Creating a Membership Site - Looking for Technical Info

[Funke]

Hi everyone!

I am looking for someone with experience with membership sites. I want to create something using existing solutions and not really spend time developing anything.

- Payments processing handled by 3rd party.
- Users will pay monthly fee, there should be $1 or free trial option, refunds option.
- They will receive PDF, it would be every week, but could be monthly, it would be awesome to have it from random generated URL or unlocked on site, so it wouldn't be shared as much outside.
- When user cancels and continues subscription, he should be able to start from the point he left.
- Affiliate program.
- Multiple pricing options.
- Templates for sales page/main website.

I think that is all. I was thinking about Clickbank, but I don't really know what is available there and what are other solutions for creating such a service.

Any help appreciated!

 

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[Gsuz]

Have a look at MemberMouse (https://membermouse.com/). Has a ton of features, very affordable pricing, top notch support, free trial, great integration with 3rd party providers.

Another option is aMember (http://www.amember.com/) which is very popular, too. But for me MemberMouse is easier to use and has a better support.

 

[Funke]

Just got overwhelmed with solutions. Someone suggested ClickFunnels, Fedora and WishList member.

But the most important part is the ability to continue subscription from the point it got canceled. And maybe having already unlocked content available on the site later. Those will be printable illustrations, in PDF's.
@Gsuz Is this possible with MemberMouse?


Would I be able to link a site created this way to Jvzoo or Clickbank? Or should I drop the idea of those affiliate marketplaces?

 

[Gsuz]

Yes, that definitely possible.

When a member's membership level or bundle is paused, they can still log in and access all of the content they had access to up until the point the account was paused. However their drip content schedule will be paused so they will not receive access to any content dripped past the day they paused their access.

http://support.membermouse.com/knowledgebase/articles/319093-member-status-lifecycle

As for JVZoo and Clickbank, it depends on what you're trying to achieve, what kind of product you have and if you can get traction on these platforms.

 

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[Mr.B]

See Chris Lema for info on creating membership sites.

 

[Funke]

Thank You @Mr.B, I am checking him out, but I can't find any information on membership sites that he runs, only posts about building them.
Edit: Nvm, found it.

 

[Mr.B]

Yes, I thought that was what you were after! Sorry, I must be confused.

 

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[Funke]

Yes, I was looking for technical stuff, but I am also trying to be always sure that I learn from people who have proper experience

 

[Mr.B]

Yes, of course, it's important to qualify that you are receiving advice from the appropriate people.

I know that Chris has been involved heavily with the Wordpress community for a long time and I've grown to trust him after reading his material for the past couple of years (and finding that his experience was similar to mine in many cases). That being said, a full membership site might be overkill for you.

Have you considered Gumroad? It might be an elegant and simple way to sell your PDFs.

 

[eekern]

I am using wishlist member (http://member.wishlistproducts.com/) really happy with it, it can do all of your request

 

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[Tyler Ellison]

There isn't a single platform that does all of these things, but I've built over a dozen membership sites in my life and managed them and this is basically how it worked:

- Payments processing handled by 3rd party.
- Users will pay monthly fee, there should be $1 or free trial option, refunds option.
- They will receive PDF, it would be every week, but could be monthly, it would be awesome to have it from random generated URL or unlocked on site, so it wouldn't be shared as much outside.
- When user cancels and continues subscription, he should be able to start from the point he left.
- Affiliate program.
- Multiple pricing options.
- Templates for sales page/main website.

Clickbank or 1ShoppingCart - You only need one because both serve as both a payment processor & your affiliate program. Clickbank is the easiest since you don't need a merchant account with them to process payments, and already has affiliates and manages those payments. With 1ShoppingCart you have to process the payments and recruit every single affiliate. Both of the processors work accepting the monthly fee with trial offers and are easy to process refunds with.

Wishlist Member for Wordpress - This is the best membership site software I've ever used. You can unlock pages, or even just hidden content on pages depending on the users membership level. You can set it so that each month the user is advanced to the next level automatically which will unlock that levels pages/content to get the downloadable information. If somebody cancels and comes back, their account can be restored to the membership level it was at before and the process resumes normally.

Templates - For your sales page I'd recommend a mostly blank page with a video sales letter. For the main website it'll just be whatever wordpress theme you pick, which makes design super easy.

That's how I did it, many times. Wishlist Member w/ Clickbank is the slickest combination.

 

[healthstatus]

I will second that Wishlist Member is great. Amember.com is very good if you need to get outside of Wordpress, it is kind of like Drupal from the standpoint it can be a PITA, but it can also be AWESOME.

 

[Bobby-H]

Digital Access Pass, Membermouse, Wishlist are all great tools to do exactly what you're asking for.

Digital access pass has its own affiliate program installed - though clickbank has it's own bigger affiliate group that could potentially promote your product.

Here is how I'll describe each product, I've used each on different client websites for different reasons.

DAP = a tool while it looks outdated on the backend, is very powerful and can also send transactional emails and broadcasts (it also integrates with many 3rd party shopping carts and email programs). They've integrated one click purchases where a user many days or months later can purchase with the original card they used with one click. Also has a built in shopping cart. Great customer service. Different tiers of licenses, must pay for updates after a set amount of time. Can be used for website beyond wordpress.

Wishlist = great backend interface, though it can get a bit convoluted to set up certain membership items (drip content over time) etc. Great customer service. Different tiers of licenses, must pay for updates after a set amount of time. I believe it is wordpress only.

Membermouse = the best of the best in terms of design and usability, does take a little while to get use to it, though once you do, you can create some powerful products and bundles. It integrates greatly with many different tools and email programs and there one click purchase inside your members area is powerful. The built in shopping cart is very easy to customize and can be very powerful (stripe integration works great along side clickbank). Great customer service. Monthly fee, can add up and be more expensive than other tools pretty quick. If I remember it's wordpress only.

In each tool, there is a way for a cancelled member to have access up to what they left off with and when they reactivate they are able to start where they left off.

The tool I'd most recommend you can grow with, would be Membermouse. The only thing I don't like is the recurring fee, but it's powerful and it makes it easier to manage your website, and its regularly updated too as all the other tools.

 

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[db7903915]

There isn't a single platform that does all of these things, but I've built over a dozen membership sites in my life and managed them and this is basically how it worked:



Clickbank or 1ShoppingCart - You only need one because both serve as both a payment processor & your affiliate program. Clickbank is the easiest since you don't need a merchant account with them to process payments, and already has affiliates and manages those payments. With 1ShoppingCart you have to process the payments and recruit every single affiliate. Both of the processors work accepting the monthly fee with trial offers and are easy to process refunds with.

Wishlist Member for Wordpress - This is the best membership site software I've ever used. You can unlock pages, or even just hidden content on pages depending on the users membership level. You can set it so that each month the user is advanced to the next level automatically which will unlock that levels pages/content to get the downloadable information. If somebody cancels and comes back, their account can be restored to the membership level it was at before and the process resumes normally.

Templates - For your sales page I'd recommend a mostly blank page with a video sales letter. For the main website it'll just be whatever wordpress theme you pick, which makes design super easy.

That's how I did it, many times. Wishlist Member w/ Clickbank is the slickest combination.

This is super helpful Tyler! I'd love to hear more about your experiences with building membership sites.

Do you recommend a certain amount of content prior to launching the affiliate program?

And does the program usually link back to the whole site or only a certain "theme" or section within the content? So for example, if I'm making a membership site to teach people how to paint, would my affiliate program be a course only about drawing humans? Or should the affiliate program include everything in the site, like how to set-up your environment, picking what paints to buy, drawing different kinds of objects, etc. Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

[AndrewNC]

Hi everyone!

I am looking for someone with experience with membership sites. I want to create something using existing solutions and not really spend time developing anything.

- Payments processing handled by 3rd party.
- Users will pay monthly fee, there should be $1 or free trial option, refunds option.
- They will receive PDF, it would be every week, but could be monthly, it would be awesome to have it from random generated URL or unlocked on site, so it wouldn't be shared as much outside.
- When user cancels and continues subscription, he should be able to start from the point he left.
- Affiliate program.
- Multiple pricing options.
- Templates for sales page/main website.

I think that is all. I was thinking about Clickbank, but I don't really know what is available there and what are other solutions for creating such a service.

Any help appreciated!

Check out my site - http://Limitless.Academy/ click on the NLP course for example.

The sales pages are lead pages - and I've used my own html pages in the past.

When you click on the buy button - it uses ultracart.com as the shopping cart software. Offers one click up sells too.

Ultracart integrates with authorize.net and a merchant account. (All three are monthly $$, which shouldn't matter if you make sales)

And ultracart also integrates with amember - which is what I use for my membership site. When someone buys, it gives then access to the pages specified for their course. It can do $1 trial and then content drip based on automatic recurring monthly payments.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

 

[Growth & Learn]

Check out my site - http://Limitless.Academy/ click on the NLP course for example.

The sales pages are lead pages - and I've used my own html pages in the past.

When you click on the buy button - it uses ultracart.com as the shopping cart software. Offers one click up sells too.

Ultracart integrates with authorize.net and a merchant account. (All three are monthly $$, which shouldn't matter if you make sales)

And ultracart also integrates with amember - which is what I use for my membership site. When someone buys, it gives then access to the pages specified for their course. It can do $1 trial and then content drip based on automatic recurring monthly payments.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

Hey Andrew,
Hope this helpful…you spelled achieve wrong on your checkout page….

 

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[AndrewNC]

Hey Andrew,
Hope this helpful…you spelled achieve wrong on your checkout page….

Haha thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Growth & Learn]

I've tried a bunch of different membership options. Be wary about a platform that you have to pay monthly fees for and through it's design forces you to keep using it.

For example, if the system auto generates passwords for your users that are encrypted (meaning you can't see them either) than you'll always have to use that piece of software for those customers. There is no way you can migrate to another platform or backend software for content protection.

Try telling all your customers that their passwords are no longer good and see what kind of havoc that runs on your business.

So, think long term in terms of flexibility. I'm not a big fan of monthly fees but that choice is yours.

Digital Access Pass has a few pluses but some real minuses too. As long as you have a technical background it can serve you ok. My biggest complaint is that they think like coders first and marketers second. All kinds of silly decisions in the templates they design just lower conversions for customers. That's 100% the opposite of what we need if we want to sell to customers.

I'm constantly surprised by how many of their templates and features seem to be created without understanding how a less techy customer would experience the web. Don't make it difficult for customers to buy through mediocre design or going against what is standard practice online in a buying process. Make it intuitive. Trust me this can cost money and can be really frustrating. Part of me thinks they make their platform difficult so you'll purchase their support.

Even my tech guys have had to buy support a few times. Weird things will break as part of the platform. They usually know how to fix them but again we're talking $$$.

I migrated away from them but still have 2 products and some customers who use the products. I wouldn't use DAP again if I was starting over.


Wishlist Member is friendly but the features can be limited depending on what you need to be done. I like that they have an additional option of joining a membership site owner community.

Membermouse is clean but again you have that monthly fee. It's also not as flexible as some of the other platforms.

 

[Legitimate]

No offense to anyone above, but I know a better way to do it than anyone has suggested yet.

OP -> If you want to know a great method for a membership site, don't hesitate to PM me (that goes for anyone else too).

 

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[Growth & Learn]

No offense to anyone above, but I know a better way to do it than anyone has suggested yet.

OP -> If you want to know a great method for a membership site, don't hesitate to PM me (that goes for anyone else too).

Why not just post it in the forum?

 

[Legitimate]

Why not just post it in the forum?

Are you the one who asked how to make one?

Why would I share this valuable info with everyone when only 1 guy asks?

 

[Legitimate]

Why not just post it in the forum?

Are you the one who asked how to make one?

Why would I share this valuable info with everyone when only 1 guy asks?

Sorry for the double-post but this is new.

I've had a change of heart.

If you want a membership site, get Restrict Content Pro.

To upload PDF's and block them for members only, get Coupon Creator Pro.

Yes, these cost a tiny bit, but come with great support.

They have everything you are asking for, and more.

Hope this helps.

P.S. This code might still work for 15% off RCP: WINNINGWP

P.P.S. I will make your site in 24 hours for $500.

 

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[theag]

I've had a change of heart.

P.S. This code might still work for 15% off RCP: WINNINGWP

P.P.S. I will make your site in 24 hours for $500.

Lol. We need the -rep button back.

 

[blackhat]

P.P.S. I will make your site in 24 hours for $500.

Seems "legit"

 

[Tyler Ellison]

This is super helpful Tyler! I'd love to hear more about your experiences with building membership sites.

Do you recommend a certain amount of content prior to launching the affiliate program?

And does the program usually link back to the whole site or only a certain "theme" or section within the content? So for example, if I'm making a membership site to teach people how to paint, would my affiliate program be a course only about drawing humans? Or should the affiliate program include everything in the site, like how to set-up your environment, picking what paints to buy, drawing different kinds of objects, etc. Would love to hear your thoughts!

I don't think I'm clearly understanding your question. Content? Yeah - If you have an affiliate program, you need your affiliate's links to point to a sales pitch which links to a checkout form. If you have multiple products, have multiple links the affiliates can use pointing to each pitch for each product - and also include upsells to the other programs after somebody buys the first one.

So the program is usually a separate panel of your site, apart from the members area. Not all affiliates will need or want to be members if you run your own program. There's an easy to setup affiliate script that works with paypal called idevaffiliate that you could addon to your site outside of the members area and it's inexpensive to start with.

Does that answer your question @dmitriyb ? If not, please rephrase and clarify so we can help.

@Legitimate - If you plan to use the forum to pitch your services, you should see MJ's rules about that here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-to-sell-yourself-on-fastlane.19701/

 

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[Legitimate]

P.P.S. I will make your site in 24 hours for $500.

@Legitimate - If you plan to use the forum to pitch your services, you should see MJ's rules about that here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-to-sell-yourself-on-fastlane.19701/

You suggested a Fastlane forum member spend $550/year+tax on 2 inferior products.

FYI, I know a free product that does everything he needs. I just like RCP support for $35 only.

Edit: I just checked out Member Mouse, it has a couple/few more features. It costs a lot, up to you OP what you want to spend.

 

[eliquid]

Ive done a lot of this and what I will recommend, others already have.

• Wishlist Member - Wordpress based, but fantastic
• Digital Access Pass ( DAP ) - Wordpress & Standalone
  
• Amember - pretty much a legend in membership sites
• OptimizePress - Wordpress based and started off as a sales letter plugin, but it has OptimizeMember for memberships

Ive used others, but honestly the 4 above are gonna be the best you can get in PHP based programs.

I have a hard time narrowing it down to any 1 solution, but honestly if I had to pick one it would be Wishlist Member for almost everything.