This article will be especially useful for people who earn a living creating original content. Suppose you’re also a part of a creative Internet community or just planning to become one shortly. In that case, you probably wonder how you can generate income from the original content you produce. Even if your content is 100% authentic and has its unique selling point, it may be tough to promote paid content even if it is high-quality. Yeah, we can’t deny that the modern media space is overloaded with all kinds of content most irresponsibly and exaggeratedly.
So what is the best way to generate profit from your skill if there is no big budget for promotion? Maybe the membership websites will do the trick? Haven’t heard about them before? Let’s find out what they are, how they work, and why you need to know about such a new big thing on the Internet media.
What Are Membership Websites, and How Do They Work?
A membership website is the one, which provides content that can be viewed only by members of the community. Of course, we are talking about a paid subscription that will bring income to all the people who provide content to the platform. For promotional reasons, such websites may also feature some free stuff and offer a free monthly subscription. Also, to motivate the potential subscriber, such websites may let you view part of the content for free. For instance, you may be allowed to read the first several paragraphs of an article or watch the first several minutes of a tutorial video.
Modern membership websites usually offer such content as personal blogs, articles, video and audio podcasts, tutorials, webinars, e-courses of any kind. For instance, if you are a professional photographer, you can create a tutorial about macro photography or portrait photography if you think that this content can be popular among website subscribers. Like in any other business, it is pivotal to come up with an original idea unless your reputation is that solid that you don’t have to promote your stuff anymore.
Membership websites may be very different – some may host works of only two or three people, and some may host hundreds of artists from all over the world. Also, the system of rewards can be different too. On some websites, artists and experts who upload their content may be paid a share of revenue just for maintaining an account; in others, your salary will depend on the number of views. Some of the membership websites may also reward people who provide content for every separate post regardless of its success.
What Are the Best WordPress Plugins for Membership Websites?
An author who plans to try earning from publishing original content on the membership website needs to consider what way to go – to join one of the existing websites or create a membership website of their own. Of course, the latter variant is riskier and more resource-intensive, but if you manage to put enough time and effort, it may easily become your new general income source. That’s why we’ve decided to pick several best WordPress plugins that will allow you to turn your platform into a membership website fast and easy.
- MemberPress
One of the most popular plugins. MemberPress became increasingly popular due to its wide range of functions and its simple and understandable user interface. With MemberPress, you can turn your website into a private club in less than no time – integrate it with the site and choose the payment systems you like the most. And yeah, there is a long list of systems to choose from – PayPal, Stripe, Neteller, etc.
Also, MemberPress allows you to range sections by different levels; for instance, a user can get bronze access, which opens only a part of the content. Another user can gain golden access, which enables to view all the content posted. And of course, the plugin can provide you with all statistics to understand how to promote and what content is the most popular.
- Restrict Content Pro
This plugin is one of the first ones that managed to gain international recognition when it was released in 2010. Restrict Content Pro features an effective and smooth back-office and allows the website owner to apply many micro settings. You can also set up a subscription with a free trial period, which is very useful for acquiring leads for your marketing initiatives. Just like MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro enables to range users by different levels of access. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to call them “gold”, “silver”, or “bronze” – those tags are utterly customizable.
- s2Member
s2Member is another popular plugin for membership websites that has a community of more than 1.3 million users. One of the primary virtues of s2Member is its advanced security system that will protect your content from unauthorized access. Also, with this plugin, you can customize the view of pages for different users. For instance, you can design a view for non-subscribers only and add some CTAs and offers to promote it.