Let’s talk about all the tools I’m using to power my membership site and how they work together to generate a great additional stream of revenue. You may be surprised to see that it all comes down to just a few essential tools.

First, of course, I’m using a self-hosted WordPress website as the platform for the whole thing. I’m hosting the site with Flywheel because they provide fantastic managed hosting for WordPress which includes security, backups, etc.

I’m using Cart66 to handle the payments as well as the controlling access to the membership content. Cart66 provides all of these features in a very streamlined experience so you don’t have to mash up a bunch of plugins to get the functionality you need. So, for example, all of these features are bundled together for me in one system:

• All the payment gateways I want (I’m using both Stripe and PayPal at the same time)
• One-time payments
• Payments for membership access to premium content
• Links to invite people to sign up that put them directly on the checkout page
• Restricting access to an entire category of WordPress posts
• Restricting access to certain WordPress pages like the Member’s Homepage
• Showing/Hiding navigation items based on whether or not someone is logged in
• A secure customer portal so members can manage their own payment info in a PCI compliant environment
• Optionally “dripping” content to members over time

I’m also using ScheduleOnce tied into my Google Calendar to manage my calls.

Finally, I’m hosting my private videos on Wistia because that video platform provides a very nice, responsive viewing experience for video embedded in the member’s area.

If you want to try all of the out, try out Cart66 for free and let me know if you need any help with anything.