Playbook

The course

A creator selling one course, with a workbook and a community around it.

A course is the purest single-product funnel: nothing to ship, nothing to stock, one decision. It is also where a cart is most obviously in the way.

No shipping, no shipping tax

Mark the course and the workbook as not needing delivery and the checkout carries no shipping line at all. There is nothing to deliver, so there is nothing to tax as delivery — the tests that prove it are the ones the plugin ships with.

The bump is the workbook

A workbook, a template pack, a transcript bundle: something that obviously belongs with the course, at a price that reads as a deal beside it. Ticked beside the pay button, added as a line, one charge. On a digital product the bump’s margin is close to a hundred percent, and Reports will show it.

Getting the buyer in

The thank-you page is a WordPress page with the receipt block on it. Put the access link, the login instructions or the embed beside the receipt; that is where the buyer is looking. If your course platform can enrol from an email address, the order’s email is what to send it.

The subscription

On Grow, offer the community or the monthly office hours as a subscription upsell after payment. On Stripe it is one click: accepting charges the saved card and starts the subscription through Stripe Billing. On PayPal it is two: the buyer approves a PayPal subscription in PayPal’s window. Either way every renewal becomes an order, and declining costs nothing.

Digital goods and tax

Selling digital products across borders is its own subject. The digital tax class exists so a rate table can treat it differently from physical goods; what the rate is, and where you are obliged to register, is a question for your accountant, not your plugin.

The steps

Create the course as a product: one price, the digital tax class, and This product needs delivering left off. There is no shipping line and no shipping tax on an all-digital order.
Create the workbook at a small price, digital class, no delivery. Attach it to the checkout as the bump.
Create a funnel for the course. Write the landing page in your editor — the sales page is yours; Cartless puts nothing on it.
On the thank-you page, beside the receipt, put the access instructions or the link into your course platform. The receipt block renders the order; the rest of the page is an ordinary page.
On Grow: attach the community membership as a subscription upsell, offered after payment: one click on Stripe, charged to the card already used, or an approval in PayPal's window on PayPal; every renewal becomes an order.
Pay with a test card and confirm the order summary shows no shipping line.

Uses

Digital tax class
No shipping line
Order bump
Subscription upsell (Pro)
Receipts (Pro)

See it on the demo