Creating your very own membership is an exciting prospect and being able to run it as you see fit is the best part.
Although it may feel overwhelming when thinking about all of the pieces together, there are 4 steps you can follow to get organized.
This will work whether you run a membership site with several courses, a single community, a private blog or anything else.
The main thing here being how to put together a subscription with paywalled content that runs perfectly!
Step #1: List What You Want
A lot of beginner creators often jump straight to google to find which platform would be best for a membership.
They end up getting overwhelmed with options and are unsure on how to decide.
That’s because they haven’t first defined what THEY want!
So the first step of this process is to first list out how you envision the membership to work.
Here are some questions to answer that can help put this down here:
- Which features do I absolutely need?
- Which features would be a plus but not a must?
- What do I want the membership to look like - doodle a quick wireframe!
- What are the different parts of the membership going to be?
Here is an example of the kind of answers you might get:
- I need native video hosting, a community feature and the ability to create assessments for my students
- It would be good to be able to create quizzes and a directories of members
- I want to have a handy sidebar and a cool dashboard where I can post announcements and quick links to navigate
- There is going to be the main recorded content and resources, then the community part and finally the live monthly sessions (done on Zoom).
Got it? Now that you know what you want, we can pick a platform.
Step #2: Pick a Membership Platform
This is where most people get overwhelmed and start getting disheartened.
But hopefully since we’ve defined what “perfect” looks like, we can now shop around for the platform that ticks our boxes.
The first decision you’ll have to make is whether you prefer customization or simplicity.
Meaning that you might either want to use a platform that’s fully customizable such as WordPress + an LMS, but necessitate some technical skills.
Or you prefer a platform that’s ready out-of-the-box but where you might make some compromises.
This usually gives you two main path:
- Option #1: WordPress + membership plugin
If that’s the case here are our top WordPress LMS plugins to explore further:
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Most well-rounded WordPress suite and will help with much more than just course design! This is everything you need for funnel build, lead capture, testimonials, timers, etc.
Very affordable considering what you get for it! The only other cost you’ll have would be an email marketing system and video hosting.
Ratings
Feature: 10
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 10
Support & Community: 9
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
One of the most user-friendly LMS plugins, which is not always the case with these tools. Learn Dash also comes loaded with templates to make things even easier to set up.
Large community of fellow users and online course creators to brainstorm how to best use the tool and strategies for your marketing and funnel.
Simple one-off payment giving you everything you need to use this world-class tool on your WordPress site and start selling your online courses.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 8
Support & Community: 8
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
One of the most popular WordPress LMS plugins, Memberpress is a simple way to protect the content of your pages and build a member’s area.
Great support and experienced team to help you both use the plugins and make the most out of it.
Competitive pricing and straightforward yearly payment that includes any future updates and ongoing support.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 8
Support & Community: 8
- Option #2: Use an all-in-one SaaS platform
These are specialist platform that already have all the tools you need, here is our top 3:
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Includes all of the features you need, striking a great balance between depth and ease of use - making it a top choice for beginner course creators.
Outstanding UX for both you and your students and allows for great customization of their journey and learning experience with a sleek interface.
Ratings
Feature: 8
User Experience: 10
Pricing/Value: 7
Support & Community: 10
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Best value for your money. Ever since the beta run, the platform has offered attractive pricing while still being an all-in-one.
Integrated webinar tool, this is a feature you don’t find everywhere and could be a deal-maker for course creators wanting the ease of managing directly from their course platform.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 8
Pricing/Value: 10
Support & Community: 8
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Most advanced all-in-one in the industry, giving you all of the bells and whistles you might need in place, without exception or compromising on anything!
World class platform providing stability and a well-established, large user base of other experts, with lots of resources and inspiring tutorials.
Ratings
Feature: 10
User Experience: 8
Pricing/Value: 9
Support & Community: 9
When it comes down to it you may have a few more questions to make sure any given platform is the right fit, in which case, go read their full review!
Most of these platforms also allow for a free trial or free plan, so give it a go and see how it feels.
If you’re curious to compare specific platforms together, check out our platform comparator tool.
Step #3: Build The Membership Area
Now that you’ve found a new home for your membership, it’s time to build it out.
The exact steps here depend on the platform of your choice, but usually will entail building out the following:
- Import/upload your content to the member’s area.
- Design the membership pages and make sure students can easily navigate from one part to another.
- Think about the user experience as they enroll: welcome, quick start guide, emails to guide them,etc.
- Setup the other tools they might use: community, trackers, comments, chat, assessments and quizzes,etc.
- Test it all as a student would.
That’s when most of the pieces come together and you can tangibly implement your vision and sort out the details.
You’ll know you’re done with this part when you’ve run through the membership and made it look and feel exactly how you want it.
Step #4: Build The Sales Funnel
Now that you have everything sorted for the post-purchase bit, it’s time to sort out the selling process of your membership.
Of course that means building out an effective funnel to sell your program (webinar, challenge, video series,etc.).
But also to make the connection between your marketing and getting new members access to the membership.
If you went the all-in-one route, this is a lot easier.
Everything is already integrated together out of the box and getting people from a webinar funnel to a checkout to get access to their course is seamless.
People will also automatically be added to your email list where you can set up automations and email sequences.
Everything is hosted under a unique roof and no need to worry about a connection issue with a 3rd party tool.
If you went the WordPress route, you’ll need to use different tools here.
Most LMS offer their own checkout to allow you to take payments by connecting a payment gateway (Stripe, Paypal).
This will then allow you to seamlessly give access to your course.
But some of these LMS checkouts are limited and you may find yourself wanting more customization flexibility or the option to add things like upsells or order bumps.
In which case you’ll have to also use a separate tool for the checkout and then connect it to the LMS so that people get access.
Another thing that will definitely require a 3rd party software is the email marketing side of things. Although most LMS offer a native integration with the most popular ones (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign,etc.)
Once everything is put together, you just need to test your funnel and voila!
You have your very own membership site :)
