5 Reasons Why I Hate Online Course Hosting Platforms

Seems like everyone tells you to go find an e-learning platform and that, once you do, your course will magically come to life.

I thought the same, until I created a course in health and wellness and needed to REALLY care about my clients' security & privacy. When we dug deeper, we got concerned. And that just scratched the surface.

Ever think that most online course hosting platforms just don't have your back?

Many platforms we looked at had features that were rudimentary and I'd never use, even though they touted themselves as being experts in things like marketing my products. Security was often an issue, and I felt like they were more focused on getting me to use their platform than helping me grow my business. The popular ones were often geared to the masses rather than to my individual needs. And their pricing models also didn't seem to be in my best interest.

We couldn't find one that met our needs, especially as I grew my business. It was frustrating to realize that getting my course up and running would be a lot more difficult than I thought and that I couldn't really grow the way I'd planned with the e-learning course hosting platforms that were out there.

In this blog post, I'll share some of the reason why I hate a majority of the online course platforms in the market and what you can do to avoid the same problems.

One of the first things we noticed when researching digital course platforms was how security was not given a proper amount of attention. Many companies providing e-learning platforms seem to view security as an afterthought; coming in a distant second behind convenience and usability. Unfortunately, this kind of approach puts your customers' privacy and security at risk - something that can be a real problem for both you and your customers.

Don't forget that this is your business's reputation on the line. If there's a security breach and your customers' personal information is compromised, it could have a huge negative impact on your reputation. On top of that, you may even be held liable for any damages caused as a result. This is why security should always be one of the key considerations when choosing an online course platform.

We found that e-learning platforms need to be far more cutting-edge with their security.  They need to use the latest technology and best practices such as SSL encryption, two-factor authentication and their product should go through regular security audits. This will go a long way towards ensuring that your customers' data is safe and secure.

When researching your e-learning platform: make sure to ask questions about their security measures and find out exactly what they have in place.

The second issue we ran into was that many online course platforms don't seem to be focused on individual customers or their businesses. This can be very frustrating when you're trying to create something tailored to your specific needs and goals. The popular platforms often have a "one-size-fits-all" approach, with features designed for the masses rather than for each individual customer or business.

I'm often confused by digital course platform providers these days. Instead of focusing on helping us operate and grow our businesses, they seem more concerned with getting us to use their platform to create a "one course wonder". They share rudimentary ways to use their platform and bombard us with notifications and requests for engagement but don't provide the necessary features, integrations, or coaching in return to actually build a successful business. It's like they're stuffing a square peg into a round hole and expecting it to fit perfectly - not going to happen.

You shouldn't need to constantly have to jump through hoops just to accomplish the simple task of connecting with your customers and operating your business. We need platforms designed for course creators building their course into a business, not e-learning platforms that offer empty promises of making millions overnight - because being operational & growth focused is what will help your business reach its potential.

We found that e-learning platforms need to prioritize giving their customers the tools and insights needed to streamline business processes, automate where possible and succeed as they grow.

Tools you should look for:

The e-learning platform you decide on should have features that help you create and deliver courses, track customer engagement and progress, manage products and payments, provide customer support and insights into your course's performance.

When these features are in place, it allows you to easily scale and grow your product offering so you can grow your business without busy work and overhead and an entire team to maintain your digital products.

As an experienced course creator, I know how important it is to have the right platform to get the job done. Yet so many of the popular e-learning platforms on the market are geared to the masses rather than to our individual needs.

It’s like they don’t give you enough control over how your courses look, how your products are structured and linked together, or the workflow structure behind them.

And then when you try to integrate with other products, the integration is clunky at best and things look piecemeal, like they weren't thought of together.

Most e-learning platforms are built for generic needs and trying to get around the platform itself can be quite a hassle. The features and options just don’t cut it and in turn, our job as course creators becomes harder and more time consuming.

Many platforms baby-step you through how to create a course in their software, and then they leave you hanging when it comes to more advanced features. And this is because they're purely focused on getting entry-level people going. That's fine.

We all start at the beginning, and we need that level of instruction.

But these course hosting platform forget that those newbies [you and me] become power users pretty quickly. 🤓

We found that e-learning platforms need to consider beginners and advanced power users equally and be more focused on the needs of your individual course creator goals and your business operations.

The e-learning platform you choose should provide features for both beginners and advanced power users, as well as robust integrations with existing tools and software.

Digital course platforms have pricing models that often don't account for business growth.

Many pricing models are based on tiers that are limited by the number of products and customers you have, and many course hosting platforms also take a percentage of each sale you make. This means that as your business grows, costs increase exponentially in relation to the money you're making instead of rewarding you for your growth by costing less proportionally as you grow.

Let's walk through an example of why this is a problem.

Let's say that a popular e-learning platform offers you basic tier pricing at $149/month, and you're allowed to have:

...after that you need to bump to the next tier, which jumps up to $199/month.

Well, if you're just starting out, it's probably in your best interest to create a small course that's not $1000's of dollars.

Let's say it's introductory while you're building your business, so you decide to charge $49 so you can test out smaller bites of content with your audience instead of creating an elaborate course from day one.

Now, if you think about the pricing model you'll quickly see that it's not to your advantage on the course hosting platform since growing beyond 1000 customers with a low cost product is to your business advantage but not to your advantage on the platform (which rewards large costly products with fewer customers).

Let's crunch a couple of numbers.

For the $49 example: You'd only make $49,000 before you'd hit the next tier of pricing (which is, btw, 33.5% more expensive).

For a $2,000 course: However, you'd make a whopping $2,000,000 if you had those 1000 customers taking a $2,000 course before you'd hit the next tier of pricing.

This is not to say that you should start with huge, expensive products. Au contraire. Nobody should run a marathon on day one!

And an important note if you're dazzled by the thought of that much moolah 🤑: Getting 1000 customers to purchase a $2k course takes a lot of effort and experience. And while very few may be able to achieve this just starting out, it's not the norm.

What this shows, and what we think over here at Sidkik, is that the pricing for many of these popular platforms just isn't built for beginners OR lower ticket course providers since the incentive to grow isn't there.

A final note about the $49 course example above: there are also most likely payment processing fees from the payment provider that you'll need to pay no matter what. And then if your e-learning platform takes an additional % of each sale, your revenue starts to dwindle. Hmmm... seems like many course hosting platforms are really gouging you.

As you can see, these pricing models can become an impediment to growth - and to even launching - and take away from the return on investment (ROI) of creating courses in the first place.

What you should look for in your course hosting platform: look for pricing models that are geared to low and high priced courses, since we recommend that you have a mix of products as your business matures in order to reach customers at different stages of their own growth. You should also look for flat-rate monthly pricing instead of tiered plans that charge you more as you sell more courses or attract more students.

One of the first things we recommend that you sell is a trip wire, or introductory offer that gets people in the door so you can begin to build a relationship with them. However, most e-learning platforms don't offer you the ability to sell anything other than courses. This means that if you want to create a trip wire or other digital product, you'll have to find another software solution (or finagle your product to somehow be available within a course).

And then, if you've gone with another software solution, guess what?

Your sales are recorded in different places. This means that some customers come through one tool and others come through your e-learning platform.

And then guess what that means?

Your accounting may not come from the same place, which means extra time for you and - most likely - manual steps to bring all of your accounting together.

That might not seem like a big deal in the beginning, but as you grow you may find that it's a burden that's not worth the effort. And it's most likely guaranteed to be a nightmare at tax time when you're scurrying to get your books together. And since accounting is a reality of having a successful "online course business", it's worth the consideration.

When looking for your e-learning platform, look for one that allows you to set up digital products in addition to courses. As well, look for robust integrations with software like Quickbooks and Stripe so you can consolidate all of your sales and accounting data into one place. This will save you time in the long run and help you make more accurate decisions when it comes to the health of your business and your ease of operations.

Finding an e-learning platform that fits your needs is something you should give careful consideration to. Do your research. If you're just getting started, look for a platform that's easy to use and won't require a lot of time or money to get up and running. Give a big consideration to security and their pricing models as well as the extra features they offer. Make sure you keep in mind what type of products you'll need to create so that you can find a platform that supports both course creation and digital product offerings. As you grow, look for a platform that will scale with you and that has the features and integrations that will save you time and effort as your business becomes more complex.  The right platform will make all the difference in your business success.

Looking for more info about how to begin creating your courses and your business hand-in-hand? We've got you covered. Grab our getting started guide, right here.👇