If you blog regularly, you’ll soon come to realize that there are things that you do repeatedly. In this video, I go over the Duplicate post plugin that lets you-as the name indicates, easily duplicate a post and its content so you don’t have to start from scratch each time. This is especially useful if you have certain types of posts that you post regularly.
Are you pulling your hair out trying to figure out the the technical details of how to offer your content to members-only?
Let’s face it..there is only so much time in a day and you have big ideas and are eager to get your work out there and make some money, of course!
Worry not, it doesn’t have to be complicated! And there are plenty of solutions out there to help. But first..
For those of you that know me or have worked with me, you know that I am a big practitioner of the K.I.S.S method (Keep it short and simple) and try to use this approach as much as possible when trying out new project ideas.
It’s super easy to get excited about an idea and then feel deflated when don’t think you have the tech know-how to put it all together.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of reevaluating/prioritizing/breaking down your ideas into smaller chunks and then building on them as you go.
Do you need all the bells and whistles of a social network right away? Probably not. Especially, if you are in the early-stages of your idea/product you may not need all that.
Essentially, you need:
Eventually, you can add more features and build a community/forum and way for members to interact but let’s keep it simple to start and focus on having a way to share your work with paying members :).
If your goal is to have a way to have member-only access to your content, here are several options that you can explore.
1. Password-Protected Page: You can create a password protected page on your website and only give access to paying members. This is what a Password Protected Page would look like on a WordPress site (password: test). Note: branding, pages, widgets are all still visible!
2. Create a Secret/Closed Facebook group where members only get added after they have paid for access. Pretty simple, eh? Cost: Free!
3. Ning is pretty much as out of the box as it gets. I’ve used this network for several years and have never had any problems. It’s easy to customize and has all the familiar social network features. They offer the mini- plan at $19.99/year for up to 150 members. At this level, domain mapping is not included so you would have a url with yourbizname.ning.com. I don’t see that as a negative though, considering you could link to your Ning network from within your site or share the link to members after they sign up and pay.
4. Optimize Press: I find for the price ($77) Optimize Press provides a lot of value. You can easily setup your membership site using the templates and divide the content into sections, modules etc. and display a navigation menu and/or side bar that makes it easy to access the content and understand how it is organized. Bonus: You can but choose from many templates and create sales pages as well! You can also install OptimizePress on multiple sites that you own.
I haven’t personally used the next two but they come with rave reviews as well:
5. Buddy-Press: Everything you need to start your own self-hosted and WordPress-powered social network. (Opensource)
6. Wishlist: Easy enough to use that you really don’t need to be a techie to build a great membership site with it. The plugin allows you to build a high quality membership site that looks sleek and is easy to manage as an admin. (single site license: $97)
So as you can see there are several to choose from depending on what is you need to do!
Is there a tool/technique that you have used? I’d love to hear about it!
Have a question? Leave a comment, I’d be happy to help!