Membership Software: Beginners Making the Right Choice

Membership sites can be a great source of recurring income. Unfortunately, some of the membership software it takes to run these sites can be quite expensive or complicated or both. As such choosing membership software can be daunting and may scare off the beginner. Consequently, I wrote this article to help you make an informed decision.

The big question: Do I want to invest a little or a bunch in my membership software?

There are alternatives ranging anywhere from thousands of dollars to essentially free. On the upper end of the range is a membership software company called MemberGate. This is definitely the Rolls-Royce of the industry with lots of bells and whistles. Problem is - it is cost prohibitive for most beginners with packages ranging from nearly $4,000.00 to over $15,000.00.

In the mid range of cost is membership software from Amember. This software is around $300 and you must host the software on your own server. I use this software for one of my membership sites and I am fairly happy with it. Problem here is it fairly costly for a beginner and in my opinion the membership software is rather clunky and NOT intuitive. That is, the learning curve for using it is fairly steep especially if you are not technically inclined.

At the low end of the investment range is using open source content management software like WordPress. In fact, using WordPress with available plugins you can have your own membership site up and ready to accept paying members in 2 hours or less and you can essentially do it for FREE. And here’s the best part, you can have the same powerful functionality as the more expensive membership software. Namely, you'll be able to:

• Start accepting payments with PayPal so you can make money right away.
• Email your members from within your membership site so you save time and hassle.
• See members and guests on your site so you always know who's there at any given time.
• Offer free content and yet protect premium content so you can make more sales by allowing free browsers a hint at what's available to them in the premium area.

The challenge with using WordPress and plugins for membership software is there is no real roadmap that describes how to set-up the WordPress software and how and where to find the needed plugins. That being said, it is definitely doable with Google searches and significant trial and error.

Alternatively, you can check out http://www.wpmemberprofits.com/ and sign-up for FREE WordPress tips, tricks and insider details for making a WordPress membership site wildly profitable.

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