Bringing your website to its maximum potential either for business or social community would need extensive user engagement. One of the simplest ways to do it is to build a membership website.
Whenever this is something that you’re currently focusing on, the article will give you some information and insight into why running a membership website is a good solution to increase user engagement and the best selection of WordPress plugin for membership websites.
What is a Membership Website?
Websites that are built on a membership platform, offer content or features exclusivity to visitors. A web visitor who wants to access more features, details, and probably web tools on a membership website is required to sign up to become a member.
By enabling the sign-up as members functionality for the web visitors, you can motivate them to stay engaged with your web content and updates.
A well-maintained membership website will build trust and give the members a sense of appreciation while using your service or products along with continuing to get useful content regularly.
A business-oriented membership website usually offers subscription plans on a monthly or yearly basis for access to exclusive content. The subscription can be available in a few options and the most exclusive access is given to the highest member level who has subscribed.
As for a non-profit business or organization, running a membership website will give more opportunities for user interaction. Sharing support between members and moderators would also be easy and flexible to maintain.
Why Should you build a Membership Website?
1. Website Monetization
It allows offering exclusive content for instance: extended features, articles, tutorials, or full access to web tools based on subscription plans. The subscription is often being offered as a trial plan for the user or member to see if the exclusive content is right for them before deciding to buy one of the subscription plans.
The free members could have the chance to buy a paid-subscription plan gradually after some time as they might need more exclusive access or content to fit their needs, or they can get a trial offer to experience the exclusive features for a limited time. This is one of the effective monetization strategies that membership websites can get.
2. Increasing the User Engagement
Any promotional campaigns on the membership website would normally be accessible upon registration for a new member. This will accordingly increase user engagement to the upcoming new web content updates or any other promotional campaigns in the future.
An online social community that is built on a membership platform provides ways to share information with members, between members, and even with potential new members. These interactions would ensure its exponential growth.
3. Increasing the Web Traffics
Loyal members will likely visit a website regularly for new content and give more exposure to the website. Especially when happy members share their experiences and recommend benefits, useful content, services, or products on social media websites.
4. Offering Exclusive Content
Membership platforms make it easy to share exclusive content based on the membership plans. Free members normally will have limited access to exclusive content, compared to the paid users or members in different subscription plan levels.
5. Create a Stronger community support
Besides increasing user engagement, membership websites make possible easy interaction between the members and administrators. This interaction will create stronger community support and trust through instant messaging or community forums.
6 Things to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Plugin for Membership Website
1. Tracking Tools for Administrators
The monitoring, settings option, and tracking tools on the plugin admin dashboard would often include:
Users Role editor & membership moderation
Content restriction management
Billing & subscription settings
Additional settings if there are any, such as download monitoring, security, and integration settings
2. Membership Features & Functionalities
These are some common features and functionalities of the WordPress membership plugin:
Customizable user profile
Frontend customization settings
Support multiple members or group directories
Multi-language support
3. Content Management & Restriction
One of the main functions of membership websites is to limit content access for users. This can be done in the following ways:
By user roles or by membership types
Block or lock exclusive content for trial or free membership account
Offer drip content
4. Billing & Subscription Options
The key component in membership website monetization is the billing and subscription options, which include:
Multiple payment & subscription options for different types of membership accounts
Flexible pricing models
Custom billings and invoicing
Membership renewal system
5. Security Features
The membership website security usually provides:
Login Security
Protection for malicious users
Payment process security
User verification
6. Integration Options
Rich integrations ensure flexibility to expand the membership website development. Examples of integration to add-ons, extensions, or third-party apps are as followings:
Marketing add-ons (Affiliate, Mailing List, Subscription, etc)
eCommerce extensions WooCommerce, Authorize.net, PayPal, Stripe, etc.).
Community Builder (Group membership, bbPress, BuddyPress, etc.)
Events Manager (Event Prime, Events Manager, The Events Calendar, Sugar Calendar, and All-in-One Event Calendar)
Page Builder (Gutenberg Block, Elementor, Divi, etc.)
Learning Management System (LearnDash, Lifter LMS, etc.)
6 Most Recommended WordPress Plugins for Membership Websites
WordPress CMS is quite flexible to develop as various types of websites because of the availability of a great number of plugins, and there are many powerful WordPress plugins designed for membership websites. Here are the most recommended plugins with highlighted features to check and compare:
