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Jonanthan and I will redo this episode. It is the first of four parts on social media.

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WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the brightest minds in WordPress development and online marketing.

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In this episode Jonathan  gives his recommendation to me for New Media Gold's membership plugin and it is Restrict Content Pro, a Premium Memberships for WordPress.

Here our full article on all seven membership plugins!

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We have a difficult decision here. You have seven really good WordPress membership plugins solutions that will all do an excellent job for you—no real dogs here!

However, if you have a gateway provider that you have or want to use, you need to be careful connected to what plugin you choose. If your gateway provider is not PayPal or Strip, you need to check and make sure that your membership plugin supports this provider. There are two on our list that provide the most flexibility connected to gateway choices:

Magic Members

WishListMember

If you are building a membership website yourself and it will have a need for some detailed functionality for upselling/downselling or concurrent accounts, but you are not in need for a particular gateway provider, I would look at these three plugins:

MemberPress

Magic Members

iThemes Exchange/Membership

If you are looking to build a simple membership site yourself and cost is a consideration, I would look at these three.

Paid Membership Pro

Restrict Content Pro

iThemes Exchange/Membership

If you are looking for membership that integrates into eCommerce, I would look at these two:

iThemes Exchange/Membership:

WooCommerce/Groups

Overall Winners

For a powerful membership plugin that has great general functionality and flexibility, you can’t really go wrong with iThemes Exchange/Membership. However it’s not cheap and you really will be committing yourself to the iThemes (i.e. you probably will get your theme and all the other additional micro plugins from them).

If you’re just looking for a cheap, well coded and supported, basic membership WordPress plugin, I don’t personally feel you can go wrong with Paid Membership Pro.

Restrict Content Pro is a complete membership and premium content manager plugin for WordPress. It creates an unlimited number of memberships levels, including free, trial and premium. We will be able to manage members and their subscriptions, track payments, offer discounts with a complete discount code system, and provide premium, members-only content to your subscribers.
Before Jonathan disclosed his choice we went over the following plugins:

WishList Members

Membership Press

Magic Members

Restrict Content Pro  New Media Gold choice by Jonathan.

Digital Access Pro

S2Membership

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I am going to start putting in this blog, the RSS feeds of some of the podcast that we produce. Late Sunday night we release WP-Tonic which is a WordPress tech show hosted by Jonathan Denwood and me. You should like it and I  hope you get a lot out of it! In episode 26 is part 3 of a 5 part series on wordpress membership sites.

Here is the iTune Link: 026 WP-Tonic: Membership Sites Part 3

In this episode, we dive into WooCommerce and Groups for WooCommerce and WP Courseware. For detailed show notes head on over to WP-Tonic. Jonathan has a great blog and the show notes are in more detail.  V/r Bill

Thank you for following New Media Gold and WP-Tonic. 

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Episode 2

MemberPress: This plugin has limited gateway integration with the standard version. However the developer has more choices but compared to some of the over membership plugins on this list the choices its still slightly limiting.

However it’s a very powerful and flexible plugin with an excellent stylish and easy to use interface with great coupon functionality with also inbuilt great reporting functionality that’s built into the core of the plugin.

I personally have never used this plugin myself connected to a client projects but it looks excellent plugin with a number of powerful key features that some of the other plugins don't offer, an example of this is that it has an affiliate program inbuilt to the plugin.

Prices: Business Edition $99 or Developer pack at $199 per year.

https://www.memberpress.com

Magic Members: This plugin supports loads of different payment gateways it’s difficult to find a gateway that the plugin doesn't support and it probably is easier to list the ones it doesn't support.

It also has loads of functionality with great general and video training support materials. This plugin is really powerful with a number of key features that some of the other plugins don't have. Its interface is very impressive and its also very easy to use for both developers and owners.

Prices: Single $97, (3 User pack $197) or Unlimited $207 support is paid yearly.

http://www.magicmembers.com/pricing

WishListMember: This plugin integrates with a number of payment gateways however not as many as Magic Members but almost also is one of the oldest membership WordPress plugins on the market at the present moment. Its very well documented and the support are generally quite good.

I have used this plugin on a couple of client jobs over the past 18 months. However I personally don't like it as much as couple of other membership plugins I have used this is mostly because it has a lot of screens choices that take what a bit of time to learn and use effectually. Some of the other plugins use a more simper central plugin and then give you the choice to add to the core functionality by using micro plugins.

One of the jobs I had to do with this plugin was to integrate it into a forum that was using a popular third-party forum WordPress plugin. it did worked however the client found it quite hard to administrate the site connected to all the options that the WishList  has to offer.

I personal found the documentation and general support okay but not amazing.

I personally just feel that now there are number of better WordPress solutions available. Nevertheless its still a quality membership plugin that a lot of third party additional WordPress plugins that work with it so in some situation you have no choice but to use it. Also the multisite license is quite expensive compared to some of the other excellent membership plugins available.

Prices: Single site $97 and Multi-site license $297

http://member.wishlistproducts.com/#options

iThemes Exchange/Membership:

This really looks like a very impressive membership plugin that also gives you also E-Commerce functionality of iThemes of Exchange. Here’s a list of it key functionality.

·      Sell paid (or free) membership access to your WordPress site

·      Protect content based on membership

·      Add multiple membership products

·      Delay (drip) individual content items based on membership

·      Add members-only digital downloads

·      Assign membership hierarchies for membership product tiers (parent and child memberships)

I personally have never used this either Exchange or it micro plugin Membership however buy what I have read on a number of independent review websites it does look like a great plugin membership system. However it doesn’t support a large number of payment gateways compared to couple of the other plugins. Also it has a number of micro additional plugins that are quite expensive.

Price:   2 sites $97, unlimited sites $150 Pro Pack all Exchange add-ons $197

https://ithemes.com/exchange

There must be over 25 WordPress membership plugins available at the present moment .So how does a developer or owner choose the right one for a particular project? Here a main list of three key points that you must make a judgment call on. I will also list a further list of eight key points that are more focused connected to particular needs that you might have connected to choosing the right membership plugin for your project.

1. How easy is the plugin to use on day-to-day basics?
2. How good is the support and training materials?
3. How easy is it to learn
4. Payment Gateway Diversity
5. E-Commerce Support
6. Ease Of Use
7. Sequential Delivery/drip content
8. Concurrent Accounts/multiple accounts like for office that has 3 to 20 seats
9. Upsell/Down-sells
10. Prorating Charges

I will give much more information on these 10 key points in our first of serious of four podcasts we doing on WP-Tonic on WordPress and membership plugins in 2015.

1. It’s not a given that they’ll create a directory of members
2. It’s not a given that they’ll create a special page for each user
3. It’s not a given that they’ll have an import feature for your 2MM members
4. It’s not a given that they’ll integrate with your payment gateway
5. It’s not a given that they’ll support pro-rating or pausing of a membership
6. It’s not a given that they’ll also provide event management
7. It’s not a given that they’ll also support a downloads area

Also the end of this post I will give some advice on what I think are the best membership plugins for different scenarios and an I will choose a couple of from the list of seven that I feel are over winners

Has a limited number of payment getaways that it works with. However, it has a number of free and paid for micro plugins that really extend the functionality of the product and gateways. But, even with the micro plugins it still has limited functionality compared to some of the other plugins we will be looking at in this list. However, if you looking for a rock solid solution with great support plus it has a large user community you can't really go wrong with this plugin.

Also if you are a bit of coder the plugin offers a large list of hooks and filter that allow you to do some amazing stuff with the plugin.

I've used this plugin on a number of personal and client projects and I found it to be flexible and powerful. On the free plugin the documentation is limited but the company does its best to support the plugin on WordPress.org plugin forums and in truth if you using it on a semi basic membership website you really shouldn't need that much support because the setup and key functionality are very easy to use compared to some other plugins we will be looking at on this list.

Prices Free but support is $97 per year.

http://www.paidmembershipspro.com/add-ons

Has limited number of gateway integration options connected to the standard plugin. However, you can buy a number of micro plugin extensions that increase the choices connected to getaway but do keep in mind its a similar situation as Paid Membership Pro; even with this micro plugins the number of gateway providers is still limited compared to some of the other plugins in this review.

You only pay a yearly subscription on connected to the micro plugin extensions. This plugin comes from one of the most respected WordPress coding shops and from a really respected chief developer Pippin Williams who has published over a 100 WordPress plugins.

Personally I've used this plugin on a couple of client's websites and it has been rock solid. Basically it’s a really well coded plugin that has some excellent extensive documentation.

Prices: Single $42, 2 to 5 site $86, unlimited $132.

https://pippinsplugins.com/products/restrict-content-pro

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WordPress Frameworks Unfinished Business.

WooThemes: Canvas  version 6 is coming out in the next six months of 2015 only about 6 of the present themes are fully responsive.

How to upgrade from Canvas 5 to 6 is still binging worked out by WooThemes. However it might not be possible to upgrade from older themes.

iThemes: Builder Framework. https://ithemes.com/purchase/builder-theme/

Facts 

1) 90 themes not all of them are responsive.

2) a visual builder 

3) Builder seems to be a theme/plugin/ hybrid.

Prices 

Foundation series 5 theme fully responsive pack for $80.

All 90 themes however many of these themes are not responsive 

Elegant Themes: http://www.elegantthemes.com/

Divi 2.0 Theme/Framework hybrid 

This is a new version of Divi 2.0 and has an visual editor inbuilt into the theme.

Price you can get Divi and 87 other older type themes for $69. 

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Shane Melaugh is the owner of imimpact.com. Here is his story:

He quit school because he couldn’t face doing something he wasn’t passionate about any longer. He decided to stop forcing it and left to create my own company

He co-founded SECockpit with Sam Hänni. We took the product from zero to a 7 figure revenue mark in just 15 months.

He created a product called Backlink Battleplan in 2010 that did over 2,000 sales and brought in over 6 figures revenue – this was my first real successful product in the internet marketing niche.

He is founder of Thrive Themes, a company that produces conversion-focused WordPress themes.

He is the creator of several software products including Viral Quiz Builder, WP Sharely andHybrid Connect

He also sell a number of information products, including Video Marketing Blueprint, Focus & Action and Webinar Eclipse.

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Brent started creating websites around 15 years of age and never stopped. Brent spent the first 12 years of his professional career growing HotPress Web into one of the most successful website agencies in Denver. He worked with some of the top businesses and non-profits in the state creating websites and online marketing campaigns.