Podia vs Wordpress and All the Others

Why Podia is the Best Website Platform for Most People

Podia's simplicity and all-inclusive design reminds me of what I like about Apple. In short, everything you really need is included and it just works. This has been very different compared to my experience with Wordpress, which at times was frustrating and needlessly complicated.

I am quite pleased with Podia, and so I wanted to share my experience here from the perspective of a former Wordpress user. Although Podia originally started as a means of selling digital products, it has improved and expanded to the point where you can use it as a general website and even replace your Wordpress site.

What is Podia?

Podia is a website platform where you can build a beautiful website, host courses, create memberships, and manage communities. Also, Podia's website editor is amazing and very simple to use. This entire site is built on Podia, which simplifies things for me by having everything relating to my online offerings in one place.

If you want a website platform that is simple to use, reliable, and includes only the customization and features that you would likely need, Podia is your best bet! This is especially true if you want to have the option of ever selling anything digital online.

I find it incredibly refreshing to not have to be dealing with plugins, video hosting services, and even email marketing software. Podia includes all of these things! On top of that, if you are looking to create courses, sell digital products, or manage memberships and communities, Podia is one of the best platforms for this purpose. In fact, this is how Podia got started.

If you are interested in giving Podia a try, I would greatly appreciate it if you used my referral link, which may reward me with a commission which helps to support this site.

Podia Referral Link

Podia is an Awesome Website Builder

I have managed several different kinds of Wordpress sites, so I wasn't exactly excited to learn how to use a new site builder. However, Podia, is MUCH BETTER than Wordpress at creating beautiful, modern looking websites, fast.

Once I experienced Podia's site editor, I went back to Wordpress to see if I could recreate what I created on Podia, and it honestly just wasn't nearly as nice looking and it took much longer to create. If your time is worth money, then time spent building and maintaining a website must be considered when you are choosing what platform to go with.

In the Podia website builder, you essentially add a series of sections to build out a page. There are different types of sections that are optimized to particular types of content. This includes:

• Basic Text

• Videos

• Columns & grids

• Product lists

• Product categories

• Testimonials

• Email capture

• Many other things!

I absolutely love the concept, and it works really well. You could create a great looking site in an afternoon or two. Podia websites are fully responsive and look great on both desktop and mobile devices. There is also a very nice (and simple) internal dashboard and optional community area once users create an account and log in.

Podia has also recently released a blogging and content management system which should be available to all users soon. This page is actually an example of a blog post using this new system.

There are many features of Podia that would take a large number of plugins to work out on Wordpress. You would need a way to host courses, video hosting, membership management, instant chat support for customers, billing and payment collection, email management, and probably several other things. While these things can be done on Wordpress, I'm not sure it's cheaper. It also wouldn't be as nice or unified of an experience for you and your users.

Using Podia for Course Building & Memberships

Although Podia is fully featured now, it originally started as a means to host various types of online content. I went with Podia after thoroughly researching the competition. I considered Teachable, Mighty Networks, Thinkific, Kajabi, along with a few others. I also considered staying with my Wordpress site and going with Memberpress.

Once I learned about Podia, I kept coming back and comparing it to these other options. I really liked the idea behind Podia, and I especially enjoyed using the site builder. Podia also has built-in video hosting, which is not true for many of these other options. This is a big deal and a major advantage to using Podia!

After researching, I came away with this concise summary: Podia does the most things (other than the much more expensive alternative Kajabi), and it likely scales better than any other option. In my opinion, it's really important for the platform you choose to not be so expensive that you have difficulty breaking even.

Podia is very reasonably priced for what you get and gives you multiple tiers of access depending your needs. Also, Podia has a free version and a very inexpensive version in addition to their other offerings. They make it very easy for you to get started without feeling like you are risking anything.

Podia Referral Link

How to Become Successful Using Podia

I want to briefly share my experience with Podia in terms of actually building something successful. By successful, I mean something that is actually making money well past the point of breaking even. This is the part of my article where I reveal my master plan...but honestly, it's no secret. You can find this business model all over the place. Podia is designed to help you implement it. Here goes:

• Step 1: Create a website using Podia's site builder to serve as the hub for your business. Many folks have Wordpress sites connected to a Podia site for their digital products. However, I chose to go all in on Podia, as I thought it was perfectly suitable at building a good sized website. 

• Step 2: Create tons of valuable content. Since I am a piano instructor, I started prerecording piano lessons and organizing them into courses. In my case, the courses sort of lead into one another, and so it makes more sense to charge a membership fee to access everything rather than selling individual courses, so this is what I did.

• Step 3: Create a "lead magnet" to attract new users. I experimented with this for a while, but I finally settled on the idea of creating a free online course as a lead magnet to teach folks the basics of playing piano and essentially set them up to where they could enjoy the rest of my membership if they wanted. This is admittedly more work than is probably necessary for a typical lead magnet, but I wanted to go above and beyond in making a good impression on new potential customers. On a side note, it may be worth creating your lead magnet before your paid offerings so that you can gather interest and feedback while you work on your content.

• Step 4: Create an email campaign in Podia that triggers a series of emails to anyone who signed up for your lead magnet. Some of the users will opt out of this, which originally bothered me greatly, but in the end, I realized it's just a numbers game. Some people give permission to be put on your email list, and some don't. To remedy this somewhat, I added a section at the end of the course pitching my membership and talking about what I do. For those who end up on my list, I send a few emails with some tips on how to maximize the course experience, and then pitch my membership at some point. 

• Step 5: Create more content, do a ton of marketing, and be patient. This is the phase I am currently in. I have already encountered much success, and I am really just getting started. The possibilities are endless!

Give Podia a Shot

I honestly believe that Podia is probably the best option for most people, especially those who do not already have a website or those who are interested in consolidating under one platform like I did. You can start small with minimal risk, build a beautiful website, and grow into something much more significant. You'll have a ton of fun watching it all come to fruition. I whole heartedly recommend Podia if you need a website and especially if you are interested in selling courses, digital products, or paid memberships & communities.

You may also wish to know that Podia has written an article about me and the creation of this site, which you can find by clicking here. 

I sincerely hope you found this information useful. If you did and you are interested in giving Podia a test run, I would greatly appreciate it if you used my referral link or let them know that I referred you, provided you feel like I earned it. 

Podia Referral Link