Welcome to part 3 of my tech stack series. This is where it gets “meaty….”
I had to tell you parts 1 and 2 first, because a LOT of learning went into getting that far. It took several years to glean it all from internet searches, blogs, how-tos, product guides and software walkthroughs. Each one searched separately, collated by my human brain, and heroically trialled on my own guinea pig website.
The result? Unfamiliar plugins, pro and free versions of other plugins, and pages that sometimes looked OK and sometimes rendered a bit funny (yes, that’s a technical term). I knew some tools overlapped. THIS IS WHY THE DISCLAIMER. 
FYI – I’m not a tech advisor, this guide is intended as general information that recounts my user experience to date.
Why was something so simple so hard?
Every time I wanted to add something to my site (like a downloadable product), I could only research one viewpoint and one product at a time. Top of mind was always: how will this change affect what I have? Is it compatible with my existing stack? Does something I already have do this? Where is the tutorial? It felt almost impossible to figure out. (Which is why there’s a market in bundles, I suppose.)
I knew exactly what I wanted: a welcome sequence now, and a cart on my site long term. How could something so simple be so hard? My inbox is clear evidence it’s possible, after all.
It's 2026. Can AI help?
I needed to know what works, what doesn’t, what talks to what, and how to fix it. I’d only used a little AI, to help write alt text for images on my website. So I decided to ask AI to research it for me, and wrote down exactly what I wanted.
Pay close attention to the last lines of the prompt below: “Only suggest solutions gleaned from credible sources. Do not invent, make up, or hallucinate. Do you understand the question?” (I’ve developed a better version since, but you get the gist… don’t feed me BS.)
Here’s the whole, exact prompt I put into ChatGPT. I do NOT recommend you use it; there’s a better one below. Plus, it’s specific to me. It would be creepy if you did that.
“I am a small creator of quilting pantograph patterns which I sell as digital downloads, at the moment via etsy. I have a wordpress.org website using elementor pro, with the theme hello Elementor.
I have the free version of kit with 100 subscribers and an excellent lead magnet which is also digital, setting that up was HARD in kit due to confusion about landing pages versus my website. Also, kit requires a paid version to set up a welcome sequence. I also use Jetpack on my site for protection.
I want the simplest and most effective solution to achieve the following:
Pop up on my website (or inline) with lead magnet opt in to collect emails and digital delivery of file.
After email collection, automatically send a sequence of three emails to welcome, including a discount code and relevant links.
After welcome sequence, subscribers join normal list.
I’m happy to spend a little on a good email list builder and have been comparing kit with flodesk. If there are better options please suggest.
Additionally at a later stage;
To set up a cart on my site and a listing for each of 20+ pantographs with digital delivery at POS with email confirmation. And the ability for customers to re download purchases in the future if required. (Would that require account login?)
At the moment all my patterns are on one page and unsortable. I would like to have Individual listings for each, with a sorting filter. Any cart must have the ability to run specials/discounts. Must advertise in USD but be able to link and deposit to my NZD bank account in New Zealand.
Email set up MUST be easy to use. Cart MUST be super secure.
Functionality to integrate this with social (ig and Pinterest) although I don’t know how (Please advise) also a factor.
Please recommend a workflow/elegant solution to use the resources I’ve bought already, suggest getting rid of any overlap, and compare costs long term.
Solutions must be simple as I have limited web experience.
My website is www.quiltingoctopus.com
Only suggest solutions gleaned from credible sources. Do not invent, make up, or hallucinate. Do you understand the question?”
Sounds good, right?
Have you ever been passive-aggressed by AI?
WELL. 😠😡🤬. LET’S NOT EVEN GO THERE. Eighty pages later I’d learned not to say please because it waffles. I imagine there must be a better way to ask AI a question?
OMG YES THERE IS!!
Copy and paste this sentence into your next chat, unless you’re using ai for a good bitch session:
“Answer concisely and practically: lead with the direct answer, give only the next steps I need, skip anything we’ve already covered, and add no extra explanation unless I ask. Do not invent, make up, or hallucinate anything. Cite only verifiable, quality sources with links, and say plainly when you don’t know.”
Try it next time an AI session goes haywire, and let me know how the answers change!
Eventually, AI gave me tech stack gold
Within the fluff, it suggested an email platform that wasn’t on my radar (MailerLite, my new best friend) and showed me where plugins overlapped and what to keep or ditch.
It went a bit overboard with workflows, but it cleared up my WooCommerce vs Shopify decision paralysis (WooCommerce works better with what I already have, apparently). It suggested Stripe and explained why (I need it to change currencies). These decisions had been soooooo confusing, especially in a Flodesk- and Shopify-heavy landscape.
AND it gave me step-by-step instructions to make the first changes in a logical order, so my fabulously useful Tension Test for Longarm Quilters now gets delivered better. Because again… decision paralysis about what to do first, when I didn’t know what affected what.
Here’s what 80 pages of waffle reduced down to.
What I've done so far
Since starting this journey, I’ve moved all my files and data from ChatGPT to Claude. I’m glad I did. Between both helpers, I have:
- Moved email providers from Kit to MailerLite
- Rebuilt the free Tension Test signup form and pop-up
- Set up a three-email welcome sequence
- Turned on double opt-in and reworded the confirmation email
- Launched a new homepage focused on digital pantographs
- Built a Tension Test landing page
- Added SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Created a pantograph tester sign-up page
- Added Pinterest Save buttons to blog posts
- Switched the site to NZ spelling
- Troubleshot post and page layouts
- Linked Instagram comments to auto-DMs that send people to the site
With plenty more in the pipeline.
How I've used AI in my work
I type or talk into Claude. For example: “I’m up to the MailerLite part of the list we made earlier. Help me build a welcome sequence.” I wrote the email text myself (as I am this post), but I needed a walkthrough of the actual tech steps to set it up and make it work.
I’m learning so much because I’m doing the steps myself. If I’m stuck, I send a screenshot.
A VERY IMPORTANT TWEAK: I told Claude not to guess or report anything as true that isn’t, because occasionally it still guessed… and I hated that. I also had to tell ChatGPT off for making me re-check the same web settings over and over, hence the “skip anything we’ve already covered” part of the prompt.
AI is also… super terrifying if you’ve watched the news. I believe there’s reason to be concerned. I think it will be an information revolution, as if the internet was multiplied by quantum overnight. I remember when there was NO internet, so I’ve seen change. But I don’t think it’s going away, so if it can teach me something useful, like how to auto-send a file from one place on my computer to another, and that saves me time… I want to know that shortcut.
Are you stuck too?
Are you struggling to work out the next best step for your website? None of this is a product recommendation, except perhaps running a similar query, if you don’t mind a little AI input.
AI is great for research because it can follow a train of thought, instead of the staccato, one-at-a-time searches of days gone by. That’s a game changer for anyone who wants a guiding hand through the warren of set-up guides, questions about how programs work together, and anything where you used to read five pages to cobble together one set of instructions that may or may not fit.
Time will tell if these are the right steps for my site, but trying this certainly combed out the knots I was getting into just deciding what to do first. Done is better than perfect!
Tech and AI are evolving so fast. If you’re like me (not a computer whizz), my best advice right now is to give your preferred ‘bot’ as much info as you can about the tools you already have. Turn on memory so it remembers across chats (usually in settings). Then start asking what you want to learn, such as ‘I’m a new quilter, how do I set up my first Wix site?’”
I wish you the very best on your tech journey, thank you for hanging in there with me!
