I want to talk about membership sites, as I promised you and also why you should have one.
First of all, what is a membership site? Self-evidently it’s a place where people enrol or join in some way in order to access something you are offering, whether that is information, products, a community etc.
You could, of course, simply start a Facebook group that would function for at least some of those things but the problem there is that you do not own that particular piece of digital real estate. Facebook does. And Facebook is prone to changing the rules any time it feels like it which means your entire group could disappear in a blink.
That is no way to build or run a business or, indeed, a source of recurring income which is one of the beauties of a membership site. It is also a great way to build trust and a community which, in turn, brings you the customer loyalty that results in repeat buyers and long term subscribers.
I have spent that last few months trying out endless permutations of the paid solutions out there because I want to upgrade my offering to you. Put simply, I want you to have the best user experience I can offer.
What we are going to look at here is how to set up perhaps your first membership site and for little or no cost (I am not factoring in things here like hosting).
Of course you also need to think about your niche, your content and so many other factors – for all of that, there is this excellent guide which you can follow step by step but bear in mind it was written a while back although the basic principles hold good:
https://www.locationrebel.com/how-to-build-a-membership-site/
Then there is another good step by step guide here although this offers fewer choices – it’s essentially how he set up his own 7 figure membership site and a good tutorial for that:
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-profitable-membership-site-step-step/
For an up to date look at WordPress membership sites and the latest options go here:
https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/build-a-membership-site-on-wordpress/
While this tutorial here on how to build a membership site in less than a day is simpler than the one above – perfect if you are not so technically minded!
https://www.themembershipguys.com/how-to-build-a-membership-in-a-day/
For a comparative look at the top 10 no cost membership plugins go here:
https://justlearnwp.com/most-popular-best-free-wordpress-membership-plugins/
You will also need a suitable theme for your site. Before you choose one you might like to look at this which suggests some points to consider:
https://www.themembershipguys.com/choosing-a-theme-for-your-membership-site/
And then take a look at the 75 themes on offer here:
https://themegrill.com/blog/free-wordpress-themes/
Next week we will talk some more about the actual long-term goals and content of your site but for now, here is your TED talk which is especially helpful at this time of year when you are perhaps setting new goals and getting rid of old habits that don’t serve you:
