Step 3: Site Builders

For this step, a site builder refers to regular pages on your site. That means your home page if you’re going to have a blog, your about page, and other pages on your site.

You can use your LMS for some of this, but not always for all of it, and it depends on which LMS you choose. Most of the cloud LMS options offer a site builder. If you want to have a few main pages plus a sales page on your site, then you can use your LMS to get you there.

This video will walk you through choosing an appropriate site builder.

Make sure to choose your site builder before moving on. You must know if you will be using an LMS (if they offer the ability to build your web pages) or another builder. Familiarize yourself with how your site builder works.

Transcript –

Here’s where it gets complicated because there are so many options.

For this step, a site builder refers to regular pages on your site. That means your home page if you’re going to have a blog, your about page, and other pages on your site.

You can use your LMS for some of this, but not always for all of it, and it depends on which LMS you choose. Most of the cloud LMS options offer a site builder. If you just want to have a few of the main pages plus a sales page on your site, then you can use your LMS to get you there.

If you want to build out a blog or a podcast and plan to optimize your site for the search engines heavily, then I think you’ll find all the LMS site builder options come up a little short.

Teachable and Kajabi offer a higher level of site-building capabilities. Both offer the ability to build a blog right from their interface. So you can choose to use them for all your site building, even blog posts.

Other tools may fall a little short, but this can always change. And even with Teachable and Kajabi, you may find yourself a little limited by what you can do (depending on your background and, again, tech ability).

Here are a few main options to help you try to simplify this as we go forward:

• Option 1. You can use your LMS for all the pages on your site.
• Option 2. You can use your LMS for your course and then build the pages of your site with a site builder like WordPress.
• Option 3. You can use your LMS for your course and the sales and catalog pages and build the other pages on your site with a site builder like WordPress.

None of these is the best way. That’s because there’s no best way. They’re all fine. It’s really up to you based on your tech ability, your preference, and the LMS you choose.

I had you start with the LMS because some options offer a decent site builder. If they offer one, and you’re OK using it, then your choice is now very easy. You’ll use that one.

Option 1: Use Your LMS for All the Pages on Your Site

So that’s the first option, where you use your LMS for all the pages on your site. When I’m putting this together, Kajabi offers the best site builder.

The rest of the solutions offer very limited page-building capabilities, but you can get by with them. I’ve been building sites for about 20 years, so these aren’t really an option for me. If you’re starting out I could definitely see these being a big time-saver for you. Most are close to drag and drop.

You want to get your business going ASAP, and many of the cloud LMS options will offer a means for doing that. So definitely don’t feel like you need to use something else that will likely be more complicated at first. If you have no experience building web pages and you want to get started right away with nothing to slow you down then these are fine. You only need to build out a few pages to start.

Option 2: Use LMS for Course and Site Builder for Pages

So the next option is to use your LMS for your course and then build the pages of your site with a site builder, which can be WordPress or any other site builder.

All of my coursemethod.com sites were built with WordPress. So I have all my pages built with WordPress and not an LMS. My home page, all my article pages, the blog, it’s all running through WordPress. In my case, I’ve also built out my course sales pages with WordPress.

Then the rest, essentially just my course, is built with my LMS.

You can decide which pages will be built with which site builder. The easiest way is with your LMS site builder, but you don’t have to use it if you’d like to use a different tool.

No matter what you choose to do, I always recommend pointing your LMS to your domain name. That means you control the pages you build. So if you decide to build out a site later on and not use the LMS site builder, then you still have that option.

Otherwise, you’re stuck with a weird my.thinkific.com or whatever cloud LMS you’re using as your domain name. That’s not real professional. Plus if you start building links that bring traffic to it, you can’t move it away from there very quickly without losing that traffic later on. Be sure to point your LMS pages to your LMS.

If you’re not using a cloud LMS then the site builder you choose maybe even more important. You will likely use the same one for your site and your LMS. So choose wisely.

It’s possible to use WordPress for everything including your course. In that case, I suggest installing a separate version of WordPress onto a subdomain for your LMS. Having all your pages and course in one install of WordPress will get complicated. So putting your course into a subdomain will help solve that.

I use pages built with WordPress for my sales pages. But often people use WordPress for their site, and then the LMS for their training page and their sales pages. You don’t have to do what I’ve done.

If you’re planning on building a site with WordPress, Squarespace, or whatever, you can get these to work with your LMS.

One thing to note if you use a different site builder then your LMS is that all your pages won’t look identical. But there are things you can do to make sure people know they’re on the same site. And for that, we’ll go back through all the branding you did in the branding training.

That will help visitors know they’re still on your site when they’re clicking through pages created with a site builder and those created with your LMS. Although they may not look identical, they’ll look like they belong together.

For instance, you’ll have the same logo, the same basic navigation, and use the same typography and colors. All this will help. As mentioned, you’ll put it on a subdomain, and they’ll see that they’re still on the same main domain. Although many LMS options will allow you to use their domain, you don’t want to do that since it will really make controlling your brand much more difficult.

Also, with WordPress, you’re going to need to pick a theme which means that’s another choice you have to make. To save you some time, there’s a great theme called OceanWP that I’ve grown to like, plus it’s free.

Another couple that I hear so many great things about are Astra and Generate Press. Those both have a fee. Any of those 3 are pretty great. I don’t think you’ll go wrong with any of them.

Now if you want to, you can pair your theme with a page builder like Elementor which is a drag-and-drop page builder. Some of my pages are built with the regular WordPress editor, and they are fast and easy to create.

Elementor lets you build more complex pages like your sales pages. Elementor has a drag-and-drop feature and allows you to make all kinds of cool pages with it. You can do almost anything with it, and it has a free plan.

You may not even need Elementor unless you build sales pages with your WordPress site or a complex homepage. Otherwise, you can stick with a theme.

There are many other themes and page builders out there. I don’t think it’s wise to spend months on this. You want to get things up and run. So unless you already know of one you want to invest in, I’d just stick with one of the three themes I mentioned; Ocean WP, Generate Press, or Astra.

Option 3: Using Your LMS for Course and Sales Pages and Use Site Builder for the Rest

For the third option, where you’re using your LMS for your course pages, sales pages, and catalog pages, and then you use a site builder for the rest, it’s not that much different from the previous option. Obviously, except you’ll build out more pages with your LMS.

Your site won’t all match. But you can add in some of your branding elements, like your logo, so people still know where they are while navigating through it. For this one, a lot of times, your courses and the sales pages for them will be on a subdomain, which is fine. Again, make sure you’re using your own domain name and not the LMS domain.

Use this time to figure out which option you’ll use, which means you need to settle on a site builder. If you’re confused about how to figure this out, I’d say if you’re brand new to building websites, you might want to go with a cloud LMS and use their site builder. Just keep it simple. You’re only going to build out a few pages to start with. You can always change your mind later and build something more complex. It’s better to get going.

If you’re not planning to use your LMS site builder, go with WordPress. I need to tell you it’s not a simple install with one click, and bam; now you have a site. I don’t know what you’ve heard of WordPress. You may be an expert, but you may be brand new.

I expect you to spend 20 hours getting a WordPress site with a few pages set up if you’re brand new. If you’re not, then you might do it in 2. There’s still stuff to do.

You might spend between those two figures even if you’re using your LMS. That’s between 2 and 20 hours. There’s no magic button where everything pops up either way. There’s always a learning curve.

For example, you may need something simple like adding your logo. So you click around for 30 minutes to figure out how to do that. Finally, you read some documentation and watch a video, and now you’ve added it. Everything might be a slow process. It depends on your tech ability.

I’d use WordPress or your cloud LMS if it were up to me. Or if you have tech skills with something else, then go with that.

Take a look at the task and mark it as complete, then I’ll see you in the following video!

Task

Make sure to choose your site builder in this step. You must know if you will be using an LMS (if they offer the ability to build your web pages) or another builder. Familiarize yourself with how your site builder works.

Strategic Planner

Sign up and log in to download the ‘Tool Stack’ Strategic Planner. Fill it out, and then save it. Start moving your business forward!