Membership site help needed... Yes, another one!
I'm working on an exam prep site for a small, targeted niche.
I've scoured this forum and the web for products that I need but I'm overwhelmed and uncertain which way to go. HELP!
The market:
Roughly 1,000 monthly customers max.
The services & products:
10 unique study guides with associated forum -- Buy the guide, get access to forum... or vice versa.
Videos to supplement each guide - Optional purchase.
The forum must support images - inline or attached.
This market has a high degree of sharing and resale of study material, mostly because my customers tend to be cash-strapped interns and it's a tight community with a culture of sharing. So...
Even though my pricing will be very competitive relative to the competition, copy protection is paramount. I'm not a fan of password-protected pdf's, drumlin, or similar methods. Also, limiting access to a specific machine or url won't work since many need access from home, office, and maybe, mobile.
Since the typical customer will only need the material for a month or two, I would like to use subscriptions where lock-out is automatic at the end of each monthly period and renewal must be acted upon rather than automatic.
I'm thinking that the best approach would be to use a forum as the primary deliver method for the study guides by embedding them in sticky posts. Doing so would also require disabling screen capture, printing and downloading.
Access to videos would also be by monthly subscription but not sure how to do that. Perhaps a sub-forum and embed as well, but if I do that, there must be a way to view full screen.
It's important for each member to have a single login that will allow access to all of their active subscriptions/modules.
Of course, I want all the usual automatic membership handling, paypal support, etc. I would also like the ability to use coupons but that's not critical.
I have absolutely no need for affiliate management/capabilities.
It looks like vBulletin might do what I want/need, but I'd like to be sure before I purchase. I really like their interface & features.
I'm open to all ideas. Maybe the forum delivery approach isn't the best.
Thanks for your assistance.
I've scoured this forum and the web for products that I need but I'm overwhelmed and uncertain which way to go. HELP!
The market:
Roughly 1,000 monthly customers max.
The services & products:
10 unique study guides with associated forum -- Buy the guide, get access to forum... or vice versa.
Videos to supplement each guide - Optional purchase.
The forum must support images - inline or attached.
This market has a high degree of sharing and resale of study material, mostly because my customers tend to be cash-strapped interns and it's a tight community with a culture of sharing. So...
Even though my pricing will be very competitive relative to the competition, copy protection is paramount. I'm not a fan of password-protected pdf's, drumlin, or similar methods. Also, limiting access to a specific machine or url won't work since many need access from home, office, and maybe, mobile.
Since the typical customer will only need the material for a month or two, I would like to use subscriptions where lock-out is automatic at the end of each monthly period and renewal must be acted upon rather than automatic.
I'm thinking that the best approach would be to use a forum as the primary deliver method for the study guides by embedding them in sticky posts. Doing so would also require disabling screen capture, printing and downloading.
Access to videos would also be by monthly subscription but not sure how to do that. Perhaps a sub-forum and embed as well, but if I do that, there must be a way to view full screen.
It's important for each member to have a single login that will allow access to all of their active subscriptions/modules.
Of course, I want all the usual automatic membership handling, paypal support, etc. I would also like the ability to use coupons but that's not critical.
I have absolutely no need for affiliate management/capabilities.
It looks like vBulletin might do what I want/need, but I'd like to be sure before I purchase. I really like their interface & features.
I'm open to all ideas. Maybe the forum delivery approach isn't the best.
Thanks for your assistance.
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