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Invite Only Membership Site

by kk075
10 replies
I have a quick question- does anyone here have experience with building a membership site that's invite only? In other words, members could only be added with an exclusive invitation and then a registration process.

I don't want to give out my idea since I think it's pretty big, but I'll use this as an example. I'm skilled at something and I want to teach a select number of students that skill. Let's say I want to cap it at 50 students at a time...and those students would be un-enrolled once the course is over. Then I'd send out 50 new invitations for a new round. Does that make sense?

Also, this site would not rank and it would be extremely exclusive; I'd only want my students to find it by invitation. So it could have a bare minimum homepage that doesn't even show what the site's for. I would do press releases to spark curiosity, but I'd intentionally keep it a mystery.

I'm a writer by trade that's very weak on the technical side of online marketing, so I was curious how hard something like this would be to implement. Any advice would be very appreciated.
#invite #membership #site
  • Profile picture of the author rosario1990
    Is your site related to learning?
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    • Profile picture of the author kk075
      Originally Posted by rosario1990 View Post

      Is your site related to learning?
      It's not a learning site, per say...it will be a benefit site. In other words, members have access to the members area and can access a, b, c and d. Everyone else just sees a homepage with very basic information.
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  • Profile picture of the author We Sell Sunglasses
    I kind of like the idea. As with a traditional site you'd have to hustle to keep finding new members and if you are too mysterious about what the site is about you won't get anyone to join. But as a concept, I like the whole invitation required idea.
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    We Sell Sunglasses
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  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

    I have a quick question- does anyone here have experience with building a membership site that's invite only? In other words, members could only be added with an exclusive invitation and then a registration process.
    This is certainly doable with a little PHP coding.

    Also, this site would not rank and it would be extremely exclusive; I'd only want my students to find it by invitation. So it could have a bare minimum homepage that doesn't even show what the site's for. I would do press releases to spark curiosity, but I'd intentionally keep it a mystery.
    The invitation link (i.e. delivered via email) could include a confirmation code that is checked by the PHP code on the server, to determine if the visitor is arriving with/without the confirmation code.

    If not, a bare bones page with something like "Sorry - By Invitation Only" is shown to the visitor.

    If the visitor arrives with the confirmation code a different "page" could be rendered in their browser window containing either 1) a registration form, or 2) a full sales letter with a buy button.

    For the most controlled situation, the confirmation code (secret key) should be a machine generated hash code, and should be valid for only a specific period of time (i.e. expires in 8 hrs, 24 hrs, 2 days, etc.).
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    • Profile picture of the author kk075
      Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

      This is certainly doable with a little PHP coding.



      The invitation link (i.e. delivered via email) could include a confirmation code that is checked by the PHP code on the server, to determine if the visitor is arriving with/without the confirmation code.

      If not, a bare bones page with something like "Sorry - By Invitation Only" is shown to the visitor.

      If the visitor arrives with the confirmation code a different "page" could be rendered in their browser window containing either 1) a registration form, or 2) a full sales letter with a buy button.

      For the most controlled situation, the confirmation code (secret key) should be a machine generated hash code, and should be valid for only a specific period of time (i.e. expires in 8 hrs, 24 hrs, 2 days, etc.).
      I appreciate that....it's exactly what I was looking for. Do you think it would it be difficult to implement securely? And by "difficult", I guess I mean expensive. =)
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      • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
        Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

        I appreciate that....it's exactly what I was looking for. Do you think it would it be difficult to implement securely? And by "difficult", I guess I mean expensive. =)
        A really complete solution shouldn't take more than a day's development effort (including testing).

        It would be best if the 2 versions of the page (Sorry - by Invitation vs. registration page) were implemented as standalone HTML files so that a non-programmer (i.e. you) could readily modify them without having to muck about with the code.

        The correct version of the page would then be rendered based on whether a valid confirmation code was supplied in the URL (i.e. http://mydomain.com/?invite=4GX06411B8211161S).

        Your developer might create a database table of valid confirmation codes and their expiration times. For a database controlled solution, you could have each valid confirmation code generated and stored on the database at the time you send it out, or you could have a CRON job run periodically to add x number of valid codes to the database.

        An easier solution (non database, but just as secure) would be to have the confirmation code generated based on the time it was created, the time it is to expire, and a static 3rd parameter (secret). Then when the page is fetched, the PHP code could decrypt the confirmation code and extract the expiration date to insure that is was still valid.

        This would have to be integrated into your course delivery mechanism (i.e. membership site or forum category), but that shouldn't be very difficult once you've decided what you will use for the content delivery. If that decision has already been made, the developer will be able to include that integration into his/her testing and you'll be a much happier camper.
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        • Profile picture of the author kk075
          Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

          A really complete solution shouldn't take more than a day's development effort (including testing).

          It would be best if the 2 versions of the page (Sorry - by Invitation vs. registration page) were implemented as standalone HTML files so that a non-programmer (i.e. you) could readily modify them without having to muck about with the code.

          The correct version of the page would then be rendered based on whether a valid confirmation code was supplied in the URL (i.e. http://mydomain.com/?invite=4GX06411B8211161S).

          Your developer might create a database table of valid confirmation codes and their expiration times. For a database controlled solution, you could have each valid confirmation code generated and stored on the database at the time you send it out, or you could have a CRON job run periodically to add x number of valid codes to the database.

          An easier solution (non database, but just as secure) would be to have the confirmation code generated based on the time it was created, the time it is to expire, and a static 3rd parameter (secret). Then when the page is fetched, the PHP code could decrypt the confirmation code and extract the expiration date to insure that is was still valid.

          This would have to be integrated into your course delivery mechanism (i.e. membership site or forum category), but that shouldn't be very difficult once you've decided what you will use for the content delivery. If that decision has already been made, the developer will be able to include that integration into his/her testing and you'll be a much happier camper.
          Thanks for that...I'm going to PM you to make this conversation a little more private.
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  • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
    Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

    I'm a writer by trade (hmmm... ) that's very weak on the technical side of online marketing, so I was curious how hard something like this would be to implement. Any advice would be very appreciated.
    Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

    It's not a learning site, per say...it will be a benefit site. In other words, members have access to the members area and can access a, b, c and d. Everyone else just sees a homepage with very basic information.
    Per se | Define Per se at Dictionary.com
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    • Profile picture of the author kk075
      Originally Posted by AnniePot View Post

      You're completely right, "per say" is slang that shouldn't be used by a professional writer.

      Originally Posted by AnniePot View Post

      I have found that Facebook ads perform much the best for my genre of fiction writing.
      But since we're on a forum where people type 100 WPM because they're not expecting to be spell/grammar checked, maybe we shouldn't flame people for that. Who knows though, that's just my "much the best" advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
    Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

    I have a quick question- does anyone here have experience with building a membership site that's invite only? In other words, members could only be added with an exclusive invitation and then a registration process.

    I don't want to give out my idea since I think it's pretty big, but I'll use this as an example. I'm skilled at something and I want to teach a select number of students that skill. Let's say I want to cap it at 50 students at a time...and those students would be un-enrolled once the course is over. Then I'd send out 50 new invitations for a new round. Does that make sense?

    Also, this site would not rank and it would be extremely exclusive; I'd only want my students to find it by invitation. So it could have a bare minimum homepage that doesn't even show what the site's for. I would do press releases to spark curiosity, but I'd intentionally keep it a mystery.

    I'm a writer by trade that's very weak on the technical side of online marketing, so I was curious how hard something like this would be to implement. Any advice would be very appreciated.
    Not sure if this will help your or not, so I offer it as food for thought, ok?

    lotterycashcast dot com is a current version of a secret site I've had for over a decade, it has always been by invitation only.

    Also, at sowpub dot com we've had several private password protected sub-forums, which have worked great for short term instruction/education. There is one there right now, but does not appear to the general public or to forum members, it requires a password too.

    Over the years, I prefer a forum, because it allows members to exchange ideas, and in effect to post content too.

    Lots of ways to go about this, I like the way Sid Hale php way sounds too, although I've never used it.

    gjabiz
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