These apps for product based businesses are time savers that will help you automate your sales. If you don’t have an assistant, or you’re looking to cut down on time spent on administrative tasks, these apps will help you.

Business Scheduling Apps

When you’re choosing a scheduling app, there are many things you’ll need to consider:

• Does the app allow for custom buffer times?
• Does your business offer different appointment types for different purposes?
• Should your potential client access your complete schedule or only schedules reserved for certain services?
• Does your app connect to your personal calendar and alert you when new appointments are scheduled?
• To get a text alert will you need to connect third party software like Zapier?
• In addition, does your calendar allow people to double book appointments?
• Do you need to add code to your website to allow customers to book different services with custom buttons?
• Does the payment software integrate with the theme of your website?

If you’re using a platform like WordPress, additional scheduling software can help you connect with clients. However, even if you’re using a platform like Shopify, you might need to connect an app for complex scheduling, especially if you’re selling services as products in Shopify.

Zapiet

Zapiet is a tool designed to help you take more control over your schedule and design a calendar for product pickup times and delivery systems.

Zapiet is a powerful tool for product-based businesses. The tool allows shop owners to restrict pick up times in Shopify which gives business owners more control over availability. (You can see the tutorial about adding product date restrictions here).

The software can easily assist with calculating delivery rates based on zip codes. With Zapiet, you can also:

• Block off sections of your calendar to prevent customers from scheduling during certain times
• Create custom buffer times on your calendar to prevent scheduling miscommunications
• Create area-based boundaries for product delivery (you can set up a delivery zone, and if customers fall outside of the zone, delivery will not be available)

Zapier

While you might be wondering how Zapier can help you with your product-based business, this is a powerful automation tool. You can use Zapier to trigger an email with a link to your calendar that allows someone to schedule a discovery call, service, or product pickup.

If you don’t have a website to support complex scheduling software, you can use an automation system like Zapier to sent clients links to your schedule or offer after signing up for a free guide. If you’re using a separate scheduling app, for example, you could send a welcome email with a Candely link for a discovery call so your client can get to know you.

This would be for specific types of businesses balancing multiple platforms and looking for a way to connect everything into one cohesive system.

Helpful Zapier Automation Guides:

Zapier/WordPress Automations

Zapier/Shopify Automations

Zapier/Candely Automations

Acuity

Acuity is a scheduling system designed by SquareSpace that works with Zapier to create business-specific automations.

The app can connect to your personal or business calendar and offers many options to customize the scheduling process. If you’d like customers to answer questions or provide specific information before scheduling, Acuity makes it easy to add forms and custom fields to the scheduler.

Other Apps For Product-Based Businesses

Depending on the platform you’re using to host your website, you’ll need apps to elevate your email marketing strategy, financial tracking, coupons, discounts, and more.

If you run a smaller businesses, consider a membership platform like MemberPress. MemberPress not only integrates with WooCommerce so you can sell services as products and create coaching subscriptions. The software also allows you to set up custom discount codes, sales, member-only downloads, and protected membership areas for certain clients.

Social media scheduling tools can save you a lot of time. Below are several popular options to schedule posts to social media. Scheduling tools take the pressure off so you can spend more time on other tasks you enjoy in your business. Automation, however, doesn’t mean you won’t need to engage with your followers.

I’m sharing what I’ve learned to help you decide which scheduling platform will be best for you. The post may contain affiliate links which means I may a commission at no cost to you (full disclosure).

Planoly

Planoly is a social media scheduler that allows you to schedule content for Instagram and Pinterest. You can preview a mockup of your Instagram feed based on the posts you upload to the platform, and the app allows you to upload any file with keyword-optimized image titles for SEO on Instagram.

Inside the Software 

Planoly lets you schedule stories ahead of time to Instagram, you can also plan your feed visually by dragging photos around in the left side bar. You can also schedule reels in Planoly to save time.

Below, you’ll see the menu options that allow you to plan content ahead of time, analyze stats from the platform to see how your content is performing, see and respond to comments on your content, link your social media accounts, and lean more about new features.

If you’re primarily using Instagram and Pinterest, this social media management tool is a great option to explore. Planoly makes it easy to link your Instagram account.

To test out this software, I uploaded images from my camera roll. Screenshots of my account are shown below so you can see what it’s like inside the platform.

Benefits of Using the Platform

These options will help you keep track of engagement with your posts and comments all from the platform. When you click on a post, you’ll see the option to auto share it to Facebook (this way you won’t need to manually go back and forth between the platforms).  

The company also has training manuals and guides to make set up really easy:

• PLANOLY Instagram Planner 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started 
• How to Link Your Instagram Account to Planoly

Considerations

While thousands of people use Planoly successfully, I experienced a few glitches that caused me to look for another social media scheduling solution. It’s common for software conflicts to happen, and it doesn’t mean the product is bad or that it won’t be an amazing option for you.

Ifound that the number of Pins I wanted to schedule ahead of time overwhelmed the platform. It’s common to schedule a few hundred Pins ahead of time. Pinterest is a search engine, so if you promote your content on the platform, you’ll need to create at least three covers or designs for your posts. I found that a lot of pins weren’t showing up on my schedule or they didn’t go out after I’d published them.

That being said, the customer service representatives were very helpful. The pricing is very reasonable and the brand holds consistent webinars with content creators to help you make the most of the software. You can also start with a free trial and experiment with the platform.

Canva

Canva is a graphic design platform that allows you to create templates for your business as well as use pre-made templates for fliers, email opt ins, free downloads, e books, and more. The platform has thousands of designs that are easily accessible on the platform whether you have a paid or free account.

The paid account will unlock the canva scheduling tool available. The tool allows creators to publish designs directly to social media.

This feature is convenient because everything you need is in one place.

You can create folders to hold your designs for different projects or social media platforms. There is also an option to create a brand kit, work with shared design documents, and access the content planner.

The Content Planner

The content planner allows creators to publish content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest. You can also post drafts to your calendar and they will not be shared until you change the status to allow the platform to publish.

Below is an example of a post with the draft status that I did not decide to publish. I can easily drag this post to another day on my calendar if I decide to use it.

I use this because for 12.95/month, the features are well worth the price. I’m able to easily access my HEX codes and brand colors in my brand kit, create custom pins, and easily upload pins to the platform of my choice.

Benefits of Using the Platform

Using Canva to schedule designs to social media platforms is very convenient. On Canva, it’s easy to schedule your designs to different channels, and if you’re using Pinterest you can easily send designs to different boards. If you use the free version of canva, you can schedule designs right away. If you use Canva pro, you can schedule designs ahead of time. Canva is a great low-cost scheduling option.

Considerations

If you want to schedule a Pin to Pinterest more than once, you’ll need to make a copy of the design for each post. For example, if you’d like a Pin to go out to three boards on different days, you need to make three separate copies of the design for that pin. This can overwhelm your home page with copies of multiple designs. If you have multiple pins in one design, you can’t schedule them all to Pinterest from the same Canva page. For example, the screenshot below shows a post about blue beauty and each copy has five pins with different designs. However, I need to make a copy for every pin/design that gets posted to Pinterest.

In addition, once you schedule a design, you cannot edit it without affecting the posting schedule for social media.

Tailwind

Tailwind is another popular social media scheduling tool for Instagram and Pinterest. After experiencing a few glitches with Tailwind, I decided to mix up my strategy but this platform works well for many people and is worth a try.

The way Tailwind uses data is extremely beneficial for content creators. You can see the best times to post based on when users will be on the platform, you can connect with other creators in Tailwind Tribes, and you can plan to share content from other creators by scheduling it ahead of time in your feed so you can support creators you follow.

Tailwind keeps track of your followers activity and will automatically pin posts when the platform knows your followers are active on social media.

Pinterest regularly updates the software, so your strategy will always be changing.

It will take a lot of time to see results on Pinterest, and it’s important to understand that the number of followers you have doesn’t indicate your success on the platform.

The numnber of page views you get to your site, the readers who follow your work by signing up for your email list is more valuable than the number of followers you have.

Pinterest is a search engine that prioritizes results and readers finding helpful content. While followers are nice, you can still get thousands of views to your website with only a few followers and vice versa.

Pinterest scheduling software does experience periodic glitches, so it’s best to save a copy of your work. I like to create a folder for each blog post I publish. After I create the folder, I save pins related to that post as well as the descriptions. Although this can take time, it’s easy to loose your work in a Pinterest scheduler so it’s always best to save a copy.

Buffer

Buffer is an amazing social media scheduler because you can answer comments from all of your channels in one place. It supports multiple platforms as well as different calendar views (monthly and weekly)

The platform is very affordable and you can decide the times you want your posts to go out each day. For example, if you want posts to only go out in the morning, you can make sure the schedule is only open in the morning.

Considerations

• Buffer will not allow you to post the same post to one platform more than once in seven days. If you’re creating a Pinterest campaign and need the same pin to go out multiple times, you’ll need to change the Pin description.
• If you’re using a plugin like Tasty Pins, you’ll still need to upload images for Pinterest individually to Buffer if you want images to be posted with the correct image ratio

Other Platforms to Consider

If you need a platform that is designed for posting content to many different social media platforms, and you don’t use Canva, then Hootsuite or Grow Social are also popular options. The software company offers a 30-day free trial to help you decide if the platform is right for you.

Later is also a popular platform, especially for Instagram scheduling because you can see a preview of what your feed will look like. I don’t have as much experience testing this platform.

Determining your aesthetic is so important when creating a brand strategy. Learn how to use mood boards below to elevate your content plan and foster consistency.

Finding the best online course platform for your product is important for reaching the right audience. Every course platform has different features that will benefit your students, and there are a few things you need to consider.

Teachable

Teachable, a course platform founded by Ankur Nagpal, offers an easy solution to sell courses without having a website. Anyone can sign up for the platform and create helpful content for students.

If you do have a website, you can create integrate your domain name with Teachable to maintain your branding across your course offerings.

The platform makes it really easy to design sales pages that convert, and you can offer subscriptions, coaching, memberships, and courses on the platform.

Teachable offers a challenge each year to encourage creators to publish their work. The winner of the competition can win up to $100,000 for creating a course, and Teachable offers a coaching program for paid subscribers. The platform ensures you have what you need to publish your course in 30 days or less.

Teachable is a great option for creators who need predesigned sales page templates and extra assistance getting their courses off the ground.

Considerations

If you decide to sign up with Teachable, you’ll need to pay a subscription to access some features of the software in addition to payment processing fees.

Free Teachable Plan Offers:

• The ability to create one course
• Unlimited students
• Pre-made design options for building pages

Free Plan Considerations

• Does not offer the option to integrate your domain name for custom branding
• You will pay a transaction fee for each sale you make in addition to payment software transaction fees

Fore more information about the platform, check out the Teachable sales page to determine whether or not this is right for you.

MemberPress

MemberPress is a company that offers membership software for creators. With MemberPress, you can offer coaching, protect pages of your site, and create courses.

You can offer courses by setting up protected pages or you can create a course (example below) with the new LMS software and features all of your courses on one page.

You can easily set up affiliate software, integrate your email marketing platform to send custom welcome emails to subscribers, offer coaching, subscriptions or create a membership website.

Considerations

MemberPress offers several payment options for subscribers. However, MemberPress requires a yearly subscription and recently there was concern that if you do not renew your membership, you not only lose access to the WordPress plugin, but all of your content.

MemberPress Basic Plan Pros

• Unlimited members
• No transaction fees
• Stripe and Paypal integration

MemberPress Considerations

• Ideal for WordPress users
• Complex customization options offer creative control, but require level of experience or willingness to learn WordPress

If you don’t have a website, you may want to consider another option on this list that would allow you to create your content on a platform. However, if you do have a website, this plugin is a great option for offering many different types of services on your own platform.

Learn Dash

Learn Dash is an online course platform that allows creators to access a large audience for their courses and products. Learn Dash not only allows creators to sell courses and products with the Learn Dash LMS software, but the platform also integrates with MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, and Paid Memberships Pro making it a powerhouse for selling products. The software even integrates with Easy Digital Downloads, ThriveCart, Sam Cart, and WooCommerce (see the list of full integrations here).

Learn Dash also allows you to embed your courses on a third party platform and sell your products from your WordPress website.

Kadence, a popular WordPress theme, makes it easy to set up your own course website with MemberPress or Learn Dash. A great example of a demo Learn Dash course website with Kadence, is the Photo Course demo (a free template that is really easy to customize in WordPress.

Below is a 30-second preview of what a Learn Dash Course looks like when embedded in WordPress.

You can either embed Learn Dash courses on your website with a plugin, or you can create your own website just for your courses with the LMS software.

Considerations

Learn Dash and MemberPress are very similar but the software platforms offer different options for presenting your products. To decide between MemberPress and Learn Dash you’ll need to consider the following

• Which software has integrations that are most compatible with other third-party platforms you use on your website? (Do you use email marketing software that is more compatible with Learn Dash or MemberPress?)
• Does the presentation of Learn Dash courses or MemberPress courses work better with the information architecture of your website?
• Do you plan to sell different types of products? Which platform offers the most convenient integrations with your scheduling software?

You’ll need to consider your business model, and how you would like to present your courses as well as the types of products you would like to create to determine the best one for you.

Learn Dash Basic Plan Pros

• No transaction fees
• You can create a custom website or embed courses and sell them from your website
• The basic plan allows you to display courses in a grid

Learn Dash Considerations

For simple sites that need few integrations, you may want to consider starting with

You can get started with Learn Dash with a 15-day free trial and has several demos here.

Kajabi

Kajabi is an online course platform that allows creators to create a website for hosting courses and products. Creators can upload videos to create a course in the form of a slider.

The system can be configured to play the main video (currently playing) on the left and offers the option to create a playlist of upcoming videos to the right.

The platform demonstrates a comittment to creators with the free Kajabi University that helps creators learn how to create coaching packages, courses, and podcasts on the platform.

Below is a quick look at just a few of the resources Kajabi offers for creators interested in getting started with the platform.

Considerations

If you are thinking about getting started with Kajabi, you can start with a 14-day free trial. After the trial period, there are some useful things to consider as you determine whether or not the software is right for you.

Noticeable Kajabi Basic Plan Pros

• Up to 10,000 students
• A website for your products
• No transaction fees

Noticeable Kajabi Basic Plan Considerations

• Unable to have custom branding on the forms
• One-on0one support available for higher priced plans

MemberSpace

MemberSpace is a another course platform that is not tied to any content management systems. great option as well because the platform is independent of CMS. Instead of creating a separate website through software such as Kajabi, you can host your membership content on your platform and easily switch between Squarespace, WordPress or any other platform you would like to use to promote your content.

Considerations

Although MemberPress does offer the convenient option because the software is not tied to a content management system like WordPress. MemberSpace subscribers can easily host content on WordPress and switch to SquareSpace later on.

Memberspace allows creators to protect any link behind a paywall. For example, you can add links to YouTube videos to your subscription simply by setting up a rule that protects your YouTube URL (no need to download the video and host it another platform and embed it in your site). You can learn more about MemberSpace content links here.

Basic Plan Pros:

• Unlimited members
• Free migration and support
• CMS-free

Basic Plan Considerations

• You will need to pay a monthly subscription fee
• A 4% transaction fee is required for each sale
• 2 websites

Thinkific

Thinkific is an online course platform with a drag and drop editor that makes it easy for creators to sell courses and products. Thinkific offers the option to build custom websites for your courses, and you can see the number of students watching your videos on the platform at any given time.

If you’re using WordPress.com (instead of WordPress.org), Thinkific is a great option because it integrates with WordPress.com.

Thinkific also offers a custom payment system. The platform charges the same transaction fee as Stripe, and if you decide to collect payments through Thinkific you won’t need to pay any other transaction fees. The platform has an in depth demo that covers what it will be like to create courses with the platform here.

Navigating Transaction Fees

When navigating transaction fees, you’ll need to consider the fee charged by the payment software and the fee per transaction charged by the platform you’re using to host your courses. Different payment software platforms (such as Stripe and PayPal) charge different fees.

Pricing Considerations:

When pricing your products, consider the following:

• Amount of each sale that will go to transaction fees
• Software fees for hosting your content (course software, video platforms, video creation and editing subscriptions)
• Taxes (you can set up a reserve in your bank account to set aside the portion that will go to taxes)
• The value of your content (what is the unique selling proposition)
• How many hours it took you to create your course or product

Testing Online Course Platforms

You may need to test online course platforms to decide which one is the best for you. Many platforms offer easy integrations if you set up a course and decide later that you need to switch.

Deciding on the best platform will depend on the software you’re using, the integrations you need, and your level of experience with design. Some creators may want more creative control and to design courses on their own websites, where others might want pre-designed templates so they can focus more on their specialty and less on designing a container for their products.

Repurposing content refers to the promotion of your content across platforms (and the process of creating derivative work). Learn how to easily repurpose your content across channels and reach a larger audience.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links (at no extra cost to you). Please read full disclosure for more information.

Why Repurposing Your Content is Important

Posting your content to different platforms increases the chance of reaching a larger audience, and adjusting the message for different platforms allows you present the content in a way that works for the specific platform.

For example, a casual Tweet will effectively promote your content online, but for Pinterest you would need to design graphics and create text (and leverage SEO) to reach your audience.

Repurpose Content: Examples

Repurposing your content might include using a blog post to create the following content:

• A Youtube video
• Using the Youtube Audio for a Podcast
• Creating a guide for your podcast as a lead generation tool
• Transcribing the podcast into a bulleted template, adding a checklist and making an opt in for audience members interested in starting a podcast
• Using a topic from your Youtube video to create another blog
• Recording the process of making the YouTube video and making that a guide for people in need of video editing tips
• Take a picture of you creating the video and editing and post it to Instagram
• Pull a quote from your blog and post it to Facebook
• Use the meta description in your blog post as the description for a Pinterest Pin

The possibilities are endless when it comes to what you could do when it comes to repurposing your content. The most important part of repurposing is a change in the way you view your process.

Creating smaller blogs about a topic you mentioned in a longer blog posts and posting to social media channels are popular methods for repurposing.

What Does Repurposing Your Content Look Like?

Repurposing your content can also mean posting content to a third party platform such as Medium or Quora or Reddit to answer questions. You could also divide a blog post into separate social media posts for different platforms.

Although the platforms do not allow spamming or posting for promotion, if you happen to be on the platform and are able to answer a question most platforms allow sharing of resources where appropriate.

Content Themes

Categorizing your content into themes is. a useful way to plan for repurposing and to organize your calendar.

Using themes, popular holidays, and events to plan your content will help you have a more diverse range of content. You can also divide your content by type (themes could include a video, podcast, blog, etc.) or you could use themes to organize content by topic.

If you’re planning your editorial calendar ahead of time, themes can help you may out your newsletter, blog, and social media channels.

Content Repurposing Workflow

The most effective way to repurpose is to create a template with reminders about the ways you plan to repurpose your content.

Templates are a great way to save time in all areas of your blog and business. Templates for your sales pages, Gmail, and everyday tasks will help you streamline your content creation.

Pre-made templates are a fantastic way to save time. Clickup allows you to create custom templates for any project.

Working online and building websites is becoming more common as people lean toward remote work. There are several web design terms you should know to make communication easier.

Whether you’re building your first website, working with a designer, or making changes to a newly designed site on your own, there are a few terms you’ll need to know. You can use the following guide to help you navigating building your website.

“A” record 

The “A” record of your website is used to point your site to a host. When you change web hosts, you will need to adjust the “A” record to point to another hosting company to allow your site to properly connect to the new hosting platform.

There are many reasons web designers change hosts:

• You need a faster host
• The size of your website increased
• You need a cost-effective solution for hosting
• Customer service concerns

Host

If you have a self-hosted website, you’ll need to pay for a web hosting company to house your files. Self-hosted websites give you more control over your content.

Every web host has a different hosting system, and you may need to experiment with different hosts to see which one is best for your business or blog. Just a everyone has different productivity systems that work for them, different companies are more compatible with some hosts than others.

For example, Flywheel allows you to install software on your website to easily transfer your hosting to the platform. They also offer 24-7 chat support and will assist you if you run into any changes. Other hosting platforms may not offer the same support, resources, or ease of transfer.

Some hosts will transfer data for you, while others may request that you oversee the transfer of your own data.

Bluehost is a popular and affordable host for new bloggers. Although some bloggers experience site speed concerns as their blogs grow, it’s really easy to switch hosts from BlueHost and to renew your domain. You can also purchase sub domains directly form the platform.

Hosting your own website give you more flexibility over changing your web theme, adjusting software, and design.

Self-hosted vs Third-Party Hosted Websites

Before you sign a contract with a third-party host, always remember to review the legal agreements about who has a right to the content posted on the platform.

It’s common to hear that if you don’t host your website, you don’t own your content. However, it’s always important to review company-specific standards and to meet with a lawyer to review your specific contract and content ownership agreements.

DNS

DNS records tie an identity to websites and the content posted from a specific domain.

The Domain Name System (DNS) of your website ties your IP address to your domain name. According to Cloudflare, a popular content delivery network company, “DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources”

Name Servers

The terms Name Servers and DNS are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two. The name server for your website is part of a larger file where the location where your site is held. According to Dreamhost, a popular web host for bloggers and online businesses, “Nameservers form part of an online database known as the Domain Name System (DNS). “

CNAME Record

CNAME records are also commonly referred to by web hosts and designers, especially if you are making changes to your website. According to Google Support, “A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name.”

Content Delivery Network (CDN) 

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) improves the ability of a website to serve content to different locations. Websites with global readers can benefit from using a CDN. In addition, some CDN companies improve the security of websites.

Content scraping, a common concern for bloggers, occurs when a website uses the RSS feed of another website to immediately copy new content to a different website. If the site indexes the content from the original source immediately, there is a change that the content scraper will not only rank for the copied content in Google but start to build an audience from the stolen content.

Domain Registrar

Your domain registrar is the location where you purchased/registered your domain. For example, if I purchased my domain from Bluehost, then Bluehost would be the domain registrar for my site, even after I transferred to a different host.

It’s best to renew your domain early or purchase several years of your domain if you know you want to keep your domain.

Social media scheduling tools can save you a lot of time. Below are several popular options to schedule posts to social media. Scheduling tools take the pressure off so you can spend more time on other tasks you enjoy in your business. Automation, however, doesn’t mean you won’t need to engage with your followers.

I’m sharing what I’ve learned to help you decide which scheduling platform will be best for you. The post may contain affiliate links which means I may a commission at no cost to you (full disclosure).

Planoly

Planoly is a social media scheduler that allows you to schedule content for Instagram and Pinterest. You can preview a mockup of your Instagram feed based on the posts you upload to the platform, and the app allows you to upload any file with keyword-optimized image titles for SEO on Instagram.

Inside the Software 

Planoly lets you schedule stories ahead of time to Instagram, you can also plan your feed visually by dragging photos around in the left side bar. You can also schedule reels in Planoly to save time.

Below, you’ll see the menu options that allow you to plan content ahead of time, analyze stats from the platform to see how your content is performing, see and respond to comments on your content, link your social media accounts, and lean more about new features.

If you’re primarily using Instagram and Pinterest, this social media management tool is a great option to explore. Planoly makes it easy to link your Instagram account.

To test out this software, I uploaded images from my camera roll. Screenshots of my account are shown below so you can see what it’s like inside the platform.

Benefits of Using the Platform

These options will help you keep track of engagement with your posts and comments all from the platform. When you click on a post, you’ll see the option to auto share it to Facebook (this way you won’t need to manually go back and forth between the platforms).  

The company also has training manuals and guides to make set up really easy:

• PLANOLY Instagram Planner 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started 
• How to Link Your Instagram Account to Planoly

Considerations

While thousands of people use Planoly successfully, I experienced a few glitches that caused me to look for another social media scheduling solution. It’s common for software conflicts to happen, and it doesn’t mean the product is bad or that it won’t be an amazing option for you.

Ifound that the number of Pins I wanted to schedule ahead of time overwhelmed the platform. It’s common to schedule a few hundred Pins ahead of time. Pinterest is a search engine, so if you promote your content on the platform, you’ll need to create at least three covers or designs for your posts. I found that a lot of pins weren’t showing up on my schedule or they didn’t go out after I’d published them.

That being said, the customer service representatives were very helpful. The pricing is very reasonable and the brand holds consistent webinars with content creators to help you make the most of the software. You can also start with a free trial and experiment with the platform.

Canva

Canva is a graphic design platform that allows you to create templates for your business as well as use pre-made templates for fliers, email opt ins, free downloads, e books, and more. The platform has thousands of designs that are easily accessible on the platform whether you have a paid or free account.

The paid account will unlock the canva scheduling tool available. The tool allows creators to publish designs directly to social media.

This feature is convenient because everything you need is in one place.

You can create folders to hold your designs for different projects or social media platforms. There is also an option to create a brand kit, work with shared design documents, and access the content planner.

The Content Planner

The content planner allows creators to publish content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest. You can also post drafts to your calendar and they will not be shared until you change the status to allow the platform to publish.

Below is an example of a post with the draft status that I did not decide to publish. I can easily drag this post to another day on my calendar if I decide to use it.

I use this because for 12.95/month, the features are well worth the price. I’m able to easily access my HEX codes and brand colors in my brand kit, create custom pins, and easily upload pins to the platform of my choice.

Benefits of Using the Platform

Using Canva to schedule designs to social media platforms is very convenient. On Canva, it’s easy to schedule your designs to different channels, and if you’re using Pinterest you can easily send designs to different boards. If you use the free version of canva, you can schedule designs right away. If you use Canva pro, you can schedule designs ahead of time. Canva is a great low-cost scheduling option.

Considerations

If you want to schedule a Pin to Pinterest more than once, you’ll need to make a copy of the design for each post. For example, if you’d like a Pin to go out to three boards on different days, you need to make three separate copies of the design for that pin. This can overwhelm your home page with copies of multiple designs. If you have multiple pins in one design, you can’t schedule them all to Pinterest from the same Canva page. For example, the screenshot below shows a post about blue beauty and each copy has five pins with different designs. However, I need to make a copy for every pin/design that gets posted to Pinterest.

In addition, once you schedule a design, you cannot edit it without affecting the posting schedule for social media.

Tailwind

Tailwind is another popular social media scheduling tool for Instagram and Pinterest. After experiencing a few glitches with Tailwind, I decided to mix up my strategy but this platform works well for many people and is worth a try.

The way Tailwind uses data is extremely beneficial for content creators. You can see the best times to post based on when users will be on the platform, you can connect with other creators in Tailwind Tribes, and you can plan to share content from other creators by scheduling it ahead of time in your feed so you can support creators you follow.

Tailwind keeps track of your followers activity and will automatically pin posts when the platform knows your followers are active on social media.

Pinterest regularly updates the software, so your strategy will always be changing.

It will take a lot of time to see results on Pinterest, and it’s important to understand that the number of followers you have doesn’t indicate your success on the platform.

The numnber of page views you get to your site, the readers who follow your work by signing up for your email list is more valuable than the number of followers you have.

Pinterest is a search engine that prioritizes results and readers finding helpful content. While followers are nice, you can still get thousands of views to your website with only a few followers and vice versa.

Pinterest scheduling software does experience periodic glitches, so it’s best to save a copy of your work. I like to create a folder for each blog post I publish. After I create the folder, I save pins related to that post as well as the descriptions. Although this can take time, it’s easy to loose your work in a Pinterest scheduler so it’s always best to save a copy.

Buffer

Buffer is an amazing social media scheduler because you can answer comments from all of your channels in one place. It supports multiple platforms as well as different calendar views (monthly and weekly)

The platform is very affordable and you can decide the times you want your posts to go out each day. For example, if you want posts to only go out in the morning, you can make sure the schedule is only open in the morning.

Considerations

• Buffer will not allow you to post the same post to one platform more than once in seven days. If you’re creating a Pinterest campaign and need the same pin to go out multiple times, you’ll need to change the Pin description.
• If you’re using a plugin like Tasty Pins, you’ll still need to upload images for Pinterest individually to Buffer if you want images to be posted with the correct image ratio

Other Platforms to Consider

If you need a platform that is designed for posting content to many different social media platforms, and you don’t use Canva, then Hootsuite or Grow Social are also popular options. The software company offers a 30-day free trial to help you decide if the platform is right for you.

Later is also a popular platform, especially for Instagram scheduling because you can see a preview of what your feed will look like. I don’t have as much experience testing this platform.

Determining your aesthetic is so important when creating a brand strategy. Learn how to use mood boards below to elevate your content plan and foster consistency.

Finding the best online course platform for your product is important for reaching the right audience. Every course platform has different features that will benefit your students, and there are a few things you need to consider.

Teachable

Teachable, a course platform founded by Ankur Nagpal, offers an easy solution to sell courses without having a website. Anyone can sign up for the platform and create helpful content for students.

If you do have a website, you can create integrate your domain name with Teachable to maintain your branding across your course offerings.

The platform makes it really easy to design sales pages that convert, and you can offer subscriptions, coaching, memberships, and courses on the platform.

Teachable offers a challenge each year to encourage creators to publish their work. The winner of the competition can win up to $100,000 for creating a course, and Teachable offers a coaching program for paid subscribers. The platform ensures you have what you need to publish your course in 30 days or less.

Teachable is a great option for creators who need predesigned sales page templates and extra assistance getting their courses off the ground.

Considerations

If you decide to sign up with Teachable, you’ll need to pay a subscription to access some features of the software in addition to payment processing fees.

Free Teachable Plan Offers:

• The ability to create one course
• Unlimited students
• Pre-made design options for building pages

Free Plan Considerations

• Does not offer the option to integrate your domain name for custom branding
• You will pay a transaction fee for each sale you make in addition to payment software transaction fees

Fore more information about the platform, check out the Teachable sales page to determine whether or not this is right for you.

MemberPress

MemberPress is a company that offers membership software for creators. With MemberPress, you can offer coaching, protect pages of your site, and create courses.

You can offer courses by setting up protected pages or you can create a course (example below) with the new LMS software and features all of your courses on one page.

You can easily set up affiliate software, integrate your email marketing platform to send custom welcome emails to subscribers, offer coaching, subscriptions or create a membership website.

Considerations

MemberPress offers several payment options for subscribers. However, MemberPress requires a yearly subscription and recently there was concern that if you do not renew your membership, you not only lose access to the WordPress plugin, but all of your content.

MemberPress Basic Plan Pros

• Unlimited members
• No transaction fees
• Stripe and Paypal integration

MemberPress Considerations

• Ideal for WordPress users
• Complex customization options offer creative control, but require level of experience or willingness to learn WordPress

If you don’t have a website, you may want to consider another option on this list that would allow you to create your content on a platform. However, if you do have a website, this plugin is a great option for offering many different types of services on your own platform.

Learn Dash

Learn Dash is an online course platform that allows creators to access a large audience for their courses and products. Learn Dash not only allows creators to sell courses and products with the Learn Dash LMS software, but the platform also integrates with MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, and Paid Memberships Pro making it a powerhouse for selling products. The software even integrates with Easy Digital Downloads, ThriveCart, Sam Cart, and WooCommerce (see the list of full integrations here).

Learn Dash also allows you to embed your courses on a third party platform and sell your products from your WordPress website.

Kadence, a popular WordPress theme, makes it easy to set up your own course website with MemberPress or Learn Dash. A great example of a demo Learn Dash course website with Kadence, is the Photo Course demo (a free template that is really easy to customize in WordPress.

Below is a 30-second preview of what a Learn Dash Course looks like when embedded in WordPress.

You can either embed Learn Dash courses on your website with a plugin, or you can create your own website just for your courses with the LMS software.

Considerations

Learn Dash and MemberPress are very similar but the software platforms offer different options for presenting your products. To decide between MemberPress and Learn Dash you’ll need to consider the following

• Which software has integrations that are most compatible with other third-party platforms you use on your website? (Do you use email marketing software that is more compatible with Learn Dash or MemberPress?)
• Does the presentation of Learn Dash courses or MemberPress courses work better with the information architecture of your website?
• Do you plan to sell different types of products? Which platform offers the most convenient integrations with your scheduling software?

You’ll need to consider your business model, and how you would like to present your courses as well as the types of products you would like to create to determine the best one for you.

Learn Dash Basic Plan Pros

• No transaction fees
• You can create a custom website or embed courses and sell them from your website
• The basic plan allows you to display courses in a grid

Learn Dash Considerations

For simple sites that need few integrations, you may want to consider starting with

You can get started with Learn Dash with a 15-day free trial and has several demos here.

Kajabi

Kajabi is an online course platform that allows creators to create a website for hosting courses and products. Creators can upload videos to create a course in the form of a slider.

The system can be configured to play the main video (currently playing) on the left and offers the option to create a playlist of upcoming videos to the right.

The platform demonstrates a comittment to creators with the free Kajabi University that helps creators learn how to create coaching packages, courses, and podcasts on the platform.

Below is a quick look at just a few of the resources Kajabi offers for creators interested in getting started with the platform.

Considerations

If you are thinking about getting started with Kajabi, you can start with a 14-day free trial. After the trial period, there are some useful things to consider as you determine whether or not the software is right for you.

Noticeable Kajabi Basic Plan Pros

• Up to 10,000 students
• A website for your products
• No transaction fees

Noticeable Kajabi Basic Plan Considerations

• Unable to have custom branding on the forms
• One-on0one support available for higher priced plans

MemberSpace

MemberSpace is a another course platform that is not tied to any content management systems. great option as well because the platform is independent of CMS. Instead of creating a separate website through software such as Kajabi, you can host your membership content on your platform and easily switch between Squarespace, WordPress or any other platform you would like to use to promote your content.

Considerations

Although MemberPress does offer the convenient option because the software is not tied to a content management system like WordPress. MemberSpace subscribers can easily host content on WordPress and switch to SquareSpace later on.

Memberspace allows creators to protect any link behind a paywall. For example, you can add links to YouTube videos to your subscription simply by setting up a rule that protects your YouTube URL (no need to download the video and host it another platform and embed it in your site). You can learn more about MemberSpace content links here.

Basic Plan Pros:

• Unlimited members
• Free migration and support
• CMS-free

Basic Plan Considerations

• You will need to pay a monthly subscription fee
• A 4% transaction fee is required for each sale
• 2 websites

Thinkific

Thinkific is an online course platform with a drag and drop editor that makes it easy for creators to sell courses and products. Thinkific offers the option to build custom websites for your courses, and you can see the number of students watching your videos on the platform at any given time.

If you’re using WordPress.com (instead of WordPress.org), Thinkific is a great option because it integrates with WordPress.com.

Thinkific also offers a custom payment system. The platform charges the same transaction fee as Stripe, and if you decide to collect payments through Thinkific you won’t need to pay any other transaction fees. The platform has an in depth demo that covers what it will be like to create courses with the platform here.

Navigating Transaction Fees

When navigating transaction fees, you’ll need to consider the fee charged by the payment software and the fee per transaction charged by the platform you’re using to host your courses. Different payment software platforms (such as Stripe and PayPal) charge different fees.

Pricing Considerations:

When pricing your products, consider the following:

• Amount of each sale that will go to transaction fees
• Software fees for hosting your content (course software, video platforms, video creation and editing subscriptions)
• Taxes (you can set up a reserve in your bank account to set aside the portion that will go to taxes)
• The value of your content (what is the unique selling proposition)
• How many hours it took you to create your course or product

Testing Online Course Platforms

You may need to test online course platforms to decide which one is the best for you. Many platforms offer easy integrations if you set up a course and decide later that you need to switch.

Deciding on the best platform will depend on the software you’re using, the integrations you need, and your level of experience with design. Some creators may want more creative control and to design courses on their own websites, where others might want pre-designed templates so they can focus more on their specialty and less on designing a container for their products.

Repurposing content refers to the promotion of your content across platforms (and the process of creating derivative work). Learn how to easily repurpose your content across channels and reach a larger audience.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links (at no extra cost to you). Please read full disclosure for more information.

Why Repurposing Your Content is Important

Posting your content to different platforms increases the chance of reaching a larger audience, and adjusting the message for different platforms allows you present the content in a way that works for the specific platform.

For example, a casual Tweet will effectively promote your content online, but for Pinterest you would need to design graphics and create text (and leverage SEO) to reach your audience.

Repurpose Content: Examples

Repurposing your content might include using a blog post to create the following content:

• A Youtube video
• Using the Youtube Audio for a Podcast
• Creating a guide for your podcast as a lead generation tool
• Transcribing the podcast into a bulleted template, adding a checklist and making an opt in for audience members interested in starting a podcast
• Using a topic from your Youtube video to create another blog
• Recording the process of making the YouTube video and making that a guide for people in need of video editing tips
• Take a picture of you creating the video and editing and post it to Instagram
• Pull a quote from your blog and post it to Facebook
• Use the meta description in your blog post as the description for a Pinterest Pin

The possibilities are endless when it comes to what you could do when it comes to repurposing your content. The most important part of repurposing is a change in the way you view your process.

Creating smaller blogs about a topic you mentioned in a longer blog posts and posting to social media channels are popular methods for repurposing.

What Does Repurposing Your Content Look Like?

Repurposing your content can also mean posting content to a third party platform such as Medium or Quora or Reddit to answer questions. You could also divide a blog post into separate social media posts for different platforms.

Although the platforms do not allow spamming or posting for promotion, if you happen to be on the platform and are able to answer a question most platforms allow sharing of resources where appropriate.

Content Themes

Categorizing your content into themes is. a useful way to plan for repurposing and to organize your calendar.

Using themes, popular holidays, and events to plan your content will help you have a more diverse range of content. You can also divide your content by type (themes could include a video, podcast, blog, etc.) or you could use themes to organize content by topic.

If you’re planning your editorial calendar ahead of time, themes can help you may out your newsletter, blog, and social media channels.

Content Repurposing Workflow

The most effective way to repurpose is to create a template with reminders about the ways you plan to repurpose your content.

Templates are a great way to save time in all areas of your blog and business. Templates for your sales pages, Gmail, and everyday tasks will help you streamline your content creation.

Pre-made templates are a fantastic way to save time. Clickup allows you to create custom templates for any project.

Working online and building websites is becoming more common as people lean toward remote work. There are several web design terms you should know to make communication easier.

Whether you’re building your first website, working with a designer, or making changes to a newly designed site on your own, there are a few terms you’ll need to know. You can use the following guide to help you navigating building your website.

“A” record 

The “A” record of your website is used to point your site to a host. When you change web hosts, you will need to adjust the “A” record to point to another hosting company to allow your site to properly connect to the new hosting platform.

There are many reasons web designers change hosts:

• You need a faster host
• The size of your website increased
• You need a cost-effective solution for hosting
• Customer service concerns

Host

If you have a self-hosted website, you’ll need to pay for a web hosting company to house your files. Self-hosted websites give you more control over your content.

Every web host has a different hosting system, and you may need to experiment with different hosts to see which one is best for your business or blog. Just a everyone has different productivity systems that work for them, different companies are more compatible with some hosts than others.

For example, Flywheel allows you to install software on your website to easily transfer your hosting to the platform. They also offer 24-7 chat support and will assist you if you run into any changes. Other hosting platforms may not offer the same support, resources, or ease of transfer.

Some hosts will transfer data for you, while others may request that you oversee the transfer of your own data.

Bluehost is a popular and affordable host for new bloggers. Although some bloggers experience site speed concerns as their blogs grow, it’s really easy to switch hosts from BlueHost and to renew your domain. You can also purchase sub domains directly form the platform.

Hosting your own website give you more flexibility over changing your web theme, adjusting software, and design.

Self-hosted vs Third-Party Hosted Websites

Before you sign a contract with a third-party host, always remember to review the legal agreements about who has a right to the content posted on the platform.

It’s common to hear that if you don’t host your website, you don’t own your content. However, it’s always important to review company-specific standards and to meet with a lawyer to review your specific contract and content ownership agreements.

DNS

DNS records tie an identity to websites and the content posted from a specific domain.

The Domain Name System (DNS) of your website ties your IP address to your domain name. According to Cloudflare, a popular content delivery network company, “DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources”

Name Servers

The terms Name Servers and DNS are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two. The name server for your website is part of a larger file where the location where your site is held. According to Dreamhost, a popular web host for bloggers and online businesses, “Nameservers form part of an online database known as the Domain Name System (DNS). “

CNAME Record

CNAME records are also commonly referred to by web hosts and designers, especially if you are making changes to your website. According to Google Support, “A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name.”

Content Delivery Network (CDN) 

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) improves the ability of a website to serve content to different locations. Websites with global readers can benefit from using a CDN. In addition, some CDN companies improve the security of websites.

Content scraping, a common concern for bloggers, occurs when a website uses the RSS feed of another website to immediately copy new content to a different website. If the site indexes the content from the original source immediately, there is a change that the content scraper will not only rank for the copied content in Google but start to build an audience from the stolen content.

Domain Registrar

Your domain registrar is the location where you purchased/registered your domain. For example, if I purchased my domain from Bluehost, then Bluehost would be the domain registrar for my site, even after I transferred to a different host.

It’s best to renew your domain early or purchase several years of your domain if you know you want to keep your domain.

As businesses and freelancers continue to create new blogs and platforms for content creation evolve, blogging has become an effective business technique for building an audience.

Domain authority, also known as DA, measures a site’s credibility. Several factors are used to determine the DA of a website, and the higher the DA, the more credible the site is to search engines. 

Factors that determine the DA of a website include the age of the site, the quality of content posted, and backlinks to the site.

Backlinks show search engines that the content published is credible enough to show to a larger audience. If people are consistently reading, sharing, and linking to a website as a source of authority, the DA of the website increases.

Blogs with a high DA are more likely to be shown to users by google, making it easier for businesses to access an audience and monetize the content published to the site. 

What Are Backlinks

Backlinks occur when one site links back to another website. Usually backlinks are used to cite information or to recommend further reading materials. 

MOZ, an SEO company founded by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, is one of many industry leaders for SEO advice.

According to the MOZ, backlinks are a “vote of confidence” from readers, a form of social proof indicating that the site is helpful and credible, worth promotion and what readers are looking for.

Optin Monster, a platform that helps readers build a following and a “powerful conversion optimization toolkit” keep track of what helps businesses gain subscribers successfully. Blogs and backlinks play a major role. 

According to OptinMonster, companies with blogs see a 97 percent increase in backlinks to company sites.

Why Backlinks Affect Business

Building backlinks allows prospective customers to find your content. If content creators link to your site, this also signals to Google that your site has credibility. 

According to Backlinko, 14.1 percent percent of search queries are question keywords. Answering questions with quality content is an important aspect of SEO and participating in the competitive practice of SEO and gaining page views. 

Since backlinks affect the way search engines categorize the content posted to websites, building links is critical in gaining page views and building credibility. Due to ranking systems and search engines, credibility has become twofold: becoming recognized as an expert by both readers and search engines is important for digital writers.

Backlink Quality

Not all backlinks are created equal. Some creators attempt to build backlinks by paying for links or creating backlink communities in an attempt to build a strong backlink profile. 

Any attempt to manipulate backlink profiles is not recommended by Google. Paying for backlinks or participating in communities that will help you gain links is not recommended by Google. According to the Google link schemes guide, attempts to build backlinks inorganically may result in penalties. 

How to Build Backlinks

The best way to build backlinks is to allow them to occur naturally by creating high quality content.

OptinMonster, a company that specializes in audience building techniques, offers a free online backlink guide and explains why backlinks play a major role in marketing. According to OptinMonster, companies with blogs see a 97 percent increase in backlinks to company sites.

Organic Backlinks

Popular backlink building strategies include posting to social media and pitching resources as the answer to questions online. 

According to Neil Patel, valuable backlinks are industry specific and come from other sites that have high credibility and a high DA. If people are consistently reading, sharing, and linking to a website as a source of authority, the DA of the website increases.

Visual design elements also affect backlinks. According to Patel building backlinks takes time, and visual elements are a major factor in gaining backlinks and engagement.

Guest posts, answering questions as an industry leader, and promoting resources while networking where appropriate are popular methods of building links naturally from people interested in sharing content.