I’ve been interested in membership sites for a long time and finally decided to start getting serious and write a post about how to set up a membership site with the WishList Member Plugin. I purchased the plugin last weekend. I took the last few days to get acquainted with how to set it up and I thought I would take the time to lay out what I have learned so far. I can tell you that this is a great plugin and below I tell you how I would suggest using it. If you find the information I provide to be valuable to you and you are going to pick up a copy anyway, feel free to use my link to purchase it here:
Buy One WishList Member Plugin Site License And Get One For $47 (Expires March 31, 2010.)
OK. So the site promotion is out of the way. Let’s get started. Because I think that the people over at Wishlist Member do a great job of telling you how to install it and have an extensive set of video tutorials, I’m not going to go over those steps. I think that where I can add some value is on what to do with those settings, at least from how to design and layout your membership strategy.
In fact, the first thing that you should do, is watch all of the videos they provide to get a great feel for what to do with each setting. Once you have done that, the next step is to figure out exactly how to roll out features to your members. If you are like me, you don’t have any members yet, or any content. What I’m going to do here is go through my process bit by bit so you can see how it works. Here are the steps I have taken so far:
- I installed the plugin on a test site (I bought three site licenses). The videos on their site walk you through how to do that
- I watched all of the videos regarding the settings inside the plugin.
- I set up initial pages for all of the “error” pages etc. Some are blank at this time. I did set up a page for non-members.
- I named all of the initial pages exactly what they are called in the plugin. I have since changed a couple of the names.
- I left all of the default settings on the settings page the same with the exception of the recaptcha settings, the default login IP’s which I changed to three and added my affiliate id.
- I changed the email information under the email settings to match my email address and site title but for now have left the default messages the way they are for now.
- I integrated the Aweber autoresponder service with new member sign ups.
- I established a new membership level called FREE report which you can join if you want.
- Later I’ll integrate it with a shopping cart once I create core content I feel is worth charging for
Once you get to this point, you need to spend some time on exactly what you want your membership strategy to be and how you will set up your levels. If you want to know more about what my membership strategy is going to be, I thought I would demonstrate how the plugin works by protecting the content beyond this point. It’s Free to access, just register by clicking here and then come back to this post and you’ll be able to read the rest.
[private_free report]
Well, if you joined me by registering, let’s talk strategy for your membership sites. You also saw the basic registration process and how easy it was.
The first thing that I suggest that you do, is consider breaking up your content in the following way:
- Free content anyone can access
- Free content that registered users can access (this post for example)
- A core level of membership that you charge a one time fee for
- Modular content that users can pay for as they desire and more importantly as you create it
I would list all of this content on a single dashboard for all users to see and as they try to access it you can inform them on how to get it. While there are lots of reasons to set up a site with a monthly recurring fee, there’s also a lot of pressure to come up with that content each and every month. If you set up your site as I have talked about above, you can create your content as you go and let the user’s decide to pay for what they want. Once you have created all of your modular content, you can eventually move it to a monthly amount once it is completed. I would then grandfather all of the existing users for free and charge all of the new members.
The challenge is creating content worth paying for. This is your challenge. Using WishList member makes the rest a breeze. There sale goes on through tomorrow if you decide to pick it up.
Buy One WishList Member Plugin Site License And Get One For $47 (Expires March 31, 2010.)
[/private_free report]
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