The Rainmaker Platform is a complete online turn-key solution from Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger Media) for entrepreneurs who are seeking a WordPress-based platform with a lot of out-of-the-box functionality for online commerce – such as a landing page designer, course builder, membership area, and checkout workflow.

Summer 2017 Update: The Rainmaker Platform software application is currently closed for new customers.

Is Rainmaker Right for You?

As is the case for any software application, it depends on your online business goals and preferences.

Think of the Rainmaker Platform like owning a fully-furnished vacation home or condo that includes all maintenance, security and cleaning services. It’s not inexpensive real estate, but it does offer peace of mind so that you can focus on a great vacation experience for you and your guests.

Your property, whether we are talking about real estate or a website, can also grow significantly in value over time if operated professionally.

Rainmaker Platform Review

If the thought of patching together multiple pieces of technology (aka WordPress plugins) – and then testing security patches for those plugins on a regular basis – would keep you up at night, Rainmaker is worth trying out for free.

Consider what is included with Rainmaker (and this isn’t everything):

A library of professional StudioPress themes to use.
Top-notch secure hosting for your managed WordPress website.
SSL certification for secure customer navigation and transactions on your site.
Unique WordPress interface that is relatively easy to navigate and operate (especially for entrepreneurs who have not used the native WordPress dashboard).
All technical maintenance for WordPress updates and built-in plugins.
Integrated Learning Management System (LMS) for online courses.
Members-only features for your customers (e.g. access to digital downloads and courses).
Landing Page creator (here’s why landing pages are important).
Fully integrated email marketing (works seamlessly with AWeber, Constant Contact, ConvertKit (what I use and recommend – here’s why), MailChimp, and Infusionsoft. Rainmaker also now has its own integrated mail service called RainMail that is free for Rainmaker customers for up to 999 unique emails on your mailing list.)
An extensive library of marketing and how-to resources to build your platform.
Exclusive access to an online community of other Rainmaker users. This is a great forum to ask questions.
Friendly and helpful customer support if you ever get stuck. Just submit a support ticket from your Rainmaker dashboard.

Customers can give Rainmaker a test drive for 14 days. After that, the complete professional package is $145 – $165 per month (subject to change). If you add up all the costs of running a website (e.g. software, WordPress hosting, email marketing, landing pages), it can actually be a significants savings for your small business.

If you are planning to offer online courses, then you can really come out ahead financially because Rainmaker has that covered too with its own integrated Learning Management System (LMS).

Most reputable LMS software services like Teachable.com, Thinkific.com and NewKajabi.com will run you at least $100/month for their professional plans. With Rainmaker, your customers never have to leave your site for a consistent and integrated experience and it is included in your account.

10 Benefits of the Rainmaker Platform

Secure website hosting and performance.
Design tools to create and modify a WordPress website that looks equally great on computer screens and mobile devices.
Content creation tools for text, audio, video, and graphical messages.
Search engine optimization recommendations (through the proprietary Scribe Content software – now called Content Optimizer). This feature is big (I once paid $47/month just for this SEO software).
Lead generation tools via email integration and membership pages.
Easy to access metrics about your site’s business performance.
Extensive library of marketing webinars to build your business.
SSL Certificate included for secure payment transactions with customers (another cost saving with Rainmaker).
Integrated Learning Management System (LMS) to host your own online courses.
Landing page creator for sales pages, opt-ins, and call to action opportunities. You can even set your Rainmaker site to display your own custom landing page while your site is being developed or under maintenance.

Lesson Learned

This site called Graceful Resources runs on the Rainmaker Platform and is the fifth WordPress site I’ve designed for my own online business. I now professionally design and integrate sites for clients. Over the past nine years, I’ve learned a lot about setting up and maintaining business and community websites (and always learning something new every week!)

It’s a rewarding experience to do-it-yourself, but it is also brutally time-consuming. The online rules of engagement continue to change and you are forced to learn something new technically-speaking almost every week. It can be very hard work and frustrating.

The Rainmaker Platform launched publicly in 2014, and I now highly recommend it for clients and prefer to use Rainmaker (over native WordPress) when setting up their sites for long-term growth and impact. When I hand over the keys to clients on a new site, Rainmaker makes the transition much easier because the technology side of things isn’t as cumbersome as it is with a self-hosted WordPress site.

Discover More About Our Project Work

Is the Rainmaker Platform Right for You?

Rainmaker was created by Rainmaker Digital (the same team behind the industry-recognized StudioPress Genesis framework and child themes, and the Authority content marketing training).

There is still a lot to be learned about blogging, content creation, product development and online marketing. Thankfully, Rainmaker allows customers to focus more on that business learning curve, and not on the technical one.

Give Rainmaker a Try

If you are the fence about Rainmaker, I encourage you to give it a try for two weeks for free so that you can make an informed decision.

This site runs on Rainmaker so I am a customer too. I trust it for my long-term growth and I think you will too.

Savings Opportunity

If you prepay for a year of Rainmaker (click here to get started), you receive almost two months free of charge per year.

Full Transparency

Graceful Resources has an affiliate relationship with Rainmaker so if you decide to invest in Rainmaker via this link (or any of the Rainmaker links in this post), your use of this affiliate link helps support the growth of Graceful Resources. There is no extra cost to you.

If you start using Rainmaker, you are encouraged to set up an affiliate relationship with them as well. You’ll want to spread the word too. The software is that good, and I would use and recommend Rainmaker even if there was no affiliate program. But simply one referral per month will cover your software cost of this powerful platform.

Do you have other questions about Rainmaker?

Please let me know via response to the free Graceful Resources weekly email or my contact form. I am here to help.

If you end up building your website through Rainmaker via this affiliate link, please drop me a note. I am happy to take a look at your new site and to offer you free feedback to help grow your online business operation.

Cheering for your online success – one project step at a time!

Brent

I just returned home to Virginia from a trip out west to Denver, Colorado for the 2016 Digital Commerce Summit. The Summit was hosted by Rainmaker Digital (formerly known as Copyblogger Media). This is the same company behind the Rainmaker software platform I use for this website.

The 2-day conference at the old Paramount Theatre in Denver was well organized. As a technology project manager by trade, I have a big heart for events that communicate and stick to a daily schedule from start to finish.

There were also several social opportunities to “work the room” each evening, but I will confess that I’m terribly shy in a crowd of strangers (even with a shared interest) so that aspect of the event was admittedly difficult for me.

But I’m a better person from the overall experience.

I also arrived a day early in Denver to participate in a workshop on developing online courses.

One of my intentions with Graceful Resources is to offer online classes for entrepreneurs that outline easy-to-follow actionable steps for web/email design, setup, and integration.

If technology is not really your thing, then you are my target audience! 🙂

I now have a journal full of notes from the event, but let me start with my four main lessons learned and then follow with more conference insights via this blog (click here to stay connected to my upcoming posts and announcements).

4 Lessons Learned from the Digital Commerce Summit

Lesson Learned #1: Rainmaker Digital Team is Made Up of Good People

In Denver, I got a chance to meet members of the Rainmaker Digital leadership and support team and the experience reinforced my trust in Rainmaker (the company and the product). They were approachable, friendly, and sincere. As someone who has been burned by software developers and so-called marketing experts in the past, I believe the right people are more important than the right solutions.

Yes, good software (and hardware) is critical in today’s digital economy, but don’t underestimate the value of people you can trust. If interested, here are 9 more reasons I use and recommend Rainmaker for my online business.

Lesson Learned #2: Email is Still King for Online Commerce

As a Gen-X professional, I’m hopelessly addicted to email and I assumed Gen X’ers (ages 35-50 as of 2015) and Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) were the last generations to actually use email on a daily basis. Wrong.

Millennials may be more social media savvy than my generation, but there are also habitually reliant on email in their professional and social lives. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur like me (whether part-time or full-time), you have to build your email list every day through your website (as outlined in this earlier post I wrote).

By the way, millennials (ages 18-34) are now the largest living generation in the U.S.

Lesson Learned #3: Conversions Occur Primarily on Mobile Devices

If you are planning to sell new digital products online (like an online course) to people who would benefit from your knowledge and approach to solving problems, the conversion of a business lead to a paying consumer will likely occur over a mobile device.

Any conversion process takes time, and all generations today are using their phones and tablets to first exchange information via email, blogs, podcasts, and social media communities (plus countless messaging apps).

That being said, it is imperative that your initial online content and conversations are “mobile friendly” (especially your website). If not, someone else with similar authority to you may win the trust of your audience simply out of convenience.

Lesson Learned #4: Content Marketing is Critical for Your Success

Content marketing is a bit of a buzz term, but according to Copyblogger, it means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.

In other words, it means choosing your online messages strategically. There is an art and science to content marketing (especially the use of buyers’ emotional triggers like scarcity – we buy more because of the fear of missing out).

Online content marketing is often in written form (e.g. blogs and emails), verbal form (e.g. podcasts and webinars), and visual form (e.g. online videos and infographics).

Good content marketing doesn’t happen overnight for any of us just because we have something to sell. Like anything worth pursuing, it takes practice and coaching. And your own blog is great place to practice (see also 3 Benefits of Blogging).

In my next journal entry, I plan to share a new post titled “3 Content Marketing Suggestions from an Expert Blogger“. It will be based on insights from one of the Digital Commerce Summit guest speakers Kevan Lee. Kevan is the director of marketing for Buffer, a popular social media publishing tool for brands, agencies, and marketers.

4 Lessons Learned from the Digital Commerce Summit

So in summary, here are my main lessons learned from the October 2016 event in Denver:

Rainmaker Digital Team is Made Up of Good People
Email is Still King for Online Commerce
Conversions Occur Primarily on Mobile Devices
Content Marketing is Critical to Your Success

These lessons may align with your experience and research as well.

Hope this helps,
Brent

FREE QUICK REFERENCE TECH GUIDE (click here): Discover the Graceful Resources I use and recommend for websites, including the reasons why, plus the mistakes to avoid when starting out in digital commerce.

Please let me know if you have any questions via my contact form or in direct response to my free Graceful Journal email mailing list.

I’m here to take away the pain of figuring out how to use new web technologies so you can gracefully profit online from your passion in life.