Hi everyone, I am very interested in setting up a paying membership site with wordpress that would automate the process of receiving payments from members who sign up and are directed to the log in after payment through places like paypal.

Has anyone done this that could lead me in the right direction on how to set this thing up? Or tell me the possible ways to set it up. I am thinking about purchasing Amembers system: http://www.amember.com/

It says it works with Wordpress but I still am not sure how to set it up. Is there any free solutions to try first?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

You can use amember with WordPress to set up a membership site. There are some plugins that work directly with WordPress too. I recently used WishList Member for a client's site and for the most part it's worked well. We've been having a small problem with people canceling membership through PayPal and still having access to the member content. The support team at WishList Member has been helping us solve the problem and they've been good in general. The plugin costs $97, but it's a one time fee.

There are other plugins that will also help you set up a membership site. You can search the WordPress Plugin Repository and any search engine.

Here are a few other plugins I found when I was searching

Members Only
WP Member
Memberwing
WordPress Membership Plugin
WP Membership

I can't tell you much more about the plugins above since I didn't use any.

I think using amember will give you more options and features than some of the plugins since it can extend beyond WordPress if you use other applications or generic html on other parts of your site. You may also want to think about something to manage a mailing list as well.

If you search for 'how to build a membership site' or similar there are a variety of posts out there, some specifically about WordPress and some about using another solution.

Thanks for your help. I have heard of wishlist also. I am going to check out those plugins. Thanks

damit, you gave me so many options, I don't know which one to try now.

I know how you feel. I looked through all of those plugins and several looked good. I can't remember exactly why I chose WishList Member. I think it had the most features for the money and seemed to be the most mature of the plugins when I was looking.

MemberWing was designed from the ground up for SEO ranking. Most other softwares plugged in bunch of features and locked in your site from visitors and google alike, leaving you with zero ranking ability.
MemberWing lets you to have free teasers for premium content as well which allows you to rank and drive organic traffic from search engines.
And it's very simple to do - just insert marker: {+++} after free teaser and this will automagically creates premium article with free teaser and premium content. Most other plugins require you to jerk with admin panels and settings before you can make your site operational.

Additionally to that MemberWing has capability to digitally watermark your premium content (TraceFusion). In case one of your members leaks your hard working digital creatives to torrent sites (ever heard of "group buys"?) - you can track it back down to exact member who does it and terminate him immediately.
None of other plugins has this capability.

Gleb

Gleb I take it you have something to do with the creation of MemberWing. It looked like a good plugin to me. I can't remember why my client ultimately chose WishList Member. I know MemberWing was one of the final choices though.

Yup, I built it

Gleb

I had a feeling and figured it was only fair to mention that. Memberwing does look like a good plugin though. Perhaps I'll use it for the next membership site I build.

I recommend using Wordpress and aMember, not because it's easy (it's not!) but because I know it works for pretty much anything you're trying to achieve with a membership site, and it's not just restricted to Wordpress - you could have the Wordpress part and then you could also protect individual folders (e.g. to store video files).

How you go about doing it though is up to you - if you can do the technical side yourself then just google "how to set up a membership site using Wordpress and aMember" and you should be fine.