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Creator Justin Welsh reports he earns $169K a month in revenue and spends less than 1% of that on a no-code tech stack to run his business.

The founder of Saturday Solopreneur produces a free weekly newsletter with one actionable tip on revenue and audience growth that has over 60K subscribers. He also sells online courses at $150 each (over 8.3K students) and newsletter sponsorships ($1.25K each). 

True to his content tilt, Justin is a solopreneur who only contracts 20 hours a month for a virtual assistant.

So how does he do all that with tech that doesn’t require an expert to run? Justin shared all his tools in a recent Twitter thread. It’s a great motivator and helpful insight. (If you want to share your tech stack or individual tools, let me know (ann@TheTilt.com).

For those of you just starting out in your content-first business and may not have $623 a month to spend, Justin started out his operations with a $19 website through Carrd. Also, some of the tools he suggests are free or have lower-cost alternatives.

Here’s what Justin had to say and the graphics he shared:

Website (and more) no-code tools

Kajabi

Kajabi makes my life very easy. It bundles my website, landing pages, email provider, forms, customer CRM, and courses together. It’s truly a great tool for the cost.

Cost: $399/month

Note: Justin says Kajabi has a big learning curve, but it’s worth it once you understand it though.

Payments

Stripe

Stripe connects directly to Kajabi, so it’s easy to take payments. I get paid out every weekday, so I’m not held hostage while a company holds my money for interest.

Cost: 2.9% + $.30 per sale

Note: Some Twitter peeps suggested Justin should negotiate this rate, given the large volume of transactions he does.

Social publishing

Hypefury

I use Hypefury for social posting because it’s flexible and powerful: auto-retweets, auto-plug my newsletter, auto-unretweet, mass DMing, send to LinkedIn, inspiration templates, etc. Super powerful publishing tool. 

Cost: $49/month

Note: The automated unretweet feature deletes the retweets you make after 24 hours to keep your timeline clean, according to Hypefury. 

Newsletter template

Typeshare

To produce a high-quality newsletter, I need templates to riff off of. Typeshare helps me draft my newsletter in 45 minutes by providing a number of templates to help. Built by digital writers for digital writers. 

Cost: $20/month

Web analytics

Fathom

I find Google Analytics to be difficult to use and understand. That’s OK because Fathom Analytics is amazing. It takes less than two minutes to set up and gives me all of the analytics I need in one simple dashboard. 

Cost: $24/month

LinkedIn analytics and more

Shield

Shield is way more than just LinkedIn analytics. It’s the perfect tool for repurposing, saving old posts, and truly understanding what’s working. With 245K+ followers, it’s a must for me.

Cost: $16/month

Testimonials

Testimonial

Damon Chen has built a unique testimonial tool. I embed it inside of my courses and let users record videos or write a text (a) testimonial. With one click, the testimonial gets approved and automatically added to my landing page. 

Cost: $60/month

Business CRM

Notion

The complete hub of my entire creative business: company roadmap, daily/weekly to-do, complete content system, networking and connections, etc. It literally keeps me organized, unlike anything else. 

Cost: $10/month

Scheduling

Calendly

There are many scheduling apps on the market, but Calendly still does the trick. Simple availability blocking, custom events, payments, routing, reminders, etc. It’s the easiest way to get out of back-and-forth scheduling. 

Cost: $15/month

Course recording

Loom

Forget complicated, expensive setups for recording my courses. I simply install the Loom plugin, open up my presentation and get creating. This has saved me a ton of money and time when building out my video courses. 

Cost: free

Custom integrations

Zapier

To connect any tools that don’t work together, I use Zapier. Hell, sometimes I just sit around and dream about what automation I can build. For all of the sticks that I have, this is the glue. 

Cost: $30/month

A big thanks to Justin for sharing his creator no-code tech stack and his helpful Saturday Solopreneur tips. If you have a tool or stack to recommend, let me know (ann@TheTilt.com) or tag @TheTiltNews on Twitter. And be sure to check out The Tilt’s Tech Stack.

About the author

Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. An IABC Communicator of the Year and founder of G Force Communication, Ann coaches and trains professionals in all things content. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.