Why Build a WordPress Membership Site (and the Plugins You Need)

After running a website for a while, chances are that, sooner or later, it will gain traction. You’ll generate more traffic, and ultimately, money will start to roll in. 

Selling products or services, generating ad revenue, publishing sponsored content and even relying on donations are all great ways to monetize your website. 

But, there’s also another method. 

And that’s turning it into a membership site. 

Membership sites are websites that features exclusive content, like articles, podcasts, tutorials, etc. This content is usually put behind a paywall as users will have to pay to access it. 

In most cases, membership websites charge users via a monthly subscription. 

In other words, running a membership website can be an excellent way to generate an additional, steady source of income. 

It’s not only about the money, though. There are also other reasons why you should build a membership site. 

Let’s take a look at some of them. 

Why Build a Membership Website? 

1. It Creates a Community 

Let’s say that you’re running a blog. You could integrate a membership plan that offers users exclusive, more in-depth articles than your free posts. 

Who will sign-up for the offer? 

Probably, your most devoted followers. 

A membership plan will give these users a place to gather, exchange ideas with each other and improve their knowledge regarding your niche. 

In other words, with a membership plan, you’ll encourage visitors to interact with one another and form strong relationships, thus, creating a community. 

Furthermore, this allows you to get involved in their conversations and understand your target audience better. 

2. It Fosters Loyalty 

A strong community means that users will have a reason to revisit your website from time to time. 

Besides, they already paid for a subscription. So users will want to get the most out of it, right? 

Most eCommerce specialists say that memberships work exceptionally well with online stores. That’s because they offer loyal customers a sense of exclusivity, making them feel like they’re an essential part of your company. 

For them, it’s a way of getting recognized and thanked for their loyalty. Consequently, they’re likely willing to pay for that recognition. 

You could offer your members exclusive discounts or products, for example. This gives users an incentive to join in and continue shopping on your website. 

3. It Improves Marketing 

Keeping a customer is five times cheaper than acquiring a new one. 

If users are willing to pay for a subscription, it means that they’ll most likely buy your products or services in the future as well. 

To put it differently, your subscribers are pre-qualified leads. You already know their needs, wants, and what makes them tick. In terms of marketing, this saves you many headaches. 

What’s more, as they’re subscribed to your membership plan, you have their contact information. So you’ll be able to reach the audience through other marketing channels as well. 

And last, members are excellent targets for upselling. You could use premium content to lead users to other products. 

4. It Establishes Authority 

If you’re running a blog, a membership plan will push you to provide higher-quality and in-detail blog posts. Thus, you’ll provide users more value. 

That said, you’ll gain credibility, and members will start to see you as an expert within your niche. This will get people to talk about you. 

For example, if other content creators subscribed to your membership, they might mention you in one of their own articles. 

This puts you on the map, and you’ll most likely attract more traffic to your site. 

5. It’s Easy to Implement

We had talks with experts from web design company in New York, and they recommended building a membership site with WordPress. 

That’s because, with WordPress, turning your website into a functioning membership site is not a big deal. It’s mostly a matter of choosing the right plugins. 

But, with almost 60,000 plugins available, you’ll likely stumble upon some bad apples. 

In hopes of narrowing down your search, we’ve come with a list of some of the best membership plugins available. 

So let’s take a look. 

The Best WordPress Membership Plugins 

ARMember 

ARMember is at the top of the list because it is a great WordPress membership plugin that can be used to make a great WordPress membership site.

There’s a good reason why it should be at the top, and that’s because ARMember is a powerful membership plugin for WordPress that not only helps you make passive income but also gives you a steady stream of income that you can count on.

Aside from that, the response from customers has been great, and a lot of sales have been made on the Envato marketplace (almost having 5-star reviews).

Unlike other WordPress membership plugins, this one has an amazing set of features:

For example, it has the most advanced content restriction feature,

• For example, it has the most advanced content restriction feature, which lets you protect your content fully or partially for different pages, posts, tags, products, users, product categories, and more by simply turning on the “Content Access Rules” toggle for the selected plan.
• The Drip Content feature lets you schedule when members of your site will get new content. You can add Drip Rules to posts, pages, user posts, and custom content for the selected membership plans and choose the “Drip Type” to schedule the content release (immediately, within a specific timeframe, or at a specific date).         
• It lets you keep track of members with different levels of membership plans and supports multiple payment cycles for plans that happen over and over again.
• Offers a built-in form builder to make beautiful Signup/Login forms with a variety of ready-to-use form templates and styling and customization options.
• It lets you make coupon codes that give discounts on certain membership plans for a certain amount of time.
• Integration of Active Campaign, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, Mailster, and GetResponse for ARMember to influence email marketing.   
• Offering more than 29 Add-ons work together.  
• Supports well-known payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, and many more.
• Supports the most popular plugins from third parties, such as BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Visual Composer, and more.

You can also set redirection rules for pages and posts, place IP-based restrictions, and set conditional redirection (to Block URLs for the selected plan).

Also, this awesome plugin can work well even for people who don’t know much about technology.

Also, if your members forget to pay for their subscription, you can give them a grace period for a few days so that they can pay in the meantime.

Pricing: The Lite version is absolutely free, while a regular licence for the paid version can cost up to $59.

MemberPress

Setting up MemberPress should be a breeze. It’s a matter of installing the plugin, setting up your products, entering the payment gateway details, and you’d be ready to go. 

This is an all-in-one plugin, meaning that it comes with everything you need to run your membership website. For example, it brings pre-made, attractive pricing pages, control over your coupons, content dripping, etc.

It also pairs with bbPress, enabling you to create forums where users can interact with each other.

In terms of pricing, MemberPress starts at $149/year. 

Restrict Content Pro 

Restrict Content Pro is perfect for beginners. That’s because this plugin offers you notes to help you through the installation process. 

In terms of features, Restrict Content Pro allows you to set up different membership levels, offer discounts on subscriptions, content dripping, etc. 

This plugin also comes with a customer dashboard, where members can view and manage account details. 

Pricing starts at $99/year. 

WooCommerce Memberships 

WooCommerce Memberships is an add-on for the WooCommerce platform, making it perfect for online stores. 

It’s easy to use, and you can set subscriptions both as recurring or one-time payments. But, if you’re going to accept recurring payments, you’ll also need the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. 

Other features include free shipping for members, content dripping, easy communication with members, and an invite-only area. 

Pricing starts at $199/year. 

S2Member 

Unlike the other two, S2Member comes with a free version. 

Although its features are a bit limited, you’ll still be able to create custom registration pages, restrict your content and accept recurring payments through PayPal. 

If you’d like to have access to other features like unlimited membership levels, gift codes, coupon codes, and integration with Stripe, PayPal Pro, ClickBank, and Authorize.net, you’ll have to go for the pro version. 

This will set you back with a one-time payment of $89/site. 

LearnDash 

Creating and managing online courses with LearnDash should be a walk in the park. 

It comes with a course builder that allows you to create a learning gateway. Also, this plugin includes a drip-feed feature, meaning users will be able to access the next module only after they complete the current session. 

Furthermore, LearnDash provides detailed reports on progress, performance, and enrollment. You can merge it with MemberPress as well. 

A one-site license will set you back $159. 

MemberMouse 

MemberMouse is an easy-to-install plugin that lets you sell memberships as well as physical products. 

This plugin provides you with tools that track the members’ transaction history, activity, information, and more. To maximize results, you can also integrate any payment gateways and email marketing tools. 

Pricing starts at $29/month, including 11 membership pages, payment and email integration with all platforms, one-click purchase and upsells, and basic reporting. 

Also, note that the basic plan allows you to hold up to 5,000 members. 

WishList Member 

What makes WishList Member great is that it provides you with tutorials, videos, and guides to help you use this plugin more efficiently. 

In terms of features, you can let non-members have a sneak peek at your content. This can allow them to nibble at your premium content, enticing them to sign-up for your membership plan. You can also offer trials.

Furthermore, WishList Member provides many integration options, including payment gateways, email marketing providers, and other page builders. 

A one license account starts at $149/year. 

WP-Members 

WP-Members allows you to hide pages, posts, and custom post-types easily. 

It also lets you set up a dedicated sign-up form anywhere on your website and showcase teasers of premium content to attract more sign-ups. 

The features we mentioned above come with the free version of the plugin. Paid plans start at $59/year. 

Final Words 

All in all, setting up a membership website is a great way to generate a reliable source of income. 

Not only that, a membership website pushes your loyal customers to grow a community and get more engaged with your business. Therefore, marketing your products will be more effective. 

And with the plugins you can find on WordPress, getting your membership site up and running is as easy as ever.