by nick | Aug 16, 2021 | Wordpress
I am going to be reviewing the NitroPack plugin and its impact on WordPress. Now, when I say impact, I’m meaning its effects on speed. I decided to do a test to see if it would speed up one of my websites. Now, I actually have already used this plugin on multiple websites of mine, and it's done a great job speeding them up. However, this specific site I am testing out will be a true testament to this plugin because it has more content, and most of all, more images.
Let’s start by diving into what NitroPack is and does. This plugin is a one-stop shop for performance enhancement. It has everything you'll need to run and maintain a super-fast website. NitroPack provides it all: image optimization, caching, CDN, and lazy loading. NitroPack also optimizes everything in the cloud.
Nitropack
According to NitroPack, users get a 69% PageSpeed score boost on average after installing. They guarantee that PageSpeed Insight scores will be 90+ for the desktop and 75+ for mobile. NitroPack also handles all aspects of picture optimization. If you're using NitroPack, you won't need any other plugins. NitroPack is compatible with all types of websites, regardless of their size. It’s designed specifically for major e-commerce stores that bring in a lot of traffic.
It works on major hosting and page builders including:
- CloudFlare
- Varnish
- Sucuri
- WPEngine
- SiteGround
- Kinsta
- Cloudways
- GoDaddy
- Elementor
The first version of the service was introduced in 2012, and then they established NitroPack as a separate company in 2018. Over 20,000 sites rely on NitroPack for fast load times and high PageSpeed scores as of the beginning of 2021.
NitroPack Features
The setup for this NitroPack plugin is quite straightforward. There are no technical requirements or a 10-step installation process. You don't need to be a developer to set it up, either. You can simply follow these 4 steps and you’ll be ready to go in no time. NitroPack operates on copies of your site files, so there's no chance of destroying the original ones. You can also erase your cache and start over if you don't like the outcomes of an optimization. Even if you disable NitroPack, your site will revert to the state it was in before the plugin's activation.
Another fantastic feature of NitroPack is Cache Invalidation, which allows you to invalidate cache files rather than purge them. This allows the plugin to continue serving visitors from the cache, while a new copy of the cache is produced in the background. It also happens on its own. Most plugins that provide critical CSS capabilities prepare a single crucial CSS file per post type.NitroPack creates one-of-a-kind vital CSS for each layout. NitroPack additionally employs separate essential CSS for each device type because desktop and mobile devices have distinct viewports. Finally, it optimizes resources that are statically linked into your theme files – All resources associated with your theme, even those hardcoded into your CSS files, will be discovered and optimized by NitroPack.
The Speed Test
The site I am testing with this plugin has been a challenge for me in the past. I have exhausted multiple options to increase and maintain speed throughout the website. And yet, it still doesn't improve. So, we're going to run it through the PageSpeed Insights and see how fast it is. Now, I will say, many would consider website speed a deal-breaker, I don’t know if I 100% agree with that statement. Some say without the proper speed, Google will rank the site lower. I’m not sure that I really believe that. I think that it may be a tie-breaking factor. But you know, there are hundreds of ranking factors, not just speed. However, I want people who visit my site to have a good experience. Therefore, I want it to go fast and have a good PageSpeed score.
As I said, I have installed this plugin on other sites, and it's done well, but those sites were already ranking high because they don’t have a lot of content on them. I mean, they were built to be niche websites. So they're kind of lean, right? They also don't have a lot of heavy images, which makes a huge difference.
So, let’s see if NitroPack will speed up my site that has been a challenge in the past. Let me just say, I do have a good number of plugins, which I don't necessarily recommend. Believe it or not, I've tried to trim it down, and I only have what I feel like I need remaining on the site. I did get the paid version of NitroPack because this website has enough page views that it was necessary. But I'm going to start with the lowest-paid version, which is recommended for 50,000 page views and 25 gigs of CDN space.
The Results
After running NitroPack, I have my final results and thoughts Before I give the results of the plugin, it’s important for you to know the numbers I was getting before installing NitroPack. After running the numbers, I got a SpeedScore of 25 on mobile, which is actually lower than it normally is, and 86 on the desktop version. Now, after running the NitroPack plugin on the website, the mobile version jumped to 100. Is this too good to be true? I’m not going to lie, I had my doubts, especially after trying so many options to improve speed, but I’m impressed. Now, let’s look at the desktop version. It’s now at 99. I’m very impressed with those numbers, and to be honest, I was not expecting such an increase.
So, there you have it. Installing NitroPack is a great investment, and it actually works. There are different pricing plans you can choose when deciding whether you want to install the plugin. They offer both monthly and yearly plans.
Here are the monthly pricing plans that are available:
$0/month – Perfect for testing
- 1 website
- 5,000 page views per month
- 1 GB CDN bandwidth per month
- Places a NitroPack badge in the footer
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Basic support
$21/month – 50,000 Pageviews
- 1 website
- 50,000 page views per month
- 25 GB CDN bandwidth monthly included
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Automatic Google PageSpeed optimization
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Priority support
$51/month – 200,000 Pageviews
- 1 website
- 200,000 page views per month
- 100 GB CDN bandwidth included monthly
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Automatic Google PageSpeed optimization
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Priority support
So, there are many options you can choose from depending on the support your website needs. I would only use this on sites where it makes sense financially. And this site is one of them for me. So, I’ll be continuing to use it, especially for this website.
My Final Thoughts
So, what are my final thoughts and opinions on this plugin for WordPress? I am impressed by this NitroPack plugin. I had my doubts, this website I tested out is an ongoing challenge for me. However, this plugin did not disappoint and increased my speed immensely. I would highly recommend this plugin for WordPress. I was not expecting my numbers to improve as much as they did. If you want to try it out for yourself, feel free to use my affiliate link to speed up your WordPress website.
by nick | Aug 16, 2021 | Website
There’s no question that speed is essential to running and maintaining a successful website through WordPress. If you are currently running a WordPress website for your business, or maybe you have a niche website, it’s natural to want it to be a fast one. A fast, smooth website will ensure the customer experience is great, right? When consumers view your website, ideally you want it to load quickly. If the viewer has to wait too long, you run the risk of them leaving the site. If you have a niche website, you especially want to rank well on Google. And recently, Google has talked a lot about the importance of core web vitals, PageSpeed, and all of the other different technical terms that go into what is involved with PageSpeed.
I’m going to walk you through five things that I did to speed up my WordPress website.
1. I Enabled Caching on my Web Host
I use Flywheel. This ensures site performance that is lightning quick and dependable.
Flywheel's infrastructure is designed to provide maximum uptime and super-fast page speeds for your WordPress site. It can immediately ramp up to meet traffic spikes, surges, and everything in between because of the advanced technology, which is backed by the Google Cloud Platform. Their unique caching technique is optimized for the most common themes and plugins, ensuring that your site is cached at the appropriate times.
They have different pricing packages according to your needs:
$15/month
- 5,000 monthly visits
- 5GB storage
- 20GB bandwidth
$30/month
- 25,000 monthly visits
- 10GB storage
- 50GB bandwidth
$115/month
- 100,000 monthly visits
- 20GB storage
- 200GB bandwidth
Flywheel is great, they've been an awesome host. It has held up to what they promise on their website. It’s really fast and they have great support. Flywheel has a number of other nice features including the fact that it's specifically for WordPress. If you’re interested, you can use my affiliate link to check it out. It has definitely sped up my website now that I installed a caching plugin. You should make note that when using Flywheel, they recommend WP rocket. So, that’s what I installed next.
2. I Installed WP Rocket
WP Rocket has definitely helped and made a huge difference for my website. WP Rocket contains features that provide immediate benefits to your website in order to make it blazing fast. These choices use 80% of the web speed best practices, so you'll see immediate improvements in loading times. Google and other search engines prefer pages that load quickly. Your viewers will become bored and abandon the website if the time it takes for your pages to load grows.
WP Rocket caches your pages by saving them as static HTML files that can be accessed by future visitors. It also uses browser caching, instructing the browser to save frequently-used but rarely-updated files in the browser's local cache memory. Cache preloading ensures that your visitors immediately see the faster, cached versions of your site. WP Rocket generates cached versions of your content as soon as you activate it. After WP Rocket clears the cache of your site's posts/pages/custom post types, preloading will happen in a flash. Furthermore, the sitemap-based cache preloading option recognizes and preloads sitemaps generated by popular WordPress SEO plugins automatically.
A clean database is more efficient and aids in the speeding up of your website. WP Rocket has a specialized collection of features for optimizing and keeping your database slim. With only two clicks, you can clean up comments, posts, and transients, optimize your database tables, and schedule automatic cleanups.
Here are the pricing options available:
- $49/year – 1 year of support and updates for 1 website
- $99/year – 1 year of support and updates for 3 website
- $249/year – 1 year of support and updates for unlimited website
Overall, I loved the results I got from the WP Rocket. I will say, I need something stronger for two of my more challenging websites, but it’s mainly because they have a lot of heavy images on them. WP Rocket is a great option that has high performance, is easy to use, and will offer you great support.
3. I Installed an Image Compression Plugin
I use ShortPixel. It has been really helpful. Again, it’s pretty simple and just goes through and compresses your images, which makes them smaller so that they load faster on your website. If your site runs on WordPress, the ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin gets you up and running in seconds, automatically optimizing all of your previous photos and all-new images with a single click.
There are three compression options available through the site:
Lossy Compression – For the majority of customers, Lossy is the best solution. Lossy algorithm-processed photos are the smallest and most optimal images available. So, if site speed is critical, and you want the optimal mix of optimization and image quality, you should stick with Lossy optimization.
Glossy compression – If you still worry about Google Insights but consider that a tiny decrease in page speed is an acceptable trade-off for top-notch image quality, Glossy is the best option.
Lossless Compression – Lossless optimized photographs are pixel-for-pixel identical to the originals, although they have a smaller file size reduction than Lossy or Glossy treated images. I would choose this option if you want your images to stay intact.
They have a ton of different pricing options you can compare. They offer monthly plans, as well as one-time fees for a certain amount of images. I find this to be super helpful, and it has helped immensely with the speed of my websites.
4. I Make My Images Smaller Before Uploading Them
Another trick I like to do to increase speed when it comes to websites with a lot of images is to try to make my images smaller before I upload them. I'm very careful not to take an image that's 4000 pixels wide and upload it directly to the site. I always shrink the images down, I even sometimes lower the quality a little using Photoshop or Canva. This way, what I'm uploading onto the website isn’t very large. After that, ShortPixel will compress them even more.
For most of my sites, these four solutions were enough. They made my websites super fast, and as a result, I received good scores in core web vitals and PageSpeed Insights. But unfortunately, for two of my sites, it just wasn't enough. One of the websites was scoring 25 out of 100 for the mobile version and an 86 on the desktop version. 25 on mobile is just terrible. Usually, when I test it, it’s in the 30s. So, I was looking for another solution to help me speed up these two websites that have been an ongoing challenge for me.
5. I Installed the Nitropack Plugin
The NitroPack plugin worked wonders for these two websites of mine. I don't know what kind of witchcraft or wizardry this plugin is using, but wow, it works. This plugin is a one-stop shop for performance enhancement. It has everything you'll need to run and maintain a super-fast website. NitroPack provides it all: image optimization, caching, CDN, and lazy loading. NitroPack also optimizes everything in the cloud. According to Nitropack, users get a 69% PageSpeed score boost on average after installing.
The NitroPack plugin for WordPress took my score from a 25 on mobile to 100. After I discovered how amazing this plugin is, I ended up deactivating the WP Rocket plugin because it wasn’t necessary now that I have the NitroPack. So, you can use my affiliate link if you want to check it out.
Here's my full NitroPack Review.
Pricing plans available:
$0 / mo – Perfect for testing
- 1 website
- 5,000 page views per month
- 1 GB CDN bandwidth per month
- Places a NitroPack badge in the footer
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Basic support
$21 / mo – 50,000 Pageviews
- 1 website
- 50,000 page views per month
- 25 GB CDN bandwidth monthly included
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Automatic Google PageSpeed optimization
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Priority support
$51 / mo – 200,000 Pageviews
- 1 website
- 200,000 page views per month
- 100 GB CDN bandwidth included monthly
- World-class proprietary speed algorithm
- Automatic Google PageSpeed optimization
- Advanced caching mechanism
- Complete image optimization stack
- HTML, CSS and JS minification & compression
- Built-in global CDN
- Priority support
So, there you have it, these are the five solutions that helped me immensely with speeding up my WordPress websites. I would highly recommend checking out these awesome speed boosters to help you give your website a smooth, quick, and enjoyable experience for your viewers.
by nick | Aug 5, 2021 | Income School
Are you an online business owner or someone who is just now looking to start a profitable online business? If you just answered “yes,” then Income School is a resource that you should check out!
Although we have found Income School to be valuable for our online ventures, we want you to decide what is best for your online business. The goal is to explain what it is and what they offer so you can make an informed decision about whether they have the tools and resources you need to help make your business successful! Continue reading to find my full Income School review.
What Is Income School?
The internet marketing company, Income School, was created by two high school friends, Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler. Their website tells the story that it took years, slowly building Income School before Jim and Ricky really saw any growth. What sparked a change was these two men bringing their families together for weekly dinners, and they would sneak away to work on the site for an hour at a time.
That consistency and dedication are how they have built the site into what it is now—increased income, 166 thousand YouTube subscribers, hundreds of Project 24 members.
But you may be wondering, “What exactly is Income School?”
Essentially the premise of Income School is to teach people how to use passive income websites—think blogs, niche websites (a site that focuses on a more specific topic or theme common to a smaller group of people), and YouTube channels—to create, grow, and market an online business. In fact, on their site they put it like this: “We help people provide well for their families by creating online businesses.”
What Income School Offers
Most, if not all, of the resources Income School offers, are really valuable for beginners especially. What they teach is practical, step-by-step instructions on how to get an online business started without having to know all of the ins and outs of the advanced, complex technicalities,
The thing Income School is probably best known for is their YouTube channel, which is how we were introduced to them. Their channel covers topics such as internet marketing, passive income strategies, search engine optimization (SEO), WordPress tips, and monetizing websites, and the goal is to share their years of experience “to help you grow your small business.” And it’s true—properly applied, their knowledge, expertise, and experience give direction on how to start an online business and make it profitable. What we really appreciate about their YouTube page specifically is their approach to creating great content that targets some of the gaps that come with this type of business venture, like how to create content and how to make money from ads and affiliate income.
Income School has developed its own WordPress theme as well, called Acabado. “Acabado” is actually Portuguese for “finished,” because Income School wants to highlight how quickly you can redesign your website with speed and clean design. Some other features of the Acabado theme include built-in SEO so you don’t have to mess with plugins; a mobile-first mindset in building the theme since 65 percent of your audience will likely visit on their mobile device; and homepage customization so you can strategically place posts, categories, or your social media accounts.
The Cost
There are two payment plans to get Acabado: either $67 per year, billed annually, or a one-time purchase of $179 per century. Both plans allow you to use the theme on every site you personally own. But the yearly license only allows updates and compatibility for a year, while the 100-year license includes all the future updates for—you guessed it—100 years. Why this pricing? Income School says, “We wanted to offer a very low price point for getting started, and a VERY reasonable lifetime license for those ready to commit.” Sounds pretty reasonable to us!
They also offer a membership called Project 24, named after many peoples’ goal of creating a successful business in 24 months. Project 24 offers courses, communities, webinars, and other tools to help you start your own blog site or YouTube channel. But it’s not just one course or video here and there—it’s a library that is regularly (read: constantly) being updated and added to. There are resources for every level of the business owner: beginner, advanced, and those who have tried and failed.
Project 24 also offers a community site where you can create posts, comment on others’ posts, and ask questions. Because there are members with varying levels of knowledge and success, you have the opportunity to interact with and learn from them. We have found this community site to be one of the most valuable things the Project 24 membership offers.
There is also a members-only podcast, where Jim and Ricky talk about the newest marketing, SEO, and monetization strategies. The knowledge within these episodes is unmatched and if you are serious about growing your online business, you have to listen to this podcast. Honestly, I really have seen success with my niche sites through what I’ve learned with my membership. If you want to join Project 24 today and (hopefully!) have the same experience, use my affiliate link.
Their Unique Approach
Aside from the actual resources, you will find through Income School, you will find they have a unique approach to a couple of different things.
The first is they do not do any link building, nor do they encourage it. If you don’t know what that means, basically link building is the process of linking websites back to your site. Building links can help drive traffic to your site, signaling to search engines that it is a credible, quality site. This affects where your site ranks, and it is usually the sites with more backlinks that rank higher.
However, rather than build links, Income School encourages those of you who are creating passive income or niche sites to create content. They are all about creating unique, informative, well-researched content that is better than what is already out there. So, instead of focusing on guest posts, paying for links, and link exchanges to move your site up in the search engine rankings, Income School’s approach is simply to create great content and to create a lot of it.
Another unique approach they have is keyword research. In fact, Income School doesn’t even call it that, instead, calling it “search analysis.” To target what people are searching for, Income School does not depend on keyword research tools, since those are often inaccurate, but on the auto-suggest feature, Google uses and common sense.
The first thing they teach you is to create content—blogs, YouTube videos, etc.— about what people are actually searching for. Sometimes people write about their thoughts or opinions on a topic, but it’s unlikely that your specific view is what someone will search in the Google search bar, meaning they won’t find your post. On the other hand, if you create content geared toward a beginner in any realm, they won’t find it either. They don’t know to search for something they don’t know about.
So, what Income School teaches is to utilize Google’s auto-suggest feature to see what populates when you search for what you are writing or creating videos about. That way you can create the kind of content you know that users will find. Pair that with common sense, writing (or videoing) within the niches you are passionate and knowledgeable about, you can better understand your audience and what content they want.
The Exception
In this Income School review, we have discussed who this program is for. But, who is Income School not for?
For the most part, Income School probably is not for you if you think you are an expert in some of the more advanced tools and techniques of online businesses. They do offer resources for more advanced online business owners, especially within the Project 24 membership, like courses about affiliate income, SEO, monetization, and the like. The podcast and community groups also facilitate conversations and the exchange of ideas.
However, if you are advanced way beyond even what Income School can offer, or you are looking to compete with even bigger names (e.g., you are in the health niche and you want to compete with Men’s Health), then it may not be for you. You will likely need what they teach plus more, and there are some limits to what they currently have for users.
Final Thoughts for Income School Review
Whether you are new to the internet marketing game, you’ve been at it a few years, or just enjoy journeying and learning from other people, we highly recommend that you check out Income School!
Everything they offer, from their original courses to the tools they love to the community groups, is extremely valuable, and you won’t find it all in one place anywhere else. Use my affiliate link to check out Income School and see what they are about for yourself (and your blog, YouTube channel, or niche site) today!
by nick | Jul 28, 2021 | Income School
If you’re an online business owner, entrepreneur, or marketer who is looking to create profitable niche sites, Income School’s membership Project 24 may be right for you. Named after some people’s goal of creating a successful business in 24 months, Project 24 offers courses, webinars, communities, and other resources to help you start your niche site—a site that focuses on a more specific topic or theme common to a smaller group of people—or YouTube channel.
I have seen success with making my niche sites profitable through what I have learned with my membership, and want to share my experience and perspective on what they offer to help you decide if Project 24 is right for your business, too.
What Project 24 Offers
Like I stated above, Project 24 is Income School’s membership program. But it’s not just one course or video or blog. It’s a library that is constantly being updated—courses, videos, a podcast, a community site, and more!—for every level.
The course dashboard is where you will see everything that Project 24 offers. Again, it’s a collection of courses broken up into two “tracks” depending on how you want to earn money: blogging on a niche website or starting a YouTube channel, or you can choose to do both! If you are looking for something specific in their 27 courses, there are four tags that can help narrow down and organize your course search: blogging, YouTube, marketing, monetization, and others.
Additionally, there is a community site on the forum hosting site, Discourse. It’s not unlike other community groups; you can create a post, comment on others’ posts, and ask questions. There are members who have varying levels of knowledge and success that you can interact with and learn from their experiences. This alone may prove to be one of the most valuable aspects of the Project 24 membership for you.
Income School has recently added “mastermind” calls to the membership. Like Zoom calls or other webinars, you can sign up to be a part of these calls. There are some events they choose to record so those who could not attend can watch later; however, most events are only live. That’s why you will want to sign up for a spot if possible—you don’t want to miss any of the information in these mastermind events!
As you can see, there really is something for every level, whether you are just starting out or you’ve been running a niche site for years.
Beginners will gain access to a 60-step process that walks them through, down to the smallest detail, everything they need to do to build their business. The timeline sets realistic expectations as beginners learn how to create WordPress sites, utilize plugins, and learn search engine optimization (SEO).
For the more advanced crowd, they can still learn important steps from the step-by-step process that will be new to them. The courses about SEO, affiliate income, and ads offer insight and direction. In the members-only Project 24 Podcast, founders Ricky Kesler and Jim Harmer share the newest internet marketing techniques. And other advanced marketers are a part of the Project 24 community groups and often share their knowledge and experience for you to learn from.
Then there is the intermediate group—those who have tried internet marketing in the past and failed. There’s plenty on Project 24 for you! On their site is the reminder that it’s a 60-step process, and “there are SO many tiny things you have to remember and do right if you want a site to succeed.” Other courses or membership programs often forget or skip over those details, but not Jim or Ricky. If they ever discover they missed something on their own site, that process is updated. For any business owner or entrepreneur who has tried and failed at internet marketing, there is potential to reach success through Project 24!
Project 24 Cost
The Project 24 membership cost is $449 for your first year, and then each year after that your membership is auto-renewed for $249.
That may seem like a lot of money, especially for people who are just starting out in the niche website or YouTube world, but the value of the information and expertise you get when you purchase the membership is way more than the actual cost.
I have spent about 10 years learning the ins and outs of online business, taking courses from leaders in the online business world that sometimes cost hundreds or thousands of dollars for just one course. They are helpful and I’ve learned a lot over the last decade, but the fact is, the cost of Project 24 gives you unlimited access to a library of resources—and new content is being added every single day. I can confidently say that what you get in just one Project 24 course is more than worth the cost.
As long as you implement the information you learn through these courses, it’s helpful to think of the cost as an investment into your business and thus your future. Income School charges per year because they are constantly updating and introducing new content for their members. Bonus: Jim and Ricky are also available to respond to questions and comments in the community site!
However, if you are not satisfied with one or more of their products, you can cancel your membership at any time. Although they don’t offer refunds, if you cancel your subscription before the renewal date, you can still access all of the content until the end of the payment term.
If you’re still unsure about whether you want to join Project 24, you can read member reviews and testimonials, plus view a sample video from the course before you make a final decision.
My Recommendation
If you are looking to start and monetize an online business, selling products like courses and memberships are great, but niche websites or YouTube channels are two of the best ways to do it. And if you choose to go that route, I would recommend Income School’s membership because you’re not going to get any better than what they offer.
Subscribing to Project 24 has so many benefits. There are the things we have already talked about like the regular updates. Just as the internet is always changing and business techniques are being introduced, the Project 24 team is committed to adding new content to their site meaning that the value of your membership increases over time. Sometimes that content may be a totally new course, while other times it might be as simple as a new WordPress theme—both of which are beneficial to your business!
The community might be one of the biggest reasons I will continue to be a member of Project 24. This community group is not static, but extremely active. No matter what level you are—beginner, intermediate, or advanced—you will be able to find encouragement and help. People post new topics every hour, a number of them are available to answer questions at any moment, and there are opportunities to motivate one another as you each build your business. Jim and Ricky are also active on the forum, answering members’ questions and sharing their own experiences and topics.
One con of this membership is that Project 24 cannot and does not guarantee success, and definitely not in a certain timeframe; however, they say this upfront. It’s up to you whether or not you will succeed. In fact, it says on their site, “Your business will succeed only based on your skill and effort in building your business. While we do our best to provide you with the best direction for your YouTube channel or blog, no business is guaranteed.” It will take time, effort, and persistence on your part if you want to see your niche site or YouTube channel succeed.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I appreciate the honesty and authenticity of the team. The support and positive interactions are never in short supply, and unfortunately, that is not the reality of some other membership programs. And the value of the content you will gain access to exceeds the actual cost of the membership. So, I highly recommend Income School’s Project 24 membership program, especially for those who are just starting out in the online business world and want to create and grow a niche site or YouTube channel.
I plan to keep renewing my membership, and I would encourage you to check it out. Project 24 offers amazing resources if you are serious about starting an online business and are committed to making it a success. If you want to sign up for a membership, use my affiliate link and see what you can do with your blog or YouTube channel in 24 months!
by nick | Jul 26, 2021 | Kajabi
One of the lesser-used functions of Kajabi has to be the Kajabi Community feature. Many Kajabi users don’t utilize this feature, but why?
The long story short is that the Kajabi Community just isn’t the most effective feature. It definitely has its benefits, if utilized correctly. However, the biggest dilemma is that there are other platforms out there that are just doing it better right now.
All of that is not to say, though, that it’s not still worth using Kajabi Community. Here, we’ll discuss what it is, how to use it, and we’ll give our opinion on when it’s worth using.
What is the Kajabi Community?
First things first, what is the Kajabi Community? In short, it’s a feature that the Kajabi platform has made available to its users. It’s essentially a place where course members or coaching members are able to communicate. In the Kajabi Community feature, users can chat, ask questions, share information, and discuss course content.
It’s honestly really similar to a Facebook group, just with fewer features. That’s probably why a lot of Kajabi users don’t actually use this feature at all. Most tend to use Facebook groups or something similar like Tribe or Circle. These three tend to be the most popular alternatives to Kajabi Community, but we’ll get into that later.
How does a Kajabi Community work?
Before deciding if Kajabi Community is worth using for your business or not, it’s helpful to know what it consists of. You’ll find the Kajabi Community feature in the products tab because Kajabi does consider it a digital product. That doesn’t necessarily mean that your clients have to pay extra for it, though. You have the option, as with any product, to make it either paid or free. If you’re looking to link it with an online course, you can offer it free to those members.
When you click on whichever community you’re wanting to participate in, you’ll be able to see all of the posts from members. Members are able to post and reply to each other within the community. Since it’s tied in with certain products, it’s an easy way to incorporate extra information for your products. For example, if you’re wanting to welcome course members or add more instructions for a course, Kajabi Community would be a place where you could do that.
The Kajabi Community feature is very simple and scaled back. There aren’t a lot of features available to users. This is probably why many Kajabi users turn elsewhere to foster a community among their members.
As with everything else in Kajabi, creating a Kajabi Community is pretty simple. When you open the products tab in the dashboard, you’ll want to select the New Product button. You can find this, as of now, on the right side of the dashboard. You’ll simply select “Community” out of the product templates offered there and then click Save.
After you’ve created the new Community, you’ll be able to customize it. You can choose the title, fill out a description, and choose a thumbnail. It’s a nice feature that you’re able to keep branding consistent with the course or coaching group that the community is for, as opposed to something like Facebook groups.
Members of the community are able to search for certain topics by searching words or phrases within the community itself. They can also like and follow posts, in addition to commenting and replying to the posts. Members can link things in the comments or post photos if needed. Posts are editable and deletable, as well.
Is a Kajabi Community worth it?
The short answer here is yes and no. Like we mentioned before, there aren’t many features available to users with Kajabi Community. It’s certainly limited. There are other disadvantages to it, as well.
It can be really difficult to create a solid community with 30 people, or however many members you have in a course. It requires serious intentionality and investment that not all business owners have the ability to give right away. For us, at least, we are more focused on creating good content for the courses than we are fostering a good community in Kajabi Community. For others, that may not be as much of an issue.
We’ve found that it’s easier with something like Facebook groups, for example. When there are 1000 members instead of 30, a community just occurs somewhat naturally. There’s not a lot of fostering required, which can alleviate pressure from business owners. For us, then, we’ve found that Facebook groups tend to be the best. This may also be partly because we’ve only recently switched over to Kajabi and had Facebook groups established prior.
However, that’s not to say that it isn’t worth at least incorporating Kajabi Community. There are certainly ways to use it effectively, while still incorporating something like Facebook groups, Tribe, or Circle. A nice bonus to Kajabi Community is that it is private, especially when comparing it to something like a Facebook group, which is significantly less so.
Although Kajabi is probably the lowest in quality out of all community-related features, it does have one major advantage – it’s convenient. Users are already in Kajabi, so it doesn’t take any extra effort for them to access the Community feature. Even if people are mostly using it to ask questions about the course, it can still prove useful. Our recommendation is to link the Kajabi Community to whatever other platform you choose to use, like Facebook, so that you can still utilize it without relying on it completely. It’s a great add-on, but not a viable option as the sole source of communication.
It is worth noting, however, that the Kajabi Community feature is something that not all learning management software offers its users. Even if it is relatively basic, it still gives Kajabi a one-up against competitors.
Conclusion
Once again, the answer to the question of whether or not Kajabi Communities are worth isn’t simplistic. It wouldn’t necessarily be a selling point for us when it comes to Kajabi, but it’s a nice feature to have incorporated into the software. If you’re looking for something more private or simple, it may be a great option for you.
We’d recommend you at least looking into it if you’re a user of Kajabi, even if you use something else like Facebook groups, Circle, or Tribe. Get creative with it and try to find ways to incorporate it as a no-hassle benefit to your clients. However, be aware that you will most likely end up needing to use another platform in addition to the Kajabi Community feature.
If you’re not a Kajabi user yet but you want to try it out, you can use our affiliate link to join. When you use the link, we give you access to free coaching. While we aren’t the biggest fans of the Community feature, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned in the process of switching over to Kajabi and trying to use it.