12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Membership websites - do you do them?

by PeacefulCalamity
10 replies
Maybe this thread can be used as a stepping stone for someone who's interested in starting a membership site like this.

I recently got a client who was interested in a website from me... but there's a twist. This person already has a website and wants a "pay per session" membership site where, in order to access a lecture, the user has to pay a certain amount of money per session.

For example, lecture 1 would be free. But lecture 2 would cost $30 and lecture 3 would cost $10 and so on.

She also wants, if I can pull it off she says, this website to have a system where she can upload homework assignments and have the user interact via multiple choice or something along those lines.

Maybe somebody reading this that has experience in this can pitch in?

I'm pretty sure I can come up with some fancy, complicated way to make a Wordpress theme have certain posts that are password locked, and have the user obtain the password by buying it from paypal.

On the "homework" or test questions, though, I'm completely stumped.
#membership #websites
  • Profile picture of the author spesialis
    You can use s2members to manage free membership, then use woocommerce to sell digital goods (in this case, pay-per-course).

    Now, you can "package" each course to contain homework and multiple choice test.

    The idea is: In order to complete this course, they need to also complete the homework and multiple choice test.

    You can use gravity form to create the multiple choice test. It will need some coding, though.

    Or perhaps use polldaddy, they can see the result of test right after taking it.
    Signature
    Website Design and Development - Satisfaction Guaranteed ... Click Here
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600117].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author PeacefulCalamity
    Cool plugin regarding that woocommerce! It rings a bell, but it's nice to see it in action. Polldaddy might be the way to go for me with the Multiple Choice. As far as "homework" assignments go I'm sure a simple PDF will do the trick.

    Thanks, spesialis.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600253].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Well, one thing is for absolute certain.... Wordpress is not the answer for this.

    In fact... I don't know of a platform WORSE than wordpress for this. I wouldn't even recommend Joomla for something like you describe. Drupal, maybe moodle... this is typically a $20,000 project, MINIMUM. If she was shopping around web development firms, most of her quotes would be 6 figures.

    Of course, you can try workarounds for everything in wordpress, but itll look and function like crap.

    If you aren't an experience developer, I wouldn't recommend taking the project. I really mean no offense by this, but if you don't know how to remove a "designed by" tag on the bottom of a template, you aren't ready for a project like this.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600269].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author PeacefulCalamity
      I know the price the for a project like this would run for a pretty large amount by most big companies, but I figured it wouldn't be too hard to restrict a couple of videos on a site and use some multiple choice. She's not really looking for anything extremely fancy, just enough to get her a site that restricts content and is a pay as you go sort of thing.

      Oh, and a quick 2 minute search on google found my answer to the other question. Herp derp on that one, probably should have searched before posting a silly question like that.

      No offense taken, though. I usually specialize in finding clever workarounds, but I can see where you're coming from.

      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Well, one thing is for absolute certain.... Wordpress is not the answer for this.

      In fact... I don't know of a platform WORSE than wordpress for this. I wouldn't even recommend Joomla for something like you describe. Drupal, maybe moodle... this is typically a $20,000 project, MINIMUM. If she was shopping around web development firms, most of her quotes would be 6 figures.

      Of course, you can try workarounds for everything in wordpress, but itll look and function like crap.

      If you aren't an experience developer, I wouldn't recommend taking the project. I really mean no offense by this, but if you don't know how to remove a "designed by" tag on the bottom of a template, you aren't ready for a project like this.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600307].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author imsolutionsgroup
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Well, one thing is for absolute certain.... Wordpress is not the answer for this.

      In fact... I don't know of a platform WORSE than wordpress for this. I wouldn't even recommend Joomla for something like you describe. Drupal, maybe moodle... this is typically a $20,000 project, MINIMUM. If she was shopping around web development firms, most of her quotes would be 6 figures.

      Of course, you can try workarounds for everything in wordpress, but itll look and function like crap.

      If you aren't an experience developer, I wouldn't recommend taking the project. I really mean no offense by this, but if you don't know how to remove a "designed by" tag on the bottom of a template, you aren't ready for a project like this.
      Ignore the post above. If setup properly, you can do everything you mentioned using wordress and the wishlist member plugin.
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600308].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author massiveray
        Originally Posted by imsolutionsgroup View Post

        Ignore the post above. If setup properly, you can do everything you mentioned using wordress and the wishlist member plugin.
        I agree.

        Charge 5k, do it in Wordpress and use wishlist member with Optimize press. And check out ejunkie to distribute files if you need to.

        Wishlist has a pay per post option, set the values at whatever you want and use the ready made page layouts, it will look slick and do exactly what you described in your post.

        I recently did this for an attorney who wanted to start a membership site to train law school students on how to get a job, she liked it so much that I now do SEO for her and she has referred me to 4 of her friends.
        Signature

        Join my private strategy group on Facebook or find out how I made £2000 recurring in 2 weeks.

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600393].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author PeacefulCalamity
          I won't charge her an arm and a leg for it, but I will emphasize that it's a bigger project than most and for the amount of time I put into she'll certainly be paying more than the average price for a standard website from me.

          Encouraging to hear your success with that attorney, I'm pretty sure that once I'm done with this site my client will be glad too.

          It's an interesting and different project. Definitely can't wait to start on it.

          Originally Posted by massiveray View Post

          I agree.

          Charge 5k, do it in Wordpress and use wishlist member with Optimize press. And check out ejunkie to distribute files if you need to.

          Wishlist has a pay per post option, set the values at whatever you want and use the ready made page layouts, it will look slick and do exactly what you described in your post.

          I recently did this for an attorney who wanted to start a membership site to train law school students on how to get a job, she liked it so much that I now do SEO for her and she has referred me to 4 of her friends.
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600422].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author spesialis
            Originally Posted by PeacefulCalamity View Post

            I won't charge her an arm and a leg for it, but I will emphasize that it's a bigger project than most and for the amount of time I put into she'll certainly be paying more than the average price for a standard website from me.

            Encouraging to hear your success with that attorney, I'm pretty sure that once I'm done with this site my client will be glad too.

            It's an interesting and different project. Definitely can't wait to start on it.
            Consider to charge her a bit more than your regular rate for regular site.

            But also add few hundreds a month for "maintenance and I'll take care of delivering content for you"
            Signature
            Website Design and Development - Satisfaction Guaranteed ... Click Here
            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600538].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author HAdrian1239
    There's a membership site put out by one of the best known online sources for learning certain wind instruments that does this model with OptimizePress and DAP (I am pretty sure it's DAP) along with a shopping cart/payment processor and few other things... and it looks very sleek and clean.... Personally, at first glance I was fascinated at what they were able to do, and the interwebz geek in me is what picked it apart.

    Sure, they had a fair bit of customization to get all of the things to look and feel right, but man... it's cool.

    So, don't think it can't be done, just don't underestimate what it's going to take, because your time and expertise are worth a lot here...
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600439].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author alfid
    I'm glad for some of the referrals above. Has anyone ever heard of Traindom? I was playing around with the controls in it. It's pretty cool but I wish it had a easy website customizer.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6600921].message }}

Trending Topics