{"id":8773,"date":"2016-01-06T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memberpress.com\/?p=8773"},"modified":"2021-06-14T14:50:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T20:50:10","slug":"useful-tools-for-building-your-membership-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memberpress.com\/fr\/blog\/useful-tools-for-building-your-membership-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Useful Tools for Building Your Membership Site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Want to build a membership site but don\u2019t know where to begin? Looking to enhance or rebuild your existing site with the latest strategies and the best tools? If you\u2019re looking to build a new or first-time membership site, you\u2019ll want to get a good idea of what this type of service can do for you and your particular business.<\/p>

WHAT'S INSIDE<\/p>\nToggle<\/span>

Survey Tools<\/a><\/li>
Organization Tools<\/a><\/li>
Content Management Systems<\/a><\/li>
Payment Processors & Email Autoresponders<\/a><\/li>
Comment & Forum Platforms<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Why build a product or service exclusively for members? You\u2019ll find various answers on this topic. Different businesses have different reasons for membership sites, such as the opportunity to help those in their specific niches or the ability to make money fairly easily and regularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not to mention membership sites are pretty easy to build, as we\u2019ll soon discuss. (Be sure to take a look at our article about why every blogger should start a membership site<\/a>.) But once you\u2019ve got a good idea of why others are building membership sites, you can take a step back and analyze\u00a0why your<\/i> specific product or service needs a membership site and how having a membership site will benefit your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though there are all kinds of reasons to build a membership site, there is a common denominator \u2014 you can make money from your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members receive access to specialized, premium content they\u2019ve paid for. So you\u2019re not giving free content to every person who comes across your site. Members are willing to pay for what your business has to offer. A closed community allows you to make special offers and give certain privileges to customers visiting your site for reasons other than merely wanting information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, here are a few indispensable tools you can use to build your membership site into a money-making machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Survey Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n $\"Formidable$ <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
So how do you find out who will pay for your content and how much they\u2019ll pay? If you\u2019re not sure of your audience or if you want to find out how much people are willing to fork out for premium content or services, you can run a survey using software such as Formidable Forms<\/a>, SurveyMonkey<\/a>, or Typeform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Organization Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$\"Mind$ <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Once you know why your business would benefit from a membership site and you have a good idea who your audience is, you\u2019ll need to map out your site. Think of this as sort of an outline, or foundation, for the\u00a0basic pages of your site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tools such as MindMeister<\/a>, Lucidchart<\/a>, and OmniGraffle<\/a> can help you organize your thoughts and come up with a basic layout. Why not just use plain old paper and pen? Well, you can\u2014at least to start with\u2014but the benefit of using a mapping tool is that you can instantly give your team a visual of what you have in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since it\u2019s all online, you can share that visual whenever you\u2019re ready. You can also convert your map into clean presentations and slideshows, making it even easier for your team to envision what you have in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Content Management Systems<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$\"WordPress$ <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Next, you\u2019ll want to take your outline to your site and build on your operating system or \u201cplatform.\u201d The most popular is WordPress<\/a>, but there are other options, such as Squarespace<\/a>, and Wix<\/a>. This is where you\u2019ll design the site\u2019s look and feel\u2014the colors, font, layout, use of sidebars, etc., and generate a personalized domain name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can do this using one of the platform\u2019s templates or a design of your own. Most platforms already have optimization tools and site reports for visitor traffic, and are readily adjustable for all types of devices. Security settings are also usually built in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind that when building a membership site on WordPress, you\u2019ll need to use a membership plugin such as MemberPress<\/a>. A plugin allows you to control content\u2014so you can keep certain services and products within specific membership levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can arrange multiple kinds of users in different tiers, restricting members\u2019 access to the levels they\u2019ve purchased. MemberPress gives you the ability to \u201cdrip\u201d your content, i.e., release content at certain times and to use restrictions and expirations on existing content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, MemberPress is fully compatible with payment processors and digital delivery tools. It is also fully compatible with Easy Affiliate<\/a>, a plugin that allows you to create and manage an affiliate program<\/a> for your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Payment Processors & Email Autoresponders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$\"stripe$ <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Payment processing and billing are, of course, among the most important features of your site. PayPal<\/a> and Stripe<\/a> are two options that allow you to accept your customers\u2019 payments securely. You can also create and send customized invoices using these services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider using an email marketing<\/a> autoresponder, such as AWeber<\/a> or ActiveCampaign<\/a>. These tools allow you to collect email addresses, manage your subscribers, send automated emails, and broadcast messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comment & Forum Platforms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$\"bbPress$ <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, if you want to encourage your members to interact with one another, you\u2019ll want to look at plugins that allow you to manage comments and forums. bbPress<\/a> and BuddyPress<\/a> and are popular plugins for these types of interactions.\u00a0If you offer a lot of audio and video content, you should consider a tool like Amazon S3<\/a>, which is a secure data-storage solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are your favorite tools for building your site? Are there any you can\u2019t\u00a0run your site without not listed here? Let us know by commenting below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you liked this article, be sure to follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and LinkedIn<\/a>! And don\u2019t forget to subscribe in the box<\/a> below.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Want to build a membership site but don\u2019t know where to begin? Looking to enhance or rebuild your existing site with the latest strategies and the best tools? If you\u2019re looking to build a new or first-time membership site, you\u2019ll want to get a good idea of what this type of service can do for [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3121,"featured_media":15142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_strive_editorial_status":"not-started","_strive_copy_of":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_strive_checklists":"\"\"","_strive_active_checklist":"62291e2bb2422","_strive_post_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,144],"tags":[285,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-8773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-advice","8":"category-business","9":"tag-development","10":"tag-membership","11":"tag-wordpress","12":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t