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Creating a subscription/membership site, how do I go about it?

by Neil1980
14 replies
I have a question for you warriors.

I have a business idea. I want to create a site where people can learn vocabulary for a foreign language. Essentially, it will be using flashcards. I want people to sign up and then when they log in to their account they will be able to create their own presonalised list of vocabulary to learn and test themselves on.

I want to create a subscription/membership site, so people can sign up and get a free trial, but they would have to pay a monthly fee via Paypal if they want full access.

So what is the best way to go about this? I have very little web design/technical skills in this sort of thing....would I be best looking on a freelance website to hire someone to make the site, or is there a company that produces 'ready made' subscription/membership sites already?

I cannot reveal which language this will be for, nor can I reveal the methods for learning vocab (obviously, in case someone steals the idea, as these methods are unique!), but I would appreciate your technical help on this.

Thanks.
#creating #site
  • Profile picture of the author pdrs
    Hey There,

    If you have some basic Wordpress experience than I would highly recommend s2member for getting started.

    It's 100% free and makes a great way to start up a membership site without laying out very much upfront... if the site does well you may want to consider moving to a paid membership system at somepoint or even just upgrading the s2member to their paid version.

    Best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author NeilC
    I run my membership using Wordpress and Wishlist member and that seems to work well for a lot of people.

    It's fairly easy to set up once you get used to it but feel free to get in touch over on my site if you'd like some help.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayParker
    You can use Wordpress for running your membership site, many Warriors use it, there are plugins like s2 member and wishlist that can help you automate the Payment with Paypal or Clickbank.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    Neil,
    I recommend you read the following thread - it covers a lot of ground on running membership sites....

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...hip-sites.html

    good luck,
    --Jack
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    • Profile picture of the author easternodyssey
      Sorry to break the dream, it is a good idea that can make money, but its far from unique. Many sites use this method most niticably being the long list of 101 sites. If you want to design the website i would suggest you use CMS and either Joomla or Wordpress as drupel maybe a little hard. You would need to use a social component first and possibly use a content creation component for users to create there flashcards. Personally it maybe a little hard with the flashcards for a none experienced web designer. However, the best way to go about it is to design the overall look e.g template, layout etc and then worry about the content creation at a later date when everything is set up.

      If you need any help and designed to use Joomla you can contact me on my user profile.
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  • Profile picture of the author source47
    I have used EasyMemberPro and it's really easy to use. If you want to look into something that uses Wordpress. You can use Cart66 Lite (Just Google it). It is an eCommerce Wordpress plugin that has membership capabilities.

    WordPress - WP Premium Members + Pre Advertisements admin | CodeCanyon

    The plugin above is only $20 and I'm experimenting with it right now on a blog that I resurrected.

    I hope that this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Burritt
    Banned
    S2Member plugin, as mentioned above, is free.

    But to save time, you can always get someone off odesk to install it on your wordpress blog and get it working for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author wordpressmania
    Here is some point you can think before running a memebeship site based on WordPress platform....

    1. s2Member is a plugin that is not enough feature list but free to use.... ( you have to upgrade to have features )
    2. Wishlist most used and feature riced membership plugin.... It has some limitation.... When you site will be bigger and your site will be hosted on a shared hosting ( most of us have share hosting ) your site will be crashed due to high sever side memory used by this plugin....
    3. Now a days I always use wpEmember as I it cheap than that of Wishlist and much more featured riced than that of s2Member

    I think you should think about one more time before making your site a It will cost you a lot to to have all the features that you are willing to have on your membership site.... Also I think that you have to do a lot of SEO to get potential clients...

    Hope it helps
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbacklink
    I have run many subscription sites. I fully recommend using WordPress/S2Member (Paypal) with a theme like optimize press or Profits theme. There are a ton of step by steps for that. Profits theme actually has a members setup built into the theme with a step by step guide to setup. I've done IM and web design since the late 90s and can tell you that is the way to go. I use WordPress/S2Member for my sites. Just started with Profits theme but have mainly used optimize press for the theme or my sites. It's just much easier than coding it all. I'd rather focus on making money.

    You have to be careful with free trials. You need to have top notch content since you are teasing them with it. You just need a reason for them to keep coming back as with anything else. The hardest part with free trials is getting that conversion. I've got one right now I'm still in the testing phase on. Getting a 45% opt in rate. Just have to get my sales up. Trial and error.
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  • Profile picture of the author ConnorMRR
    I second EasyMemberPro.com, easy to set up and easy to use.

    I've been an Amember user for years and it's run my entire business during that time. But I have just got my hands on DigitalAccessPass.com, after it was recommended to me and seems to have decent reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil1980
    Thanks warriors, you guys are great :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrick_Loh
    I will recommend using the OptimizePress Wordpress Theme. It creates beautiful pages and offers a lot of flexibility in how you want to build your membership site.
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  • Profile picture of the author bigballin6161
    I use Optimize Press with DAP. Works pretty sweet!
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    the first thing i will say is don`t try and do everything on the cheap or just try and use free tools and scripts

    if your serious about creating a good membership site then go with paid tools

    i have just recently launched my own membership site and i used optimize press and fast member wordpress plugin

    not cheap but i will make it all back very quickly

    the costs were:

    optimize press - $97
    fastmember - $197

    if you want to see what my site looks like its in my sig

    my site is now looking really slick on the inside with everything laid out really well, its clean and organized

    paul
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