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!