Setting up your own membership site may be one the hardest parts for newbies in Internet business. This is because the process of setting up a membership site is pretty complicated to someone who isn’t familiar with the ins and outs of website creation.
If you are not a tech savvy person, you may find this to be almost as hard as rocket science!. In addition, the process in setting up a free membership site and paid membership site are slightly different as well.
However, with the growth of Internet business especially in the recent decade, there are now many tools available online that can make the seemingly complicated task much easier.
In this chapter, I will show you how to set up a membership site as simple as possible – no rocket science involved!
What You’ll Need
First and foremost, let’s start with preparing the tools that you will need to set up your membership site before we get into the core of this chapter.
#1: Content Management System (CMS)
This is definitely the first tool that you will need. CMS is a computer application that allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as organizing, deleting and maintenance from a central interface. WordPress is a popular example of CMS which I would recommend using.
#2: Payment Method
You need to create a buy button for the subscription to your membership site. Once you have created the buy button, copy the code and paste it to your website builder or HTML editor. Look for Clickbank, JVZoo or PayPal to assist you with the payment processing.
#3: AutoResponder
Lastly, you will also need an autoresponder. An autoresponder helps you to manage your mailing list, including the members who will be joining your membership site.
An autoresponder can definitely ease your work when it comes to mailing out offers and sending out follow-up emails. Aweber and GetResponse are two examples of autoresponders which are very popular with online businesses.
I will talk about this further later on in this chapter.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS that is powering millions of websites today. WordPress quickly evolved from being just a blogging platform into a highly recommended CMS that is capable of running highly complex and high traffic sites.
For your information, WordPress is growing and evolving every second. Statistics show that WordPress has been downloaded more than 46 million times from the day it first launched. And the number continues to increase even as you read this.
If everyone is using WordPress to host their membership site now, you are not going to be an exception who is left out of the group.
Why WordPress
#1: Extremely Easy to Use
WordPress is designed to be extremely easy to use, and yet provides highly professional service to build your site. With WordPress, you need not be an expert in writing HTML code; all you need to do is copy, paste, and drag.
WordPress does it all for you.
#2: No Cost Needed to Download the Platform
The best part of using WordPress is you do not need to pay a single cent to use it; no cost is needed to download the platform. WordPress is available for both Mac and Windows versions. So, whether you are a Mac or Windows user, you can install WordPress in your laptop without restrictions.
#3: Full Control to Build Up Any Kind of Website
With the fast installation process, setting up WordPress for the first time is simple. In addition, you will have almost full control to build up any kinds of website with WordPress. Here’s what you can do with WordPress:
- Arcade
- Blog
- Gallery
- Shopping Store
- Membership Site
Of course, the list goes on and these are just some popular options.
#4: Extended Plugins and Themes
Apart from that, there are numbers of extended plugins and themes available in WordPress. With the different themes, you do not need to worry about your membership site looking the same as everyone else’s.
In addition, there are plugins that can enhance your membership site. For instance, Yoast SEO plugin and WishList Members plugin.
#5: SEO Friendly
With the help of plugins that are compatible with WordPress, you can improve the SEO of your site. Meaning to say that WordPress is SEO friendly.
Once you have the SEO plugin downloaded in your WordPress, you will have an indicator for SEO on top of your WordPress dashboard. When you article or site fulfills the criteria for SEO, the indicator will turn green. This way, you will know how to tweak your site to fulfill SEO requirements.
#6: Safe and Secure
Last but not least, it is safe and secure to run any kinds of website. WordPress is developed with security in mind. They have a system to monitor the security threats in your account. With the system built in WordPress, your contents can be secured.
However, the Internet world is always unpredictable and constantly evolving. There are intruders out there who want to get their hands onto other people’s websites but as long as you’re careful with passwords and login details and have malware detection, you should be fine.
WishList Members
WishList Members is one of the plugins in WordPress that I would like to introduce here in this chapter. WishList simplify the complicated process of creating a membership site; you can get your membership site running in minutes with WishList.
Besides simplifying the process, it is a plugin that protects your premium content within a membership structure as well! You can have unlimited membership levels in just one membership site. I will explain about the levels of membership sites later on.
Why WishList Members
#1: Easy to Learn and Use
It is extremely easy to learn and use WishList. Download, unzip, and upload it to your WordPres and you are done with the installation. It doesn’t matter whether you are building a new site or already have an existing site – you can turn your website into a membership site instantly.
#2: Low Cost
It is always worth investing in great plugin and services. WishList is a low cost plugin that provides professional services. In addition, they offer a 30 days risk free guarantee to the buyers.
You can get all your money back if you do not wish to continue using their service within the 30 days. Get your WishList plugin today and see how amazing this powerful plugin is at alleviating the common stresses of running a membership site.
#3: Great Customer Support
WishList provides unlimited support for the price you paid. This means that whenever you need customer support they are always just a click away. Contact them and they are able to provide you great customer support all the time.
#4: Offer Multi-level Access to Your Members
Earlier in this chapter, I mentioned that you can offer of multi-level access to your members. WishList Members enables you to create multiple levels of access all within one site – you do not need to create multiple membership sites to offer different contents to different members. You can charge an amount suitable for those higher-level content distributions, within one membership site.
How To Use WishList Plugin
The WishList plugin is simple and direct. You do not need to know how to do coding or programming, WishList plugin does it all for you.
What you need to do is buy the license, download your copy, unzip the files, upload them to your WordPress, and lastly, activate the plugin in your WordPress. That’s all there is to it.
Once you’re done with the installation, go to the dashboard of the plugin and set up the basic configurations for your membership site.
You can set up the membership levels like basic, pro, and deluxe to charge different prices. You can find the membership options when you are configuring your WishList plugin.
You can set up only one level for starters. But if you wish to have a few membership levels and charge a higher price with the deluxe package, you can select the options here as well.
WishList has flexible membership options. You can customize the type of membership you want to offer, such as ‘free’, ‘trial’, ‘paid’, or any combination of all three.
For instance, you want to offer them a 7-day trial with $1. And then, after the trial ends, they have the option to continue subscribe to your paid membership site.
Other than that, you can set up the sequential upgrade for the members as well. For instance, you offer them three payment plans, basic, pro, and deluxe.
They signed up for the basic for the first time and then they decide to upgrade to another level. WishList will help set this up for you, too! All you need to do is set up the options in advance.
Payment Methods
After you’re done with the CMS and plugin set up, the next thing you will need to prepare is the payment methods. You need to create a buy button or subscription button for prospects to opt-in to your membership site.
Here are some places where you can upload the membership site and create a buy button:
- ClickBank
- JVZoo
- PayPal
PayPal is the easiest method to create your own buy button, and it is free to create your own PayPal account! But if you already use ClickBank or JVZoo in the business, you can create the buy button through them as well.
AutoResponder
Moving on, creating an AutoResponder account is essential too. AutoResponder helps you to manage your members. Without AutoResponder, managing your members would be difficult especially if you have a large pool of members.
Once you have your own account, upload the members to your AutoResponder. This way, whenever you need to mail out new offers or newsletters to your members, you can set a broadcast in your AutoResponder.
With a function to schedule the time to mail out to your members, you can upload your emails in advance and have them automatically sent out as per the pre-scheduled time.
I would recommend you create an account in Aweber or GetResponse. Both of these are reliable autoresponders which offer professional service at very low costs.
