Membership Website Software

I am going to let you know about a secret when it comes to membership website setup and membership website software.

First, it is very hard to make a living from one membership site.  It is a lot of work to set them up and even more work to promote them.

So the best way to make money with a membership site is to get good at setting them up and promoting them quickly – and have many sites adding to your income.

This means you need membership website software that has a low cost per site and you can use it across many membership websites without additional costs.

If you opt for one of the expensive membership suites you are going to struggle to ever make any money.

Instead, find membership website software like Wishlist Member that you can build a license for and use on an unlimited number of membership sites.

Even though I make a fee if you buy through that link, I also will let you know I did pay for the product and successfully used it to build several membership sites that continue to generate revenue for me.

So take a look at their videos and such and make your own decision.  But do not get caught in the trap of a high cost individual site that you might never break even on.

Tips for Choosing Membership Site Software

From experience,it can be very difficult to start a successful membership site without using membership website software. This can be rather frustrating for tech dummies like authors, trainers and speakers who would want to start their own membership sites and yet lack the technical know-how.

Every software has it’s own flaws,that’s why it’s vital that you choose website membership software with all the features you will need. Below, I have pointed out some of the vital features that you will want to look out for when selecting the right membership website software to use.

Before you look at the software features,find out the reliability of the software or company. You can do this by looking for reviews from people who have used the software before. Not only should the software be reliable, but the company which is supplying the software should be reliable as well. Make sure that the company offers excellent customer support. Try emailing the company and if you don’t get a response within 24 hours, then try your luck elsewhere.

Obviously, the next vital thing to look at are the true features of the software. List down everything you expect of your membership site and make sure that the software you intend to use has those features that will support your plans. Whereas the majority of companies list features of their software on their websites, there are no guarantees. It’s always good to e-mail the company to get more detailed information.

It won’t make any sense to use software that is incompatible with your web hosting account. For instance, a particular software may need PHP to be installed on your server,thus it won’t do any good to install it on an ASP server since it won’t work. From experience, most membership websites are run with software which require servers running PHP.

Lastly,it’s always good to consider the cost of of the Membership website software you intent to purchase. You should take this seriously because the old adage that “you get what you pay for” applies in software as well. Of course, there are some cheap software with great features but it most cases, cheap of free software have few features.

Click here for more free tips for starting a membership based website.

wp wishlist plugin

Five Reasons to Buy wp wishlist plugin (Go watch the videos if you don’t believe me)

First, what is wp wishlist plugin?

WP stands for WordPress.  WordPress is the top blogging software that is free, easy to set up and supports all kinds of free templates and free wordpress plugins.  Many of these things are great to set up your membership site.

Wishlist plugin, also called WP Wishlist Member plugin, is a premium plugin (membership software)  that you buy, download and drop into the plugin folder of WordPress.  (It really is that easy once you find the right folder)

Then you activate it and you have a very powerful membership site set up.

You can integrate wp wishlist plugin with paypal, 1ShoppingCart or many other payment processing gateways.

I looked at many different options, including using the free membership site wordpress plugin, but wp wishlist plugin was by far the best deal.  I puchased it once, I can use it on many sites and it nearly automated every part of my membership management.

I probably spent more than an hour watching their excellent videos and reading their website before buying.  They do the best job I have seen at helping you make a great decision to buy or not buy.  If anyone returns the product, it is only because they did not watch the videos first.  It really does work exactly like the wp wishlist plugin videos show.

Free Membership Website Software

Here are five reasons you should think twice before you try to use free membership website software.

1. Support – I think free is great.  But free plugins and software do not have any support and that means they just might stop working.
2. Affordable Options – I do not think it is wise to spend $1,000′s on membership website software.  However, there is membership website software that works great for under $100.
3. Free Membership Website Software is not really free.  You have to figure out how to set up and integrate the software, and since it is just an free open source membership website software, it may not have any instructions.
4. Versioning – When WordPress upgrades, I feel confident that the Wishlist Member team will upgrade thier plugin and I will not have any major outage.
5. Use a combination of free software and paid components for the best, low cost solution.  WordPress is free, and it is big enough so you can have faith that it will be around.  However, the free membership website software plugins for wordpress are not feature rich enough to make managing your membership website easy.  For that reason, take the free software that works well, but spend a little to get good plug ins and services to make your membership website a success.

WP Wishlist Member for Membership Websites

In an earlier article, I wrote about my experiences with using six different Membership Site Software Solutions.

Ultimately, I used WP Wishlist Member which is a premium WordPress Plugin for Managing Membership Websites.

The first thing I love about them is the extensive set of videos they post on their website.  You do not have to wonder if it is going to work for you or not.  They have many videos that show you exactly what WP Wishlist Member does.

Next, they offer a 30 day money back guarantee.  When I bought the premium membership management plugin, I fully intended to ask for my money back if it did not work.  Instead, I found the Membership Website Solution I’d been looking for over a six month period.

WP Wishlist Member was easier for me to use for several reasons.

1. I was already used to WordPress and it was easy for me to set up and customize.
2. WordPress is simpler than Moodle, Drupal, DotNetNuke and Joomla.  It is also more publishing oriented than Ning.  And yet it was far less expensive than things like aMember or other premium membership site solutions.

Don’t take my word for it.  Go watch the videos and then buy it and try it – and ask for your money back if it is not the best membership website plugin you have ever tried.

Wishlist Member Setup for WordPress

We get a lot of visitors to this site that need help setting up the WordPress Wishlist Member Plugin.

First, they really do have great videos on their site that make it easy for anyone to add the Wishlist Plugin to WordPress.  It should not be a technology issue.  It does take time to configure and get working just the way you want, but that has more to do with your shopping cart and how you want your membership site to flow.

Wishlist Member Setup for WordPress

I offer our Membership Site Setup service not because it is my primary money steam, but because I have gotten better and better at doing this and I can save you time and hassle and put those membership site skills to use.

If you are thinking that there are people out there that will set WordPress and Wishlist Member up cheaper for you, you are right.  Have fun hunting them down and working with them, then firing them and finding another.

Personally, I would rather work with someone that feels like they better do a great job because they value you as a client.  But that is just me.

Remember, you can do Wishlist Member Setup for WordPress yourself.  It just depends on how much you value your time and if you want to work with a professional with experience working with Wishlist Member and WordPress.

Wishlist Member – Website Membership Plugin

Have you thought about having your own membership site?

About a year ago I launched my first paid membership site.

And relaunched 6 times in total. Painful.

The reason? Never happy with the software. Finally, via hard lessons, I decided simple is better and I set up a WordPress Membership Site with Wishlist Member.

Finally, a solution I love.

If you are someone that has considered premium content membership sites as something you might want to do, go watch the videos on the Wishlist Member Site.

I bought the multi-site license, and not only do I make money from membership sites, but I also set up free private membership sites as bonuses for clients and team members. It is a great upsell item and easy to maintain.

Talk about adding some buzz to existing products!

Watch the videos and see how easy the tech part can be.

Membership Website Script vs Software vs …

What are you looking for?

• Are you looking for a Membership Website Script?
• Are you looking for Membership Website Software?
• Are you looking for Membership Website Plugin?
• Are you trying to find Membership Website SAAS?
• What about a Membership Website Widget?

All these different terms get used in different ways by people, making it hard to know what you are looking for.  Here is a quick guide to Membership Website Scripts and other terminology – just so you know what you are looking for.

Membership Website Script

The word script usually refers to a third party tool where you place a few lines of script (code) in the footer of your membership website.  Typically it is independent of whichever Membership Website Software System you have chosen.

Membership Website Software

Membership Website Software is usually a full content management system that may be specifically designed for membership websites or it may simply have the features to make it a good option for membership websites.  Examples are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Moodle.

Membership Website Plugin

A plugin is much like a script, but it is designed for one particular platform.  So a WordPress membership website plugin will only work in WordPress.  The good thing about a plugin over a script is that it is designed to be easy to install and configure within your membership website software.

Membership Website SAAS

SAAS stands for Software as a Service.  This is a more expensive option because someone is doing the work, development, support and hosting of your membership site for you.  However, a good Membership Website SAAS will free you up to create great information and market the membership website.

Membership Website Widget

Membership Website Widgets are pieces of code nearly the same as a plug in.  Widgets have special properties that make them easier to set up and move around in your membership website software.  Not all membership site software supports widgets, but those that do make it much easier for non-tech people to customize the tools and interfaces.

Free Open Source Membership Site Software

This article is about Free Open Source Membership Site Software which you can set up in seconds.

There is a catch with open source software.  You need to be able to install it, upgrade it and customize it yourself – or hire someone to do it for you.  There are great forums and a lot of information on the web, but it is not easy.  Open Source means that the code is open and you can use it.  It does not mean that it is easy or will do what you want it to do.

Also, your open source free membership site software is free, but you have to put it in a place that people can find it.  That means you need to host it on a server (not your home computer) that is always on and is set up to serve webpages and run the kind of software you choose.  That costs a little money.

You will also need a domain name for your membership site.  That should cost you $10 or less per year.

I recommend Bluehost for an inexpensive place to host your open source membership site software.  I have short occasional outages and problems, and you will need to back up the site yourself, but overall it has been a great, low cost solution.  I have also had my own servers – and the cost is huge and the headaches are much higher.

Open Source Membership Site Software

If you use Bluehost, or many other hosting companies, you should get a Linex server (usually that is your only choice) and you should make sure they have a C-Panel, Fantastico and/or Simple Scripts.  (Simple scripts may be only a Blue host tool)

These tools make it easy for you to manage your website and set up the open source membership software.  Typically, you need to do things in this order.

1. Register Your Membership Site Domain - If you do not do it through your host, you will need to configure it to point to your hosts IP address or name server.  If you do not know what that means, just register it at your host and you will not need to know.
2. Using Simple Scripts (or Fantastico) Set Up Membership Site – With those tools, you just select the open source membership software you want and it will walk you through the install of the membership site software.
3. Customize your Membership Site - The hard part is learning the software and customizing it.

If you are not fairly technical, keep things simple.  You can spend months getting to know the open source software, trying out various plug-ins, uploading and changing various hemes, etc.  I really suggest you hire someone to do this part and keep it simple.  Your goal should be to launch a professional, stable membership site that makes money and has great content.  Don’t get lost in too many bells and whistles.

Review of Open Source Membership Site Software

The reason I went into so much detail above is that I am going to review open source membership site software that I have used on my Bluehost account.  There are other options out there, but the ones I am going to discuss are the most common, are easy membership sites to set up, and there are a lot of experts out there that can help you customize these open source membership site solutions.

1. WordPress – You may think of WordPress as just a blog, but with the right skills on setting up your WordPress Theme, your WordPress blog can be a great membership site.  This is the only solution I use now because I focus on valuable content and not too many tools and such.  I use Wishlist Member to easily automate the membership sign up and access.  I use 1Shopping Cart integrated with Wishlist Member to automate monthly billing and build my membership site affiliate program.

   WordPress is a good option if you want to focus on fresh, quality content each month and not get lost in the technology.  I also see that WordPress sites usually get the best search engine results out of the box.

2. Joomla – When it comes to these open source membership website software solutions that are open source, it really comes down to how much time you spend with them.  I really like Joomla and it does a great job of building a membership site.  However, I found customizing it more difficult and the resources for it were more scattered.  It is much better as a community tool if you want each member to have their own blog, communicate back and forth more, etc.  From my experience, most of those community features do not get used by the majority of the membership.
3. Drupal – I loved how quickly I could build a site in Drupal.  I did not love trying to customize it.  As with all the open source membership site solutions, if you spend enough time with it you can make it do almost anything you want.  With Drupal, I got frustrated after two days of trying to find how to change stuff so I stopped.  However, some tech people I know love it and my experience was over a year ago, so it may be much better now.
4. Moodle – The first open source product I used to build a free membership site was Moodle.  Moodle is the open source learning software that many universities use.  However, it was far too complex for what I wanted to achieve and it never looked nice to me.  I am fairly technical and I can use photoshop alright, but I spend days trying to make Moodle look good and it was just never to my standard.

   The reason you may want to try Moodle is that it has things organized in courses with quizes, threaded chat, etc. all integrated.  However, I found it to be very confusing and way too many options for a simple membership site.

The good news about all four of these free open source membership site software options is that they are free, can be set up in seconds and you can spend a couple of hours getting to know each one.  Then pick one and stick with it.  It is better to become really good at one of these membership site software options than to keep dabbling with all four.

Wishlist Member WordPress Plugin

I loved WordPress long before I started publishing a membership site with it.  In fact, even though I was a wordpress expert, I was experimenting with Moodle, Drupal and Joomla trying to figure out what was best for membership site software.

Then I discovered Wishlist Member – a WordPress Plugin.

This solved so many problems for me.

Publishing and membership management became much easier.

Using the option to have content public or protected, I was able to leave some of our articles public and have others only available to the members registered via Wishlist Member.  This resulted in great search engine results and potential members are able to see some of the content before they join.

Now Wishlist Member has a new version out that even integrates with membership site reoccurring payments on paypal.  While I use 1ShoppingCart because I value the affiliate program, the option to integrate with paypal is very powerful because now you can set up a full membership site for next to nothing.

I do suggest you buy the multi-site license for Wishlist Member.  For a little more you can set up as many membership sites as you want.  I even use it to set up private, free training areas that I use as bonuses for other things I sell.  The fact that launching a whole new membership site costs me no additional costs (maybe the $10 a year domain name) and can be done in a couple of hours is incredible.