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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected] 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!