This is important because you want to make sure that every course, every route on your website is configured properly before making it live. This will help to avoid bad situations like going live with a course … only to realize hours later that no one can access the course content, and now you have hundreds of unhappy customers, when you could have caught the setup error by running a simple test user through the flow first.
Even the smallest mistake in a CRM automation or permission tagging can make a huge impact on your site.
ARTICLE CONTENT:
Choose Your Testing Method
There are two different ways to test your site, and you’ll want to use both.
Method 1: Change Your Admin User to “All Access”
This method gives your admin user the ability to view all pages of the site, regardless of what tags are assigned where.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Log in as your WordPress Admin account
- Go to WordPress – Users and search for your admin user.
- Edit the user. Towards the end, there is a checkbox to give the user All-Access. Check this box and click “save”.
Method 2 (Recommended): Create a test user
Using this method is the best option for testing your completed course to test your automation, tags, and emails. Note that you’ll want to walk through the same process your users will walk through when they decide to opt in and/or purchase your offering(s).
Use the tutorial below to create a test user to use for testing:
- Set up your opt in form (or order form) and make sure that it’s set to automatically create a user on your WordPress membership site
- Use a variation of a testing Gmail email address. For example, if your name is name@gmail.com, there are an endless number of variations by following this format: name+1@gmail.com (see additional details on email variations below)
- Test the new user in an incognito browser on Chrome or a private browser in Firefox
- Navigate to the members site and use the login information that was emailed to your test email address, or the Snappy Login Links™ link.
- name+1@gmail.com
- Name+2@gmail.com
- name+3@gmail.com
- name+goldmembership@gmail.com
- name+basicmembership@gmail.com
- name+DIYcourse@gmail.com
- Did you submit the opt-in form?
- Is the email address saved in the CRM?
- Were the right permission tags added?
- Was this information synced with AccessAlly (via a webhook for Infusionsoft, Ontraport, Drip, Keap, and ActiveCampaign users or via the tag you use to trigger your webhook for ConvertKit users)?
- Did the email confirmation go through successfully?
- Did you make a test purchase with your order form?
- Is the email address saved in the CRM?
- Were the right permission tags added?
- Was this information synced with AccessAlly (via a webhook)?
- Did the email confirmation go through successfully?
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be able to experience your membership site just as your new users will.
Note if you’re looking to test your online course or membership’s site sign up method, you can find that tutorial here.
How to Create Unlimited User Email Variations for Testing
Each user has to have its own unique email address, which can get confusing when you have to create a lot of different test users. Fortunately, you can create unlimited variations from a single GMAIL address:
Example email: name@gmail.com
Variations:
However, to make it easier to know what portion of the site you’re testing, you can get more descriptive with your email name variations, like:
Test All Opt-Ins
The first thing to test are the opt-ins you’ve set up on your site. Each time you opt-in, you’ll want to use a different email address.
Test All Order Forms
Next, you’ll want to test any order forms that are set up on your site. To do this, please follow this tutorial: How to Test Your Order Forms with Stripe or PayPal
Test Your Online Courses and Automations
This phase of testing should happen naturally, as you test the opt-ins and order forms. Some main things to look for include:
Free Course
Paid Course
