Do you need to use WordPress to sell online courses? (Pros & cons) |
Do you consider WordPress is a great option for online course sales? Find out about the advantages and disadvantages of selling courses through a WordPress site. Also, there are other options available to course creators.
If you've ever started your own blog or developed websites, chances are you've heard about WordPress.
The largest and most prolific hosting platforms on the planet, WordPress powers 60 million websites -- that's 40 percent of all websites.
However, the answer might not be so simple as you imagine. With the variety of plugins available to assist with issues and selling online courses using WordPress comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
We wrote this article to assist you in determining which WordPress is the best option for your specific needs. In this article, we'll discuss the benefits and drawbacks to the use of WordPress to sell your online course. We'll also discuss alternative options for those who don't believe it's an ideal match.
Let's start by discussing the most significant advantages.
Three advantages of the use of WordPress for selling online courses
1. An enormous plugin library
One of the major positives that comes with WordPress is the extent to it is possible to personalize your website. WordPress's WordPress Official WordPress List of plugins currently contains over 58,000 plugins.
The term "plugins" refers to an application which allows you to include extra functions or features to your WordPress site. The best WordPress plugins give you the capability to alter your site from being a simple one to a completely unique.
If you are selling online-only courses in particular There are a lot of Learning Management System (LMS) plugins that you can choose from. Searching on Google in search of "online course" yields 29 pages of results. These include programs like Learnpress, LifterLMS, Learndash, MemberPress, and hundreds of other.
A very popular ways of selling all things via WordPress is using the WooCommerce plugin.
With more than 5 million active users, WooCommerce is one of the most well-known eCommerce payment system that's free to use.
For WooCommerce to be able to make use of Paid Courses You also need to set up an WordPress LMS plugin Sensei LMS and is included with Premium extensions.
Phew.
It's supposed to talk about advantages of using WordPress. In addition to online course plugins, the WordPress selection of plugins are unbeatable.
For instance, bbPress lets users add a discussion forum to their website. They can also manage it via the WordPress site's dashboard.
In the realm of marketing the things WordPress extensions and plugins are truly impressive.
AddToAny Share Buttons allow users to link a post or page on your site to over 100 sharing and social media applications.
Enter the keyword or word that you want your website or blog post to rank for. Yoast analyzes your blog or website's information and will inform whether you're making use of the word enough (or too often), and in the right spots.
Thanks in no small part not insignificantly to Yoast, SEO is one WordPress's greatest strengths in its role as an online site. It's so great it's even said that it's now the second section to be a benefits.
2. Search engine optimization
Search engines are the primary source of most of the web traffic . The first five results in every Google search are responsible for 67.6% of the clicks , so it is vital to be in first place in search results is crucial.
What is SEO look like in action?
Imagine selling programs that are focused on instructing parents how to budget.
Moms who are busy trying to keep their family's finances on track might Google the phrase "budgeting for moms who are busy".
If that parents visits your site, they'll discover your content will provide the information they're searching for and perhaps even register for your course.
The text snippet that is featured for the phrase "budgeting for busy mothers" highlights this article that is taken from Simplified Motherhood. It is a site focused on providing education-related content that include online courses and digital downloads that aid busy moms in keeping their life in order.
WordPress is designed by Google's friendly technology, which means you don't have to be concerned about technical issues in the background that can hinder you from getting your top ranking.
It doesn't matter that you're brand-new to SEO or planning to create an online class for SEO, WordPress has an edge for out-of-the-box search engine capability.
Now, let's examine another major advantage of WordPress which is the low cost of maintenance per month.
3. Low monthly maintenance cost
This third benefit is very short (and quite tasty).
WordPress is by its own, completely free. The majority of WordPress templates themes, themes and templates are licensed on an annual basis, so you don't have to fret about the high cost of maintenance beyond the initial expenses for startup.
WebsiteBuilderExpert examines the monthly and annually for the process of setting up and running the WordPress site.
There are many high-end marketing softwares charge a per-month fee. If you'd prefer to keep the monthly expenses to only hosting and marketing and even selling online classes on WordPress could be a feasible choice.
There are a variety of choices for customization as well as SEO done for you, along with low monthly costs make WordPress to be a great choice for advertise your online course, but, it's not the full image.
To do that you must consider the negatives and disadvantages. There are three things to think about.
Three negatives with making use of WordPress to sell online course
1. The creators' support is not as strong.
If you're using several different plugins to sell online courses You'll end up having to deal with several ways to get help. Numerous plugin makers offer technical support, however, they can't fix an issue on WordPress's behalf.
A few plugins don't work when combined with most recent WordPress version. Additionally, using multiple plugins may make your site slower of loading which can result in serious harm for your business's profitability.
26.9 percentage of internet users have to wait for less than four seconds for a page to load, and 45.4 percent reported that they'd be less likely to shop when loading times were shorter than the time they anticipated.
One in three customers are likely to leave an organization they love after just one bad experience and 92% customers will quit the company after just at least two bad encounters.
Concerning security, our third WordPress issue revolves around WordPress' security weaknesses.
2. Security weakness
WordPress' open-source code is susceptible to hacks. The open source nature of WordPress means that anyone is able to dig into the structure of the website. This allows for a lot of customization and plugins However, it can also create specific security risks.
The thousand of WordPress websites are compromised each year.
The WordPress team quickly detects and address security problems. However, you will only receive those fixes if you update to the most recent version of WordPress. Also, fewer than half of WordPress websites are currently using the latest version.
In the average, WordPress updates its major version every for 152 days . And when WordPress updates, developers need to update their plugins too. A couple of updates for a plugin can expose your clients to dangers.
That's a lot of updates that you need to stay on top of.
An important note on the security aspects: WordPress websites don't automatically have SSL encryption. SSL is a must-have on websites that offer e-commerce, to make sure that the customers' information protected.
While you're unlikely to have had the opportunity to hear about SSL certificates, there's a good chance that you've encountered them on the job. We have been granted an SSL certificate, and can provide these certificates at no cost to all our customers to make sure that you as well as your students' data are safe.
In an effort to improve protection of Internet as a safe and secure place to go, Google is also provides SEO-related benefits to websites that are secured.
Insufficient support and security flaws isn't the only drawbacks associated with selling education courses with WordPress. Additionally, we'll need to speak about the technical aspects of the WordPress education curve.
3. A steep technical learning curve
If you're not a fan of analyzing codes, you're not likely to enjoy the technical challenges of setting up your courses using WordPress.
If you're developing your blog on your own , WordPress doesn't require hackers-level technical knowledge. Because WordPress is so widely used, it's simple to find no-cost tutorials to help you master the basics.
When it comes to building custom websites for selling courses, WordPress has a pretty high learning curve that makes the process difficult for novice creators.
WordPress utilizes shortcodes , a type of markup which lets you type in a quick command to activate various features in the frontend.
Some themes and plugins use their own shortcodes, which is where things get much harder. If you've constructed entire pages out of shortcodes, it could take hours to download a fresh theme or plugin , and take care of the text.
It's not a drag-and-drop-based interface therefore, if you wish to customize your website completely, WordPress requires HTML and CSS abilities. And if your coding is not efficient this could cause a slowdown in your load time or cause your site to not work with mobile devices.
Google has announced in the year 2018, that they're increasing the rank of websites that are optimized for mobile in their mobile search results so having a mobile-friendly or responsive website could help to improve your search engine ranking also.
You can check whether the site is mobile-friendly using Google's tool for checking mobile-friendly sites .
With all the advantages and disadvantages you can think of, should you consider whether WordPress can be a good option for marketing your courses?
If you're comfortable working using technology, and have a few costly startup expenses, WordPress may be a ideal choice to offer online online courses through your website.
Let's discuss them.
What alternatives are there for making course content available for sale using WordPress?
If the idea of selling online courses via WordPress isn't the ideal solution, here are two main options available:
Selling on a digital marketplace
Selling using an all-in-one platform
1. Online courses can be purchased on a marketplace that sells digital goods
A digital marketplace is a site where multiple merchants offer items for sale. For example, Udemy offers over 150,000 classes online with a vast variety of instructors.
marketplaces work well for consumers who are looking for ease of use. But for the creators, they may find it more challenging.
It is different for each marketplaces, it typically works like this:
Set up a seller's account
You must pay a cost for each item
It is important to note the items you are selling
The fee for transactions in payment
Keep an eye out for comments from customers
Pay outs according to the marketplace's schedule
In a marketplace, you don't get the course's web page and no influence over students' experiences learning. Also, you don't have access to the students' personal information and it is difficult to create a long-term connection with prospective clients.
Okay, let's move on to our next choice (and my personal preference for obvious reasons) A complete platform like .
2. Offering online courses using an all-in-one system
It includes all of the course-making tools you'll need with none of the hassles of technical issues that are associated from WordPress or the complexities of an online marketplace.
You can do:
You can pay your bill using Stripe or PayPal payment processors without charge for transactions made with pay-per-month plans.
Contrary with WordPress, creating and launching an entirely new course no coding is not a problem, and it's simple to get started quickly.
It's not difficult to incorporate the latest content you've learned from your class on your website.
The dashboard On your dashboard, it is possible to click "Products" at the top right-hand corner of your navigation. Then, click "New item" on the right side of the page.
Choose "Online course" give the course a name, after which you can select "Create the product".
On"Availability," under "Availability" tab You can choose the visibility of your course, as well as availability, beginning and end dates.
When these data are entered in and uploaded, just click "Publish" in the upper-right right-hand corner. Then, select "Publish". Just as that, your course will be live.
It's really that simple.
Don't just take my word on this, but. Sign up for a free account and check it out yourself.
Select an online learning platform which is suitable for you
If it's about hosting solutions, WordPress dominates the internet. Does that mean it's the right platform for selling online courses?
There's no universal online learning platform. Each has positives and negatives and WordPress is no exception:
With more than 58,000 plugins to choose from, WordPress gives you a many options to customize your site.
WordPress has been SEO-friendly since the very beginning. This means that you won't need to invest long hours enhancing your site to be optimized for SEO.
A majority of plugins and themes are licensed each year. So, after paying the cost of starting your monthly expenses are low.
But, WordPress offers limited creator support, especially when you're using multiple plugins.
The open source code of WordPress makes it insecure. Additionally, WordPress websites don't automatically come with SSL encryption.
To fully customize your WordPress website, you'll require an understanding of the basics of programming which will result in an extensive learning curve in technical sense.
Once you're finished with the day, the decision about the most suitable location and strategy for hosting your online class will be based on what's best for the budget that you've established as well as your bandwidth and objectives. If you're adept at programming and don't mind tackling technical uncertainties, WordPress might be the ideal choice for you.
But, if you're trying to streamline every aspect of creating, hosting, and marketing your online course, I'd like to encourage you to have a look a look . Get started at absolutely no cost now . We'll be there all throughout, and can't wait to see what you create.
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