Protecting Your Brand's Voice on AI Platforms

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With the rising popularity of voice-driven AI assistants, it's important for businesses to offer a consistent brand experience.

March 9, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When companies first began establishing an internet presence a generation ago, brand-savvy businesses worked with designers and web developers to make sure their sites were customer-friendly and that content was consistent with their brand. They didn't just scan printed marketing collateral and post it online, leaving it to the search engine to present their material in the best light. But today, some brands are essentially taking the same risk by putting their brand's voice in the hands of third-party AI platforms.

That's a mistake.

Related: Here's How You Can Use Alexa at Work

Voice-driven AI assistants are the next frontier in customer communications. Approximately 45 million Americans now own a smart speaker, according to CIRP survey data. If you're communicating with customers across multiple channels, you can't afford to ignore the growing popularity of AI assistants.

Recognize the opportunity for your brand.

AI assistants are a huge opportunity for your brand: They're becoming the go-to search tool for users, who would rather ask Alexa or Google a question than type text into a device. This has companies that want to communicate with customers wherever they are looking for quick ways to establish a voice platform presence. They're right to want to communicate with customers in their homes as quickly as possible. But it's risky to rush onto a voice platform without first creating a strategy to protect the brand's voice.

In their hurry to capitalize on the opportunity AI assistants offer, too many companies are leaving their brand's voice in the hands of the AI platform. That leaves them at risk of being "lost in translation" with an AI presence that doesn't reflect their brand standards and isn't consistent with their customer communication across other channels, including telephone voice response, online videos, etc.

Worse, it creates a situation where different brands are delivering the exact same customer experience. You need only look to the Alexa skills offered by American Express and Capital One -- two financial brands with very different brand images -- to hear this brand confusion in action. Both use similar questions and the exact same native Alexa voice to deliver their brand experience. When you consider that American Express goes to the effort of piping a unique brand smell into its Centurion Lounges to differentiate its brand, it's simply startling that they leave their brand voice up to the base voice provided by Amazon.

Related: Artificial Intelligence Now Has a Voice, But Security Challenges Loom

Put your company in the driver's seat.

So what's the alternative? Instead of leaving such an important communication function in the control of a platform, you should put your company in the driver's seat and create your own branded, AI-driven communication capabilities with an app that's designed for voice-enabled platforms. Leaders in sectors like insurance, financial services and retail are already doing just that, creating AI assistant-driven apps to engage customers in conversation on AI platforms in a natural, human voice that matches their brand.

If you're proactive about managing your brand, consider working with a vendor that specializes in voice communications. Collaboration with a partner can allow you to develop and deploy interfaces that let your company communicate with customers via API-enabled, data-driven dialogues. With this approach, deployment is relatively simple and communication is consistent across all voice platforms.

Retailers, insurers and financial services firms are already using this approach to converse with customers through AI assistants -- responding to customer questions about deliveries, appointments, balances, claims and payments, for example. But with the right partner, brands can ensure customer data is applied correctly while also protecting the brand's voice. When you consistently use up-to-date, accurate customer data, you build stronger connections with customers.

Related: Everything You Can Do With Amazon Alexa

Take control of the data.

Another advantage to taking control of your brand's voice on a third-party AI assistant platform is that the data becomes a two-way street. When you create your own app (e.g., Alexa Skills, etc.) you own the transaction data, and you can integrate data from AI transactions into your customer relationship management (CRM) system.

The spike in sales of voice-enabled AI assistants makes it clear that the conversation with customers is moving to that platform, whether your brand is ready or not. If you take the time to create a deliberate strategy, you'll gain an advantage like the one early internet adopters had when they published a well-designed, consistent, on-brand website.

The risk to companies that leave their brand voice in the hands of third-party platforms is clear: An inconsistent voice across channels dilutes brand value and erodes customer trust. And without control of the data generated via interactions with AI assistant users, brands will miss out on the chance to build more complete profiles and continuously improve the customer experience.

Related: 10 Crazy Tidbits About the First Voice of Apple's Siri

Get the expertise you need.

While forward-thinking companies are moving to AI-driven platforms with branded voice response capabilities, it remains rare. The overwhelming majority of companies that have established a presence on AI platforms are leaving their brand voice in the hands of the platform owner. That means the quicker you get your company's branded voice on AI platforms, the longer you'll enjoy a competitive advantage.

You don't have to develop your own skills or actions to take advantage of the incredible opportunity the rise of voice-enabled AI platforms presents. By working with digital voice communication experts who can provide API-enabled, data-driven dialogues, you can carry on the conversation with customers where they work and live, with customers inviting you into their homes in a more intimate way than just sitting in front of a laptop screen.

And by developing applications for AI platforms, you can ensure that your company is ready and able when customers ask their AI assistants for more information about a product or service, to resolve a customer service issue, and much more. With the right strategy, you can communicate with your customers in a strong, distinctive voice that won't get lost in translation.

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"I Appreciate You": What It Means & Why It's Important to Me

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You'll often find me saying "I appreciate you" at the end of posts or emails. Here's why that phrase means so much to me.

Pat Flynn
November 21, 2016

If you know me, even just a tiny bit, you know that I make an effort to express my appreciation for the amazing people around me. Because, you know what? There are so many amazing people around me, and I wholeheartedly appreciate each and every one of you.

Here’s why.

Between 2005 and 2008, I worked in an architecture firm. While I was there, I worked my tail off day in and day out. But there was something missing. It wasn’t the lack of flexibility in my hours. I was still young and didn’t have a family yet, so I was okay with waking up at the same time everyday. It wasn’t the work itself. I enjoyed it at the time.

But the thing I missed was that I never truly felt that I—or the work I did—was appreciated. I felt as though I was the hardest working employee in the firm, or at least one of them, and despite all of that effort, and the extra hours I’d spend accomplishing things that weren’t even asked of me, I just felt like the work wasn’t seen at all. Regardless of the 110 percent I gave, no one seemed to pay attention.

During that time, I was promoted from drafter to senior drafter to job captain, and the only real appreciation was in the small income increase I received. But that’s not the appreciation I yearned for. I made big decisions during my time at the architecture firm. I made a positive impact that affected the whole team. I did much more than was expected of me.

Despite all of that, I still continued to be motivated and drive myself forward in my career because I wanted to get to a level where I was truly appreciated. I wanted to be a president or owner of my own firm, one that was recognized for some unique architecture, and my plan was to get there by the time I was forty or fifty. But, as most of you know, that never happened. I was laid off in 2008, and when I started my journey as an entrepreneur, that’s when I discovered the appreciation I was looking for all along.

After I was laid off, I created a basic guide to help architects pass the LEED exam (still available at greenexamacademy.com). It was simple, but I immediately felt like I was making a true impact because I started receiving notes of appreciation. People would send me emails thanking me for my study guides, thanking me for the free material that was on the site, or thanking me for helping them pass the exam. Sometimes those notes were just one or two words of kindness, which is all I really needed.

After a while, I would get the occasional essay-length note from folks who had passed the LEED exam because of my guide. I had helped them cut hours of studying they would’ve had to do otherwise. They mentioned me by name, thanking me for the things I had done.

Let me tell you: It felt amazing!

It was then I fully realized that one can really have an impact on the lives of people, even on the Internet. Even though you may never even meet these people in person, you can make an impact—simply by understanding their unique pains and problems, and sharing information that will help them overcome those pains and problems. That’s really what it’s all about:

Being empathetic, and sharing the knowledge you have with the goal of helping other people.

I save those notes of appreciation too. I highly recommend that you do the same. I have a folder in my email account that’s specifically for those thank you notes. I look at that all the time because sometimes when I’m feeling down, or I don’t feel like I have the energy to keep moving forward, or I’m not motivated, re-reading notes of appreciation helps me to keep going.

Now, through my work at smartpassiveincome.com, I actually receive handwritten notes of thanks and appreciation. It’s the best feeling in the world, and it tells me that I’m at least doing something right. I couldn’t thank you more for that, SPI audience. Thank you!

Appreciation in Everything I Do

The real reason I’m writing all of this is because I’ve been actively working on showing appreciation in everything I do. It’s incredibly important for me. I wouldn’t be here without you, so showing my appreciation is necessary. And, as I’ve said, I was in a place in my life where I wasn’t given the appreciation that I wanted.

A simple act of honest appreciation can go a long way, and so I try to embrace that in all things.

For instance, in my book, Will It Fly?, I have a credits section that calls out specific individuals who helped in creating the book. If someone has contributed to something that I’ve worked on, such as the book, I give credit where credit is due. The same goes for the closing section of many of my blog posts, emails, and podcasts. I say, “I appreciate you.”

You’ve probably heard me say that before. I say it a lot, and I mean it every time. I started to say “I appreciate you” after hearing someone say, “I wish I felt more appreciated.” I empathize deeply with that. Ever since that day, I made a concerted effort to make sure those around me know how much I appreciate them. And sometimes, in response to that, people say thanks for saying it, which is kind of like a joyful thanks explosion.

Ways You Can Show Your Appreciation

Showing appreciation is very important for all of us, not just as a subject matter expert providing a service or product online, but as human beings too. As an online entrepreneur, I feel like it has a great effect on how my audience responds to my content and continues to come back to consume it.

I also think one big way you can show appreciation is to make it a surprise. If you can catch people off guard, and show your appreciation in a moment of surprise, that’ll be memorable. As a blogger or content marketer or online entrepreneur like myself, your audience expects things of you. You create a certain amount of content each week, for instance. So, when people expect things of you, and they know you operate in a certain way, it’s fun to throw them off a bit by surprising them with appreciation. Go a bit above and beyond your routine.

It doesn’t have to be a big surprise either. It’s like when you share with your significant other that you love them when you go to bed every night. That is a lovely thing, but it’s also expected, and becomes habit or routine. It’s the random “I love you” on a Tuesday at 3:48 p.m. that will often be remembered because it comes as a surprise. Those little things are what help the other person know that you’re thinking of them.

You can do this in person, but I also think there are many ways that we can do that online. For example, I often gift my email subscribers something brand new without them even having to opt in to receive it. They just get access to it. For members of my book club, they get access to discounted copies of some of my favorite books, signature copies of books, and other gifts and giveaways. I also give away gift cards and in blog posts here and there. You don’t necessarily need to give away anything that’s of monetary value. Perhaps you highlight a community member. I think that shows that you appreciate and are paying attention to them, too.

Another fun and easy way you can show appreciation is on social media, in your responses to your audience, and in announcements the way Gary Vaynerchuk does on Instagram:

People respond very well to simple, and visible, acts of appreciation like this. I do this every once in awhile, too:

Showing appreciation is so important to me, so I just want to say thank you for all that you’ve done for me. To anyone who’s followed my journey since I started blogging in 2008, thank you for your passionate support. To anyone who’s listened to my podcasts, thank you for your eagerness. To anyone who’s read an article on SPI, thank you for your time. You all mean the world to me. Your engagement on the blog, social media, on the podcast, is what helps me get up each day and keep moving forward. Your amazing insight and, yes, even criticisms, keeps me grounded and inspired to keep improving.

I’m sure there is someone one in your life who has helped you. Take a moment today to say thank you to them, and tell them you appreciate them for what they do. It will only take a moment and it’ll make their—and your—day!

Thank you.

I appreciate you!

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5 Business Ideas You Can Launch from Your Living Room

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Through technology, our world has become progressively more interconnected, and has created the potential for hundreds of different business ideas.

March 9, 2018

4 min read

This story originally appeared on Due

Being a successful entrepreneur today is all about generating multiple sources of income. The title “serial entrepreneur” is tossed around with ease because the internet has created an avenue through which we can find endless ways to make a living. Those who diversify their revenue streams will help ensure their chances of success without necessarily overburdening themselves.

Through technology, our world has become progressively more interconnected, and has created the potential for hundreds of different business ideas. That said, here are five business ideas that you can launch from your living room. 

Online language tutor

Services such as Skype that offer free face-to-face communication instantaneously with anyone in the world have created a market for online language tutors. There are countless startups that offer language lessons by matching native speakers to eager learners. Most of these sites don’t require you to speak the language of your pupils.  

Join one of these sites and teach for a few months. This will allow you to build experience and credibility as a teacher. Then break off from your matching agency and start your own private lessons. This will allow you to set your own schedule and price!

Start a blog

The most important rule when starting a new blog is to pick a niche subject that attracts a good readership. If you are a decent writer, this shouldn’t be too hard, and you can also enlist one of the countless copywriters out there to write your content for you (for pretty cheap!). Once you fill your blog with quality content that attracts a solid following, there are many “affiliate marketing” programs where companies like Amazon and Google will pay you to promote their products or services.

This idea may take a bit of an initial investment -- especially if you are paying a writer. However, once it gets going, it begins to pay for itself and will only grow from there.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

This program through Amazon basically allows you to run an ecommerce operation out of your house. Amazon writes, “You sell it, we ship it,” meaning all you have to do is connect with a customer, and Amazon takes care of all of the packaging, shipping and handling. They even store your products in their warehouses. This is a great way to help you scale your small business with professional help from one of the industry leaders in ecommerce.

Become a translator

If you are fluent in another language, it is easy to connect with firms that are looking for professionals to translate documents and audio for their businesses. Most of these businesses have employees that learned the language in school, but the companies want someone with cultural knowledge as well as fantastic language skills. The more obscure the language is, the more you get paid! 

Trade cryptocurrencies

Crypto, crypto, crypto. It seems to be the talk of the town these days, and it’s for a good reason. People all over the world are making money trading cryptocurrencies. So what’s the catch? Truthfully, there really isn’t one. These digital assets are highly volatile and do not behave like normal securities. Before investing in cryptocurrencies you should do an ample amount of research, and never invest solely based on someone else’s opinion.

Opportunities are everywhere in this world. If you aren’t where you want to be financially, that’s on you. The five business ideas above are only a handful available to you. Not only that, but you can launch them all from the comfort of your living room.

(By Renzo Costarella)

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The Ultimate List of Learning Management Systems |

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Updated by Lexi Rodrigo on March 10, 2018

When you’re faced with a choice and there are way too many options, what happens?

One of two things: either you freeze and choose nothing, or you make a choice without feeling like you really knew it was the *right* choice for you.

This is definitely a big problem when you’re looking for the best learning management system (LMS) for your online course.

Your choice of LMS is important, because it isn’t just a software app that lets you organize your course content, present it online, and manage student quizzes and assignments. Your LMS influences your experience of course creation – as a frustrating struggle or a fun adventure – and it has a huge impact on your students’ experience of learning from you, too.

But when I started looking at LMS providers, I found several hundred options. There were so many options, I hired a virtual assistant to help me with hours of research and we still couldn’t cover them all. That’s without even looking at the alternatives to a full LMS, such as WordPress plugins or online course marketplaces.

If you’ve been staring at pages of Google results or software reviews, wondering how the heck you’re supposed to figure out which learning management system to use, I’ve devised a decision-making system you might find useful. It will help you narrow down your choice to just a handful of learning management systems.

In a Hurry? Click Here to Jump to the List.

If you know what you want to do with your course, you can immediately exclude any LMS that doesn’t seem likely to help you achieve that outcome.

To make this first step easy, here are four statements to help you figure out what your course-building priorities are. Read all four statements:

• “I want to experiment with course building and try out some ideas.”


• “I want to create a course that earns me a fair income without too much effort.”


• “I want to launch a course without worrying about technological hassles.”


• “I want to create a course my students will complete and benefit from.”

Now pick one.

Just one. The one that fits the best with how you feel and think about building your online course.

Yes, I know you probably want to agree with at least two of those statements – if not three, or maybe even all four of them. But stick with only one – THE most important one.

Let’s focus on these six key things a smart course builder might look for in a learning management system:

1. How much it costs


2. Whether the LMS helps you market and sell your course


3. Whether they provide support and customer service for you and your students


4. How steep the learning curve is


5. What kind of analytics and reporting the LMS offers


6. Whether a free trial or “forever free” plan is available

All six of these criteria are important, but some are less important than others for your specific situation and your priority outcome. (You know, the one you chose a few paragraphs up the page. Didn’t choose one? Scroll up and join in!)

6 features to keep in mind when looking for a learning management system. Click To Tweet

Quick Tips About Costs

The only one of those six points that are *always* a high priority for pretty much anyone who’s looking for a new LMS is the free trial or forever free plan, because it makes your final decision much easier if you can actually try out the LMS you’re considering.

But even if there’s no free trial, some LMS providers offer live demos to show you what they can do. Others have monthly plans with low costs, so don’t discount the idea of paying a token fee for a month to find out what’s inside the best-looking LMS.

One other thing you need to know about cost is that different LMS providers base their pricing structures on different things – some may charge according to the number of students who’ve accessed your course in a 30-day period, others may look at how many students have been active in the past year. Each LMS seems to make up its own name for this, but it’s typically called something along the lines of “active student” pricing or “access based” pricing.

You’ll come across other pricing models, too, such as registration-based (which means that if one student registers for three different courses of yours, that counts as three registrations on your bill) or simple student count (so that if you have 50 registered students, you’re billed for 50 regardless of whether they’ve accessed the course or not – or even accessed multiple courses). Each has advantages and disadvantages, and some LMS providers offer a choice of pricing methods so that you can pick whichever works best for you.

OK, now we’ve looked at those 6 criteria, we can hold them up against your priority outcome and see what are the most important features you’ll want in your LMS.

If your priority is experimentation, you’d be smart to look for an LMS that has a free trial or forever free plan so that you can tweak and test without spending money. And the scope of that free access matters – you want a full-featured LMS to experiment with, not a limited trial account with most of the exciting features missing!

With paid plans, consider the cost of running a small pilot course – how many students would you want to include in your experiments, and how much are you willing to pay for the right learning management system? The cost of larger courses doesn’t matter too much while you’re still in the experimentation phase, but it’s worth noting for later.

The learning curve is important when you’re experimenting, because you need to get to grips with how the LMS works enough to understand *what* you can test and *how* you can test it. Nobody wants to spend months learning how to use their LMS before they can start trying it out! You’ll also want to feel confident that the LMS provides enough support to help you carry out your experiments – and of course, to know the results you’ll be looking for an LMS with useful, clear analytics.  

But for experimenters, it really isn’t very important whether your LMS includes features like sales pages, integrated payment processing, or an all-singing all-dancing marketing system. You only need a few students for a pilot, and on that small scale you can contact them individually and collect their payments by whatever method is easiest.

You may be interested in exploring open source LMS software, which lets you download the full source code so that you can change it as much as you like, adding features and functions that never existed before. Open source software is free, but you might need extra services to support you in using it-for example, a programmer to edit the code for you, or an installation service to get it set up on your website.

If your top priority is using your course to generate revenue, look at the cost not only for your first pilot but also for greater student numbers, as you’ll make more money by enrolling more students! And when you look at analytics and reporting features, ask yourself if the insights they give you will help you see how to improve your revenue or profit margin.

The main feature that’ll interest you if your priority is sales, though, is the usefulness of any marketing or sales tools the LMS offers. This could be anything from a built-in landing page creator to handy integrations with the sales and marketing tools you already use. So find out if the LMS offers a built-in store, an affiliate network to help get new eyes on your course, and so on – and be practical about which of these tools you’ll actually use.

No matter whether you’re technologically inexperienced or simply want to avoid tech hassles in your course launch, the key things to look at here are ease of use and the level of tech support the LMS provides. Open source software isn’t necessarily any harder to use than traditional software, but it *can* be more difficult to get it installed and running if you’ve never done it before – so if you choose open source, look for a knowledge base or tutorial videos on the LMS website and note the process to follow when you need technical support.

To minimize your tech stress, find out what content formats and sources the LMS lets you use in your courses. Does it host files for you? Can it embed a YouTube video from the URL? Does it provide online classrooms for live training sessions, if that’s something you want in your course? And of course, if the LMS offers sales and marketing tools, that’s great – but check them out and make sure they do the things you want them to do without requiring a ton of customization work.

If your top priority is student success, then the key ingredients are engagement and course completion. So watch for features that will help keep your students engaged – for example, chat rooms or forums, in-course blogging, gamification and plenty of feedback opportunities – and features that help you track student progress.

It’ll be helpful to at least track completion of each lesson or module, so that you can adjust the workload and difficulty if students tend to complete a specific component particularly quickly or slowly. You can track completion and check comprehension simply by setting a quiz or assignment at the end of each module, but see what other useful data might be available to you via the LMS reporting tools. Students learn best when they’re fully supported, so an LMS that offers customer service and technical support to your students (as well as to you) will be a good choice.

OK, we’ve come this far. Now all that’s left to do is pick your favorite LMS-or your favorite few-and start trying them out.

To help speed you through this step, I’m gonna give you a list of learning management systems that the Mirasee team and I have either tried ourselves or heard good things about. You’re welcome. 😉

Looking for an online learning management system? Here are some of the best to choose from. Click To Tweet

Remember, while you’re reading these LMS descriptions, keep your *priorities* front-of-mind!  

(Seriously, if you haven’t chosen your #1 course-building priority and identified the most important LMS features to think about, then reading the information below will only be half as useful to you. Scroll up, invest two minutes in getting your priorities all set, and then come back down here.)

Ready with those priorities? OK, here you go, in alphabetical order:

Academy of Mine (Just Added!)

From $99/month (Mini), $199/month (Starter), $299/month (Growing), $449/month (Monster); 30-day free trial; learn more here

On Academy of Mine, you can create beautiful online courses and landing pages easily and without coding, by using its prebuilt layouts. Afterward, you can manage all your courses in one place, the Integrated Dashboard.

Assess your students’ learning progress through quizzes and exams with multiple-choice and True-False questions. You can also give assignments and evaluate them within the platform. Finally, track students’ grades and progress with the inbuilt gradebook.

Academy of Mine also comes with built-in-built messaging. This means you and your students can privately send messages to each other from within the platform.

This learning management system also provides a powerful marketing dashboard and integration with Google Analytics and webmaster tools.

Accord LMS

From $295/month to $745/month; no free trial; learn more here

Accord LMS gives you lots of reporting features and insight into your students’ learning experience, as well as gamification and social learning communities to help keep them engaged.

Its drag-and-drop tools mean that even technologically impaired trainers can easily create courses. But if you’re the techy type, there are plenty of advanced features to play with too, such as cloud storage integration, third-party plugins, and single sign-on for students already registered as users of your website.

Aktiv Mind LMS

From $69/month to $499/month; 30-day free trial; learn more here

This award-winning LMS is often used by companies creating internal training for employees, but is also suitable for building a course you intend to sell. The $39/month Standard plan is for up to 25 active students – and you can pay monthly or annually, with a discount of up to almost ⅙ off the cost if you choose annual billing.

When you open an Aktiv Mind LMS account, you’ll be offered an interactive tutorial that walks you through the process of uploading your content, creating student quizzes and so on to produce your course. You’ll also have access to their support crew via email and phone (email-only for the Standard plan), but primarily during the EST daytime and evening – so if you anticipate lots of support calls and you live on the other side of the world, take the time zone differences into consideration.

“Our platform is designed to be used by non-technical course creators that want a very easy-to-use platform in order to create courses quickly and efficiently.” – Rob MacLeod, Aktiv Mind LMS

CertSpring

From free, $1/month per student per month, to $15 one-time fee per student; 15-day free trial; learn more here

Pricing at CertSpring can be done whichever way you prefer: either $1 per student per month OR $15 per student as a one-off payment. In other words, if you think your students will stick around for 15 months or more then the one-off payment option might save you money in the long term. CertSpring also offers a forever free plan if you have no more than 5 students, so it’s good for a small pilot.

The interesting thing about CertSpring is its focus on bringing pre-existing content into your courses. no matter where the external content is hosted. If you want to pull in YouTube videos, recommend an ebook, or show your students vital diagrams, this LMS makes it easy – and CertSpring’s e-commerce engine will process payments for you, too.

Chamilo LMS

Free; learn more here

Chamilo LMS is open source software, so you don’t need to pay anything for it, but you may need to pay service providers to help you set stuff up the way you want it. I love the way they describe open source on their website: “All the Chamilo software products are entirely free (as in freedom), free (as in beer) and complete, and are production-ready without requiring any type of payment.”

You can create courses, map out learning paths, deliver tests and assessments, run surveys and live chats, and check student progress with Chamilo’s built-in features. Handy plugins and integrations include PrestaShop for sales and OpenMeetings for video conferencing, as well as Softaculous for easy installation on hosting with CPanel.

CourseCraft (Just Added!)

From free + 9% transaction fee (Free), $29/month + 5% transaction fee (Club), to $59/month, no transaction fee (Society); learn more here

CourseCraft is one of the few learning management systems that allow you to teach together with collaborators. You can add friends and colleagues, and allow them to create and edit beautiful lessons together (Society plan only).

CourseCraft also integrates with your blog or website. Using Embed codes, people can enroll in your course without leaving your site.

Another interesting feature is the ability to sell add-ons to your course, such as coaching or consulting hours, downloadable content such as PDFs, audio files, and video (paid plans only).

DigitalChalk

From $15/month (Essential, $39/month (Professional), to $129/month (Premier); no free trial; learn more here

DigitalChalk lets you guide your students along specific learning paths with prerequisites, tests, and assignments – useful if you want to create a set of short courses for your students to progress through. You can brand your course with your logo and sell it through DigitalChalk’s e-commerce tools. Although DigitalChalk doesn’t offer a free trial, it *does* offer free demos to help you see how it works.

Docebo

From $230/month to $600/month; 14-day free trial; learn more here

With Docebo the $230/month plan lets you have up to 50 active students, and you can choose annual billing instead of monthly to get a ⅙ discount. Some add-on features and third-party app integrations carry an extra cost, so account for that in your budget if you think you’ll use those features – for example, a custom domain name or gamification options.

Among the more interesting add-ons is a blogging app (free) that lets your students write and comment on blog posts within the LMS. Another useful add-on is the E-Commerce app $39/month) that lets you create an online store with integrated payment processors – including PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net – and extra features such as promotional voucher codes.

For analytics and student progress tracking, you can customize your dashboards and reports – and if you need help, Docebo’s users say the customer service team is attentive and quick to resolve support requests. To get a sense of how easy the software is to learn and use, check out this tutorial video on how to create a course in Docebo.

“Docebo is a very intuitive and user-friendly LMS for businesses, which makes it a good choice for people who aren’t tech-savvy, but it also has robust capabilities that can be leveraged by more advanced users.” – Alison Grenkie, Docebo

EDUonGo

From $50/month (Starter), $100/month (Professional), to $300/month (High Volume); free trial available; learn more here

EDUonGo supports live online classrooms – great for experimenters who want to test content and delivery on the fly. Their Starter plan lets you have up to 10 students, and the High Volume plan covers up to 100 students.

EDUonGO also provides a course catalog page template that lets you showcase your available courses all in one place if you create multiple courses. If you want to market and sell your courses using a free-to-paid content model, you can use EDUonGo to create built-in enrolment pages for your paid course at the end of your free course.

Eliademy Premium (Just Added!)

From €10 per month +2€ monthly per unique participant or €500 per year for unlimited courses and students + 10% commission on course sales; 15-day free trial; learn more here

Originally built for classroom educators and corporate trainers to bring their lessons online, Eliademy Premium allows anybody to create an online course. Eliademy has an online course marketplace, where it’s free to create and sell your online courses (this will be included in a future update of our post about online learning marketplaces).

However, Eliademy Premium is where you can teach “confidential courses,” or online courses that don’t appear on Eliademy’s course marketplace. You can promote and sell your courses only through a special link. Eliademy Premium has its own webinar platform, where you can teach up to 50 students at a time. You can also add discussions, tasks, quizzes, and customizable completion certificates to your course.

eTrainCenter

From free (100 registrations) to $2,000/month (10,000 registrations), 90-day free trial; learn more here

eTrainCenter, created by Creative Logic Solutions, is another LMS with built-in tools that let you price and sell your course. It also offers add-on services such as consulting or training in e-learning to help you learn to create great courses. Student chat rooms and message boards let you and your students discuss the course, or you can switch these features off if you prefer.

The pricing model lets you choose a free plan with up to 100 registrations, or you can opt for a range of paid plans based on registrations or active students – and save up to 25% by paying annually instead of monthly. With simple analytics and reporting, you get an overview of who’s studying what and how your students are doing in their assessments – and if you’d like to include other data in your reports, the support team can help.

“The eTrainCenter LMS has been on the market since 2004 and has a proven track record… We have flexible pricing models that allow for seat or registration pricing. Seat pricing is ideal for companies where users take many courses. Registration pricing is perfect for companies where users take very few courses per year.” – Niall Rochford, Creative Logic Solutions

GnosisConnect

From $299/month to $849/month; 30-day free trial; learn more here

The key feature everyone emphasizes about GnosisConnect is that it’s easy to use and customize – and when you’re logged in to GnosisConnect as a course creator, you’ll have access to plenty of tutorial videos to help you get to grips with the software.

GnosisConnect offers a discount of ⅙ off the cost if you choose annual billing; the $299/month plan lets you have up to 100 users in your course. Some reviewers say the analytics and reporting could be more in-depth, but whether that matters to you will depend on your specific priorities. To get a sense of what’s available, request a free demo and one of GnosisConnect’s experts will show you around the LMS live and answer all your questions.

“GnosisConnect is a simple and an intuitive LMS… We make it very easy for any user to use all the major functionalities they would use in their day to day life.” – Robert Velasquez, GnosisConnect

GO1 LMS

From free (up to 5 students) to $5/user/month; 14-day free trial; learn more here

This LMS includes e-commerce features such as sales pages, payment processor integrations and promotional coupons. The $10/month Starter plan allows up to 10 students. When you pass the 10-student line, you can adjust your plan and costs to cover any number of students – with a discount for paying annually.

Users say that interactivity and simplicity are the best points about GO1, but the company’s passion for doing good is also impressive. If you’re building a course for a non-profit or charity organization, you’re eligible to apply for a free GO1 portal. And GO1 promises that all funds received from Starter plan users are donated directly to organizations that help make the world a better place.

“GO1 is not just a learning management system, we also have a course marketplace of over 100,000 courses from some of the top content creators worldwide. This gives you the option of creating your own content, or selecting high quality pre-made courses, both of which can be managed from within the GO1 system.” – Scott Cooper, GO1

Inquisiq

From $199/month (up to 50 users) to $1,199/month (up to 5,000 users); 30-day free trial; learn more here

Inquisiq, created by ICS Learning Group, has won awards for its user-friendly interface and is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and small to midsized businesses rather than academic institutions or vast corporations. The $199/month plan gives you space for up to 50 active students, and billing is monthly.

The LMS includes e-commerce features to help you market and sell your course, and you’ll have access to a US-based support team. You can also connect your course pages to Google Analytics to track your students’ activity. If you’re interested in Inquisiq, watch this video tour to see the software or request a live demo so you can ask questions along the way.

“Inquisiq is the ideal learning management system (LMS) for a course creator who values the learner experience and demands an LMS that allows their content to shine through.” – Miles Feldman, ICS Learning Group

Kajabi

From $129/month (Basic), $389/month (Pro), to $899/month (Premium); 14-day free trial; learn more here

Kajabi is a feature-rich LMS that’s been around for 7 years of iterative improvement, so you can expect a good experience with it. The system includes tools for marketing and selling your course, from a landing page builder to email marketing and even affiliate management for joint venture promotions. It’s customizable and integrates with most of the popular third-party apps you might use, including Zapier for even more integrations and automations.

The analytics and reporting available from your Kajabi dashboard are detailed and useful, and you can hook up Google Analytics for more insight. You won’t need to worry about the learning curve too much, because you’ll get a lot of help from Kajabi University with free training to make the most of your LMS. To see Kajabi in action and judge the learning curve for yourself, watch this walkthrough video.

“Kajabi is designed from the ground up for course creators that want the simplicity of all the tools they need to drive 7-figure results, in one app, elegantly integrated.” – Joe Henschel, Kajabi

Read our review of Kajabi here.

Latitude Learning

From free (up to 100 users) to 40 cents/user/month (from 10,001-20,000 users); learn more here

Don’t be put off by the price tag! You’ll only pay that much if you have more than 10,000 active students-at which point your revenues should more than cover the expenses. In fact, Latitude Learning gives you a Forever FREE plan for up to 100 active students, so you can get started with no concerns about the LMS running costs.

And this LMS comes with a collection of ready-made courses that are free for you *and* your students to use, so if you feel your students will benefit from a course in, say, Communications, Sales, or Business Math, you can give them that extra training without creating it yourself. Win!

LearningCart

From $199/month (Silver), $339/month (Gold), to $549/month (Platinum); no free trial; learn more here

This award-winning LMS has a ton of third-party app integrations available, as well as built-in tools for marketing and selling your courses and other products (even physical products). Analytics and reports are customizable and LearningCart will let you connect Clicktale to understand your students’ actions better, as well as Google Analytics.

The $199/month Silver plan allows up to 100 active students but doesn’t give you phone support, custom reporting or a custom URL – if those features matter to you, the Gold plan includes them and costs $339/month. You’ll get a discount by paying annually instead of monthly. LearningCart may also charge a one-time setup fee for any plan, which varies depending on exactly what you want your LearningCart to do. To see some of what it *can* do, check out their demo video and demo site.

“Our focus is on providing all the tools needed to monetize training and content… With over 10 years of experience in this space, our platform’s features have evolved over the years based on our clients’ real world experience and feedback.” – Julie Campbell, LearningCart

LearningStone

From free (up to 20 members, 1 group), $165/month (up to 250 members, 5 groups) to $866/month (up to 2,000 members, 35 groups); 30-day free trial; learn more here

LearningStone charges based on “workspaces”, which is a little confusing but ultimately still means that your costs depend on your student numbers. The $165/month plan gives you 1 workspace with up to 5 active groups and a maximum of 250 students. If your student numbers are low, for example, because you’re piloting or running coaching sessions, you can ask the LearningStone team for a coaching coupon that entitles you to a 50% discount. Or you could use the forever free plan which lets you have 1 group and up to 20 students.

The learning environment your students get with this LMS has a Facebook-style social timeline that makes chatting and collaborating easy, and you can add progress markers, surveys, and tests inside your courses to let you see how your students are doing. Check out LearningStone’s tutorial videos to see it in action.

“LearningStone was developed with trainers in mind who need an easy to manage online environment to complement their training. The course timeline editor provides a powerful tool to manage events, content, assignments, video, forms and surveys and more.” – Michiel Klonhammer, LearningStone

LearnWorlds (Just Added!)

From $29/month + $5 per course sale (Starter), $99/month (Pro Trainer), to $299/month, no transaction fees (Learning Center); 30-day free trial; learn more here

This unique course creation platform lets you create interactive videos (Learning Center plan) and ebooks. That means learners can skip to specific parts of a video and even answer questions within a video. With interactive ebooks, they can highlight and add notes to their ebooks from within the LearnWorlds platform.

Your LearnWorlds account also includes a social network for each of your courses. Students can discuss lessons, like and comment on each other’s posts, and answer polls. You can also provide support through these groups.

It also has one of the most advanced assessment features, such as informal and formal quizzes, assignments, and an integrated workflow for open-ended assignments.

Moodle

Free; learn more here

This is one of the longest-standing LMS’s on the market, first released in 2001. Moodle is open source software that’s free to download and use.  

To see how the open source LMS works, take a look at these Moodle videos and demo sites. Moodle doesn’t offer built-in marketing and sales tools, but because it’s open source you should be able to add or develop integrations with your preferred sales and marketing systems. Almost anything you need has already been done by someone in the Moodle community who’s willing to show you how. You can pick up free advice in Moodle forums or hire professional Moodle Partners for extra services.

“Moodle is currently working on a number of exciting releases, focussed on better user interface and experience and also meeting the latest need from educators, classrooms, organisations and institutions for enhanced and innovative learning experiences.” – Martin Dougiamas, Moodle Founder and CEO

Moodle Cloud (Just Added!)

From Free (up to 50 users), AUD$80/year (Starter), $250/year (Mini), $500/year (Small), to $1,000/year (Medium); no free trial; learn more here

If you like the features of Moodle, but would rather not deal with your own open source installation, MoodleCloud is your best alternative. Even with the free plan, you get unlimited courses and activities, personalized course site name, and built-in web conferencing. 

Aside from Moodle’s standard features, MoodleCloud comes with additional plugins and tools to make learning more engaging, fun, and interactive.

Opigno LMS

Free; learn more here

Opigno is an open source LMS that’s free to download and use. It’s based on Drupal, so if your website uses Drupal for content management then this will integrate nicely. The software includes eCommerce features to let you sell subscriptions to your courses, using PayPal as a payment processor.

To help you learn how everything works, you can download an extensive user manual, watch tutorial videos, and check out the Opigno forums. If you decide you need extra technical support or services, the Opigno team is available for a fee. Or if you don’t want the full open source experience, you can simplify by using Opigno Cloud hosting (free for up to 5 students, paid if you have more students).

“Opigno is very flexible and will fit pretty much every use case; nevertheless, course creators expecting nicely customized contents, as well as a high level of flexibility, will enjoy Opigno the most.” – Axel Minck, Opigno

Podia (Just Added!)

Free $39/month (Mover) or $79/month (Shaker); 30-day free trial; learn more here

Podia is an affordable all-in-one platform that lets you create and sell, not only online courses, but also memberships (Shaker level) and digital downloads.

It also includes an email service for collecting email addresses and sending drip emails and one-off email broadcasts.

With Podia, you pay one flat fee per month. There are no transaction fees and no limits on the number of students, buyers, and email subscribers you can have.

Proffesso

From free,  $20/month (Basic), to $40/month (Professional); 30-day free trial; learn more here

Proffesso is a very affordable LMS that offers a lot of useful features even on its free plan, such as integrations with Zapier, PayPal, Stripe, Disqus, YouTube and Vimeo. With all plans giving you unlimited student enrolments and zero transaction fees, this could be a great bargain – however, be aware that support is limited to email with a 48-hour response window, which may not feel like enough support for you if you’re an experimenter or a technophobe.

ProProfs

From $79/month (Team), $199/month (Business), to $799/month (Enterprise); 15-day free trial; learn more here

ProProfs offers a range of products, starting with “Training Maker” which lets you create courses and track student progress. You can add extra products such as Live Chat or Knowledge Base to extend the Training Maker’s features.

Pricing is a bit more complex than with most other LMS. There are 5 pricing plans – Free, Basic, Professional, Business and Enterprise – each with its own feature set. The Free plan stays free no matter how many students you have; the other plans increase in price according to your student numbers. So $29/month is the cost of the Basic plan for up to 100 students, $1799/month is the cost of the Enterprise plan with unlimited students, and there are lots of price points to choose from in between those two extremes.

Ruzuku

From $99/month (Bootstrapper), $149/month (Up-and-comer), to $199/month; 14-day free trial; learn more here

Ruzuku is a popular LMS with a live webinar feature as well as built-in e-commerce tools that help you sell your courses and collect tuition payments via PayPal, Stripe, InfusionSoft or 1ShoppingCart. It also integrates nicely with Mailchimp for email marketing and student engagement emails.

Ruzuku promises to support your students in buying and using your courses, as well as support you in creating them. Choosing annual billing instead of monthly gets you a discount of up to $888 per year, depending which plan you’re on. The lowest-priced plan doesn’t include every last feature, but it does allow you an unlimited number of students.

“Ruzuku is best for course creators who love to interact and engage with their course participants in a way that’s social, supportive, and fun.” – Abe Crystal, Ruzuku

Read a detailed review of Ruzuku here.

Simplero

From $100/ month + 2% transaction fee (Starter), $150/month + 1.5% transaction fee (Basic), $225/month + 1% transaction fee (Professional), to $400/month (Unlimited); 30-day free trial; learn more here

Simplero’s plans determine what transaction fees you pay, from 2% on the Starter Plan to no transaction fees on the Unlimited plan. You can switch between plans easily, so choosing one isn’t a big deal and you can always change it later.

With built-in membership sites, sales pages, email marketing, course catalogs, and fancy features such as upsell offers and affiliate tracking, this LMS seems to be a good all-rounder.

Teachable

From $39/month + 5% transaction fee (Basic), $99/month (Professional), to $299/month (High Volume); free trial available; learn more here

Teachable does a lot of important things for you – they’ll host your course content, publish your sales pages, process payments [for a small fee] and even pay your joint venture partners or course authors if you set that up through their payment gateway. With quizzes and forums, conversion attribution, email segmentation and built-in affiliate marketing, everything’s kept in one place for you.

Teachable doesn’t charge you for how many students or courses you have. The $39/month plan carries a 5% transaction fee on student tuition payments, whereas the $99/month plan has no transaction fees and a few extra features. Teachable also won’t charge you for courses you make available for free; so if you wanted to run a free mini-course to test the water for a new idea, you can do that here.

“What makes Teachable unique in the learning management space is we believe in focusing on the user experience of people that use our platform. Too many LMS’s try and compete on packing in the most number of features and winning feature matrix wars while we want people that use our software to be delighted.” – Angkur Nagpal, Teachable

Read a detailed review of Teachable here.

Thinkific

From free + 10% transaction fee (Starter), $49/month + 5% transaction fee (Essentials), $99/month (Business), to $279/month (Advanced); learn more here

Thinkific is another LMS that doesn’t charge you per student. Instead, all Thinkific plans allow unlimited students and unlimited courses – but the Starter (free) plan carries a 10% transaction fee and the Essentials ($39/month) plan carries a 5% transaction fee. From the Business ($79/month) plan upward, there are no transaction fees. Be aware that credit card processing will incur a separate fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, no matter what plan you choose.

The main benefit of Thinkific is that it’s designed to make course creation easy for people with minimal technical experience – so your course and its content are hosted by Thinkific, your marketing, sales, payment plans and processing are handled by Thinkific, your affiliate program is managed in Thinkific… you get the idea. That said, there are still plenty of advanced features you can dig into if you like getting your hands tech-y.

Read a detailed review of Thinkific here.

Thinking Cap

From free, $65/month (Starter), $125/month (Small), $225/month (Medium), to $500/month (Large), billed annually; free trial available; learn more here

Thinking Cap is an LMS designed for teachers of all kinds, from entrepreneurs to higher education and big corporations. It offers all the essential features – and some that are more unique, like the ability to segment your students and show them different versions of your course. Pricing is kept simple, with a forever free plan that lets you have up to 10 students.

Udutu (Just Added!)

From $5 per user per course (prepaid), or $2.50 per user, per month, for up to 499 users (subscription); unlimited free trial (up to 5 users); learn more here

Udutu’s learning management system includes a robust authority tool for creating interactive online courses. Designed for corporate training, Udutu lets you create role-based learning paths and sequences to customize training content to learners. Its measurement and reporting features let you know your students’ performance, progress, and learning behaviors. It’s also one of the few platforms that include gamification so you can reward performance, better engage your students, and make learning more fun and effective.

Zippy Courses (Just Added!)

From $99/month (Standard) and $199/month (Professional); 7-day trial for $1; learn more here

Zippy Courses, the WordPress plugin for creating courses, is now available as a third-party hosted, stand-alone learning management system.

You don’t have to pay any transaction fees with Zippy Courses and both plans come with unlimited courses. Choose your plan depending on the number of emails you’ll be sending per month and the amount of data storage you require.

Zippy Courses claims to be optimized for both teaching and sales. For example, it gives you the ability to create different versions of the same course, so you can offer a higher-priced, premium version of your course.

You can also make your course “evergreen,” or available for purchase at any time. Or, you can create launch windows, or specific time periods when your course is open for purchase.

Read our detailed review of the Zippy Courses platform here.

Now that we’ve taken a look at a few of the LMS available to you, you should have a better sense of the possibilities. To be sure you’re happy with the LMS you’ve chosen, take a free trial or buy a month’s subscription and test it out before you commit to it.

Remember to focus on your #1 priority when you consider how useful each feature of an LMS is for your online education business. This entire decision-making process is designed to make sure you choose the best LMS for your specific needs!

Alright, you’re up! Are you using, or have you used, any of these platforms? Are there any not on the list that you recommend? 

Get the Ultimate List of LMS Platforms!

Get our ultimate list of LMS platforms and guide to choosing one for your online course.

Get It NOW!

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How to Help Your Online Course Students Succeed – SPI TV, Ep. 59

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Yesterday, I teamed up with the awesome folks at Teachable for a webinar on increasing the success rate of your online course students. We had such a great discussion that I wanted to share a replay of that webinar with you today.

In the webinar, I’m joined by some fantastic course creators from a variety of backgrounds and business niches. You’ll hear about their successes so far, their biggest headaches, and their unique approaches to tracking down the ideal student.

How do we set our students up for success? How do we keep our students motivated throughout the coursework? What are the big mistakes course creators are making these days that we should be avoiding?

Together, we diagnose gaps in each other’s strategies and offer up suggestions for making our courses better than ever.

If you’re intrigued by online courses and the value they can provide your audience, take a look! Take a look at my own courses for inspiration, and keep your eyes peeled for even more to come in the future.

Thanks so much for watching SPI TV, and be sure to subscribe (via YouTube or iTunes) to get new episodes of SPI TV delivered to you each week!

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Boost Your Ecommerce Success: Offer Customized Products

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Bespoke or customized items are no longer viewed as a luxury. This is a buying trend you can get in on.

March 9, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Everyone wants to stand out from the crowd, and in the oversaturated and expanding world of ecommerce, this is difficult to achieve. Purchasers and businesses both want to show their unique personalities to gain an edge in their respective spheres, and here's one way to meet both needs: Offer customized products.

Related: Marketing to Millennials? Make It Personal and Customized.

Struggling to compete in a growing market.

Ecommerce has grown exponentially since 2009 and currently accounts for more than $115 million in retail sales in the United States alone. As more and more businesses enter the ecommerce marketplace, sellers must look beyond the standard loyalty-generating route to get their products the notice they deserve.

Already, sellers are combating content saturation by offering free shipping and returning-customer loyalty discounts to create and expand their customer base.

Access to data has created even more opportunities, allowing businesses to provide potential buyers and clients with customized recommendations that match their buying habits. Online video chats are another feature, offering customers advice on sizing and other product questions for an extra level of the personalization online buyers want.

All these factors support branding and customer retention, of course. But the problem is that so many other ecommerce sites are using these tools that they've become too commonplace to really make an impact.

Customization itself isn't new -- but the market level is.

Of course the notion of customized products -- as a solution to the overcrowded ecommerce market -- isn't new. Customization has been around a long time, focused primarily on luxury and promotional marketing items.

Indeed, high-end retailers have always been willing to go the extra mile to attract new customers or keep current ones happy. Want that car with a different color leather interior? Sure! Love the necklace but wish it had emeralds instead of diamonds? We can do that!

Related: Bike Company Takes Customization to a New Level

So, if you wanted logo-printed tote bags or can afford to spend $12,000 to change the color scheme of your luxury automobile, you can customize your purchase. However, most customization has been available only for the low-end and high-end price points, with nothing in between.

Now that's changing.

A shift in demand.

While many consumers see the latest fashion trends and gadgets, more and more want to express their own styles and personalities and will pay extra pay for custom items. Currently, between 25 and 30 percent of shoppers want customization options and will pay a premium price for them, according to a Bain & Co. survey of 1,000 online shoppers. These customers also said they wanted websites to offer customization options and that they wanted to develop brand loyalty in return.

The result of such customization? Customers seem willing to come back for more and seem likely to recommend the business to others.

A case study.

MaD Tungsten Rings Australia experienced this exact phenomenon. The company originally offered unique styles of tungsten-based rings, and its contemporary design was targeted to the men’s market. Over time, the company developed a significant following, and then something else happened: Requests rolled in for wedding ring sets.

From this business grew a demand for customized rings. What had started as a trickle of requests became a river of sales after MaD Tungsten added a customization option on its website.

Repeat business, both from direct sales and wholesale, grew exponentially once customization became a standard option for customers. “We already offered high-quality, unique products,” Dan Stewart, founder of MaD, told me. “Providing customization options that can truly reflect the design vision of the buyer has really helped take our business to the next level.”

A trend on the rise.

Many businesses hesitate to enter the customization market for fear that it is a fad rather than a long-term opportunity.

But, according to Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey, customization is the future of retail. Two factors are responsible for this shift.

First, advances in technology, like 3-D printing, computerized lathes and the ability to screen-print on tile and leather, are allowing manufacturers to quickly and inexpensively customize items. Currently, these advances are happening on a smaller scale, but the advantage is that smaller ecommerce businesses actually have the advantage over large corporations.

Second, bespoke or customized items are no longer viewed as a luxury. Being able to claim something as “mine” is an expectation that more and more buyers have. Next, the products that clients want customized have also changed.

Today’s shoppers have moved past key chains and mugs with their names on them to cutlery, tablet and laptop skins, shoe heels, shirt styles, handbags, belts and more. With this growing demand for customized items, creative and cost-effective opportunities are opening up to those with the foresight and determination to capitalize on them.

Related: McDonald's Tests Another Premium Customization Option

Bottom line.

Customized products are no longer relegated to the purview of the uber-wealthy or to kitschy tourist souvenirs. They are on the backs, wrists, shoulders, feet and heads of more and more people every day. Offering customization options for the products you already sell, or those you choose to add to your stock, can help you redefine your niche and swim to the top of the ecommerce pool.

Branding, customer loyalty and product recognition will set you apart from others. And that may lead to long-term success. So consider customization as your next strategy for competing in the crowded ecommerce market.

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SPI 240: Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Out of the Conferences You Attend

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Conferences can be a thrilling, unforgettable way to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and learn from the online business community. But which conferences should you go to? How do you meet other people once you’re there? And what on earth do you talk about? In today’s episode, I’m answering all these questions and more.

From my first experiences at Blog World Expo to my recent trip to FinCon, I’ve learned how to navigate the dizzying number of opportunities a conference provides—even as an introverted newcomer. I’ll share my tips for striking up conversations, making introductions, connecting with folks who have shared interests, minimizing anxieties, and having a truly meaningful time. You’ll also hear my shortlist of favorite business conferences to attend, as well as where I’ll be speaking later this year and on into 2017.

Are you ready to start having unforgettable conference experiences?

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The SPI Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions, head on over to AskPat.com. This bite-sized show has more than two million downloads and counting!

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates, or even better, download the new SPI Mobile App, now available for both iOS and Android. It’s free!

Until next time!

 

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