100+ Top Resources for Creating A Paid Membership Website At Your Fingertips

Offering paid content is an excellent way to monetize your website. Whether you’re creating premium blog content or writing e-books, there are loads of resources out there designed to help. We’ve compiled over 100 of the best here.

Why Premium Content?

Check out these resources that define exactly why you should consider creating a paid membership portion of your site.

1. Why Having a Paid Membership Web Site is Important: Learn why paid memberships are the way to go in this article.
2. The Truth About Membership Sites: Learn about some common pitfalls in this blog post.
3. 3 Membership Site Ideas: Get inspiration for your membership site project.

How to Make it Work

Find out how to create a premium content site with these resources.

4. How to Make Money Using Niche Content: Learn how you can profit from online content in this article.
5. How To Start a Profitable New Membership Site, Step by Step: Use these successful methods to create a profitable membership site.
6. Starting a Paid Membership Site: The Affiliate Blog has some helpful tips for starting your own paid membership site.
7. Membership Website Handbook: This resource is loaded with ideas and strategies for membership websites.
8. The 12 Most Important Things to Consider When Starting an Online Magazine or Membership Website: Build your paid membership site well from the very beginning, and you’ll reap the rewards later on.
9. Using Job Boards to Monetize Your Website: Read this article to learn how to leverage the paid membership model for a job board website.
10. 25 Things to Consider to Start a Paid Membership Website: This free Kindle eBook includes some useful hints.
11. How to Create Your Own Paid Memberships Website: This article breaks the process down into five simple steps.

Content Tools

The first step in premium content is creating it. Use these tools and resources for content generation.

12. Google Groups: Search through Google Groups discussions in your topics to see what issues people are interested in hearing about.
13. Trade Shows or Industry Conferences Are a Great Source of Content: Read this article to find out how to generate content from these offline sources.
14. Craigslist: Check out the jobs, services, and discussion sections to see what people are looking for in your area (and beyond).
15. A Simple Four Step Strategy for Developing Content That Connects: Learn how to engage your audience in your paid membership content so they’ll keep coming back.
16. No Cost Copywriting Lesson From a Wildly Successful Membership Website Publisher: Read this article to brush up on your copywriting skills for better sales and subscriptions.
17. Hubspot Guide to Copywriting: A free download on copywriting, aimed at marketers.
18. Seven Rules About Writing for a Membership Website: Learn how to write for your membership website by reading this article.
19. 17 Unique Places to Find Great Content to Share: Use these resources to generate your own ideas, topics and themes.
20. Trends24: Get ideas for posts through current topics on Twitter.
21. StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon’s index offers lots of great ideas, particularly if you’re focused on humor.
22. Wikipedia: Wikipedia is great for research, but you can check out the discussions in selected topics for inspiration as well.
23. Fark: Check out Fark for insipiration from stories you won’t find on more mainstream news sites.
24. Google Trends: Track the popularity of any search term over time, and find trending stories to trigger content ideas.
25. Delicious: Delicious’ tag pages are full of links to pages that people have bookmarked, which can lead you in the right direction to finding interesting things to write about.
26. Yahoo! Answers: Find out what mainstream Internet users want to learn about by checking out their questions.
27. Quora: Get ideas for content based on any niche, with expert answers and discussion on most topics.
28. Can WordPress Autoblogging Plugins Be Used For Content Curation?: A case study on autoblogging, which can help to trigger new ideas from existing content.
29. Tumblr Trending: Find out what themes are popular on the Tumblr network.
30. The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas: Use this Digital Marketer guide to inspire your next batch of content.

Distribution Tools and Tips

Use these tools to serve your content to members.

31. Subscription DNA: Use this service to automate your membership and subscription process.
32. Paid Memberships Pro: Lock down content on WordPress and distribute it only to paying subscribers.
33. PostNuke: This open source content management system makes it easy to assign users to groups.
34. Limelight Networks: Use Limelight Networks to deliver broadband video to members.
35. E-Mango: A membership platform for businesses.
36. Kajabi: Try distributing content as an online course.
37. Memberful: Create a WordPress, bbPress, Squarespace or Discourse membership site.
38. 12 Tips for Better Content Distribution: Reuse and diversify your content with these tips, so you can distribute it more widely.

Money

When it comes to paid sites, it’s all about the money. Get your finances organized and add even more monetization to your site with these tools.

39. Adding Checks to Your Payment Options Can Increase Membership: Learn why expanding payment options can earn you more money in this article.
40. NetBilling: NetBilling has an easy to use payment system for membership site owners.
41. Google AdSense and Membership Websites: Check out this video to learn how to make more money from your membership site using Google’s AdSense.
42. 33 Ways to Monetize Your Website: Work through this list to find monetization opportunities for your site.
43. Udemy Teach: Turn your niche knowledge into an online exam, and get paid when people take it.

Selling

Learn how to sell your premium content with these resources.

44. The Blogger’s Guide to Indirect Selling: Read this guide to learn how to push your subscriptions without seeming pushy.
45. How to Create Ebooks That Sell: Make sure that what you’re writing will be profitable by following this guide.
46. 10 Steps to a Viral Tutorial That Sells: Learn how to write a tutorial that sells your content.
47. How to Write Content that Sells: Learn how to focus your content and improve its quality.
48. Ways to Make a Good First Impression: This article will teach you how to make a good impression with your site in 6 easy steps.
49. 3 Coercive Copywriting Techniques: Use these techniques to convince readers to buy your subscriptions.
50. Don’t Sell…Teach: Build relationships with readers to sell your memberships.
51. How to Get Past the “Don’t Buy” Button: Eliminate obstacles to membership purchases using this advice.
52. The Structure of Persuasive Copy: Follow this structure when writing copy to sell your memberships.
53. Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques: With these techniques, you can sell your memberships through writing.
54. How to Write Blog Posts that Sell: Pick up key copywriting techniques to improve your content and structure.
55. Available for a Limited Time Only: Learn why scarcity sells in this article from Copyblogger.
56. You Must Respect My Authority: Convey a sense of authority, and you’ll sell more memberships.

Renewals

Keep your paid membership site going strong by keeping renewals up. These resources can help.

57. When Customers are Members: Customer Retention in Paid Membership Contexts: Keep your customers from lapsing by reading this article.
58. Subscription Strategies to Increase Renewal Rates: Here are 6 simple ways to increase the likelihood of a renewal.

Alternative Content

It can be difficult to keep loads of original content flowing. Use these resources to generate alternative content for your site.

59. Tips for Increasing Subscription Website Discussion Forum Participation: Get your users to come back over and over again by fostering active forums. Find tips on how to do exactly that in this article.
60. Google Alerts: Set up automated alerts to deliver fresh content ideas to your inbox.
61. Keyhole.co: Track social media hashtags in real time to find new discussion topics.
62. Content Idea Generator: Use this generator to create titles based on keywords.
63. BuzzSumo: Find the most popular content on the web, and who the influencers are in any sector. Paid, with free trial available.
64. I am OnDemand: Search by keyword to find content inspiration in your niche.

User Friendliness

If your site’s frustrating, you can guarantee that no one will buy a membership. Use these resources to make it easy to navigate and use.

65. How to Format Attractive, Easy-to-Read, Printer-Friendly Pages: Make your content easy to read and print by following this article’s advice.
66. Readability Rules for Subscription Websites: Learn how to keep your content easy to read with this article.
67. Designing Content Intensive Websites: Learn what designs and layouts work for content in this article.
68. Optimizing the User Experience: Excerpts from a Government Report: Read this article to find out how to make your site a better experience for your members.

Platforms

These platforms and plugins offer all-in-one solutions for delivering paid membership websites.

69. Simple Membership: Simple Membership is a WordPress plugin that lets you offer paid content with teaser excerpts.
70. Paid Memberships Pro: Another WordPress plugin that can be integrated with 2Checkout, PayPal, Stripe and other payment gateways.
71. WooCommerce: This well-known plugin suite has a number of subscription modules for WordPress, including a Subscriptions extension and a Gateway extension.
72. MagicMembers: MagicMembers is a WordPress plugin that lets people pay per post or subscribe.
73. MemberPress: A WordPress plugin that lets you create members, take payments, and sell subscriptions. You can also discount content using promo codes.
74. Joomla! Paid Memberships and Subscriptions Plugins: Find dozens of paid subscription plugins for Joomla! on this page.
75. Membersify: Membersify is a paid memberships module that can be used on a Drupal website.
76. Subscriptions and Recurring Payments For Magento: Purchase this Magento extension to offer recurring payments
77. SubHub: SubHub offers solutions for paid content businesses.
78. aMember: This PHP script has integrated payment systems and full management of membership and subscriptions.
79. EasyMember Pro: Software that can help you create a membership site, with free trial available.
80. Multi Membership Site: This premium (paid) PHP script offers comprehensive features to help you create and manage a membership site.

Attraction

Attract subscribers with authority, traffic, and more by using these resources.

80. How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day: Read this article to learn how you can get a massive influx of subscribers.
81. Simple SEO for Paid Membership Sites: This article offers advice on how to write your site for search engine optimization and easy user identification.
82. 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers: Learn why valuing subscribers is essential to attracting them.
83. The Return of Tutorial Marketing?: Learn why offering tutorials as a subscription can help you market yourself.
84. How to Overcome Skepticism: This article details how you can make buyers trust you.
85. The Two Types of Tutorial Marketing: Learn the difference between attraction tutorials and selling tutorials here.
86. Do Neatness and Order Add to the Credibility of Membership Websites?: Find out if your authority can grow by creating a neater, more ordered website.
87. Getting Free Publicity: Read this article to find out how to generate free publicity for your new business.
88. How Co-Registration Can Build Your Fan Club Fast: Get your members to recruit for you using this technique.
89. 101 Simple Tips to Increase Website Traffic: Increase traffic to your paid membership site using these hints.
90. Using Social Media Marketing to Promote Your Website: Read this article to expand your audience using docial media.
91. Four Simple Steps to More Blog Subscribers: Take these steps to attract more blog subscribers.
92. 6 Steps to Getting Your First 100 Subscribers: How to create a new subscriber list from scratch.

Blogs

Check out these blogs for ongoing ideas and support for paid membership sites.

93. Copyblogger: Copyblogger offers lots of advice on writing for the web.
94. Problogger: Problogger’s Darren Rowse offers lots of information about monetizing your online content.
95. Moz: For all things related to inbound marketing, visit Moz.com.
96. QuickSprout: Neil Patel writes lots of useful content on internet marketing and optimization.
97. KissMetrics: The KissMetrics blog is packed with detailed, free marketing guides.

More Resources

These resources offer even more insight for premium content websites.

98. Seniors Lead Online Growth and Create Opportunities for Premium Information Sites: Read this article to find out what you can offer to the growing senior demographic.
99. 47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog: Build trust with your subscribers using these tips.
100. Stop Thief! How You Can Fight Back Against Online Plagiarism: Get back at content thieves who undermine your sales using these tactics.
101. What is Your Membership Website Passion: to Lead or to be Led?: Define what your site’s passion is all about with this article.
102. Start a Paid Membership Site: Learn how to build an exclusive club using this book.