Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host , josh Hall , helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love .
Hey , friends , great to be here with you in this episode , which is part two of this little two-part mini series on digital strategy and marketing tips specifically for those of you who are webpreneurs , those of you interested in branching outside of just web design services whether it's courses , whether it's memberships , whether it's podcasts , video content creation ,
whatever that is or even if you're doing some of these things for clients . Hopefully this helps as well . In the second part of this I want to dive into some overall digital strategy tips , kind of on the back of what we just talked about in the first part .
So if you have not listened to the previous episode episode 268 , we covered questions on some of my background , into being a webpreneur , somebody who's doing not just websites , but into courses , memberships , etc . We covered courses , we covered podcasts and we covered memberships and some detailed questions on how I've built all those three and how they work together .
In this one , we're going to kind of solidify some of this up with some general business questions that were sent to me . I'm going to give you some of my top tips for just general digital marketing advice right now , and then I'm going to share with you my top resources to help you with all these areas . So three parts .
So part one , some general business , some digital business questions , and again , most of these came from my colleague , ann Kapooza , who was on the podcast recently . My friend who is a attorney slash web designer , who is a full blown web printer as well . She sent me some great questions .
That's why I'm relaying these to you , apart from some of the other questions I've got recently . So general digital business questions . One question is you have a lot of digital estate assets , a digital real estate assets . How do you think about this as a portfolio ? Are you satisfied with the components ? Are you thinking about expanding ?
Quite a few questions in here . So what I will say is yes , there are quite a few I like this term real estate assets for my digital setup . So , for those of you who may not be familiar with everything that I offer right now currently everything is under my brand at joshallco . That is the personal , my personal site .
That has everything , And I have currently nine web design courses that help people become a professional web designer , and I have a membership which was previously called the web design club And that is now called web designer pro , mainly because web designer pro not only does it include coaching with me and an incredible community , but it now includes all of my web
design courses , and that stemmed off the idea of all my courses helping people becoming web designer pros . So I was like that is aptly named . So I dropped $5,000 on the domain name and got a trademarked and then utilizing that as the branding for my membership .
Now what I do have in place as of right now is that you can still purchase my courses one off .
So if you just feel like you don't want to have the whole kit and caboodle and have coaching with me and community behind you , if you just want to kind of test the waters or you just want to try out one course or just get one area of expertise that that I offered , then you can dive into just one or several courses . So that is available .
You can get lifetime access to those as of now , and it still comes with some support . I have a student center for all students And then I still go live every month for all of my students . I just go live weekly and do coaching and more in depth levels of community and coaching inside web designer pro . So it's what I recommend , my eventual goal .
Another question is here What's the eventual goal ? I mean ideally , web designer pro is where I want to get everybody into , because the results are just so damn good for people . I mean , the people who are in pro are getting the best of everything you need , in my personal opinion , to be a professional , supported web designer .
You have all the training that you need within the courses . We also have guest expert trainings in a library of guest expert trainings that we do once a month And those include things that I don't cover in the courses .
So those will include things like accessibility , speed , advanced planning , marketing , pricing , stuff like that that maybe will go a little outside of or more in depth on some of the topics that I don't cover in courses . And then , of course , the community behind you and coaching with me personally .
Now I get there's a time and a place where people are interested in just courses , versus some people just being interested in community , and some people are , in the case of web designer pro , are mainly interested in my coaching .
I think the beauty about web designer pro personally , and the reason I've offered it and created it this way is that you can really pick and choose what you're interested in and you can do it seasonally .
So there's times , particularly those of you who are refining your systems or building your business , where you're going to spend a lot of time in the courses , so you may not have as much time for the weekly calls and coaching with me , and that's fine , because once you get all the know how that you need , then you can transition to building your business .
That's where a lot of people will come to me for the coaching , because we you have a private DM messaging channel with me in circle in web designer pro , which is the platform that I used to run that , and that's where I could help give you insight , focus and priority items that are catered to you in your situation , and then you can utilize the community as
much and as often as you want , as you're growing your business and getting stuck on certain things . So that is kind of how and the reason why I've put all my digital assets into this . It really encompasses everything . So that's kind of where I'm at with the courses and the membership and why I decided to include courses inside of web designer pro .
But again , i also have the option for people as of now to just get the access to the courses if they would like them , just one off .
Another question as far as digital , just general digital business questions Question about not being super active on social media , and it's in this one ever saying I assume you have a decent email list And that's important to your success . What list building tactics have you used to grow your email list ?
Has your email list growth been more gradual or have certain actions led to scalable growth ? So , yes , email is absolutely important , absolutely crucial , especially nowadays .
I think , in a scattered world where people are just all over the place on different social media platforms , it's very hard to centralize all that And I don't personally have the bandwidth to do every social media platform . I did learn the hard way and I did not get my Twitter handle .
I made that mistake of just not going ahead and taking Josh Hall Co as my Twitter handle and some idiot douchebag stole it . So I had and actually copied my Instagram profile and started posting stuff . So I had to send a cease and desist and tell Twitter and luckily they took it down .
However , unless somebody knows , please let me know , if you do happen to know , if this is resolved . But I have been unsuccessful getting that handle , so I might have to do a different Twitter handle , but I'm just not able to currently be active everywhere . I'm also a family man who doesn't want to be on my phone all the time checking all the socials .
So I'm currently active on Instagram and Facebook , but in an ideal world and I might get more help from Kevin , my social media guy here soon on posting everywhere , just to try to basically get in front of everybody , although I'll create a system to where I just make a post and then it's reformatted by the team everywhere else .
So that's kind of the next step with that . But I do , yes , 100% email , absolutely huge I'm actually . This is kind of I didn't anticipate this , but perfect plug for something I have coming out in the next probably month or so , which is a newsletter . Yes , finally , actually , my colleague , jay Klaus .
I recently went through his newsletter master class and I told him I don't have a newsletter and he was like what ? He was like I thought , for sure you had one with your subscriber account and stuff , and I was like , well , i kind of like semi have a newsletter .
I do send weekly emails , but it's mostly about the podcast and anything else that's going on , but not an official newsletter .
So I'm working on that now And I'm really excited about that because that'll give me a chance to just , weekly , just share like an interesting strategy or a tip or a trick I learned from that week or something that is a really good thing , that is timely , or a trend that might help you in your web design business .
And then probably gonna I don't think I'll have an exact format every time for that , but I will share maybe a tour or a trend that's going on right now . That's relevant And really excited to be able to just have a written type essay every week that will come straight to your inbox . It'll be very transparent , very real , short and sweet .
So I'm really excited about that . That's coming soon . So I tell you what for right now . If you are interested in that , you can go to joshallcocom slash weekly And that will be where you can sign up to let me know that you're interested in the upcoming newsletter .
So joshallco slash weekly , and that's where the official sign up will be once it kicks off too . What tactics have you used to grow your email list , mostly , as of now , free , like either free webinars , free trainings that people register for or a free master class that I have on my site .
You can go to joshallco Free stuff , free dash stuff for anything that I currently have that's free . And then a lot of my original list growth happened from like downloads for like Divi templates or stuff like that . So that's how I grew my list originally . It's been gradual , for sure . It's an area that the reason I'm doing my newsletter soon is .
I need to get better at that . I have a list of about 11,000 right now , which is pretty cool , but I think I could be in the 20 to 30 K plus range if I had taken it more seriously . So my goal is to double my email list by the end of the year . That's my goal And it is huge .
The email list is huge because everything leads to email , just like all social media and digital marketing lead to your website . When it comes to keeping in touch with your clients and your customers , it all leads to email . That's why , when you get logged out of Facebook or logged out of something you don't , they don't say what's your Instagram handle .
No , it goes to your email . It is the mail , it is your address , your digital address . So very , very important , and I'm excited to offer some better lead generators too to help grow that and kickstart that . What is a short-term goal you're working on towards this year ? A more long-term goal for the next few years .
My short-term goal currently is really making web designer pro the absolute best it can be , and that is in terms of providing better pathways and shortcuts to get everybody the information they need , depending on where they are between courses , extra trainings , the community involvement and my coaching . So that's what I'm really working on .
A caveat to that and a side part to that is revamping the courses . So I'm currently over halfway done with version 2.0 of my business course , which is actually available for early access to everyone in pro , because as I get the course modules and lessons ready , i'm opening them up early for everyone on web designer pro .
So it's another perk of being in pro specifically right now . But that will be coming in early July at the time of recording this version 2.0 of the business course , which is a biggie that covers everything you need to build your web design business and grow it . So it's big . It's seven modules . Each one of those has at least six lessons in them .
So by my math that's over . That's 40 plus lessons . Lot of video editing , lot of slides , shit . Ton of work And I love course creation but my God is exhausting . I remember why I didn't do it last year . My original plan was to revamp my business course last year , in 2022 , but my family and I had just moved .
There was so much going on I was like I just I can't do it yet . I knew how much work it was gonna be . I'm half way through the course and it's already been almost two months altogether , just because I'm revamping every lesson and implementing new strategies and looking at case studies of what's working for students right now .
So , yeah , the new business course is the biggie making web designer pro really good , and over the next few years it's gonna be continuing to revamp courses , keep them updated .
And then I'm also gonna be doing a course if I don't do it in 2022 , i'll probably do it in or , excuse me in 2023 , i'll probably do it early 24 , which would be like a scaling course which is gonna lead into the mastery side of things that I'm doing .
So I'm essentially gonna have resources and courses for becoming a web design professional and then some high level resources . In my web design business mastery program that will include scaling , team building , hiring , really refining your business to go into six and multi six figures .
So that'll be the next goal after that , and that is as far as my vision is currently . How do you see the digital marketplace evolving in the next five to 10 years , especially with the advent of AI ? Do you think we're gonna see less emphasis on courses and more emphasis on services and memberships ? So a few things in here .
I think AI overall is going to help dramatically when it comes to content creation , and it's helped me a lot with just the idea of like , okay , i could come up with like 10 tips on something and I might do a good job with a few , but then some of them are like yeah , i think that's good , or I'm just kind of struggling with certain ideas .
With AI , you can really prompt it to give you some incredible ideas , to spark you to really add content , make content yours and make it better . I wouldn't copy and paste anything from chat GPT , but by golly it really does help with prompting And it's like oh my gosh , i didn't even think about that .
So I've been using that a lot for content creation and for helping with titles for podcasts and content . It just it helps give a good idea , and you could do this with keyword research tools as well , but that is one benefit of AI . I think it really helps that .
Now , it's a good point because in some cases , with AI being information , a lot of information you can get in digital courses you could get with AI when it comes to like you could prompt chat , gpt for things like what are the price points that most web designers charge in the US , what are people charging hourly , what's involved with high paying clients and all
that kind of stuff . So you could really prompt AI in a lot of ways with information that you might find in courses .
The differentiator is based off of someone's personal experience and real trends and real world feedback with what's going on , which is why I mentioned in my business course like that's the difference Is , everything in my business course is pulled from my experience , what works for me and what is working right now with my students , and AI can't touch that .
Ai is not going to get all of that in place . Yes , it may cover some of the basic strategies when it comes to like how to find clients or how to get clients , but there's also things in there that are particular to me in my experience . So it's really , i think , about the course creator and the brand , like who do you trust and who do you relate to ?
What energy do you like ? Like that's the key when it comes to courses , to make it not a commodity Cause .
Yeah , if you're just pulling like general information , you're going to struggle against AI , but AI is not a person who has real world experience and has shown up to a client's house and they thought it was an office and it was really awkward and gives you tips on how to avoid that . I mean , i guess you could prompt it with that .
But it is all about real world experience And when it comes to services and memberships , i think those are very vital things to go alongside courses . That's why we've been talking about Web Designer Pro .
It's one reason I did the courses inside of Pro is because now I just I saw all my students who are getting the best results were getting some level of coaching with me and community and they were really engaged .
And again , there's a time and place for learning and a time for implementing and a time for getting detailed , focused , priority advice , and that's why I like having the option for all three right now , and it's still testing .
We're in the early phases of Web Designer Pro , but with the results that people are getting , it's just , it's showing me more and more that if you really want results , i love having the idea of the information backed with support and coaching . I just think that's super powerful . So , yeah , that's my thoughts on that .
Now to part two of this conversation great questions that I've collected here . A lot of these again , we're from Ann , who specifically sent me a list of questions that were kind of backed off of some other ones that I've got more recently , which is why I want to do these couple of episodes . Some digital strategy tips .
This question do you think Web Designer should be developing other business models in addition to their Web Design services , given how fast the industry is evolving , or should they only do it if it sounds fun ? Great question , really . I mean , what we're dealing with here is should you become a Webpreneur ? If you didn't notice , this is something I share .
In my business course , i did a podcast episode with the high level aspects of this , but in my mind , there are four different types of Web Designers And this is what I've seen with my journey and a lot of other Web Designers . There are Web Design Freelancers .
There are web who are basically working Project-to-project , perhaps with clients , but a lot of time as white labelers and just web designers . Then there are web design solopreneurs who have their business and are running their business like a business in managing Building sites and getting clients and really starting to work on the business .
Then there are web design business owners Which are just that they are running their web design business . If they are working on projects , it's just creative direction , a high-level stuff . primarily They're working on the business , marketing , refining systems , growing it , etc . Being a business owner .
And then there's the webpreneurs who are adding courses , maybe advanced levels of digital marketing , alongside With doing web design services , like maybe someone's getting really far into email marketing . My student , april Ray , is doing a good job at this right now . She's we had her on recently on the podcast She's doing email marketing as a main service .
She's becoming a webpreneur . She's even got a course coming out in August which I'm really excited about . She'll be doing a live training in web designer pro , which is what prompted that . As well here soon about offering email marketing for web designers . So , yeah , i think I think it is worthwhile .
If you are at the point where you are a Streamline solo printer or a web design business owner , i would not try to manage being a webpreneur and do everything else yourself . It's a recipe for burnout And I would only do it if it sounds really fun .
Yeah , i would not force yourself into creating a bunch of different assets and being a community builder and a podcaster and a Cori's creator if it's not something really want to do , because you have to follow your energy .
I love doing this stuff but it is not for everyone and , like I just said , i've been knee-deep in the business course and I love creating courses , but it still drains me . So for somebody who doesn't love creating courses , it might just it might completely devastate you .
So you gotta be careful that Some pros and cons of each business model services , courses , podcasts and membership . So there's really I'll break it down to three the podcast is not a business model . Podcast is just a means of marketing and connecting with people , but it feeds into my courses and my membership .
So it's really a matter of services versus courses versus membership .
Services , i think , are the easiest to start out with and it's why I'm glad I did services for over a decade as a web designer , because it taught me so much about how to sell and Learn web design and and learn the industry and learn how to network and learn how to value pricing and value my time , and I think if you love doing services , you should keep
on going . It's not like you that That path that I just laid out a freelancer to solo printer , to business owner to web printer That is not the ideal path , that's just the path that I took . A lot of people are born to be web printers . A lot of people are born to be service providers and that's fine too . They're . The world needs both .
So if you like doing services , i say go for it . Nothing wrong with getting into courses and memberships , but Perfect segue to talk about those two because those require a very vastly different method of sales and Authority building and trust building .
Like it was completely different , i Was able to go to networking events and get a few clients and get referrals and just do really good work To the best of my ability , and that's how I built my business to six figures , my web design business . It was purely referrals . I did zero content marketing . I wasn't active on social media .
It wasn't even till I started Josh Hall dot-co and doing different tutorials that I started getting clients through the videos like that . So it was very , very different . Courses , on the other hand , and a membership . You really need to build an online presence and you need to become a thought leader in a lot of ways .
So you need to share your fresh perspective . I think it's a lot easier To build an online audience after you've been a service provider and depending on what you're creating content on . Because , like , if I started today and started Josh Hall dot-co But I hadn't been a web designer for ten years , i wouldn't have had the context for being a web designer .
Like , every aspect of my courses are what I learned and what I did in my Business that worked , and now what's happening right now with my students , with what's working . So it's extremely powerful stuff . I I say that modestly , like that .
The reason I'm excited more than ever right now about web designer pro and what's in my courses is that It's based off of ten years plus of my experience , a lot of those sales tactics and stuff Or just like timeless principles , but it's also about what's working right now and things that maybe I didn't do but wish I would have done .
So it's a mix of , like , everything that has worked over the last 10 , 15 years , but it's also working right now too . So , yeah , that's why I think it's extremely powerful to be a service provider , then be a thought leader and more of a I don't know an authority and an influencer , or whatever you want to call it . So , yeah , the , the , the courses .
The courses are different than memberships , because membership really is about recurring revenue . That's the benefit of it , but the trick is you really have to focus equally on Client acquisition and client retention .
So courses are a little easier to sell in my mind , because you have a course and you could sell it one off , or you could sell I'm grouped or Individually , and it's pretty clear like this is you know , and my , my business course , it's the business course , but my membership web designer pro is the business course , plus all my other courses and more things .
So you really need to attract the people who are ready for the full rounded experience .
So in a lot of cases , i've found people who come into pro , have been students or are ready for , yeah , every aspect of it , whereas some people which is why I have my courses as is one off available to May just want my design course or may just want my business course , or may just want my maintenance plan course .
But the goal is to get them to be a member so they get everything and get the results . And , of course , on my end , recurring income is where it's key , because courses the downfall of courses is you're really the lifeblood is launches and promotions which are exhausting and , yeah , that's the only trick about that .
But again , memberships is wonderful as they are , as recurring revenue and everything else , they do require ongoing support , just like with your clients . It's very different when you sell a website and then do it and then get that check , versus keeping them coming back . It takes a different set of skills .
If you share any lessons you learn along the way while building your courses and what advice you have . From someone just starting out , i would say , first off , keep it simple , like don't build my business course , which is seven miles and 42 lessons If you're just brand new to courses . You're not ready for that . Do a simple one , test the waters with it .
I would make it a couple things when it comes to building courses . If you're gonna do a course , i would make it very quick , win driven . So do something that you can get people . It's results very , very fast .
The other thing I and I've kind of come to this more recently the idea of courses , because there's so much you could put in lessons and modules and the gift and a curse of Creating courses , information and your expertise . Like you really have to refine it and cut out the fluff . I would view lessons and courses as like greatest hits .
So when you look at a artist discography and they've got eight albums and there's like a hundred songs , the greatest hits album is the best of the best and that's kind of the the framework that I've tried to have with the courses . Every course I have it's like this is the best of the best . I could do a whole course on sales .
I could do a whole course on getting clients . I could do a whole course on pricing . They're all in my business course . So my job is to take the best of the best lessons , quick-win tips and tricks and strategies , and that's what we're gonna talk about . So that would be my recommendation for anyone building your course .
Can you share any lessons you've learned along the way while building your membership , what advice you have for someone just starting out ? Yeah , with the membership is just a different animal I would start if I were to start today . I would do it just like I did it .
I would start with a course and then go into a membership , just because with a membership , you're dealing with recurring . It's a lot more of a complex setup .
Typically , even with the tool that I use and prefer , circle For a membership and a community , there's still a lot of like external tools you need to use when it comes to tagging and email onboarding and offboarding and follow-ups and Payments that they get declined . So there's a lot more to it with a membership . So that's an aspect of it from the tech side .
Also , it kind of depends on what the membership is as the membership information base , like , does it have a curriculum or does it have courses ? Is it more about the community ? Is there a coaching aspect ? I would definitely start out with courses and some basic level of support with your students and then get into a membership .
But , yeah , a lot of lessons with building the membership You can . Actually , i have a recent podcast on why I rebranded . What is it ? What is now web designer pro , which shares a lot of the lessons learned with that membership . That was episode 248 , if you want to go back and listen to that one .
But yeah , very different courses and memberships both awesome , both different challenges and ways to sell them as well , because membership sales it's gonna attract a different person who or maybe just be at a different place in their journey , whereas again , some people might just want a course , get the information , then go , and that's fine too .
There really is a need for both . I think . Can you share any lessons You've learned all the way by building your podcast and any advice for people just starting out with a podcast ? my biggest quick tips Okay , here we go .
Greatest hits with building a podcast is , first off , there's the beauty about podcasts are , i was gonna say two prong , but it's actually . There's kind of three main aspects that I love . One is it is an incredible place for networking and building your personal network in your professional network .
Like , not only have I been able to have conversations with Amy Porterfield , mike McHallowitz , derek Sivers , pat Flynn amazing entrepreneurs but I've also been able to build a network of pretty much every other web design coach I know and just some amazing web designers A lot of them have been my students and other colleagues , so the people you meet with .
A podcast is truly incredible . It's a great networking building thing . It's a great way to build trust with your client base .
So it's also kind of a mix of case studies too , like a lot of my episodes with students are kind of case studies , so I don't call them that , but they are a case study episode on where they were when they went through my courses , what's working now , et cetera .
So there is podcasting can be great for deepening the relationship with your audience and using it as a sales tool tactfully of course , not great for discoverability . We talked about that in the last episode . I would probably go YouTube for like building discoverability and getting found online and stuff . But podcasting is a great kind of next step , next level .
It can be used for discoverability , but it's just harder to get out there with a podcast because it's audio . And then the third piece of this is your learning . A podcast really is like a university that you create . I mean you get people who know their stuff and are experts and you . It is incredible how much I've learned .
I mean I feel like I'm a completely different person than when I started my podcast three and a half years ago .
I've learned so much And what I thought I knew about the web design industry was just scratching the surface compared to what I've learned along the way over the past few years , which is additionally why I'm so excited about my new version of the business course , cause a lot of what I've learned in my podcast episodes that I didn't do or wish I would have done
better are now strategies in the business course . A couple of questions on each one of these . What should you have in place to market a course ? Well , i think a podcast for courses is a biggie , because before somebody becomes a course student , a podcast can really deepen that relationship . Again , it's not discoverability , but for courses .
Addition to that , i would say , some strong lead generators like or maybe just one , if you have a proven like masterclass or a training or a webinar that builds your email list and can market to them that way . That's key for one course or numerous courses . So really good lead generators for selling courses . Podcasting is super helpful for that .
And then any other content building or authority building , whether it's your social media with how you post and share tips and tricks , or a YouTube channel . Those are the main areas that I would have in place to sell a course . What should you have in place to market a podcast ?
Well , an audience already is a lot easier because you don't have to build an audience necessarily . So I would launch a podcast potentially after a course and after YouTube videos and some social media strategy . I probably would not start with a podcast .
Worst case , too , is you don't wanna spend a bunch of time in creating a podcast episode that , like , three people are listening to .
It's nicer to have a jumpstart with that , i would say , with launching a podcast , i would launch it like an event , make it a big event , launch with at least three episodes and have a backlog so you can stay consistent , because you really can't start a podcast unless you're ready to be consistent . We talked about that in last episode .
More , too , what should you have in place to market a membership ? as we get down to the last couple of questions here , to market a membership , i think it would be .
A course is helpful because , again , not in all cases you could totally market a membership without a course , but I think it's helpful to have a lot of information and resources that you can put inside of a membership .
I really would start that way , because if you just start a membership and there's nothing in there and the way of content or information , then what that membership would really be about would be more like group coaching or individual coaching or community , which can be fine , but it's not gonna be a high level membership , depending on what you'd wanna charge if it
doesn't have courses and information and training . So it would depend on what the goal of the membership is . But , yeah , definitely having workshops , courses , trainings and things that are more information based that can go alongside community and coaching . I think all those things make a really , really powerful membership . Memberships and podcasts seem very popular .
Now . Have you seen other people successfully launch a podcast or membership without having any other content ? Not personally , no , i really , yeah , i really I think it'd be very hard to launch a membership . Well , you would need to have some sort of client base or some sort of audience to have a membership .
Because that's why I recommend starting out with services , because you can literally have no experience and just get your business going . You can go to a networking group and say , hey , i do website design and you might walk away with a client that day or that week . That's how easy it is to get started with a web design service With a membership .
It just takes so much more authority building trust , building content in place and the value adds within that membership , because if somebody's gonna be a member , it's not like they need something and it's gonna be resolved real quick like a client needing a website . A membership is much more about like , well , what's in it for me ?
ongoing , like , why am I gonna show up month to month , year after year ? So yeah , i think those things are really important to have . When it comes to a membership , i really have not seen anyone that I know of .
Maybe there's some out there , but I don't know anyone who launches a membership that doesn't have some sort of audience already built in some way , and they don't have to be huge . You don't need a huge audience , you don't need . I mean , even my audience compared to a lot of other entrepreneurs , is not that big and it's very niche .
It's for web designers , i'm not for all entrepreneurs . I'm not even necessarily for those of you listening right now who are web printers . I don't really have too much for I like I don't have many resources on podcasts and community building and content marketing Like those are things that I refer out because that's not what my sweet spot is for teaching .
I teach the business of web design . That's what I do . So , yeah , i would definitely think memberships are best to launch and to have in place after courses , after a podcast with deepening relationships , and after some content marketing and trust and authority building .
Last question that I'm gonna share some resources with you before we take off on this one If someone is interested in creating a similar business venture , where should they start ? Should they start with services and a podcast , develop a course and a membership ? Should they take the leap , step by step approach and develop each business asset simultaneously ?
You nailed it on the first one . This question came from Ann . The first question , or the first layout , was exactly it . I would start with services And then I would either start I would probably add one in there I would start with content marketing on social media or YouTube to be able for discoverability and to get people to follow you .
Then I would either do a course or a podcast , depending on what the goal is If you have like an entry level course and I would get right going with making more money off of a course and then use a podcast to deepen the relationship .
Or you could start with a podcast alongside your content marketing and then launch a course , And then I would do the membership last . For sure I would not do it all together , for sure I would start with services , get the experience , get the know-how .
You don't have to do 10 years , like I did , but you could you know a year , two , three , to ping on what it is . I would do services , then I would do content marketing , sharing what you've learned , share what you know , or do it side by side . You can do services and then immediately share what you know .
That's an option as well , but I would not do anything else along with that . I would then turn that into a podcast , launch a course , then a membership . That's how I would go about that . So a few resources for you Before we close this episode out . Resources for creating a course .
If you did not know , i do have a course that's outside of my web design package . This is the only course that I have for web printers . I don't actively market it because it's well . Half of the course I show LearnDash , but I actually don't recommend LearnDash . It's gonna come into play next .
I do have a course that's called Creating and Selling an Online Course with LearnDash . I'll have that link below at the show notes for this episode at joshallco.269 . That course is available and it's a bonus inside of Web Designer Pro If you'd like to join us in Pro . It's how to .
Half of the course is how to build and sell a course and the rest of it is natively doing it with LearnDash . Now that brings me to the tool that I recommend for courses , which are two . There's two tools I recommend If you're using WordPress . Even though I use LearnDash and it's been great for me , it's been fine I actually recommend Lyftr LMS .
Reason being is that LearnDash has been sold and has been passed around like a hot potato with , i think , liquid . Web owns them And I'm really nervous about what's gonna happen to LearnDash over the next few years . I'm afraid about the innovation , i'm afraid about the support . So , yeah , i've not had a problem with LearnDash . To clarify , they've been great .
So , anyone from LearnDash ? I loved using it , but I'm just worried . I'm quite worried about what the next five years are gonna look like for LearnDash . I , if I were starting today with a LMS on WordPress , i would use Lyftr , lyftr LMS , but I'm friends with Chris Badgett , the owner . What an awesome guy , what an awesome team .
He's been on the podcast a couple of times . You can go to joshallco slash Lyftr to check that out . The other tool I recommend is the tool that I use for Web Designer Pro , which is Circle . Circle is my absolute favorite tool for courses , community and coaching . You can do one or the other or all three so easily with Circle .
You can even embed Circle in your WordPress website or any website that you have . It's incredible . It's so freaking awesome . It really . I'm not a huge fan of a bunch of all-in-one solutions but man do . I recommend trying Circle out . So if you're interested in that , go to joshallco slash Circle .
Those are my two recommendations Circle ideally , because you can really integrate stuff without using extra plugins and having to update everything if you wanna have community support and a coaching aspect with it . Lyftr LMS for WordPress . I also one last resource for the courses .
I have a behind-the-scenes video that I did a few years back when I was creating the first version of my Divi WordPress Beginners course . I did a little hour and a half documentary of me making that course . It follows me on a 10-day journey .
So that's gonna be linked below too or in the show notes or you can just search behind-the-scenes course with Josh Hall and you can watch that little documentary . It's kinda like a mini course on how to create a course . So I recommend checking that out .
It literally I mean I literally walk you through how I created the course , recording videos where I write in different coffee shops , how I record . It's kinda the first version of my course creation journey , so that's available for you too . Now for a podcast . If somebody is interested in creating a podcast , what resources should they check out ?
I do have an episode of the podcast here with some behind-the-scenes of my processes and interview tips for podcasting . That's episode 158 , if you wanna go back to that one . There is a course that I recommend for podcasting know-how and that is Power Up Podcasting by my good mentor , pat Flynn .
It is the course that I took in order to know what the heck I was doing with podcasting , know what tools to use and how to launch effectively . So you can go to joshallco slash pup P-U-P that's short for Power Up Podcasting .
That is the course that I took and that I highly recommend if you're serious about podcasting , because it really covers everything that you need to know until I create my own course eventually . Eventually , i might do some more courses for everyone here who are web printers , but for now , i recommend going there . That is my affiliate links .
So I'll get a kickback , and some of the links I mentioned earlier were affiliate links too . So , heads up , i do get kickbacks on those if you join , which just helps me keep this free podcast and for YouTube content going for you .
Side note , if you are gonna try out a podcast , if you're curious about what tool to use to upload your episodes that kick them out to Spotify and Apple and everything else , i recommend Buzzsprout . Buzzsprout is freaking awesome . I'm so glad I chose Buzzsprout . It makes it so easy .
My editor just uploads the audio file , it automatically connects to all the directories that I've set up in there and it gives you analytics that are great , gives you options for timestamps now transcripts . You can do magic editing on every episode . That just makes it sound better . They have AI in there now that helps with summaries and descriptions .
So , joshallco , we'll take you over there to try it out . And then , finally , some resources on memberships . What resources should they check out ? So , like I mentioned , if you're gonna do a membership , even if you don't wanna do courses , i would recommend Circle . You can use a lot of plugins like MemberPress or gosh .
There's a ton of membership plugins for WordPress , but man do I love Circle And you can use it inside WordPress if you wanted to . So I would go to joshallco Slash Circle to try out Circle for a membership site or a community forum or coaching course for courses as well .
And then another resource that might help , which really takes what we've talked about here as far as the high level stuff but goes deeper , is a recent episode I did which I mentioned before episode 248 , if you wanna go back to that , because I really dive into my membership and why I've shifted it , why I changed it from the web design club to web designer
pro , why I named it that , why I added courses and some of the lessons learned , both good and bad , on the first version of my membership and was working really well now in the new version of the membership as web designer pro . So you can check that out , episode 248 .
And there is a course that I highly recommend if you're going to be checking or interested in doing a membership , and it's by my friend , jay Klaus , who I mentioned earlier , who has a course on building a beloved membership . I highly recommend that course . I'll have it linked below .
Jay is the founder of Creator Science and , apart from just being an awesome entrepreneur , he is one of the best in the game right now for staying up and up on content creation membership newsletter , just being a professional creator online . So that'll be linked below where you're hearing this episode at joshallco slash , where we at 269 . So there you go , friends .
There are some of my top resources for course creation , podcast and membership , some basic digital strategy tips for all these things and some general business questions . Being a web printer , and I hope this helps you . I know we've really dug into the weeds over the last few episodes . There were so many great questions here .
One reason I did these episodes is Ann sent most of these questions and I was like I would feel bad not covering all these questions .
It was so thoughtful to put all these and so well organized and , for those of you who are web printers or if you're considering being web printers , I hope this Q&A style session helps give you a really good idea of the landscape of courses , podcasting , membership , et cetera . But I would definitely not rush into this world .
I would start by being a service provider personally . It's just a lot easier to get started . It's , quite frankly , way easier to build a six figure web design business than a six figure course or membership business . Personally , that's my view .
I've done both and the only reason I took my course business to six figures in year two well , actually technically year one when I started doing courses , but it's because I had a decade of experience as a service provider leading up to that . It took me six years to go six figures of my web design business . You go through my business course .
You can do that in year one if you're feeling wild . So keep a lookout for that , if you're listening to this , when it comes out , because the new version of my business course is coming soon And we've been talking about it all episode .
But my final recommendation for you and encouragement for you is , if you are ready for all my courses an incredible community to support you and direct line with me for coaching , where we can have a personal chat together and I can give you some tips and priority and focus items for your business Come join us over on Web Designer Pro .
There is now a monthly option . This is limited time right now , so I don't know what that's gonna look like , but I'm trying this out to help everyone who prefers to go month to month .
Go to joshallcococo To meet us over there And , as of right now , if you're listening to this , when this episode first comes out , you can get early access to my business course , because every module that I'm done with I'm uploading there first , so you can get the first crack at it and we can have a chat together .
I'd love to see it over there , and there's nothing to lose Right now . There's also a 14 day no risk money back guarantee . So no pressure , nothing to lose to try Pro out to make sure it's right for you , if only if you wanna be a love designer pro .
All right , friends , hope you enjoyed these episodes , these last couple of episodes on digital strategy stuff that I'm learning in real time right now . I would love to hear your feedback on this . If you're active on Instagram , dm me over there . If you're active on Facebook , dm me over there . You can email me joshallco .
You can leave a comment on these episodes at my website , at joshallco , or no . That's it . That's all the places you can connect with me right now , so do one of those , and I can't wait to hear from you . All right , friends , see you on the next episode .