Top Tips for Researching a Membership Plugin or Platform

July 15, 2022

Not sure about which membership plugin or platform is the best for your business and brand?

One of the most important factors behind any successful membership site (other than content) is the platform or plugin that’s used to power it. If your membership plugin or platform isn’t up-to-par, there’s a pretty good chance your membership site will also not be up to quality standards.

In this post, we’ll go over some of the best tips that can help you when you’re researching a membership plugin or platform for your business.

#1. Consider content restriction options

One of the most essential parts of any membership site is that it hides premium content behind a paywall. This means the plugin or platform you decide to use should offer functionality to restrict content. This way, only authorized users can access the membership content, and premium content is hidden from regular site visitors.

You can grant authorization to users who pay your membership subscription fee. This is one of the most critical factors in selling premium content to your audience. Ideally, you want to make sure all important membership pages of your site are fully protected behind a paywall. These pages include:

  • Content pages. Content pages are all the pages that contain premium content that’s only available to users who pay a subscription fee. The plugin or platform you decide to use should offer functionality that lets you protect all content pages on your membership website.
  • Members-only area. A members-only area is a private part of a membership site that’s only accessible by specific user roles. You can choose to only let “VIP members” access the members-only area and charge them an additional fee for it. However, this also means you need to hide the members-only area from regular members or site visitors.
  • My Account pages. My account pages work great for giving members their own private page or area where they can view their account details or subscription details. This is why it’s important to protect my account pages on your membership site from regular site visitors.

A COMPLETE STEP-BY-STEP CHEATSHEET
TO CREATING, LAUNCHING & GROWING A SUCCESSFUL MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE

Other than protecting some essential pages of your membership website behind a paywall, you also need to consider if your plugin or platform helps you automate the content restriction process. Since you’ll be publishing high-quality content for your members regularly, you’ll need a tool that automatically uses your default content restriction options to publish content. This way, you don’t have to go and change content restriction options every time you publish new content.

#2. Ensure solid payment options

#2. Ensure solid payment options

Any successful membership website needs solid payment options. This means you need to ensure your membership site offers all standard or popular payment methods such as PayPal or Stripe. This way, you’re able to cater to more people and successfully sell them a membership subscription. You don’t want to interest users with your premium content only to find out they couldn’t subscribe to your membership site due to payment method restrictions.

You want to ensure that the membership plugin or platform you decide to use lets you set up all flexible payment options such as:

  • One-time payments. Giving users the option to make one-time payments is essential for any successful membership website. You can give users the option to pay yearly or purchase a lifetime subscription plan at a discounted rate.
  • Recurring payments. Recurring payments are one of the most common payment options for membership sites. Since most users are comfortable paying a subscription fee each month, you can set up recurring payments functionality on your membership website.
  • Discounted payments. Offering existing members discounted payments is a great way to encourage people to spend more money on your membership site. For example, you can incentivize users to change their membership plan midway without losing money. This encourages existing members to upgrade their plans or spend more money with your brand.

Other than offering flexible payment methods, the plugin or platform you decide to use for your membership site should also let you upsell plans or content. This way, you can offer members content upgrades or limited one-time offers. For instance, you can let users upgrade their membership plan at a discounted rate or offer them a one-time 10% discount on their first time subscribing.

#3. Should let you offer all types of content

Any robust membership platform or plugin lets you upload all types of content to your membership site. This is crucial for keeping users engaged with your content and offering something more than simple blog posts.

Let’s dive deeper into some of the different types of content your membership plugin or platform should let you publish:

  • How-tos. How-tos are a great way to offer users a guide or walkthrough of a common problem amongst your target audience. It can help you engage users who are facing the same problem and showcase your brand as the industry expert.
  • Since most people are visual learners, you should offer some sort of video clip along with your premium membership content as a way to keep users engaged.
  • Lists are a great way to provide a series of links, tools, or blog posts that are informative and can help users find exactly what they need.
  • Case studies. Case studies are also great for showcasing how well your product or service works using real-life examples. This helps other interested users trust your brand and encourages them to subscribe to your membership website.
  • Podcasts are lengthy video or audio clips that you can use as a way to cover more extended topics or for interviews. For instance, you can record a podcast with big names in the industry. This way, you can publish the conversion on your membership website behind a paywall. It also helps you tap into other brands’ audiences and can encourage new subscriptions.

#4. Extensive accessibility options

#4. Extensive accessibility options

Since your membership site will offer tiered payment options, you will also need a plugin or platform that offers extensive accessibility options. This way, you can offer various levels of access to your content depending on how much the user pays you. For example, you can restrict content by membership level or user role. This way, you can create multiple membership tiers such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The more users play, the higher their membership level and the more content they can access on your membership site.

However, for this, your plugin or platform should offer complete control over who gets to access premium content on your membership site. In addition to this, you also need to think about accessibility options for your team members. You might need to have moderators or editors that control forums or blog post comments.

Another essential factor for any successful membership site is being developer-friendly. The plugin or platform you choose should offer full accessibility for developers so you can quickly find bugs if you run into any and fix them.

#5. Take inspiration from the best

It’s always a great idea to take inspiration from some of the best membership sites and understand how they create a masterpiece using membership platforms or plugins.

Let’s go over some of the best membership sites to take inspiration from:

SEO Blueprint

SEO Blueprint is a membership site designed to help users improve their overall SEO game and learn useful search engine optimization techniques.

SEO Blueprint is a membership site designed to help users improve their overall SEO game and learn useful search engine optimization techniques.

Plant You

Plant You

Plant You is a membership site exclusively for sharing healthy, plant-based recipes for vegans and plant-lovers from all over the globe.

The Marketing Fix

The Marketing Fix provides marketing tips and advice to help business owners improve their marketing efforts.

#6. Consider integration options

Another essential feature of any robust membership plugin or platform is that it successfully integrates with other tools and plugins.

Here’s why you should go for a plugin or platform that makes integration easy:

  • For email marketing campaigns. Email marketing campaigns are a big part of any successful membership website. If you want to build an email list, you will need to use a powerful email marketing plugin or service. This is why your membership platform or plugin should integrate seamlessly with popular email marketing services.
  • For adding customizability features. If you want to add additional functionality to your membership site or want to make it look unique, you will have to use some plugin or tool. This is why it’s important that the membership platform you’re using supports tools that let you do this.
  • For automating marketing campaigns. Automating marketing campaigns for a membership website is a must-have feature. This is because you can only focus on creating premium content every day and not have to worry about constantly sending out emails or notifications to users in your email list. For this reason, you will need to use a plugin or service to automate marketing campaigns for your membership site. This also means your membership platform or plugin should integrate seamlessly with your marketing automation tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a membership plugin or platform?

A: A membership plugin or platform is a tool that allows you to create a membership site on your WordPress website. It provides features and functionalities to create different levels of membership, restrict content, and manage members.

Q: Why should I use a membership plugin or platform?

A: Using a membership plugin or platform makes creating and managing a membership site easier. It allows you to control access to your content, create different membership levels, and manage subscriptions, all from within your WordPress site.

Q: Can I create a membership site without a plugin or platform?

A: While it is possible to manually create a membership site without a plugin or platform, using a membership plugin or platform provides a much easier and more efficient solution. It simplifies the process and provides additional features specifically designed for membership sites.

Q: What are some popular membership plugins for WordPress?

A: Some popular membership plugins for WordPress include Restrict Content Pro, Paid Memberships Pro, MemberPress, and WooCommerce Memberships.

Q: How do I choose the right membership plugin or platform?

A: When choosing a membership plugin or platform, consider the features and functionalities you need, compatibility with your WordPress theme and other plugins, ease of use, customer support, and pricing.

Q: Can I offer both free and paid memberships on my site?

A: Yes, most membership plugins and platforms allow you to create free and paid membership levels. This allows you to offer different types of memberships and monetize your content.

Q: How can I create an online course using a membership plugin or platform?

A: Many membership plugins and platforms offer unique features for creating online courses. You can create different course modules, lessons, and quizzes and restrict access based on membership levels.

Q: Are there any free membership plugins available for WordPress?

A: Yes, free membership plugins like Paid Memberships Pro and Restrict Content Lite are available for WordPress. However, these free plugins may have limitations regarding features and support compared to their premium counterparts.

Q: What are the best WordPress membership plugins?

A: Some of the best WordPress membership plugins include MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, Paid Memberships Pro, and WooCommerce Memberships. The right choice for you would depend on your specific needs and requirements.

Q: Can I use a membership plugin to create a membership site for different types of memberships?

A: Yes, most membership plugins allow you to create different types of memberships. You can create membership levels with varying access and permissions, allowing you to cater to different types of memberships on your site.

Conclusion

With so many great membership plugins or platforms available, deciding the right one for your business can be challenging.

Ideally, after considering your budget and business goals, you must consider the functionality you’re getting out of your membership plugin or platform. Here are some important questions you can ask yourself when deciding on a membership platform for your brand:

  • Does it offer extensive content restriction options?
  • Does it let you offer flexible payment options on your membership site?
  • Is it easy to use? Does it let you offer an enhanced user experience?
  • Does it integrate seamlessly with other plugins and tools you might need?

Do you know of any other top tips for researching a membership plugin or platform? Let us know in the comments box below.

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