Are you tired of juggling multiple platforms to sell courses, provide coaching, and manage memberships?
Do you find yourself outgrowing your current systems, hindered by software limitations, and longing for a solution that supports your business growth?
Imagine having a flexible and powerful platform that not only elegantly sells your digital offerings but also creates stunning learning experiences for your students.
AccessAlly, the game-changing WordPress plugin, is the secret weapon of coaches, trainers, and creators who want to go beyond coaching and unlock their business’s full potential.
As a certified expert, I’m here to share with you my unbiased AccessAlly review…
If you are a LinkedIn user, you’ve probably seen “LinkedIn Learning” which was actually Lynda.com that LinkedIn has acquired way back in 2015 for $1.5 billion.
Why am I sharing these?
I’m really excited because if you’re thinking of using AccessAlly (or any type of membership site solution), you’re going to want to take your bite from this $325 billion pie! Imagine just 0.05% of that chunk!
But before we continue on this AccessAlly review, you may be wondering why should YOU even listen to me.
My AccessAlly Review (Video)
Welcome to my digital marketing blog and I’m here to provide you with insights, research and my own tips on how to use this LMS plugin.
HI, my name is Ryan and I’ve worked as an SEO specialist way back in 2010, then moving into PPC in 2013. I’ve been generating traffic and conversions, building funnels, course websites in various niches and industries who needs more online sales.
I’m also an AccessAlly Advocate Partners (aka Certified experts), a Drip marketing automation Expert, and ConversionXL certified PRO.
I’m sharing this because my goal is be able to assist you in making the decision if this is for you or not and to provide support along the way.
I want to dissect and reveal most of the important and technical aspects of using this plugin, so that if you decide to go with it, you won’t be in for surprises.
In case you got stuck, you can always reach out for support here.
Big Problem on Membership Sites
While the eLearning Industry as a whole is gaining such a BIG momentum, people are becoming less and less engaged in online memberships.
There are some studies that say that average membership or subscription member cancels around 3-6 months. I’d say that it could even be shorter for a lot people (less than 30 days).
What’s the #1 problem of any membership site?
The number 1 problem is the retention of a paying subscriber, followed by engagement or the actual use of the website.
Unlike traditional schools were there is usually a “class check of attendance”, a digital program is usually self-paced and self-motivated.
There is none who would hold you accountable if you didn’t study the program you’ve just bought.
Personally, I can’t recall how many times I’ve bought a program or digital product that I’ve logged in once or twice in its entire lifetime.
Fortunately, I’ve seen AccessAlly solve this problem wonderfully. Let me tell you how they’ve done it.
And I’m proof that their method works, because in less than 4 days, I’ve finished their AccessAlly Advocate Training program which was supposed to be finished in 7 weeks!
(Look, here’s their support staff telling me that I’m literally “speeding” up the training!)
The truth is, I can’t stop.
I just went from module to module, lesson to lesson. I only stopped when I was really sleepy. I think I was able to finish all 7 Weeks of Training within 3 or maybe 4 days.
In the next section, I’ll show you why I’ve shared this story and how I “became a product of the product!”…
How gamification solved this issue
If you haven’t guessed it yet on why I was ENGAGED and COMMITTED to finish the AccessAlly Advocate Training in just a few days instead of weeks, it’s because they’ve cleverly added gamification and progression tracking to it.
Here’s just a SNEAK PEEK of a Homework Feature Inside AccessAlly (More details on this below). I can upload files, screenshots, and then a moderator can come back for Feedback and comments.
This is very powerful because it’s creates a deep level of engagement and TRUST with your students.
I know, because that’s what it did for me.
What is Gamification?
Gamification is simply making your program more interactive, educational and fun.
Instead of the traditional method of ONE-WAY communication in most online courses, wherein you don’t participate in any of the lesson, Gamification is the opposite of that.
One example of Gamification is through putting up Quizzes in every module or lesson.
Quizzes are VERY effective as membership tools.
In fact, it’s because of the Quizzes and the next strategy why I’m able to quickly finish my AccessAlly Advocate training quickly.
How to track your progress?
Have you ever experienced something incomplete and have wanted to complete it as soon as you can?
Tracking your progress is a way to “trigger” that desire.
By showing your progress and noticing an “incomplete” tasks, triggers a psychological stress that prompts you to continue working on the modules and lessons.
This is the power of tracking your progress.
And it worked for me with the AccessAlly Advocate / Certification program.
I was committed to complete the work as I want all my checklist tasks to be done.
Marketing automation for eLearning and WP sites
This might be a buzzword right now, but marketing automation can help improve student engagement for your membership websites.
With AccessAlly, you’re able to increase engagement, signups, completion rates and more.
This is made possible with Tag-based CRM’s and Email marketing service providers like ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit, etc. AccessAlly has integrations and connections with other third-party tools via Zapier.
Drip is one of the feature-rich option but ConvertKit is user-friendly for bloggers and content creators.
If you’re looking which solution to pick, this article on the best email platform can help. But if you’re interested in ConvertKit, here’s my review of this platform.
How marketing automation works
Here’s an example on how this works:
– Imagine that a new student expressed interest in one of your offers but didn’t complete their checkout process.
With marketing automation, you can launch a CRM/Email workflow that sends a gentle “reminder” email within a few hours or within a day to notify people that they’ve abandoned checkout.
And that they can continue if they want to…
Here’s an example of what an “abandoned cart email” looks like:
Another practical example is this…
– Imagine that you’ve noticed some of your students are not finishing your lessons and modules.
You can send out a reminder “email” for them to log back in and complete their lessons.
Or if someone hasn’t logged in for an “X” amount of days, in both scenarios you can send highly personalized messages in both situation.
The possibilities are truly endless.
This is where AccessAlly really shines over other solutions like Wishlist Member or Optimize Press 3.
The Course Creation Wizard
With the new version of AccessAlly, product creation is now called “Create your Offering”.
You can now launch a Free Lesson, A Drip Released Course, a Membership Program, a Team Center, Affiliate Center, or you can use the Custom approach to launch something everything from scratch.
Previously, there’s 2 major types of programs you can launch inside AccessAlly:
A Stand Alone is what you’ll want to choose if you want to provide Instant Access to All the materials (example if it’s a PDF, Cheatsheet, Template or Download).
A Stage Released is when you’ll want to Drip-feed the content for a specific amount of time (whether it’s within days, weeks or months).
There’s tons of combinations that you can do here. Let’s say you want to offer a FREE lesson for your topic, but it will be drip-fed for 30 days.
After they optin for the FREE program, you can give them an option to “UPGRADE” for Instant Access for a Premium Pass or FEE (See how powerful AccessAlly can be?!)
The obvious next steps is to build your order forms, bump offers and upsells using AccessAlly.
How to get started with AccessAlly
After purchasing AccessAlly, you’ll get the download link and a license key to activate it on your WordPress blog.
Note: AccessAlly only works with Self-hosted WordPress blogs (not the blogs you get from WordPress.com).
Required Tools:
Things Needed?
Steps On How To Setup AccessAlly
Tag-based Marketing Automation
This is now where the beauty of AccessAlly also shines.
You can specifically create “triggers” that can be used to start workflows or automations in your tag-based CRM or email marketing automation tool like Drip, ActiveCampaign, Convertkit, etc.
This is done via two methods inside AccessAlly. Via built-in triggers (usually found in the Course Creation Wizard) and by using Custom operations.
AccessAlly Site Examples
Here’s a simple membership dashboard inside AccessAlly.
AccessAlly Pros and Cons
What I liked (advantages)
I’ve been building and managing membership websites for my own business and my client’s websites, and what I really liked about AccessAlly is that this is the tool/plugin that allows you to COMPETE with the big boys when it comes to Marketing automation of membership sites, without the HUGE cost that is usually associated with Enterprise level competition.
You get Enterprise level features at more competitive prices.
Here’s a quick list of all the features that I liked about AccessAlly
- WordPress compatible plugin (can be added to your blog)
- PDF stamping (NEW) - helps with piracy and digital theft
- Stripe, Paypal and other payment options
- New and Revamped Plugin (updated frequently)
- Homework and Private Notes
- Track and Tag almost any interaction
- View student activity
- NEW - AccessAlly managed CRM (no need for separate CRM provider)
- Lots of integrations via Zapier (1,000+)
- YouTube tutorials available
What I didn't liked about it (disadvantages)
- No email broadcast capabilities
- Can be overwhelming and technical to use for a non-techie
- Tutorials can be hard to find and confusing
AccessAlly Release Versions and Roadmap History
AccessAlly had changed their dashboard and have added new features that were not available from the previous versions.
There is a new product dashboard for creating your products and offers.
Exclusive Bonuses & Training Available
If you’re thinking about getting AccessAlly, I’ll add more value to your purchase by giving away these bonuses, including top tutorials and tips
Bonus #1 – My Personal AccessAlly Quick Start Guide
I’ll share with you my quick-start guide that will help you save time and frustration on how to setup your AccessAlly website.
Bonus #2 – My AccessAlly + ThriveCart Combo Setup
In this bonus, I’ll share with you on how I’ve used ThriveCart as my “order form, 1 click upsell and shopping cart platform”. If you don’t like the “order form” design and layout of AccessAlly, ThriveCart is what I would recommend that you use instead (here’s my full review of this platform).
Bonus #3 – My AccessAlly + Drip Share Automations
When you buy AccessAlly via my affiliate links, I’ll also send you my Drip Marketing Email Automations. You can get a FREE Drip Account here, but I strongly recommend that you choose this tool to provide you with marketing automation benefits for your business.
Bonus #4 – My AccessAlly Icons And Certificate Templates
One of the required graphic design elements for your AccessAlly website are icon designs and certificate templates. I’ll share my templates with you as support to help to get started quickly.
Just edit in tools like Photoshop and you can then now use it for your membership website.
Bonus #5 – My AccessAlly + ThriveCart Buyers (My Jumpstart Bonus)
For those who decides to buy AccessAlly and buy ThriveCart via my affiliate links, I have a SPECIAL bonus just for you.
I’ll install, setup and configure AccessAlly and ThriveCart to your online membership site so that you can start using these platforms faster without spending too much learning how to set it up.
Do you need assistance with AccessAlly & your site?
Hopefully this guide has helped you decide whether AccessAlly is for you or not and if you actually need it.
And if you are hesitant of getting it because of you’re afraid that you might HIT a roadblock when it comes to implementation, I’m 99% sure I’ll be able to assist you out, whether it’s technical, strategy or implementation issue.
You’ll just need to provide me with some login information to help you sort out the problem, or I could provide direction on how you can fix the issues you have.
Final Conclusion
I’m honestly blown away by the features and benefits of using AccessAlly.
First, It has great features for members of your community, including the members view and bulk reports which are useful in student management and when diving deep into your student analytics.
I’ve been building membership websites for clients and for my own online business for years, and there has been no similar tools like AccessAlly that’s currently at this price point.
The only thing that I didn’t like was the “Order Form Designs” which is important if you want to sell more of your products or services.
But fortunately, I found a solution to it by integrating ThriveCart + AccessAlly.
And if you decide to get AccessAlly via the links on this article, I’ll even offer more bonuses and training just for you.
Finally, if you’re hesitant to try AccessAlly because you think it can be difficult to setup up, don’t worry because I’ll be here for you every step of the way, just send me a message here if you have any questions.
F.A.Q.
- AccessAlly is a powerful WordPress plugin designed to help you scale your online business through courses, group coaching, and more.
- With AccessAlly, you can sell your offerings elegantly by creating beautiful mobile-friendly order forms for courses, memberships, downloads, communities, and coaching programs.
- It also allows you to create stunning learning experiences, including cross-selling member dashboards with progress tracking and a flexible course builder.
- AccessAlly helps you scale and unlock your next business milestone by tapping into personalized automation to increase engagement and free up your time.
- AccessAlly is designed for coaches, trainers, and creators who have diverse offerings such as books, courses, memberships, certifications, and high-end coaching programs.
- It provides a place to deliver your transformations, allowing you to create a client experience that sets you apart through beautiful design, gamification, and personalized experiences for each member.
- Many business owners waste a lot of time building courses and memberships on platforms that may be easy to start with but ultimately hinder their growth.
- AccessAlly offers a flexible platform that grows with you as your business grows, eliminating the need to switch platforms as you come up with new ideas and programs.
- Starting off right with AccessAlly ensures that you have a foundation that can support your big vision for your business over time.
- AccessAlly allows you to house all of your offerings in one place, making management easy for your online business
- It offers powerful features like cross-selling, bulk course enrollment, and gamification, which can help increase member engagement and generate more revenue.
- AccessAlly also provides the ability to migrate your existing members and content into one cohesive and beautiful home, streamlining your operations and enhancing the user experience.
- AccessAlly eliminates the drawbacks of other options by offering a comprehensive course plugin built on WP, the #1 open source platform on the web.
- Unlike Duct-taped WP solutions that are prone to issues with plugin updates and API changes, AccessAlly provides a stable and reliable system.
- It also surpasses restrictive SaaS platforms by giving you the ability to add functionality and customize your site without limitations via 3rd party integrations, all while paying one flat monthly/annual fee.
- AccessAlly is dedicated to helping you scale on your own terms and has a track record of success with thousands of business owners, course creators, developers, and industry leaders.