Chris Ramsey

Hey all,

I'm hoping to find a VERY easy to use membership site manager, something that can handle payments and my member's accounts very simply.

I'm currently using a free wordpress plugin, and it seems very hacky, and I've had a whole lot of trouble with it, so I'm hoping to find something else.

I know of a few of the big boys like AMember, WP-Membership, and a few others... but I'm looking for your personal favorite. If it has a multi-site license available, that's even better as I'm planning on extending my membership sites even further in the near future.

So, what's your favorite and why?

Jesus Perez

Right now, I use either Login Frequency Marketing, Wishlist Member or this new kid on the block, Membership Script (VMS) Viral Membership System. I hear EasyMemberPro is really easy also.

Of the above mentioned, only VMS and LFM (coming in a few weeks as a plugin) have instant paypal commissions.

What exactly do you need? The more you tell us, the more we can help.

Chris Ramsey

Currently I run my sites on Wordpress using this crappy plugin, like I mentioned. All I really need is something that can restrict access to a folder (where I have Wordpress installed) and handle my paypal payments. If it has the ability to accept 2CO, that'd be cool too as I plan on moving to that system in a while for any sites I want to sell off after they're profitable.

Caleb Spilchen

Hey,

Steve Odette's got one coming out called "Rapid Residual Pro", but, from what I've heard, the best for membership sites that is currently available is amember.

There both paid..

Caleb

BrianMcLeod

Chris,

Check this WSO out:

WORDPRESS Membership Plugin & Digital Products Plugin - Sell The Easy Way Using Wordpress!

It's a remarkably simple little script.

I've used/use many of the available membership scripts
and each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

I've built out several successful WP memberships with
RAP / Membership Plus / Rapid Action Press

I'm also using Mixiv (Nanacast) which integrates with
wordpress using a custom plugin (free).

I'm currently testing Steve Odette's Rapid Residual Pro
script which Caleb mentioned and it's very cool and
completely self-contained, unlike the RAP/Add-On thing.

Hope this helps,

Brian

Slaughter

Looks cool. But doesn't have drip-feed?

Karan

paulwa

Wishlist is easy to use and can do exactly what you are after, they have some good tutorials on their site.

Alan Petersen

I use Digital Access Pass from fellow Warrior Ravi. I like it. I have 3 sites running on Wordpress and DAP now.

barbling

I'm using the membership addon thingee for RAP. I've used amember in the past - it worked well too (going with RAP, though, for the instant paypal stuff).

BrianMcLeod

Karan,

The purpose of that script is FAST, CHEAP, & SIMPLE.

If you want automated drip-fed content, you're getting
into the realm of the more feature-rich and expensive
solutions like Steve's new script, RAP Press, Mixiv, etc.

If your goal is to get a WP site up today and start
accepting new members tonight with minimal fuss,
that WPSA script might just fit the bill perfectly.

If you want to build out a deep, drip fed WP membership,
your objective is different and calls for a more appropriate
solution...

Old BlueSquares upthread knows VERY WELL how deep
some of the solutions go... and how much work go into
making them do their thing the way you want.

All of that costs time and money.

Different horses for different courses...

Brian

Bryan Zimmerman

I've got a couple on Easy Member Pro and it's great. Especially for those who aren't to technical minded like myself.

It's really really easy to use, integrates with a bunch of different payment processors, lets you drip feed content, create as many levels as you want and has a built in affiliate program. Plus there is an option for a unlimited site license that won't break your bank account.

Slaughter

Right.

However, I prefer to use autoresponder.

Follows the KISS rule.



Karan

sodette1

Hey Chris:

I depends on what your long term goals for the site are going to be too.

For instance...

-. Will you be adding levels to your memberships?
-. Do you want to have a marketplace where you can sell other products to your members?
-. Do you want to be able to customize the look of your site?
-. Need outside article pages or squeeze pages or other content?
-. What about coupons or coupon codes - will you be offering these?
-. Kunaki integration for physical products?
-. want a blog WITH your membership or do you want your membership to BE a blog?
-. One Time Offers? Downsells? Unlimited?
-. Will you have partners for any of your sites? A partner module is very cool - it keep everyone honest because the software handles payouts according to the configuration.
-. Will you even want to license the site to someone else? Can your script handle that?
-. Want to pay monthly fees?
-. Multiple site or unlimited site licenses available?
-. Protected on sight and off-site (like Amazon S3) media and file cloaking?
-. Easy media integration?
-. Easy installation... easy bug fixing... easy upgrading?
-. Free lifetime upgrades or paid upgrades?
-. What kind of support will you get with the program?
-. What is the platform it's built on... is it SECURE? Is it Open-Source?
-. Will your hosting work with the script and visa/versa? (some membership scripts
come with autoresponders built into them - what does your host think about this? Will
they squeeze your sequential AR messages to only 100/hr. or tell you that you can't
use that feature at all?)
-. Is the script all-in-one or do you need a hundred plugins to make it work the way
you want to? (plugins are fine... but can you configure them or will you need a programmer
to help you?)
-. Do you need more than one payment processor? Which ones?
-. Will you be selling physical products?
-. Do you need a full shopping cart or will PayPal be good enough?
-. How flexible is it for customizations? Is the code open for you to modify if you like?
-. Is it easy to use... easy to understand.. comprehensive?
-. Will it grow with your business?
-. Do you want an immediate pay affiliate program (I LOVE these! No paperwork, no 1099's, no headaches) or would you prefer writing checks or doing PayPal mass pays
weekly or monthly and having your accountant track everything?
-. Do you want a forum integrated into the software?
-. What about a built in coaching program for you to use and sell / organize coaching
to your members?
-. Does the software have good reporting features for affiliates? They'll want this.
-. Is the affiliate program built in at all or do you need to connect a separate one? (like
aMember?)
-. Is there split testing built into the program or conversion tracking of any kind?
-. What about a PayPal Sandbox for testing new products and services.. is that built in?
-. Time-Released content modules or "Drip Feed" content - can you do it and is it
built into the program? How complicated is it? (KARAN - if you are still using an
Autoresponder to deliver your drip-feed content and you think that is Keeping It Simple
S***** - then you need to contact me - I've built many FTM sites using AR's and
I can tell you that there is a MUCH more simple, secure, and member approved way
to go about your content delivery - in fact - what if you could combine both your
AR AND member lesson links that go live only when a member has been active "X" days? Contact me... I've got something to show you that will blow you away...).
-. What kind of documentation and support will you get from your software provider?

There are so many questions you should ask... because if you use the wrong program or get started with a solution that you cannot grow with - it's like changing autoresponder programs and moving a list of 10,000 confirmed opt-ins to a new service... trust me - NOT a fun activity - at all.

So... ask the right questions, look at all of the solutions that are available to you... and make the right choice, not just a fast choice.

Doing your due diligence now is like the old Carpenters saying:

"Measure twice... cut once."

Just makes good sense.

affenpinscher

Didn't several people have a problem with Wishlist after Wordpress upgrade to 3.0?

No doubt those bugs are fixed now but that's a continuing issue with using
Wordpress with plugs ins.

It would seem safer to me to use a stand alone software.
Lots of them probably offer free trials.

Good luck.

ryanstreet

Right now, I am working on a number of different membership scripts out there. Rapid residual pro is great if you want an all-in-one solution. It handles content, autoresponders, delivery, payment, the works. Great software.

Also Mark Lyford is coming out with a great membership software for WordPress that will blow Wishlist clean out of the water, so that will be good if you want to use Wordpress. And it also has a special twist that will really help you sell big time. Can't talk about that right now, maybe go twist his arm for the secret

Those two would really be all you really needed and are great and super easy to use. Point and click solutions.

I hope this helps.

Steve Crooks

Another vote for Rapid Action Profits (RAP) with the membership+ and PayPal subs addons.. It is such an easy, flexible and powerful system for membership sites. The best thing about RAP is with the addon architecture it can grow with what you want to achieve.

Sumaryan85

I personally use :
1. BFM
2. aMember
3. RAP

For unlimited license, BFM is the choice (for me). Since it's free now + PLR ( I don't know if the offer still exist ).

I too hear that easy member pro and memberspeed is a good script, but you have to pay per license. And for memberspeed only if you have the budget.

ravijayagopal

Hey guys,

Just wanted to add membership plugin for WordPress - DigitalAccessPass.com (DAP) - into the mix here :-)

[Disclosure: I'm the founder & co-developer of DAP]

DAP addresses a lot of the concerns that the average membership site publisher has, so do check it out when you get a chance.

And feel free to ask if you have any questions at all about DAP, and I will be more than happy to answer them here - on the public forum or by PM.

Cheers!

- Ravi Jayagopal
Founder & Co-Developer

Matthew Iannotti

If I had to do it all over again, I would have went with JV Manager insiders-edge.com/JVM1/index.html

You can do just about anything in the world with it from one control panel. No need installing it per domain....I really like the JV and coupon code features...

Charles Harper

I take it you are using s2member?

CT

OrganicSeoGuru

If your going after budget software that works, I have never had a problem with Amember ( I have done at least 250 sites with that )

A more expensive but bullet proof version is MemberGate

You will need to have some programming done to tailor each to your specific needs in most cases...

MikeHumphreys

Chris,

I'd recommend LFM with Amember as a runner-up option. I use LFM on most of my digital product sites and it's what I recommend to my copywriting clients.

LFM isn't cheap but I haven't found it lacking any feature I needed. Their tech support is pretty solid and they keep adding more features to the script (I've been a happy LFM owner since it was called Launch Formula Marketing about 4 years ago).

If budget is an issue, you can grab a single site license of LFM for now and upgrade to unlimited (or add more sites) when you need it.

Hope that helps,

Mike

MChriston

Hi all - I have tried YourMember (plugin for Wordpress), Wishlist and ended up with EasyMemberPro (stand alone system).

The decision was based on two clear factors where EasyMemberPro simply blew away the other two: Functionality and customer support.

The team at EasyMemberPro are EXCELLENT (and I've asked them some full blown questions at times!) - and as said above by Brian Zimmerman the features are great too. The affiliate section is surprisingly very good and easy to use.

My only concern when buying was the non-Wordpress structure ...but that was me being stupid! ...I've created a LOT of sites using Wordpress and was hooked on creating themes, etc... However EasyMemberPro was VERY easy to adapt with HTML and I was able to create a great look and feel without issue.

See for yourself: PFM member home page

Yes I would love extra features on EasyMemberPro, like for instance some form of interactivity such as member comments (just like a Blog) - but for the price I cannot fault it. And I am sure new features will be released regularly as I have already enjoyed two significant upgrades this year... and yes the upgrades were free.

Great software, great support ...so for me, great decision.

Michael

PS - I just wish I'd come across it earlier than I did. They need to step up their marketing!

-

aceturbo

Hi Chris and warriors far and wide.

I have used various solutions for different projects.

I will qualify that I have a technical background so that probably gives me a different slant to easy. But the title is "Best Membership site software."

For me that has to be John D.'s Delavo (which is now free up to a point also) :-)

This does have a learning curve but it is more than just one site.

Central Infrastructure. This is Johns drive and theme.

You may be starting out with one site, but if you have any plans to do this you will have multiple sites, products and Memberships.

All of this runs from one central system.
A new membership can take minutes and handles all the members and cancellations etc.

There are API's for several wordpress, forum and core product integrations.

---
Second place would be for the Viral marketing approach, Butterfly Marketing Script.

Not because it is easy but, everyone is instantly familiar with the setup and know that they can promote right away.

cheers.

Just my two cents worth. :-)

Eric.

All Night Cafe

I like AMember. use can have a single licence
or a licence for many sites. A little bid of a
learning cure, but I found they are well respected.

MChriston

Sounds interesting - Do you have a product name/URL?

Thanks,

Michael

cassidywilliams

Guys, check out Traindom (Start Your Information Marketing Business in Minutes - Traindom).

- Totally free to set up, take your time to create your product
- You only pay, when you're profitable
- No technical skills required what so ever. Super intuitive and easy to use.
- Drip content option
- Built-in forums
- Coupon system for promotions
- Integrated video upload and playback. Member-only videos.
.. and much more.

aceturbo

no problem, just go to Delavo no affiliate links. :-)

the basic level is free.

they were doing an upgrade to bronze if you did the tell a friend.

that is well worth it if it is still available.

cheers.

Eric.

mikkosant

I was thinking about getting wishlist or easymember pro...BUT, I think I am going to hold off for the KAJABI launch. It looks pretty amazing, but we'll see..

Cheers

pearsonbrown

I've used Amember for years. One thing I don't like about it is that you do not get upgrades for life free. Most upgrades they do are because security problems are found within the software. I get fed up paying out extra money just for that.

Pearson

Craig Beckta

I use Amember on a couple of sites.

Works great.

Craig

mmancha

I like PremiumPress products. Mark Fail, their creator came out with one called MemberPress - it's in Beta. If it lives up to his other PremiumPress products, it will be worth checking into. He really thinks outside the box in creating his wordpress themes.
I use ShopperPress and there isn't really anything he has left out that you could imagine. I expect MemberPress to be the same kind of outstanding product.

Maureen

zonk

I offer a monthly service that customers subscribe with Paypal's subscribe function (via a Paypal subscribe created button) and auto-pay me on the same day every month. I would like to start an affiliate program and pay monthly percentage commissions from referred signups. Could VMS or LFM, or possibly EasyMemberPro accomplish this for me? I only use Paypal subscriptions and receive payment via Paypal.

brian@tollbooth247.com

For Wordpress, I've tried WPMUDev's Membership module - but I've found MagicMembership to be better.

donahueg

Wow. so much to look at. Can anyone recommend the best turn-key membership program out there. I've go Butterfly, I spent a small fortune having people set it up for me. I need something that I will not have turn around and pay someone else to build it. Let me clarify, I am happy to pay someone to maintain the site and do updates, but I don't want to be completely in the dark 'without' that person. And I don't want to have to buy a bunch of upgrades...You all sound knowledgeable, what about a guy like me. With lots of content - articles, blogs, forum moderator, but no special programing skills? What would work for me? The best answer gets free Gerontological advice for a year....

dwatrous

Send me a PM and I'll get you access to WordPress Membership University | The shortest path to a profitable, easy to use membership website

It will be launching in the next week or two and I would welcome your feedback. It will walk you through the entire process.

Daniel

Johnny Slater

All the solutions you mentioned hadles subscriptions very well. The major advangate that VMS has over the others you mentioned is that it handles instant commission payouts which means you don't have to worry about keeping track of affiliate tax information and your affiliates get paid automatically without you needing to do anything manually.

kona

I'm using Wishlist which is good. I've used DAP also. It has some nice features but I found it very frustrating to setup and use.

My issue with Wishlist is the Aweber Integration. Aweber will not allow single opt-in when integrated with Wishlist, which cause a decrease in opt in conversions. Wishlist sends out the membership login and pw after a customer registers. So the customer has no incentive to double opt-in with your Aweber autoresponder sequence.

Does anyone else have that problem with the other membership sites?

MChriston

Hi Kona,

Yep - we had the same problem, but we solved it in a very lateral way... Rather than simply offering an incentive to opt-in we went down the route of inspiring prospects to confirm their opt-in. We did this with a humorous reminder of the importance of opting in and our view on spam... and it worked, opt-ins increased.

This quick YouTube video includes a snippet of the video we created:


Who said business had to be 100% serious ...particularly if this approach increases conversions!

Hope this inspires some lateral action for you!

All the best,

Michael

ravijayagopal

DAP actually allows you to integrate with Aweber using both single- and double-optin.

Meaning, DAP-to-Aweber, and also Aweber-to-DAP. Both subscriber flows can be setup.

The single-optin (Aweber-to-DAP) flow however works only for free signups, because the signups start by signing up through your Aweber form, and Aweber then forwards the details to DAP.

Here's how it works...

See http://www.digitalaccesspass.com/doc...orm-to-signup/

Also, if the only reason you want to use Aweber is for their higher deliverability rates, then DAP has a workaround for that too.

Actually using Aweber as a third-party service just for their email service, and trying to keep your membership site and Aweber is sheer hell. Because what if subscriber upgrades from Silver to Gold? What if you give them access to a bonus product (or 2, or 3)? Are you going to set up Aweber list rules for each and every scenario (like "If subscriber joins List A, then remove from List B")? You'll go crazy tying to do all of those rules from both within Aweber as well as your membership script.

DAP provides an unbelievably cool and powerful way to overcome all those issues. It is the ability to use a 3rd party SMTP (email) provider right within DAP, and ask DAP to bypass your local web host, and send out all emails "via" this third party SMTP service.

That way, you never have to worry about adding and removing each member to Aweber or other 3rd party services. You get the power of DAP, and the deliverability of a professional email provider.

We've been recently testing ourselves for the last 2 months with a service called AuthSMTP.com (other companies providing this service are FuseMail.com and SMTP.com?)

Totally love it. And our deliverability has never been this good (for eg., we're getting "bounces" that we never used to get before, when just using our local web host).

And the set up is very simple:

1) Sign up for 3rd party service. They give you a SMTP server (mail.authsmtp.com), an account or email id (you@yoursite.com) and a password (12345).
2) Enter these 3 on DAP's "SMTP" page, and you're done with the setup in 30 seconds.

From that point onwards, DAP sends out all autoresponder & broadcast emails through the 3rd party provider, totally bypassing your host. Totally rocks.

Hope this helps.

- Ravi Jayagopal

dwatrous

I just built in a very sophisticated two way integration for MemberWing. It manages all the membership level changes and provides for access to protected content only after successful optin (without requiring the user to perform another registration).

I also integrated SMTP send capability into MemberWing for administrative emails, but despite Ravi's comments and his DAP platform, I completely disagree with the idea of self hosting a mailing list (unless perhaps it's smaller than a few hundred users). Stick with Aweber or another of the email services.

ravijayagopal

Daniel,

I completely agree with you. Aweber is a great option - but only until you start needing more deeper integration with your membership software. I explain this below.

If you read my comment above, I recommended using third-party services like SMTP.com, AuthSMTP.com or FuseMail.com - which are the equivalent of Aweber in terms of deliverability (percentages are arguable), but still allow third-party apps like DAP to send out emails "through" them.

There are times when Aweber is really great - and probably the simplest and best option for most folks. And DAP allows you to add every member (free or paid) joining your membership site to also get added to Aweber silently in the backend.

And then there'll be others who need more out of their database, and need more control over their mailing list options - and that's when using 3rd party SMTP services is a great option.

For example, if you have your own database and all of the member information is within your database, then it is very easy to do complex queries and come up with a user-segment to send out an email to, like for eg...

I want to send out an email to all users who joined before "mm-dd-yyyy", but after "mm2-dd2-yyyy2", have access to "Product X" and "Product Y", have logged in at least once, are also an affiliate, have at least 1 referral in the system, and have paid more than "$XX.yy", and in this email, I want to include their member login and password, and their affiliate link, and their affiliate statistics, etc"

If you have your own database, then you can easily do the above. And then, simply use a 3rd-party mailer to send out the email right from within your DAP dashboard.

Try doing that with a completely different email service like Aweber.

When someone joins your "Level A", you have to put them on "List A" on Aweber. If they upgrade to Level 2, then you have to move them to List B in Aweber. And if they unsubscribe from Product A, you have to remove them from List A on Aweber. And if they unsubscribe from Product B on your site, you have to unsubscribe them from List B on Aweber. And the list goes on.

I am telling you all of this because we've been there and seen both sides of the coin. We've seen our users trying to mimic their membership setup on Aweber too. You have to set up two disparate systems and try to get them to be in sync. This is actually much simpler if you have only a handful of members.

As your membership site grows into the high hundreds and thousands, this will get old really fast. And it's just not automatable after one point. Sure, you can have someone cheap do this for you, but the bottomline is, it is not seamless like you would want it to be, no matter what "email parsers" Aweber gives you or allows you to write yourself.

Which is actually why systems like MailChimp are gaining ground, because they have terrific API's, and great support, and if Aweber doesn't wake up and support third-party apps through good API's, they'll be eventually overtaken by the smarter companies who know that integration is a big piece of the puzzle.

So if you use DAP + SMTP provider, you get the best of both worlds. This is exactly why systems like Infusionsoft are popular - because the email marketing is fully integrated within one system, and you don't have to patch together multiple systems like Aweber + 1shoppingcart + Kunaki + .... + ..... But then they come at a hefty price too, so we won't go there now :-)

There's really no one-size-fits-all, one black-or-white solution here, folks.

But when you use a system like DAP, you are in control, and you can either use your local web host to send out emails, use Aweber or GetResponse (and soon MailChimp) to send out emails, or you can even use 3rd-party SMTP providers to send out your emails. You choose, so you are in control. If one thing doesn't work for you, then you can seamlessly switch to the other.

Okay, getting off my soapbox now :-)

Cheers!

- Ravi Jayagopal
Founder & Co-Developer, DAP

dwatrous

Ravi,

I don't have any data on deliverability one way or the other, but when you perform the types of database queries that you mention, you typically end up with a small group. I already mentioned those would probably work fine in a self hosted solution.

Using smtp.com is a better choice than the PHP mail function and so I think you might be right as far as deliverability goes.

Your comments about moving prospects from one list to another and back again aren't quite accurate. In the first place, I'm not sure you find many production membership websites that have as much movement as you suggest. I think that the large majority have people sign up to a product/list and stay their until the usefulness of the program ends.

The other inaccuracy is that Aweber (and mailchimp and 1shoppingcarts responder (probably all of them)) provide built in automation that will automatically move people from one list to another based on some simple rules. There's no need for API or complicated rules. You can set it all up through their web interface (e.g. when someone subscribes to list A unsub them from list B). All that's necessary is to subscribe them to the list that currently corresponds to their level and access. Let the email service provider handle the rest. So to suggest that someone would manually have to keep track of which list a user was on isn't really necessary. There's not need for more software to handle this. It's already done.

ravijayagopal

Daniel,

>>Your comments about moving prospects from one list to another and back again aren't quite accurate<<

Well, I'm not lying, and I'm not making this up. So I believe they are accurate :-)

I and my team personally deal with thousands of our DAP users, and we're on the forefront of seeing what people want from membership sites.

It actually happens more than you think.

Moving from "Free Signup" to "Silver Level" to then "Gold" or "Platinum" during Upsells, or during "seasonal" or "anniversary" special offers. So many use cases.

>>Aweber (and mailchimp and 1shoppingcarts responder (probably all of them)) provide built in automation that will automatically move people from one list to another based on some simple rules<<

Oh yes, I totally agree. In fact, I know for a fact that Aweber does. I actually mentioned that above. But what I was trying to point out was, that every time you plan on an upsell or upgrade or renewal, you have to make sure you replicate the same rule at Aweber (or other service). That does get old pretty fast.

Like I said earlier, there's really no one-size-fits-all. There's no "black and white" way to deal with this and say, "you must go this way" or "you must do it that way". Every solution has its own pluses and minuses.

Anyway, I'm not going to argue about these things. I wasn't trying to one-up you or anyone else.

I was speaking from my personal experiences in dealing with real membership site owners each and every day. I don't have a problem if you disagree with me about these :-)

So let's just agree to disagree, shall we? :-)

In peace...

- Ravi
PS: No offense meant. No offense taken. Cheers!

MChriston

Hey Ravi,

Just a quick post to say that all of your useful comments above inspired me to check out DAP...and WOW! ...your shopping cart will be hearing from me very soon!

In the mean time, I have some specific questions so please watch for a PM from me (thanks).

oh - And I love your Birthday video!

All the best,

Michael

freedumb

Maybe Kajabi. Maybe not.

Alexander Sebastian

DAP also gets my vote!

imguru

I think amember is great as well but I will look into DAP, looks excellent. thanks

David Neale

I think this is very good advice. Today powerful products that easily integrate into Wordpress are so simple to setup that they rival free and simple. In last few months I have setup two Wishlist Member websites and each took less than an hour, including PayPal integration. How much simpler can it get. Using that hour to setup something with a strong upside of features is much wiser in my opinion. You don`t want to have to redo the whole thing a few months down the road. I will also take a look at Steves product in his sig.

David Neale

Hello Daniel,

I manage many list for clients using aWeber, MailChimp, Campaign Manager etc. as well as several that use self hosted solutions and in my experience you can actually achieve as good a delivery rate using a self hosted solution with a clean and unique IP. I think its one of the biggest misconceptions out there today that you will get better delivery rates from a service like aWeber than you will from your own self hosted system. Of course I`m talking 100% white hat here but then so is aWeber and MailChimp.

These self hosted lists I manage range from a few hundred emails to more than 10,000.