Membership Site Scripts
Have you ever considered running a membership site? Let me tell you more about my personal experiences with these…
As you may know I currently have 3 active membership sites online:
These were all created this spring after I read Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript…
After sending out the last blog post announcement, I received several emails from subscribers who were concerned that Mike’s manuscript only applies to his Butterfly Marketing membership software. The reason for their concern being that this is quite an expensive package to invest in.
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First of all there are quite a few membership site scripts available and many of them are open source software - aka they are 100% free to use. If you have your own site, just check the scripts which are available to you through your domain’s control panel (CPanel). They’re not always called membership scripts - if you cannot find anything under that name check out the content management section!
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Secondly Mike’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript contains marketing techniques which apply to any kind of membership site. As a matter of fact, the first site I created was NOT with Mike’s software. But I was certainly inspired by his manuscript to get started and apply his strategies.
At this point I have tried out 2 different membership site scripts. And had a good look at a 3rd which I’d quite like to try out. I’ll explain more about these scripts and what makes them unique below…
Profile Manager
Profile Manager was probably developed for dating sites first - that was at least the impression I got from the default templates that come with the script.
It’s a Perl script developed by ‘Atank’ from www.interlogy.com and it comes in a free version and a paid version (single domain license).
I use the paid version of Profile Manager for the Thin Electrons website. This version allows you to integrate a subscription payment system with various membership levels and it also has a private messenger function (which I’m currently not using on the site…). You can create automatic upgrading options using paypal, clickbank, 2checkout, stormpay and a couple others.
Profile Manager also offers a free version which is otherwise completely functional and I used this version to create a membership site for mind mapping.
From what I’ve figured out about membership scripts so far, you’ll be particularly interested in using Profile Manager if you are also a keen user of Instant Software Builder or Make Your Own Software…
Why?
Because there is a lot of resemblence with these software compilers in the way you create special forms and features for your membership site. A lot of the software you may have created so far, can be easily created as on-line versions for a membership site without needing to make big alterations.
I’ve made heavy use of this special programming feature at Mapping Your Mind which is set up as an interactive educational site. Every lesson in here comes with a form which responds to the input of the user.
And what makes it better than any software version: the data is stored! Isn’t this one of the most frequently asked new features for ISB?!
I’m very fond of Profile Manager and can whole-heartedly recommend it as a top level script. The support is also very good - about the best you can get on the net…
Butterfly Marketing Script
I use Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing membership software on Programmer Secrets Revealed. It’s a paid version only but you do get a license to install it on an unlimited number of domains.
This PHP script is very obviously designed for marketers, so all the marketing strategies like making one time offers, cross-sells, back-end sells, and running an affiliate program are all included by default. The script has integration options with Paypal, 2CheckOut and ClickBank.
You can specify different commission levels, have a separate section for JV partners and run affiliate competitions. You can also customize the script to award referrals with free upgrades. You will not find any of this in other membership scripts that I know of…
It was totally designed for making profits with your membership site in the easiest and most automated way. And this comes with a price tag…
On the other hand, you basically get premium access to about all of Mike’s sites and products when you purchase this script. Which are a LOT! The total value of these memberships is about triple the price of what you pay for the script in the first place, so you do get value for price. And I haven’t even mentioned the CD set and other bonuses…
The reason for this is that it will allow you to educate yourself on all of the site models and sales strategies Mike has implemented online. All of the stuff he describes in his Butterfly Marketing Manuscript (which price is going to be raised with $100 tomorrow btw!).
Are You Cut Out to Run a Membership Site?
First you need to determine for yourself if running a membership site is what you want to do. Some of the advantages of such a site include easy listbuilding and follow up offers. Members are less likely to delete their account then subscribers are inclined to delete subscriptions. More so if you continue to add fresh content and benefits to the site. Or create a site which offers more than just downloads so they have to come back time and time again to use your service…
Secondly you need to determine if you are capable or setting it up by yourself. All of these scripts require some insight in working with HTML. They aren’t too difficult to figure out, but they do have a learning curve. I have no idea what your webmaster skills are, but you need to be aware of the fact it’s not simply a plug & play thing. If you cannot manage this, you can always consider hiring somebody to do it for you.
In any case running a perfect membership site is no good if you don’t get any members. So some way or another you will have to put some effort into promoting your site - just the same as with regular websites, blogs, forums etc. And that is what Mike’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript is about and why it applies to all membership site scripts around.
I hope this was helpful in shedding some more light on membership site scripts.
All the best,
Patricia
P.S.
On Tuesday 15th of August Mike’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript will go from $97 to $197 a copy. You better grab a copy right now as this book is really worth it!