Need advice on setting up a membership based site

[JJMcClure]

I'm not sure if this the right forum for this type of query but hoping some of you have experience in this area. The situation is that I'm in the process of designing a full on membership type site that will need to capture emails, send out autoreplies with bonus types goods, have a full membership option and a bunch of content only accessible to members etc etc

I have a few years worth of knowledge on this kind of thing from being an affiliate and from being in a related business but very little practical experience (which the client is fully aware of but having worked with them in the past they're happy to proceed on that basis) and what I'm looking for is a guide to setting up this sort of thing and I'd really like one recommended by someone who knows what they're talking about rather tha trying to choose one form the zillions that are out there (most of them on sales pages.....). I have a landing page concept design almost finished, not going to post it in this post in case I contravene a ToS but I would like to show it at some point for feedback.

First question is that there is a full sign up option AND a free ebook email capture type option and I'm wondering how to integrate them on the landing page without confusing the purpose of the page.

Any advice is welcome!

(PS For those of you who also post on SP, you'll notice maybe that I've started an identical thread there and cut and pasted it to save typing it all again, hope thta's ok, just looking for maximum advice posisbilties!)

[Clinton]

midascode, you around?

[benitez17]

What sort of advice are you looking for? Landing page design recommendations, technical suggestions, promotional ideas, or something else?

[JJMcClure]

What sort of advice are you looking for? Landing page design recommendations, technical suggestions, promotional ideas, or something else?

All of the above! I'm familiar with landing page theory and use it a lot when I build bog standard sites, but what I really need is a step by step guide to building and running a membership based site, something that'll answer questions like:

1. How do I build an email capture AND a full membership sign up into the same landing page?

2. Is it better to offer a small eBook bonus for email capture or the first chapter of the larger book people get free for signing up for the full service? Should I test that?

3. Should I offer content on a 'hardly anything for non-registered users' and a 'everything for registered users' basis or use a intermediate level of content access?

This is the concept design so far (still working on the middle conversion path bit) http://imgwebdesign.co.uk/flf/index3.html

[Clinton]

I'm no expert in the subject but...

1. Aweber has integration with Extreme Membership
2. I'd do with index and first chapter of the larger book if the first chapter has some meat to it and is a good indication of the quality of material to follow
3. No opinion

[benitez17]

1. For my membership site I built this myself, but you can integrate phplist and Drupal to take care of it pretty easily (and for free!). Amember also has been highly recommended to me by others, but
I have never used it.

2. I personally think offering a table of contents and a single chapter with a nice teaser is a better option, but I would try both and see what works better.

3. I limit the number of page views per day by visitors, display ads on the free part of the site, and provide limited content with descriptive links leading to the paid portion of the site where the additional information is available to subscribers. My goal is to make the basic information available to all visitors so they can get an idea about what is offered, but also annoy them into paying for the content.

[midascode]

OK, can you clarify something please -- You are designing the membership website? Building it from the ground up?

OR have I misunderstood?

I have been involved in several membership websites - and all of them have used existing software (sometimes with a fair amount of customization)

I also have several friends who run $1Million Plus membership websites - one of the best solutions in my opinion is http://membergate.com/ (around $3500 for a license)

Some of the sites that I know use Membergate are:
http://www.usconcealedcarry.com/ (Not everyones cup of tea -- but Tens of thousands of members)
http://www.restaurantowner.com/
http://www.strengthcoach.com/

Also worth checking out for ideas is
http://www.bmyers.com/public/department59.cfm (You need to become a member to view -- $9.95 per month - but well worth it in my opinion)

For a cheaper option and also very easy to set up and very friendly with modern internet marketing strategies is
http://member.wishlistproducts.com/ (hearing lots of good reports)

And finally -- been around for years:
http://www.amember.com/p/

Not sure if I have answered your question -- but in my opinion it is better to go with an already established Membership Site software rather than build from scratch

Good Luck

Barry

[midascode]

Also worth checking out:
http://www.membershipsiteowner.com/

It seems a lot of membership websites want you to become a member -- in order to get their secrets ;-)

[JJMcClure]

O

Not sure if I have answered your question -- but in my opinion it is better to go with an already established Membership Site software rather than build from scratch

Good Luck

Barry

Hi Barry, thanks for taking the time.

My client doesn't want to use Membergate, I think I'm going to go with Amember and plug it into Joomla since so many people have recommended it, so that's a good start, got somewhere to go from now. I've already started on my concept design for the landing page but I'm running into issues I'm not experienced enough to answer myself easily and they're really to do with the best way to structure the site, especially the landing page, how to build a conversion path that includes both an email capture AND a full membership sign up option for example.

Do you know of any good step by step guides to building and running a membership site? I've asked this a few times and not really got a meaningful answer so now I'm starting to wonder if it's a meaningful question, maybe it's more basic than people realise?

Also worth checking out:
http://www.membershipsiteowner.com/

It seems a lot of membership websites want you to become a member -- in order to get their secrets ;-)

Hah yes... been finding that a lot while Googling for info. Maybe the best way to get the answers I want is to join a few of these sites and see how they manage me.

[JJMcClure]

I'm no expert in the subject but...

1. Aweber has integration with Extreme Membership
2. I'd do with index and first chapter of the larger book if the first chapter has some meat to it and is a good indication of the quality of material to follow
3. No opinion

Thanks, that's actually useful because I can look at what Extreme Member offers for the different prices and figure out if I can match it withoutt having to subscribe to a third party service...