My Platform Dilemma, Which Ones I’ve Tried and The Trending Lack of Responsibility WPCP: 119

Online Course platforms

I don’t know if this is a distraction or real issue I need to solve.

Well… it’s probably a little of both. Let me back this up a bit and give you a little ‘why’ behind this so-called dilemma.

I have done my fair share of setting up membership sites with WordPress plugins. I’ve used most at one time or another but tend to go back to Wishlist because I have a developers license for it (probably not the best reason, but hey, I can be practical once in a while).

Last December like much of the rest of the online world I was anticipating the release of “New Kajabi” because I was tired of using different tools and piecing solutions together (we’ve all been there, right? After you have the website sorted, then you add the membership plugin, set up the payment gateway, connect it to your auto responder, create your landing pages… sheesh. Makes me tired just thinking about it and I know how to do all this stuff).

So I jumped in with both feet.

Purchasing New Kajabi that is. I had set up a new community (now defunct… I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past year, but I’ll try not to go too sideways with that) and after I got the hang of it things seemed to be O.K., yet for some reason there was a disconnect. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful platform…I just found I never really wanted to login and do what needed to be done (and no, I’m not going to hire someone to do that for me).

Then I though, I’ll move my WordPress Genesis for Beginners course into New Kajabi… start selling that again.

Only I didn’t.

I even moved the Selling with WordPress course Jon Perez and I had done into Kajabi.

I still didn’t sell it (or promote it).

Why? That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?

Before I get into the mindset issue here, let me share a few of the other platforms and options I’ve looked at and tested:

  • Wishlist (which I mentioned)
  • A handful of other WordPress member plugins (Paid Member Pro, Restrict Content Pro, WP eMember, S2 Membership, iThemes Exchange, Ultimate Membership Pro and I’m sure I’m missing something else)
  • Teachery (just recently found this and found it super easy to use)
  • Thinkific (just found this and am looking at it)
  • Teachable (too many fees)

What is it with Kajabi that I cannot wrap my head around?

I don’t know… but I’ll let you know soon enough because I have a call with them tomorrow. Now that I’m doing these ‘daily emails’ I’m getting better at posting them as blog posts as well (more on that in a minute). I recently shared something about my decision to NOT renew New Kajabi in December and lo and behold I got an email from someone at Kajabi today asking if I would be up for a chat. They saw I said I was leaving and they wanted to get some feedback and see if they could keep me if it was a possibility.

Not too shabby on the customer service side of things if I do say so myself.

And here’s my two cents on customer service in general:

You can ALWAYS find someone who has had a crappy experience with a company and you can ALWAYS find someone who has had an amazing experience with a company (O.K., most of the time. Just play along with me, k?). It’s kind of like cars… some people hate a certain brand of car because they had a lemon. You can also find someone who has only bought that brand of car because they’ve been so reliable. Anytime you have people involved you’re going to get a variety of experiences and opinions.

This is something you have to decide for yourself.

Here’s what I’m doing before my call with Kajabi:

First, I’m going to go through all their latest updates (they’re kind of kicking ass with updates. #justsayin). I’m going to go through the blog (obviously I can’t read everything since the call is happening tomorrow), log back into my site and spend some more time with the platform so I come to the call with less than “I don’t know what my issue is”…. and ideally, get the points of disconnect connected!

When I started thinking about the benefits of using Kajabi it’s a no-brainer. Everything in one place, I don’t need to lay anything out, sales pages, checkout pages… they’re all there. It’s also ONE place for my customers to login if they’ve purchased more than one product from me (novel idea. Teachery actually does this too).

It will save me $300 a year on Wistia (you get a Wistia account with Kajabi).

I already have content in there.

It has an affiliate program.

It links to my autoresponder (a few of the above options don’t yet. I have to export or use Zapier. I use Active Campaign and they’re big enough that I would think most companies would automatically do this).

***SIGH***

I feel like I’m talking myself into this as I write this post (part of the process, right?).

I’ll give you an update in a couple of weeks on where I land.

Because I have to make a decision pretty darn quick.

The Trending Lack of Responsibility

What is it with the Internet that makes people think they’re not responsible for themselves?

All the promises of riches in only 30 days?

The glorious lifestyle business you can create if you only pursue your passion?

I could keep going but really… we all know where that list is headed.

In the last week alone I have seen a couple of examples of someone expecting their businesses to be booming in a whopping 10 weeks or 7 months (I share both examples in more detail in the podcast).

What makes someone think they can just buy a course, hire a mentor, purchase a domain name, create a website (or have it created) or any other number of things people do when they venture into this online space and think everything is going to go perfect?

This isn’t a rant about ‘doing the work’ (although people often confuse all the planning, strategizing, signing up for and purchasing of products as activity that will get them closer to their lifestyle business dreams).

Because there’s nothing in me that thinks anyone who hits that wall of frustration isn’t putting in time and energy. They’re doing the work. They’re following the steps.

Yet they still can’t get anything to gain any traction.

I think as the internet matures (think of the backlash of people tired of the word hustle, myself included or the people telling everyone to stop living their lives through social media… there have been a lot of spoofs on that lately) we’re going to see a shift in this. People will get that building an online business requires time, energy, focus, investment, consistency, and commitment even when you’re not getting results.

Every single time you blame someone or something else because you’re not where you want to be you prolong your exit into the life you really want.

Links from this episode

Kajabi

Teachery

Thinkific

Teachable

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