Many clients initially come to me for a new site or a site redesign and later begin thinking of adding membership to their WordPress powered site. And, when they return to me and ask how they actually do that, it’s a hard question to answer.
It’s hard, because building a membership site is challenging and to do it right requires extensive research and discovery. Why extensive research and discover? To ensure you have a solid plan in place and to help you choose the best WordPress membership plugin. I can’t underscore enough how critical these two components are if you want to succeed in your membership venture.
But I’ve discovered over the years that many clients need some initial education before we start a discovery process. A membership site has lots of moving parts and when a designer / developer begins asking you question that you have no idea how to answer (or even what they actually mean!), you may bale on that discovery process!
Hopefully this series of posts called “Membership 101” will inform and empower you to approach the process with confidence. Here are some of the topics that will be covered:
- Define the basic components of a membership site.
- Define the various types of functionality you may need for your membership site.
- Explore the various payment gateways.
- Explore other possible components you may want to add in the future (e-commerce, forums, member interaction, etc).
- Contrast membership plugins with other types of plugins (creating and selling online courses, creating an online community).
I’ve chosen to explore these topics, because understanding them will enable you to enter discovery as an informed participant and will help ensure you make the best long term decisions for your online business and website.
Look for the first installment later this week!