Lifetime Memberships – What are the Pros and Cons?

It’s easy to see why the strategy of offering lifetime memberships is a divisive one.

Unquestionably the biggest benefit of the membership model lies in recurring revenue, so the notion of providing unlimited access to your site for a single one-off fee may seem counter-intuitive; however as we discuss in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast there are definite pros and cons to this strategy…

Paid Memberships Pro Review (Updated for 2024)

Paid Memberships Pro is a standout in the world of WordPress membership plugins.

It’s the only free plugin of note to have stayed the course and staked its claim as one of the most powerful and popular options for membership owners, while setting the sort of high standard and rich featureset only typically associated with premium options.

Husband and wife team Jason and Kim Coleman have established a proven track record of continued improvement, innovation and commitment to making Paid Memberships Pro a plugin that packs a serious punch with some impressive and unique bells and whistles.

That said, Paid Memberships Pro still suffers from some fundamental weaknesses that stop it becoming an absolute no-brainer choice to power your membership site – so let’s dive into the details in our full review…

Negotiating Member-Only Perks and Special Offers

Most memberships will consist of two things – premium content and community.

While the quality and depth of those elements will vary greatly from site to site; it does mean that when your potential member is considering several options for sites to join it can be hard to tell the difference between memberships which appear to essentially be offering the same thing.

This is where going that extra mile to provide added value to members is key to standing out from your competition – and one of our favourite ways of doing this is to offer exclusive member-only perks and offers.

Janet Murray on How to Get Media Coverage for your Membership

It’s easy to assume that mainstream media coverage is the domain of celebrities, huge businesses and crazies claiming to know where the aliens took Elvis.

As such, most membership site owners don’t even think about trying to use PR to get their story out there, as they see traditional media as out of their reach.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I’m joined by Janet Murray who not only explains why this isn’t the case but also gives advice and tips from her 15+ years in journalism on how you can attract media attention for your membership site.

Choosing A Payment Processor For Your Membership Site

It’s probably a fair guess that you want your membership site to make money, and in order to do that you will need to have a simple and secure way of taking peoples payment details. These days there are a lot more options for receiving payments, and it can be difficult to know which the best option is.

In this post we look at some of the different payment options available, some important factors that you need to consider, and the 5 things that will help you to make the right choice for your membership site.

Live Membership Q&A with Mike and Callie

To celebrate the 50th episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, we decided to do something a little different.

Not only did we bring Callie onto the podcast (for only the second time!) but we did so as part of a live Q&A we hosted on Blab.im all about our favourite subject – membership websites!

10 Things to Consider When Choosing Your Membership Plugin

Choosing the right membership plugin is an important step when creating your membership site. With so many options out there though, how are you supposed to know which one is the best choice for you?

Here we take a look at the 10 things that you should consider when deciding on the perfect membership plugin for you.

Amy Schmittauer on Building Authority through Video Marketing

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I’m joined by Amy Schmittauer from Savvy Sexy Social to talk about how you can build authority by incorporating online video into your marketing strategy.

Amy has built a huge audience for her own business, with over 3 million views across the 600+ videos on her own Youtube channel, where she teaches others to effectively use video marketing in their own business.

How to Find and Hire a Web Designer for your Membership

Finding the right web designer is like navigating a minefield.

With so many people out there claiming to know what they’re doing – and often no real way for the typical prospective membership site owner to know whether those claims are legit or BS – it’s unsurprising that pretty much everyone and their dog has a horror story about that one web designer who screwed them over.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I share my top tips on finding and hiring the right web designer to create your membership site.

Nathan Chan on Growing Your Instagram Following

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, it’s the concluding part of my interview with Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine in which we discuss marketing your business and growing your brand on Instagram.

As part of his marketing for Foundr Magazine, Nathan managed to explode their Instagram following to hundreds of thousands of highly engaged fans in a short space of time. In this episode, he discusses how you can get started on building your own following as well as how to leverage them as part of your list building and sales funnel for your membership site.

5 Options for Adding a Forum to Your Membership Site

Adding a forum to your site is a great way of creating a membership community, providing more features than other community options such as Facebook groups or Slack groups. However, once you make the decision to use a forum, the question then becomes, which one?

Here we take a look at our 5 favourite options for adding a forum to your membership site, including the main pros and cons of each.

6 Ways to Use Onboarding to Make New Members Feel Welcome

What happens in the minutes, hours, days and weeks following a new member joining are often what will determine the long term success of your membership website.

Onboarding is an area so sorely missed when it comes to memberships, because as online business owners we’re conditioned to focus solely on getting the sale.

In this episode I discuss the importance of giving new members a warm welcome, along with my top tips and tactics for ensuring that they feel part of your community from the instant they join.

Promoting Your Membership Site with an Affiliate Program

When looking at different ways to promote your membership site, an affiliate program can be a pretty appealing option. Afterall, it’s one of the few marketing channels where you don’t have to spend any money until you’re actually making money! It’s basically the digital equivalent of having your very own sales team going out into the world and driving leads and traffic to your website for you.

In this post we’re going to take a look at some of the key things you should consider when planning an affiliate program for your membership site.

Using an Online Summit to Launch Your Membership with Yann Ilunga

If you want to make an impact and grab a lot of attention for the launch of your membership site, then running an online summit can be a great strategy to use.

This is especially true if you need to accelerate your visibility, quickly grow an audience and build a huge amount of momentum going into your launch.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I talked to Yann Ilunga about how he’s making a splash with his upcoming Podcast Success Summit, and the strategy he’s using to launch his own membership off the back of it.

Nathan Chan on Building a Successful Publishing Brand

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I’m joined by Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine.

In part one of our interview, Nathan shares stories about the background of Foundr magazine, how Nathan started it from scratch, without an existing audience to speak of and ultimately grew it into a successful brand that now offers several products including a recently launched membership site.

Our Takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2016

Fresh on the back of attending Social Media Marketing World 2016, we’re sharing our top takeaways from the event for creating content and promoting your membership site through social channels.

PLUS – you guys asked for it… after 8 months, the elusive Callie Willows finally joins me on The Membership Guys Podcast!

Listen to the latest episode to hear us discuss our 4 biggest lessons from the event…