The site needs to be more user-friendly and systemized than a blog, locked to anyone except those who are given access to more than just the homepage. Any tips of providers to start with would be great.
There are many routes you could take this with different membership plugins or subscription based plugins which would accomplish what you are looking to do. However, the best starting point for you is probably using an LMS (Learning Management System) plugin or theme. An LMS will provide everything you need out of the box and will be scalable for your future needs as you develop more courses, integrate quizzing or surveys, award badges or certificates, etc.
The LMS will integrate the membership or subscription tools you'd find in those plugins with all the other tools you'll need to create your coaching course.
Let me know if you want to dive in more.
Wordpress has thousands of templates you can purchase which all you need to do is upload your logo, fill out the blanks and insert your videos or blogs. Here is one our sales guy put together, and trust me they have NO development or html skills at all. THis cost us $55 >>> www.dealztap.com. Check it out.
You might want to consider using a different platform than Wordpress. I would highly recommend teachable.com the platform will help you get online much faster than Wordpress and its functionality is specifically created for online courses.
Rather than an LMS (learning management system), which may have more features or be more complex than you need, you can also consider a membership plugin. This will serve to lock the content from non-members and allow you to setup different levels of access. The plugin will also allow you to drip content instead of providing access to everything at once (for example, they access X on Day 1, Y on Day 3, Z on Day 5, etc).
But if you want to quiz and test your clients, then you should definitely go for an LMS instead.
I have been doing exact this for several years now.
The right word is wordpress based 'Membership sites' There are several option available in the market today. Choose the one which has a solid support, enough integration with various tools, payment gateways etc.
We've used and created a number of stock WordPress themes that use LMS plugins. My favorite is LearnDash, which I feel is very solid and offers lots of functionality and features.
We used LearnDash on our own course site at https://www.diyseocourses.com. You can see an example of the LearnDash course page at https://www.diyseocourses.com/courses/online-seo-training/.
Our installation of LearnDash uses WooCommerce to sell the membership, however, our stock themes have been built using WooCommerce and iThemes Exchange. Both work great for integration and I've been very happy with all three plugins.
Actually there is a site called the http://www.themembershipguys.com/
They have a lot of advice.
As far as starting a membership site, you can integrate the wordpress Buddypress plug-in with woocommerce or another payment provider. As far as templates, there are a lot out there for membership sites. Without knowing EXACTLY what type of site and more specifics I can't give you a specfic recommendation.
If you'd like, we can schedule a time to chat, and I can get more of a feel for exactly what you're looking for and give you a more targeted recommendation and plan on how to get started. https://clarity.fm/account
There are several great Wordpress plugins that offer capabilities for having a course membership site where your contents are organized: Wishlist Member, Optimize Press, Member Press, Zippy Courses (there are many more!). I'm also a fan of 3rd party hosted course platforms like Thinkific, Teachable, and Ruzuku. The number one question I ask when searching for the right course platform is, "What will the user experience be like for my students?" I look for something that has an intuitive user interface and allows the student flexibility in navigation. There are several factors to take into consideration but that is a start. Good luck!
