Do you want to create paid membership sites with WordPress?
Creating paid membership sites with WordPress has become one of the most effective ways to monetize your expertise, content, and digital products. From online courses and exclusive content to premium communities and coaching programs, membership sites offer endless possibilities for building a sustainable online business.
While launching a membership site might seem daunting, the right resources can make the process surprisingly straightforward. ProfilePress emerges as a powerful solution that transforms your WordPress site into a fully-featured membership platform without requiring technical expertise or coding knowledge.
In this guide, you’ll discover how to create paid membership sites with WordPress that your audience will love to join. We’ll walk you through the entire process, from setting up WordPress to installing and configuring ProfilePress, setting up membership plans, creating pricing pages, and managing member access. You’ll learn how to protect valuable content, integrate payment gateways, and design registration and login pages.
Whether you’re a content creator, educator, coach, or business owner, this step-by-step guide will provide you with everything you need to launch a paid membership site.
Why Use WordPress for Membership Sites?
WordPress stands out for its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem. It’s budget-friendly and easy to use, even for beginners. Additionally, its open-source nature means you can customize your site to fit your brand perfectly.
Here’s why WordPress is the ideal choice:
User-Friendly Interface: WordPress is designed to be accessible to users of all skill levels. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned developer, its intuitive dashboard ensures you can set up and manage your membership site without complications.
Customization Options: WordPress offers thousands of themes and plugins, allowing you to design a membership site that matches your brand. You can customize layouts, colors, and functionality to create a unique experience for your members.
Scalability for Growth: WordPress can scale to accommodate increased traffic and advanced features as your membership base grows. You can add new functionalities like content restrictions, tiered memberships, or online course integrations.
Cost-Effective Solution: Compared to custom-built platforms, WordPress is a budget-friendly option. Many essential plugins, including ProfilePress, offer free or affordable premium plans that eliminate the need for expensive development costs.
Powerful Membership Plugins: Plugins like the ProfilePress membership plugin transform WordPress into a fully functional membership platform. These tools offer features like subscription management, payment gateway integration, and content protection, making WordPress an excellent solution for membership sites.
SEO and Marketing Benefits: WordPress is inherently SEO-friendly, ensuring that your membership site can rank well in search engines. Additionally, its compatibility with marketing tools like email automation and social media plugins helps attract and retain members.
Community Support: With a global community of developers and users, WordPress offers extensive support. From tutorials and forums to professional developers, you can always find help when needed.
WordPress combines ease of use, affordability, and flexibility, making it the perfect platform for creating membership sites that grow with your business.
ProfilePress Plugin: A Quick Overview
ProfilePress is one of the leading WordPress plugins for creating membership sites. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of users, it provides a powerful yet user-friendly solution for building membership platforms, selling digital products, and managing content access.
This plugin simplifies restricting access to exclusive, member-only content, ensuring that only subscribed users can view premium materials. With ProfilePress, you can create unlimited membership levels, each with customizable features. It also offers flexible pricing plans, allowing you to cater to diverse membership needs, including free, one-time, or recurring payment options.
Key Features of ProfilePress
- Content Restriction: Protect specific content like pages, posts, and videos for members-only access.
- Flexible Payment Options: Support one-time and recurring payments via Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, and more.
- Optimized Checkout Forms: Conversion-focused forms to enhance sales and membership sign-ups.
- Discounts and Promotions: Manage promo codes and special offers to attract and retain members.
- Metered Paywall: Allow limited free access to content before requiring a subscription.
- Online Course Integration: Seamless compatibility with LearnDash, Sensei LMS, LifterLMS, and Tutor LMS.
- Simplified User Registration: Social login and passwordless access for a smoother user experience.
- User Approval Controls: Manually approve or reject new user registrations.
- Tax and VAT Management: Automate tax and VAT calculations based on billing addresses.
- Fraud Prevention: Built-in protection against spam and fraud in registrations and payments.
Pricing: The free version provides essential features to help you get started with membership forms and subscription sales.
However, the premium version is highly recommended for its advanced features and extended functionality. It unlocks tools like online course integration, metered paywalls, advanced reporting, and social login, making it the preferred choice.
For this article, we are utilizing the premium version of ProfilePress.
Steps to Create a Paid Membership Site with WordPress
To create a paid membership site with WordPress, follow these steps:
Step 1: Setting Up WordPress
Before creating your membership site, ensure you have the necessary foundations. Start by selecting a memorable domain name relevant to your brand and niche. This is the first step in establishing your online identity, so choose wisely.
Next, choose a hosting plan with a reliable provider like Hostinger or SiteGround. These providers are known for offering great performance, support, and security for WordPress sites. Once you’ve signed up for your hosting plan, use the hosting provider’s one-click WordPress installation feature to set up WordPress on your site.
After installing WordPress, it’s time to configure the basic settings. Choose a WordPress theme that aligns with the look and feel of your membership site, ensuring it’s visually appealing and lightweight for optimal performance. Once your theme is selected, configure your site’s title, tagline, and permalink structure to match your brand and SEO goals.
Step 2: Installing and Activating ProfilePress
To do this, head to the ProfilePress website and purchase the plugin. After purchasing, download the plugin’s ZIP file from your account.
Then, log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, and click Add New. Finally, click the Upload Plugin button.
You can drag and drop the downloaded ZIP file into the upload area or click Choose File to select it manually.
Once done, click Install Now, then Activate to enable the ProfilePress plugin on your website.
Next, a notification will appear at the top of your WordPress dashboard saying, “ProfilePress needs to create several pages to function properly.” To proceed, click the Create Pages button.
After creating the pages, you will be redirected to the plugin’s settings page.
There, assign the newly created pages to their respective options.
Once finished, click Save Changes to apply your settings.
Step 3: Configuring Membership Plans
Membership plans define the content and benefits available to your users. Here’s how to set them up:
Navigate to ProfilePress → Membership Plans and click on the Add New button.
The following page has three sections: Plan Details, Subscription Settings, and Downloads & Integration. Each section is vital for setting up the details of your membership plan.
Let’s walk through each section to guide you on how to complete them effectively.
Plan Details Section
The Plan Details section allows you to configure the fundamental aspects of your membership plan.
Here’s what you’ll need to set up:
Plan Name: This is the name of your membership plan, visible to potential members. Choose a clear and compelling title that highlights the plan’s value and grabs attention.
Plan Description: Use this field to provide detailed information about the plan. Highlight the benefits, features, and what members will benefit. Make the description engaging and persuasive to appeal to your target audience.
Purchase Note: This optional field allows you to include a note or special instructions sent to customers after their purchase. The notes are included in the order receipt, allowing you to thank your member or share important information.
User Role: Assign a specific user role to manage members easily in this membership plan. Selecting the option to “Create a user role for this membership plan” automatically generates and assigns a unique role to new members, simplifying the organization of your subscribers.
Price: Set the subscription cost for this plan. Ensure the pricing reflects the value of your content or service while remaining attractive and competitive for your target audience.
This section is crucial for defining your membership plan and creating an appealing offer for your audience.
Subscription Settings Section
This section allows you to configure the operation of your subscription plan, including billing cycles, payment intervals, free trials, and signup fees.
Here’s a breakdown of the available options:
Billing Frequency: This option lets you determine how often members will be billed. Options include daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually, annually, or as a one-time payment. Choose the frequency that best suits your service and target audience.
Subscription Length: Decide whether the subscription will be ongoing or fixed term.
- Ongoing Subscriptions: Customers are billed continuously until they cancel, which is ideal for services designed for long-term use.
- Fixed-Term Subscriptions: Set a defined number of payments, such as a 12-month plan with monthly billing. This is great for structured programs with a clear start and end date.
Signup Fee: This option allows you to add a one-time fee when customers subscribe.
Free Trial: This option allows you to offer a trial period to let potential customers explore your services risk-free. Set the duration to 7, 14, or 30 days to give users enough time to experience the value of your offering, increasing the likelihood of converting them into paying subscribers.
The next section is the Downloads & Integration section, designed to sell digital products on your website.
Here, you can upload the product file linked to the membership, specify a download limit, and set an expiration date for downloads. For more details, refer to this guide on selling digital products on your website.
After finalizing your changes, click the Save Plan button to publish your membership plan.
Once published, a checkout link will be generated. You can seamlessly add it anywhere on your website and begin accepting sign-ups.
Additional membership plans can be created by following the same steps outlined above.
Step 4: Setting Up Payment Gateways
One of the best features of ProfilePress is its built-in functionality for managing subscription payments. To set up payments, navigate to ProfilePress → Settings and select the Payments tab.
Here, you can configure the basic currency options and adjust other settings to suit your needs. To set up payment gateways, click the Payment Methods link at the top to access the setup page.
ProfilePress supports multiple payment gateways, allowing you to securely accept membership payments through Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paystack, Direct Bank Transfer, and Mollie.
To start accepting payments, click on your preferred payment gateways and connect your accounts by entering the API keys or login credentials provided by each payment provider.
Once your payment methods are set up, click Save Changes to apply the changes and begin receiving payments.
Step 5: Creating Content Restrictions
It’s time to secure your premium content with a WordPress paywall. To set this up, go to ProfilePress → Content Protection and click the Add a Protection Rule button.
You should start by assigning a clear and descriptive name to your rule and then selecting the specific content you want to protect.
ProfilePress provides various options for setting access conditions, such as categories, tags, archives, formats, and more. You can customize these conditions using AND and OR rules to achieve precise control over access.
Next, define who can view the content. You can make it accessible to everyone or restrict it to logged-in or logged-out users.
Depending on your selection, additional settings will become available. You can associate the content protection rule with a specific membership plan or user role or manually grant access to selected usernames.
Next, decide how to manage unauthorized access. Options include displaying a custom message or redirecting users to another page. For instance, you could show a brief excerpt and a note explaining why full access is restricted and providing instructions for unlocking the content.
To customize the restriction message, click the Customization link below the drop-down menu.
After configuring the rule, click the Save Rule button on the right sidebar to apply your changes.
Any post published under a restricted category will display a prompt asking users without access to register to view the content.
In addition to this, ProfilePress also lets you set up a metered paywall for your paid membership site. This enables you to allow site visitors to view a limited number of protected content pieces before they are prompted to purchase a paid membership plan. To do this, you will need to enable the Metered Paywall addon by navigating to ProfilePress → Addons from the WordPress admin panel.
Once you’ve configured the rule, click the Save Rule button in the right sidebar to apply your changes.
From now on, any post published under a restricted category will prompt unauthorized users to register for access before viewing the content.
Additionally, ProfilePress allows you to implement a metered paywall for your membership site. This feature lets visitors access a limited number of protected content pieces before prompting them to purchase a paid membership plan.
Enabling the Metered Paywall on Your Paid Membership Site
To enable this feature, activate the Metered Paywall addon by going to ProfilePress → Addons in your WordPress admin panel.
Next, click the Settings button to open the configuration page.
Alternatively, you can access it by navigating to ProfilePress → Content Protection and selecting the Metered Paywall tab.
The first option, Reset Limitation, allows you to define the waiting period before restricted users can regain free access to protected content after reaching their limit. Depending on your preferences, you can set this reset duration in hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Next is the Restriction setting, where you can specify which post types and taxonomies users can view for free and the number of free views allowed per user. To link these content restrictions to specific membership plans, select the appropriate option within the restriction settings.
Use the Total Free Views field to set a universal cap on free views across all content and taxonomies. For additional security, enable the IP Blocker feature. This prevents users from bypassing the free view limit by tracking IP addresses and blocking access from private or incognito browsers.
In the Countdown Slide section, you can enable the Slidebox feature, which displays a customizable message, such as “2 posts remaining.” You can also configure the button text and link and include a login prompt to encourage users to subscribe.
Once all settings are configured, click Save Changes to apply them.
With your content restrictions and free view limits now in place, the next step is to add custom registration and login forms to your paid membership site.
Step 6: Designing Registration and Login Pages
A seamless user experience starts with creating well-designed pages. With ProfilePress, you can easily design custom login and registration forms for your paid membership site.
To get started, go to ProfilePress → Forms & Profiles and click the Add New button.
Choose the Drag & Drop Builder, assign a title to your registration form, and select Registration in the Form Type section.
Next, pick a pre-designed template and click Select Template to customize the registration form.
Use the drag-and-drop feature to add fields to your registration form, customizing it to suit your paid membership site. You can modify field labels and include custom fields as needed.
Once you’re satisfied with the form, click Save Changes to proceed. Copy the ProfilePress shortcode for your registration form to your clipboard.
Next, create a new registration page or open your default WordPress registration page, then paste the shortcode into a Shortcode block.
To create a login form, follow the same steps, but choose Login in the Form Type section.
After designing your custom login form, paste its shortcode on a new page or replace the existing default WordPress registration shortcode with it.
The final step is to specify which pages contain the ProfilePress shortcodes through the plugin’s settings.
To do this, go to ProfilePress → Settings, click the General tab, and then navigate to the Pages section.
From the Login Page dropdown menu, select the login page that includes the ProfilePress shortcode. Similarly, choose the registration page you created with the ProfilePress shortcode from the Registration Page dropdown menu.
Click Save Changes to apply the settings.
Additionally, ProfilePress supports social logins, providing an easy way for users to sign in.
Step 7: Create a Pricing Page & Add Your Membership Plans
With your membership plans ready, the next step is to set up a dedicated pricing page where potential customers can easily view and select the plan that best suits their needs.
Begin by designing a clear, user-friendly pricing page. This page should showcase the features and benefits of each plan, making it easier for customers to make an informed choice. If you need help, refer to this guide on how to create a pricing page.
Once your pricing page is ready, you can add your membership plans. In your WordPress dashboard, go to ProfilePress > Membership Plans and open the plans you’ve created.
The checkout link is in the right-hand corner of each plan’s details page. Copy this link and paste it into the appropriate section of your pricing page, ensuring that each plan links to its respective checkout page.
Below is an example of how our pricing page is structured.
After completing these steps, customers who click the link on your pricing page will be redirected to the checkout page for their chosen plan.
Conclusion
Creating a paid membership site with WordPress is not only an achievable goal but also a rewarding one for anyone looking to monetize their expertise and content.
With the right plugin, like ProfilePress, you can transform your WordPress site into a powerful membership platform that delivers value to your audience and generates recurring revenue for your business.
Now that you have a clear roadmap, it’s time to take action. Remember that success requires time and consistency, so remain committed to providing value, engaging with your members, and continuously refining your site.
Get ProfilePress and start building your paid membership site today!