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🧰 Want to Teach Online? Start Here
Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read
🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly.
Hola friend 👋,
I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort.
Know someone who’d love this newsletter? 2,000+ readers already do (thanks 🙌). Share it with friends & colleagues so they can join too.
This week: we’re diving into the world of online course builders.
At EmailTooltester (sister project), we recently launched a course for the email marketing tool Brevo – we even have a free taster for you here. My colleague Annika led the project (BRAVO!) and became our go-to expert on course creation platforms.
She did a ton of research to find the right tool for the job, and I’ve picked her brain to share some of her best insights with you.
If you’ve ever thought about packaging your knowledge into a course, this issue is for you. Plus, I started experimenting with a new type of AI tool.
If you want to create an online course without getting bogged down by complicated tech, Thinkific is a fantastic starting point. It’s incredibly easy to use, which was a huge plus for us since we were new to course creation. Adding chapters, lessons, and even a private community was a breeze.
We chose Thinkific for our Brevo course (shoot me a message for a discount code) because it let us get up and running quickly with all the basic features we needed. One of the biggest advantages is that Thinkific allows you to have unlimited students with any plan, even with the basic one.
However, it’s not perfect. The branding and customization options are a bit limited, and the built-in website builder is basic – e.g. layout flexibility. Also, the basic plan doesn’t let you automatically issue certificates, which is a feature we would have loved.
It’s ideal for first-time course creators who want a straightforward, affordable platform to launch their ideas.
Another platform Annika seriously considered was Teachable. It’s also known for being user-friendly and straightforward, making it another excellent option for beginners. We liked that it included certificates on its basic plan, which is a nice touch for motivating students.
However, Teachable turned out to be a more expensive solution for us. The basic plan, at $69 per month, limits you to just 5 courses. If you want to unlock more features (e.g. custom user roles or advanced reports), you have to jump to the Pro plan, which starts at $139 a month – yes, prices increase quick!
While Teachable is a solid platform, the pricing structure and limitations on the basic plan were deal-breakers for us.
If you're looking for an all-in-one powerhouse to run your entire online course / community, Kajabi is the gold standard. It’s much more than just a course builder; it’s a complete platform for creating, marketing, and selling digital products, from courses and memberships to coaching programs.
Kajabi includes a website builder, email marketing, sales funnel creation, and advanced automation tools, all in one place. This means you don’t have to stitch together a bunch of different apps to run your business. It's built for serious creators who want to scale.
Annika and the team looked into Kajabi, but it was overkill for our first course. It’s a fantastic platform, but it’s also one of the most expensive options out there. The basic plan starts at $71 a month (for only 1 product) and then jumps to $143 a month (5 products max), which is a big investment if you’re just starting out.
I’ve been experimenting with AI tools for creating short-form video scripts for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and I recently stumbled upon Blort AI. It’s a neat little tool that helps you quickly generate engaging content that matches your tone.
What I like most is the flexibility it offers. You can choose from several top-tier LLMs, including OpenAI’s GPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, to find the one that best fits your style. It also has a chat interface that can generate images, which is handy for storyboarding or creating visual prompts.
The downside is that it can’t generate B-roll footage within the platform, so you’ll still need to source your own visuals. It also doesn’t have a free plan, but there’s a 7-day trial to see if it works for you.
If you’re a content creator looking to streamline your scriptwriting process, Blort AI is definitely worth a try.
Gmail has a hidden superpower that can make you look incredibly responsive without being chained to your inbox: email scheduling.
Instead of sending an email the moment you write it, you can schedule it to be sent at the perfect time. This is a game-changer for a few reasons:
Time Zones: If you work with people in different time zones, you can schedule your emails to arrive at the start of their workday and be at the top of the list.
Batching: You can write all your emails in one focused session and then spread them out over the week – e.g. for clients.
Boundaries: It helps you avoid sending emails at odd hours, which can create an expectation that you’re always online.
To schedule an email, just click the little arrow next to the “Send” button and pick a date and time.
🍿 Plot Twist of the Week
A few weeks ago, a massive security flaw was discovered in Gravity Forms (oops, I use this plugin in 2 of my personal sites), one of the most popular WordPress plugins, leaving millions of websites vulnerable to attack.
The vulnerability allowed hackers to inject malicious code into websites, which could be used to steal data, redirect users to scam sites, or even take over the entire website. The scariest part? It was incredibly easy to exploit – their words, not mine.
This is a stark reminder of how fragile the WordPress ecosystem can be. While plugins are what make WordPress so powerful, they can also be its greatest weakness. One little security hole in a popular plugin can have a massive ripple effect across the web. Which is why I equally love and hate WordPress.
We use it for our own sites (no Gravity forms luckily), and this news was a real wake-up call. We immediately updated all our plugins and ran security scans - yes, even on sites where we didn’t use Gravity Forms.
Lesson learned: Always keep your plugins updated, and use a reliable security plugin to monitor your site. Don’t wait until it’s too late. And of course, this is easier said than done.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Next time, we’ll explore how you can build your own AI agents (and flows) without writing a single line of code and get into serious productive mode.
🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly. Hola friend 👋, I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort. This week: let’s make content creation a little less draining with some AI magic. It’s that time of year, isn’t it? The end-of-year finish line is in sight, and frankly, I’m tired. The thought of tackling the same repetitive tasks is enough to make me want to trade my keyboard for a tennis racket. If you’re feeling...
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🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly. Hola friend 👋, I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort. Know someone who’d love this newsletter? 2,500+ readers already do (thanks 🙌). Share it with friends & colleagues so they can join too. This week: tools to make online meetings better. Several of our team members are remote, so we’re always looking for new ways to stay in sync without spending our entire day in...