This is a great video with solid advice. I hope that everyone working with LearnDash or Lifter LMS watches this video before they make decisions about managing access to courses. Fantastic work...thank you.
This advice is strong! I'm hoping to share this philosophy with my organization so we can better couple our LMS with our membership platform (aka, CRM?). I think this easily defines funnels of engagement that encourage more learning. Thanks for this insight!
The issue I see is that many membership plugins won't allow recurring payments through Woocomerce. They allow memberships but as long as they aren't recurring monthly or annual payments. How would you fix that?
If you don't know how to do this, you'll probably need to hire a developer to build you an integration with any APIs you need. In theory you might be able to DIY it with a plugin like Uncanny Automator, but that could get pretty complex too.
One question: why would I not be able to use my CRM to trigger memberships? I can setup triggers that add tags to users, once they complete a purchase, and remove tags upon other triggers. Aren't memberpress and these other membership plugins just CRM's, but don't call themselves that?
There's definitely a lot of overlap between CRM tags and Memberships, and generally speaking you can achieve a similar outcome with either one. We sometimes use both on the same project. One difference between the two is that tags are binary, they apply or they don't. Memberships are more complex objects that can have more metadata associated with them and more than 2 statuses (off or on), and you can cause things to happen based on those other statuses. Memberships systems, if built well, can also better handle multiple access scenarios. For instance, if you have a customer that buys access to a membership 2 different ways, and one of those ways expires, they would retain their membership thanks to their second method of access. With tags, unless you carefully map out some complex logic, would likely be removed when one of the ways they were obtained expires. Tag-based systems also often tend to run at the moment a tag is applied, which can sometimes cause issues when a new perk is added after a tag has been applied depending on how that's set up and coded. Beyond the functionality, there's also an ease of management aspect that comes with Memberships, because a Membership is a more feature-rich object that can be more easily centrally administered. It's much easier to see and manage everything a Membership does and applies to at a high level, whereas a lot of tag-based stuff tends to sprawl out and it can get difficult to understand all the side-effects adding/removing a tag might have once it's used in a bunch of different automations and perhaps applied to a bunch of different posts and plugin settings throughout your site instead of via a single Membership Plan edit screen. Tags put the pressure on you as the site administrator to be very well organized and think through all the possible edge cases, and ideally keep some kind of planning document or map of your system to refer to, whereas Memberships handle most of that for you out of the box. This makes it a lot easier to collaborate in situations where you have many different people working on the site, not all of whom would understand the complexity of your tag system. Where tags shine in my experience is personalization or more granular access control to an individual resource. If you want two users with the same level of access to experience content differently based on unique characteristics or actions they've taken, applying tags to represent those things and then varying the content or unlocked resources based on that is a great use case for tags. They're especially great in scenarios where you're unlikely to have to un-apply at tag as a result of something expiring, where they represent something more constant about a user. One way you can bridge the gap between the systems is to apply memberships via tags, which gives you the benefit of being able to grant memberships via CRM automation while retaining the easier management and more sophisticated access control benefits of Memberships. At the end of the day, if you're really comfortable with CRM tags & automations, you can accomplish nearly the same thing either way and just going with what you know is a perfectly fine strategy.
We tend to go for Woo Memberships because it works really well with Woo and doesn't add as much redundant functionality as other Membership plugins when you're using it with an LMS. Most LMS plugins have a lot of functionality that overlaps with Membership plugins to some degree, so something lighter that just focuses on access control works best for us in that scenario. Some LMS plugins also have an integrated Membership solution of their own which can be worth considering.
The exact steps are going to be different for each Membership plugin, but the amount of products doesn't change the steps. In general, you create a membership that include whatever content you want people to have access to, even if that's just one thing, and then you create a product that grants the users that buy it that Membership. You don't have to call it a Membership on your site if your users would be confused by that, it can just look to them like they're buying a traditional product.
Speaking about the WordPress LMS ecosystem specifically, the two that have decent traction and ecosystems are LearnDash and LifterLMS. The others have much smaller market share, so even if they might be great there just tends to be fewer 3rd party integrations/addons and fewer available experts to rely on.
@@impactangels We think any of those can be a fine tool to get started on (which one to pick depends on your unique circumstances), but generally aren't suitable for cases where your courses are the core of your business. Building on tools you can fully own and have access to all your data, as well as the ability to customize to your needs, is really crucial if the value of your business is tied to them. In other words, if you build on a "rental property" like the services you mentioned, you're adding value to their business not yours. If you own your LMS on WordPress, everything you invest into your LMS increases the value of your business or organization. Rented software is great if you're just getting started and want to test the waters before trying to build something of your own, or if it's a small side project to your main business. The main advantage with those is that your options are limited and on-rails, so all you really need to do is input your content and hit publish. That's much better than spending months trying to figure out how to set up a bunch of plugins if you're going the DIY route and can't afford experts to build it for you.
I want to use a membership plan .... For my LMS designed for my school. I have three types of users 1.teacher 2.studennt 3.guest I want the courses free for teachers and those students who are enrolled by teachers only Guest charged monthly fee for the courses What should I use with learndash ?
You could consider using Woo Memberships + Woo Teams to give teachers teams they can invite students to that would include access to courses. Many LMS plugins also have some kind of team/group enrolment system you might be able to directly use.
This is a great video with solid advice. I hope that everyone working with LearnDash or Lifter LMS watches this video before they make decisions about managing access to courses. Fantastic work...thank you.
This was very Tangible! Thank you. It warrants further research on the topic before jumping into the an LMS system.
Thanks for letting me know what I already knew and had decided to do. I was actually hoping for some tutorial on how to set up such a system!
This advice is strong! I'm hoping to share this philosophy with my organization so we can better couple our LMS with our membership platform (aka, CRM?). I think this easily defines funnels of engagement that encourage more learning. Thanks for this insight!
Having used 100s of LMS', what are your thoughts on LearnWorlds?
Which membership plugin you suggest that can help us add woocomcerce gatway payments for the membership
We often use WooCommerce Memberships, but every project is a bit different and which Membership plugin is right for you can vary a lot!
The issue I see is that many membership plugins won't allow recurring payments through Woocomerce. They allow memberships but as long as they aren't recurring monthly or annual payments. How would you fix that?
We use Woo Memberships most of the time, which of course is compatible with Woo. It mostly just comes down to choosing the right plugin for the job.
there's Stripe
That was good advice. I'm just getting started...
How can I sell affiliate courses from udemy and coursera on my Wordpress using their api or any other way??
If you don't know how to do this, you'll probably need to hire a developer to build you an integration with any APIs you need. In theory you might be able to DIY it with a plugin like Uncanny Automator, but that could get pretty complex too.
One question: why would I not be able to use my CRM to trigger memberships? I can setup triggers that add tags to users, once they complete a purchase, and remove tags upon other triggers. Aren't memberpress and these other membership plugins just CRM's, but don't call themselves that?
There's definitely a lot of overlap between CRM tags and Memberships, and generally speaking you can achieve a similar outcome with either one. We sometimes use both on the same project.
One difference between the two is that tags are binary, they apply or they don't. Memberships are more complex objects that can have more metadata associated with them and more than 2 statuses (off or on), and you can cause things to happen based on those other statuses.
Memberships systems, if built well, can also better handle multiple access scenarios. For instance, if you have a customer that buys access to a membership 2 different ways, and one of those ways expires, they would retain their membership thanks to their second method of access. With tags, unless you carefully map out some complex logic, would likely be removed when one of the ways they were obtained expires.
Tag-based systems also often tend to run at the moment a tag is applied, which can sometimes cause issues when a new perk is added after a tag has been applied depending on how that's set up and coded.
Beyond the functionality, there's also an ease of management aspect that comes with Memberships, because a Membership is a more feature-rich object that can be more easily centrally administered. It's much easier to see and manage everything a Membership does and applies to at a high level, whereas a lot of tag-based stuff tends to sprawl out and it can get difficult to understand all the side-effects adding/removing a tag might have once it's used in a bunch of different automations and perhaps applied to a bunch of different posts and plugin settings throughout your site instead of via a single Membership Plan edit screen.
Tags put the pressure on you as the site administrator to be very well organized and think through all the possible edge cases, and ideally keep some kind of planning document or map of your system to refer to, whereas Memberships handle most of that for you out of the box. This makes it a lot easier to collaborate in situations where you have many different people working on the site, not all of whom would understand the complexity of your tag system.
Where tags shine in my experience is personalization or more granular access control to an individual resource. If you want two users with the same level of access to experience content differently based on unique characteristics or actions they've taken, applying tags to represent those things and then varying the content or unlocked resources based on that is a great use case for tags. They're especially great in scenarios where you're unlikely to have to un-apply at tag as a result of something expiring, where they represent something more constant about a user.
One way you can bridge the gap between the systems is to apply memberships via tags, which gives you the benefit of being able to grant memberships via CRM automation while retaining the easier management and more sophisticated access control benefits of Memberships.
At the end of the day, if you're really comfortable with CRM tags & automations, you can accomplish nearly the same thing either way and just going with what you know is a perfectly fine strategy.
Hi, would you mind sharing your video editing app?
What membership plugins would you recommend for learndash?
We tend to go for Woo Memberships because it works really well with Woo and doesn't add as much redundant functionality as other Membership plugins when you're using it with an LMS. Most LMS plugins have a lot of functionality that overlaps with Membership plugins to some degree, so something lighter that just focuses on access control works best for us in that scenario. Some LMS plugins also have an integrated Membership solution of their own which can be worth considering.
Good tips, thanks brother.
lets say i'm only begining, how would start a membreship plan with only one product? how would you built it through?
The exact steps are going to be different for each Membership plugin, but the amount of products doesn't change the steps. In general, you create a membership that include whatever content you want people to have access to, even if that's just one thing, and then you create a product that grants the users that buy it that Membership. You don't have to call it a Membership on your site if your users would be confused by that, it can just look to them like they're buying a traditional product.
What is the most versatile best LMS in your opinion?
Speaking about the WordPress LMS ecosystem specifically, the two that have decent traction and ecosystems are LearnDash and LifterLMS. The others have much smaller market share, so even if they might be great there just tends to be fewer 3rd party integrations/addons and fewer available experts to rely on.
@@tangibleincand what outside the the WordPress environment? What about tools like Skool, Kajabi, Teachable and Thinkific?
@@impactangels We think any of those can be a fine tool to get started on (which one to pick depends on your unique circumstances), but generally aren't suitable for cases where your courses are the core of your business. Building on tools you can fully own and have access to all your data, as well as the ability to customize to your needs, is really crucial if the value of your business is tied to them. In other words, if you build on a "rental property" like the services you mentioned, you're adding value to their business not yours. If you own your LMS on WordPress, everything you invest into your LMS increases the value of your business or organization. Rented software is great if you're just getting started and want to test the waters before trying to build something of your own, or if it's a small side project to your main business. The main advantage with those is that your options are limited and on-rails, so all you really need to do is input your content and hit publish. That's much better than spending months trying to figure out how to set up a bunch of plugins if you're going the DIY route and can't afford experts to build it for you.
Great video! Love your content
I want to use a membership plan .... For my LMS designed for my school. I have three types of users 1.teacher 2.studennt 3.guest
I want the courses free for teachers and those students who are enrolled by teachers only
Guest charged monthly fee for the courses
What should I use with learndash ?
You could consider using Woo Memberships + Woo Teams to give teachers teams they can invite students to that would include access to courses. Many LMS plugins also have some kind of team/group enrolment system you might be able to directly use.