The best way to setup a paid members site is to have a plan. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it can quickly seem overwhelming if you don’t write down what you need to do, and work through it methodically. This is true of any large task, and it means you won’t overlook anything that needs to be done - or spend too much time doing things that aren’t a priority.

So, what’s involved in setting up a paid member site?

Firstly, you need to decide on a topic. It’s a good idea to start with a list of things you’re really interested in. You’ll be spending a lot of time on your membership site - unless you have the money to outsource everything. And, if you like what you’re doing, you’ll be more motivated to do it well.

After listing everything you think you’d like to do as a membership site, you need to research whether it’s viable. You can look at forums, the number of other products out there (even non-membership products), and the level of demand as given by the related keywords. You need to decide whether there is enough interest in terms of traffic (and hence, potential members), and whether it’s a ‘buyers market’. And, it helps to get a sense of how much of a buyers market. Are people in that niche really motivated in their search for solutions or information? Or, is it a less urgent interest. Highly motivated prospects make better potential customers. They’re certainly going to be easier to convert.

Once you’ve got your topic, you’ll need to do some research on the competition. You’ll also need to decide on the structure of your members site. Will you offer a free membership, where you earn money on the backend, or a paid membership? Or, a combination of both?

You’ll also need to decide how often you’ll add new content to the site, how much you should charge, what type of content, and what services and products you are going to offer that make you stand out from the online crowd.

There is no fixed answer to the above questions. It will largely depend on your niche. That’s why it’s so important to do some research on the market first. What type of content do people expect? What format do they prefer their content? Video? Audio? Text?

Once you’ve made those decisions, it’s time to start looking for a membership site manager. A membership site manager will take care of all the admin tasks that can be automated. Things like processing the signups of new members, issuing passwords, retrieving lost passwords, providing a way to contact your members, acting as a gateway to the payment processor, and taking care of members cancellations and failed payments. If this weren’t automated, it would take up all of your time.

There are a lot of membership managers and scripts that will do this. They range from free, to quite expensive - up to $3,990 for 1000 members or around $29,000 for unlimited members. And there is all manner of solutions in between. I’ve written more about what I think are the two best membership software options here.

The Easy Membership Toolkit uses one of them - Joomla’s AEC, and provides step-by-step videos showing you how to install and set it up. Joomla can be quite confusing even without having to figure out what to do with all these extra modules and components that are needed for a membership site.  And, you need more than just AEC to set up a membership site with Joomla. The Easy membership Toolkit shows you how to install forums, set up multiple levels of membership, and even your own newsletter. It means you can have access to a quality of membership manager that would normally cost $3,990 and more.

The primary difference between the two (Membergate and the components used in the Easy Membership Toolkit), is that with Membergate you don’t have to worry about setting it up. In terms of functionality, they are very similar, and both offer the same essential features. But, with Membergate, if you want more than a 1000 members, the price increases steeply. With Joomla, it’s unlimited. The disadvantage with Membergate is that they don’t seem to offer paypal or paypal subscriptions as a payment processing option.

From here on in, the best way to setup a paid member site will involve putting it all together - creating and uploading the content, putting in place things like a privacy statement and contact information, and creating your sales material. We cover all of this, and more, in the ebooks that come with the Easy Membership Toolkit. As well as getting the step-by-step video series showing you how to create a membership site using free tools, you get an ebook taking you through researching ideas, content creation, the types of membership sites, and the different ways people are making money from them. We also go through the creation of a marketing plan. And all for under $50.

You won’t need to spend another cent - except for your hosting and domain name - on setting up your membership site. If you’d like to learn more, check it out before the bonus videos for the first 250 customers is gone.