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Cory Miller, the owner of iThemes, shares his experience with online training, tips for online course providers and valuable insights into the industry’s future. iThemes is a tech company based in Oklahoma that has been offering premium WordPress plugins since 2008.

Three of iThemes most popular products are:

BackupBuddy

Backup Buddy helps protect your content by letting you create a backup off servers on offsite locations, like Google Drive and Amazon S3. Backup Buddy lets you easily restore your lost content if:

• Your server crashes
• Your site gets hacked
• The computer where your content was saved breaks down
• One of your teammates accidentally loses the content

BackupBuddy by iThemes is my #1 most recommended plugins for all WordPress websites.

If you would like to learn more about iThemes, BackupBuddy, Security and Sync, click here.

iThemes Security

iThemes Security helps keep your content protected from potential security breaches through a variety of easy, practical measures, including two-step authentication.

iThemes Sync

iThemes Sync lets you manage multiple sites easily with just one dashboard.

With users all over the world enjoying iThemes’ excellent plugins, you could be surprised to know that it didn’t start out making premium WordPress plugins. iThemes first offered custom-made WordPress themes designed by Cory himself. He was inspired to learn HTML and CSS to build his first WordPress theme when he discovered the platform shortly after he started blogging on Blogger in 2007. People impressed with Cory’s designs hired him to make the theme of their WordPress site, launching his freelance web design career.

Cory chose WordPress over Blogger and stayed with it because for him, not only is it the easiest website creation and management platform to use. It also has the most diverse set of built-in software tools which are free or affordable. Once you find good hosting, launch WordPress, find the plugins that can do what you need, pick out the theme that you want, and your online business, course, or training will be up and running in just a few days.

About one year into his web design career, Cory thought of creating simple but great-looking WordPress themes that website owners without any knowledge of coding could use, like those that Template Monster used to offer. Thus, iThemes was born.

Having turned nine in 2017, iThemes has grown from a one-man team to a thriving organization that still has much to offer. While continuously producing terrific WordPress themes and plugins, it has spent the last couple of years shifting to a software as a service (SaaS) business model. iThemes has always successfully kept pace with important trends in tech. For example: In 2009, only one year after it was established, iThemes formed its training division that created one-hour webinars to train its new hires and teach its customers how to build websites using HTML or CSS.

iThemes’ webinars now play an important role in marketing its products and the company itself. It now holds several hours or days long, summit-style live events that it records and uploads online for those unable to attend. This showcases its products and expertise even better, lets it engage with its customers even more and improves its capability of attracting even more customers.

To make its webinars stand out from the numerous webinars online, iThemes has been growing its team of trainers to include those with unique voices, perspectives and expertise in various areas of tech that can share their knowledge with iThemes’ community. The members gain diverse skill sets and perspectives, ensuring they become the best they can be at their chosen specialty. Cory is optimistic about the future of online training. He said it “has been exploding and will continue to explode” because:

• Everything you could ever want to learn will be readily available online
• Online training gives users a richer learning experience by providing them with metrics and detailed statistics
• It allows for truly interactive needs-based training
• It caters to virtually every learning style
• It will become more convenient and affordable as technology becomes better, faster and cheaper

If you would like to learn more about iThemes, BackupBuddy, Security and Sync, click here.

Cory Millers’s Tips for First-Time Online Course Providers Build your confidence by:

1. Giving your online course the best structure possible
2. Learning from your peers and doing research online
3. Following the best practices
4. Writing down your goals
5. Constantly measuring your progress and improving

Establish your following

If you take care of your audience by helping them with their issues, understanding their goals and aspirations, and making a sincere effort to help them succeed, they will be loyal to you and always support your business.

Do email marketing as soon as possible

Marketers have been trying out alternatives to search engine marketing (SEM) due to the rise of ad blockers. Among the most effective is email marketing. Unless it gets sent to their Spam folder, your message is guaranteed to reach your audience with hardly any distraction.

To give your email marketing efforts the best chance at success:

• Start making your email marketing list, which is basically the list of your customers’ email address, right away.
• Write your emails as if you’re talking to only one person. Your message will be personal and much more engaging.
• Provide value, like a part of your online course that you can give your customers for free. It shows how sincere you are to be of service to them, encouraging them to trust you.
• Avoid being sales pitchy. You’ll come across as out to just make a quick buck and turn your audience off.
• Always respond to their messages to demonstrate that you really care about them.
• Make your online training sessions only three to eight minutes long. Any longer and you risk losing your audience’s interest. The attention span of an average person is now just eight minutes.
• Show your passion. Being authentic endears you to your audience significantly, improving your chances at connecting with them.

Asked what inspired him lately, Cory said it was the positive impact he made in the life of the people he has helped that inspired him the most. Clearly, we can continue to expect great things from him.

Cory Miller’s Bio

Cory Miller is a former newspaper journalist turned full-time entrepreneur. In 2008, he started iThemes, which builds web design software and offers cutting-edge web design training for thousands of customers around the globe.

Named the 7th fastest growing company in Oklahoma City in 2011 by the Metro 50, iThemes employs over 20 people around the globe with headquarters in Edmond, Oklahoma.

In 2011, he co-founded The Div, Inc, a nonprofit tech foundation aimed at inspiring and training the next generation of web developers through its kid’s program, Div Jr.

He is the co-author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies (Wiley, 2011) and is a member and current communications chair of the Oklahoma chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a network of over 8,000 entrepreneurs in 40 countries with companies that have revenue over $1 million dollars annually.

He is married to Lindsey Miller, who leads the Education Program at iThemes aimed at helping provide school and educators with professional web design tools and training.

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