How To Start A Membership On Podia

Podia is a platform that is designed to help people sell digital services online. It can be used for a variety of different purposes like a digital download, a new online course, webinars, and coaching sessions.

Whatever digital services you’re looking to sell, Podia may be able to help you sell them.

However, how do you begin your journey with Podia? Create a membership site with Podia and the first step to creating a thriving online business and can be daunting if you don’t know what to expect from the signing-up process.

That’s why we’ve created this article to help you to know how to start a membership on Podia. We will discuss the different steps in the process and give some advice on how to begin selling.

Let’s get started!

How To Sign-Up To Podia

Signing up for Podia is a straightforward process. There are only a handful of easy steps you need to complete before you have your Podia account open.

Let’s take a look at these steps and walk through them, one by one.

Step One – Sign Up

Regardless of whether you want to pay for a paid Podia for membership sites or not (more on that later), the first step is to sign up for a free membership. You can upgrade to a paid new tier of membership community later on.

The sign-up screen is very simple.

All that you need to enter to begin your membership are:

• Your Name
• Email
• Password

Your password needs to be at least six characters long but there are no restrictions regarding the characters you use.

Unlike many other passwords, you don’t have to include a mix of upper and lower case or special characters. However, we would advise using some of these if you can as it makes your password more secure.

Once you’ve entered your details, press ‘Get started’ and it will take you to the next screen.

Step Two – Choose Your Goals

The next screen will ask you to choose from several different options to show what you are hoping to achieve with Podia. 

The options it offers are:

• Send email – this allows you to set up an email list to contact your customers with campaigns and information
• Launch a website – this will allow you to launch your membership and custom website so you can promote your brand and products
• Start a community – this allows you to set up a community where you can interact with customers and offer paid content to them
• Sell online courses – this is the option for creating your learning courses to sell to your customers
• Sell digital downloads – you can use this option to sell a wide range of different digital products such as templates, ebooks, and others
• Sell webinars – this is the option for selling webinars you’ve recorded 
• Sell coaching sessions – this will allow you to set up coaching sessions with customers and allows you to set up your calendar
• Affiliate program – this covers a few different options such as setting up your affiliate program and commissions

Podia is asking you to choose from these options so that the setup process can be streamlined and made more relevant to you.

You’re not choosing the future of your site so don’t worry if you click the wrong option or miss something that you will need later on.

Pick as many options as you want. After you’ve selected the right options for you, you will be asked to work on these goals.

Be aware, however, that some of these options are not fully available on all tiers of the membership plan. For example, you can’t sell coaching sessions on either the Free tier or 

Step Three – Dashboard

The next screen you will see is your Podia dashboard. There are several things that you can do from this screen and they will vary depending on what you chose in the previous step.

As you can see, the dashboard has a very clean and simple layout and interface so it should be easy to navigate even if this is the first time you’re seeing it.

At the top of the screen is a yellow bar that will remind you to confirm your email address if you haven’t done so already. We recommend checking your inbox at this point to confirm your membership.

The emails can take a little while to come through sometimes so if the email isn’t there yet, give Podia a few more minutes before you request that it is resent.

Underneath this yellow bar are two sections that you will only see at the beginning of your journey with Podia.

On the left is a section entitled ‘See how Podia works.’ You can choose to either watch a video tutorial or click a link to read a written tutorial. If you don’t want to do either of these, click the X on the top right to dismiss this page section.

The section on the right-hand side is called ‘What plan is right for me?’ If you click on the button marked ‘View membership plans’ to see the plan’s availability and it will take you to a page where you can choose your level of membership.

We have a section that goes into this in more detail later in the article.

Underneath these options is a heading titled ‘Accomplish your goals.’ This is where your selections from the last step will show. Every option you selected will be present here and you can work through them to set up your account as you want them.

If you didn’t select something in the previous step that you now want to set up, you can still do this by using the menu at the very top of the screen. You will see several menu options, which are:

• Products
• Podia Community
• Email
• Coupons
• Audience
• Affiliates
• Sales

The first six of these relate directly to the different services you can create using the Podia website. The final one, ‘Sales.’ is your analytics tab and allows you to see how many sales you are making.

You will need to input your payment information on this tab as well so you can receive the money made from your sales! 

Let’s look at that now.

Step Four – Payment Information

Navigate to the ‘Sales’ page so that you can enter your payment information. There are several page sections that you need to complete on this page before you can start receiving payment.

First, you need to choose the currency you wish to be paid in. ‘United States Dollar’ is already chosen so if this is your currency, you don’t need to do anything else.

However, if you want to be paid in another currency, click on the drop-down menu and select your currency.

Podia can make payments to you via either Stripe or PayPal. Stripe is available on all tiers of membership but PayPal can only be used on the paid memberships and not on the Free tier.

Select the right payment option for you and follow the instructions to enter your details.

Finally, you will need to enter your address for tax purposes and select whether you will deal with your tax issues or you can request Podia to collect them for you.

This is your choice and if you’re not sure which is best, we recommend consulting with a tax professional. 

Step Five – Start Creating!

The only major task left for you to complete before you start creating your content on Podia is to choose your level of membership and we have a section dedicated to that later in this article.

When it comes to creating your content, Podia helps you every step of the way. The site is very well organized and structured to make creating content as easy as possible.

There are many users guides you can choose from, in both video and text format, and we recommend that you read these in detail and refer to them as you begin creating your content.

Much of the content can be easily organized thanks to Podia utilizing a drag-and-drop system in its native builder screens. Quickly rearrange and organize your content by dropping things into place. You don’t need any coding knowledge at all to create with Podia!

Some people might find that Podia’s system is a little too restrictive and there is a lack of templates and options compared to some competing platforms.

However, Podia is one of the easiest platforms to create content with so you will need to decide if this is the right platform for you or not.

How To Choose The Best Tier Of Membership For You

Podia offers several different levels of membership and to start your membership with Podia correctly and see this through to making your first sale, you will need to pick the right membership level for you.

Each membership level offers different features and functions. Choosing the wrong one can severely limit your membership and your ability to make sales on Podia.

Luckily, Podia does allow you to easily switch between membership levels so if you do choose the wrong one or need something different in the future, you can make the adjustments.

However, there are no pro-rata refunds on annual memberships if you need to drop down a tier, and picking the right tier from the start will make your relationship with Podia smoother from the beginning.

Pricing

Let’s start by looking at how much the different tiers currently cost.

TierMonthlyAnnual TotalAnnual MonthlyFree$0$0$0Mover$39$396$33Shaker$89$900$75Earthquaker$199$1992$166

Each tier gives different features and functions and the best tier will depend on what you need and the size of your business. Let’s look at which tier is best for different scenarios.

For Trying Out Podia

If you want to see if Podia’s interface and structure are for you, then you can do this while remaining on the Free tier. Although the Free tier doesn’t allow you to publish online courses, you can create them in your drafts.

Otherwise, the Free tier is very limited and anyone that is seriously looking to sell services through Podia will need to pay for another tier.

For Selling Online Courses

All of the paid tiers allow you to sell an unlimited number of online courses, so you can choose any tier you wish if this is your only concern.

Even the Mover tier will give you the tools you need to sell your online courses, such as a website, email marketing, and no transaction fees. 

Mover does not allow you to sell webinars or bundles, however, so if you want to sell these as well as your online courses, you will need a higher tier.

For Individuals That Want to Sell Big

If you’re an individual that wants to create a thriving business on Podia, then Shaker is the best tier. You can sell all of the services offered by Podia, also add affiliate marketing, and also remove the Podia branding from your website.

For Businesses

We recommend either Shaker or Earthquake for businesses. These two tiers are quite similar but the latter of these will allow up to five people to access the account and you can add additional people for a fee.

You will also get priority support that isn’t available at lower tiers such as Shaker. 

Final Thoughts

In this article, we looked at how to start a membership on Podia. We included a step-by-step guide on how to sign up for the service and how to begin your journey to creating content with Podia.

There are many options available to you when you first start your membership with Podia and you can pick and choose the options that are most relevant to you.

We also introduced the different tiers of membership that are available through Podia. Choosing the right tier of membership is important with Podia as it directly affects the services you can sell through your membership.

We hope that this article will be of help and support you as you start your Podia membership.