Course Merchant has launched a new version of CourseIndex.com, its course search engine, which brings three new services to course vendors: content marketing/advertising, a revenue partnership, and an eCommerce platform. The new magazine-format site features content about courses of all types from around the globe, with a leaning toward business management and technology.
The advertising offer includes articles featuring specific vendors’ courses and targeted at their audiences. The articles are written by professional content writers who research the market before writing. CourseIndex.com aims to become an integral part of course vendors’ link-building and content marketing strategies.
The eCommerce platform offers a branded store and catalog, LMS integrations, instant learner enrollments, and a full-featured eCommerce system for selling courses online. A full implementation service includes building the online store and integrating it with vendors’ existing websites via a design match for a seamless shopping experience.
The revenue partnership is a full “build and sell” service. A customer provides course content and CourseIndex.com will build the course, put the course onto its in-house LMS, and provide eCommerce functionality. The course or courses will be marketed on CourseIndex.com and its social media network. Course sales revenue is shared between CourseIndex.com and the customer. The revenue partnership aims to be a quick path to market for those selling expertise and offering training who may lack the resources and skills to manage their own LMS, eCommerce, and marketing channels.
The new site was launched in September 2016 and has already achieved a global Alexa rank of 39,428 and a US Alexa rank of 31,584.
Richard Standen, managing director, said, “We have been planning a marketing offer for some time, and we believe that the new CourseIndex.com covers all the bases for selling courses: a course-building service, advertising, content marketing, and an eCommerce platform built specifically for selling courses. We expect these services to see healthy growth going into 2017 and encourage anyone selling courses online to give it a try.”
Course Merchant is an exhibitor at the upcoming DevLearn 2016 Conference & Expo next week, November 16 – 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can find Course Merchant in Booth 140.