How many of us are using our holiday vaca to use FCom to build a side-hustle business project?
I am doing just that myself. I work a full time career job so I have to squeeze in coding or content creation at lunch or evenings. Very slow. I just finished 2 vaca days so far and have made incredible progress on my online community site.
I have built lots of WordPress based projects, often using my own PHP plugins, sometimes snippets, and things like Crocoblock jetengine, paidmembershippro, learndash, etc... But I have taken a whole other approach on this project - Fluent!
- I have a VPS, with CloudPanel loaded on it (a great open source server/app control system). CloudPanel lets you get into the DB tables, see error logs, change your PHP version, etc. REALLY nice.
- WP of course (love Open Source!)
- FluentCommunity - I love how responsive and fast it is. Excellent dev work. I bought the pro for a year.
- FluentCart - I bought the lifetime but haven't used it yet, but it will be my paywall in the future.
- FluentSMTP - wow, my first exposure to the fluent lineup, I used this months back on a couple sites. Free and easy to use.
- FluentSnippets - Free and has replaced my Code Snippets use. I love how it works. Very well done. I have all my functions in it, mostly stuff to mod FCom a bit, as well as for my automations.
- FluentCRM - will start on Free for now
- FluentAuth - I believe only a free exists? I hope to replace Magic Login (nice product) soon.
- FluentBoards - I am a Kanban type person, haven't activated it yet. Might go for the paid pro to get the calendar later. Looks useful for content planning.
- FluentForms - Free version, haven't activated it yet - but looks like it could replace my usual JetFormBuilder. I will report back. I think free will work as I am using FluentCart for $$$ stuff.
- UpDraftPlus - all my sites use the pro version, gotta have a rock solid backup solution.
- MainWP child plugin - I use MainWP which you use on a "mother ship" type domain/site, and all your "child" sites talk to it - you can update and backup from it. Has integrations to lots of other plugins, like UpDraftPlus.
- FlowMattic - OK, I just started using this because I read about it on a fluent site... it has integrations (albeit not everything yet) to FCom and it has really been great. I am using the Table feature to store things like posts and images I want to automate. So far it has worked great, and my functions are able to tap into the coding as seen in the dev docs. (between this forum and 2 support tickets I have managed to get my maps automatically into posts in a dedicated space!). Got a black Friday on the 1 year (for 2 sites), BUT I keep pulling up the lifetime. Flowmattic is VERY similar to Microsoft Power Automate we often use at work. Maybe even better.
- Theme - I almost always use my GeneratePress pro as my go-to theme. But inn this case I am using 2025 LOL, That is because 98% of my system is inside the community. I don't use the /Portal URL, instead switched my "home page" to the community itself. I am using the AMAZINGLY smart "Fluent Community Page Template" systems. It ROCKS! seriously saved me from a lot of hacking. With that, I have some WP Pages set up to appear inside the community. So as you see, I will not have any pages opening external to the FCom GUI.
- I also use Castos (podcasts), YouTube, Vimeo pro, and mostly open source tools on my Chromebook. I work on MS at my real job but decided long ago to stay Google and open source for there side hustle stuff.
I thought I would share my stack, in case it helps anyone else out in the same boat.
Bottom line advice: Be patient with yourself, be patient with the devs on this new line of plugins as they evolve it, be open source with by helping each other, and don't give up. You can do whatever you set your sights on.
I hope to be able to share my website soon, but want it a bit more setup first.
I wish everyone who is a developer on this project a happy holidays! I know you will have a new version soon, but I hope you get some vaca as well :)
Happy Holidays everyone,
Jamie
PS Love to hear in the comments what you are using and any learnings so far :)
5 years ago, none of that wold have made sense ! Now, after the pain of trial and error; thankyou thats awesome and appreciated
Jamie Robe That's interesting Jamie. If you are open, we sure want to have a look at your customized community.
I'm enjoying a peaceful day off, but I admit that I'm also doing some planning for one of my community sites.
Like you, I'm using many WP Manage Ninja products in my tech stack. Kadence works for me as a theme and the blocks. I'm using xCloud VPS for my hosting. Cloudflare DNS and WAF, TeamUpdraft, and Bunny Streaming for lesson hosting.
I have the Pro products where available.
I'm not planning on using Flowmattic or similar tools, though.
I’ve been mapping out the curriculum for my upcoming project, and I want to share the logic behind the specific tech stack we’ll be using.
We are currently living in the era of "Subscription Fatigue."
Small businesses are bleeding money. You pay $99/mo for a CRM, $15/mo for a calendar, $50/mo for a help desk, and another $30/mo for Zapier just to make them talk to each other. It’s death by a thousand cuts. Worst of all, you are renting your business. If you stop paying, your data disappears.
The alternative of building it yourself on WordPress used to be scary. It was often a mess of 50 disconnected plugins that slowed down your site and conflicted with each other.
That changes now. This is why I chose the stack I'm using.
For this roadmap, I standardized on the WP Manage Ninja ecosystem (FluentCRM, FluentBooking, FluentSupport, FluentForms).
Here is why:
1. Integration over "Glue" Most people try to mix and match. They use Gravity Forms for leads, Calendly for booking, and Mailchimp for emails. To make that work, you need "glue" plugins or expensive Zapier subscriptions. With my stack, the integration is native. The booking tool talks directly to the CRM. The support desk has access to the customer's purchase history. There is no API friction. It just works.
2. The "Nickel and Dime" Defense I like tools like Gravity Forms, but to build a business with them, you need the Elite license plus third-party add-ons. By the time you are done, you might as well have paid for a SaaS. I chose the Fluent stack because it follows an "All-In" philosophy. You don't pay extra for features you need. We are building a business, not buying DLC for a video game.
3. Infrastructure: The Ferrari Engine We aren't just installing plugins; we are fixing the engine. Most of you are paying for servers with 4GB of RAM, yet your WordPress install is throttled to use only 64MB. It’s like buying a Ferrari and putting a governor on the engine, so it can’t go over 20mph. We are going to unlock that. We are also moving security to the "Edge" using Cloudflare. Instead of bogging down your site with heavy security plugins that scan traffic on your dime, we will block attacks before they even touch your server.
The Goal: A business platform that costs 90% less than the SaaS equivalent, runs faster, and keeps you in total control of your data.
This isn't just about saving money. It's about owning the machine.
just an update on progress... during my vaca from work :)
My site is really coming together. I can report that working with fluentcommunity has nice flow to it. there are things that I wanted to do, and so far 95% were solved in a day or so each with FluentSnippets, Flowmattic, and/or CSS. This forum here is invaluable with a good user response (thanks everyone) and the official support tickets have yielded helpful info as well.
I modified my stack just a tiny bit:
- FluentAuth - I installed it and so far so good. For a free only plugin it has a lot of useful features. A bonus is the scanner that watches for any unwanted changes to the WP core files. Thanks to the great dev work :) Bottom line for me is that it will replace my other login plugins on future projects.
- FluentCRM - I ended up subscribing for a the pro version for a year. The discount was too good. I am just starting a bit with the automations, using Access Managementt vis FCRM tags. The free might have worked for what I need to do, but I thought I would support the Fluent team getting the pro.
- FluentForms - I was only going to use the free version, but again the deal for a year was so good, I just subscribed to pro as well. Again, these devs are really good and I want this company to succeed.
I continue for the next few days on this site build-out, so I can soft launch and do some beta testing early January.
Peace and Happy New year,
Jamie
Jamie Robe Be happy you bought fluentCRM Pro. It has more triggers/actions you can use vs. the free model.