Build a gated content website with Webflow with no software engineering experience

What is it:

Recruit-HQ is a platform for current and former NCAA student-athletes to share their experiences competing for their athletic programs—the goal is that the platform will help better inform high school athletes and their families about what it's really like to compete in a specific sport at a specific school.

The whole recruiting process remains at best, confusing and complex, and at its worst, completely overwhelming for most families. We're trying to help alleviate some of that by providing unique insights (student-athlete reviews) and basic tools (roster search), giving families a few extra data points and a place to start."

Maker Insight:

That it's really not necessary to have a software engineering degree to build something that is 100% automated—it will sound cliché but I really did learn that anything is possible and any limits I feel that I have are more than likely self-imposed.

Second to that, I would say learning how to interact with APIs was a game changer for me, so powerful! Just that one ability can be applied to so many different projects and unlock endless possibilities.

What did I learn:

1. Using jetboost.io

Tessa uses Jetboost.io to help search and filter review information. What I like about the product design is that it is the most important action requires sign up. This is a great way to activate a user to sign up. Tessa is using Memberstack for signup.

What I think would help foster more sign ups, or would be worth testing is having a few of those reviews on the main page before sign up to show the value of those reviews.

Tessa provides some insightful wisdom on implementing this tool:

"Implementing jetboost.io into my Webflow site was actually pretty straightforward and not that difficult to setup, I think the filtering took the better part of a weekend to implement—it’s the type of thing that takes a bit of getting used to, but once to implement it once it really becomes easier with each new filter added."

2. Notes on using Typeform. Why did Tessa use it?
In the app, Tessa used Typeform to capture any reviews submitted by users.

"Webflow forms can’t auto-populate a given CMS collection yet, had that option been available I probably would have done it, I know that you can use Zapier as an intermediary, and that’s what I might transition to in the next few months
I had a extended free trial with Typeform, so that helped
I really like the Typeform summaries and the ability to see where respondents are dropping off from completing the survey, that helped a lot in the beginning and the summaries help a lot now as I can easily reference how many reviews we have for each sport, division, school etc.
The ability to do logic jumps was also key, for instance if you select that you competed in Division II, you will automatically be taken to the segmented list of Division II schools to select your college/university instead of just having a giant list of 1100+ schools"

Thats a really helpful insight with using Typeform and what Webflow lacks with their forms.

Typeform is a very highly recommended tool within Side Project Stack. Its the foundation of what I use in many of my projects that require any type of customization that I want to add because you can easily create logic jumps and score answers for a user. Which means that Typeform has an API that you can connect with Zapier to Airtable and using that data and score then deliver an automated response.

Another way you can use this is a creating a quiz with Typeform for your project is an excellent way to generate leads and provide value up front establishing trust with you or your brand.

3. Feature Roster Search - In this product you can search rosters easily through a search and filter system. It's a great feature because its a clear way to monetize. Tessa uses Memberstack to allow access to certain pages based on purchase. On these pages powered by Jetboost you can easily filter by position or other criteria to help find openings in roster spots.

What I think is really well done is the demo video that shows exactly how the roster search works. This is helpful as user by reducing the risk in the customers mind before making a purchase. Removing that is a great way to move a customer towards purchase.

It appears that the Roster search is created with Pory. I would recommend that if you are looking to create a searchable list quickly, Pori.io is a great starter no-code tool to get started with.