Hopefully you’re feeling energized and inspired, overflowing with many ideas of how you can approach creating your very own membership site! Maybe you’ve already jumped in and put some of the course steps into action. Or maybe you’ve just completed your first read through of the course. Either way, you’ve come a long way!
- Privacy and Password Protection: This is a great, cost-free option, ideal for small or closely-connected membership sites.
- Paid Content Block: Enables you to offer a blend of free and premium content, enticing visitors with a glimpse of what you offer and encouraging them to subscribe for the full, exclusive experience. Without needing to learn about more complex plugin options.
- Membership Plugin: When you’re looking for a robust, multi-option, multiplan, membership setup, a plugin is hands down the way to go.
How do you choose which is the best option for you? Consider the following questions:
- Who is your audience?
- A select private group or the general public?
- What is your technical skill level?
- The Paid Content block is less tech-intensive than a membership plugin.
- What are your revenue goals?
- Is this a serious income generator or a side endeavor for extra earnings?
- What is your budget?
- The Paid Content block has no up-front costs, it operates on a percentage-based fee of your subscriptions, and can be used on any WordPress.com plan.
- Membership plugins require a WordPress.com plugin-enabled plan and even for free plugins, might have additional costs for certain features in addition to percentage-based fees for transactions.
Consider these factors carefully. There’s no sense in diving deeper than necessary, and cutting corners won’t serve your goals. Dream big and choose the option that best transforms those dreams into reality.
We’ve covered a lot of ground in this course, but there’s more! Often, generating ideas and content for a membership site can be a challenge. As we’re committed to setting you up for success, we’ve compiled a list of potential inclusions for your membership site. Let’s ignite your inspiration even further!
Some ideas on what to put in a membership site
When considering the offerings you want to make available in your membership site there are lots of content and feature options to choose from, and fortunately, many of the features needed are already built into your WordPress.com site or are easily added.
Written content
It goes without saying that, on a WordPress.com site, you have everything you need to create written content. Don’t just think of it as being about writing articles though! There’s so much more you can add as member benefits: exclusive articles and pages, extras like data charts and reports, offers and discounts, and links to other relevant resources.
Communities
One benefit of membership sites is that they can help create a strong sense of community. Since only the people most passionate about the topic sign up, discussions in subscriber-only forums tend to be more active and more in-depth than those in public forums. If your goal is to make money, having a stronger sense of community and shared purpose can focus your members and provide a great platform to share products of interest to them.
What might this look like? In the simplest form of a membership site, where exclusive pages and posts are password-protected, you could enable comments so members can share thoughts and engage in discussions below your content. Check out our support guide for enabling, disabling, and managing these comments.
If your site is on a plugin-enabled plan at WordPress.com, you might also choose to add a dedicated forum component with BuddyPress↗︎, bbPress↗︎, or one of the many other forum plugins↗︎ out there.
You can even install internal email plugins like Front End PM↗︎ to allow members to send messages to each other.
Or you can use either the free or paid version of the PeepSo plugin↗︎ to create your own social networking community directly on your site.
Videos
While WordPress doesn’t have a built-in video editor, there are many ways to create video content. Most devices today, from laptops to tablets to smartphones, have built-in cameras with video recording capabilities which enable you to record and upload video content.
If you need to make any final edits or tweaks, you can find many different video editing solutions online at any price point… including free!
Once you’ve created and prepared your video, you can upload it to your site’s Media Library, and add it to any of your pages or posts with a Video block. Double check that your active plan↗︎ includes access to VideoPress.
PDFs or downloadable resources
Will you be providing downloadable resources, such as PDF worksheets or checklists, or any other kind of file for download?
PDFs can be embedded directly into your page using this process, and you can allow people to download files directly from your site like this.
You have a variety of options for creating PDFs for download. Many browsers have the ability to print content to a PDF, and document editing applications such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and even Google Docs usually include an option to export, save, or download documents as a PDF. Platforms like Canva also allow you to export your work as PDFs.
You can then upload the PDF files directly to your media library to include in your content.
Customer Support
Will you be offering customer support to your members? People can always reach out to you through a contact form and you can even add a special contact form within your protected content that sends the form to a special, dedicated email address. But you can explore other options as well, such as providing live chat↗︎ on your site.
Podcasts
A popular way of marketing membership sites is through podcasts, which tend to have dedicated audiences already.
If you’re interested in creating your own podcast and adding it to your site, our podcasting course can be found right here!
You can also include special episodes within your protected content for members-only access.
Webinars and Workshops
There are many ways to add webinars to a membership site. This process can take a few steps, so a deep dive is beyond the scope of this course, but we’ll give a quick overview.
One method is to embed a YouTube live stream into your site by using an unlisted video. However, it’s always possible someone will share the link.
You can find livestream plugins such as these↗︎, but you’ll want to test them out to be sure they meet your needs. Dedicated platforms like Vimeo also provide privacy settings to ensure that the video feed can only be embedded on your site.
Video platforms often require you to “embed” their code into your WordPress site. When they require this, add a Custom HTML block to your site, then paste in their embed code. Custom code for embedding like this requires a plugin-enabled plan, so double check that your site’s WordPress.com plan will allow for this type of custom code.
Or you can simply provide access to the registration link for a Zoom webinar within your members-only areas. Just keep in mind that there’s a possibility someone may share the link externally.
Courses
By offering courses on your membership website, you’re not only adding value to your members’ experience, but also establishing yourself as a trusted authority in your field.
Courses are the perfect blend of engaging content and effective learning. Whether it’s a step-by-step guide, an in-depth masterclass, or a fun interactive course, the possibilities are endless.
Think about it: every time a member logs in, they’re not just gaining access to exclusive content; they’re investing in their own growth and development. And the more they learn, the more value they perceive from their membership, and the more likely they are to continue subscribing. You can also build a course directly within your WordPress.com using pages, posts, and categories, by offering an exclusive email course to members only, or by using the Sensei LMS↗︎ plugin. Bonus: these course creation options will be the topic of our next WordPress.com course, so be sure to keep an eye out for the release of that!
One more option to mention is offering public access alongside a donation-based membership. Visitors can choose to support your site through a one-time, monthly, or annual donation. This can be achieved by incorporating the Donations Form block, allowing up to three subscription choices.
While not identical to a membership site (since membership sites typically restrict access to certain content), for some sites, keeping content public while benefiting from recurring subscriptions aligns perfectly.
Take a look at the “Join” page↗︎ on Longreads.com↗︎, an Automattic owned online publication that publishes and curates nonfiction storytelling and funds its work with donation-based memberships.
The articles, guides and videos included below all offer additional, valuable information to help with your membership site journey. One point to keep in mind is that some features or settings may have been updated since these resources were published.
- Benefits of Creating a Membership Site With WordPress.com
- 7 Best WordPress Membership Plugins Compared (Free and Paid)
- 18 Great Ways to Monetize Your Website Right Now
- 21 Types of Websites You Can Build With WordPress Right Now
- Membership Sites: Make Your Site a Hub for Your Patreon Patrons
- Using Membership Plugins (Support Guide)
- Subscribing to Payments (Support Guide for your subscribers)
- Case: How to Create a Premium Membership Blog (Video)
- Case: How to Create a Premium Membership Website (Video)
If your dream is to provide a membership site for your visitors, but creating it yourself is either outside your comfort zone or you don’t have the time available, then let us build it for you.
Built By WordPress.com is the name of our full website design service program, available to anyone who would like to hire a professional team to build, design, and develop their website for them. Our team of project managers, designers, and developers will work with you to create a customized website presence for your brand and/or business.
Keep learning
Like any skill, setting up a membership site takes practice and continuous learning. We encourage you to explore more resources on Learn WordPress.com, experiment with different tools and methods, and keep enhancing your skills.
Your feedback matters
We’d love to hear about your experience with this course. Your feedback helps us improve and offer more relevant content in the future.
Thank you
Lastly, thank you for choosing to learn with us. We look forward to seeing what you’ll create with your newfound knowledge. Remember, the world craves your unique voice and expertise. So go ahead, forge ahead, create, and share your wisdom with the world!
Back to top