If you’re wondering how to start an online coaching business, you’re not alone. Many people are interested in starting a coaching business. A coaching business can be both fulfilling and lucrative. It provides the freedom to work from anywhere. Here are eight simple steps to get started:
Step 1: Determine Your Online Coaching Niche
In order to start a coaching business, you should first identify your niche. This means selecting the area in which you want to specialize. It can be health, career, life, business, or relationship coaching. Evaluate your skills, experience, and knowledge to find your niche.
Step 2: Conduct Market Research for Your Online Coaching Business
Market research is important to understanding your target audience’s needs and expectations. Identify the problems they face, the solutions they’re looking for, and how much they’re willing to pay for online coaching services. It’s also important to research your competitors and their pricing models.
Step 3: Create a Business Plan for Your Online Coaching Business
A business plan is crucial for your coaching business. It should outline your business objectives, target audience, marketing strategies, and financial projections. Make sure to include your unique selling proposition, pricing models, and revenue streams in your business plan.
Step 4: Establish Your Brand Identity for Your Online Coaching Business
Your brand identity is how you present yourself to your target audience. It includes your business name, logo, website, and social media profiles. Make sure your brand identity conveys your coaching niche, values, and unique selling proposition clearly and effectively.
Step 5: Develop Your Online Coaching Programs
Based on your niche and target audience’s needs, develop coaching programs that address their pain points and provide solutions. Determine your online coaching packages’ pricing, duration, and delivery mode, whether it’s one-on-one coaching, group coaching, or self-paced courses. Consider creating a combination of pre-recorded videos hosted on a course hosting platform like Enlitly and conduct live sessions via Zoom. Hosting pre-recorded videos behind a private wall will save your time from repeat activities.
Step 6: Build Your Online Presence for Your Coaching Business
Building an online presence for your coaching business is crucial to attract your target audience. Build a website that showcases your brand identity, coaching programs, and testimonials. Establish social media profiles on platforms where your target audience is active. Your course hosting platform should have a website building feature as well. Note that not all platforms will have this feature but luckily Enlitly offers site-building features and readymade sales page templates to help you create your website, all along with course hosting.
Step 7: Launch Your Online Coaching Business
Once you have completed the above steps, it’s time to launch your coaching business. Start by reaching out to your network and offering your coaching services. Leverage social media platforms and Facebook groups to reach a broader audience. It’s important to track your progress and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Step 8: Maintain Your Online Coaching Business
To sustain your coaching business, you need to continually improve your coaching skills, stay up to date with industry trends, and refine your marketing strategies. Measure your business’s performance regularly and make necessary adjustments to achieve your goals. Remember to utilize email marketing to build a business asset. Enlitly also offers email marketing features to help you stay in touch with your audience.
In conclusion, starting a coaching business requires dedication and hard work. By following these steps, you can establish a successful coaching business that helps your clients achieve their goals and realize their full potential remotely. Start your coaching journey with Enlitly today.
Enlitly vs Podia. Which is a better platform? If you are a course creator looking for a platform to host your courses, then this article is for you. Both Enlitly and Podia are all in one platforms focused towards creating, selling and marketing online courses, memberships and communities. In this article, we will cover how both compares to each other.
Enlitly:
Enlitly is an all in one platform with modern and easy to use UI for creators. Its perfect for those who are not so tech savvy. Enlitly aims to provide tools to creators that will help them sell more, after all Selling and Marketing are the areas where creators struggle more.
Podia:
Podia is also an all in one platform that focuses on providing creators with tools to sell and market their product.
Since both platform focus on helping creators sell and market more, its important to know the difference between two. In this article, we will compare some key features followed by a full feature comparison.
Product Types: Which is better in terms of product types – Enlitly or Podia?
Product Type
Enlitly
Podia
Online Course
✓
✓
Digital Files
✓
✓
Webinar
Pre-Recorded Video
YouTube Video Or Zoom
Bundle
✓
✓
Coaching
✓
✓
Enlitly Advantage #1 – When you create a product, Enlitly does heavy lifting in the background to help you set up.
First, along with each product, system creates product funnel pages. These are Sales >> Checkout >> Thank You. All ready to go. All you have to do is define a price, enter your copy and personalize images. Enlitly even has sales page templates , which you can find in the sales funnel area.
Second, Enlitly also creates a marketing list for each product. This list called “purchase list: product name” is used to segment your contacts. This list stores contacts who purchased this specific product.
Enlitly Advantage #2 – Enlitly has community option that can be enabled side by side to your content. This can be used a discussion forum for your courses. You can also create a standalone community by disabling content in the product setting. Podia has a standalone community option only. It does not have an option to make community sit next to the product content.
Podia Advantage #1- Podia has a separate product called coaching session. Users who are looking to add coaching session may find this option easier. Although you will not see coaching as an option in Enlitly, but you can utilize digital files product type in Enlitly to offer coaching sessions. Many Enlitly Creators have created coaching sessions this way but because it is not available as a separate product, it may not be intuitive for users to use digital file option for creating coaching session.
Podia Advantage #2 – Podia’s webinar product has options like adding time and sending automatic reminders. Enlitly’s Digital Files product can be utilized for selling webinars but users will have to create reminder emails in the broadcast section.
Course Builder: Which is better in terms of course builder – Enlitly or Podia?
Features
Enlitly
Podia
Make Lessons Compulsory
✓
✗
Preview Lesson
✓
✓
Lesson visibility
Lock/Unlock
Hidden/Visible
Upload Assignment by Student
✓
✗
Graded Quiz
✓
✓
Quiz Result Details
Comprehensive
Score only
Product Access
End Access by Date End Access by Days
Delay Start Date by Days
Drip
Drip by Date Drip by Days
Drip by Days
Commenting
Under each Lesson
Under each Product
Level of ease
Very Easy
Medium
Discussions
✓
✗
Enlitly Advantage:
When it comes to course builder, Enlitly has a bit more features than podia. Enlitly has more options to offer drip. In Enlitly drip can be by a specific date or by days. Podia has only drip by days option. Same goes for product access feature.
When it comes to level of use, Enlitly’s course builder is very easy compared to Podia. Try it yourself to see the difference.
Enlitly’s quiz tracking is much more comprehensive than Podia. In Enlitly, you can not only see the quiz attempts but also which question user selected. Podia only shows number of quiz attempts and total score.
You can also make a lesson compulsory. This is helpful if you want user to complete the lesson before moving to the next lesson. We did not find this option in Podia.
Not only Enlitly has ability to enable community with each product, users can also enable lesson discussions. This is a great way to build social proof and facilitate discussions.
Overall, Enlitly is a clear winner when it comes to Course builder.
Site Builder: Which is better in terms of Site builder- Enlitly or Podia?
Features
Enlitly
Podia
Flexibility
Row Column & Element Concept
Less Flexible
Sales Page Templates
✓
✗
Automated Funnels
✓
✗
Opt-in Forms
✓
✓
Upsells
✓
✓
Upsell Templates
✓
✗
Order Bumps
✓
✗
Blog
✓
✗
Site Editor – The Enlitly site builder is way more comprehensive and flexible, compared to Podia’s site builder. The row, column & element concept in Enlitly makes it very easy to create flexible blocks. This is the same concept used by many famous site builders like WordPress Elementor. Moreover, Enlitly has a few ready-made templates, which makes it easy to create sales page. Podia does not have any templates. Here are a few examples of enlitly sales page templates.
Funnel Building – Podia offers upselling in the paid plans, whereas Enlitly offers both upsells and order bumps even in the free plan. Enlitly is also accompanied with an automated process of creating funnels, upsell & lead magnet templates and exclusive one time offers.
Here are few Upsell and lead magnet templates in Enlitly
Blogging – Podia does not have a separate area where users can create and categorize blogs. Enlitly’s blog are much like WordPress with ability to create new blogs and categorizing them.
We think that Enlitly’s easy to use site builder, funnel building features and blogging process makes it stand out compared to Podia.
Community: Which is better in terms of Community- Enlitly or Podia?
Both Enlitly & Podia have basic community with provision to post, comment & likes. Enlitly community is more like Facebook.
Uploads – Enlitly allows posting audio, video, images or any attachment in the post even in the free plan. Podia offers video posting in paid plan. In addition, Enlitly community allows users to post images, videos and attachments even in the comments. This option is not available in Podia.
Notifications – Podia has better notification options. Podia notifies users when a new post is created and also when a user replies to a post. Enlitly notifies only when a new post is created.
Enlitly community can be enabled next to any content type – course, digital files etc. The community option can be used as a discussion forum for any course.
Given above pros and cons, its hard to decide which one stands out. We will leave it for users to decide which works best for them.
Email Marketing: Which is better in terms of email- Enlitly or Podia?
When it comes to email marketing, both Enlitly & Podia have options to create sequence and broadcast emails.
Segmentation – Enlitly has better options to segment the contacts using the concept of multiple lists. A contact can be a part of multiple lists. This helps in segmenting. In podia, segmenting option is limited.
Exit conditions – Podia has exit conditions that are automatic. In Enlitly, contact needs to be removed manually from the list.
Double opt-in – Currently, Enlitly does not support double opt-in. Note that double opt-in is not a part of GDPR or CAN-SPAM requirement. Rather, it’s considered a best practice, especially in Germany and the European Union. It’s worth pointing out that using double opt-in doesn’t guarantee GDPR compliance. To collect consent, be sure to insert a checkbox with consent clauses and a link to your privacy policy in your subscription form. Enlitly has by default created a GDPR field which can help you collect consent
Both Podia and Enlitly can be considered equivalent given the pros and cons of each one.
Payment Methods: Which is better in terms of payment- Enlitly or Podia?
Both support Stripe & PayPal.
Podia has automatic sales tax collection, which Enlitly does not have yet. Even though it may feel like its an important feature, the truth is that you need to apply and get your own Tax/VAT ID to utilize this. Majority of creators do not need this. Even if you do, you can always charge an all inclusive price and calculate tax in the backend. We highly recommend that you consult with CPA to understand whether you need Tax/VAT ID.
Integrations: Which is better in terms of integrations- Enlitly or Podia?
When it comes to number of integrations, Podia is a clear winner. Podia integrates with Zoom, 7 email service providers and Zapier. Enlitly has integrations for 4 email service providers only.
Zoom Integration – Truth is that there is very less advantage of integrating Zoom. You can always use zoom link in emails or products. Podia uses this for providing capability to sell webinar product. In Enlitly, you can still use zoom link in the digital files product and use it for selling live webinar.
Email Service Integration – Enlitly offers integration with 4 major email service provider. Again, email service integration is only needed when you want to send emails of those purchased your product to one of these email service providers. If you want to use an external service for funnels, you can always embed their forms in Enlitly site. We did not find embedding option in Podia.
Zapier integration- This is useful if you plan to use anything outside Stripe or PayPal or a new email service provider. You can always collect payment outside Enlitly and grant product access using manual enrollment option. Although Podia has Zapier integration, it doesn’t seem to have ability to add customer manually. Manual Enrollment is the most widely used feature in Enlitly, as such we think it is way more important than Zapier integration.
Given more integration options, Podia’s integration stands out compared to Enlitly.
Conclusion
Hope this article gave you an insight about how two platforms compare to each other. In our opinion, Enlitly is a clear winner with tons of features and an easy UI, however, Podia has been in the market for long. The best advice to make a decision is to try out both platforms and see which one makes more sense for you.
This is the most common question we hear from creators.
First thing first – Don’t keep switching your email service provider just because your emails are landing in spam. It has to do less with email service provider and more with your domain.
So, here is what you should do when you use your own domain email!
1. Set up DNS settings for your domain. This will let Gmail Yahoo etc. know that you have authorized your email service provider to send email.
You should be looking for below settings:
SPF – This will tell receiving server that you have authorized your email service provider to send emails.
DKIM – This will tell receiving server that the incoming email is authentic, and the email hasn’t been modified on the way.
DMARC – It ensures that no unauthenticated users will be able to send email from your domain, thus protecting your brand and the trustworthiness of your domain.
These settings indicate that emails are coming from authenticated source.
2. Warm up a new domain email
Your domain email needs to build reputation. This builds up when more people reply to your email and less mark you spam.
To warm up your email (aka build email sending reputation), there are a few options:
a. Ask your subscribers to reply to your emails. Start with 2, 4, 8 , 12, 20 emails per day.
b. Easy way is to use apps like Warmup Inbox. This is our referral link. This is what we use and refer to our clients.
After warming up, keep your email activity consistent. Avoid too much gap in sending emails.
3. Check spam keywords before sending email
There are certain keywords that makes the email land in spam or promotion folder. You can try testing your email text before sending it. Glock app is one such app. We haven’t tried it yet, but we know that it exists.
4. Personalization
Personalize your Subject line or email body using personalization tags. E.g. {{$first_name}}
5. Clean Your Email List
Clean up bounced and inactive emails and those who marked you spam.
Hope it helped. If it did, like and share this article.
Finding a profitable niche for your online course can help you generate substantial income. In this article, we will share the process of finding a profitable niche. If you are looking for a list of topics that are profitable, this is not the place.This article will guide you on what to teach, how to find a trending topic, and why you need to find what your learners’ value even after you find a profitable niche.
It’s worth noting that some of the best-selling online courses are those accompanied with proper marketing. So, even if you find the most profitable niche, without a proper plan, the online course will not be profitable.
How to find profitable Niches for online courses
Teach what you do is the best advice. There are 1000’s of online course topics that can be taught but you need to understand the topic thoroughly to be able to teach it. If you are still wanting to know what some of the profitable niches are, you can do some secondary research.
The first step is to narrow down to an industry –If you search online, you will find many third-party research reports which will tell you growth in a certain industry. For example, the e-learning industry is poised to grow from $107B in 2015 to $325B by 2025. This shows the growth in the e-learning sector. These secondary research reports are based on extensive surveys and analysis. It is not 100% reliable but it is a good data point to do industry-level analysis
The second step is to find what is trending – If you start looking for a general trend, there are simply too many topics. Narrowing down your focus to one Industry will help you get better results. For example, if you are looking to teach something in coding, look for technology trends. Twitter trends, Google Trends, Buzzfeed, Buzzsumo, Quora are a few places to see what is currently trending in the market. For example, as per google trend, 5G is trending in technology, so teaching a topic related to 5G can be a profitable niche.
Third, Subscribe to newsletters and magazines related to your chosen industry. The more you know about what’s trending in an industry, the better decision you will be able to make when it comes to choosing a profitable Niche.
Fourth, look at the data provided by e-learning platforms. This data is based on the past performance of their customers. It’s based on how some of the online courses have performed in the past. While it is not a guarantee for future results, it does give a good data point to start with. Usually, a quick blog search on these platforms will reveal such data analysis.
Narrowing down to a profitable niche
By following a 4 step process outlined above, you will be able to find a topic that’s trending in a given industry. You still need to understand if your audience is willing to payfor the knowledge that you bring to the table?
To find the answers to this question, you must do some market research and understand your audience. And so, reach out to your audienceand know what will make them pay for your online course.
Note, that your broader audience can be different than your perfect audience. E.g., your broader audience can be “Music lovers” and your perfect audience can be “Rock Music lovers”. To find your perfect audience yet, consider reaching out to a broader audience. From there, learn more about your audience to understand their needs and narrow down to your profitable niche.
Get our guide to creating a successful online course.
