Knowledge is the greatest gift that life has to offer. Life would not be the same without the knowledge that we have today.
For most of human history, the way we learn and give knowledge has remained largely unchanged. This usually involves a teacher/student relationship or a master/apprentice relation. One mostly provides the instruction, while the other receives it.
Then there are those who learn by themselves. Self-study has become possible thanks to advances in writing and reading. With detailed instruction books, anyone can learn without the need for a teacher or master.
The internet revolution followed. The internet revolution has been widely believed to have transformed education and learning. However, the internet did not change the way people consume and receive information.
In my opinion, what the internet really did best was to democratize knowledge in a scale that had been unseen since the rise of instructional films and even the invention of the printing press even before that.
Teachers and teachers of the heart were able to share their knowledge via the internet to people they didn’t know. It allowed education and knowledge to break boundaries and borders, even without a plane ticket and a visa.
While most of it started on unlikely websites such as youtube and vimeo, or maybe even written blogs. Now, we have dedicated websites that act as a platform for people to teach courses.
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Legit Marketing Reviews’ YouTube channel. Do check out our article below, however, because it has a comprehensive overview of Podia.
Podia a Brief Overview Smart Podia + Classroom
Podia is an online platform that allows people to share their knowledge of different things while also making money. Podia customers create online courses that can be tailored to their students. These courses can be put on the platform by customers and sold to them.
Podia gives you the tools and hosts your online courses.
Podia’s market is not limited to online courses. Podia is one of the most popular digital content selling platforms. These content could include the mentioned online courses. It could also be coaching, webinars, community, as well as other digital products.
The company behind Podia has New York City as its headquarters. Additional offices are located in Austin, Texas. Although it is relatively new, it seems somewhat old in internet terms. It launched in 2014 and behind it is a guy named Spencer Fry.
Fry created a platform that would make it easier for online creators to market their products and to connect with their audience. He wanted the experience to be less hassle, but at the same time, provide these people with a welcoming and communal environment.
Podia, a website that is intuitive, powerful, and user-friendly, was created from scratch.
Why use Podia?
Despite the number of online platforms available on the internet, Podia still stands out especially due to its creator-friendly policies. It has a digital storefronts that offers instant payout from sales while not even asking for any transaction fees. Yep, that’s right, podia takes no money for any transaction you make.
Podia extends its creator-friendly policies in the way their platform works. With an intuitive and comprehensive platform, creatives are able to execute their great ideas and visions even if they lack the technical know-how.
Podia makes it simple to get digital content on the market.
Even for those who already have an established digital content, Podia is still a very viable platform to transfer to. Other digital platforms can offer too many features that could be considered as an overkill. Too many options may look fine at first, however it could lead to an overwhelming experience.
This lack of focus may even be the cause of why your business is going into decline. That is why Podia’s simple and easy to get platform is a much better option. Smart Podia + Classroom
Your membership site and your selling platform can be linked to each other through Podia’s website. This is preferable to most cases where the membership site is hosted separately from your product. This is not only a hassle but it also takes away valuable time that you could have spent creating.
In short, using Podia allows you to focus on the “creating” side of things rather than the logistics and business side.
What Podia Can Do
Podia claims that they have everything you need to create, validate, and market online courses.
A Custom Website Builder
Their custom website builder enables users to create custom landing pages that suit what you ad your brand are selling. Podia offers you to build this custom website with a custom domain or as a subdomain to Podia.
Thus, podia gives you the advantage of a more custom website or the simplicity of having everything all in one place.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
An Email Marketing System
Podia allows you to have an automated email marketing system that allows you to send one-time broadcasts, as well as automated campaigns. While you can avail of this service through other websites, the tool that Podia provides you is already enough.
You can save even more money by using the one Podia offers.
Their email editor is also very elegant. You can even create automated sequences that are tailored to the buyer.
A live messaging widget
Live messaging is always important when you want to offer a fast and quick response to any questions fielded by your customers. People nowadays want quick customer service. This widget allows you to communicate with customers instantly.
Capabilities of Affiliate Marketing Program
Affiliate marketing is important especially if you want to sell your products to a wider market. Podia users have the opportunity to take advantage of the platform’s capabilities. By using partner promotion, users can widen their audience as well as exponentially enhance the number of sales
Digital Storefronts
Of course, you won’t be able to show your products without a place to display them. A Digital Storefront also allows you to advertise the new or featured products in your website. Podia makes it possible to create an online store that only sells your products.
Any customer can set-up this storefront even without the coding, programming or even the design skills to do this. It’s all thanks to the no coding approach implemented by Podia.
Course Dashboard
For services like Podia, the way customers are able navigate their content is another crucial factor on which service they would like to avail. With Podia’s intuitive interface, it is easy to navigate these pages with just a few clicks.
Uploading and sharing your lessons, whether they are videos, audio podcasts or PDF documents, has never been easier.
Drip Content
You can also control the posting schedule with Podia. Such a feature is especially important if you don’t want to blow your load of lessons at just a single opportunity.
With the drip content feature, course creators can “choose to schedule their content” at a more manageable time. This benefits both the student and the teacher (Main Podia customer) as this system allows the student to avoid being overwhelmed and burnt out of the course.
Meanwhile with automatic Drip Content, the teacher does not need to manually update each post to give another lesson or release another product.
Payment Integrations
Without payment integration, every feature is useless. Podia offers payment integrations that allow customers to pay with credit cards and PayPal worldwide. Smart Podia + Classroom
Membership Areas
Through Podia, you can create a membership area for your customers. You can offer your customers a membership area for a monthly or annual fee. They will receive exclusive content in return. There are even giveaways you can host.
Membership Areas are also a great way to build customer trust and even a tight community, so having a prepared place where you can easily set it up is surely a welcome one.
What is Podia like?
Of course, this wouldn’t really be a full review if we can’t tell you how the service really feels. We will be looking at Podia’s Course Creation and Engagement Section as well as Site Design and Customization and Sales and Marketing to see how they feel.
Course Creation and Engagement
First and foremost, we should tackle how the Podia handles course creation. This is especially crucial as of course, this is the main reason why users would like to pay for the Podia Service.
You can create unlimited courses with Podia. This means that there is no limit and no additional fees whenever you feel offering a new course.
Podia supports text, embeds, quizzes, coaching and files for lessons. That said, Podia offers very few lesson types. Podia also does not offer assessments, Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline, HTML5 content types, and custom codes.
However what it lacks, it can embed and Podia can embed a lot. Podia can embed on over 1900+ platforms. This include but are not limited to
- Youtube, vimeo, dailymotion for video content
- Spotify SoundCloud and PodBean Audio podcasts
- Speaker Deck, Slide Share, Presentation and Google Slides
- Twitter, TikTok and Behance.
- Github and Codepen
- Typeform, Paper Form, and Google Forms
Podia was designed to make it easy for students. Your students can navigate your course easily. To make it more enjoyable, you can use your drip content and automated emails.
You can even add in a quiz and offer a certificate of completion to your students for completing a course. Of course, these features are optional.
Another thing to note is that courses are just the tip of the iceberg on what products you can feature in Podia. You can sell webinars, bundles and coaching as well as digital files.
By integrating the multiple websites mentioned above, you can create webinars as well as replay of these webinars to your customers. To make a complete package, you can also bundle them with your courses.
Site Design and Customization
For your websites, Podia offers templates that allow you to get on the exciting part easily and quickly. This is also true when making your product landing pages too.
It is easy to create your product website, or landing pages. Each page is divided into a section wherein you can decide what to put in. You can even rearrange these pages just by dragging and dropping. You can also remove sections that you don’t need.
For customization, Podia offers a decent amount of options. Podia offers both the basics of fonts and colors, as well as customizable text box options. But that’s not all you get. Many people think that Podia can be too restrictive when it comes to design.
Podia must make this sacrifice in order to keep his website design page flexible and ready-to-use. Bear in mind, Podia’s site design page requires no coding. It is all drag and drop.
They say that custom code can be added, but I have not found the location.
Podia lets you sell other things, in addition to courses. However, you need to have more than one digital product in the storefront for this feature to work. That is an easy job though. You can do the same for these products like how you designed your websites.
To create unique sections for each product, you can use your landing page or front page. That way, it is simple for your students and customers to navigate and buy what they need.
The checkout page for products is smart and simple. There is very little clutter. It is simple to convert every customer into a buyer because there are no distractions distracting their attention while they pay.
Podia has a good selection of customization options. You won’t feel overwhelmed by all the options available.
Podia’s design offerings may feel restrictive to some but for non-techies, the simplicity is what they could ask for. Smart Podia + Classroom
Marketing and sales
Let’s lastly talk about Podia’s sales and marketing capabilities. This is also an important part of the Podia experience, or any course-creating platform in general as this gives you an idea how easy it is to sell to your potential customers.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
You have two options for payment: Stripe and PayPal. For your payment plan, you can offer a customizable and flexible plan option for your customers. Either you give them a lump sum payment, or spread it out over time.
This is entirely up to you.
Podia takes care of all aspects of payment processing so that you don’t have to worry. Stripe, a PCI compliant payment processor, securely stores your credit card and payment information.
Podia does not charge transaction fees, unlike other services. This means that the sale is yours and Podia doesn’t get any commission. However, Stripe and PayPal fees still apply so you will have to pay those. The same applies to all platforms.
Podia provides basic tools for lead generation. They even allow you to offer a pre-launch sign-up form as well as a newsletter signup form to collect email addresses.
Their email marketing allows you to send automated emails as well as one-off emails. This allows you to send email campaigns to your customers both current and potential.
You can even customize your campaign emails in a drip out fashion, and define when the emails will be sent.
However, what they provide is very basic, and as such it cannot replace your email service provider.
A real landing page capability and list management are two things that are missing. These are two very important things, but they are essential for your email marketing platform. Luckily, you can use third party integration to remedy these problems.
Some third party email service providers that have native integration with Podia include MailChimp, ConvertKIt, Drip, Active Campaign, GetResponse, and MailerLite.
Zapier allows Podia to integrate with other email solutions, which allows podia users to share their data through this service.
Zapier also enhances Podia’s integration to reach some other useful third-party applications like FreshBooks and ClickFunnels. Third-party scripts can be added to your website. Like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, ConvertBox, Deadline Funnel among others.
Customer Support
Podia has the best customer service in the industry. For any queries you can contact support by emailing them or using the small widget that allows you to reach support via live chat.
Other customers have noted Podia’s excellent support. Generally speaking, the Podia team will give you a response in 5-10 minutes from asking. That is of course provided that you contact them during work hours. You can still contact them during work hours, but it may take longer to get a reply.
Podia also offers their own extensive knowledge library that can be used as a reference on how to do different things on the platform. If you feel like finding the answer to your question independently, you can use this resource at hand to do it themselves
Lastly, one of their favorite features is their free offer to migrate your customers and audiences if you are on one of their paid plans. They will help move your content as well as your audience from another platform to Podia free of cost. Smart Podia + Classroom
Price
Price is an important aspect of any review. Price is a key factor that can make or break your decision about whether you want to use a service. In this case, Podia offers three types of plans: Mover ($39/mo), Shaker ($79/mo), Earthquaker($179/mo).
Prices do change from time to time. At the time this review was written, they were offering a discount on all plans. So visit the website to check out on their latest pricing.
| Plan | Free ($0 per month) | Mover ($33 per month) |
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| Plan | Shaker ($75 per month) | Earthquaker ($33 per month) |
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> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
At a quick glance, the Mover Plan can be enough for those just starting out. The Mover Plan by Podia could provide enough for even small-time creators.
However, the best value can be seen in the Shaker Plan which offers everything the Mover Plan has while adding Unlimited Webinars and Affiliates. These features are particularly useful for growing your business, as we have already mentioned. Smart Podia + Classroom
The Earthquaker plan, however, is for those who want to spend a lot on their subscription. It actually benefits most who are looking for a bigger business. You also get 100,000 members of the community with the Earthquaker plan.
All the paid plans also allow you to create a custom domain for your Podia storefront as well as a logo that matches up with your brand.
Speaking of brands, the Shaker and Earthquaker plans allow you to remove the Podia branding from your products. This is not true with the Mover plan and your product will have that P branding that stands for Podai.
An important thing to note is that Podia offers a free plan. However, it is very limited and unlike the paid plans, it takes an 8$ transaction fee from all your transactions.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It is very easy to use and set up
- Instant payouts that does not make you wait to be paid
- It is affordable for the features it provides
- No matter what customer level, they offer great support
- Integrates email marketing
- Gives you the ability track student progress
- Hosts both free and paid content
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Offers free migration of customers and products from other websites to Podia
Cons
- Course builders can feel rigid to most people
- Lacks important learning tools including graded quizzes, course compliance, assignments etc.
- No mobile app feature
- Reporting tools are basic
- This is not the right platform for building a full-fledged website.
- Only Shaker PLan members can access the membership feature
- Email composer lacks personalization fields
- You can add team members to your admin team for $20 per month.
The Verdict of Podia
Now that we’ve seen what Podia can do, we can finally judge if availing of the website is all worth it.
Podia continues to gain ground in e-learning despite all the competition. This is probably because of its less complicated and easy to use user interface.
Podia’s “rigid” and limited design is the most common complaint from customers. This feature is great for those with limited web design knowledge. Smart Podia + Classroom
An easy-to-use and understand UI is key to allowing people to focus on content creation instead of the logistics.
Another highlight in Podia’s case is its price point. It is fairly cheap compared to other course-creation services. With an amount that’s lower than $50,you can almost set up your website to a functional state.
Sure, there might be a limit to what it can do, but you can think of it this way. Podia’s Mover allows you to try the waters and get the hang of it. Sometimes simplicity is key. Too many features could be overkill and might overwhelm the user.
We should also pay attention to their customer service. With a customer service that responds quickly and efficiently to queries, it is easy to overlook the absence of a telephone number for assistance. They have people who will will answer your questions on the clock as long as its work hours.
Podia is a great service, especially for people who are just getting started with the internet. Podia has all the essentials needed to create a website that is successful without being overwhelming.
This site is highly recommended.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Frequently Asked Questions
Smart Podia + Classroom
Which Plan is the best option to get when I buy my Podia subscription?
The Shaker Plan is the best one to get.
At $79 per month, you can get most features with additional stuff that are not available at the Mover Tier. Affiliate marketing is possible, as well as the ability to integrate other apps and services such Zoom.
What are Podia’s payment plans?
Podia uses Paypal and Stripe for processing payments.
Customers and students can pay by paypal, credit or debit card for products.
Podia: Why use it?
You can use Podia if you are looking for a platform that is extremely easy to use.
Another reason to choose podia over other competitors is that it does not charge transaction fees. It also offers reliable and excellent customer service. Lastly, it is has a very low price point.
What Products can you make with Podia?
The main thing that you can do with Podia is to create online courses.
You can also download community memberships, webinars, coaching, and other digital content.