Lesson Three: Planning Your Site

Overview:

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to decide what kind of website you need before installing any plugins or themes. We’ll look at three main options — a simple single-course site, a course-and-store setup, and a full membership model — and discuss how each affects your costs, tools, and level of technical skill.

You’ll see why this decision is one of the most important steps in building your online course business, and how choosing the right foundation can save hours of frustration later. By the end, you’ll understand which type of site matches your goals, how complex each setup is to manage, and what you can expect in terms of cost and planning.

Understanding Your Site Options

Before choosing your theme or installing any extra plugins, it’s critical to define what kind of site you’re building. The structure you choose determines how your content is delivered, how students access it, and how you’ll eventually earn revenue.

Below are the three most common options for course creators, each with increasing flexibility, features, and complexity — but all achievable without writing a single line of code.

Option A: Simple Course Site (LearnPress)

This setup is ideal for beginners who want to create and sell one or more courses individually without dealing with memberships or online stores.

How it works:
LearnPress is a free learning management system (LMS) plugin that turns your WordPress site into a basic online classroom. It allows you to create lessons, quizzes, and course outlines directly inside WordPress. Each course can be sold individually, with learners enrolling and paying through built-in payment options like PayPal or Stripe.

Best for:
Creators who want to start small, focusing on one course at a time. There’s no need to manage memberships, product catalogs, or multiple pricing tiers.

Key benefits:

• Completely free once WordPress is installed.

• Simple drag-and-drop interface for lessons and quizzes.

• Integrated checkout for easy course sales.

• Scalable — you can add additional courses later.

Limitations:
LearnPress is great for single-course or small catalog sites, but it’s not built for complex subscription models or bundled content access.

Option B: Courses + eCommerce Store (LearnPress + WooCommerce)

This option builds on the first by adding WooCommerce — a full-featured eCommerce system — to handle more advanced sales scenarios.

How it works:
You’ll still use LearnPress for course delivery and student progress tracking, but WooCommerce will manage your checkout, inventory, taxes, and shipping. This setup allows you to sell not just courses, but also digital downloads, books, physical kits, or any other complementary products.

Best for:
Creators who want to grow their brand beyond courses — for example, offering a course plus a workbook, a physical book, or digital downloads.

Key benefits:

• Combines learning management and eCommerce seamlessly.

• WooCommerce provides professional-grade checkout and payment options.

• You can sell multiple product types (courses, books, downloads) from one dashboard.

• Both plugins are free, so you can test and build without upfront software costs.

Limitations:
While still beginner-friendly, WooCommerce adds more configuration screens (tax, shipping, product setup). Expect a bit of a learning curve, but plenty of tutorials are available.

Option C: Membership or Subscription Site (WP Courseware + WooCommerce + Paid Memberships Pro)

This is the most advanced setup and designed for creators who want to offer ongoing access — such as a monthly or yearly subscription that includes courses, downloads, or exclusive content.

How it works:
In this setup, WooCommerce still handles payments and checkout, but WP Courseware replaces LearnPress as your LMS. Unlike LearnPress, WP Courseware integrates with membership plugins like Paid Memberships Pro, allowing you to control access based on a member’s subscription level.

For example, members at Tier 1 might get access to one course and a few downloads, while Tier 2 members get access to all courses and a private community.

Best for:
Creators planning to build a recurring revenue model through memberships, bundles, or a content library that grows over time.

Key benefits:

• True membership control with flexible access rules.

• Works well for multi-course libraries or subscription-based education.

• Supports ongoing billing through WooCommerce or Paid Memberships Pro.

• Professional-level LMS tools like progress tracking, certificates, and drip content.

Limitations:
This setup costs more and takes more time to plan. Membership sites require structured organization — courses, member levels, pricing plans, and user flows all need to be mapped out carefully.

Summary

Option A – Simple Course Site

• Use Case: Selling individual courses only

• Plugin Name(s): LearnPress

• Ease of Use: Beginner-friendly

• Cost of Plugin(s): Free

Option B – Simple Course Site with eCommerce

• Use Case: Selling courses plus digital or physical products

• Plugin Name(s): LearnPress, WooCommerce

• Ease of Use: Beginner to Intermediate

• Cost of Plugin(s): Free

Option C – Complex Membership Site for Courses and eCommerce

• Use Case: Subscription or membership site with bundled content access

• Plugin Name(s): WP Courseware, WooCommerce, Paid Memberships Pro

• Ease of Use: Intermediate (requires structured setup)

• Cost of Plugin(s): WP Courseware ~$300/year; Paid Memberships Pro core free, paid add-ons optional