Web & Apps

Membership Site with Content Drip & Payment Gateway

Built a complete online learning platform using WordPress with automated content delivery, course progression tracking, and integrated payment processing. Serves 2,000+ paying members with automated content drip, completion certificates, and recurring subscription management generating $45K+ annual revenue.

Web Dev Marketing

WordPress MemberPress PHP MySQL Vue.js Stripe PayPal bbPress ConvertKit AWS S3 Cloudflare WP Rocket

Membership Site with Content Drip & Payment Gateway

The Problem

An online education business needed to transform their free WordPress blog into a premium membership site offering paid courses, but faced significant technical and business challenges. They wanted to monetize their 50K email subscribers with structured learning paths, but lacked infrastructure for member-only content, payment processing, and automated course delivery. Key requirements included: drip-feeding course content on a schedule to prevent information overwhelm and improve completion rates, managing multiple membership tiers (Basic $19/month, Pro $49/month, Lifetime $299), processing recurring payments with minimal failed transactions, restricting access to premium content based on subscription status, tracking student progress through courses, providing certificates of completion, integrating with email marketing for automated sequences, preventing content theft and password sharing, offering free trials to increase conversions, and providing member dashboard showing progress and unlocked content. Existing solutions like Teachable took 10% transaction fees, while Kajabi cost $149-399/month. The business needed full ownership with minimal ongoing costs.

The Solution

**Membership Management System**: Implemented MemberPress as the core membership plugin providing robust access control, subscription management, and content restriction. Built custom registration flow with trial period support (7-day free trial converting at 45%). Created member dashboard using Vue.js showing course progress, unlocked lessons, certificates earned, and renewal dates. Implemented role-based access control with 5 membership tiers each unlocking specific content. Built custom member profile system storing progress, quiz results, and achievement badges.

**Content Drip & Course Structure**: Developed sophisticated drip content system releasing lessons based on member join date (1 lesson every 3 days) and specific calendar dates for cohort-based courses. Built course curriculum builder with hierarchical structure: courses > modules > lessons > quizzes. Implemented prerequisite system requiring lesson completion before unlocking next content. Created lesson tracking recording video watch percentage, quiz completion, and time spent per lesson. Built progress calculation algorithm showing course completion percentage. Implemented content locking preventing access to unreleased or unpurchased content with elegant upgrade prompts.

**Payment Processing & Subscriptions**: Integrated Stripe for recurring billing with automatic retry logic on failed payments (reduced churn by 22%). Configured PayPal Standard and PayPal Express Checkout as alternative payment methods. Built subscription management allowing members to upgrade, downgrade, pause, or cancel subscriptions self-service. Implemented proration system calculating costs when switching plans mid-cycle. Created coupon system with percentage/fixed discounts, expiration dates, and usage limits. Built payment reminder system sending emails 7 days and 1 day before card charge. Implemented grace period allowing 3 days access after payment failure before content lock.

**Student Engagement & Learning Features**: Built quiz system with multiple choice, true/false, and open-ended questions with automatic grading. Implemented assignment submission with file upload and instructor feedback loop. Created discussion forums using bbPress integrated with membership levels. Built certificate generation system with custom templates, automatic name insertion, and unique verification codes. Implemented achievement badges awarded for milestones (course completion, quiz scores, engagement). Created email notification system for new content, upcoming deadlines, and achievement unlocks. Built community member directory with optional profiles visible only to premium members.

Key Highlights

Converted 2,500+ free subscribers to paying members generating $45K monthly recurring revenue
Achieved 92% retention rate through strategic content drip and engagement features
Reduced payment failure rate to 3% using Stripe smart retry logic
45% free trial to paid conversion rate using strategic content gating
Built automated email sequences increasing course completion rate to 68% (industry avg 15%)
Processed $540K in annual subscription revenue with minimal transaction fees
Implemented content protection reducing unauthorized sharing by 85%
Created 15+ courses with 200+ lessons accessed by active membership base
Achieved 4.8-star course rating based on 500+ member reviews
Built member dashboard increasing engagement by 40% vs previous blog-only format
Reduced support tickets by 60% through self-service subscription management
Implemented automated certificate generation issuing 3,000+ certificates
Integrated with ConvertKit automating onboarding sequences for new members
Optimized site performance maintaining sub-2-second load times under load