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Blog Marketing Academy

Membership Sites

Don’t confuse the phrase “membership site” with just monthly recurring billing. That’s just a pricing model. A membership site is any site where clients, customers or even just subscribers log in to access any form of protected content or interact with your business via an online account. 

A membership site is extremely powerful for all business types. You can use it as just a list building tool to build an engaged community, to sell online courses, provide customers a service portal, online coaching… you name it.

I am a massive fan of the membership site model. I also build them for clients all the time.

Top Articles On Membership Sites

The Ultimate Blueprint To Building Your Membership Site

This guide will walk you through a membership site build, complete with all the plumbing that makes it work.
Read More The Ultimate Blueprint To Building Your Membership Site

When Is The Right Time To Start A Membership Site?

When is the right time in your online business journey to start a membership site? Here’s what you need to consider as you make this decision.
Read More When Is The Right Time To Start A Membership Site?

How My Membership Site Is Built: The Tools & Plugins I Use To Power My Business

In this video, I’m going to take you behind the scenes and show you the exact tools and plugins that power this website. This is how my membership site is built.
Read More How My Membership Site Is Built: The Tools & Plugins I Use To Power My Business

Planning Out Your Membership Site?

Download this worksheet from the Document Vault to guide you through the idea and planning phase of your new membership site – setting you up for maximum signups and recurring income.

You will also be automatically subscribed to The Morning WP… our official newsletter sent once weekly on Mondays. Become a more effective WordPress site owner… in just 5 minutes per week.

OPTIN – Membership Site Planner

FluentCommunity Review: Can This Be A Replacement For BuddyBoss?

A look at the first version of FluentCommunity… a new community plugin that I think serves as a worthy alternative to BuddyBoss.

WooCommerce Setup: The Settings I Use For Almost Every Site I Build

I use WooCommerce all the time for it’s customization and integrations. But, I use pretty much the same setup most of the time. Here’s the exact process I run for…

BuddyBoss Hosting: What’s The Hosting For A Buddyboss Membership Site

Buddyboss hosting is a little bit different than a typical blog. Let’ go over various recommendations for hosting your Buddyboss membership site.

Should You Offer A Lifetime Membership To Your Membership Site? Don’t Make These Mistakes…

Offering a lifetime subscription to a membership is seen as a way to increase sales, but is it a good idea? When can you use a lifetime membership, and when…

Video Hosting For Your Membership And Online Courses: How To Securely Embed Videos And Ensure Protected Access

How can you securely embed videos on your membership site in a way which they cannot be stolen? How do you protect your videos?

Membership Site Community: Should You Have One? Best Platform?

When it comes to membership site community, I have made the rounds. I went from a Facebook group, to a forum, to BuddyBoss, and then back to nothing. Should YOU…

How To Create Online Courses On WordPress Without An LMS Plug-in

In this video, I will show you how to create online courses on WordPress without using an LMS plugin. We will just use custom post types.

Membership Site Domain: New Domain, Sub-Domain Or Same Site? How To Avoid My Mistakes.

Should your membership site domain be the same as your blog? Should you use a sub-folder, sub-domain or an entirely new domain? Here’s what I learned

Choosing An Ecommerce Platform For Your Online Business (And My Only Recommendation)

I’ve been through a lot of ecommerce platforms. Now, I pretty much have only one recommendation. Here are my criteria for choosing a platform and the tool I recommend.

How I Built A Service Credit System For My Membership Site

This tutorial will show you how I built a service credit system into my membership site, allowing members to purchase credits and then redeem those credits for additional services like…

The Ultimate Blueprint To Building Your Membership Site

This guide will walk you through a membership site build, complete with all the plumbing that makes it work.

When Is The Right Time To Start A Membership Site?

When is the right time in your online business journey to start a membership site? Here’s what you need to consider as you make this decision.

Using Simply Schedule Appointments To Build A Powerful Scheduler Right Inside Wordpress (No Third Party Calendars!)

Here’s how I use Simply Schedule Appointments to build a robust scheduler right on my Wordpress site (and integrate with

Thrive Apprentice 4 Review: Thrive Suite Just Grew Up

With the launch of Thrive Apprentice 4.0, Thrive Suite just took a leap into greater maturity as a more robust membership site platform. Let’s take a look…

How My Membership Site Is Built: The Tools & Plugins I Use To Power My Business

In this video, I’m going to take you behind the scenes and show you the exact tools and plugins that power this website. This is how my membership site is…

Fluent Support Review: First Look At An Integrated Customer Helpdesk Solution For Wordpress

Fluent Support is a brand new Wordpress-based customer support helpdesk. Let’s take a first look at how it works…

Switching To FluentCRM: Here’s The Process I Used To Switch From Drip

It was something I didn’t look forward to, but I finally got it done. I migrated from Drip to FluentCRM. Here’s how it…

The Most Powerful Membership Site Plugin For Wordpress That Often Gets Overlooked

In my opinion, the most powerful membership site plugin isn’t really even a membership site plugin. See what I mean…

Why I Switched From Thrivecart To WooCommerce

As great as Thrivecart is, there are scenarios where it isn’t the right fit. Here are the reasons I switched to WooCommerce.

Wordpress Document Library: How To Cleanly Embed PDF Files And Create A PDF Library

Here’s how to cleanly and simply display full PDF files and create your own Wordpress document library. Great for Wordpress membership sites.

Big Update To My Membership Site – What I Did And Why

I recently reworked my Wordpress-based membership site yet again. Here’s the behind-the-scenes look at what was done and why.

Building Your Email List Via A Free Membership: Why You Might Want To (And How)

A look at using a free membership level in order to build your email list rather than simply giving PDF downloads. How well does it work… and how do you…

Why 2021 Is The Year A Membership Site Becomes More Important Than Ever (And It Has Nothing To Do With Monetization)

The increase of censorship and deplatforming is not just political noise. It should serve as a wakeup call to revisit the structure of your online presence. Here’s why…

Why I Switched My Wordpress Hosting From WPX Hosting To Cloudways

I just recently made the decision to move my websites from WPX Hosting to Cloudways. Here’s why I made this switch – and why you might want to consider it,…

Want Me To Build Your Membership Site?​

I build membership sites all the time for my clients as part of my technical services. And if you have an existing WordPress-based membership site, I can jump in and take care of some needed fixes and enhancements for you.

Learn how to book a strategy call Learn about my tech services
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