The concept of a membership website is becoming increasingly popular. Being a relatively simple way to build a business and generate revenue, building a membership website seems like a good idea to most people. When you create a membership website, keep in mind that either every source of traffic will generate profit, or there will be no traffic generated in the first place.
If you favor using a membership website builder then the entire process you go through to build a membership website simplifies itself much further. However, if you are interested in making a quick buck, this is not the path. When you build a membership website, you need to be ready to dedicate your time to the venture. Without doing so, you can never learn how to set up a membership website that is a sustainable source of income.
Furthermore, before you build a membership website, you need to be ready to work your creative juices. This is because the entire point for you to create a membership website is to provide exclusive content for people who sign up. However, before we talk more about how to create a membership website, you need to learn what a membership website exactly is. Continue reading below to find out!
What is a Membership Website?
A membership website is a website that requires special admission before a viewer can access the content present on the site. Basically, it is a website gated by password and login requirements that only site members can fulfill. When you create a membership website, you keep in mind that the people viewing your content will have paid to do so. When you build a membership website, you ensure that the content you are uploading onto the website is top-tier and exclusive.
When you build a membership website, you let viewers who sign up and pay to feel the rush of viewing something special and provide additional value in the content at each step. This means that the more a viewer visits your website, the more they feel like returning. One invests time and efforts to create a membership website as a way to let loose and show your true self to the community you build through it.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
You need to learn how to set up a membership website if you are interested in collecting all the gains that may come your way.
A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Set up a Membership Website
Listed below, you may find the steps you need to follow if you wish to build a membership website:
1. Set up an Account on Strikingly
There is not really much to this first step that you need to build a membership website. You simply have to visit Strikingly and take a few minutes to make an account on that membership website builder to access most of its features. And the best part is that it is free! Enter just some of your basic details, including your name and email address, and you will be done signing up. After verifying your email address, you will be able to sign in and access your Strikingly dashboard.
When you sign in, you can start building a website by selecting a suitable template. Our ready-to-use templates save your time by providing ready-made and customizable web designs. All the templates are easy to navigate. You can choose one that best suits the purpose of your membership website.
2. Explore the Site Membership Function
The best thing about using Strikingly to build a membership website is that they have a special function dedicated to aiding you. If you choose to upgrade to our Pro or VIP plan, you can also access our membership feature.
Image taken from Strikingly
This feature allows you to add free or paid subscriptions to your site. This means every visitor will be able to register and create their own account on your website. It depends on your business model what you use this feature for. Take some time to learn about what all this function has to offer. Decide how you will use it to optimize the different features of your membership website before you move on to doing anything else.
Follow these steps to set up a membership for users on your site:
- From the left panel on your editor, click ‘Audience’.
- Select ‘Membership’.
- Choose the type of membership you want to offer, and click ‘Next’.
- Select the registration method from the options given.
- Click ‘Save’.
Image taken from Strikingly
That’s all! There is no programming involved in the process. All the technical stuff is covered by our support staff at the platform's backend.
3. Perform the Basics
Before you turn your site into a membership website, you will have to go through all the steps one does regardless of the type of website they are creating. This includes adding basic information about yourself or your business. If you don't already have one, you also need to decide on your brand name and use it as your site’s domain. You might need to check the availability of the domain with the top domain extensions as well. Your domain name should be short and simple and, at the same time, relevant to the type of products or services you offer.
Don’t forget to provide your business contact information as well. You can either state your official customer support email address or build a contact form when you build a membership website. This is easy to do on Strikingly. Select ‘Add New Section’ and click ‘Contact & Forms’. Next, you can select ‘Contact Form’, which will place a ready-made form on the corresponding web page. You just have to fill up the fields and customize the settings if you want.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
We provide a free SSL certificate for all websites built on our platform for website security. So you wouldn’t need to put in extra effort for that.
4. Explore the Ecommerce Options.
Those who build a membership website most likely use it to sell products, services, or digital downloads. This means your membership website will be an eCommerce store. Add a ‘Simple Store’ section to your site and add your products there. In the ready-to-use product editor, you need to upload a product photo, write down its description, set its price, and click ‘Save’. You can also create product pages to sell services and digital downloads in the same way.
Image taken from Strikingly.
Having a store attached to your site helps add revenue to the profits you are probably already making from your business. Once you can gain some traction on your membership website, the eCommerce option is likely to bloom much more in itself as well.
5. Decide on the Options for Viewers
There is not just one way to earn money through a membership website. There are several, and these several ways expand and split into subparts as well. It may be too overwhelming to suddenly jump into using all these methods to generate revenue. That is why you need to choose what to focus on.
You can select from the following options as you set up the membership feature on your Strikingly website.
- Free membership
- Paid membership
- Buy a product to register
The last option above requires you to have an online store on your site. You also get to create a membership tier by building a membership website here on Strikingly. Using our VIP plan, you can set up multiple tiers.
You can also choose to cancel the membership on your site by simply clicking ‘Disable Membership’.
Image taken from Strikingly
6. Complete Building Your Website
Once you have followed through on all the steps we have provided for you above, you are set to start your website! Now you know how to build a membership website. All you need to do is bring all your decisions together and finally create the membership site of your dreams.
Using a code-free website builder like Strikingly helps you save a lot of effort, money, and time. This, in turn, frees you up to spend your resources and focus on the more critical aspects of your business. For instance, you can allocate more time and resources to developing and executing your marketing campaigns.
A membership website can become a regular stream of income. It is a good investment to spend a little bit of time getting familiar with the tools and features we offer on Strikingly. We have created our platform to be as user-friendly as possible and keep updating the features every few weeks or months.
At the end of the day, you will have a very cost-effective and professional-looking site, which you would have built.
