Hello, friends. Alexander Borisov with you. Recently, very often in my articles, courses, trainings, and I say that the info business today is not what it used to be.

That it has become difficult to sell, the client is no longer the same and the time has come for quality, and not just beautiful selling texts stuffed with psychotriggers on landing pages ... That the time of DVD discs and courses in the format of video lessons and audio lessons has already passed and now almost no one is buying courses, therefore that it is necessary to create some kind of closed communities with paid access ...

This is what we are going to talk about today. I'll show you what options you have in order to create your own closed community with paid access, one-time or monthly payment.

Let's pretend that you are an expert in some business, a guru, a pro, a master of your craft. Fumble very well in some narrow or wide niches. Health, sports, science, education, finance, career and all that kind.

And you, as an expert, understand that you can sell your knowledge and even see that it is in great demand on the market. Let's look at what options do you have to sell your knowledge?

1. You can give paid consultations ... Many do this. They run their websites and blogs and write in them right there - I give paid consultations, one hour is 2000 rubles. Well, as an example. Why not? I worked 6 hours a day and here's 12,000 rubles for you. I have many such acquaintances and they make very good money, and by the way, they don't even need any bells and whistles for this. We agreed when and at what time you will give advice, launched Skype at the appointed time and tryndit. It's simple.

2. You can record some kind of video or audio course and sell it. Well, as I have done for the last 5 years. In 2011, it rolled. It was a trend. People bought the courses in tons, they sold very well. This was until about 2013. A decline began in the demand for purchasing education of this format.

In 2014, in general, everything died out with the advent of spam filters in the life of Internet entrepreneurs, as well as with an overabundance of all sorts of schizos who began to churn out courses on their knees and sell them. High-quality courses mixed with shit, people have lost confidence and all that ... Well, it's not for me to tell you, go to Glopart you will understand everything ...

Now it's 2016, with rates in general. They are selling extremely poorly. And if you are a beginner and you have an idea in your head to create some kind of paid course or audio course, then throw this idea away.

Besides, to make a video or audio course, you need to spend a lot of money on launching your product. Firstly, you need to write down the lessons themselves and do it with high quality, you may need to order an installation, and secondly, the lessons must be protected from hacking, this is also a cost.

Thirdly, you need to make a menu (html or flash) for your product, fourthly, it is a 3D cover, fifthly, it is a selling landing page (website), selling text, graphics, advertising materials (banners) for partners and so on. I have gone through this more than once.

Many information businessmen are doing this now. They will invest a lot of money in the design of the product and its launch, they will launch it, and it barely barely beats off the investments. What's the point of launching such products?

I'm not saying that everything is over, they sailed, everything was lost ... No. But all the same, there are now disastrous drops in demand for courses and this must be taken into account. Go ahead.

3. You can create a paid site or, more simply, some kind of community where you will teach people your craft and access to this community will be only for a certain payment. Either one-time or monthly. Access to the community will be carried out through a form where a person enters his username and password.

This is actually a trend. And this trend will continue for many years to come. As soon as the demand for courses began to decline, I immediately began to think about how to further educate people and sell information. This is how the School of Bloggers was born.

The Blogger School is a community of bloggers where they learn to create, promote and make money from blogging. Access to the community is paid. After payment (one-time), each student is provided with his own student account and access to training materials.

When we decided to make some kind of paid software product, there was no question of creating a course book there. The decision was immediately made to create a site with a paid access (closed community).

What is the advantage of this training format:

1. Atmosphere... When a client pays for access, he understands that after payment he will go to a community where people like him are trained. One gets the feeling that he is not alone. And when a person buys a course, he stays with himself. As if abandoned ...
2. Individual approach to each student from the teacher (lei). The client knows that the feedback will be constant and of high quality.
3. Good protection against burglary and folds... Courses break even protected ones and put them in the public domain. In the case of a closed community, everything is different here. It is clear that some kind of bobblehead can pay for access to your community, steal all the lessons and put them in the public domain, but still. You need to understand that updates are constantly taking place in your community, new materials, lessons, articles, audio, webinars, etc. and the depositors will still understand that they do not receive all the information in its entirety. They also understand - what is the point of information if there is no author's feedback, and this is the most important thing ...
4. It is easier for you to manage the learning process and launch new trainings. Agree that when you have a site with a paid access at your disposal, then you do not need to think about protecting the lessons, or about covers, menus, banners and everything else. A lot of expenses are simply removed ... There is a website, fill it up with educational materials, train your students and invite new ones.

What options do you have for creating a paywall website?

1. Own development.

You can go to freelance and find a programmer (team of programmers) who will make you a ready-made, ideal solution purely for your needs. If you already have familiar programmers (like me), then even better.

Draw up a clear TOR (technical task), in which you describe how and what will be in your community. Programmers, in turn, write you a site with personal accounts, if they are needed and all that. Here's everything you want, with buttons, gizmos, functions, and more. Every whim for your money. But the money is not small.

For example, we have already given more than 250,000 rubles for the development of a community of a school of bloggers from scratch. By the way. 2 weeks ago, we updated the design of students' personal accounts. So, learning has become even more enjoyable and convenient. The student learning path is shown here. Take a look. But the video still shows the old design of personal accounts. Here's a new one:

Self-development is certainly a thing. You will stand out in the market, everything will be done the right way and the way you want. Everything is comfortable, good and beautiful. But it's expensive.

2. You can use ready-made solutions. Scripts, plugins or paid services. For beginners, this is probably the very thing. There are a lot of solutions on the market today. Let me tell you about some of them.

If you know any other good solutions, then write in the comments. I'll add them to the list in this article.

What options to create a membership exist on the market:

1. WordPress Plugin - MemberLuxe.

What can I say about this thing. Not bad. Of course, there are bugs in the work, shortcomings, but in general, not a bad decision. We use MemberLuxe with Dmitry Sidash to conduct trainings on content and social projects. All training students are trained through this system.

Each student has his own personal account, where he can study, watch lessons, record webinars, take homework assignments and ask questions.

Such a thing costs from 15,000 to 35,000 rubles one-time. I think this is not a lot of money. If you take it. then take it on my refk. 30% of my commissions are yours.

2. Your Training Center on the turnkey Internet from Alexander Kurteev.

I didn’t understand this system, I honestly don’t know what is there and how, but according to the description it’s super-duper. It's not a sin to recommend. Besides, I know Sasha, he doesn't do shit. In addition, his past course, "Building Payments Websites", had good reviews. According to his course, the training center "Your Start" has made its own system with paid access.

Very soon, for one person, I will create a paid school with a paid access, and I will take this system from Sasha. I'll try it out. If you take it, take it on my refk. Again, 30% of my commissions are yours. Save money.

3. Service Antitraining.

Great stuff, actually. I like it. But this is a paid service. Therefore, this is how they give, then take it. That is, you will not be able to implement some function, etc., which you supposedly need. Well, no one there will rewrite the codes for you.

A year and a half ago, I was poking around in this system, understood. Everything there is very simple, convenient, beautiful, intuitive interface, everything is good, fast and stable. I liked it in short. There is an opportunity to ask homework and all that.

4. KNOWHOW service.

I did not understand this thing. I just heard that some seasoned gurus use it. There allegedly is such a function that when your client pays for access, then every month they will automatically write off money for extending access until he cancels the subscription.

5. GETCOURSE service.

I somehow paid a year ago and half a year ago for 2 trainings of quite famous people and I just passed training with them through this service. Not to say that everything is chic and comfortable there, but in general it is normal. Simple and nothing superfluous. So you can take a closer look at him.

Well, in general, that's all. So choose the right solution for yourself and go ahead. If you have any questions, please write. And I went to get ready for the IRONMAN half in Kazan. Registration has already been closed there due to the huge number of participants. there will be 1000 athletes and 12 countries. Cool ...

Best regards, Alexander Borisov

P.S. I just noticed that my blog has a TIC of 1200. Yyyyyyy ...

How to create a paid site?

The cost of any web page is determined by the opportunity
receive income from the demonstration of its content to the Internet user.
.

This article is about something with the greatest effect in terms of profitability. It was written by one copywriter with. I myself (Seoded) have never dealt with paid content sites. And this article was very interesting to me in terms of my own self-education.

In addition, questions about (I mean a site, access to the main content of which is carried out for money), come to me regularly .. Yes, and in general, it is just interesting to read.

Once I want to warn you that this article does not describe the technical aspects of creating a paid site. Here "ideological" questions are considered: development strategy, psychological nuances of working with users, etc. Moreover, the technical aspects are easily clarified with the help, but no one will just tell you how to develop a paid site.

§ 1. Terms

To begin with, we will discard all the "husk" and clearly outline for ourselves the fundamental concepts of this business. Drawing for a better understanding some parallels with what we see in real life. For example, visiting a regular supermarket.

And so, today we will take a look "behind the scenes" of the work of paid sites and affiliate programs. Everything that will be said here is based on personal experience that I have received over the past few years of work, through numerous studies and experiments. If you already have your own paid sites or are just going to acquire them, then my article will help you avoid a number of mistakes, as well as improve your productivity.

• Content- a product that people pay money for.
  Indeed, the ultimate goal of your visitor is. The more interesting, better quality, more technically advanced, uniquely created and more conveniently we consume your content, the easier it will be to sell it. Undeniable.


• Content quantity- the volume of your product in the proposed package.
  In addition to qualitative properties, any product also has a quantitative component. If it's a membership ( membership, rank - approx. by Seoded) - then you can "pre-pack" it in packages, say 3 days trial, monthly subscription, 3-month subscription, 6-month subscription, etc. Or you can create several packages like "starter membership" - with full access and, for example, "VIP membership" - with exclusive features. In any case, the presence of packages of different capacities makes it possible to increase the profitability of a paid site with proper pricing, conduct special promotions and expand the audience. Try to create sites with the ability to compose packages of various amounts of content.


• Sign (signup, subscription, signup - approx. by Seoded) - the fact of selling access to a zone with paid content, sold subscription to services, to access the site.
  The entire adult business, all dellings, submitters, affiliate programs, posters, webmaster resource owners - all feed on the existence of this life-giving source. If the flow dries up, or loses efficiency, then everyone will die out or mutate, including cheaters and scammers. Don't spit in the well!


• Paid site- your brand and your showcase.
  The better known your brand is in the environment your potential customers live in, the more likely they are to choose your products over those of your competitors. For example, approaching the counter, you probably know which manufacturer's powder, shampoo, ketchup or beer you will buy, without even paying attention to the products of unknown companies. Online business is a little simpler, there are a lot of competitors, and there are still no clear brands (with rare exceptions). Therefore, just good can do half the job.


• Design, texts, promo, slogans, tour, samples, etc.- product packaging.
  The most difficult and responsible part of working on a project. It is the "packaging" that is sold, and this is a fact that cannot be argued with. Moreover, for some products and categories of buyers simple packaging with a clear laconic works better, for others - glamorous, with loud slogans and loud presentation, for still others, some other packaging options. Anyone who finds the optimum in this direction and does everything as it should be - becomes a contender for industry leaders. This is difficult to teach. Everyone goes through it, by trial and error.


• Traffic- people seeing your storefront (paid site) and packaging.
  An arithmetic quantity with a qualitative component. By traffic quality, I mean “three main pillars”:
  • ~ targeting your product;
  
  
  • ~ solvency;
  
  
  • ~ and the sophistication in mining similar products for free.
  
  
  The more people who need your product see your showcase and packaging, the more opportunities and habits they have to pay - the more sales you will make. Such is the simple arithmetic.


• Landing page traffic (landing page, landing page, selling page - a site page, the purpose of which is to attract potential customers and sell them goods or services - approx. by Seoded) - people who are able to buy and are thinking about whether to put your product in the basket or go further.
  Landing page is the holy of holies of a paid site. This is where the sayns are born. The moment of making a purchase decision and parting with money is extremely difficult for any person. Every word, every character on the landing page can affect the outcome of events. Not to mention the prices and your special offers that the surfer sees. specializing in the creation of a landing page. Below we will look at the issue of pricing in more detail.


• Members- people who have removed the packaging and use the product.
  This is the most valuable traffic that definitely needs your product and can and is definitely ready to pay. Your task is to create all the conditions and make the member a regular customer. And even better - a "connoisseur" of all your products. Along with the supply of fresh and quality product, this can be achieved using special promotions and exclusive offers for "old customers".


• Revealed members- people who have already removed the packaging and tried your product.
  A person who has already bought your products and experienced a positive experience at the same time, it is much easier to attract a repeat purchase than the first time. 8 times easier for offline business. I think for online the figure will be more modest because of the hyper-competition and the "love" of some surfers to constantly try new and new paysites. But this does not eliminate the need to send new offers and special promotions from your paysite to the opened members.

The parallel between creating a pay site and selling groceries in a supermarket was not a coincidence. Market laws operate the same in both online and offline businesses. I regularly visit supermarkets and notice how marketing and economic principles that have long been used successfully operate. We have a lot to learn from them.

§ 2. Closer to the point

And so, we put everything on the shelves and realized all the main components of a paid site that we need to work on.

With the content, everything is clear: either high-quality, or a lot, or better, a lot of quality.

With the brand, everything is also clear - either a lot of money in, if there is any, or just a good domain, if there is none.

With design, texts, promotions, slogans, tours, samples and others, it is also obvious - the more and the better, the more effective it is for the site.

T rafic - we use our own, plus we attract webmasters to.

They realized the importance of high-quality content updates - for retaining members and getting rebills ( repeat purchases, payments, registrations, etc. - approx. by Seoded)?

Did you realize that you need to do special promotions for both active and open-ended members of our paid site?

Have you realized this in this? Digested and taken into account? Not bad enough, however, the above is just a banal repetition of the axioms of good business conduct in the online industry. This has been said a thousand times already.

The essence of this article is in the description of techniques leading to an increase in profitability on a paid site that is already well done in all of the above points. And you can increase profitability through optimal packaging and competent pricing of the product. Enlarge at times!

I have been studying this question for over 2 years now, experimenting on my own paid sites. I analyze statistics and use them. I must say that we have achieved good results. But the optimization process is endless due to changes in the realities of the market, and what was good for 2005 does not work so well in 2006. Then I will share with you some of my best practices.

§ 3. We are looking for the best prices

Within the framework of this article, we will restrict ourselves to a superficial consideration of the principles of linear pricing in an ideal monopoly. Fans of a large number of charts and formulas on nonlinear pricing in a competitive environment can find a lot of useful in the book "Effective Pricing" by Robert Dolan and Hermann Simon. Recommend.

So, what do most of the paysite owners do to find reasonable prices? The answer is simple - they look at the prices of competitors and set their prices lower or equal to the market average prices for similar products. The decision is correct if there is no desire to squeeze the maximum. The product and packaging are different for everyone, the motivation to buy on each site is different. By choosing more optimal prices for packages, you automatically go ahead of your competitors. Which will bring you and your webmasters more income.

Let's consider the average daily incoming traffic to the paysite to be uniform in quality and quantity. Also, we will not pay attention to the increase in the cost of the bendwich ( the bandwidth of the server with a paid site - approx. Seoded) with an increase in the number of members. For a more or less large project, this is the norm. As part of the article, we will consider the situation with only one package - a monthly membership with recurring ( recurring purchase - approx. Seoded).

Introduce a new value:

S= Average Primary Sale Price + Average Sum of All Rebills - Sum of All Returns / sales ratio

T . That is, this is the amount of money left by the average buyer on the site, based on the amount of incoming traffic required for one purchase. It is for an increase in this indicator S that we will fight.

The initial sales schedule for the membership will look something like this (pic.1):

Point A is the maximum demand for a free product. Point B - the feasibility of buying at this price disappears. The angle of inclination of the graph and, accordingly, points A and B are different for each paid site and depend on the quality of the product packaging, the average quality of traffic and brand awareness. They need to be calculated empirically. It will be better to sell sites that have a larger product of the legs of the resulting triangle.

It is clear that the maximum money will be at the point where the rectangle inscribed in this resulting triangle will give the maximum area.

And from the geometry course, we recall that this should be the point of intersection of the midline of the triangle with the hypotenuse (pic.2):

As a result, we got the optimal price that brings the highest income on the initial sales. But that's not all.

Since we have recurring sales ( repetitive at regular intervals - approx. Seoded), then it is clear that at a higher price there will be a greater number of cansels ( refusals - approx. Seoded), and it is possible that it is more profitable for us to keep the price lower if rebills ( subscription renewals - approx. Seoded) will be longer?

The graph of the number of rebills for the second month looks like this (pic.3):

Where the height of point A is due to the passing ability of billing, as well as the number of surfers who unsubscribe immediately, without even looking at the member and regardless of the price - many people do not like recurring. Point B, as you can see, does not cross the axis on the chart, because there will be members who will forget to unsubscribe, no matter what prices you set. In reality, point B is limited by the maximum rebill allowed by billing and point B on the primary sales graph (pic.1). The convexity of the curve depends on the correspondence of the content of the content and site updates to the required price and is measured empirically.

The graphs of the third and subsequent months will differ only in a lower point A and a lower convexity of the graph until point A is equal in height with point B, which means that we have only “forgetful” millionaires left.

Having summed up the functions of rebills for the second, third, etc. months, we can easily calculate the optimal price for rebills by inscribing a rectangle with the maximum area. Paid sites with good updates and content will have a more convex curve, so a larger rectangle will fit in ... which is why such sites "rebill better".

So, knowing the optimal initial sale price, knowing the optimal rebill price, you can calculate the overall efficiency?

Not! This is not all. As the price rises, another function grows - refunds and chargebacks ( refusal of services with a refund to the client - approx. Seoded).

The return graph looks like this (pic.4):

As we see, point A does not cross the horizontal axis, that is, there will always be returns, no matter how low the price is. The height of point B and the concavity of our hyperbola depends on the compliance of the content of the paid site with the required price.

Starting from a certain price, the growth of returns goes up sharply. That is why most adult billing systems limit the amount of maximum transactions for the initial subscription and for rebills, so as not to work in this dangerous zone.

From now on, we can calculate the optimal price of sign and rebill, which bring the highest income on the same traffic on the paid site we have created.

If we want to keep the price of the initial subscription and rebills equal, then we have to add the function from pic.1 to the sum of the rebill functions and subtract the return functions, and in the resulting figure we write a rectangle of the maximum area - and the optimal price is ready!

Home task: how can we find the best prices if the cost of the primary sign and rebills can differ? :)

That's all, enough mathematics and geometry. I'm afraid that many have already fallen asleep out of boredom on these simple tasks. I'd rather give you a dozen more general tips for increasing productivity when creating a paid site, without formulas and proofs. Simply based on personal experience.

• one). Make 4-6 packages of different price and content, people love the choice, so you will sell more.


• 2). Make sure to do regular and seasonal specials. It's a good idea to do specials on weekends, and seasonal for big holidays like Christmas and New Years. Summer discounts also don't hurt during the calm.


• 3). Make expensive trials if you offer the trial engineers everything. Or, limit the products in the member until you get a full subscription (of course, letting them know about it). People who buy trials, as a rule, just want to save money. If you give them everything on a cheap trial, many will unsubscribe and you won't earn much money, you need to motivate them to renew.


• 4). People have been buying recurring packages badly lately. Suggest a more expensive package, but no recurring is optional. There is a category of people who will spend more money on your site this way.


• 5). Introduce systems of bonuses and points for members who are active. For example, with each month of the membership, their rank in the system grows and more and more new bonus plugins are opened. This will give rebills.


• 6). Every package on your paysite has to be claimed. Look at statistics and change prices or services in unclaimed packages.


• 7). On Saturday, Sunday and the first week of each new year, purchasing power increases by one and a half times. Don't offer cheap packages these days. Offer more expensive, discount, and more services.


• eight). Regularly, all unsubscribed members have special offers that are not freely available on the site. Offer on a special link.


• 9). Apply geo-targeted marketing. The prices that are good for the American will not suit the European and will certainly be completely unsuitable for the Chinese.


• 10). Hire a good person who will think for you if you yourself are not able to do all this marketing research and come up with new promotions. This will quickly pay off in itself due to the growth of the site's profitability. Otherwise, you will lose money!

§ 5. Conclusion

Most importantly, remember, no matter how well your paid sites sell, you can do even more!

From the author: no matter what kind of business you have, setting up a paid zone is a very profitable business. You can realize recurring income, get ongoing support from your audience, and grow your brand's audience. Paid access can be used to sell online courses, trainings, etc. Surprisingly enough, a complete paywall website can be created very easily in WordPress. In fact, a paywall site can be created with just one plugin in less than an hour. In this article, I'll walk you through the different ways to create a WP paid site and then show you how to set it up.

Which WordPress paywall plugin is right for you?

There are several reliable paywall plugins on the market, and they all have tons of features. Below you will find a brief overview of the most popular ones.

s2member

The s2member plugin provides you with everything you need to start a WP paid site. You get a wide range of customizable options, great PayPal integration, and shortcodes make the process as easy as possible. There is a paid and a free version, but the free one is enough for you to get started.

Membership 2

The Membership plugin team has remade their brainchild into Membership 2. It contains all the functionality that you expect from a paid access plugin: access to downloads, automated recurring payments, paid access options, several types of paid access, including access to content that comes out on a regular basis. You won't pay a dime for the excellent free version, although there is a paid option as well.

Simple Membership

As the name suggests, the plugin offers an easy way to create a paywall site on WP. The plugin has unique options, as well as varying levels of paid access, recurring payments, and PayPal integration. One of the unique features of the plugin is the authorization widget, which can be placed in the sidebar so that users can easily get into their account.

There are many more plugins, but these three are the most popular. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will select the s2member plugin. However, any paywall plugin should have similar functionality.

Begin

After installing and activating the plugin, you need to configure the basic level of paid access. At this stage, several important questions need to be answered:

How many tiers of paid access will you have?

How do you name these levels? (silver, gold, etc.)

How much will each level cost?

Once you answer these questions, you can move on to putting them into practice. You can follow the steps below in any order. As I said above, in this tutorial we will be working with the s2member plugin.

Step 1: modify the paywall page

A paywall page is a page on your site where a reader can buy a paywall. To do this, you will need to create a new page. The s2member plugin advises calling it Membership Signup, but you can choose any name that suits you.

After the page is created, you can adjust the options in the Membership Options Page section in the plugin. Go to s2member> General Options> Membership Options Page. Check if the page is open, then go to the next step.

Step 2: modifying the login welcome page

Go to s2member> General Options> Login Welcome Page. As with the paywall page, you can create a new page for your customers to navigate to after logging in. Or you can put a redirect. If you're confused, s2member has a great one on the main points.

Step 3: setting up registration

Go to s2member> General Options> Registration / Profile Fields & Options. In this section, you can customize the registration process for new users. You can create custom fields, change custom passwords, set a minimum password length, force the user to enter a personal email, etc.

Step 4: design the registration page

This step is optional. You can change the design of the authorization interface. Users will log in to your site just like you do through the http://yoursite.com/wp-login.php page. If you want to embellish the page, you can change fonts, colors, insert your logo, create a custom footer.

Step 5: create pay tiers

It's time to create pay tiers. In s2members2, you can do this by going to member> General Options> Membership Levels / Labels. In this section, you can create profiles with rights for different access levels. The s2member plugin has a free and 4 paid tiers. Below you will see how they work.

At this point, you are required to choose how many levels of paid access you will have. Then decide what type of content will be provided at each level. This information will be useful to you a little later.

Step 6: integrate payment methods

The s2member plugin works with PayPal, one of the most popular payment processors among paid access plugins. You can link your PayPal account under s2member> PayPal Options. In the PayPal Account Details tab, you must provide information about yourself, including your email address for PayPal, ID and data for authorization via the API.

Now go to PayPal PDT / Auto-Return Integration. On the PayPal website, you need to find your PDT Identity Token. The s2member plugin will kindly tell you where to find it.

You can also change the settings for confirmation of registration by email, confirmation of posts / pages by email, as well as the actions that will be taken after the expiration of the paid subscription. Changing the settings for the end of a paid subscription is very important, as it affects what happens when the user ends the paid subscription.

Step 7: creating a custom buy button

Now you need to create a special buy button with which the user will register on the site. Go to s2member> PayPal Buttons. s2member does everything for you: the plugin has a custom button generator for each tier of paid access.

To create the first level button, click on Buttons for Level # 1 Access. The button generator will open. Change the settings for your first access level and click on Generate Button Code. The code will appear in the WP shortcodes section below the form. Copy it and paste it on the new user registration page. When the user visits the page, he will see the PayPal button. You need to write some text to describe the access levels.

For levels 2, 3 and 4, you can repeat the same. All PayPal buttons can be placed on one page, or you can create separate pages for each tier of paid access.

Step 8: completion

Open the pages that you created: the registration and authorization page. Check that you like everything.

Step 9: create and protect content

When creating pages or posts, the s2member protection section will be located in the upper right corner. In this section, you can configure visibility for different levels of paid access. Since custom functions are outside the scope of this tutorial, you will be interested in the options to restrict access.

It is important to understand that if you make content available to one level, users at a higher level will also have access to that content. That is, if you publish an article with access level 3, then users of the fourth level will also see this post.

S2member's security options give you a lot of options for displaying content. You can create a completely paid site so that users register to access the content, or you can publish both regular and paid content.

Conclusion

That's it: you got a fully working, paid site in less than an hour. I did not tell you about all the possibilities, there are too many settings there. However, you now have a fully functional website waiting for new users. Write in the comments about your favorite paid access plugins. Why did you choose them?

How to turn a customer into a regular and loyal customer?

I am sure you have asked yourself this question more than once. And I have a workable way for you - create a membership site. It is a closed club with a monthly membership fee and is based on value delivery.

Why should you create a site with a paid access now?

• This is one of the main trends abroad. It is just emerging with us, but it will soon begin to gain momentum. Hurry up to take your place and firmly establish yourself in your niche.

• Through constant contact with customers, you will increase their loyalty to you and / or your brand and create a base of potential buyers for other more expensive products.

• It is a constant source of income. If you regularly give your subscribers useful content, resources, and other assistance, they continue to pay for the subscription.

It is not the first year that we have been developing our website with a paid access - Business Academy (you may even be a member of it). Therefore, we can help you easily start a membership site from scratch.

In this article, you will find:

I suggest not to waste time and get down to business.

1. Find out what your customers want

Start by studying the groups on Facebook and Vkontakte, where your future subscribers spend time - read the comments on the blog on your website and from competitors. Identify the most frequently asked questions, problems that arise, popular desires and goals.

Then conduct a survey of your social media followers, former clients, or blog readers. Use special services to make it more interesting:Google Forms or TypeForm... Ask one question or several.

Study market trends: you need to understand what is happening in your niche. Subscribe to RSS from popular blogs, social media groups and YouTube channels. Follow their publications.

Remember the most reliable and accurate assistant - view your site statistics using ... You will find out what your visitors are interested in, who they are, where they live, etc.

2. Begin

Don't wait until you're ready. If you want to create a membership site, do. Make a private section using plugins, start filling and promoting it. Offer a minimum cost of participation and see how your visitors react.

Take an example from those who have been doing this for a long time. Get involved in one or more of these programs in your niche and see how everything works there. Answer 2 questions for yourself:

• What works well on this site? Why is it worth the money you pay, and what can you do with it?

• What do not you like? For example, you spend a lot of time searching. Either you are uncomfortable asking questions, or you are waiting for answers for a long time. Think about how to organize it correctly on your site.

3. Build a subscriber base

This is the hardest part, just like any sales, but there are several ways to make it easier for you:

1. Add LiveChat to your sales page

During a purchase, your visitors have a lot of questions. You can close some of them using the text on the landing page, but there are always those that you cannot predict. Set up the chat so that after a while a question will appear there. You can use the standard text "Can we help you?" or come up with your own version.

1. Remind about yourself

Sometimes the visitor has already reached the payment and something has prevented him: either the card was not at hand, or there was not enough money on it, or he was distracted. One way or another, he closed the page and did not acquire a membership in your elite club.

You shouldn't just leave it like that. Use special services (ActiveCampaign, Ontraport and Infusionsoft) that will send emails to distracted customers and remind them of your offer. Or using remarketing on Facebook, Vkontakte or Google.

1. Offer a free trial

Any expensive product must be tried first. Take a test drive to see if it's right for you, right? Give your subscribers this opportunity.

Alternatively, offer them a free trial for, say, $ 1. Thus, clients will study the material more closely - after all, they paid for it. By the way, they can forget about the free trial period.

1. Or create a free membership opportunity

You can make several payment methods, one of which is free, and subscribers will catch up with you. And having benefited from this method of participation, they may be interested in paid tariffs.

For example, we have one where we offer a trial period for $ 1, and there is a blog where we publish a lot of useful content in the public domain.

4. Make navigation easy

When you start out, you make the menu simple and easy to use. But as time passes, the content becomes more and more. Are you sure it's easy for new subscribers to navigate your site?

To avoid this, prepare a page greetings where you can tell your visitors how to get started quickly and efficiently with your site. Remind them of old posts they might have missed. For example, in our group on social networks, we publish articles that came out earlier, but do not lose their relevance. After all, new subscribers can search for this very content.

You can also change the design and structure of the site to suit the needs of your customers. Ask them what they want: people sometimes need to talk, and you can find a lot of useful ideas in their reviews. But do not forget to notify subscribers in advance about all planned changes and prepare a quick reminder for them to familiarize themselves with the new site.

5. Remember

The Membership site is designed for the long term. Therefore, it is important to regularly post new content. Work proactively with existing clients. Get them interested in staying with you. But do not hide the “Unsubscribe” button - it should be in plain sight. Make the unsubscribe process easy and the solution difficult.

Your followers are your biggest potential customers. It is much easier for them to sell your new paid product. They don't need to be convinced that you are providing valuable content: they know it. They already pay you. Therefore, before starting a membership site, determine how long you can add useful content to it.

11 types of content for a membership site

1. Courses

The most popular type. If you already have several paid products, you can open it free to your subscribers. This way you can add useful material from the very beginning without creating it on purpose.

2. Live webinars

You can start even without content. And from several live webinars. This is a great way to introduce new subscribers to you and engage them through comments. Invite experts to visit or host webinars with experts from your team.

Publish announcements of private events on your social media pages to attract new subscribers:

Use these services to organize:

1. Youtube

Main advantages:

• is free;
• you can host a webinar from any site using video embedding;
• online statistics - how many people are watching you;
• you can save to YouTube after the end, restrict access to the recording and publish the link only for your subscribers.

In order to start live broadcasting, you need to click "Download":

Select “Live Streaming - Get Started”:

Then follow the prompts, confirm the mobile phone number, download one of the programs on this page and start streaming live.

1. Facebook Live-video

Convenient to conduct in a closed group, only for subscribers. After the broadcast, the recording remains on the wall, and all participants can watch it at any time.

To get started, select "More" - "Live" in the "Publish" window. Enter a description of the webinar:

• duration - up to 4 hours;
• statistics on the number of viewers and friends among them while watching;
• comments in real time;
• the ability to save the recording immediately after the end;
• post-end statistics: unique viewers, total views and 10-second views.

Learn more about how to use Facebook Live for your business in this video:

Meetings are held in a webinar room, recording is available up to 6 hours, statistics on the number of visitors and analysis of participants (where they came from, how long they have been).

The cost of the service starts at $ 49 per month (for 100 people), but for this amount you also get the opportunity to send mailings to a database of 5,000 addresses.

Suitable for those who already use this service.

The service is available free of charge. Main characteristics:

• high quality video and audio broadcast;
• the maximum number of participants is 1,000;
• the ability to present your screen;
• recording a webinar;
• personalized link.

3. Group or VIP calls

Also you can add a service "Call a friend"... Sometimes your followers have a problem that they can't deal with on their own. Become an ambulance for them. A person who will show you how to overcome difficulties with ease.

In fact, you may not even be asked for help. But knowing that such an option is available will increase your status in the eyes of your subscribers. How can you implement this:

• Make it for the first NN subscribers.
• Offer one call per year to all users.
• Give a “Call to a Friend” gift for each attracted subscriber.
• Add this option to your VIP package.
• Come up with your own way of implementation on the site.

Be sure to clearly write down all the conditions for such calls so that subscribers do not bother you constantly because of the slightest problems.

4. Content archive

If you have users from all over the world, then they cannot attend all the live events. Create an archive so they can view the recordings at a convenient time. In addition, sometimes those subscribers who attended a live meeting also want to refresh their memory on the material.

Alert participants that the recording will be available so that they know ahead of time and can effectively plan their time.

If you are making group calls on Skype, use these recording programs: Amolto Call Recorder, Callnote Premium Call Recorder, iRecorder.

5. Forum

You can also create a closed group on Facebook or Vkontakte, a secret chat on Telegram, Skype or Viber.

6. Downloads

This can be: software, resources, tools, books of your authorship, which subscribers will not be able to get anywhere else.

Or you can just take the time to package up useful information while creating added value. Or prepare a set of services that will help solve a specific problem for your customers, and place such a list in a closed section of the site. See how you can do this using the example of our post on Vkontakte - “138 services that will put your business on autopilot”:

Another interesting and promising type of download is podcasts. Use these and share valuable information with subscribers:

1. Decide for what purpose you are launching podcasts:
   • you will make them separately or as an addition to other content;
   • what will you talk about;
   • record yourself or invite an announcer;
   • Who will be producing the podcast material: you, the invited experts, or your team.
2. Write down a content plan for at least the first 10 entries.
3. Add your personality, emotions, live speech, stories to the topic to the podcast.
4. Think about the title of the podcast episode and each file separately.
5. Choose a narrow niche to attract only an interested audience.
6. Make quality podcasts:
   • take professional equipment or use the services of a recording studio;
   • Think over the text and rehearse it before recording.

7. Special conditions

People don't always like to do something. All of the previous types of content have assumed certain actions from your subscribers. There is another option “for the lazy”: special discounts, bonuses, etc.

For example, add the item “Special price for our services” to the offer for new subscribers (writing texts, creating websites, driving traffic, maintaining a page on social networks, etc.). It sometimes attracts more customers than any other type.

8. Content

And sometimes it's enough just to write a good article, guide, instructions “How to do it”. If you don't know what to write about, I once gave ... I will cite some of them here, the rest are available here:

1. Find several industry forums and see which topics are the most popular there.
2. Follow popular bloggers in your niche on Instagram and get inspiration from their posts and followers' comments.
3. Prepare an overview of the most popular articles on external resources or the TOP posts of your blog.
4. Chat with the customer service staff. You can learn from them a lot of questions that interest customers.
5. Subscribe to emails in your niche and collect interesting ideas.
6. Conduct an experiment and turn it into a useful case.
7. Tell us about your mistakes and the lessons you learned. Your subscribers will thank you for such a warning. For example, at the Online Business Laboratory 2016, Anton Bovt and Alexander Ryabikin talked about their mistakes, and the audience appreciated it:

9. Cheat sheets

Today everyone is simply overloaded with information and is always in a hurry somewhere. Offer subscribers quick reference materials or checklists.This can be either a pdf page or an article. For example, the checklist “ ”We designed as a blog post:

10. Action plans

People join you in order to achieve their goals and get the results they want. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not needed by anyone.

Turn your knowledge into step by step plan and provide a ready-made solution that you only need to implement in stages. List the problems that may arise and how to overcome them. Break one big goal into several small and easily achievable ones, determine the indicators of the effectiveness of their achievement.

11. Interview

A fairly simple and effective way to add content to your site is to interview key figures in your industry or experts in specific topics. Saturate them with specific strategies, techniques and insights.

For example, Oles often conducts interviews and posts them on his channel. In this issue, he talked with Sergey Azimov and found out the secrets of effective sales scripts from him:

5 WordPress plugins that will create a private section

1. Ultimate Membership Pro

More than 6,000 sites use this plugin. You can easily block access to the entire site or to individual pages, products, categories, sections, images or specific addresses. The plugin is paid and will cost you $ 34. But you will get a lot of useful functions, including:

You will find more information.

By installing this plugin on your website ($ 29), you can:

Find out more about the plugin on its page.

3. Frontend User Pro

Easy to use plugin. Lots of settings will help you blend it harmoniously into your theme. Cost - $ 20. Main characteristics:

• creating forms in Drag and Drop mode;
• unlimited number of login / registration forms - you can customize them for each user group;
• simple editing by the subscriber of the profile;
• creating multiple roles for users;
• the ability to show different menus for individual groups;
• restricting access to content.

You can find out more and purchase the plugin.

4. Custom Login & Access WordPress Plugin

You can appreciate the benefits of this plugin (for only $ 20) and:

• create a personalized and stylish login page;
• add registration and password recovery forms to the page;
• restrict access to pages, posts, post types, categories or all content for unregistered users;
• set forwarding after users log in or log out;
• configure different access levels;
• protect the login page, registration, password recovery from bots using captcha.

You can purchase the plugin on its page.

5. WP Membership

The plugin is available for use immediately after installation. He adds all the necessary pages, letter templates and settings on his own. Cost - $ 34. Main characteristics:

• there is a Russian language;
• 6 access plans for new subscribers: free account, one-time payment, constant payment, free or paid trial period;
• 7 templates of pricing tables for any topic;
• assigning roles to subscribers and setting up redirects;
• integration with MailChimp and PayPal;
• settings for restricting access to content.

Do you think that 5% conversion is good and you shouldn't even try to achieve great results? There is no limit to perfection. This also applies to your landing page. Learn how to get the most out of your landing page and apply these.