Meet Podia: The New Rising Star In The Course Market

When it comes to creating online courses and digital downloads, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

One of them is Podia. So, what is Podia?

You may have heard of this oddly-named platform in recent years as it has been rising in popularity.

But is it all that it’s hyped up to be?

Let us find out.

What is Podia?

Let’s answer the question: “What is Podia?”

Podia derives its name from the plural form of the word “podium,” a platform used by teachers, speakers, and online entrepreneurs so that they can be seen and heard by the audience.

Hence, aptly so, Podia claims to be an all-in-one digital storefront where you can host and sell your online courses, memberships, and digital downloads. It’s possible to run an entire sales funnel with Podia.

This means that Podia doesn’t help you to create your course content or downloads; rather, it is a digital platform that provides teachers, creators, and entrepreneurs a space to house and sell their digital products to generate income. Podia’s affiliate program can earn you up to 30% recurring commission.

Released in 2014, Podia is currently used by over 20,000 content creators who want to:

• Sell online courses
• Host and sell webinars
• Sell digital product memberships
• Digital marketers and entrepreneurs

Since it provides only very limited services, Podia is more suited for beginner users or those who offer small to mid-sized courses.

Thanks to its very easy-to-use interface and features, Podia can now stand head-to-head with other platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, and Thinkific.

Why Did Podia Get So Popular Over the Last Year?

Although Podia is relatively new compared to other content creation platforms, it has gained a cult following in the e-commerce realm because of its extremely easy and intuitive creator-friendly features and policies. 

One of its biggest draws is its highly intuitive and feature-rich platform.

A lot of people are passionate about creating content; however, they hit a snag when it comes to hosting and selling their content because they do not have the necessary technical know-how.

Another hurdle they face is that they do not know how to make their market aware of the digital content they provide.

This is where Podia offers its logistics services.

Another great advantage of using Podia is that it is virtually one of the only platforms that allow you to integrate your membership site into your selling platform.

Hosting both the membership and products on the same platform simplifies the user journey and maximizes your conversion rate.

In essence, Podia’s rise in popularity can be attributed to handling the hosting, marketing, and logistics part, while allowing the creators to focus on the creation process.

What Makes It Stand Out In The Crowd Of Online Course Platforms?

Podia is a website builder system that is meant to construct a site in one of the three above-mentioned categories, which means you can build your own website and you do not have to deal with the rest of the clutter of e-commerce.

There are several features that make Podia stand out from the competition and make it the right online course platform for many people:

Interface

Podia’s interface is very user-friendly and clear.

Once you create an account on its platform, you will be taken to a screen where it will ask you about the type of content you want to create.

The list includes:

• Memberships
• Online courses
• Digital downloads

Additionally, Podia will help you manage email marketing right inside the platform.

You will also have access to the options on every screen:

Editor: This section allows you to edit the appearance of your digital storefront by adding widgets, extra sections, and customizations.

Products: In this section, you can create new digital products, make changes to their settings, and sell digital products.

Memberships: This section allows you to create a membership portal and charge a subscription fee.

Emails: This section allows you to manage email marketing.

Customers: This gives access to all your customers and newsletter subscribers’ information.

Sales: This section allows you to set up the payment method and review customer payments and invoices on your sales page.

Settings: Here, you can tweak your storefront settings and integrate your account with other services. Additionally, you can choose your language, currency, tax information, URL, and more. You can also change your security settings and have access to billing information. 

The interface is very comprehensive and refined, unlike several other content creation software, and makes selling online courses unbelievably easy.

Content Creation

One of the biggest advantages Podia has over its competitors like Kajabi is that it is extremely easy to use.

For beginners, this online course platform is very convenient and does not require a long line of clicks to complete a task. Instead, everything is clearly laid out in front of you and it offers straightforward steps to create a course.

To create a course with Podia, you need to first create an account.

Beginner users can do so by clicking on the “Start your 14-day trial” tab on the main page.

You will then be asked for details to create a Podia account and choose a membership option once the free trial expires.

After creating the account, you will be redirected to the Dashboard page, where you can control everything.

For new users, Podia also offer a live tour with a customer support professional; if you don’t want that, you can simply start hosting your course content.

To create a course, click on the “Products” tab at the top of the page.

Go to “Add a product,” and select your choice from the list of “Online Courses,” “Digital Download,” “Webinar” and “Bundle.”

If you choose “Online Course” you will be asked to give your course a name. Then click on “Create & Continue” and your first course is created.

To add content and customize your course, you need to create sections, which is how all courses are created.

To do that, click on “Add Section” and add the title and description of the course.

You also have the option of “Drip settings” which allows you to lock certain sections of the page for a specific amount of time after the students start enrolling.

Once all your sections are completed, you can add content to each one of them by clicking on the “Add Content” drop-down menu and selecting the type of content you want to add, including “Add files,” “Add links,” “Add text,” and “Add quiz.”

That’s how easy it is to navigate and use. 

Although there aren’t any templates for creating courses, Podia offers you the freedom to customize your courses the way you want, thanks to its comprehensive range of options and features.

Webinars

Aside from online courses, Podia also enables you to create webinars for your audience, either for free or for a one-time fee. You can also access the webinar feature if you buy a membership.

This is one of the most effective tools to add credibility to your work, grow your email list, and increase your sales.

Email Integrations

Another thing that gives Podia an edge against competitors is its immaculate email marketing capabilities.

If you want to keep communications between your current and prospective customers regular, you can gather their email addresses from your prelaunch or storefront webpages and create a beautifully-formatted newsletter campaign to ensure your audience always remains updated.

To make sure this happens, Podia offers you several different integrations with email providers.

Podia integrates:

• MailChimp: a popular email marketing tool
• ConvertKit: that automates your emails
• AWeber: auto-responding email tools
• Drip: allows you to send emails at specific times to create a better personal relationship with customers.
• ActiveCampaign: which offers customer experience automation
• MailerLite: offers automation, surveys, and landing pages
• GetResponse: this sends email marketing newsletters, follow-up autoresponders, and online surveys.

With all the tools mentioned, Podia can help you track your email click, open, and unsubscribe rates.

Zapier Integration

Aside from email integration tools, Podia also offers Zapier integration to its users.

Via Zapier, content creators are able to access a whole lot of extra useful apps like:

• Trello
• LeadPages
• ThriveCart
• GoogleSheets
• Dubsado

These integrations will provide you even more convenience when marketing your course content and can take your productivity up another notch, helping you to transfer your content from other platforms to Podia and expanding your online course business further.

Navigation

Although we have mentioned how easy Podia is to navigate in the above sections, since it is one of its biggest selling propositions, navigation needs to be mentioned separately as well.

The navigation in Podia really makes the platform suitable for everyone out there.

Depending on the complexity of your course, you can have your course up and running from a few minutes to a few hours, and ready to sell.

This feature may seem fairly basic, but it offers a lot of saved time and less hassle, compared to other course creation platforms, which trade off navigation for complex services.

All the main buttons are clearly displayed on every page of the site and there is no clutter since the platform offers only a limited number of services.

Customer Support

One of the areas where Podia truly shines is its stellar customer support.

Although Podia does not offer phone support, they still make you feel cared for because of the other customer support options they offer.

They offer 24/7 email support as well as video tutorials for new users.

Upon creating an account, you will also receive an email that will detail how to get started and get help every step of the way.

Additionally, it offers live chat services Monday through Friday. If you feel stuck, you also have the option of reading the Q&A page which can help you resolve your issues. If you want to learn more check out our complete Podia review for yourself here.

Bottom Line

As you can see, Podia’s claim to fame lies in its ease of use and excellent customer support.

For beginners, this platform is much easier to use than other platforms like Kajabi, which requires a significant learning curve.

Although they offer only online content creation, memberships, and digital downloads, all the features and options in them are complete and they come with a treasure trove of useful integrations, which is great for an online business.

All in all, we believe that the Podia platform deserves its place right on top with the best.