgett
Today Chris and Josh talk about How to write a Sales Letter for Online Course and why every teacher needs a little bit of copywriting skills
Are you looking to create a online course in a competitive or a non-competitive industry? Today we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each industry and how to create a strategy to jump into each.
In today's episode Chris and Joshua talk about how to presell your online course so that you don't create something that nobody wants.
Struggling to pick the right Wordpress LMS theme? We cover that and more in today's LMScast episode.
In this episode Chris and Joshua discuss the dirty secrets that membership plugins don't tell you.
Today we are talking all about Membership and how to create a online community. If you have a online community or looking to create one this episode is for you.
In this episode Chris and Josh will share a story about how you can impact the world with your knowledge.
In today's episode Chris and Joshua talk about the 3 strategies that you can use to Market your elearning business.
Why You should choose a Wordpress Plugin vs. a Hosted Solution
There are many reasons why we think having a plugin is better than a hosted solution or using a theme (like the Academy Theme).
The Disadvantages of Using a Hosted Solution or a Wordpress Theme
Hosted LMS Solution Disadvantages:
For one a hosted solutions is often times unexpandable, and in some situations you might even lose your content if you stop paying their monthly fee. The largest thing that you will lose is control, with a wordpress solution you own everything, and you are actually building a digital property. Building a web property using Wordpress allows you even sell the who site (like a house), and make the website more valuable as time goes on by adding more content. By adding your content to a hosted solution you are not increasing value, because you actually don’t own the system.
Using a Wordpress Theme vs. a Plugin:
The main disadvantage of using a Wordpress LMS Theme is the you are locked into their style guidelines. Compare this with a plugin, which allows you turn on pieces of the plugin that you need. This keeps things lightweight and fast.
For instance, the Academy Theme using WooCommerce to process payments. However, with our plugin it is all inclusive of this and allows you to process payments with in the plugin - you don’t need anything extra.
With LifterLMS.com you have a core plugin with all of the necessary add-on’s built in. This allows you to turn on what you need and what you don’t need. Keeping bloat to a minimum.
In this first episode of LMScast Joshua Millage and Chris Badgett discuss the purpose of LMScast and why they they have set out to develop a Wordpress LMS plugin.
In this episode Chris and Joshua talk about the power of online education and how it can change the way you interact with your customers.