a live-build conference session at WordCamp Hamilton 2016 that ships a complete WordPress membership site — front-end, restricted content, pay-to-download digital products, and a working payment gateway — in 30 minutes flat, for $30 in tooling. The full session is on WordPress.tv. The same talk was delivered at WordCamps Buffalo, Maine, and Ottawa that same year; this Hamilton version is the recorded one.
Where and when
- Event: WordCamp Hamilton 2016
- Date: Friday, June 24, 2016
- City: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Format: 30-minute live build with stopwatch
Watch the talk
What the session built
From the published WordPress.tv abstract:
“a half hour of nonstop fun, showing how to build a complete membership powered website for $30 in just 30 minutes. at the end, you’ll have: a WordPress powered website; restricted, membership only content; pay to download digital content; a payment gateway. This one’s a lot of fun, I like to have a stopwatch running to see if I can get it all done in less than 30 minutes with plenty of time left for the inevitable questions.”
What I’d say differently today
The membership management tool I used in the 2016 build is the first thing I’d swap. The 2026 landscape has excellent purpose-built tools designed specifically for this — but I’d also seriously consider a custom solution instead, where the trade-off in setup time buys you a lot more flexibility down the road.
Other deliveries of this talk
- WordCamp Buffalo 2016 — same talk, april 30 in Buffalo
- WordCamp Maine 2016 — same talk, May 13–14 in Portland, Maine
- WordCamp Ottawa 2016 — same talk, June 18 in Ottawa
Related work
- Working with the speaker: WordPress services · Get in touch
