Introduction
Too many tools, tech options, learning management systems and decisions lead to overwhelm and stuckness as a digital course creator.
In Episode 180 I shared with you 3 of my Top 6 tools for creating and selling your digital course and today I’m going to share 3 more to round out our 6 tools. If you didn’t catch Part 1, be sure to go back and listen when you are done here.
With over 15 years of experience in digital courses, I’ve dealt with the ins and outs, ups and downs of the process and choices around technology. My goal is to simplify things for you and save some hair pulling so that you have more time for course development AND your hobbies…even if that means rediscovering hobbies you had to put down while figuring out the tech side of your business.
Top Tech Tools
I was once again scrolling Facebook and noticing some of the same questions popping up over and over for course creators and entrepreneurs in general. What email service provider should I use?Where should I host my content, my courses, my podcast? Where do I build a sales page?
And you know what? These are all great questions. They are questions that I wrestled with when I first got started and still go back to from time to time to explore what is available and how it stacks up to what I’m already using.
The good news is that there are many great choices out there. The bad news is that there are many great choices out there.
In Episode 180 I shared with you my favorite tools for brainstorming and planning, content creation, and design. Today I’m going to share my favorite email service provider, course platforms, and sales page options.
And you’ll want to stick around because I’m going to talk about something that will make you money and you don’t even have to create a new product or a fancy sales page.
Continuing our list from Episode 180, let’s jump in with the fourth tech tool that I couldn’t live without in my business.
4: Emails
Email provides the foundation for a digital course creation business. We don’t won our social media followers, groups, profiles, or really anything about social media. We do own our email list. No one can take that list away from us.
Our email list is where we share ideas, new products and services, connect with our potential, current, and past clients, and learn what they need and want.
This means that we need a reliable email service provider. Now if that term is new to you, it is simply a service that houses your emails, lets you send mass emails to your list, gives you the option to split your list into segments so that you can share specific offers with specific people, and even automate some of your emails so that you can set it and (kind of) forget it.
For me, an email service provider needs to have a few things:
- Good deliverability.
- Simplicity in designing emails. I love a good drag-and-drop editor!
- Automations that go beyond the super basic so that I can create long running email engines inside my business.
- Analytics to help me understand how my emails are performing so that I can make adjustments. That is why I said “kind of forget it”.
- Good customer service.
I’ve used both ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite in the past 4 years. I started with ActiveCampaign and earlier in 2023 they went through a growth period where customer service dipped down. I moved to Mailerlite, which I enjoyed, however they didn’t have the fancy automation capabilities that I wanted and needed inside my business. So once ActiveCampaign got through their rough patch, I moved back over to them and have been content ever since.
The truth is that there is no perfect email service provider. Although it can be a pain to switch providers, it is doable, especially in the early years of your business.
5: Course Platform
Next up is a favorite topic of mine, choosing a course platform. I’m going to give you three options today based on your needs. A course platform gives you the capability to deliver your course to your students in an easy to follow way that engages them, allows the students to learn and implement, and ultimately makes you and your course material look like a superstar.
The platforms range from very inexpensive to hundreds of dollars a month and everyone has an opinion.
First up, if you are running a WordPress site, I highly recommend Learndash. As a college professor, LearnDash came to feel the closest to the college learning management systems like Blackboard, Canvas, and Moodle. I had an option to award completion certificates, which was really important when I was offering Continuing Education Credits for National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coaches. There were plugins that allowed students to take notes right in the course and then download them, eliminating the need for multiple windows open, and it easily allowed for video, text, and attachments in each lesson. It was cost effective, but only works if you are on a WordPress site and are willing to put in a little effort in the setup.
Another favorite of mine, especially for video heavy courses, is Searchie. Searchie has a lot of great accessibility features like transcripts and captions, the ability to slow down or speed up a video, and design elements that give you control over the visual accessibility of your course. I’ve hosted courses on Searchie and love the flexibility. I will say that the tech side of things feels a little less intuitive than LearnDash, but there is a fantastic community of Searchie users and experts willing to help.
Finally, are platforms like Thinkific and Teachable. I haven’t used either platform, but for someone getting started, they can be great. They are often affordable and simple to get your course into. If you are not at all tech savvy this can also be a great solution.
6: Sales Pages
Our sixth and final tool is one that helps you collect money for your products and services and that is Thrivecart. I use Thrivecart for a variety of products and services inside my business and I’ll tell you right now, my favorite part of this tool is that it is a one-time fee. I have no idea how long that will last, but for the past few years, Thrivecart has been available for a lifetime fee.
Considering how much I use Thrivecart, this has been one the best investments for my business to date.
Let me walk you through a few things that I love about Thrivecart:
- The ability to create quick or elaborate sales pages.
- Having bumps, upsells, and downsells.
- Integration with Stripe.
- A visual drag-and-drop design tool.
- Loads of templates that you can purchase with a quick Google search.
- The option to have affiliates for your products and services.
- Simple way to test your funnels before going live.
- Integration with most common email service providers including ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite.
- Course platform built in if you are looking to keep costs low when you are getting started.
At the end of today’s episode I’m going to touch on that concept of affiliates a little more so be sure to stick around.
Action Item: Test The Tools
My challenge for you this week is to look at each of the three tools I shared and explore them. How could they help you build your business, take the next steps to getting your product or service out there? What are some potential ways they could distract you from your key tasks this quarter. Do you already have an email service provider that you love? Awesome! Do not waste time looking at something new. Don’t get swayed by shiny object syndrome.
Not all tools work for every person; that is ok. You might have found some new tools in Episode 180 and another tool or two here that work well for your business. Don’t overthink it.
The key is to take action this week instead of getting stuck in the muck and mire of technology. Each time we make a decision, we are strengthening that muscle and the tech decisions get easier and faster over time.
Don’t Get Stuck on Tech
Today, we’ve been talking about the technology that we can use within our business. We focused on emails, course platforms, and sales pages. I shared some of my favorite tools with you and shared three other tools with you in Episode 180, but the key is to find a tool and get to work. As a Digital Course Creator Guide, I’m committed to helping course creators build a successful business. Today I hope you’ve learned about a new tool or have been able to see a tool in a new light with a new purpose.
As you’ve heard, on the Digital Course Creator Podcast I’m openly sharing the lessons I’ve learned, the tools and tactics that I’ve used so that you can become a Six-Figure Digital Course Creator.
But here’s what I’ve realized. All too often the solutions designed to help you get to six-figures focus on the surface level things.
Although choosing tech tools is an important piece of the process, success in business and in any area of life requires strategy in a number of categories. We have to dig deeper and you can get that from a lot of different resources: books, podcasts, webinars, and even courses.
So do we still struggle to reach our enrollment and financial goals? Because whatever change we want in our lives will be 10% what we learn, read, or study, and 90% or more mindset.
As a Psychology Professor and Coach, I share as much as I can about mindset here on the show, but to truly thrive we all need individualized attention, accountability, and support.
So if you are ready to say yes to a thriving, financially solid business, I’d love to have a conversation with you.
I have at least two slots open on my calendar each week to help course creators take action, dig into their purpose, and create a strategic plan for growth so that they can get unstuck! These are free, no obligation calls.
If you are ready to make the next 12 months THE year that you go from being uncertain about your course creation business to a Six-Figure Course Creator, grab a strategy call slot at coursecalls.com. You can also find that link in the show notes, but again, it’s coursecalls.com
Sixty-Second Solution
One thing that can keep us stuck when building a business is anxiety over how to make more revenue. Maybe you’re just getting your course designed and built, but you need some income now.
If you have a tool, course, or resource that you love inside your business that you wish everyone knew about, become an affiliate for that company. You can share your love and if someone chooses to sign up for that tool with your link, you will make a commission.
You have to promise me that you will:
- Only be an affiliate for products and services that you personally have tried and believe in. If you are an affiliate for a product that you don’t love and wouldn’t stand behind, you are potentially damaging your reputation.
- Tell people the link you are providing is an affiliate link that provides you a commission if they use it. It is the right thing to do ethically and legally.
Those affiliate payments can be a nice little boost to your regular revenue inside your business.
