Are you attempting to learn the steps for setting up a WordPress membership site?
You can dramatically increase the revenue from your website by charging users to access content that is restricted through membership sites.
In this article, we’ll demonstrate step-by-step how to quickly build a WordPress membership site.
What Are the Benefits of Creating a WordPress Membership Site?
There are many reasons why you might want to think about having a members-only section on your website. Here are a few of the most well-liked advantages of developing a membership website:
More Income.
Due to the recurring billing model used by membership websites, you can make a consistent monthly income as more and more users sign up. This can increase your income, particularly if you already engage in affiliate marketing and sales.
Less Work.
Use your content to your advantage. A great way to increase your passive income is through membership sites, which allow you to create premium content only once and then add to it as you see fit. Unless you choose to update your content or engage with your members, you won’t need to do much more to grow a great membership site that you’ve already created.
Establish Authority.
Visitors will quickly recognise the value of your premium content and that you are an authority on the subject if you limit access to a membership plan.
Grow Your Email List.
Your email list will be populated by interested users who are already familiar with your website and more likely to respond to your emails when you add registered users to it. Your efforts at email marketing will benefit from this.
How to Create a Membership Site with WordPress
Without touching a single line of code, it is fairly simple to set up a membership site in WordPress. To get going, just adhere to the steps below.
- Step 1: Set Up a WordPress Membership Site
- Step 2: Install a Membership Plugin
- Step 3: Configure MemberPress
- Step 4: Set Up Your Payment Methods
- Step 5: Establish Membership Levels
- Step 6: Set Up Access Rules
- Step 7: Create Members Only Content
- Step 8: Create a Pricing Page
- Step 9: Add Sign Up and Login Forms
Step 1: Set Up a WordPress Membership Site
You will need a website that you have complete control over first and foremost. You’ll need a strong CMS for that, such as self-hosted WordPress.org.
However, you’ll need a WordPress hosting service before you can publish your WordPress membership site online. We advise utilising Bluehost.
Because you’ll receive a free domain name and a sizable discount off their hosting plans that are available only to WPForms users, it’s the most affordable WordPress hosting option.
Bluehost is extremely practical because WordPress is pre-installed on it. Your new WordPress site will be ready as soon as you register with Bluehost.
As we demonstrate in the following steps, all that remains is for us to fully transform your new website into a membership site.
Step 2: Install a Membership Plugin
There are many excellent WordPress membership plugins available. The WPForms User Registration addon is the best choice if you’re searching for a straightforward membership website where users can register from the frontend.
You can enable visitor registration on your WordPress website using this addon. In addition, you can activate their accounts, send them welcome emails, and automatically add them to your email list.
Use MemberPress instead if you’re looking for a plugin for a membership website that offers more features.
We suggest it because it’s user-friendly and has all the features required to manage a complete membership website.
Make sure to install MemberPress on your website after buying the appropriate licence. Check out this tutorial on installing a WordPress plugin if you have no idea how.
Step 3: Configure MemberPress
You can start configuring MemberPress as soon as it has been installed on your WordPress website.
Go to MemberPress » Settings from your WordPress dashboard.
You can enter the licence key you received after purchasing MemberPress in the License settings, which is where you will be taken by default when you click this.
You will have complete access to all MemberPress features as soon as your licence is activated.
We’ll configure payment options next.
Step 4: Set Up Your Payment Methods
For new users to sign up as paying members of your website, you need an effective payment system.
Visit the Settings page as usual, then select the Payments tab from the horizontal bar to add a new payment option.
Click the Add Payment Method button after that.
With MemberPress, you can use the payment gateways Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net to accept payments.
Set up as many payment gateways as you like, or just use one. Be sure to click Update Options to save your settings after adding your payment options.
Check out our article Stripe vs. Paypal for a detailed comparison of the two most widely used services.
Step 5: Establish Membership Levels
The next step is to create membership levels for visitors to purchase after your MemberPress settings are complete.
Pricing, features, and content can vary by level. Fortunately, MemberPress lets you create an unlimited number of membership levels.
To accomplish this, select MemberPress » Memberships from the Dashboard’s left-side menu, and then click the Add New button.
Next, fill out the editor with a title and description for your membership level. Then, from the Membership Terms section on the right, select the price, billing type, and access period.
When you’re finished, scroll down to the Membership Options section to make any necessary changes. Don’t forget to click on the additional tabs to set the Price Box and Permissions as well.
Then, make your membership level public.
Step 6: Set Up Access Rules
Make sure you specify on your membership website where and to whom you want to impose access restrictions. So you must establish rules in order to do this.
Select Add New under MemberPress » Rules in the left-hand panel.
Create a new rule to connect your content to the membership levels you’ve already created on the screen that appears.
For instance, you can choose to limit access to the two most expensive membership plans to users who can access all the content within a given category. In this case, we chose the category for Advanced WordPress Guides.
Go to the Drip/Expiration settings after that.
You can release content gradually if you choose to enable the Drip option.
On the other hand, you can select a date and time for the content to expire by using the Expiration option.
Save your rule once everything appears the way you want it to. You can now repeat this process to develop more rules.
Step 7: Create Members Only Content
As soon as someone signs up for your membership site, you should start creating content that is only available to members.
Adding content to a page or post is possible. The access rule we created in the previous step will be linked to in the content we create for this example.
Create a new post and fill it with the information you desire. Pick the Advanced WordPress Guide category next.
The MemberPress Unauthorized Access section can then be found by scrolling down. When non-members (non-registered users) attempt to access this content, you can configure what they will see here.
Publish your page once everything has been set up as you prefer. After that, you can check Posts » All Posts to see which content is only accessible to members with a certain level of subscription.
With the integrated Courses addon, you can also design online courses. With the visual course builder, creating your course curriculum is simple. It follows a similar procedure to the ones above because it is built on top of the WordPress block editor.
Step 8: Create a Pricing Page
You should create a pricing page in the following step so that site visitors can sign up and view your various membership options. From the Groups settings, MemberPress makes it simple to accomplish this.
Go to MemberPress » Groups in the left-hand panel. After that, select the Add New button.
Create a group with a name like “Pricing Plans” so users will know what the page is about. Scroll down to the section labelled “Group Options” after that. The memberships you want to display on your pricing page can be added here. On this page, you can also modify the pricing page’s theme.
When you are ready, publish this page and then preview it to see how it looks.
Here is an illustration of how a pricing page will appear using the Twenty Nineteen theme by default for WordPress:
You should set up MemberPress so that it points unauthorised users to this page when they attempt to access members-only content in order to ensure that your pricing page is seen. In other words, if a user tries to access your premium content without having made a payment, they will be directed to a sales page.
To accomplish this, return to MemberPress » Groups and copy the group’s URL.
the Unauthorized Access section by going to MemberPress » Options and scrolling down. Put the URL in the box below and then check the box next to Redirect unauthorised visitors to a specific URL.
To finish this process and redirect unregistered users, click the Update Options button.
Step 9: Add Sign Up and Login Forms
Almost everything is now ready for use. The last step is to enable access to your membership site by including sign-up and login forms.
Let’s use a widget for this. Drag the MemberPress login widget to a widget-ready area of your choice by selecting Appearance » Widgets from the left-hand panel.
The next step is to include the URL of your pricing page in the navigation menu so that users can sign up.
In order to create a new menu or select an existing one, go to Appearance » Menus.
Next, choose Pricing Plans from the list of Groups on the left and press the Add to Menu button.
After your pricing page appears below the Menu Structure, drag it into the desired position, then select Save.
That’s it, then! Your WordPress membership website is now complete.
Next, Grow Your Business With Online Forms
Would you like to learn about additional ways to increase your online income? See this article on WPForms power tricks to expand your online business. You might also be interested in our list of the best WordPress PayPal plugins.
So why are you still waiting? Start using the most effective WordPress forms plugin right now.
