Ever thought of building a membership site around your blog?

How would you plan?

What technology would you use?

I tell it all inside this episode.

Listen to This Episode

Inside This Episode

A membership site is a site where individuals sign up as members in order to access protected information.

They can be either free or paid. If they are paid, it can be a one-time or recurring payment model.

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How To Build A Membership Site Around Your WordPress Blog

Whichever model you choose, having a membership site can be great for the following reasons:

  • It's a great way to deliver more exclusive content
  • It's a great way to grow your list (especially a list of customers)
  • It's a great way to make money (especially if recurring)
  • It's a great way to build an affiliate program and have people send you traffic.

However, before you build a membership site you should answer the following questions:

  • Who are you targeting?
  • What problem are you solving?
  • How are you going to solve it?
  • Why should someone pay for it?
  • What will make your program unique?

Once you've answered those few questions, you can then tackle the technology and starting building out the site.

In this episode, I talk about how to build a free and a paid membership site on WordPress and explore the following tools.

If you're building a free membership site, here's what I recommend for you to have and use:

  • Squeeze Page – for getting people on your email list
  • Autoresponder service – for building your email list
  • Video Hosting – Youtube unlisted (free + good) or Vimeo Pro (paid + MUCH better)
  • Embed your videos on unlisted blog pages
  • Add miscellaneous details and resources
    • Description
    • Transcript
    • Audio (MP3)
    • Links
  • Use autoresponder to send links to pages

If you are building a paid membership site, use all of the above plus the following:

  • Amember membership software (if paid membership)
    • Protects pages based on membership level
    • Built-in affiliate program (if needed)
  • Payment Processors
    • Paypal – Accept cards easily but not directly on your site
    • Stripe – Accept cards directly on your site

The following are some more Advanced tools that add even more AWESOME to your membership site. This is the secret behind my Become A Blogger University.

  • BuddyPress – Build an internal social network
  • BBPress – Powerful forum software for WordPress
  • Sensei – Learning management software

Listener Question

RogerKoment
Roger Koment

Roger Koment, a member of the Become A Blogger University and the creator of NSR Development, called in to ask a question that lead to the making of this podcast episode. He wanted to know what the steps are for providing a paid course, where people could also get free access to a limited-time replay. Thanks for calling in that question Roger. If you have a question you'd like answered, feel free to call the hotline at (888) 835 – 2414.

Transcript

Some people prefer to read along with the podcast episode. Others actually prefer to read than listen. If you are one of those people, not to worry. I've got a transcript right here for you 🙂

Click here to download transcript.

About The Podcast

Learning With Leslie

Learning With Leslie is a podcast dedicated to helping you build a business around a blog. No, not one of those blogs that will fall by the wayside when Google has a mood swing, but one that will thrive no matter what gets thrown at it.

I share tips and strategies that I’ve learnt building blogs since 2008 and interview experts who are knowledgeable about various aspects of blogging so that we can learn from their experiences.

If you’re a blogger, thinking about becoming a blogger (pun intended) or are not even sure if blogging is right for you, go ahead and tune in to see what this blogging thing is all about.

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How To Build A Membership Site Around Your WordPress Blog

About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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