Doesn’t it always start with “How do I start?”?

Absolutely true.

So how do you actually start?

By now, reading this you either already have any idea in mind or not. Nothing in between.

If you’re the one who already has an idea in mind, I bet you’re excited. You’re super excited to make your visions become a reality. Yah? Of course!

You may have these crazy ideas already of how your site and programs are going to stand out.

… how yours is going to be so different than the rest.

… how you would make impossible to happen.

… how yours is going to be the ultimate Learning Module Site one has ever seen.

Some of you may have seen a site from one of which you’re a member of and you knew you wanted something like that.

BUT HOW?

How do you put your imagination into 1s and 0s and look exactly how you envisioned it?

Although I would like to answer you in 1s and 0s, I don’t think I can lol! I wouldn’t even want to. That’s not my job. What I’m here for is to make it easy for people like you to understand how your clouds of imaginations can actually be in your reality.

Now, you may have no idea at all what you want in it – because, hey we’ve had those clients to. They knew one thing and one thing only – and that is to have a learning module site where they can share their expertise and be able to help more and more people.

That’s totally cool too! Just knowing what you need and want is good enough.

Either way, it will bring you back to one question.

“How do I start?”

There are actually many factors you need to consider. 

I have a full training here that includes a checklist that we use when clients come to us for help.

But what I’m going to go through this post is the basics of knowing where to start.

What is it for?

First off, what do you need it for? Membership and learning module sites can be for many things. It could be for online courses, which has now been too popular for LMS. It could be for membership programs that may or may not include training classes. It could be for certifications. It could be for just a way to book classes or sessions with you. It could be a full on LMS with gamifications, quizzes, credit systems and more. So what is it for?

Who is it for?

Once you answer the first question, this question will be much easier to answer. Same goes with the next questions. It’s a ripple effect basically.

So, who is it for? Who’s your audience? Answering this can help you decide the design that will help your users/members consume your content inside your site. This will also help you structure the overall value of your programs.

If your audience is more younger people, then your colors and design will change dramatically. Do your audience love games? Do you audience prefer to have quizzes to measure their progress?

What features do you want to have?

After determining your answers above, you can now look into deciding what type of features you’d like to have on your site. 

I’ve already mentioned some above.

Quizzes

Credit System

Rewards System

Behavioral unlocking

Badges

Leaderboards 

OR… maybe you just want it to be simple.

Progress tracker

Checklist of what they need to do

Mark Lessons as complete (manually or automatically)

There are honestly lots of options. Your job is to determine which one/s speak to you! Don’t worry about the how for now.

What’s your budget?

Cringe!!!

Yah, it’s funny how people cringe so much when budget is being asked. 

Truth be told here, there are a lot of “online business coaches” that say you don’t ask about the budget. 

And this is when I cringe! LOL!

I’ve learned the hard way. In my world, budget is very important. And if you’re entering my world – the tech world – you better have a budget! 

Not just because it can go very, very crazy and through the roof you don’t control the things needed to be done – though that’s the #1 reason why you need a budget.

But… even if you have an unlimited amount of money to spend on this – the point is the budget will help both you and the person/company who’s going to build your site, whether that’s one person or an army.

The budget helps structure the phases of the project. What can be done now vs later? What can we use now vs what we can upgrade to later. 

If you’re working with a company like ours, the budget helps you and us understand what’s at stake. How far can we go. How long can we do this for?

Who’s going to do it?

Now that you have a budget, you can determine platforms to use but you also need to find the right people to do it for you. 

If you don’t know a lot about tech stuff and Learning Module Site – NOTE: this is way different than just a regular public website, you need to do some research as to what platform to use first, then find the best person that uses that platform. 

If you don’t have a lot of budget (that’s why you need to know your budget above right?) and would not mind doing it yourself, there are a bunch of options online now with which I call “Standalone Platforms”.

These platforms function very well when it comes to getting the job done. Know though that they are not too flexible. You can only have the features that they currently offer. 

If at some point you thought of a feature that you’d like to have like a credit system on your site and they don’t have it, then you won’t have it either. As simple as that. Some examples are Thinkific, Teachable, Kajabi, Podria. 

There you have it. 

Like I mentioned, these are the basics of the basics. If you want to go deeper, here’s the training you need to take on. CLICK HERE.

This is a free starter kit complete with video training and checklist! 

If you already have a site and thinks that you need to improve it, you can definitely use this starter kit too and determine if you can add other things to make your site better.

Till the next one!

Charm

P.S.
Questions about this topic? Comment here.