My $15 Membership Site Blueprint..

[John Taylor]

I've spent the better part of today setting up a new
blog based membership site.

I already had the domain.. in fact I've been planning
to set this up for ages, but I finally managed to get
on with it today. Anyway, back to the plot.. assuming
you need to buy a domain, let's say $10

I set up a cpanel hosting account and used Fantastico
to install a basic Wordpress blog. I put the blog in its
own sub-directory, to allow for flexibility in the future.
Let's assume my hosting costs are $5 a month (The
site is on one of my own servers)

I set up a simple redirect on the site's root index page
to make sure casual visitors will land on the blog.

My next step was to set up wordpress with my own set
of basic plugins.

I then found a theme that had a nice fit with the purpose
of my blog and I edited the header, footer and css files to
my own personal tastes.

The next, and most complicated step, was to install and to
configure the free version of the MemberWing plugin. This
involved making sure that the IPN settings and auto-return
setting in my PayPal account were correctly configured.

Then I set up a PayPal subscription button and pasted the
code together with some brief sales copy in a dedicated
"Become A Premium Member" page.

Finally, I wrote and published five "articles" to my blog, some
of which included the "marker" to indicate the beginning of
premium content.

A quick request for beta testers here in the forum and a few
very kind Warriors helped me to iron out a couple of self
inflicted bugs and I was ready to launch.

So, I now have a fully functioning Membership site with an
in-build content management system, including the ability
to schedule my publishing, Set up and first months running
costs are around $15.

What are you waiting for? Get on with it!

John

[Lee Campbell]

Wow this seems a lot simpler then setting up something along the lines with Joomla. My question is can you set up different level of memberships and such?

But still a brilliant plan.

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Lee Campbell

Wow this seems a lot simpler then setting up something along the lines with Joomla. My question is can you set up different level of memberships and such?

But still a brilliant plan.

Yes, the MemberWing Plugin allows you to set up
Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum levels and each
level can have its own subscription fee.

John

[Paul Hartunian]

John,

Excellent post. Thanks!

What other plug ins do you use in your membership sites?

Regards,
Paul

[Tim Dixon]

Wow John, this is a beauty.

I was looking for something like this a while back but I never found the MemberWing plugin.

I take it that this just secures the actual content within WordPress? I only ask because I had to use something that secured access to my niche database which sits outside of WordPress (so I had to use a PHP script called iSubscribe).

But to be honest it was a right pain to get working so if I set up a membership site within WordPress in the future, I will definately use this model.

Many thanks.
Tim

[Lee Campbell]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

Yes, the MemberWing Plugin allows you to set up
Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum levels and each
level can have its own subscription fee.

John

Does this also allow each of the levels to have certain access to certain things whether it be an individual page or blog entry.

Lee

[Ron Rajan]

John,

Fantastic post..the plugin looks really cool too! Does it allow you to drip content each month i.e so members who join today don't get access to all the content from the past etc....

Ron

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by jhollar

John,

Fantastic post..the plugin looks really cool too! Does it allow you to drip content each month i.e so members who join today don't get access to all the content from the past etc....

Ron

Short answer: Yes!

John

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Paul Hartunian

John,

Excellent post. Thanks!

What other plug ins do you use in your membership sites?

Regards,
Paul

Hi Paul,

I've only installed the bare minimum at the moment, as
I didn't want to complicate the set up.

As well as MemberWing, I've activated:

SpamKarma2 - In my opinion, the best comment Spam
prevention tool

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer - avoids multiple pings when
editing posts

AudioPlayer - I plan to add Podcasts to the premium area.

John

[Paul Myers]

John,

Very cool. One question...

Did you configure the IPN and auto-return in the button/order link itself? If not, you might have challenges with any return pages that are straight HTML.


Paul

[Tim Dixon]

Another thought, can you integrate any affiliate models with this?

I'm thinking PayDotCom really as the subscription is PayPal based.

Tim

[Marhelper]

John,

Do you have a link to your membership site so I can see how it looks first hand?

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

John,

Very cool. One question...

Did you configure the IPN and auto-return in the button/order link itself? If not, you might have challenges with any return pages that are straight HTML.


Paul

Paul,

After trying a few alternative settings I discovered that
the optimum set up is with auto-return set to off and the
IPN set to on, with a return url to the root domain.

The "success" and "cancelled" return urls can be easily set
up in the subscription button.

Getting that part of the set up was the most challenging
part of the entire process. But, if I can do it, there's hope
for many!

John

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Tim Dixon

Another thought, can you integrate any affiliate models with this?

I'm thinking PayDotCom really as the subscription is PayPal based.

Tim

Not as far as I know Tim, it's certainly
something that I'd be interested in and
I'll be asking the developer if it's a
possibility.

John

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Marhelper

John,

Do you have a link to your membership site so I can see how it looks first hand?

I deleiberately avoided posting the URL because
I didn't want this to be seen as a promotional
post.

I'm sure if you were to look in the right places,
you'd soon find it. Or just send me a PM.

John

[Paul Myers]

Do you have a link to your membership site so I can see how it looks first hand?

That would be his IM gossip column, at Marketing Confidential.


Paul

[Nathan Hangen]

Very nice, do you haev any subscribers yet?

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by nhangen

Very nice, do you haev any subscribers yet?

Yes, the premier membership base in growing.

John

[Nathan Denton]

Well done John, that is certainly one way of getting things done quickly. A membership site in one day, wow. I wonder how many members you'll have in 30 days from now?

Good luck with it.

Nathan

[Jim M]

Originally Posted by nhangen
Very nice, do you have any subscribers yet?

Having joined and seen 'under the hood', I can confirm to anyone who want's good straight, up to date info without the spin. John's new site ticks all the boxes, it's very early days but it's obvious this will grow into a great resource for internet marketers.

[John Taylor]

Jim,

Thank you. I really appreciate your feedback.

The site isn't yet two days old and I have great
plans to add lots of value for my new members.

In fact I've just posted yet another new article

John

[MikeCollins]

Wow, thanks for sharing your plan John. I've been thinking about starting a membership site and this model seems really simple and straightforward. I hope you have lots of luck with it.

[Simplweb]

Originally Posted by Lee Campbell

Wow this seems a lot simpler then setting up something along the lines with Joomla. My question is can you set up different level of memberships and such?

But still a brilliant plan.

Hmmmm

That might be good for a very simple application, but for any meaningful membership website you need to be trying to create a viral online community. A huge piece of that is a forum. You need user profiles to leverage the social networking as well.

Coincidentally enough (no... really), I just launched a WSO for Joomla-based membership sites. Obviously more expensive, but I can create them faster than your solution .

We actually had a couple of guys create full-blown membership websites using their iphones!

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Paul Hartunian

What other plug ins do you use in your membership sites?

Paul,

Sorry, I missed one..

WordPress › All in One SEO Pack WordPress Plugins

John

[JL Melvin]

John - is that a custom WP theme?

If you don't mind me asking who created it for you?

I'm going to have to dig into this, because I run a resume writing website and this might be what I need to take it to the next level.

Jeff

[Ross Kenny]

Just get on with it is the moral of the story...!!!!!!

I did with my Keyword Junkies Membership site and never looked back..

You have to see your projects through to the end otherwise you'll fail and destroy your mindset...!!

[thomasukm]

Hey John,

Really great setup, i have seen more membership sites turn to using wordpress format due to easy of setup and the availability of plugins.

Thomas

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by JL Melvin

John - is that a custom WP theme?

If you don't mind me asking who created it for you?

I'm going to have to dig into this, because I run a resume writing website and this might be what I need to take it to the next level.

Jeff

Jeff,

The WP FullSite Theme was completely free, all I did was edit
the logo and make minor changes to the CSS file.

John

[Bev Clement]

It looks like a great model John, and having that plug in makes so much sense. I'm looking forward to using it for a diet site for the new year. I was wondering which route to take, and that makes perfect sense. Thanks for letting us know, and about the drip feed through the date of the posts.

[Patrice Le Vexier]

Thanks for sharing this John, it's basically a business in a box you're offering here...

And as subscriber, I can say the content is really excellent.

Patrice

[John Taylor]

A couple of updates..

1. In a little less than 48 hours since the blog was re-launched
there have been a total of 559 unique visitors.

2. The sign up to premium conversion rate is 2.7%

3. I've added eight blog posts and there are 16 comments from
visitors and members.

Assuming I can get four new members each day, the blog will
be have earned around $1,200 by the end of month one. Similarly,
if the rate of membership growth is maintained, the blog will
be making over $14,000 a month this time next year.

Initial investment $15... Food for thought?

John

[Ron Rajan]

John - that's fantastic!!! congrats as well on the re-launch. Could you mention how you promoted your new membership site?

Ron

[Sylvia Meier]

John great post, gonna set myself up a few. I posted about this on my new site, as well as crediting you for it, with a link to your blog.

[Headhunting55]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

Initial investment $15... Food for thought?

John

No, DESSERT for thought!

Nice work, John!

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by jhollar

John - that's fantastic!!! congrats as well on the re-launch. Could you mention how you promoted your new membership site?

Ron

Hi Ron,

So far..

1. Sent an announcement to my related lists.
2. Announcements on Twitter.
3. A Warrior Special Offer.
4. Used BigMike's SocialBot 3.0
5. Used BigMike's RSSbot to post the feed to 30 directories.
6. Announcement of my existing blog
7. Added a link to my Warrior sig
8. Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us & Reddit

and I'm sure that this thread has helped too.

John

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by jibond

..how much is reasonable charge for each month payment?

The only people who can answer that
question are your potential members.

If you already have a list, set up a free
survey using SurveyMonkey and ask them
to choose between a range of price options

what are the most crucial part when we begin build my membership site?

The most crucial element is knowing your
target market. Your membership site
should provide content that meets their
needs and answer their most pressing questions.



John

[James Schramko]

My daughter did the same thing with a gaming niche.
She made video tutorials showing cheats.

It was only $10 for 6 months. She used a plugin
called wp-Member.com Advanced Wordpress Membership Plugin

It is a great little business model.

[Lance]

Can't do it for that now. If you want paypal with Memberwing, you have to go with one of the paid versions that are now available. Looks like a good script!

Lance

[Nightengale]

Cool model!

Question though:

I've never created a membership site and am very interested in this model for doing so. But what about those members who drop out? Will they be able to access the members-only area if they've bookmarked the page?

I've seen members-only areas lock out members if their memberships lapsed and I've seen other members-only areas allow people back in if they'd bookmarked the correct page even though their membership had lapsed. So I'm just wondering if this model allows you to lock out people of they let their membership lapse.

Thanks,
Michelle

[Mark Riddle]

Unfortunately, The plug in cost $79 to implement this simple $15 membership for it to be automated.

Mark

[Lance]

When John first made the post, Memberwing was free. Since then, the developer added a few things that warriors suggested in another thread and has started charging based on different options available. Looks to be a cool script, although I haven't tried it.

Lance

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by netmalls

Unfortunately, The plug in cost $79 to implement this simple $15 membership for it to be automated.

Mark

The free version of the script is still available
and, while automation can be bought at an
additional cost, it is still possible to set up
a membership blog for $15.

Of course, as you grow your list of members,
you can reinvest your income in automation.

John

[ebiz96]

Thank you John.

Great business model.


Ash

[dordor]

awesome post !

I always look for GPL script (like wordpress, joomla etc.) it's easy to learn and almost free to use.

thanks

[digitalnow]

Thanks, John!
I've been gearing up to do exactly this! You kind of lost me at:

"After trying a few alternative settings I discovered that
the optimum set up is with auto-return set to off and the
IPN set to on, with a return url to the root domain.

The "success" and "cancelled" return urls can be easily set
up in the subscription button."

but hopefully I can figure it out. I'm not thrilled with the 15+79=94 price, but I was thinking of password protecting pages and I'm sure this was is much easier and more user friendly.

David

[Steven Fullman]

John,

I've checked out your blog...looks good to me.

I have a question.

Can MemberWing be used in a free membership model? For instance, I notice you 'tease' some content a la, "...To read the rest of this article you need to be a premium member".

Can Premium Membership be a simple opt-in?

Nice find,
Steve

[John Taylor]

David,

The settings I referred to are the settings that you control
from within your PayPal admin control panel.

I had to experiement quite a bit before I figured out the best
setting for my membership blog.

John

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

Can Premium Membership be a simple opt-in?

Steve,

I haven't tried a free model. I use my own script:
Reverse Squeeze Wordpress Plug-In to capture optins
from within a WP blog.

John

[MarketingZen]

Awesome model John you should write a step-by-step WSO report for us less experienced Warriors!

Thanks again and Happy New Year everyone!

[romanmt]

Thanks for your post, John!