When you choose to use a specific LMS technology it’s important to choose wisely.
The reality is that it will be difficult to switch later. And if you choose poorly, you can waste incredible amounts of time, money, and impact.
We don’t want you to end up with a “Software Frankenstein” website where you have a bunch of tools made by lots of different companies crammed together that don’t play nicely with each other.
You put your heart and soul into your project. At LifterLMS. We get that.
You deserve a first class Learning Management System technology suite to power your learning business dreams and goals.
LifterLMS is an all-in-one modern WordPress LMS designed to deliver on your core online course and training based membership site related needs and desires.
With LifterLMS …
- You’re not forced to also need a separate ecommerce system.
- You’re not forced to also need a separate membership plugin.
- You’re not forced to also need separate engagement and gamification tools.
- You’re not forced to also need a separate online community system.
- You’re not forced to also need a separate coaching system.
- You’re not forced to also need to piece together tons of different tools made by too many different companies to make your online training platform work.
There’s a place for bringing in other tools made by different companies, but we notice that the most successful websites take a minimalist approach. That’s why it’s important to choose a WordPress LMS foundation that values an all-in-one approach.
We think you’re really going to love what’s coming next to the LifterLMS suite of tools.
These new tools are designed to grow your business and deliver effective learning experiences …
First, Thank You
At LifterLMS, we’re known for listening and connecting with our community.
Our approach to what to build next for LifterLMS is driven by your voice.
We listen and learn about your goals, frustrations, problems, and dreams as course creators, coaches, influencers, entrepreneurs, and technology professionals.
That learning comes from real connections and real conversations we have with you.
So thank you for speaking up and all your input in places like the LifterLMS Facebook group, Slack, the Feature Request Form, the free training webinar discussions, the emails, the weekly mastermind calls, the chat, the public working group, and the live phone conversations.
If anything I’m about to share with you is exciting or something that you’ve been wishing to get for your website, I invite you to leave a comment on this blog post.
Your comment could be as simple as a “Yes!”
… Or let us know which new thing you are most excited about and why.
… Or elaborate on what specific features you see as essential to the new things we’re about to roll out.
We really appreciate your comment!
LifterLMS Groups!
Groups in a WordPress LMS tool is an essential feature for many.
We are designing the ultimate groups experience at LifterLMS and are very excited to roll this out to the community.
You’ll be able to offer training to a group, and there are group owners, group leaders, group reporting features, group management, and much, much more.
These new group features are especially helpful if you offer courses or memberships in bulk to businesses, organizations, schools, universities, governments, corporations, or even parents buying courses for kids.
The economics of group sales of courses and memberships is worth exploring if you haven’t already.
As a hypothetical example, let’s assume you have a $1,000 sales training course. Selling a handful of those to individuals is great.
But what if you sold 100 course seats (in one sale) to a big company that has a large sales team in a particular industry?
And then what if there are 20 other companies like the one you just sold to in the same or in a similar industry?
Not every course is a good fit for B2B (Business to Business) volume sales, but many are.
How will you use groups?
What groups functionality do you see as essential?
Please speak up in the comments below.
Advanced Videos
Video is eating the internet.
According to Cisco, by 2020 there will be close to 1 million minutes of video crossing the internet per second.
The coming LifterLMS Advanced Videos add-on will give you lots of innovative features related to your embedded videos (Vimeo, Wistia, YouTube) or self-hosted videos.
Some key features of the LifterLMS Advanced Videos add-on include:
- The ability to require learners to watch the whole lesson video before they can complete the lessons
- Advanced video analytics for that essential video effectiveness and consumption data
- Player branding and player component controls
- On return, resume video where left off
- App-like lesson video options with some familiar Netflix-style user experiences
Video is a powerful communication tool, and LifterLMS is going next level for the video experience inside your courses.
Zapier Integration
A proper Zapier connection is coming, which will allow you to connect events in LifterLMS to 1,500+ other apps.
This will be a first class Zapier integration with LifterLMS listed inside the Zapier App directory.
For the techies out there, this is not a basic LifterLMS webhook generator that could theoretically be used with Zapier.
This is a professional Zapier accepted LifterLMS App listed inside the Zapier App directory. All this is possible because of the game-changing innovative LifterLMS Rest API.
If you’re not a techie, don’t worry about how this API business works. Just imagine being able to have some event in your LifterLMS powered website make things happen in 1,500 + other applications like …
- Google Sheets
- Gmail
- Slack
- Google Calender
- Trello
- Asana
- Calendly
- Dropbox
- YouTube
- Acuity Scheduling
- Google Docs
- Zoom
- MailChimp
- ClickFunnels
- ActiveCampaign
- And many more
You’ll be able to cause things to happen in other apps when one of your students on your LifterLMS powered website does an action like …
- Student creates a new account
- Student enrolls in a specific course
- Student purchases a specific course
- Student completes a specific course
- Student completes a specific lesson
- Student completes a specific quiz
- Student passes a specific quiz
- Student fails a specific quiz
- Student completes a specific section
- Student completes a specific course track
- Student enrolls in a specific membership
- Student purchases a specific membership
Here are a simple few examples of things you could do in other apps automatically based on activity or events in LifterLMS:
- Adding a new student’s contact details to a project management tool like Trello or Asana for your coaches
- Building out a Google Sheets spreadsheet in Google Drive of people who complete your course so you can follow up with them for feedback, reviews, or testimonials
- And countless other possibilities
It can also work the other way, too.
In addition to making things happen in other apps based off of events in LifterLMS …
You can also make things happen in LifterLMS based on events in other apps.
So for example you could:
- Enroll someone in a free course when they schedule an appointment with you in Calendly or Acuity
- Add someone to a LifterLMS course or membership when they purchase something through ClickFunnels
- Enroll someone in a course when they register for a specific webinar in Zoom
- And countless other possibilities.
How might you use LifterLMS with Zapier?
Custom Fields for LifterLMS
Custom Fields for LifterLMS will allow you to build custom registration forms for your whole platform, individual courses, and/or individual memberships.
You’ll be able to merge that custom data into the front end of the website and into the LMS reporting if you’d like.
Custom fields open up a vast world of dynamic personalization and use cases.
As an example, you could collect a company name on the registration and merge that data into a certificate if you’d like.
You could also view that company name in the LifterLMS reporting data.
You could even merge a message to the top of the student dashboard that says …
“Hi {first_name} {last_name} from {company_name}. What do you want to learn today?”
Custom fields can be used for users, orders, courses, memberships, etc.
LifterLMS Custom Fields will allow you to take full control of your custom field data wants and needs.
What custom field uses are most important to you?
Rest API
An advanced REST API is coming to Lifter!
“API” stands for Application Programming Interface. Basically an API allows one piece of software to talk to another piece of software.
For example, you could use the LifterLMS Rest API to build a:
- Mobile App the syncs seamlessly with your WordPress LMS website
- Reporting application that exists somewhere else on the internet that pulls data from your WordPress LMS website
- Bridge to another application that you want to integrate your LMS with
- LifterLMS add-on of your own that fulfills some market need
This LifterLMS Rest API allows developers to more easily and quickly connect, work with, and extend LifterLMS.
LifterLMS is known for high speed development of new features and benefits, but it’s about to accelerate even more because of the Rest API.
This Rest API also allows smart, innovative developers in our ecosystem to build tools and offer custom development solutions faster and easier when working with LifterLMS.
If you’re not a techie, think of a Rest API as the ability to more easily extend the digital experience of your WordPress LMS website to other places.
Yes!, But When?
The LifterLMS Rest API is in active development right now. And the order of new benefits and product releases coming to you from LifterLMS build on each other.
So here’s what you can expect in terms of timeline and release schedule:
- LifterLMS Rest API: 8/15/19
- LifterLMS Zapier: 8/15/19
- LifterLMS Advanced Videos: 9/16/19
- LifterLMS Custom Fields: 10/22/19
- LifterLMS Groups: 2/10/20 (previous planned date was 12/2/19)
This is Amazing! How Much Money For This?
Some of it is free, and some of it is paid.
The LifterLMS Rest API is a FREE feature of the LifterLMS core. Any modern piece of professional quality software should have an open and accessible Rest API.
The LifterLMS Zapier integration will be FREE. In other words, we will not have a Zapier add-on to sell you. This is a professional Zapier integration. LifterLMS will be a legitimate app you can work with inside of the Zapier platform to create automation and application integrations to your heart’s content.
LifterLMS Groups, LifterLMS Advanced Videos, and LifterLMS Custom Fields are individual Advanced Add-ons, which means they will each cost $199/year on release day.
We’ll be offering early adopter discounts where you can lock in a cheaper annual subscription if you pre-order either LifterLMS Groups, Advanced Videos, or Custom Fields as an individual add-on purchase.
Advanced Add-Ons can be purchased individually a la carte or …
All Advanced Add-Ons are included in the LifterLMS Infinity Bundle.
If you already have the Infinity Bundle, these new add-ons will show up inside your account the instant they are released.
The LifterLMS Infinity Bundle is the everything bundle.
Advanced Add-Ons are not included in the Universe Bundle.
I know what you’re also thinking…
Is LifterLMS going to raise the price of the Infinity Bundle with all this new value coming to the bundle?
Nope, not with the release of these 3 new products we’ve just discussed.
We’re just giving you many more reasons to choose LifterLMS as your LMS technology partner. And if having the most powerful and extendable WordPress LMS system available is what you want, then the Infinity Bundle suite of tools becomes a “no-brainer” business decision.
But Wait, There’s More …
There’s a lot of other development happening at LifterLMS. For example LifterLMS PayPal 2.0 and new features for the certificate builder are in the works.
LifterLMS will continue to innovate in other areas outside of these new add-ons mentioned in this article…
The purpose of this blog post is to simply give you a heads up on the top highlights of what’s coming next.
We’re highlighting the new add-on benefits coming in the immediate future to your LifterLMS powered learning platform.
We’re keeping you in the loop on product details and release dates so you can plan accordingly.
Thank you again for speaking up and engaging with us on your wants and needs. It’s your voice that plays a big part in shaping the world’s best WordPress LMS.
Here’s What I’d Like You To Do Next …
Excited?
We are, too, at Team LifterLMS.
Step 1) Please leave a comment on this post and let us know what you’re most excited about. This motivates the LifterLMS team even more. Leaving a comment below gives you another opportunity to communicate your wants and needs. At LifterLMS, we listen. Your voice matters.
Step 2) Please enter the conversation in the LifterLMS Facebook Community and Slack Community. It’s easy to join. See you inside.
Step 3) If you are not already an Infinity Bundle member, consider investing in your teaching business’s future now or upgrading to Infinity from your existing LifterLMS license.
In Closing …
Please know …
LifterLMS exists to guide learning leaders like you to improve your life and change the world from your online stage.
The LifterLMS team is proud to be with you on the journey and committed to your success.
P.S. Please leave a comment below…
