198: The Software Tools I Use To Run My 7 Figure Blog With Steve Chou

Podcast: Download (Duration: 27:54 — 38.6MB)

Email drives over 90% of the revenue at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, which is why the email platform decision matters more than every other tool combined. I have used MailChimp, AWeber, ConvertKit, Drip, and Klaviyo across nine years, and each one failed or fit for specific reasons worth knowing before you pick.

This blog is close to a one-person operation. I have a single contractor who edits the podcast, and I spend roughly 15 to 20 hours a week running the site, the training course, and the show, all under one LLC.

This episode covers the full tool stack: hosting, the email platform comparison in detail, the WordPress plugins I actually keep, how I run a membership site for free, and the webinar setup that costs nothing and generates $30,000 to $70,000 per session.

A note on timing: this stack is from 2018 and several products have changed hands or names since. ConvertKit now operates as Kit, Drip repositioned toward ecommerce, and hosting options have shifted considerably. The selection criteria below still apply even where the specific products have moved on.

Key takeaways

• Email generates over 90% of this blog’s revenue, so platform choice outweighs every other tool decision.
• Deliverability is the first thing to evaluate. Test it with a seed-list tool before committing to any provider.
• MailChimp banned me twice with no warning and no phone support, both times during launches.
• Lead scoring is what separates advanced platforms: it lets you segment by engagement and identify bot signups.
• Use as few WordPress plugins as possible, since each one slows the site down.
• A membership site can run on a free lightweight plugin if you can code the payment integration yourself.
• Webinars can run on free tools. Mine generate $30,000 to $70,000 per session with zero platform cost.
• Blogging scales because there is no cost of goods, and it took eight years to reach that point.

What platform and hosting should you use for a blog?

WordPress is effectively the default, powering over 30% of the web with a huge developer community behind its plugin ecosystem. That combination makes it hard to argue against as a content management system.

For hosting, I self-host on a managed plan rather than a WordPress-specific service, paying around $100 a month to host five websites. Managed means the host handles server issues, so a request for a new PHP package or a fix for something broken goes out as an email.

The alternative most seven-figure bloggers I know use is a fully hosted WordPress platform. Those handle everything for you and cost considerably more, and the tradeoff is straightforward.

If you do not want to touch anything technical, pay for the fully managed WordPress option. If you are comfortable sending the occasional support email, self-hosting costs substantially less for the same uptime.

How should you evaluate an email marketing platform?

Start with deliverability, because a platform that lands in the promotions tab or spam folder makes every other feature irrelevant. I test every provider I consider before committing.

The method uses a seed-list tool such as GlockApps. It gives you a set of addresses across Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and others, you send a broadcast to that list, and it reports what percentage reached the inbox rather than spam or promotions.

It also returns recommendations for improving placement. Running that test on each candidate is what turns a subjective comparison into a measurable one.

Why I stopped recommending MailChimp

MailChimp banned my account twice without warning, both times during a critical revenue period. I try not to be negative about services, and this one earned it.

The first ban hit as I was about to launch a product. No reason was given, support is email-only, and the reply came 48 hours later saying the decision was final.

The second hit my ecommerce store during the holiday season. Scrambling to migrate providers mid-season cost roughly a week of sales.

Neither ban involved spam. Both were content emails to subscribers who had opted in, and a student of mine was banned the same way shortly before a holiday season.

MailChimp is genuinely useful if you want something free up to 2,000 subscribers. For anything your business depends on, the absence of phone support and the finality of those decisions is the risk to weigh.

Is AWeber still worth using?

AWeber has excellent deliverability and I used it happily for over six years, which is why I still recommend it. It was the default choice when I started blogging in 2009.

Feature development is where it fell behind. Over the years it was slow to adopt capabilities that newer platforms shipped, and that gap eventually forced a decision.

My specific need was webinar-driven. I wanted a subscriber to click a link in an email and be instantly tagged and segmented for a webinar, and AWeber could not do it.

They promised the feature within three months when I raised it. Implementation slipped, and I could not wait.

What are ConvertKit’s limitations for advanced users?

ConvertKit only segments subscribers on data you tagged correctly in advance, so you cannot decide to segment retroactively. That single constraint is the root of most of its limitations.

The practical consequences add up. You cannot easily build a segment of people who opened every email last month, or everyone who viewed a particular page, or anyone who clicked an untagged link.

That matters most during a launch. Assembling your most engaged subscribers to solicit feedback from your loyal audience is exactly the kind of retroactive segment it cannot produce.

Personalization options are similarly thin. Adding a line reminding subscribers when and where they signed up, which reduces spam complaints, is harder than it should be.

Everything else about it I liked. The interface is intuitive, the tagging is genuinely easy to use, and I stayed nearly two years.

How do you handle bot signups on your email list?

You need a platform that tracks per-subscriber behavior, because bot detection depends on activity patterns rather than the signup itself. This is what eventually pushed me off ConvertKit.

The attack was persistent. Hundreds of bots per day filled out forms on my site, and switching to double opt-in did not stop them because a second bot was clicking the confirmation link.

The cost is direct. You pay per subscriber, so hundreds of fake signups daily means paying real money for zero-value contacts.

ConvertKit offered one built-in segment for this, cold subscribers, based on an unspecified inactivity window. That was not enough to isolate the bots.

Why lead scoring changes what you can do with a list

Lead scoring assigns each subscriber a numerical value based on their activity, which makes engagement itself a segmentable property. That is the capability I moved to Drip for.

The scoring is cumulative and decaying. Points are added for opening an email, clicking a link, visiting your site, or downloading a lead magnet, and subtracted steadily during inactivity.

Two things become easy that were previously impossible. Running a quick test with only your active readers, and offering a discount to your most loyal subscribers.

It also solves bot detection. Because every action is tracked, separating a real human from a script is a matter of setting rules against the activity data.

Why use different email platforms for a blog and a store?

Klaviyo is built for sales data and segments purchases brilliantly, while offering weak segmentation for anything else. That difference is why I run two platforms rather than one.

Klaviyo cannot segment on what content someone browsed or which link they clicked in an email. For webinar workflows that depends on exactly those signals, it is unusable.

Cost is the other factor. Klaviyo runs roughly three times more per subscriber than the platform I use for the blog, which is hard to justify for an audience that is not primarily buyers.

If a single platform did both well I would consolidate immediately. Until then, one tool for ecommerce purchase behavior and another for content engagement is the honest answer.

Which WordPress plugins should you actually install?

Use as few as possible, because every plugin adds load time. My whole list is deliberately minimal.

An SEO plugin is the one non-negotiable. All in One SEO Pack and Yoast both handle titles, meta tags, sitemaps, and the Open Graph markup that controls how posts appear on Facebook, and either is fine.

For podcasting, Blubrry PowerPress manages the feed that goes to Apple Podcasts and other directories.

Caching matters more than most people expect. WP Super Cache generates static HTML versions of your posts so visitors are served a file rather than triggering a database query and PHP execution, which lets your server handle far more traffic.

Comment spam has a specific fix. Cookies for Comments sets a cookie and requires JavaScript, and since most spam bots handle neither, it eliminated roughly 90% of my comment spam where the built-in filter had not.

The rest are conversion and engagement tools: a scroll-triggered email form that slides in when someone reaches the end of a post, a related-posts list, and a subscribe-to-comments option that notifies people when someone replies.

How do you host podcast audio files?

Use a dedicated podcast host with flat-rate pricing rather than generic file storage. I use Libsyn, one of the oldest options in the space.

The pricing model is the reason. You pay a flat monthly fee based on how much you upload and get unlimited downloads.

Compare that to hosting on something like Amazon S3, where you pay per transfer. A show that suddenly gets popular produces a bill that scales with its own success.

How can you run a membership site for free?

s2Member is a lightweight membership plugin that is free for its base features, which is what runs my course. I evaluated several alternatives and chose it on those two attributes.

The paid tier covers payment processor integrations. Because I can code, I took the free base and wrote the payment integrations myself, which meant unlimited members at no ongoing cost.

Fully hosted course platforms are the alternative today. They take a percentage of sales or charge monthly, which is a reasonable trade if you do not want to build anything.

For payments I use Stripe. The percentage is not the cheapest available, there is no monthly fee, and the API quality is what makes custom integration practical.

What webinar platform do you need?

None, if you are willing to assemble free tools. My webinars run on YouTube Live plus a chat tool, at zero monthly cost, and generate between $30,000 and $70,000 per session.

That is the clearest example of a principle running through this whole stack. Recurring monthly fees are worth avoiding wherever a free combination does the same job.

For podcast editing I use Audacity, which is also free.

What does it actually cost to run a seven-figure blog?

Three line items: email marketing, podcast hosting, and web hosting. Everything else in the stack is free.

The economics are what make blogging scale. There is no cost of goods on anything I sell, so revenue growth does not drag proportional expense behind it.

The honest caveat is time. It took eight years to reach this point, and the leverage only arrives after the audience does.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best email marketing platform for bloggers?

It depends on what you need to segment. AWeber has excellent deliverability with fewer features, ConvertKit is intuitive but only segments on pre-existing tags, and platforms with lead scoring let you segment by engagement retroactively.

Is MailChimp safe for a business email list?

It is free up to 2,000 subscribers and offers email-only support with up to 48-hour response times. I was banned twice with no warning during launches, so consider the risk before making it mission critical.

How do you test email deliverability?

Use a seed-list tool such as GlockApps. It provides addresses across major providers, you send a broadcast, and it reports what share reached the inbox rather than spam or promotions.

What is lead scoring in email marketing?

A numerical value per subscriber that rises with opens, clicks, site visits, and downloads, and decays during inactivity. It lets you segment by engagement level and identify bot signups.

How do you stop bots from signing up to your email list?

Double opt-in alone will not work, since sophisticated bots click the confirmation link. You need a platform that tracks per-subscriber activity so you can write rules that separate real behavior from scripted signups.

How many WordPress plugins should you run?

As few as possible, since each one slows your site. An SEO plugin, a caching plugin, and a comment spam filter cover most of what a blog genuinely needs.

Do you need a paid webinar platform?

No. A live streaming service plus a chat tool costs nothing and works, which is what I use to run webinars generating $30,000 to $70,000 each.

How long does it take a blog to become profitable?

Longer than most people expect. This one took eight years to reach seven figures, and the scalability only shows up after the audience exists.