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.

329: Growing a Niche WordPress LMS Business with LifterLMS Helping Adult Education Organizations

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!

342: How Michael Wiley Transformed His Life Flippin' Mobile Homes And Teaching Others

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.

033: How to Monetize a Book with Online Courses

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.

068: 2016 eLearning Industry Trends

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.

127: The Current State of Online Education and the Engagement Opportunity with Mike Weiss

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.

154: How to Add Social Learning to Your Online Course or Membership Website

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.

171: Learning, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship with Pippin Williamson of AffiliateWP

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!

179: How To Generate Online Course & Membership Site Leads & Sales using Quizzes with Josh Haynam

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.

223: How To Make and Market Your Online Course or Get Some Help With That With Grant Weherley

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!

235: How Course Creators Can Improve Their Affiliate Marketing Programs with Dustin Howes

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.

Popular tracks tagged #wordpress plugins