The Technical End of Building A Membership Site
There are many factors to building a successful membership site but one that you can't ignore is the technical requirement of your membership site. There are many issues that the technical aspects of your site address such as how to protect your membership resources from the public's eye? How do you take and process payments from the membership, how do you deliver membership resources? What type of content will you need on your site such as forums, chatrooms, webinars, audio and video capability? How will you communicate with your membership? Are you going to have affiliates and if so, how will you handle tracking of their referrals, promo tools, and how will you pay commission?
You have lots of options when it comes to web technology. You may find it just a little challenging though to come up with just the right combination of web tools to meet the needs of the site and its members.
You will want to make your choices carefully to be sure that what you decide to go with will mesh with any membership site software programs that you will be using such as an email program that is able to integrate with your software program.
You need to password protect your materials for the site to be sure that only your members and not the general public have access to them.
Some of the more popular membership site software programs that you may consider are aMember Pro, iSubscribe, Membership Client Pro, MemberGate, and also VisionGatePortal. You of course will be using your price range to eliminate those that do not financially fit into your plan. Other than price you want to look at benefits and support. Look at plug-ins and how they will integrate into forum software programs or WordPress blogs if you anticipate using blogs (highly recommended). Whatever technical systems you decide to go with you need to find out what the technical challenges might be using the system so using free trial periods is great for this. Make sure the system has a dedicated software company that can support the system. Make sure you investigate fully all of your options, ask for advise from business forums and evaluate any new membership systems that are developed so that you can access any improvements that they have made.
Figuring out payments is your next big hurdle.
PayPal is a wonderful payments processor because of its simplicity and how well it integrates with most membership software programs. AWeber and PayPal go very well together.
Other payment possibility is 2CheckOut and Paymate. You always want to have backup payment processors in case your main choice encounters problems. 2CheckOut does not have a subscription option. Paymate also does not have a subscription option. Clickbank recently launched a subscription option and may be a reliable backup for Paypal or used as your main payment processor.
Another way to go for handling subscriptions is PayDotCom, which has a subscription feature. It also has a built-in affiliate program, for those wishing to use affiliates.
You could also go the merchant solution with a local bank. It is wise to have two payment options. People do prefer to use Paypal. PayPal also has a fully-fledged merchant option that you can brand as your own.
Other technical issues like audio, video and forums.
You must offer ways for your members to interact to initiate member loyalty. It is easier on you if everything can be integrated with your membership site directly so that members don't have to create a second user account in order to use the forums, but you may just have to do this. Check into your membership site software to see what the plug-ins are you may find that they offer features such as live webinars, teleconferences, chatrooms which are almost as popular as forums.
Affiliate Management:
If you are going to have an affiliate program you may want to spend considerable time investigating affiliate scripts before committing to one. You can find a standalone affiliate program or use one that comes with your membership site program.
Some of the more popular affiliate management software programs or sites are:
Clickbank
Post Affiliate Pro
iDevAffiliate
AlstraSoft Affiliate Network Pro
All of the above programs have great features and statistics because they are dedicated affiliate scripts. Check them out and ask questions before deciding.
If you want a full customer relationships management system (CRM) you may want to consider Infusionsoft. There are a ton of features that may make for a challenging start for you and it is not cheap! If you want an all-in-one solution that also provides tracking than Infusionsoft just may be what you need.
If you need both a shopping cart and an affiliate program that has the capability of offering a digital delivery service, ad tracking and your normal features than you may also want to check out 1ShoppingCart. However it does NOT handle membership management, but you can plug it into any membership script that you are using.
Once you have made all of your technical decisions make sure that you set it up, and test every function carefully to make sure that everything is not only functioning properly but integrating well with other features when necessary. Your technical aspects of your membership site are a crucial part of the success of your site, so spend the time you need in order to get it right.
Filed under Blog by 
How To Have a Successful Membership Site Launch
You've worked hard planning and designing your membership site. You are close to being ready and now it is time to think about how you will launch your membership site. You want your site to be successful and know that the launch period is critical to that success, so you ponder the question: How do I have a successful launch of my membership site?
The answer may depend on what your membership goal is: If you have a goal of 1,000 members than make it a paid site right from the start and promote the heck out of your site. If you will be using backend products and an affiliate program than you would be better off starting out with a free membership for say the first 1,000 who join or have two tiers of memberships the first being free and more benefits if you become a paid member on the 2nd tier.
A good launch will rely in part on word of mouth by posting in business forums or forums that revolve around your topic.
Another way to launch a membership site is to have it follow as the backend of a successful product sale. In your thank you email to your customer thanking them for their recent purchase after you talk about the benefits of the product they just purchased, you mention the additional benefits they could enjoy by joining your membership site. You have already built a relationship with them through one successful purchase; they are more likely now to listen to the benefits of another offer you make.
Make sure that you are offering real value and promote the heck out of this value so that your potential members will begin to sense a need for your site.
You will have a successful launch if people know who you are and respect you in the field your membership topic revolves around. A successful launch may hinge on your preparation. Months before your launch you need to start teasing your prospects about what is coming so that they start to become curious. Give them a tasty tidbit of what they can expect once they join your membership site.
Start a blog about your topic creating the image that you are an expert in the topic. This also works well with forum postings. Make sure you answer questions about your topic in several well-known forums on the topic with a signature mention of your upcoming membership site.
An email list is essential to the membership site launch. The email is a primary source of communication in the online world so makes good use of it for priming your customers about the upcoming launch. If you don't already have a list start building one a good year or two before your membership site…. yes, a membership site is not something you just throw together it takes real planning and preparation. A responsive email list can make the difference when it comes to a successful membership launch. If your email list members are used to receiving quality content from you they won't even blink an eye when you mention that you have a membership site, they will be biting at the bit to join, expecting more quality content from you. You really need to form a relationship with your prospective members and an email list is an excellent way of forming relationships. If you don't have a list yet, don't panic if you have several free reports that are packed with rich content than you can build a list in approximately 3 months of sending quality emails.
Two good email autoresponder services are AWeber and GetResponse.
Filed under Blog, Start a Membership Site by
