With the boom of the creator economy, there’s no doubt that independent publishers, content creators and entrepreneurs are looking for ways to monetize their passion. One way to help these creators achieve sustainable and reliable recurring revenue is by implementing a membership business. However, oftentimes, these creators need help to build out their site’s functionality, gate their content, and implement the membership program.
That’s where you (and we!) come in. Memberful is a powerful, yet easy, way to create a paid membership business on WordPress websites. When you combine the protection capabilities of our WordPress plugin with a beautifully designed WordPress site, the outcome is an unmatched membership experience.
We created this article in partnership with Memberful. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.
Getting started and creating Plans
Sign up at memberful.com and install the Memberful WP plugin on your client’s site. You can try Memberful for free in test mode for as long as you need.
At Memberful, a membership Plan is defined by specific price point and frequency of renewal, such as $6/month, as well as subscription length (a defined time or until a member cancels).
Memberful’s settings allow you to enable taxes, free (or paid) trials, upgrades and downgrades, and which content is included such as podcasts or downloads. You can also specify which page or post you want your client’s members to see when they finish logging in or signing up.
Restrict access to members-only content
There are two ways to restrict access to private content: the Restrict access meta box found in every page and post (or custom post type), or the Bulk editor that allows you to restrict content by category or tag. You can choose who can access each page or post:
- All members — active, inactive, or free (this works well for a “Freemium” tier)
- Members with an active subscription
- Anybody who owns a specific download
If your creator client would like to display the beginning of their post and then fade out with a lock-type image, as seen in many well-known publications, you can use our Global marketing content setting.
Memberful will pull the first two paragraphs from any protected posts to use as teaser content for non-members or logged out members.
Ready to launch?
You can use your Memberful account is in test mode for as long as you like. This means you can use Stripe’s test credit cards to complete dummy member purchases and recreate the onboarding experience. When you and your client are ready to start processing real orders, connect Memberful to their Stripe account. We will reset the dashboard member metrics, but your settings and customizations will be maintained.
Now your creator client is ready to start selling memberships! Encourage them to announce the membership on their social media and to send an email newsletter to their community to spread the message far and wide.
