We’ve all been using digital platforms for years - some of us have even been using them since we were a child. There are countless platforms out there that promise unique services. Of course, most fields have their own flagships, like Coursera and Udemy when it comes to online courses and Discord, Facebook, and Telegram when it comes to online communities.
When trying to decide which platform to use for what, people often face the problem of pros and cons being similar - so they can’t decide. Telegram channels are amazing, but they don’t have organization features like Discord. On the other hand, Discord is much harder to learn, whether you want to create your own community or join one. This is a very common issue that people face when they’re trying to find the perfect platform for their ideas.
That’s where Whop comes in. Whop is a social commerce platform that lets anyone create and sell access to a wide range of digital products, from exclusive courses to sports betting tips. Whop also has a marketplace called Discover that people can browse to find the perfect whop for themselves and become a member of it. Speaking of whops, let’s clear up the difference between Whop and a whop:
- Whop is a social commerce platform for selling online
- A whop is your own internet hub that you can create and sell access to all or part of (and it can be free, too).
What is a whop?
You can think of a whop as a modular platform. When you first create a whop, it will be a blank canvas. Now, think of your online hub idea - what does it offer to its members: chat rooms? Forums? Courses? Sports picks? No matter what kind of a hub you want to create, you can do so on your whop. This is done by using what we call “apps.”
To easily understand what apps are, think of them as features. For example, Discord has chat rooms, Coursera has online courses, and Skype has video calls. Those platforms offer all unique features, but with whop, you can gather all those features into a single platform.
Let’s imagine you want to create a coding community where you want newbie and experienced coders to get together, chat, learn, and collaborate. You can make this community a reality by adding the Chat app to your whop, so your members can chat with each other, Courses app, so that you can create elaborate lessons and your members can learn, and the Forums app so that people can post their project ideas and find others who are willing to collaborate.
As you’ve seen so far, a whop can become what you want it to be since you can tailor it with the features that your idea requires. That’s great - but how do you “sell” it? Well, unlike Discord servers or Telegram channels, whops are ready to be monetized right out of the box.
Then, once you’re ready, you can even apply for the Discover so that your whop will be listed at Whop.com, and people will be able to find it super easily - boosting your revenue.
Before we get into the details of a whop, how to create one, and the apps you can add, let’s look at some examples of hypothetical whops so that you can get a good understanding of them.
Examples of whops
As we mentioned, you can create all kinds of communities on Whop - the only limit is your imagination. Let’s imagine a couple of hypothetical whops, which apps they would use, and the products they could offer:
- Coding Academy: The Coding Academy whop is a place for all developers to gather and improve themselves no matter their knowledge level. You can meet with other developers, exchange feedback, find people to collaborate with, and even take on the Introduction to Python and Introduction to JavaScript courses.
- Apps: The Coding Academy whop utilizes the Courses, Chat, Content, Forums, and Help Desk apps.
- Fantasy Writers Guild: The Fantasy Writers Guild whop is the perfect place to improve your fantasy writing skills and socialize with other fantasy writers. It doesn’t matter if you dabble in the world of fantasy writing as a hobby or professionally. The Guild is the perfect inn for you.
- Apps: The Fantasy Writers Guild whop utilizes multiple Chat apps, Files, Content, Links, and Events apps.
- Naut Sports Picks: The Naut Sports Picks whop is a sports betting community that is run by experienced betters who want to share their knowledge and tips with others. The Naut community focuses on NBA and NFL picks and has an active community where people can discuss their strategies.
- Apps: The Naut Sports Picks whop utilizes the Chat, Content, Affiliate Links, Sports App, and Help Desk apps.
How to create a whop
All right, so far, you know what whops and apps are. They’re amazing - you can create your dream hub. But how? In this section, we’re going to walk you through the easy steps of creating your very own whop.
First of all, you should know that before creating a whop, you have to create an organization. You can think of organizations as your seller profile - if you're going to create two whops, one for regular members and one for VIPs, you're going to do it under the same organization.
You should only create a second (or more) organization if you are selling a completely different product or would like to set up a different payout profile.
So, let's create an organization first. You can do this by clicking on the Start selling button on the left side of your screen to go to your Dashboard. Then, since you don't have any whops, you're going to see the Create your whop button. Clicking on it will direct you to the onboarding, where you can create an organization.
Or, you can just click the Create your whop button below:
After clicking the Create your whop button, you're going to see the single-step onboarding which will let you create an orgnization.
Since organizations doesn't need any setup, all you have to do is to give it a name. The organization name has a 30-character limit so make sure you optimize it.
After deciding on a name for your organization, click the Continue button to create it.
Next, let's create a whop in your organization. To do that, make sure you're viewing your dashboard - you navigate there by clicking on the Dashboard button on the left side of your screen.
Tip: If you haven't created an organization yet, the button will say "Start selling" instead of "Dashboard."
Once you're in your dashboard, click the New whop button at the top right of your screen. This is going to display a popup which you will create your whop in.
In the first step of the whop creation popup, you'll be prompted to select which organization you'd like to create your whop in.
You have the option to create a new organization here but since we're looking to create a whop under an existing organization let's select it and click Cotninue.
The second step is naming your whop. Just like organizations, whop names also have a 30-character limit. The name of your whop should be simple enough to recallable but unique enough to set you apart.
After deciding on a name, click the Continue button to proceed.
We're almost done. The third and final step is creating a headline for your whop.
Whop headlines have a 60-character cap and you should write down how your whop is going to help its members. You can always change this setting later.
After writing down the headline, click the Continue button to create your whop.
There you go - you just created a whop.
Now you can start your digital commerce journey and utilize the best tools Whop has to offer.
What’s Next?
After creating your whop, it’s time to actually set it up. There are three main things left for you to do: add apps, pricing options, and configure your store page. After you’re done with all these, you can launch your whop. Let’s see them in order:
- Add apps - Apps are the very things that make your whop a usable platform. You should take a look at every single app that is available on whop and decide which ones your platform needs. You should avoid adding too many apps to avoid clutter, but add enough apps so that your whop can function as intended. Remember that you can add multiple instances of the same app or link existing apps from other whops under the same organization. Read our how to add apps to a whop guide.
- Add pricing options - Pricing options are what allow you to sell users access to your whop. There are a number of pricing option types like free, monthly, weekly, and one-time payment, waitlisted options, and more. Creating pricing options on Whop is really easy and takes just a couple of minutes. Read our how to add pricing options to a whop guide.
- Set up store page - After you’re all done with apps, it’s time to set up an attractive overview for your whop. When you first create a whop, its overview page will be created alongside it automatically - but it will be empty. It will only list a couple details about your whop but nothing more.
By setting up your store page, you can provide information about your products, apps, platform, and basically, everything a potential user needs to see to be able to decide if they want to be a part of your whop or not. If you want to learn how to set up the perfect store page for your whop, check out our How to Set Up your Whop Store Page guide.
Create your own whop today
Now you know everything you need to start your whop journey. If you ever want to learn more about having and running your whop, make sure to check out the Whop category of our blog and join the Whop University hub.
Creating digital content and selling access to it has never been easier. Signing up to Whop, creating your own whop, and starting to sell access takes less than 10 minutes.
