Top 5 Features Every Successful Membership Site Has

Posted on 04. Sep, 2010 by Steve in Tips & Tricks

It doesn’t matter if you plan on creating a paid or free membership site, there are certain features that every person, in every niche, expect to see. Without these items, you are devaluing your membership site because may view it as shoddy or unprofessional. Fortunately, all 5 of these features are extremely easy to include, but terrible to forget.

1. Security
This one should be obvious, but it is surprising how many people never really think about the security of their premium content. If you are leaking your content via an RSS feed or are not properly protecting your members area, you will quickly lose out. If people can get into your site for free, they definitely will never pay.

2. Password Abuse
This sort of falls under security, however it is a different beast entirely. There is a good chance that multiple people will try to share a password so that only one of them have to actually pay for a membership. There are a variety of different ways to handle this situation and it is up to you to determine which one is the best fit for your membership site.

3. Recurring Billing
Being able to automatically collect future payments is vital. People do want to have to go through the trouble of making a payment every month. They would much rather just have you deduct the payment for them. The more you make someone do to remain a member, the more likely they are to cancel their membership. It is surprising how many website overlook the importance of automatic re-billing Make sure that you are not one them.

4. Remember Me?
It is increasingly important that you give your members the option to use the “Remember Me” function to access your website. This not only makes it easier for them, but for you as well. Members will quickly get frustrated if they cannot remember their username and/or password. Especially because most people use a different username and password for every important login that they have (which can be a lot). Always keep things as easy as possible for your members. By giving them the ability to check the Remember Me box, you will always ensure that they can easily access the members area.

5. Member Control Panel
Your members are going to have some type of control panel. It could be a single profile page or it could a very complicated method of social interaction. Regardless of what it is, you must make it look good and be easy to use. Members expect to have a bit of personal space that they can call their own, so make sure that it looks good and feels good.

There are a number of things that you can do to make your membership site as member-friendly as possible, however these 5 items should be considered a must.