So, one of the great things about the internet is the ability to provide a platform that helps to organize a tribe – a group of people interested in the same thing. This can be done informally through blogs just like this, or it can be done more formally with a learning management system that provides University level functionality. I’ve got both of these solutions running on different sites.
Most people on the web who want to organize a tribe around valuable content need something in-between. Something that is able to provide secure logins, password protected pages and different levels of access. Some levels of access may be free while others may require a fee. So people who need to manage a site like that need to be able to keep track of who has paid and who hasn’t paid – and if someone hasn’t paid, they need to be able to identify them and block access to the paid content.
There are a stack of solutions for this type of thing and I’ve looked into most of them and purchased quite a few. My favorite software is called WishList Member because it does all of the above, it’s cheap and it plugs straight into the Wordpress content management system, which means you control everything from your Wordpress dashboard. Now that’s cool. The other main thing is that it’s easy to use – so I’ve found that the annoyance factor is low.
The other cool thing is that the membership login form can be easily added to the sidebar of your blog.
This software also integrates with your email management system, such as Aweber or 1 Shopping Cart. There are other more expensive solutions, but on the whole I reckon this software ROCKS!
Basically, WishList Member turns your Wordpress blog into a fully fledged membership site. Check it out.
