Hello there!👋🏼
Welcome to Airtable Wiz use-case series, where we’re showcasing real life products using Airtable-Stack.
This is not a guide or tutorial, but an overview of a product created using the Airtable. If you like what you see, read until the end to learn more.
There will be two setups for this use case. I’m going to start with the Minimalist Setup. A setup that you can build and launch immediately.
The Pain
You want a quick solution to let people pay to join your community, whether it’s BTS fan club, a cult, a mastermind group, and more. Not too complex, or expensive with no platform fees — straight to your Stripe account.
The Workflow
Get rid of the flowery stuff, and get straight to the application form and payment gateway.
The Tools’ Setup
Set up Airtable
Disclaimer: In the case of strict vetting process, you might want to add more questions like; “Why do you want to join [fill-in-the-blank]?” or “Write an essay of your [fill-in-the-blank] journey?”, etc.
Here’s my minimalist Airtable setup. I can always go back to add more once they joined.
Set up Airtable Form
When somebody submits an application, you will receive an email like this.
Set up payment gateway — Stripe
Go to https://stripe.com/ and register (if you haven’t).
From “Home”, click “Start →” under “Share a payment link” as shown below.
Once you’ve set up your product and price (refer to Stripe’s documentation),
→ Click on “Create Link” at the top right of the page.
On the next page, click “Copy” to copy your payment link.
Congrats! You can now ask anybody to pay you protection money! Hooray!🎉
Set up Airtable Automations
Now that is done, time to send that link to your awaiting members.
The process is too long to be written here. So, here’s a quick video on how I created the automations: vimeo.
The email should be like this.
Other purposes
Similarly, you can automate the emails to:
- Share the Discord or Slack private link to new members.
- Inform the rejected applicants.
- Send reminders to pay subscriptions.
You can also repurpose this template for other programs like:
- Scholarship programs
- Charity/donation drives
- Event management
- Rental/property trackers
- And more…
You can use other payment platforms like Paypal, not just Stripe.
I’m not too sure about others, but as long as they have payment links, then it should be fine.👍🏼
The Challenges
Since the focus is to pay as minimally as possible, there will be limitations.
The “Send email” option can only be limited to verified emails (Free plan).
But you can use Gmail integration like what I did in this use case.
Thoughts
Not many folks know about Airtable ability to perform these easiest tasks. What I’m showing here is just the basics.
Also, by using Airtable, you will own the data that you collected from the form(s), and it’s free to use (like forever!).
Learning these quick solutions with Airtable can save you time and money.