Tools You Need To Deliver Your Online Course

Summary

This video script addresses the pitfalls of relying on all-in-one cloud course platforms, which can leave educators without control during outages. It offers a comprehensive guide to setting up a self-managed online course platform, discussing essential tools for different stages, from beginner to professional. The script emphasizes the importance of owning your platform to maintain control, avoid high costs, and ensure scalability, recommending tools like WordPress, LMS, shopping carts, and community platforms for a robust, flexible business.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video discusses the importance of having control over one's own course platform, especially after a popular cloud course platform went down, causing significant disruption.
• 🔒 Relying on an all-in-one cloud platform means losing control during outages, with no ability to intervene or communicate with customers directly.
• 💡 The video suggests that while cloud platforms may seem appealing for their ease of setup and management, they can be costly and limit customization and scalability.
• 📈 The speaker argues that self-managed systems, such as those built on WordPress, can be more cost-effective and flexible in the long run.
• 🚀 For beginners, starting with social media, PayPal for payments, and secure video hosting like Vimeo can be a quick and low-friction way to launch an online course.
• 🌐 A domain and hosting are essential for a professional online presence, with WordPress being a recommended platform for its flexibility and ease of use.
• 📚 Investing in a Learning Management System (LMS) is crucial for structuring course content and tracking student progress.
• 🛒 A robust shopping cart solution like WooCommerce is recommended over built-in LMS payment gateways for long-term business security.
• 💌 Email marketing is vital for customer communication and lead generation, with the suggestion to start with a more advanced system to avoid future migrations.
• 📈 Advanced tools like landing page builders, sales funnel systems, and membership platforms can enhance course sales and student engagement.
• 🤝 An affiliate management system is essential for tracking partner sales and commissions, with AffiliateWP being highlighted as a reliable choice.
• 📱 Having a native mobile app can significantly improve student engagement and provide a professional touch to a course platform.

Q & A

What was the main issue with the popular all-in-one Cloud course platform mentioned in the script?

The platform went down for several hours, preventing users from accessing their courses and memberships, and those in the middle of a launch were locked out, resulting in lost sales and inability to communicate with students.

Why might a user consider running their own course platform instead of using a Cloud service?

Running their own platform gives users control over their content and sales, avoiding the risk of being locked out during a system failure, and it can be more cost-effective in the long run compared to Cloud services.

What are the potential downsides of relying on an all-in-one Cloud platform for course delivery?

Downsides include lack of control during outages, inability to intervene or enact redundancies, and the potential loss of sales and data if the company rolls back to solve issues.

What is the main advantage of using a learning management system (LMS) for course delivery?

An LMS allows for the organization of separate videos and resources into structured lessons and topics, creating an actual course and often including features for student management and progress tracking.

Why is it recommended to start with a robust shopping cart system like WooCommerce instead of using the basic payment gateways provided by some LMS systems?

Starting with a robust system ensures that payments stay with the business owner and can accommodate future upgrades without the need to migrate past payments to a new system.

What is the role of an email marketing system in the context of selling online courses?

An email marketing system is essential for communicating with customers, collecting leads, and promoting courses. It's better to start with a more robust system to avoid the need for migration as the business grows.

Why might a basic landing page builder not be necessary at the beginning of an online course business?

At the start, basic page building can be handled by platforms like WordPress with Gutenberg. A dedicated landing page builder becomes more important as the business grows and requires more specific pages for various purposes.

What is a sales funnel system and how does it benefit an online course business?

A sales funnel system allows for the creation of dynamic sales pages, order bumps, upsells, downsells, and cross-sells, maximizing profits from each buyer by offering additional products or services during the purchasing process.

What are the benefits of having a membership system in addition to an LMS at the professional level of course delivery?

A membership system can lock and unlock content based on student enrollment, manage access to exclusive resources or services, and can double as a payment and shopping cart system for subscriptions.

How can a native mobile app enhance the student experience and business growth for an online course creator?

A native mobile app provides a dedicated platform for course delivery, allows for offline viewing, push notifications, and can facilitate in-app purchases for frictionless payments and subscriptions, increasing student engagement and sales.

Why is an affiliate management system important for a growing online course business?

An affiliate management system is crucial for tracking partner sales, providing unique links, and paying out commissions, which is essential for expanding the business through partnerships and promoting sales.

Outlines

00:00

😥 The Risks of Relying on All-in-One Cloud Platforms

The video script discusses the recent downtime of a popular all-in-one Cloud course platform, which left users unable to access their courses or manage their sales during a critical launch period. The host, Jason Broderick, emphasizes the lack of control users have when such platforms fail, highlighting the inability to communicate with customers or take any corrective actions. He points out the limitations of these platforms, such as being locked into the system with no ownership over sales or customer data, and the high costs associated with them compared to self-managed systems. The script also mentions the challenges of migrating away from these platforms due to the proprietary nature of the content and customer data.

05:00

🛠 Essential Tools for Selling and Delivering Online Courses

This paragraph outlines the minimum tools needed to sell and deliver online courses at various levels, starting with social media for audience building and PayPal for secure payments. For basic tools, it suggests starting with a WordPress website, a learning management system (LMS) like LearnDash or Tutor LMS, a shopping cart solution like WooCommerce, and an email marketing system. The script also touches on the importance of having a professional LMS, a membership system, and a community platform for more advanced levels. It stresses the need for flexibility and control over one's business, as well as the cost-effectiveness of self-managed systems over time.

10:02

🚀 Advanced Tools for Professional Course Creators

The final paragraph delves into the advanced tools necessary for professional course creators to grow their business and maintain control. It includes a landing page builder for creating dynamic sales pages, a sales funnel system for maximizing revenue, a professional LMS for course content and student management, a membership system for content access control, and a community platform for student engagement. Additionally, it mentions the importance of a marketing automation system, an affiliate management system for tracking partner sales, and the benefits of having a native mobile app for increased student engagement and sales. The paragraph concludes by encouraging viewers to consider these tools when choosing a platform for their online courses, emphasizing the importance of ownership and flexibility.

Keywords

💡Cloud course platforms

Cloud course platforms refer to online services that host and deliver educational content, often with integrated membership and sales functionalities. In the video, the reliance on these platforms is discussed as problematic due to their potential unreliability, as evidenced by the platform outage that affected many users, locking them out of their courses and sales during a critical launch period.

💡Launch

A launch in the context of the video refers to the process of introducing a new product or service to the market, typically with a promotional campaign. The script mentions the negative impact of a cloud platform outage during a launch, where users were unable to access their systems, resulting in lost sales and inability to communicate with their audience.

💡Control

Control in this video signifies the autonomy and authority a course creator has over their platform and content delivery. The video emphasizes the lack of control users have when using cloud platforms, especially during outages, and the importance of having a self-managed system to maintain control over one's business operations.

💡Learning Management System (LMS)

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. The video outlines LMS as a crucial tool for delivering online courses, with options ranging from basic to professional levels, allowing course creators to manage their content and student progress.

💡Shopping cart

In the context of online course delivery, a shopping cart refers to a platform or system that allows customers to make purchases, including the ability to collect payments and manage transactions. The video suggests using a robust shopping cart system like WooCommerce to ensure secure and scalable payment processing for online courses.

💡Email marketing

Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services, with the goal of direct marketing, customer retention, or engaging customer loyalty. The script discusses the importance of having an email marketing system to communicate with customers and collect leads, with recommendations ranging from freemium services like MailChimp to more advanced self-hosted solutions.

💡Membership system

A membership system is a tool that allows for the creation of exclusive content and access controls for members, often used in conjunction with a course or community platform. The video mentions the addition of a membership system to an LMS as a way to enhance course delivery by providing access to locked content and additional resources based on membership status.

💡Sales funnel

A sales funnel is a marketing term that describes the process of guiding potential customers through a series of stages, ultimately culminating in a sale. The video discusses the use of a sales funnel system to maximize profits from each buyer, including features like dynamic sales pages, upsells, and cross-sells.

💡Community platform

A community platform refers to an online space where members can interact, share information, and engage with each other and the course creator. The script highlights the importance of moving beyond social media to a dedicated community platform for enhanced student engagement and success rates in online courses.

💡Marketing automation

Marketing automation is the use of software to automate repetitive marketing tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions with the goal of saving time and increasing efficiency. The video suggests that as the business grows, moving to a system that allows for complex segmented marketing automation can be beneficial, with options ranging from high-end SaaS services to self-managed tools within a WordPress site.

💡Affiliate management system

An affiliate management system is a tool that enables businesses to track and manage their affiliate marketing programs, including tracking sales made by affiliates and paying out commissions. The script emphasizes the importance of a robust affiliate management system like AffiliateWP for businesses relying on partners to promote their courses.

💡Native mobile app

A native mobile app is a software application that is developed specifically for a particular platform and can be downloaded from an app store. The video suggests that having a branded native mobile app can significantly enhance student engagement and provide a dedicated way to deliver courses, with features like offline viewing and push notifications.

Highlights

Popular all-in-one Cloud course platforms experienced a significant downtime, causing loss of sales and highlighting the vulnerability of relying on third-party platforms for course delivery.

The importance of having control over one's own course platform is emphasized, as it prevents being locked out during critical times like launches.

The limitations of all-in-one platforms are discussed, including the lack of control and the inability to take action when the platform goes down.

The potential loss of sales and customer data during a platform outage is highlighted, emphasizing the risks of not owning the sales process.

The limitations of all-in-one platforms in terms of feature customization and the high costs associated with them are critiqued.

A cost comparison between an all-in-one Cloud platform and a WordPress-based system reveals significant savings with the latter.

The challenges of migrating from an all-in-one platform due to content and customer data being locked within the system are outlined.

A tiered approach to setting up an online course platform is introduced, with minimum, basic, and professional levels of tools discussed.

Social media is suggested as a viable starting point for building an audience without the need for an immediate website.

PayPal is recommended as a simple solution for accepting payments globally for online courses.

Using password-protected videos on platforms like Vimeo is presented as a basic method for securely delivering course content.

WordPress is highlighted as a free and open-source solution for building a course website with ease.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are introduced as essential tools for organizing and delivering course content effectively.

The necessity of a robust shopping cart solution like WooCommerce for handling payments and security is discussed.

Email marketing systems are identified as crucial for customer communication, with MailChimp as an example of a starting point.

Landing page builders and sales funnel systems are recommended for enhancing course sales and conversions.

Membership systems are introduced as a way to manage access to course content and additional resources.

The value of a dedicated community platform for student engagement and success is emphasized.

Marketing automation systems are discussed as a way to segment and automate email marketing for better lead management.

Affiliate management systems are highlighted as essential for tracking partner sales and managing commissions.

The benefits of having a native mobile app for increased student engagement and course accessibility are outlined.

Transcripts

last week one of the most popular

all-in-one Cloud course platforms went

down for several hours not only could

nobody access the courses or memberships

that they were part of but anybody who

was in the middle of a launch to their

students was locked out of their system

losing sales by the minute

so that left a lot of their users asking

what do I actually need to be able to

run my own course platform to sell and

deliver automated courses in exactly the

way I want that I have control over in

this video I'm going to walk you through

exactly that what tools you need at the

absolute minimum basic and professional

levels to deliver your online courses in

a way that you control let's Dive In

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[Music]

boss podcast where we dive deep into the

strategies that will help you build

launch and grow your online course

Community or membership platform I'm

your host Jason Broderick head of

content and marketing strategy here at

bodyboss

challenges of an all-in-one Cloud

platform all-in-one Cloud platforms for

delivering courses and memberships can

be appealing for a lot of reasons

typically they require little to no

technical setup and because they're

managed by Third parties you never have

to worry about technology headaches or

so they would have you believe but last

week has shown us that cloud course

platforms are just as fallible as every

other website the challenges of relying

on them to sell and deliver your courses

and memberships are real you don't

really control anything if you're all in

one Cloud platform goes down while

you're in the middle of a launch there's

nothing you can do about it except sit

there refreshing Twitter and hoping for

the best you can't intervene in any way

you can't take any action on your own

site you can't enact a fallback or a

redundancy but at least you can

communicate the issue with your own

members right run you don't own anything

if your whole business lives inside a

cloud platform and it goes down you

can't access anything you can't message

or email your own customers you can't

even export a list and send an email to

them manually when your system is all in

one if one part goes down it takes your

whole business with it and we saw with

several high-profile users last week if

you're in the middle of a launch and

your Cloud platform goes down you don't

even own the sales or the emails that

you collected during that time and if

the company decides to do a rollback to

solve their issue poof there goes any

money or data that you collected during

that time you're stuck with subpar tools

now these all-in-one solutions would

have you believe that they have

everything you'll ever want to need to

run your business but in my experience

these platforms often are only good one

element and the others are the bare

minimum for what you need and if you

decide that you want to level up your

email marketing strategy or you want to

double down on your affiliate system or

you want to roll out a killer Community

forget about it you're limited to only

the features that they've provided and

you'll have to migrate your entire

business to make even the smallest

enhancement you're paying through the

nose these all-in-one Cloud platforms

love to tout that they simplify your

process and reduce your costs by

combining all these tools into one

system and whilst it might be true that

the billing is simplified typically

these all-in-one platforms are

significantly more expensive than

comparable self-managed systems I

recently did a direct cost comparison

between the most popular all-in-one

Cloud platform and a suite of Premium

WordPress tools and hosting and I found

that it was 52 percent more expensive in

year one and up to 90 percent more

expensive from year two onwards

particularly if you're just getting

started don't be fooled that it's

cheaper to use a SAS you're locked into

their system then the day comes when

you've had enough you're sick of the

limitations you want to enhance the

experience you could have afforded your

own private island for the money that

you've handed over to them over the

years so you decide to leave well good

luck to you your content is all stuck

inside there your customers they're

billing in their subscriptions and

payments are all stuck inside there even

their contact details are stuck in there

and if you want to move you're going to

need to do a serious amount of manual

work to get out and typically you're

going to lose most of your recurring

income in the process

so if you are considering what platform

to use and you're seriously weighing up

your options between an all-in-one cloud

service or a self-managed system let me

outline for you what you really need to

sell and deliver your online courses at

the beginner intermediate and advanced

levels minimum tools you need to sell

and deliver your online course so this

level is quick and dirty it's all about

getting set up and moving quickly with

no friction this method is probably fine

as long as you have less than 100

students otherwise it starts to get a

bit harder to manage and you should

probably be earning plenty by then to

invest in moving up a tier social media

it might be tempting to think that the

very first thing you should go and do is

build yourself a flashy website but if

lockdown has told us anything it's that

social media is now more than enough to

get started building an audience of fans

and followers who are ready and willing

to buy your online course influencers

like Courtney black used Instagram alone

to build an audience of 800 000 and she

was selling her content directly through

Instagram for months before she managed

to catch up with her meteoric popularity

and launch your own website and mobile

app take payments at the absolute

minimum you just need a secure way for

anyone to send you money from anywhere

in the world now there are plenty of

tools out there that let you do that but

the absolute most basic way is just to

set up a PayPal and Link it to your

social media simple send videos finally

you need a way to send videos to people

that have paid you in a secure enough

way that they can't easily be accessed

for free

during lockdown when the home workouts

craze was at its peak I jumped on the

bandwagon and I found a super fun

trainer running daily workouts that were

themed around food called Bobby's Bakery

think bonds of Steel

no joke it was brilliant for months

Bobby was just accepting PayPal payments

and sending links to password protected

videos on Vimeo every day it took five

minutes to set the password and send the

emails every day but it worked he had

hundreds of participants show up live

every day using nothing but PayPal Vimeo

and his Gmail account now let's move on

to basic tools to sell and deliver your

online course so you've got a little bit

of money to invest and you want to set

yourself up with a solid foundation that

can grow with you without breaking the

bank here's what you're going to need

website domain and hosting you need

somewhere for people to go and learn

about you and what you sell and

somewhere to catalog and deliver your

courses WordPress is your best friend

here it's free and open source and every

half decent hosting provider on the

planet will offer you a way to install

it with one click being completely

honest at this stage it doesn't really

matter too much who you choose as your

host start by picking a host in the sort

of twenty dollars a month range that

should give you enough room to grow but

eliminate some of the dirt cheap options

that you want to avoid if possible

register a domain at a popular domain

service like namecheap and follow your

host instructions to point that domain

to your new host and you're done you can

start building out your basic course

site straight away learning management

system one of the first tools that I

suggest you invest in to help with your

basic course delivery platform is a

learning management system or LMS

basically a learning management system

allows you to take a collection of

separate videos and resources and Stitch

them all together into lessons and

topics to create an actual course most

of the popular ones like learn Dash and

tutor LMS also add enhanced

functionality to manage students with

things like lesson progress tracking and

more and some also have their own

built-in payment gateways so that you

can sell and deliver your course without

needing anything else shopping cart art

despite some LMS systems having their

own basic payment gateways at this stage

I also recommend that you bypass those

and jump straight to using one of the

more popular shopping cart solutions

that integrates with whatever LMS that

you choose like woocommerce the reason

for this is that your payments are the

one thing that have to stay with you for

the whole life of your business for

security reasons if you decide to

upgrade your payment system later on you

can't take any of those previous

payments with you so starting out with a

robust system like woocommerce means

that you'll never outgrow it and be

stuck email marketing system at this

stage you'll definitely want some way to

email your customers and collect leads

that's more robust than a spreadsheet on

your own Gmail account many people start

out with a freemium service like

MailChimp here which is perfectly fine

to get you started but this is actually

another one of those areas where it

often pays to just start one level up

from where you are now so that you can

benefit from a more robust set of tools

which will help you earn more money

faster but it also prevent you from

needing to to migrate again in future

when you outgrow your free service there

are plenty of great options out there

starting from about 15 pounds a month

that scale up with the more contacts

that you have or you could even Explore

a self-hosted solution like groundhog or

fluency or M if you're a bit more tech

savvy more on that later professional

tools to sell and deliver your online

course landing page builder a page

builder isn't too necessary at the

beginning of your business when you're

just getting started especially if

you're using Wordpress which has

Gutenberg to give you the basics built

in very soon however you're going to

want to be building several specific

Pages for selling your course dashboards

for students Services you provide and a

whole set of other things that a page

builder will help you do much more

quickly a sales funnel system you've

invested heavily in building your

audience and your marketing lists now

you want to make sure that you do your

best to convert and increase your core

sales and the revenue that you generate

from other activities too more advanced

than a simple shopping cart solution a

sales funnel system will allow you to

not only create dining Dynamic sales

pages but order bumps one click upsells

down sells cross sells bundles and

everything that you'll need to maximize

The Profit that you make from each one

of your buyers learning management

system just like above at the

professional level you will definitely

want to have a professional level LMS to

manage your course content and students

membership system in addition to your

LMS you'll probably want to add a

membership system into the mix at this

stage which typically provides two

functions it will allow you to lock and

unlock pages and content outside of your

course based on whether your students

are enrolled or not let's say you have a

private coaching booking page or a

library of resources that are only for

students your membership system will

allow you to manage that but also if you

want your membership system can often

double as your payment or shopping cart

system for example with member press or

woocommerce memberships and

subscriptions which both cover you for

the payments themselves and also the

content restriction controls and course

enrollment Community platform form once

you move into the professional realm

you're going to want to graduate from

relying solely on social media and start

running some kind of dedicated student

Community where you can run cohort

training with small groups of students

as well as enhance the student

engagement and the Student Success rates

with a WordPress based system and a

learning management system like

learndash you have the perfect

opportunity to unify all of that

together under a dedicated platform like

bodybus which provides you with a

dedicated world-class Community platform

that you own and control that isn't at

the mercy of Facebook a marketing

automation system at this stage you'll

most definitely want to graduate from

your freemium email marketing tool to A

system that allows complex segmented

marketing Automation and even better if

that tool integrates directly with your

website and learning management system

there are two schools of thought here

the first is that a high-end SAS service

like activecampaign gives you a

bulletproof way to always stay in

contact with your leads but that come

comes at a price when you start to grow

with the fee increasing per contact the

other school of thought is that you can

fold that system into your WordPress

site using a self-managed tool like

groundhog or fluency or M and

dramatically reduce the cost as you're

no longer paying to store your email

list but then you also have to manage

things like your own sending

deliverability and it can present

challenges for the less tech savvy among

you

Elliot management system a robust

affiliate management system is crucial

as you start to grow your professional

core sales business you're going to want

to have Partners to promote for you and

an affiliate system will allow you to

give them all unique links and track

their sales and pay out their

commissions when you're relying on and

paying commissions to Partners you need

this system to be Rock Solid and there's

no better platform out there for this

than affiliate WP I've partnered with

some people on their course launches

built on some of the most popular

all-in-one systems and their affiliate

systems really leave them down and it's

a poor reflection on their own business

too native mobile app lastly as a

professional course creator there is no

better way to position yourself as a

world leader running a top-notch outfit

let alone know better way to engage your

students and increase their success then

by having your own branded native mobile

app

your students already spend 80 of their

time online on their phones and with

your own native mobile app you get to

deliver your courses in a dedicated way

with offline viewing push notifications

and even increase your sales with

frictionless payments and subscriptions

using in-app purchases

so that's it if you're gearing up to

launch your first online course and

considering what platform to use or if

you're seriously weighing up your

options after having been burned one too

many times by your all-in-one cloud

service now you know exactly what tools

you need at what stage to give you the

freedom and flexibility that you need to

grow exactly how you want to and always

stay in control of your own business if

you enjoyed this video could you do me a

favor and hit that like button it really

helps other people to discover these

videos too and if you're currently using

an all-in-one course platform or

membership platform and you're having

doubts drop a comment below and let me

know what your challenges or what you're

struggling with and I'll do my best to

get around and answer you until next

time

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