OpenSource – Joomla and vTiger

I know a lot of people visit this site looking for free opensource membership site software.

I am in the process of building a sales training portal that will give resellers training and access to a crm.  Even though I am a bigger fan of wordpress than Joomla, I kept my mind open and explored a development project that would integrate Joomla and vTiger.

Joomla is a membership content management system – and it is very nice but not the direction I went because I think it as more for building a social network or club.

vTiger is an opensource CRM that is wonderful but lacks a few essential things, such as leads from the web into the CRM.  vTiger has a module that you can configure that is supposed to do that, but I could not get it to work.  It is very poorly documented.

I like vTiger, but the modules seem worthless and difficult to add and configure.  Out of the box vTiger is very good though.

So here is the issue – 1st:  Don’t be surprised when opensource is not perfect.  It is free after all.  You are probably best off learning one tool that is really dependable, as I have done with WordPress.

2nd: Buy the premium plugins after reading reviews.  It can often save you a bunch of time and headaches.

The truth about Opensource software is that very few of them have non-tech people overseeing the development.  And tech people have a tendency to try to do too much.  (Not all, but they do love the technology)

I am going to use vTiger as my CRM.  I am going to use WordPress and Wishlist Member as my training portal.  And yes, there are going to be two logins for the different tools.  When you are looking for opensource solutions you just have to understand you are probably not going to get exactly what you want.

Wishlist Member Review

Should you buy the WP Wishlist Member Plugin for WordPress Membership Site Management?

Instead of reviewing the wishlist member plugin, let me first say that it is excellent.

But no, not everyone should buy it.

Why?  It has nothing to do with the Wishlist Member Plugin.  Instead, I want to tell you that setting up a membership website is harder than you probably realize.  It takes time to develop the content and it takes time to market your membership site.

If you are serious about doing a membership site, then you need to worry as little as possible about the technology.  Buy Wishlist Member and 1ShoppingCart and set it up.  Then forget about the technology and focus on great content and marketing your membership site like a madman.

Wishlist Member was my 6th membership site software solution I tried before I finally found something I could work with.  I tried free membership site tools and other paid membership site options – and Wishlist Member was the simplest and let me forget about the management of membership and content.

Had I used Wishlist Member first, I would have been able to start doing more marketing six months earlier and made a lot more money.

WordPress Wishlist Member

Five things I love about WordPress Wishlist Member.

1. Using WordPress and the WP Wishlist Member plugin is the simplest way to prooduce a membership site.  It allows you to focus on quality membership site content and forget about all the bells and whistles that go with other solutions and tend to distract from the main value.
2. The Wishlist Member Plugin helps people automatically get into your site.  In the past I had to get their information and then add them manually.
3. Wishlist Member Cost – I found Wishlist Member a great value.  I bought the multi-site license and have used it to set up several paid and free membership sites.
4. Ease of Use – The Wishlist Member plugin is very easy to use and integrates with WordPress seemlessly.
5. Videos – I spent over an hour watching the WordPress Wishlist Member Videos before I decided to buy.  It is great that they have put that kind of effort into helping people make a decision that is best for the potential customer.

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.

Membership Site FAQ

Here are some general facts about membership websites.  This does not apply to any particular membership site software or membership site service.  Just a general membership site FAQ that is food for thought.

#1  Will I Make Money with a Membership Site?

It is highly unlikely that you will create a great, profitable membership site on your first try, especially if you are doing all the work yourself.  Worrying about membership site technology, membership site shopping cart integration, membership site content and membership site marketing is a lot of work.  Your best bet is to outsource the parts you can and focus on marketing the membership site and guiding the content development.

#2 What Membership Website Software Should I Use?

Because it is hard to build a profitable membership site on the first try, we suggest not going overboard with expensive website membership management software.  You can get the single licence of WP Wishlist for under $100 and you can get many wordpress templates for free to use for your membership site.

#3 How Do I Market My Membership Site?

Marketing is something you get better at over time.  You need to build and test different landing pages for membership sites and try different advertising avenues.  It also helps if you use a Search Engine Strategy to generate organic search results.  If you target your niche market that is likely to join your membership site, this should produce regular members.

#4 How Do I Retain Members in my Membership Site?

The first thing you have to do is understand that you will not retain members forever.  I have seen statistics that membership sites have an average membership retention of about 4 months.  However, it really depends on your offer and what your membership site contains.  For example, we have a much longer membership site retention at the Virtual Marketing Assistant network.  The reason is that it produces regular job leads for the members and has tools people can use, like blog posting to a blog network and a directory where people can review the virtual assistant profiles.

What other questions do you have about membership sites?  Leave your question in the comments below.

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.

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.