For digital entrepreneurs, online courses are one of the greatest business strategies. People are eager to invest for the comfort of learning the skills and information they want from their workplaces or homes and also as per their convenience.

If you’re thinking of creating a course, there’s no better opportunity than now. You only need the necessary tools to build, advertise, sell, and administer your online course.

Rather than attempting to integrate several separate technologies, you can use a fully featured platform like Podia, which includes all you need in one location.

Podia was founded in 2014 and has since evolved to become one of the most popular course-building solutions on the planet. It offers simple tools to let you create, advertise, download, sell your courses and monthly subscriptions as well as other services.

This isn’t a regular Podia review, and we are not just going to tell you why it’s a good or poor option for delivering your courses online.

Rather, we will assess the platform based on all of the critical capabilities that course designers require to run a profitable online company.

What is Podia and who is it for?

Podia is a web-based platform for creating and selling online courses, digital downloads and subscriptions. You can host your course material, distribute it professionally, create a shop to sell your courses, and collect payments with Podia.

Podia is a unique platform, unlike others in the marketplace. It provides you with all the details of your students, such as email addresses, and you have total control over pricing, refund policies, and so on. This platform offers you the infrastructure and resources you’ll need to publish and sell your courses online.

Podia’s ease of use and simplicity are two very appealing features. So, even if you have no technical skills, you can rapidly set up your curriculum and start selling courses.

Another thing to bear in mind is that Podia is a new platform with many critical functionalities that are either incomplete or under development.

In this Podia review, you will find that Podia is ideal for anyone who wants to sell courses online. The platform is equipped with everything you’ll need which includes:

Online Courses: This feature allows you to host an infinite number of videos, quizzes, links, PDFs, and other related types of files. You may give your pupils upsells and payment options. You may also leverage student comments and provide supporting material.

Establish a Community: Podia is great for you, if you want to establish a community around your content and make recurring money. The platform allows you to centralise your members, discussions and products.

On-on-One Coaching: Using the platform’s YouTube Live and Zoom interfaces, you may earn through one-on-one group coaching or face-to-face sessions. Because it’s all built-in, no need to worry about getting several tools to work together effortlessly again.

Digital Download Material: Sell whatever kind of digital product you desire, including one-time downloads like reports, ebooks, whitepapers, cheat sheets, presets, checklists, PDFs, and more.

Using Podia to create courses and engage with your students

Creating a website can be challenging, especially for someone who has never done so before. However, Podia’s clear, beginner-friendly design makes it simple to construct a learning environment. It’s easy to use, and after you log in, you’ll see a well-organised dashboard that shows you when you have to go to courses.

You may host your material on Podia, including audio and video courses, and other types of data. Podia uses Wistia for video hosting, and as part of your membership, you get unlimited video storage.

When it comes to uploading your content, you have the option of doing it one at a time or bulk uploading numerous files at once, with Podia automatically creating lessons from students. However, cloud importing is not supported by Podia which would have been faster than upload. 

In Podia, there are two sets to design your course structure: sections and lessons. Sections are used to arrange your course lessons, whereas lessons are where the actual information stays.

Every file you add to Podia becomes a lesson, which you may reorder and move inside a section or across parts using Podia’s course builder.

The course creator is simple to use, although it is limited in its ability to add several content pieces to a single lesson. For instance, a quiz and a video both cannot be included in the same lesson. Likewise, you can’t have a PDF download and a video in the same lesson.

With the Drip Content feature, keeping your audience engaged by providing your course information at regular intervals is one approach to keeping students encouraged to study and sustain high levels of engagement. You may utilise the platform’s Drip Content capability to provide content to customers at certain moments during their journey.

In terms of course development and delivery, Podia performs an adequate job. The course builder is really simple to use, and the course player is well-designed in terms of user experience.

Podia’s versatility in terms of developing a membership site appeals the most. So, in addition to bundling courses, you can also construct ‘Posts’ to send information to your users regularly. Also, you can use the Podia app to have a quick look at the Audience section and check out the entire list of students. This Podia app will assist you in offering the course material in a sophisticated and professional manner. The Podia app can also help you make an affiliate link for your company for any other passive income strategies. 

Podia pricing

Podia pricing plans are easy. The company offers: the Mover, which costs $39 per month, and the Shaker, which costs $79 per month.

The best part about Podia plans’ cost is that there are no transaction fees and both programmes offer fast rewards.

Third-Party Code, Zoom Integration, Embedded Checkout, Affiliate Marketing, and Memberships are only accessible on the Shaker Plan. Furthermore, free migration is only offered on the higher tier.

You may receive a 14-day free trial on any Podia plan, if you want to test it out. The good news is that the trial can be started without a credit card.

You may save even more money by subscribing to an annual plan of Podia pricing, which includes two months of free offerings.

Selling and marketing your courses

Podia features strong promotional tools that make marketing and selling your work a breeze. From pre-launch to post-purchase, there are several options to assist you to improve sales.

Website Design: You can simply construct a stunning, mobile-friendly website for your company with the Podia editor without needing to learn how to code.

Converting Sales Pages: You don’t have to go only with one sort of digital product because the platform provides a vast choice of templates to pick from. You may design a stunning homepage that will enable you to make a strong first impression on your visitors.

Email Marketing: Podia comes with built-in tools like broadcasts and campaigns, so you don’t have to rely on third-party email systems. All your email marketing testing can be completed through one interface, saving you time and money.

Affiliate Promotion: To turn your learners and followers into sales agents, start an affiliate network. Set commissions and connect affiliates with a single mouse click.

Student analytics And reporting

The course reporting capabilities of Podia are average, and certain key features are missing. The only thing you can truly do is keep track of each student’s progress in each course.

However, the capabilities below are unique.

Advanced analytics: The platform’s tracking features enable you to collect extensive data for your website, transactions, email campaigns, and other activities.

You may also use Google Analytics to gain more statistics about your learners and how they use your site.

Monitoring student progress: Podia provides detailed student progress reports that include indicators such as when the learner last logged in, their quiz and survey results, video performance indicators, and more. You can use these to track particular learner statistics as well. 

Available integrations for Podia

Many prominent email marketing platforms are integrated with Podia.

MailerLite, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and MailChimp are all natively integrated.

You may send a user’s information to your email service provider and include them in a specific list or tag when they enroll in one of your courses.

Podia has also added Zapier to its list of integrations. If you use any of the email systems that Podia does not natively link with, you may still transmit user data using Zapier.

Plus, Zapier can connect to thousands of third-party applications, such as ClickFunnels (funnels and checkout), FreshBooks (small company accounting software), Accredible (certificates) and so on.

Takeaway

So, in a nutshell, this one-stop shop includes everything you’ll need to promote and sell your work online. Online courses, digital downloads, webinars, community-building, coaching, and much more are all available.

You’ll be up and selling in no time, whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro.

From one handy location, you can design a personalised website picking any Podia plans, execute email marketing campaigns, run sponsored advertisements, and add affiliates. The site also includes a blog, live demos, help centre, video lessons, guidelines, free tools, and other resources to assist you along the way.

The platform’s most notable feature is how simple it is to use. Subscription or setting up a course is simple, and the course player is ready to use right away.

So, Podia is an excellent option if you’re searching for a cheap way to build a membership site or offer a small online course.

Yet in case you are looking for alternatives to Podia, check out our blog here.