Getting Started with Membership Software

  • GT_Tips

    (@gt_tips)


    13 years, 8 months ago

    Hi chaps – best to assume I have zero knowledge here. How easy is it to get Membership Software plug ins up and running for newbie?

    What I want to install is a fully functioning Membership software, and get away from the clumsy single password protected blog I have at the moment.

    Firstly; is ww.wp.xz.cn the best platform for me to build a site like this? My site has a very simple structure of a few blogs, one for each sport, and I’d like to create a password protected members only blog / area (or maybe make individual posts members only, with teasers etc).

    Secondly; I currently own the gttips.co.uk domain – is it easy to point that to my ww.wp.xz.cn page?

    Thirdly; Should I set up my WordPress blog first, or get the Membership software up and running before designing the rest my site?

    Fourthly; which Membership Software is best for my needs? Here’s my best guess at what I need/want/don’t need…

    I need software that will allow different Membership periods & access levels, and will automatically block access to a user when their time is up.

    I need software that has an ‘auto-renew’ option.

    I would like the software to link with paypal & mailchimp.

    I don’t need drip content, as my old content is defunct/outdated.

    Does anyone have any views about which plug in would suit me best? Do any of them have hidden costs beyond the initial fee? Are there features I’ve missed that I should be taking notice of?

    Thanks in advance,

    ~GTT

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Jason Coleman

    (@strangerstudios)

    13 years, 8 months ago

    GT, I’ll try to address your questions one by one:

    >> is ww.wp.xz.cn the best platform for me to build a site like this?

    I think so if your site is already on WP and/or you are comfortable with it. The membership solutions for WP are great.

    >> is it easy to point that to my ww.wp.xz.cn page?
    I’d imagine your domain registrar should allow you to add a “CNAME” record to point that domain to the URL of your .org profile… or otherwise setup a “domain redirect”.

    >> Should I set up my WordPress blog first, or get the Membership software up and running before designing the rest my site?

    I’d say setup the blog first. You can wait to put any sensitive/private info up until after you install the membership plugin and can lock it down… or you can lock your whole site down with one of the “coming soon” plugins in the repo here, while you work.

    >> which Membership Software is best for my needs?

    I will tell you to use Paid Memberships Pro, mostly because it’s the plugin I’ve developed and use for our clients. 🙂 But it also hits on most of your needs.

    http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/paid-memberships-pro/

    You can have multiple membership levels. You can setup “recurring” payments so they automatically charge every month/etc. PMPro integrates with PayPal Express and PayPal Website Payments Pro. (PayPal “Standard” integration will be ready in a couple of weeks.)

    We have a plugin to help integrate with Mail Chimp:
    https://github.com/strangerstudios/pmpro-mailchimp

    PMPro allows you to set “expirations” for memberships, which will automatically lock them out after a certain number of days or months. Users can extend memberships (this code helps: https://gist.github.com/3678054). One thing to note is that PMPro won’t automatically cancel an account if a recurring payment fails. Right now, you get an email when that happens and can email the user to update their billing or manually cancel someone’s membership.

    PMPro is the only membership plugin where all code is 100% open source, and most of it available in the repository here. Other plugins will have “modules” to purchase to integrate with certain payment gateways or integrate with MailChimp, etc. Some of the ones not in the repo will not be very developer friendly.

    Our model is free software, with paid support. So you can get more support or hand on help here:
    http://www.paidmembershipspro.com/pricing/

    Good luck!

    Thread Starter GT_Tips

    (@gt_tips)

    13 years, 7 months ago

    Hi – finally got round to installing all this and it looks good. Thank you.

    Is there a way I can integrate existing members? / Manually add some ad hoc permissions without them being tied to recurring payments?

    Thanks,

    ~GTT

    Thread Starter GT_Tips

    (@gt_tips)

    13 years, 7 months ago

    Also – realising that the ‘profiles’ that it runs off are wordpress accounts creates a few issues.

    Can I have a log in on my site that’s – for example – on a side widget, or will it have to be the wordpress login?

    Is there any way I can have a user ‘land’ on my site / a specific page rather than the wordpress dashboard?

    Will all membership software be built this way or will other pro/premium software have a greater functionality?

    Cheers,

    ~GTT

    Jason Coleman

    (@strangerstudios)

    13 years, 7 months ago

    If you edit a user in the admin, you can manually give them a membership level without them being charged.

    Here is an article on how to put your login on the “frontend” and hide your admin from your users:
    http://www.paidmembershipspro.com/2012/08/hiding-the-wordpress-dashboard-from-your-members/

    There are various plugins to put a login form in a widget, etc, as well.

    Paid Memberships Pro has “Pro” in the name, but there is no difference between the plugin in the repo and on our site. All code is free. There are some “sister plugins” in beta that aren’t in the repo. You can search for these on GitHub, PaidMembershipsPro.com, and the web.

    Good luck!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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