Designing a basic WordPress plugin isn’t inherently difficult which is why there is a growing trend to hire a freelancer or company to create customized plugins. While this may serve a purpose in some cases, this isn’t always the best idea. If you are thinking about this for a membership plugin then you might want to reconsider. There are a number of potential hazards that you could run into, especially if you do not have a freelancer developer who you work with on a consistent basis. Here is a closer look at what these problems are and why purchasing a commercially available membership plugin is likely to be the better option.

The first problem, or group of problems, all arise if you do not have a freelance developer who you use often. While some people do have WordPress developers on retainer, it is fairly rare. The first problem is that you are going to have to test out a handful of candidates just to find the right one. While this may not sound like a big deal, you cannot get sample projects done for free. In many cases, testing out 5 developers will be more expensive than buying a plugin outright. Not only is it expensive, but you may not be happy with the results. This could be a time frame issue, workability issue, or communication issue. Regardless of what it is, if the project ends and you are unsatisfied then you have wasted a lot of time and money.

The next problem is dealing with the future. WordPress is constantly updating its core which means the plugin could become incompatible at any moment. If you purchase a custom membership plugin and in a few months there is a problem you don’t have anyone to turn to. You can either re-hire the first developer to fix it or you may have to go through the entire hiring process again. Plus, the second developer will not be familiar with your custom plugin which means that they will have to spend time understanding it before they even start working. Another future-related problem is expansion. What happens if your demographic changes and your new members want to use a payment processor that you didn’t have integrated?

There are a number of additional problems that can arise as well depending on how the creation process goes.

As you can see, there are several major hazards that you can fall victim to if you hire a developer to create a custom membership plugin. The better option is to simply purchase a commercially available membership plugin that meets all of your needs. There are several high quality option on the market and they are very cost effective when you consider how much time and effort goes into creating and supporting them. As an added bonus, the commercial plugins were built after weeks or months of testing, plus they are designed based upon the feedback that users give them. This means that not only will you be purchasing a great product, but it will always be changing and adapting to meet your needs.

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Understanding the Relationship Between Your Membership Software and Content Control

Everyone knows that the most important function of membership software is to control access to certain pieces of content. This makes understanding the relationship between the software and content control essential. There are several different aspects to consider in terms of controlling your content as well as overall security. Here are several things to keep in mind about your software and its ability to keep your members-only content secure.

It is surprising how many people will start a membership site using a piece of membership software that does not adequately control the security of their content. This could be from compatibility issues between the software and the content management system or it could be from poor software design. Either way you should not take for granted that the membership software will provide you with all of the security that you need just because it should. Keep in mind that content security can be much more than simply creating a secure members area. It can also mean creating multiple member tiers, all with a different access level, including access to downloads.

Another aspect of content control to consider is how easy it is to manage from an administrative point of view. For example, when using WordPress, some membership site software will force you to designate the access level on every page and post. While this is only a minor additional publishing step for new membership sites, it could mean days and even weeks of extra work if you are going to add the software to a membership site that is already established. How tedious would it be to integrate software into a membership site that already has 1000 different pages and several membership tiers if you had to manually set the security level of each one.

The final aspect of content control to consider is public access to content and special access to content. In the most successful membership sites most of the content is for members alone, but there will also be content that is available to public as well. Some membership software will force you to use a separate sub-domain for all of your public content. While this isn’t inherently a problem, it does add an extra layer of administrative work and also carries the potential hazard of creating a disconnect between your membership site and your publicly available content.

As you can see, there are a lot of different things to consider when looking at the relationship between your membership site software and its ability to control content. If the software that you use is not designed to allow the amount or type of content control that you need, then it might be time to find an alternative. There are several very successful membership plugins for WordPress, such as the Magic Members plugin, that offers you complete control over the content with little additional effort. Plus it can be integrated into a currently existing WordPress site or membership site in a matter of minutes.

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Why Creating a WordPress Membership Site Has Become the Most Popular Option

When it comes to creating a profitable online business there are a number of different strategies that you can use. There is affiliate sales, Adsense websites, email marketing, PPC, product creation, and much more. Above all of these options, membership sites have become the most popular for a number of reasons. More specifically, the WordPress membership site has taken hold. Here is a quick look at why membership sites, especially those hosted on WordPress, have become so common.

Membership sites in general hold a number specific advantages. The primary advantage is that it provides both passive recurring income as well as instant income. It creates passive recurring income from your membership fees, while this does take some maintenance, you really only need enough content to meet the needs of your longest member, assuming that you are drip feeding content. It also gives you instant income because you can promote additional products to your members as well as sell advertising space within your members area.

Along with the ability to generate multiple streams of income from a single asset, membership sites are also fairly simple to create when compared to other products. It is no more difficult that writing an ebook or maintaining a blog. The only difference is instead of sharing it all at once, your membership site lengthens the amount of time that it takes for the members to get access to the content. As an added bonus, you can use all of the social aspects of a membership site to learn more about what your members want, as well as use their questions to create additional products that they want.

The WordPress membership site has become particularly popular because it combines the power of a membership site with the simplicity of WordPress One of the biggest barriers to starting membership sites is that you used to need both some membership management software, plus a content management system. To make things more difficult, the two had to function well together. With a WordPress membership site you can use the WordPress core with a membership plugin to take care of the whole thing. Plus, the plugin will have been specifically designed to work with the tools that WordPress already offers.

With all of this in mind, it should be no surprise that the WordPress membership site has risen to become the most popular way to make money online. This isn’t to say that the other methods don’t work, rather that for the amount of time and effort they require a WordPress membership site has the ability to pay greater dividends. It can create both residual and instant income from multiple sources with no more effort than creating an ebook. With the added benefit of using WordPress, the entire process becomes even easier.

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WordPress SagePay Integration Becomes More Important When Targeting the UK/Ireland Market

SagePay has become on of the most popular payment gateways in Britain and Ireland. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that more people, especially people running membership sites, are looking for an easy way to integrate SagePay with WordPress. There are a variety of benefits to using SagePay as your payment processor If not your primary method of accepting payments at least as a secondary option. Here is a quick look at what SagePay has to offer as well as some key points to keep in mind when trying to integrate it with WordPress.

As with all payment processors, one of the first things that most people look at is how much it is going to cost. SagePay is one of the few payment processors that has no setup fee whatsoever, which is a far cry from some of their competition which can charge hundreds of dollars just to get you set up. Additionally, there are no annual fees or percentage fees. Currently, 1000 transactions per quarter will cost a flat rate of £20. For each transaction over 1000 with cost an additional 10p per transaction.

Now that we have an idea of the costs, let’s take a look at what SagePay has to offer.

•  Accepts: PayPal, Visa (Electron), Mastercard (Maestro), American Express, JCB, and several others.
•  Offers virtual terminal to allow you to accept mail orders and telephone orders.
•  Allows you to store your customers card/account details on SagePay servers with the Token System to ensure data security. This can decrease your necessary IT infrastructure and make complying with PCI DSS much less expensive.
•  Account Addons (Bolt-Ons) – SagePay integrates with Sage and TAS Accounts software for easy bookkeeping. Offers 24/7 live support based in Britain Includes a variety of fraud detection and prevention tools.

WordPress SagePay Integration

One of the most difficult aspects of integrating SagePay with your WordPress membership site is security. There are several different ways that you can integrate this payment processor with WordPress including: Form Integration, Server Integration, Server & InFrame Integration, and Direct Integration. With so many different options, many plugin designers fail to create a concise method of quickly integrating SagePay with a WordPress membership site. This integration deals primarily with where the payment pages are hosted and secured.

The Magic Members plugin makes it simple to integrate SagePay and your membership site with a single plugin. All you need to do is enter the details of your SagePay account and the rest can be taken care of automatically. However, there are several customization options available as well. You can easily edit and customize them to meet your needs from the same screen that holds your SagePay merchant account information. Additionally, in order to make sure that there are no security concerns, Magic Members is designed so that all of the payment pages are secured and taken care of by SagePay so you don’t have worry about it on your end. This is done by using the Form and Server integration options SagePay makes available.

SagePay has proven to be an elite online payment processor and is especially useful if your customers are located primarily in western Europe. However, a majority of membership software creators and WordPress plugin designers have yet to fully integrate with them. If you are using SagePay, then the Magic Members plugin may be exactly what you are looking for.

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Membership websites can monetized in a variety of ways.  Many people assume that the only way to effectively profit from them is from the subscription fees.  If subscription fees are the only method of monetization, a lot money is being left on the table.  The easiest demonstration of this fact is that free membership sites are also extremely profitable.  Here is a quick look at some of the best monetization methods that are being utilized today.

1. Targeted List

One of the best ways to monetize your membership site is to treat your members as part of a targeted list.  In reality, that is what your member list really is.  They have all come to your site because they have shown an active interest in a specific subject.  Additionally, if your membership site requires a paid subscription, then they have already proven that they are buying customers.  Just as you will occasionally send offers to your list, the same should be done to your members.  The most effective offers will be a direct compliment to your site, not something random or in competition with your site.

2. Selling Ad Space

Selling ad space on your membership website is one of the most fool-proof ways to create consistent profits from your membership website.  You can sell ad space on literally every page.  Additionally, because all of your members are very targeted and have proven that they take an active interest in your niche, the space on your website should be considered premium when compared to other traditional websites and blogs in the same niche.

3. Use It As a Bonus

It doesn’t matter if you are an affiliate marketer or create your own products, you can give away free access to your website as a bonus for other offers.  This doesn’t have to be free access forever; even a free trial for your website can add a lot of value to the main product.  While this doesn’t necessarily directly monetize the membership website itself, it is a way that your website can create additional income for you.  This is an especially useful tactic once your membership website is no longer attracting large amounts of new members.

Outside of subscription fees, there are a large variety of monetization options available to your membership website.  If you only generate profits from members subscription fees, then you have not nearly enough to ensure that you are getting maximum results from your membership website.

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