The best tech stack for launching your first online course or membership
Getting ready for your first launch? Read my tips on the tech that you need for your course or membership.
Hosting platform
Decide where you want to host your course or membership - do you want to use a hosting platform like Kajabi or Podia or do you want to host it on your website?
Hosting platforms are usually easy to use and offer an all-in-one solution incl. collecting payments, but if you're tech-savvy, you can totally host it on your website (but you'll need to add a few services on top, i.e. checkout platform).
Personally, for entrepreneurs who are just starting out, I’d recommend a simple and affordable solution that they can test out before they decide which features they really need and which features they don’t use at all.
2. Sales page
The next step - a sales page!
You can have one on your website and then redirect your visitors to the course check-out, or create the sales page in your hosting platform.
However, the website builders of these platforms are rather basic so I advise my clients to build the sales page on their websites.
If you don’t have much time and need to design a sales page in an hour or two then a sales page template for your website builder is the best solution - just go on Pinterest and look for “sales page template + website builder of your choice”.
3. Cart solution
If you host your online course or membership on a hosting platform the cart will be already built-in the platform.
If you're hosting the course on your website make sure to choose the right cart solution for you. You can go with the leaders in the market such as Thrivecart or Samcart, or go with a simple solution and use Stripe checkout - it’s easy to set up and works great!
Please note that when selling digital products (ones that do not have live elements in them) you most probably will need to collect various taxes all over the world. So make sure to consult this with your accountant (that knows the online business environment) before launching your product.
4. Email service
You're almost done!
The last piece of the launch puzzle is an email service that you will be sending newsletters from.
All-in-one tools like Kajabi, Podia, Kartra etc. already offer email marketing so you can use theirs. While they’re great to send out newsletters for your students or members, some platforms don’t offer many segmenting options or advanced automations.
As a tech nerd, I prefer working with tools like ConvertKit, Active Campaign or Mailerlite (which is free for the first 1000 subscribers) - it is easy to create an opt-in form, add the right tag, deliver the freebie and then add the subscribers to a welcome sequence.
Not sure how to do that? Check out my mini-course Build Your First Lead Magnet Funnel where I teach you how to create forms, deliver freebies and create email sequences in ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite.
5. Zapier
Nowadays many platforms already are integrated (aka talk to each other), however, with sooo many options to choose from, the combinations of different tech tools are endless.
So if you have chosen the tools that will work for your course or membership it is possible that not all platforms will be able to send data to each other.
That’s where Zapier comes into play. If you want a specific tag to be added to your subscriber after they purchase a specific product you can create this workflow in Zapier.
