Looking for Membership Site Recommendations

by gr101
25 replies
Hi,
I'm looking for recommendations on platforms and a way to do the following..

We're looking to start up a membership site.
The core of the site will be an alert that will be sent out to paying members.

What we're after:
  1. Some way to send an alert to all members of a paying group
  2. 1 month free membership (trial)
  3. A forum for any registered user.
  4. Free registration on the site.
  5. A protected forum for paying members.
  6. A way to send sms alerts to cellphones.
We'd like the platform to manage the subscriptions etc. using paypal. So for example a member can sign up stay with us for a while and then unsubscribe (cancel paypal recurring subscription) without us having to get involved.

From the reading so far I've found online is to use BuddyPress (this looks AMAZING!!!) and to link it up to s2member dot com. This caters for locking down of files and paths and paypal integration.

Please could you recommend what you would use or what you could help.

Much appreciated
#membership #recommendations #site
  • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
    Digital Access Pass or Optimize Press --- Top Two Membership Site on the Net
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    • Profile picture of the author TheFreebieGuy
      Originally Posted by Nickolie0990 View Post

      Digital Access Pass or Optimize Press --- Top Two Membership Site on the Net
      Optimize Press isn't a membership site. It's just a Wordpress theme. It doesn't handle any memberships.

      My top recommendations would be either Digital Access Pass or Wishlist Member. I've looked extensively at both, and they are both great options, especially for using wordpress. Optimizepress is a GREAT theme that works along very well with both Digital Access Pass and Wishlist Member.

      If you are looking for something that has both a membership site system and an affiliate system, Digital Access pass would be the way to go. I'm starting to prefer DAP over Wishlist for a number of reasons.

      Also, I would consider using it in conjunction with a service like Aweber to manage the emails. If you send out the emails from your regular hosting account, that can get complicated if your site gets too big, because hosting companies restrict the amount of emails you can send out per hour.

      So, for example, if you have 2000 people to send messages to, some hosting companies only allow you to send out 100 emails per hour and that would take 20 hours to send it out as opposed to a few minutes with Aweber.

      Well, I hope that helps. All the best with your project!
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      • Profile picture of the author sal64
        Originally Posted by TheFreebieGuy View Post

        Optimize Press isn't a membership site. It's just a Wordpress theme. It doesn't handle any memberships.

        My top recommendations would be either Digital Access Pass or Wishlist Member. I've looked extensively at both, and they are both great options, especially for using wordpress. Optimizepress is a GREAT theme that works along very well with both Digital Access Pass and Wishlist Member.

        If you are looking for something that has both a membership site system and an affiliate system, Digital Access pass would be the way to go. I'm starting to prefer DAP over Wishlist for a number of reasons.
        I was just thinking that. Optimize Press is a theme only.

        Am starting my first site with DAP.. but using wishlist mainly.

        DAP wins out due to the affiliate program.
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        • Profile picture of the author David-JP
          amember with wordpress/phpbb/aweber is a good solution (additional plugins are needed for wp/bb/awbr). For the SMS if you know of a system that sends them out (aweber doesnt yet) you can probably get an amember plugin built to hook into it. Definitely worth buggin aweber to get them to add sms to their system!

          David
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  • Profile picture of the author deckman
    I have been looking at magicmembers.com and it seems to have what I need and then some. It works with wordpress theme and integrates well with aweber as well as all the major paypal type sites.
    Some of the highlights are Payment Modules Integration, AutoResponder Integrations, Pay Per Post Access, Download Manager, Flexible Membership Options, Sequential Course Delivery System, Control Subscription Length, Easy Integration with Existing or New Blogs, Easy Member Management, Unlimited Membership Levels, 100% Compatible With Magic Affiliate, Secure RSS With Tokens, Multi Language Support and Custom Widgets & Shortcodes. They offer free unlimited support for one year and for the price you cant beat it.
    The cost is minimal and not recurring like some.

    Once I get my site together I will use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    I've used amember on around 15 sites so far.

    It can do everything you want except the SMS part.
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    I've built several membership sites using Joomla with the AEC and the fireboard plugins for membership processing and users' forum respectively. I've not had to send SMS, but a quick search on Google found this site http://www.jeema.net/downloads/jooml...component.html I haven't used it myself, so I can't vouch for it, but I'm sure there are others out there.

    The great thing about Joomla is it's all open source, so you can get most of what you need for free. There are lots of free and paid-for plugins out there, and because it's open source you can always get a programmer to write something for you if need be.
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  • Profile picture of the author CyberSorcerer
    Well I have a membership site opening up next year and I can tell you what I use which can handle what you won't with a little customization.

    I'm using Wishlist Member to manage the site, along with Wordpress of course. The forum platform is vBulletin 4.0.1 with the vBulletin Bridge which integrated it with Wordpress. The SMS I'm not sure if Wordpress has a plugin or maybe vBulletin might have one. In any case, one can be made by a PHP programmer.

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author techvic
    I've used Amember and Membergate. Amember is much cheaper but more limited and you are more or less on your own.

    If you can afford the expense Membergate can't really be beat. It's very powerful and easy to use. Their support is great too. And they have the forum capability you were mentioning.

    It also depends on how many members you are expecting. From experience I have to say migrating membership sites is a lot of work so don't pick a cheaper solution and figure that it'll be easy to move later. It's not.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rex.T
    I've only heard good things about amember. Have a couple of friends using them for quite a while without complaints.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex.Fields
    In the past i have used Amember to expirement with membership sites. it work quite good with alot of plugins available for it. it is worth checking it out.
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  • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
    @gr101,

    DigitalAccessPass.com (DAP) can do all of this except the SMS-related item.

    DAP integrates with WP-based forum plugins, like bbPress & Simpleress, as well as high-end forum software like vBulletin (the Warrior Forum is using a modded version of vBulletin I believe).

    You can do all kinds of paid forums, paid threads, etc.

    Hope this helps.

    - Ravi Jayagopal
    PS: Disclosure - I'm the founder/co-developer of DAP.

    Originally Posted by gr101 View Post

    Hi,
    I'm looking for recommendations on platforms and a way to do the following..

    We're looking to start up a membership site.
    The core of the site will be an alert that will be sent out to paying members.

    What we're after:
    1. Some way to send an alert to all members of a paying group
    2. 1 month free membership (trial)
    3. A forum for any registered user.
    4. Free registration on the site.
    5. A protected forum for paying members.
    6. A way to send sms alerts to cellphones.
    We'd like the platform to manage the subscriptions etc. using paypal. So for example a member can sign up stay with us for a while and then unsubscribe (cancel paypal recurring subscription) without us having to get involved.

    From the reading so far I've found online is to use BuddyPress (this looks AMAZING!!!) and to link it up to s2member dot com. This caters for locking down of files and paths and paypal integration.

    Please could you recommend what you would use or what you could help.

    Much appreciated
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    • Profile picture of the author Punit
      @Ravi,

      I understand you know DAP very well, can you tell me if it’s possible to use Multiple Payment Processors simultaneously, what I mean is that is, can I set it up in such a way that anyone can subscribe via PayPal, Click Bank and 1ShoppingCart for the same membership?

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
        Punit,

        Yes, you can sell access to the same products/membership-levels using multiple (DAP-supported) payment processors at the same time.

        You could even publish different buy buttons (like Paypal, CB and 1SC) all on the same sales page on your site.

        Or you could even setup different "sales-page-only" sites dedicated to each payment processor. Totally up to you.

        For instance, one cool thing that this strategy allows, is that to attract all CB affiliates, you could create a separate "mini-site" (sales-page only) with a CB buy-button (which is integrated with DAP on your "main" site). Similarly, you could create a separate mini-site for e-junkie.

        And on your main site, you could be selling both via 1SiteAutomation.com (private label of 1SC) and Paypal.

        So by selling access to the same product/membership-level separately using processors like CB and e-junkie, you can take advantage of the built-in affiliate network these services have.

        Hope this helps.

        - Ravi Jayagopal


        Originally Posted by Punit View Post

        @Ravi,

        I understand you know DAP very well, can you tell me if it's possible to use Multiple Payment Processors simultaneously, what I mean is that is, can I set it up in such a way that anyone can subscribe via PayPal, Click Bank and 1ShoppingCart for the same membership?

        Thanks
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        • Profile picture of the author Punit
          @Ravi,

          what is the cost of Upgrades and Support after the first year? couldn't find this info on the website...

          Thanks
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          • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
            Punit,

            See http://DigitalAccessPass.com/buyupgrades.php

            - Ravi Jayagopal

            Originally Posted by Punit View Post

            @Ravi,

            what is the cost of Upgrades and Support after the first year? couldn't find this info on the website...

            Thanks
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            • Profile picture of the author Punit
              Originally Posted by ravijayagopal View Post

              Ravi,

              im very close to making a choice with Membership Site Software, but i have a Scenario which I would like to implement and would like to know if I can achieve this using DAP, it goes like this...

              I would like to give the subscriber choice of which content package they would like to See or download for that particular month. Although they should only be able to download one content package per month and if they like to have other packages they can purchase them from the built in shopping cart. This also helps subscribers down the line, where they will be able to get previously released content, instead of forcing them to take only what I give them.


              In summary, every month (or whatever the recurring billing time is i.e. every 2, 3 or 6 months etc) I would like to give the subscriber the Choice to pick which content package they would like for that month etc.


              Can I achieve this with DAP?

              Thanks
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              • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
                We offer a premium plugin for DAP, called the "Self-Service Store" (SSS), that lets you do exactly that - you offer credits to your members in return for their payment (either one-time, or every month). And then *they* get to choose which content to redeem their credits towards.

                Similar to, say, the Audible.com model: Buy credits, use it towards anything in your "store".

                You can get a glimpse of it here:
                http://DigitalAccessPass.com/new/self-service-store.php

                We've temporarily taken it off the market as we're making updates to it, but it should be available for purchase within 4-6 weeks.

                - Ravi Jayagopal

                Originally Posted by Punit View Post

                Ravi,

                im very close to making a choice with Membership Site Software, but i have a Scenario which I would like to implement and would like to know if I can achieve this using DAP, it goes like this...

                I would like to give the subscriber choice of which content package they would like to See or download for that particular month. Although they should only be able to download one content package per month and if they like to have other packages they can purchase them from the built in shopping cart. This also helps subscribers down the line, where they will be able to get previously released content, instead of forcing them to take only what I give them.


                In summary, every month (or whatever the recurring billing time is i.e. every 2, 3 or 6 months etc) I would like to give the subscriber the Choice to pick which content package they would like for that month etc.


                Can I achieve this with DAP?

                Thanks
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                • Profile picture of the author Punit
                  Ravi, perfect exactly what i was looking for...

                  Originally Posted by ravijayagopal View Post

                  We offer a premium plugin for DAP, called the "Self-Service Store" (SSS), that lets you do exactly that - you offer credits to your members in return for their payment (either one-time, or every month). And then *they* get to choose which content to redeem their credits towards.

                  Similar to, say, the Audible.com model: Buy credits, use it towards anything in your "store".

                  You can get a glimpse of it here:
                  Creating a Product

                  We've temporarily taken it off the market as we're making updates to it, but it should be available for purchase within 4-6 weeks.

                  - Ravi Jayagopal
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  • Profile picture of the author Daveyz
    Maybe try Membernaire? Never tried it before but heard of good things about them...
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  • Profile picture of the author ara67
    take a look at these 2 sites 1here 2here you can set up forums in both of them easy to do, they are very affordable if you would like to by them without going trough all the hard work, unless you know what your doing, let me know if interested.......
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  • Profile picture of the author 247Copywriter
    Someone may have recommended this...

    http://http://member.wishlistproducts.com/

    Also as far as I'm aware, the person behind this is also a Warrior.

    Type Wishlist into the search tab on the red navigation bar up top, 3rd from the right.
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  • Profile picture of the author fated82
    DAP is the way to go. I am currently running 2 sites with DAP and it's easy to set up...Highly recommended!!
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  • Profile picture of the author ShaneRQR
    I can vouch for Digital Access Pass. It's brilliant.

    I've tested pretty much every major product delivery/membership platfrom available and for digital products and membership sites, DAP is definitely the top solution out there. A close second would be Memberwing-x.
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  • Profile picture of the author tantan
    Personally I would recommend Magic Members, since I have tested it. Please read my Wordpress membership site quick guide here: hilyamedia.com/how-to-create-wordpress-membership-site
    Magic Members has ability of integration to Simple Press (Wordpress forum plugin). So the member information will be stored on one place, members automatically registered on forum.
    There're also options for membership level (mandatory feature for all membership software) such as free, silver, gold, etc.
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