Membership Mastery. Easily Create Your Own Membership Site Using WishList and Wordpress EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. by: Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton

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1 Membership Mastery Easily Create Your Own Membership Site Using WishList and Wordpress EXCLUSIVE CONTENT by: Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton

2 WHY MEMBERSHIP SITES? 3 OPTIMIZEPRESS WORDPRESS THEME 3 INSTALLING WISHLIST 4 MEMBERSHIP LEVELS 6 DEFAULT PAGES 9 SHORTCODES AND MERGECODES 10 SETTINGS CONFIGURATION 13 SETTINGS 19 SETTINGS - REGISTRATION PAGE 20 SHOPPING CART & AUTORESPONDER INTEGRATION 23

3 Why Membership Sites? If you are building your own online business, having a membership site is by far the best way to connect with your audience. Not only does it give you recurring income, it also gives you and your business that exclusive private-members feel to separate you from the rest of your competitors. Whether you are offering valuable ongoing content, a course with an end date, or a wine-of-the-month club, a membership site builds you a loyal following that you can market to again and again (as long as you keep offering value and your services). In this guide, we teach you the tools you need to build a membership site, which consists of only two: A Wordpress installation on a web host WishList Membership plugin We won t discuss how to install Wordpress, as there are hundreds of resources on the web. Plus, the WishList site also has full and detailed tutorials on this. OptimizePress Wordpress Theme You can use most Wordpress themes with Wishlist, such as Thesis and WooCommerce. We use OptimizePress is our main choice for setting up membership-based websites. We find it is a great match for Wishlist in that it is designed for membership portals, and it also gives you the ability to quickly create sales pages and funnels. OptimizePress is a one-time purchase, and is available here: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 3 / 25

4 Whichever theme you choose, ask the developer first if it is compatible with WishList Member. Installing WishList To get started, you will need to first purchase WishList. To do so, click here: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 4 / 25

You are initially given 30 registration keys to use, and you can simply contact them for more.

5 One thing we really like about this product is the one-time fee. Many other membership software services are a monthly fee. With a one-time fee, we can add the WishList plugin to an unlimited number of websites. You are initially given 30 registration keys to use, and you can simply contact them for more. Once you make your purchase, you will be sent an with the product key, information and a download link to save the plugin. To install the plugin, go to Plugins and Add New: Click Upload and choose the file that you have saved, which will be in zip format. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 5 / 25

6 Click Install Now and Activate Plugin once it is complete. You will now see Wishlist Member in your list of plugins: Click Activate to activate it. You will now need to confirm your license. Go to WishList Member on the left hand menu, and you will be asked to enter the and the key from the welcome WishList would have sent you. Simply copy and paste this information in and click Save WishList Products Key to save it. You are now ready to create your membership site! Membership Levels The first thing you will be presented with is a Setup Wizard. You need to do the following: 1. Set up a Membership level 2. Assign Error pages 3. Protection settings 4. Member Redirect Pages Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 6 / 25

Membership Level For now, name the level. This will be seen by your members, so come up with a brandable name that makes sense for your membership site.

7 Membership Level For now, name the level. This will be seen by your members, so come up with a brandable name that makes sense for your membership site. Assign Error Pages By default, these pages are checked with Create it that means Wishlist will automatically create these pages for you. The pages are: Oops! This Content is Members Only (shown when a non-member attempts to access a member page.) Membership Cancelled (shown when a member cancels his or her membership) Wrong Member (shown when a member attempts to access a page that is assigned to a different member level.) You can also create these pages beforehand and select which page belongs with which error status. Protection Settings We set both to Yes Automatically protect all posts/pages and Turn hide/show protection on. Member Redirect Pages Similar to Error pages, Wishlist can create these pages for you. One page is what members will see immediately after registration, and the other page is what members will see after logging in. For both, we set it to the Home page (which we create ourselves.) Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 7 / 25

8 Once the wizard is complete, you can go to the rest of the settings. Optionally, you can go straight to Levels to see what you have created. We usually don t change any of the default options: You can edit the Bronze level we created by clicking Edit on the far right. Make sure the No Expiration Date is checked. The only time you would actually have an expiration date is if you offer some sort of trial period. If you have your membership set up as a monthly subscription, your payment gateway will control this. If a member does NOT renew a monthly recurring subscription, Wishlist will automatically cancel their membership based on the integration settings with your payment gateway (which we will discuss below). Registration URL This is the actual URL where new members will register for your membership site. Keep this URL private, as anybody with the link can register without paying (this link is masked and redirected to a different link when a new user registers, so they never see this actual link it is only used for payment gateways.) If the registration URL is accidentally made public, you can always change it, but remember to change it in your payment gateway as well. Redirects - Keep these as default, unless you have a special reason to change them. The defaults are controlled in the settings, which we will get to below. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 8 / 25

For instance, if you have a new membership level and you want them to see a different home page ( After login ), choose that page here. Access to Leave these unchecked.

9 For instance, if you have a new membership level and you want them to see a different home page ( After login ), choose that page here. Access to Leave these unchecked. You want to give your members access to the pages you have marked in your membership site, unless you have a reason to give them access to ALL pages. Advanced Settings We do not check any of these settings, but there may be options you wish to use for your membership site. There are question mark icons by each setting letting you know what this controls. Creating a New Membership Level To create a new level, simply type in the name, check No Expiration Date, and click Add New Level. The member will NOT automatically be assigned to current protected pages. If you want this new membership level to have all the privileges of another membership level, simply click Copy an Existing Membership Level and choose that level. This new level will then have all the rights, settings and access of the level that was copied (the registration URL will be different). Default Pages In the setup wizard, you can have Wishlist create certain error and membership pages for you. Once complete, you can go to those pages to customize them. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 9 / 25

10 We manually create two other pages Home and Login. Home will be the main page your members see once they login. You can also use the Dashboard that is created and just change the name to Home, if you wish. The other page we create is Login members will need a screen to login to. This is very easy to set up. Simply create a new page, call it Login, and add this code: [wlm_loginform] You can also add it from the WISIWIG editor. This is Wishlist shortcode that tells Wordpress to show a login form. If you are using OptimizePress (version 1), they have a default login template you can use instead. Shortcodes and Mergecodes As you can see from the screen above, there are many other short codes you can use. For instance, by adding [wlm_firstname] within the text of any member s page, that code will become the user s first name when they view it. This is a great way to personalize your member s experience. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 10 / 25

11 How about if you want one piece of content to show up for one level, but not have it able to be viewed by another level? For instance, if you have a support page, you may want to segment addresses: bronze level will have one , while gold members will have another . To do this, create your membership levels, then go to the page where you want to show the different content. Click Mergecodes > Private Tags. Private tags are pieces of content only viewable by a certain membership level: Below, I created a piece of content viewable only by bronze members, and content only viewable by gold members: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 11 / 25

12 Since I am a bronze member, this is what I see: Actually, this is not entirely true. By default, bronze members will see their content, but then the following message: Content protected for gold members only. This message obviously doesn t make for a very good, tactful membership experience. Luckily, we can delete this message. To do so, we will need to go to Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 12 / 25

Settings Configuration Now that we have the pages and membership levels set up, it s time to check the configuration settings. Most of the defaults are fine, but we will fine-tune these a bit.

13 Settings > Configuration > Protection Defaults. Scroll near the bottom until you see this: Delete these two lines and click Save. Now different members will not see this message, or know that difference membership levels may see different content. Settings Configuration Now that we have the pages and membership levels set up, it s time to check the configuration settings. Most of the defaults are fine, but we will fine-tune these a bit. System Pages These pages are the defaults. The only ones we change are: After Registration Go to a page saying you are logged in. This page CAN NOT be protected (ie everybody should be able to see this.) If you wish to automatically redirect them to the membership Home page (which IS protected, of course), you will need to hack things a bit, which is easy to do but involves a redirect plugin. To do this hack, we will install a free plugin called Pretty Links Lite : Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 13 / 25

14 Do a search for Pretty Links and install it: Once installed, you will see a gold star icon in your Wordpress menu. Hover over it and click Add New Link : Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 14 / 25

Go back to the Wishlist Member settings, and enter this Pretty Link redirect as an external URL

15 Add the membership home page as the target link, and type in anything as the Pretty Link (ie home-redirect). Give it a name, then click Create remember the Pretty Link name. Go back to the Wishlist Member settings, and enter this Pretty Link redirect as an external URL in the After Registration field like so: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 15 / 25

16 Now you can have your newly registered members automatically go to the secure home membership page rather than an unsecure (and, in our opinion, unnecessary, You are now registered! page). After Login: - Go to Home page When a new membership level is created, and if you leave the Redirect settings to the default, these are the pages that will be used. After Logout: Go to the Login page you would have created. Protection Defaults Page These are our settings: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 16 / 25

19 We keep all the other settings below at their defaults. We also skip Cron Settings and Logs. The only time you would need cron jobs is if you need to do queuing or wish to automatically upgrade or downgrade members to different levels based on time (otherwise, if you wish to offer this ability, it will trigger the upgrade or downgrade when a member signs in, instead.) This is also a technical process you need to do as a command on your web host. Logs are used for debugging and to notify you of technical data submissions. Settings In the settings, you will want to customize the sender name, the address, and subscription messages. Defaults are set up for you, so look them over to see if they are satisfactory. We usually do not change the default templates, but we do change the Sender Name to our membership site name, our to a custom we created, and we set Notify Admin when a Member Unsubscribes to Yes: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 19 / 25

20 If you are sending s to your members using the system (instead of a 3 rd party program such as Aweber), keep the s per hour to 100. This way, you won t get caught in any spam filters your web host may have implemented. Settings - Registration Page This section is where you configure and customize what your registration page will look like. This is the page after your lead decides that, yes, they indeed wish to join your membership site. After the lead or squeeze page, this is the page they will be presented with. Each member level has its own registration page. Once you select the membership level, you can add custom code before the header, and custom code after the header, like so: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 20 / 25

21 Code to add before the form could be tracking or split-testing code, text or directions on how to fill out the form, pixel code, etc. Code after the form can be more text, any warranties or copyright messages (ie you will need wording for Clickbank). For the registration form itself, click Create a New Registration Form: Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 21 / 25

Customize the information you need, name the form, then click save. Go back to the Header/Footer code and select it. Custom CSS If you wish to style your form, you can do so here.

22 Customize the information you need, name the form, then click save. Go back to the Header/Footer code and select it. Custom CSS If you wish to style your form, you can do so here. Wishlist already has default styles for you to modify. We don t change anything here. recaptcha If you wish to add a captcha to your registration form, enter the details here. We don t create one ourselves. We don t make any other changes to the rest of the settings. These are: Advanced: Custom CSS styling code for the sidebar and the LoginMergeCode style. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 22 / 25

23 Backup: Tools to backup or restore your wishlist member settings. Import/Export: Import or Export the wishlist settings to use for another membership site. You can select configurations, settings, advanced settings and membership levels. Setup Wizard: The first screen you would have been shown after enabling Wishlist. You can create new membership levels from here. Shopping Cart & Autoresponder Integration Once the WishList settings are finished, you are almost finished! Go straight to integration. You will need to add a payment gateway/shopping cart to your site to easily add members. Optionally (but definitely recommended) is integrating your autoresponder as well. You can also integrate your membership with webinar software, to automatically add registered members to scheduled webinars. Finally, you can integrate it with Call Loop as well for SMS and phone abilities. Shopping Cart You can use a variety of shopping carts, such as 1ShoppingCart, Paypal and Clickbank. Whichever payment gateway you use, you will need to add API credentials to allow WishList to integrate with your preferred payment method. Follow the instructions from your shopping cart software on how to do this. Once everything is successfully activated, you will need to set up your products. The products are simply the different payments or options you will be giving to your members. For instance, Bronze level may be a lower price point than Gold level. Or you may offer a monthly membership fee or an annual fee. The choice is up to you and how you market your membership program. Different products may also be in different currencies. Your registration URL will automatically be included, or you can copy and paste the different URL links for your different membership levels. This is the only time you will need to use this URL (don t post it to a public site!) Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 23 / 25

You also have the ability to set up recurring payments, when payments occur, any trial offers, etc. Each payment gateway has a video tutorial within the dashboard to help you out.

24 You also have the ability to set up recurring payments, when payments occur, any trial offers, etc. Each payment gateway has a video tutorial within the dashboard to help you out. AutoResponder You can also integrate WishList with your preferred autoresponder. We use AWeber, so in the options we choose this make sure you choose AWeber API, not simply AWeber in the options. Click Set AutoResponder Provider, and you will be prompted to login to your autoresponder service. From there, you will receive an authorization key, which you copy and paste into the text box below. Click Save Settings, and WishList will grab your Aweber account. You will be able to match your list with your membership website, so it s a good idea to first create a list specifically for your membership. Choose this list, and you are finished! Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 24 / 25

25 With all this basic setup complete, you are ready to launch your membership site! You will want to test, of course, to make sure everything is working. Have a friend purchase your membership and make sure he or she appears as a new member. Test pages, spelling, registration details for any errors. There are a few other options on WishList Member, but these can be viewed later. WishList also has tutorials on everything. In brief: Members: This is a list of all your current members and their membership levels. You can click any member to view their details, such as their name, address, and when they registered. You can import and export member lists, blacklist members (by string or IP address), and send them s (though we only send s through our Aweber account.) Levels: This tab lists the member levels. From here, you can edit or create new membership levels. Pay Per Post settings allows you to control where a member goes after purchasing a pay per post from you. We have not done pay per posts, but this can be learned from tutorials in the WishList members area. Move/Add Members: From here, you can move entire levels in bulk from one level to another. Content: From this tab, you can manage all the content you have in your membership site. For instance, you can bulk edit the protection status on pages, add or remove levels, and manage pay per post settings. Rather than changing membership levels one page at a time, you can do it all in bulk from this screen. Sequential Upgrade: If you wish to upgrade members from one level to another after a certain period of time, you can use this screen to control and automate this. You hope you enjoyed this guide on creating a new membership site! The Wishlist Member website has more in depth video tutorials on every setting, so make sure to check them out. Copyright 2016 BlueprintInformationProducts.com All Rights Reserved 25 / 25

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