They say that knowledge is power.
And in this age of information your knowledge could give you the power to…
Take
Over
The world!!
Here we are going to take look a Thinkific and see it can help you achieve world domination.
Or at least, help put together a kick ass online course to get you a step in the right direction.
What exactly is Thinkific?
Thinkific is an online teaching platform that targets digital entrepreneurs who wish to brand, create and sell their knowledge online, through courses and membership sites.
What features does Thinkific provide?
Landing Page Builder
Thinkific allows you build pages to showcase your courses or digital products.
To say that is is a web site builder is a little bit of a stretch however, it does allow you to create attractive pages and provides all the necessary tools required to run a successful online teaching business but is very simplified in what you can do.
May not be suitable for someone looking for a really high quality landing page builder. It is more suited to someone with a preexisting site.
Having said that if all you need is a simple landing page Thinkific is certainly up to the job.
It is not a drag and drop style builder, pages are constructed in a side bar with a preset sequence which limits how creative you can be when constructing your pages.
It is super simple to use and does does allow you to quickly create a decent looking page just, maybe a little too simple for some peoples requirements.
Course Building
Creating courses is really quick and easy and Thinkific has some nice features included here.
After titling your course, you simply breakdown your course into its various chapters. Each chapter can have multiple lessons or modules included. Such as:
- Video lectures
- Text documents
- Multimedia
- Audio
- Presentations
- Downloadable content
- PDF documents
- Assignments
- Surveys
- Quizzes
- Examinations
Thinkific allows you to include anything that you could possible want as a online teacher.
Bulk Import
Does exactly what is says on the tin.
Allows you to import large quantities of media all in one shot.
Example
If your have recorded a ton of video lecture or your course you and upload them them all together and it will lay everything out nicely for you.
Settings
Allows you to tweak the different settings like adding the course image and description, themes, and course completion page.
If you are running ads, page code allows to easily add tracking code and scripts to your page. Also footer site code and javascript pop-ups and cookie consent bar can all be added quick and easy.
Drip
The drip feature allows you to stagger the release of the course content to your students.
Only giving access to certain parts of the course based on set dates on the calendar or an amount of time after the the student has registered.
For example if you don’t want students skipping ahead you could release one module per week keeping all students following the same timeline.
Or to prevent students from feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content in a course. You can release one chapter per day or what ever you feel is right time frame for your course.
Thinkific Pricing
Thinkific offers some creative price plans to cater for different business models and strategies.
Courses can be sold using
- one time payments,
- subcription/membership,
- or a monthly payment plan spreading the cost of the course out over monthly payments.
It also has a free option for giving away bonus material or as an incentive to attract customers to buy your main courses or subscriptions.
Other cool features
Add your page to a sub domain
To help manage your branding you can add your page to a sub domian instead of using Thinkific itself.
Instead of having something like tommysawesomecourses.thinkific.com which I feel most people are not going to be thrilled about.
You can create a separate domain tommysawesomecourses.com and that is where your Thinkific will be hosted.
Very easy to setup, basically its one line of code that you add to your host and your done. They provide a tutorial how to do it.
Notifications
Another excellent feature is notifications. It has a ton of different things that you can get notified on like or example when a student
-
- signs up for the course
-
- completes something
-
- asks a question
-
- creates a disscusion
-
- leaves a review or comment
-
- cancels the subscription
All kinds of very useful notifications for teachers and there are also options for student notifications.
You can set it so students get notified when new content is added, when they complete an assessment or maybe if they haven’t completed something important or are not engaging with the course at all and are falling behind.
Does Thinkific Have An Affiliate Program?
So once your course is up and running and you have some very happy customers that loved learning from you.
You can provide your students with an affiliate link and they can then share your course with friends or through their social media and helping you to boost your sales through word of mouth in return for receiving a commission.
Alot of online creators see significant growth in their business through using this method.
How Much is Thinkific?
Does Thinkific Have A Free Plan?
As a new creator who maybe does not have much or any money, and is hoping that they can produce something that is going to generate some income there is alot to get you going in the Free Plan.
While basic, it still includes all the foundations you need to get a good course platform up and running. Totally for free!
How Much Is Thinkific’s Basic Plan?
Costing $39 a month, the basic plan includes all features available within the free one, plus a variety of extra features including the ability to content-drip and create an infinite number of courses, email students, create coupons and integrate with other sites and platforms such as Zapier.
The majority of creators are going to find everything they are going to need in this plan. Excellent value for money.,
The Pro Plan and Premier Plan
Aimed at creators with massive courses that may require multiple VA’s or site administrators, there may be some elements here that apply to you.
But I feel that most independent creators will find everything they need in the first two plans.
Check out the full list in the image above.
Is Thinkific Right For You?
There is alot to like about Thinkific. It really simplifies online course creation, allowing you to quickly put together high quality products that look great on desktop and mobile at a very reasonable price, especially if you already have a established web site up and running.
Anyone looking for an all incluvise platorm that can handle all aspects of their online business may find Thinkific lacking in some areas but at the same time it integrates well with pretty much every other platform out there to solve any shortcomings.
Anyone looking to start out in the online course creation business or already established business owners unhappy with their current platform should definatly give Thinkific try.
