How
to Build a Successful Membership Site
Have you been
thinking about building a membership site? If you answered yes, you are jumping
on the bandwagon with many others – you definitely are not alone. There’s been
a growing interest in these types of sites. So if building a successful
membership site is your goal, you’ll want to read on.
Marketing Your
Site
In large your
success is based on how well you can market your site. The very first thing you
need to do isn’t build your site, but rather it’s build your list. Then you can
build trust with those subscribers using an autoresponder. Use both a sequence
and take advantage of your blog by emailing the updates to them regularly.
Next, you will
introduce those individuals on your list to the option of joining your
membership site. This model is a successful one because lots of people like to
be your subscriber and take advantage of your free updates. Some of your more
serious followers will want to take advantage of moving to the next level –
your membership service. It makes sense to present this option after these
individuals are already hooked on the information you provide them.
Great, once
you convert them to a member you need to keep them there. In fact, retention is
the most difficult task you’ll undertake. Use this checklist to help with
retention.
#1 Do ongoing
updates to your member’s area content.
#2 Offer your
members superior support either on a Facebook page, through your membership
forum or through email.
#3 Offer your
members access to something that they will see as useful as they move forward –
this could be software, an app, tools, etc. This is an excellent way to keep
your members.
Building a
membership definitely takes some time and initially it requires a great deal of
effort as well – no one said setting up a successful membership site was easy.
However, one the site is up and running and you have a stable membership
running such a site is really quite enjoyable and it requires very little
effort on a week to week basis, but it does generate a repetitive income.
The key is to
not over complicate things. Keep things simple and you’ll be much better off.
If you are inspired to start your own membership site, you now have some great
tips to get you started. So what are you waiting for?
Why
You Should Create a Membership Site
If you’ve been
thinking about creating a membership site, you should spend a little time to
defining just why you should create a membership site and what the benefits
will be to you. Let’s have a look at some of the main benefits.
#1 Membership sites provide and
easy way for you to interact with your user
If your goal is to build a closed community of people that are committed, this
is by far the best way to accomplish this. Everyone involved has paid money to
become involved so they tend to be more committed than those members associated
with free communities or open communities.
#2 A membership site is
easy to update. Sure, distributing your content or
product in the form of an ebook isn’t as complicated, but it is much harder to
keep current. Once you have put it together and it’s out there – that’s pretty
much what people get. After a few years, sometimes in a matter of a couple of
months, the content is no longer relevant or even if it is relevant it becomes
stale. With a membership site you can add, edit or even delete content just
like you would with a blog.
#3 You can generate
recurring income with your membership site.
This is one of the most appealing aspects of a membership site. You can charge
a monthly fee or an annual fee, or you can offer both. The more flexible you
are the more members you’ll attract.
#4 You don’t need to
have good design skills. If you are creating an ebook you need to
have some great design skills. Some people attempt to do their ebooks in
Powerpoint if they don’t have the necessary design skills – they quickly learn
just how bad of an idea this is. Powerpoint is not designed for this type of
project. When you have a membership site, except for your logo, you can do
everything in a premade WordPress theme and keep the design minimize. For many
that simple factor makes the membership site the best option.
#5 Your product will
continue to evolve and become better over time.
The more user interaction allowed the more valuable the information on your
site will become and the more information that will actually be created.
This is just five reasons why you should create a membership
site. There are certainly others. Why not give it a try now?
2
Mistakes That can Kill Your Membership Program
For a
membership program to be successful certain things need to be in place. There
are thing that can also cause your membership to fail. Let’s look at 2 common
mistakes made that can kill your membership program.
Mistake #1 – There is not
adequate momentum
If you want
your membership program to be a success you need to have momentum. This means
you need to have tons of people that are eager to join. The minimum number of
people you should have ready to sign up is 50. Less than that and it’s not
likely to work – your program is likely going to fizzle out. There are few
people that will hang on to a dead forum where nothings happening. They want
action, information, interesting advice, etc. 5
There should be at minimum of 10 posts a day happening on
your membership site forum. That’s the minimum. You will notice if you can get
your membership over a 100 that suddenly things come to life.
Mistake #2 – You start a membership site because you think your
idea is good
Bottom line – it doesn’t matter what you think is good. It
matters whether others have an interest in what your membership site has to
offer. You should be applauded for having the enthusiasm to want to start a
membership site, but before you put all of that effort into your idea, make
sure what you think is a good idea is really what others are willing to pay to
join.
When you start your membership site make sure that you take
the time to create a buzz before you start your program.
Let’s look at an example. Project 123, created by XYZ is that
kind of project that is just begging to be part of a membership program. The
place to start is by creating a on buzz on your blog, on Facebook and through
other social media channels that builds momentum so that people simply can’t
wait to sign up.
That’s two common mistakes that are often made that will
cause your membership program to fail. There are plenty of others. Before you
take on a membership site make sure you take some time to research the best way
to make your site a success. There are proven things that work and proven
things that fail. Knowing this before you begin can reduce your chance of
failure.
Setting
Up a Membership Site
Creating a
successful membership site isn’t something you just do haphazardly and then
wait for the money to roll in. If you are serious about creating your own
successful membership site the first thing you need to do is figure out your
audience is going to be and then create a market for your site.
Putting
together your membership site is going to involve the investment of many hours,
especially if you are serious about getting it right. Make sure you are up for
the challenge!
Currently,
what is the size of your audience? While you don’t have to have an audience
when you first build your membership website, it really helps, and it’s a good
idea. There is tons of stuff out there, and people are getting leery about
parting with their money. The larger and the more passionate your user base
(list) is when you start, the easier is going to be for you to have a
successful membership site.
Here are some excellent ways you can test your market.
1. Survey the readers you have – Surveying these readers can lead
to valuable feedback that helps you define the market for your new membership
site. You could be surprised – often what you think your readers want to see
more of isn’t what they want at all. You can use this information to create a
more useful product offering for your readers. 6
2. Buy traffic
– If you have a limited audience or you aren’t ready to tell your audience what
you are up to think about purchasing $100 or so of Adword traffic and see how
well it converts. If you find you have a bunch of fake sales or opt ins it’s
very likely that you have a nice size market to draw from for your membership site.
3. Split test
– If you have a pretty good size market and you have a pretty good idea what
your product is going to be then you can think about doing a split test. Create
at least two different sales pages with variations. Try setting up different copy,
features, etc. Then you use Google Website Optimizer to do your split test.
This is an excellent tool that lets you show different users various variations
of your site and it lets you see which ones are converting the highest by
judging the number of email opt in and the number of people that click your
faux checkout page.
How
to Setup a Membership Program
Setting up a
membership program can create a residual income that goes on and on – this is
especially true when it done correctly. The key is to create a product line
that members want access to.
The cost per
month for your membership site can vary or you can even offer different pricing
tiers, but in order to get people to pay those monthly or yearly fees you are
going to have to have something to offer that they want, not just for a single
month but over and over again. Of course, a free membership program has far
less demands on you. People will easily be convinced to sign up when it doesn’t
cost them anything. Still, digital products are popular for both free and paid
membership programs. They are easy to share among members and are readily
available to ensure you have ongoing content that’s desirable.
Setting up
your free membership program is easy. All you have to do is add a forum to your
blog. With WordPress you can use the SimplePress plugin. Although it’s not the
best forum software around it is definitely easy to install and start to use
and it will keep the appearance of your blog/site so that your branding isn’t
affected.
If you decide
you want to set up a paid membership program try the WordPress plugin Wishlist Member.
It costs around $100 but it is worth every dime. Wishlist is easily
adapted to a number of different program structures. It is very easy to
integrate with your payment system such as Shopping Cart or Paypal
and it easily merges with email responders like Mail chimp.
So it is a
good idea to create a membership program right from the start. No matter what
your plans are for your membership program, it’s a good idea not to rush, even
if it is going to be free. You need to makes sure that you have adequate
momentum and a solid reason for setting up a membership program. You should
also carefully think through the structure to you are focusing on. You need to
know what you want to offer your members and how you are going to deliver the
program.
One thing is for sure – you should never ever settle for
creating a membership program that is little more than mediocre. Rather, take
your time and create a system that has real value. Make sure it is very useful
and in high demand. Why not create something that could change lives?
Things
You Should Know About Membership Websites
If you have
been debating over whether or not a membership site is the right option for you
to generate income, you’ll want to read on to find out the answers to four of
the most commonly asked questions.
#1 Is it really a worthwhile undertaking to create a
membership site?
There’s no
question that a membership site will create a lot of extra work for a blogger,
so you need to be well informed to decide if this is the right choice for you.
The benefit to a membership program is that it will increases the sense of
community that’s going on with your blog, it builds goodwill and best of all it
can be an excellent source of income. The downside is that it requires hard
work to maintain your membership site.
#2 Should my membership site be paid or free?
This is a
commonly debated topic. What you do need to do is decide whether you will have
a paid or free site before you begin. It is very difficult to convert a free
membership site to a paid membership site without losing a large portion of
your members. If you are determined to start a free membership site then you
need to have a plan for how you are going to monetize it later on. Otherwise,
you’ll be drained of your time and energy and have no financial benefits.
#3 What should I offer?
If you plan to
start a successful membership site you will need to have an outstanding offer
in order to entice people to join and become members. Just creating a forum
isn’t going to be enough. When people pay for a membership they will have
expectations and you are going to need to meet those expectations or you will
lose the member.
#4 Can you over deliver?
Absolutely! The
key is not offer too much for a too low price. It is not enough to have an
outstanding offer. There are all kinds of pitfalls you must try to avoid if you
are going to create a program that’s successful. Just one major mistake can
doom your membership site to failure. So set a fair price for a fair value and
you’ll avoid facing this challenge.
That’s it –
four of the most common questions asked by those who are thinking about
starting their own membership site. Now you know and that means you are better
informed to make a decision.
Pricing
Your Membership and Accepting Payments
Membership
sites are a great way to create a recurring income and when done correctly
members will come. The right combination includes offering the right products
and the right price. If you price yourself too high and you are the new kid on
the block, you are far more likely to fail. There’s a strategy to how much you
charge and what payments you accept, that can help you to build your business.
Starting low
is smart – when your membership fees are low you are far more likely to get
people to your site, and you’ll also reduce your cancellations especially if
you increase the price for new members in the future. It is a much bigger
challenge to decrease your price than it is to increase your price – many
people don’t realize this.
Have a look at
other membership sites that are in your niche and see what they are charging
for membership. This will give you a pretty good idea of what the ‘right price’
or the acceptable pricing rage is. It’s a good idea to fit into this range or
be less. If you are more and a new membership site, people are more likely to
head over to an established site.
You might also
want to test whether your potential members prefer to pay a one off charge annually
or whether they prefer a monthly payment. If you thought it would be monthly,
you aren’t alone, most people do; however, it seems that far more people prefer
the one off payment, so make sure you understand your market. Keep this in mind
when setting up your payment option. It is generally beneficial to offer both
payment options.
Another
important factor is determining what payments you are going to accept. PayPal
is by far the easiest and you can have it up in running in no time at all –
minutes to be exact. Potential members really tend to favor PayPal.
Clickbank is
another solution that is pretty popular and for the site owner it provide more
analytics and as well as features. However, you are going to have to be willing
to lay out some cash to begin with. Plus, it takes a bit for your product to be
approved.
It’s really up
to you which one you choose, or if you decide to choose both, but unless you
have a good reason for not using these.
5
Things Your Membership Site Should Have
Membership sites
are growing in popularity day by day. But in order for your membership site to
be successful and generate a recurring revenue it needs to offer the members
value. In addition, your membership site should have these 5 things.
#1 Total Content Control
Remember, you are in control of what it is people see or do
not get to see. For example, you can show the post preview but require
membership access for the reader to see the rest of the post. This allows you
to instantly upsell using a blog format, which is very handy.
You can also block out specific paragraphs or even certain
sentences on your membership site, making it only visible to those who are
members. You have all kinds of flexibility to entice non members and please
members.
#2 Build a Stylish Welcome
Area
You can create a very stylish welcome area that is enticing
to both paying members and free members. This is a good area to use to upsell
and convert leads into paying members. Remember giving them a ‘taste’ of what
you have to offer is a great way to get them as a paying member.
#3 Manage Subscriptions
You are going to need to have control over your members
access, duration of membership and free promotions such as a free 7 day trial.
In the latter, if they don’t become paying members you will need your system to
automatically lock them out. The same applies to members that’s monthly dues
don’t go through.
#4 Various Membership
Levels
You can offer a number of different membership levels to
broaden your reach. You should create different content for the different
memberships or you can block content from some levels. You should upgrade or
downgrade your members. You should create an upsell page that members see
automatically when they try to access something they don’t have the rights to.
#5 Import and Export
Members
Your site should make it easy for you to import or export
members. You should be able to use a csv file to move memberships around, to
download the data, to upload memberships from other membership sites you have,
etc.
That’s it – you now have five other things you should ensure
that your membership site has available to help improve the likelihood that
your membership site will be successful and begin to generate a recurring
income for you.
Find
Out Which Membership Plugins You Need
You have your
sales funnel up and rolling, your email auto responder in place, and now it is
time to start to build the rest of your website. There are some membership
plugins you are going to want to make sure you are using. Let’s have a look at
what those are. 10
There are many WordPress plugins that you can take advantage
of that will let you create the membership part of your website. While there
are other ways to accomplish this, through WordPress is by far one of the
easiest ways to accomplish this.
Be able to protect some of the pages from public view. A
membership site isn’t of any value if you are unable to block the content from
those who are not paying members. You can use a plugin to ensure the public,
and member’s of various levels see only what they are entitled to see.
Provide a content drip. Perhaps your website is offering an 8
week program of some type. These plugins let you release specific content every
week or every so many days to ensure members aren’t able to skip ahead and have
to follow the program.
Create multiple user tiers. Many membership sites, offer
different pricing structures. Let’s say you want to have 4 different pricing
tiers, and each tier is able to access specific information. Use a plugin to
allow you to create the number of tiers you need and then and assign the
appropriate content.
Create a Free Trial. Often the easiest way to hook a new
member is to bring them on board for a week or two of free access. You can use
a plugin to achieve this.
What you will need overall is going to depend on what type of
site you are creating, whether this is your first membership site, your skill
level, the complexity of the website and other factors. It’s important that you
match the plugins you choose to use.
Take a little time to evaluate your exact needs. This will
help you overcome any uncertainty you might be dealing with. Don’t be afraid to
tweak and change in the early days. Before you go live is a great time to play
with plugins. You can set up some dummy membership accounts and check out the
flow to see if it’s working the way you want it to. Doing this can help you
have the best possible membership site once you go live.
4
Components of an Effective Membership Website
Over time,
membership websites have gone from being an experiment in income generation to
being huge revenue generating machines. There are individuals that are making
millions of dollars each month through their membership sites. More and more
people attempt to create their own membership site because they have heard
about the potential to generate revenue through a systematized procedure. To
get more from your membership site sales and systematize it eventually, you’ll
need to have these 4 components.
#1 Set your price and know why you chose that price. A membership site with a low
monthly rate will get a big volume of sales, where as, an expensive membership
site will get fewer sales but make a higher commission on each sale. You can
also consider having a tiered membership structure. 11
#2 Use an introduction
video to create a sense of urgency. The world changes
rapidly and while there might be thousands of claimed solutions floating about,
if your membership site offers a real solution to a very real problem, you’re
far more likely to enjoy success. However, you are going to need to explain how
and why your membership site will benefit the user and you’ll need to do this
in 2 minutes or less with an intro video.
#3 You should have a ‘Buy
Now’ button appear three times on the sales page.
This is considered the ideal number of times for it to appears to maximize the
number of sales. One of the most common mistakes is to just place a ‘Buy Now’
button at the bottom of the sales page. Place a button near the top, in the
middle and then at the bottom of the page.
#4 Provide your members
with a sense of direction. New members really
don’t know what to do with their membership, what to access, what to watch,
etc. When a new member sees 50 video that they can watch they likely don’t have
a clue where to start. By giving your members some guidance on the order of
material to view you break it down into bits and pieces that your members are
able to digest without becoming overwhelmed.
The implementation of these 4 components are a great start to
enjoying the success you desire from your membership site. Once your site is
established, you’ll be able to relax a little and watch your residual income
grow and flourish over time.
Choosing
the Right Membership Software for You
Membership
sites have become very popular and that’s for a good reason – a number of
people who have mastered the running of these sites are generating recurring
income for an investment of very little time.
One of the
tools you’ll want to invest in if you plan to start a membership site is
membership software. There’s plenty of it – Digital Access Pass, aMember,
Memergate, Wishlist Member, Easy Member Pro and on and on the list goes.
So how do you
decide which membership site software is best for you? The key is to find the
one that fits your budget and has the tools you want. Although Wishlist Member seems
to come highly recommended because it integrates with WordPress and it’s quite
cheap compare to some others. Just choose a good WordPress theme and you’ll be
in business. Your site will look good and you’ll be ready to get down to
business.
Easy Member Pro
This software
does just what it says it will do. It’s an easy setup and it’s professional
software. It offers all of the features that you will need to create a
membership quickly and easily.
Amember
is another popular choice. One of the things many like about
this package is that it has over 60 options for payment processors. There is an
online demo that you can have a look at and it has a free trial offer too, so
you can try it and see if it’s right for you. It’s priced pretty reasonable.
Memberspeed
This software has gone down in price just recently and so
many feel there’s great value here for the price. It’s definitely worth
checking out to see if it does what you need.
MemberStar
This is a monthly subscription and so it offers some
flexibility. Many find the $79 a month high, but remember if you are setting up
a membership site that’s for more than 100 members who are each going to pay
you at least $10 a month that’s more than $1000 a month, so this package is
certainly in your budget. Have a look at what it has to offer.
That’s just a handful of the membership software packages
that are out there. A good way to get a feel for them is to read the reviews
that others have provided and then if there is an opportunity for a trial use
take advantage of it. The key is to find the features you want.
Find
Out Why You Should Build a Membership Site
These days,
you are bound to hear a lot about membership sites. After all, there’s quite a
buzz around them. However, if you are unsure whether this is something for you,
you are not alone. You can find the answers here. Read on to find out why you
should build a membership site.
The first
thing you should know is that those who have successful membership sites enjoy
incredible benefits, especially when it comes to income. In fact, there are few
other opportunities online quite like it, offering this kind of potential for
minimal time investment.
With a
membership site, you aren’t faced with the worry of products - being stuck with
obsolete products or not having enough product for demand. It’s tough –
especially online where you face mounds of competition from around the world.
That’s what’s so different and so unique about a membership site. Sure, to
start with, your membership site will require a fair bit of work, but after you
have it all up and running you will not have to continually invent, create and
launch new products. You won’t be playing any guessing games.
With most
businesses you sell a product and then you have to continue to sell your
clients different products in order to continue to generate revenue. This is
not only a pain, it’s risky. You must be constantly guessing what to offer your
clients and if you guess wrong, you are going to be out the cost of your stock
and generate little income. 13
A membership site is different. You only have to sell to your
clients once. Once your subscribers become a member they remain your customer
without you having to sell them something over and over. That means your
membership site will generate recurring income for you.
That recurring income is the main reason for investing your
time to create a membership site. By having a recurring billing structure that
is built right into your product, every month, every quarter, or every year,
depending on your payment system your client renews and your income continues
to flow without the worries associated with traditional product businesses.
Building a membership site will require you to invest a fair
bit of time initially, but be patient, because it will not be long before you
will be able to sit back and enjoy the recurring income month in and month out.
Creating and Distributing Content for Your Membership Site
People are going to pay to be members on your membership
site, so you need to put a great deal of thought and effort into creating and
distributing content that is valuable enough for the fees they are paying.
It is important for you to map out your website right from
the start. You need to know what pages you plan to have, how they are all going
to fit together and how members are going to able to navigate your website
easily. This is specific to the kind of site you create.
Creating
Your Membership Tiers and Your Content Drip
One thing
that’s great with both Amember and Wishlist is that both of these will let you create any
number of membership tiers. So you could easily have 4 different pricing tiers
– Platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. This can really help to increase your
sales and it also allows your members to find a program that is tailored to
their needs.
Perhaps they
are just beginning and you don’t need a lot of advanced features, so you can
move them into the bronze package and then later on they can upgrade to the
silver or gold, perhaps even the platinum. This is a really easy setup if you
use plugins and when that user tries to access content that is above their tier
they get a message that offers an opportunity to upgrade.
Another
possible distribution model is called the ‘content drip’ and this is effective
at making sure that members actually follow the program and aren’t able to jump
ahead. They cannot gather all the information and then take advantage of your
return policy. It protects your membership site’s integrity.
Another option
is the $1 trial or making use of the preview tool to give visitors an
opportunity to access the first couple of paragraphs of your content before
they sign up.
Before you dig into your setup make sure you know what your
membership tiers are going to be and how you would like to create and
distribute the content for your membership site. It’s much easier to do things
correctly to begin with, rather than attempting to work backwards. Always keep
in mind the importance of creating strong content. Having great distribution
channels won’t be of much value unless you have good content that is worthy of
being distributed.
How
to Create a Squeeze Page for Your Membership Page
An important
component to your membership page is to have a solid squeeze page. Before you
can create a squeeze page you will need a professional email auto responder
like Mail Chimp or Aweber.
This service lets you capture email addresses, then send out mass mailings to
those on the list.
For example, a
visitor reaches your page, where you have an opt in offer that provides them
with “5 Steps to Succeed Online.” Once your visitor signs up he/she will
automatically receive one email a week over a five week period each covering
one of the steps. Having the ability to communicate to a new audience is key to
the success of your squeeze page and ultimately your membership site.
When you are
looking for the right professional email auto responder there are some features
to look for:
* Look for a
package that is robust and will work for you now and in the future when your
list has grown significantly.
* You want
your list to be customizable.
* You want to
compare prices and choose the option that has the best value.
There are some
things you should be looking for when you are looking for the right application
to help you set up your sales funnel.
Cookie Drop –
For example, let’s say that someone goes to your page and then decided to sign
up. From there they are taken to a different page where they are given access to
the free, video, ebook, etc. You do not want them to ever see that initial page
again after they are in your sales funnel. From that point on, you want them to
only see whatever free content or sales offers you have going on inside your
membership site. A cookie drop places a cookie in the user’s computer which
informs the website they are signed up and that they no longer need to see the
squeeze page.
Template
Options – Make sure you have adequate templates to choose from that include
options such as no sidebar, sidebar, navigation bar, no navigation bar, video
or no video. The more options you have available the better for your page and
your membership site.
Get your auto
responder up and running and your squeeze page done and you will be on your way
to get your membership rolling. Success is at your fingertips. 15
How
to Build a Successful Membership Site by Ensuring Valuable Content
Build a good
membership website and you can be enjoying a solid income in no time, providing
you implement the right strategy. A good membership site builds a strong
relationship with a selected group of followers who are able to market your
products/services. In order for your site to be successful and generate a
steady stream of income, you are going to have to have good content. This can
be a real challenge! There are some things you can do to help you accomplish a
regular flow of valuable content.
#1: Content That is Generated by Members
Your
membership site needs to have a forum – in fact, it’s a must. Then your members
can participate in helping you add social value to your website. You can
eliminate a great deal of work for yourself by having plenty of fresh content
on your site which is generated by users. It will continue to build perpetual
value for your membership website. However, remember, you still need to ensure
that you are adding value to your website too.
#2 Market Affiliate Products
You will
collect information from your subscribers about the type of content they are
interested in, but this doesn’t mean you have to use the information you
collect to develop the content yourself. Instead, you might partner with a JV
Partner who is willing and able to add valuable content to your membership site
in exchange for the marketing the products they have to your visitors. You make
an agreement to promote their products through the use of an affiliate link and
you are able to make a profit from the sale of their products to members.
#3 Poll Your Members
One terrific
thing with running a membership site is that you have the ability to engage and
interact with your members. You can also collect information from your members
about the type of content/products they are very interested in. When you gather
this type of information from your members, you will be 100 percent sure that
the latest content you add to the website will have adequate value to you’re
your members continuing to be members.
You can
quickly see why a membership site that’s built well and incorporates a good
monetization strategy can become a profitable venture. So start by creating
your theme and then sit down and create your monetization strategy. When you
incorporate the right membership website technology with persistence, you will
soon be enjoying a healthy income stream from your membership website.
How
Will You Facilitate Membership Interaction on your Membership Site
This is one of
the most important questions because your answer will determine how hard your
setup process is going to be. There are basically four options available to you
for your member interaction inside of your website.
1. Forum - If member interaction is will be a key part of your
membership website, a forum is becomes a must. There are a many forum software
options that you can choose from, each with their advantages and disadvantages
and each with their own level of complexity in setup.
2. Comments -This will permit your members to be able to comment and
become involved in discussions on the material that you offer on each of your
website pages. This is perfect for smaller interaction, and it will definitely
add value to your page, but it is harder to search for the comments that have
been made.
3. Both Forum and Comments - If you would like to create more
of an atmosphere of community then offering both a forum and the ability to
leave comments is a great way to achieve this.
4. No Forum and no Comments – Generally the elimination of
member interaction, occurs on the lowest end of products or the highest end of
products. For example, let’s say you took a small e-book and turned it into a
membership site (low end product) then having comments or a forum is very much
overkill. On the other hand. if you sell a really high priced product, your
message can get watered down too much with comments and forums, so you opt not to
include.
For all
options, except for forums, there’s not a lot you need to do. Everything you
need is built into WordPress. You can add a comment plugin like Disgus.
However, if you are going to include a forum then the complexity of your site
goes up. Try to find a forum app that will work right out of the box to reduce
the time necessary to learn. There are plenty of choices, but here are two
options available for a forum.
Vanilla – This software takes a bit to get
used to using, but once you figure it out, you’ll likely love it. It’s one of
the best looking forum programs and there are numerous free plugins to interact
with it and increase the usability.
PhpBB – This is by far the most commonly used software for
forums. It’s open source software so its free and it is an excellent choice
because so many people are comfortable using it. In fact, the majority of
forums online are built using phpBB. However, it doesn’t look as good as some
others.
