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Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

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When you’re trying to decide which online learning platform to go with You’ll likely receive a long list of options. It’s a standout because of its many helpful features.

There are various criteria to watch out for in an online course platform and Thinkific has them all. Continue reading through the Thinkific review below to find more about its unique features and benefits.

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Review of Thinkific Review Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

Thinkific is among the more popular choices to create and sell online courses. In addition to having an easy-to-use interface, it also comes with pre-designed templates you can use for building your own brand-new website.

In just a few clicks, you’ll get to make and sell online courses without any prior experience. The drag and drop mechanism of the website makes it easy to start.

Online course creators will be particularly curious about the advanced quiz elements in every course you design. These can make your lessons more appealing to the students.

It is an online builder of course s. also allows you to upload various types of files to enhance the content of your Thinkific course.

And like most online courses platforms, Thinkific offers email marketing tools and third-party app integration. It is possible to send email sequences either through Thinkific itself or via external applications like MailChimp, Zapier, etc.

Keep reading through this Thinkific review to find out more about this well-known online course platform.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
  • Efficient course site builder
  • Templates pre-made
  • Different payment options
  • Features for marketing and sales
  • Student management options
  • Student feedback capabilities
  • Support for customers in a timely manner
  • Lifetime access to the free plan
  • No transaction fees , or concealed charges

Cons

How do you define Thinkific?

Thinkific is a cloud-based online course platform. It means that all content you make on it is stored online and automatically backup. It makes course creation easier and convenient.

Plus it functions as an Learning Management System (LMS) offers many customizable options for instructors. You can create an easy course and then upload different resources to enhance your lesson.

If you’re one of the course creators who prefer writing your course offline before uploading it online, Thinkific is perfect for you. It allows you to do this and then upload the course online later on.

Thinkific also hosts all web pages you make with it, so you can upload as much content as you want.

You can design a brand new online course site without any design expertise also. You won’t have to endure a lengthy learning curve with Thinkific it’s a fact.

There are a variety of marketing and distribution options that will accelerate the selling procedure of your Thinkific course. There’s an online marketplace community where you can offer courses and interact with other creators of courses.

In addition, Thinkific is also a excellent option for people who have their own websites but just want to enhance their marketing, and also gain students. You can connect third-party sites to Thinkific to reach a wider public.

The benefits and features of Thinkific

This Thinkific review, we break down the most important features and benefits which help Thinkific stand out.

Drag and Drop Editor

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The way that your courses appear on your site will greatly influence conversion rates. This is why we are so happy the fact that Thinkific offers an editor that drags and drops. It is a great way to organize your website and digital products.

You are able to arrange the courses and lessons the you like. No need to be concerned with complicated code or methods. You just have to click on whatever item you’d like to display and drag it where you’d like it to be.

A majority of the crucial elements that create a website that looks professional is covered by Thinkific’s editor. From the logos, color schemes, and fonts, you’ll discover everything you need on the platform.

But if you do want to go the extra mile to make your website, there’s still the option to input CSS and HTML codes into Thinkific. It’s up to you to decide.

Plus, you can also use drag and drop for uploading supplemental materials for your classes. Almost every kind of media file can be uploaded with the uploader of your editor. You can upload audio files, quizzes and PDFs to enrich your course.

Even the quiz types that you design can be easily altered using the editor. Simply select the type of assessment you would like to include in your class and then drag it into the course. You can choose from types of surveys, type forms and multiple-choice forms among others.

Course Site Builder

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Thinkific offers more than simply a drag-and-drop editor. Its overall course site builder can be effective in getting everything set up and up and running.

As we mentioned earlier, Thinkific does its own web hosting. That means that you don’t be concerned about uploading limits. Your online storage capacity is infinite when you’re using Thinkific.

If you’re considering subdomains Thinkific permits you to choose a unique URL that you can associate in conjunction with its subdomain. The URL you choose will look like this: .thinkific.com

That way, your website is more memorable and easier for students to recall.

If you’d like to forego your Thinkific subdomain, there’s also the option of registering a unique standalone domain for your site. You’ll need to pay slightly more for it.

Pre-Made Templates

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With regard to the builder for course websites, Thinkific has a slew of pre-designed layout and course templates that you can choose from. It saves you from needing to create your site entirely from scratch.

The platform gives you template choices, depending on the type of Thinkific course you’re making. For instance, if you’re creating an introduction to course, you can select a mini course-type template. For assessment and culminating, you can pick a review template.

In terms of themes and layout templates, there are also several to choose from. After you’ve selected one which is appropriate for your style, Thinkific offers settings to modify the fonts, colors, and design of the elements of the template.

Again, there is absolutely no need to enter complicated codes or text. Simply click on the content you wish to add to your website and drag it onto the layout.

But yes, if you want to continue using HTML and CSS, there’s still an option.

It is also possible to rearrange and reorganize the elements of your site from time to time. The different sections can be organized in order of priority so that students know what lesson to prioritize.

Payment Options

Payment-Options

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In terms of payment options, Thinkific offers options to connect Stripe and PayPal to your site. With these third-party processors, you can easily access your earnings in as soon as 1 – 2 days.

It’s a stark contrast from other online course platforms which have a pay-out time of 30 days. With Thinkific, you can cash out more easily.

Payment-Options

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And for your students you can offer them one-time payment plans or an installment subscription plan. You can also offer bundles, discounts, coupons, and bundles with the payment option they pick.

It is important to note that with the one-time payment option the subscribers will be charged an one-time transaction fee too. Same applies to the installment plan, with the exception that transaction fees will be broken down across the duration of the installment.

Sales and Marketing Features

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Beyond being an online course creation tool, Thinkific is also effective at marketing online courses. Like we said, it includes features that let you create and sell courses with only a couple of clicks.

When you’ve published the course you are able to immediately make it available for sale through your Market and Sell option on your dashboard.

From there, you can alter your website’s design to improve the conversion rates of your visitors. You can change the way that your checkout and sign up pages will look like to the users. So they’ll be more enticed to take a look at the online course.

You can also improve how your courses are presented on your site. They can be more attractive by filtering the courses in categories users are able to easily navigate.

And as we discussed earlier it is possible to bundle your courses with discounts coupons or freebies. That way, your users will be enticed to sign up more often for your program.

A sales widget could also be created through Thinkific. It’s basically a button that can be embedded on other websites that direct users to your platform for courses. You can customize them to have a specific design and color scheme so that they look more on-brand and also look more professional.

Thinkific can also allow you to create an affiliate program to help you reach more audiences. On the website you can make affiliate links which you can send to affiliate partners. They’ll use these links in order to bring their followers to your site and sign up in a course.

Once the affiliate program is running it is possible to check its progress on the Thinkific website. You’ll get to monitor sales, revenue, and other commissions.

Finally, you can choose to integrate other applications to Thinkific. If you’re looking into emails for marketing, Aweber is a good tool to sync directly with the account you have.

Student Management

Student-Management

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An LMS will not be effective when it does not cover every aspect of online teaching. And that includes keeping an eye on student performance.

Thinkific has a convenient student management system for managing students. With it, you can easily pull up your students’ contact details as well as basic information.

You can also customize the sign-up sheet for your subscribers by asking for specific information. The template from Thinkific asks for names as well as email addresses and contact numbers. If you’re looking for more specific details, you can switch your settings to add an extra field to the sign-up sheet.

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When you’ve had your subscribers pooled, you can classify them based on the courses they signed up for. So, you can monitor them per course much simpler.

With the Premier and Pro plans, you can also search for a specific user based on his/her dates of enrollment, courses enrolled as well as job-type. There are many more categories to choose from when you explore the page.

Student Feedback

Student-Feedback

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Thinkific is not only focused on the course creators but as well the students. That’s why student feedback is encouraged whenever you’re taking an online course.

A lively discussion between students and their instructors can significantly reduce the learning curve associated with lessons.

There’s a discussion forum on Thinkific in which students can submit questions that they have about their online classes. After that, instructors can reply and provide clarification.

Students are also able to rate and review the courses they’ve attended. The rating will include the performance of the online course instructor as well. In this way, instructors can establish their credibility through Thinkific.

These reviews can also assist other students determine which course is right for them. It decreases the chances of a student dropping out during an entire class all of a abruptly.

And if course creators are worried that the reviews could be detrimental to their business, they don’t have to. They’re the ones who’ll get to decide if they want to publish a review or not. Thinkific will never publish reviews without permission.

A good method to keep students motivated is to keep them informed with constant updates. Thinkific lets course instructors send push notifications to students when they update their lessons or resources through the site.

Customer Support

Customer-Support

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As one would expect from systems for learning management, Thinkific does quite a good job with customer support.

Before you even sign up, you can access cases studies and articles on the official website. You can also access videos and demos of the product which you can browse.

Once you’ve signed up to Thinkific, you’ll be able to access the Help Center. Thereare information that can aid you in understanding selling online courses.

Thinkific offers guides as well as training videos to assist you in navigating the interface. In addition, as we previously mentioned, there are forums for users to discuss your issues. Other users and instructors are able to be available to assist you.

For more serious issues, you can place an online request for assistance from the customer service team. If you’re a subscriber to the Business plan or higher, you get first-of-the-line response.

One catch is that Thinkific does not offer live chat, but it does have. You’ll have to wait long enough for a response from the company.

How Does Thinkific Works

Like any other platform review of course like any other course platform review, this Thinkific review will help you understand how to start using Thinkific. You just have to follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Create an Account

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First, register and set up your Thinkific account. You’ll be automatically subscribed to the free trial upon registration.

Step 2: Personalize Your Course Player

Step-2-Customize

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Once you have your account and you have it, you can begin to customize your course player. You can choose a particular color scheme so that it is in line with your logo and themes.

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The course player is the tool your customers will utilize to access your course’s content. Videos, audio files and quizzes will be accessible via the course player.

Step 3: Design Your Course

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After that, you can design an online learning course. Utilizing the Course Builder software, you are able to start the course by adding modules, lessons and other files to it.

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The course content is divided into sections and categories. You may also assign your online courses personalized labels that make them easier to search.

Step 4: Personalize Your Site

Step-4-Customize

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After your content is set, you can finalize the design and layout of your website. With Thinkific, you have the option to customize every landing page to suit each course you’ve got.

It is the Thinkific Site Builder lets you choose a color scheme as well as a theme for our home page. This is where classes will be put up. Students will be able to browse through the course and select which ones they like from there.

You can also customize your landing page for every course. It’s best to choose the look of each course to make them simple to distinguish but be consistent with your overall branding.

Step 5: Name Your Website

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What you need to do after material, courses player and the customization is to decide on a name for your website. Make sure your name is memorable, but still the right fit for your brand.

Step 6: Create Your Course

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Finally, once everything is set and you are ready to publish the course. For publishing, you only need to decide on a price and provide specific details for payment.

A card that is referred to as a course must be designed. The course card will be the one that appears on your students’ dashboards. If they view it they’ll be able look up quick information about your online course and content.

A good course card will make a huge difference when marketing courses through Thinkific.

What is the need for improvement on thinkific

There’s a lot to be awed by about Thinkific, it isn’t without a few flaws. In this Thinkific review, we’ve listed below what we believe could be improved.

Limited Quizzing Features

While we think that Thinkific does an excellent job in creating courses and uploading content but we feel that the quiz features could be enhanced.

The assessment form on Thinkific is fairly basic. While it’s adequate to get an idea of how much your pupils know, it isn’t enough for asking more complex questions.

But if you’re satisfied with short check-up style tests at the end of every course, then that’s what Thinkific can provide you with. If your questions require longer and more specific outputs You might want to consider a different platform.

Lack of Email Marketing Tools

As we’ve mentioned earlier, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications , and these include tools for marketing via email. However, this is only because it doesn’t have email marketing tools of its own.

Although there are a lot of third-party software that is efficient but it would still be great if Thinkific already had this on its own. It would’ve sped up the process.

No Live Chat Support

And even though we think that the customer service response is quick, it still doesn’t make up for the lack of a live chat option.

Customers with more urgent problems aren’t likely to get their issues resolved fast. They’ll have to just wait for the ticket response particularly if they’re not paying for the paid plans.

Thinkific Pricing

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Thinkific offers three paid plans that you can sign up to. And upon signing to the plan, you’ll then be able to sign up for the free plan with no transaction fees or hidden charges.

Thinkific Free

Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

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Thinkific’s free plan is unique as, unlike the plans of rivals, it doesn’t expire. You can avail of the free plan all the time you’d like to continue using Thinkific. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

In addition to being completely free, it also doesn’t have any hidden charges or transaction fees regardless of whether you sell courses. It’s ideal for course creators who want to cut down on expenses or for small-scale business owners that are just getting started.

Through the Thinkific free plan, you can create 3 courses and customize them by incorporating your personal branding. Your courses can be enhanced by adding quizzes, other materials and more as well.

You can enroll any quantity of pupils, automate the sign-up process, then also track their performance. Surveys can also be sent to them, so you can determine how they feel about the course they’re studying. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

Thinkific’s free plan also allows an administrator with authority to the site, multiple instructor profiles, and 24 hours access to your the students’ information. You can also monitor the conversion rates and click rates of your students.

Finally, the free plan also allows for search engine optimization of your content. That way, your courses will be easier to find by customers. You can also embed websites and applications from third parties on your own site to enhance user experience.

Thinkific Basic

basic-pricing

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Thinkific Basic costs $49 per month. However, if you decide to pay annually, it’ll only cost you $39 per month.

It comes with all the same features that the free plan has, as well as added premium benefits. First, you can make unlimited courses. Selling courses will also be easier. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

One more thing that you won’t have in the free plan is the capability to distribute your contents, send coupons, or access analytics.

To break that down, first, to drip content means to release information to your students at regular intervals over time. Second, you can send coupons with discounts or other freebies to students who might need extra incentive to remain connected. And third, the analytics that you have access to are marketing conversion and affiliate reporting rates.

With this plan, you can easily connect third-party tools you would like to utilize. This includes Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp, among others.

In addition, you could design a custom domain to your site using the base plan. There is no need to use the Thinkific domain for your URL now.

Thinkific Pro

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Thinkific Pro costs $99 per month, but if you are the service annually, it’s $79 each month.

With this plan, you have the same benefits like you do with the Free Basic and Basic plans. The only difference is that there are higher-end settings as well as advantages.

Thinkific’s Pro plan will let you have two site administrators and five course administrator accounts. It will also include advanced pricing options for your courses as well as editing HTML/CSS codes. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

You’ll have the ability to design private courses that only a certain number of people can access as well. Plus, you can offer membership bundles and freebies to your users.

Course creators can also use the more sophisticated quiz, assignment, and assessment features.

Growth Package

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With the Pro plan, you can avail something called a Growth Plan that you can take advantage of. The thing about it is that once you’ve got more than 100 users subscribed to your plan, Thinkific will automatically charge additional fees on top of the $99 per month.

Don’t be concerned, as the price grants you access to additional functions. You can send out bulk emails, integrate third-party tools, and group users based on different criteria.

Thinkific Premier

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The Thinkific Premier plan is the most expensive plan. It is priced at $499 per month. However, when it is billed annually, it is $399 per month. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

If you’re subscribed to this plan, you’ll get access to all of the same features available to the Free, Basic, or Pro plans. The reason it has a distinct advantage and a higher cost is that it’s designed for larger companies that have more members.

This Thinkific Premier plan lets you have 5 site admin and 50 account admins for courses. It also allows for something called a Single Sign-On (SSO). This is helpful when you have a lot of subscribers that will have to access the same page.

Additionally, this plan comes with an onboarding plan that’s a 30-minute onboarding call along with an onboarding review of preparations and an online training guides.

Additionally, you’ll have an access Growth package at a lesser cost. There will be a flat cost that you only have to pay.

Thinkific Reviews

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Users who have reviewed and used Thinkific particularly appreciate how economical it is. Even when using its free plans, you’ll have access to some useful features. And there are no fees hidden, so you don’t end up spending more than you originally planned to.

Other users also adored the white-labeling feature of Thinkific. It lets you improve the branding of your company even if you’re a small-sized business.

In the end, educators are enthralled the use of Thinkific because it’s perfect for learners. The interface is easy to navigate and explore.

“I loved that there was an option to upload documents within the discussion. Then I’m glad I choose this particular option as others require an amount of your income and it takes longer to wait to receive money. There are no transaction fees!” -Anonymous

“I liked that you could make your access platform, the courses as well as the payment methods in one interface without any needs for additional products. I particularly enjoy how easy it is to set up the courses up if you have your own curriculum and has white-labeling.” – Anonymous

“Thinkific allows you to begin making courses for free, and will keep them for free for the rest of your life. Really, this is an excellent way to get started with course development without paying a penny.” -Anonymous

“Thinkific made it simple to develop and run our online course for financial advisors. The support team at Thinkific was always quick to reply and help us get started. I also love the fact the ability to white-label and have a custom domain.” – Anonymous

“Classes were more enjoyable engaging, enjoyable, and simple particularly for our students who were older. Teachers enjoyed using it to build their classes and to share their ideas.” -Anonymous

Alternatives to Thinkific

If this Thinkific review still hasn’t convinced you of its capabilities as an online learning platform take a look at these two alternatives:

Kajabi

Kajabi is among the very first online course platforms that is likely to recommend to you when you ask around. It’s an all-in-one platform which lets you design and market your online courses. Thinkific is like Kajabi in this way.

When you subscribe to Kajabi it will allow you to quickly create a course and add content. It has templates built in and themes you can make use of to personalize your site immediately. The editor on your site lets you add multiple sections and sales pages to your courses. Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

In terms of quiz features It is a step ahead against Thinkific because it has more advanced settings. You can create more customized assessments and quizzes. Plus, you can conduct webinars and video tutorials to ensure better clarity in teaching.

A lot of teachers love the fact that they can reward their students with certificates for every successful course. Additionally, they are able to send content out to their followers, just as Thinkific.

Another difference Kajabi has over Thinkific is that it comes with superior marketing features. Although Thinkific lets you easily market classes online, it does not let you make an online sales funnel that will help keep your process efficient.

Kajabi also provides email marketing tools and automated email, in contrast to Thinkific. You don’t need to install a third-party application to send emails and broadcasts to your customers.

You do have to note that Kajabi is more expensive than Thinkific.

READ: Kajabi Review – All-in-One Online Course Platform

Teachable

learning-platform

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Next to Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s other closest competitor. This is due to the fact that they share lots of resemblances as online learning platforms.

Teachable’s interface is also easy-to-use and has helpful features that can assist you in creating your content. There are pre-made theme templates that you can use to make your website look nice even without previous web design experience.

As with Thinkific, instructors can choose to drip the content that they share to their subscribers.

However, what distinguishes Teachable different from Thinkific is its quiz options. Instead of having basic templates, Teachable lets you customize your quizzes and assessments.

Like Kajabi it is possible to host webinars and videos to encourage engagement with your subscribers. It is also possible to create a sales page for your online course for better conversion rates.

One last thing that we love about Teachable is that you can also give your subscribers certificates for each course they finish. In contrast to Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools that you can utilize to send bulk emails to our users.

READ: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features

Please read: Kajabi vs. Teachable

Final Review and Conclusion on Thinkific Review

Thinkific How To Use Custom Domain Dns Google Domains

Thinkific has plenty of features which make it worthy of a subscription. For one, it’s extremely simple to use. You can design a unique online course and then sell it even if you’re a first-timer.

It also comes with pre-designed layouts and templates that simplify setting your site. It isn’t necessary to enter complex CSS or HTML codes to have professional-looking websites.

If you choose any of these paid options, you get access to advanced features that will enhance your brand. You can opt out of the Thinkific subdomain and use Advanced users to create their own domain names using hosting and develop the majority of the pages on their website using your own domain name.

You can also incorporate third-party apps to Thinkific, especially because it doesn’t come with its own email marketing tools.

Students are also able to interact with their instructors through online discussions on Thinkific. Students can easily request assistance during lessons or post questions on their modules. The teachers will be able to respond to them promptly.

Support for customers isn’t bad also. Prioritization of responses is given in the event you’re on the other paid plans. Be aware that there is no live chat function.

In the end, our conclusion for this Thinkific review is that it’s worth giving it a try. Particularly if you’re just beginning to become a instructor, Thinkific seems to be a good starting point for learning how to create courses.

The free plan also lasts forever, unlike other platforms. If you’re strapped for cash and want to save money, this is an excellent choice since you can access great features at absolutely no cost.

We strongly suggest that you try Thinkific out.

If you’ve enjoyed the Thinkific reviews, you can also read through our review of the Best Online Course Platforms available right now here.

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About the author

jack_morris

Jack has worked on the video production, audio mastery, and physical coursework for over one-hundred popular online courses to date. He’s here to share his experiences with you, as well as show you what tools are worth your time, how to spot those that aren’t worth a penny, and above all else, how to keep yourself informed about how to navigate online course creation efficiently and effectively.