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What's the best way?

by taffie
8 replies
What could be the best way to go about protecting parts of your content on your site so people have to sign up to read the rest of the content anyone? What's good and yet cost effective, I need to do that and thought let me ask before I go and pay an arm and a leg.

Thanks.
  • Profile picture of the author mattmax
    It really depends on the site, but most CMS (WordPress, Joomla, etc.) sites basically have this built in (or as freely available plugins), in the sense that you can set content as only available to registered (and logged in) users.

    For non CMS sites, you would need a user management system (usually based on PHP/MySQL, or some other scripting platform) - many of those are freely available.

    Either way works, and will allow you to selectively lock down whatever content you want, but they do have varying degrees of technical difficulty associated with them.

    Going the CMS route is probably the easiest to manage on an ongoing basis, and there will be more readily available support, plus it will be relatively more easy to find a cheap contractor to help out, since so many work on those platforms.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author MikesWebShow
    You might try giving away the first page (or several paragraphs) of the content for FREE and let them download the rest through Paypal. This also gives you a good idea of what is hot! (People vote with their wallets).
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  • Profile picture of the author mattmax
    Another way to go is to deliver the content via autoresponder. Most email providers allow attachments, so the moment someone hits the mail form, they would get the content delivered to their inbox.
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    • Profile picture of the author taffie
      Thanks guys, this is all very valuable suggestions. Matt I found a Drupal-membership-script, and a friend who is willing to charge me $300 for the job, would you say $300 is fair or is it too much?

      Mike that's surely an option worth persuing, I believe I have great content on my blog which I feel I am just giving away just like that. I think charging via paypal is a good idea considering the time and knowledge I put into this, even if it's only a small fee, or like yougottoheartthis said, protect it even if it's free, that way you know who your real fans are, and can provide even more value to them.

      Thanks again guys.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattmax
    I've not done any work with Drupal, but I have worked on both Joomla and WordPress, and it is not too hard to imagine that the install is worth that kind of money, even at friend prices, if the person doing the work is in the UK, and depending on what it needs done to make it suit your needs.

    If your current site is based on Drupal, then that sounds like a good way to go.
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    • Profile picture of the author taffie
      Unfortunately my site is on Wordpress, and my friend is more inclined to Drupal and is in the US, will see what happens.
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      Coach | Mentor | Consultant | I work with business owners, marketers, experts, or coaches/ and mentors who want to understand new media or digital marketing better http://tinyurl.com/tdmentorspace
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  • Profile picture of the author mattmax
    For WordPress, you can use something like this: User Access Manager

    I've not used it, but at a glance, it looks like it allows easy content segmentation based on user groups, etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author taffie
      Originally Posted by mattmax View Post

      For WordPress, you can use something like this: User Access Manager

      I've not used it, but at a glance, it looks like it allows easy content segmentation based on user groups, etc.
      Thanks again Matt, just thought I would let you knowI have now come across s2Member? Was wondering if anyone has used it and if so, what could be your opinion please?

      Thanks.
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      Coach | Mentor | Consultant | I work with business owners, marketers, experts, or coaches/ and mentors who want to understand new media or digital marketing better http://tinyurl.com/tdmentorspace
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