Why WordPress Membership Sites Are The Perfect Delivery Mechanism For WSOs
Over the past few months, I’ve changed the way I deliver my Warrior Special Offers to buyers. I used to deliver them solely using Rapid Action Profits (which provided secured temporary download links – I still rate this solution highly), The move towards using Warrior+Plus made that option impossible. Instead, I’ve moved over to a WordPress membership solution.
I’m very happy with this, as it works out well for buyers, and for me, even though this adds a small extra stage to the buying process. In this post, I’m going to explain why I think this works, so that you can decide if delivering your WSOs through a membership is right for you.
Membership Pro – Familiar Interface For Marketers
Anything which makes it easier to set up a professional looking download page is a good thing. With WordPress, there’s no need to mess around HTML. Instead, this uses the professional interface that most of us are already familiar with. This makes getting the WSO ready for launch a breeze.
Membership Pro – Automated Buyer Email With Access Information
It also shocks me how many WSOs I buy where the owner never sends around a download link (or includes this in their initial emails). WordPress gets around this. When WordPress adds a new user, it’s very smart, and automatically emails around a username and password combination, along with a login link. This gives the WSO purchaser a permanent copy and access to their WSO.
Membership Pro – Download Link Protection
Having unprotected download links on the Internet is a dangerous thing. You’ll soon find people linking to these, and worst, often these end up indexed inside Google. A protected link, hidden from Google and shown only to those people who are logged in, is a better solution. What’s more, I’ve often seen the case where marketers end up moving (or removing) their unprotected links. With this solution, you can leave the download available forever.
Membership Pro – Advanced Structure Options
Want to spread your downloads over multiple pages? It’s easy with a WordPress membership. You get a consistent layout and all the pages can be kept private. This is particularly useful where WSOs are split into multiple sections, or maybe these include videos which are best each played on an individual page.
Membership Pro – Facilitation Of A Community
People like to be able to feedback and comment on a WSO. By setting up a WordPress based download system, you can use all the usual WordPress commenting functionality. Often, the kind of comments received from buyers can really help you to improve a product, as they will give you an idea of any areas that are unclear, and will also provide additional content. A community is an additional selling point for most WSO buyers. Beyond the pure comment functionality, you can also consider installing a forum inside WordPress – easy through a plugin.
Membership Pro – Easy For Buyers To Redownload Their Purchase
It’s inevitable that buyers will lose their downloads, may replace their computer, or may need access from another location. Since a membership site allows you to provide that content forever, at a known link, this is not going to be a problem for your purchaser. They don’t need to go through any complex support system.
Membership Pro – Buyers Don’t Need To Wait For Support
On the subject of support, one of the biggest difficulties of offering any kind of WSO is the need to provide support for customers (and prospective customers). This is unavoidable, as there will always be support problems, and they will usually arrive at the most inconvenient times when you can’t deal with them straight away (particularly from customers in different time zones for you). A membership option cuts down on one of the biggest support issues, the lost password. WordPress provides an automated and immediate method through which customers can reset their password, thus saving them frustration, and you an administrative nightmare.
Providing The Delivery
I use a simple WordPress design, which I’ve customised to include information pages, and affiliate support, along with the WP File Lock plugin. This interfaces with Warrior+Plus to provide buyers with their username and password on the screen after purchase (and via email). This is easy to set up, and I do recommend this low cost software solution for anyone looking for a way to deliver a secure WSO (this solution works for non-WSO delivery too).
Post Credits And Feedback
This is one of those posts that came from a discussion inside the Earn1KADay Insider Club (membership of which comes highly recommended). I provided a short overview of my thoughts inside Earn1KADay, but wanted to use this post to cover them in more detail. You can also see the reaction of other members within the Insider Club.
Of course, I’d like you to add your comments and thoughts to this post as usual, please. Do membership deliveries of WSOs work for you? How do you manage your WSO delivery process?
Just scroll down to the comment box, and I’ll look forward to reading what you have to say.
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Thom,
Your timing on this is perfect. I have a launch coming any day and had been piecing membership stuff together with different plug-ins. I was already pretty sold on the idea of using a membership (especially from your posts in Earn1kaDay), but this is a no-brainer, especially integrating WP File Lock. I'll grab that later today. Thanks for this info – very helpful.
Thanks Ed, yes WP File Lock is great. One feature I use all the time is that you can automatically add your buyer to a buyer's mailing list with it, which saves them the extra effort of filling in a form (and also gets around any difficulties with forced manual optin through PayPal).
If you ever release WSOs with a partner, this is valuable, as one of you can get the optin through WSO Pro, and the other through WP File Lock. A hidden benefit.
Thom
Hi Thom,
Great to read as always.
I have to say I have mixed feelings.
Looking from the buyer perspective, I want my product directly and not to have to work through a WP site to get it. Especially if it is a pdf report or similar. If it is a more complex product, a membership site can be very good to have.
However, from a seller point I think it is a great thing. Easy to get an overview and so. All your points above.
So, as always, I think you need some balance in this area too. Some "fingerspitzgefuhl" is always good.
—
Stefan
Thanks Stefan, yes I totally understand that view, and this can be overkill if all you want to do is to deliver a PDF, but let's face it, most people go much further than that.
I rarely release a WSO now without bonuses (even if these are just my previous products being added to deliver extra value), and when I release video products, I like to offer as many ways to download them as possible. Plus, I'm sure most marketers prefer to set up a whole download page, if only to put an affiliate link to another product which complements the one that the customer has just purchased.
Bringing up the overview subject, one thing I do like is being able to see my list of 'members' in the admin panel of WordPress. With gravatars installed, it's does give a very good overview of who has purchased (and if you have a visual brain, you'll recognise familiar faces there).
All fringe benefits, I know. But they add up.
Thom
Hey Thom,
Thanks for the informative post. I’m looking for a membership solution for WSO I will be launching by the end of the year.
Here is a question for you; Do you use Warrior Plus, Membership Pro and WP File Lock together? Or can I just use Warrior Plus and Membership Pro?
Chris
Hi Chris,
I don’t use Membership Pro – I’m not actually too sure what product that is. I just use Warrior+Plus and WP File Lock.
Jason Fladlien has a more advanced version of WP File Lock called WP Member Champ. I’ve never needed that advanced functionality, but it might be worth a look if you want to add content to the membership after people have joined.
Thom
Thom,
Great post! I’ve never tried a wordpress solution for anything other than personal blogging, but I love the availability of pluggins and all the helpful forums out there. I’m always looking for a more streamlined process.
I’d recommend using WordPress for most types of sites Robert, whether they’re for professional or personal use. You can play around with the look of the site so it doesn’t have to come across as a blog.
Anywhere you need a membership option, or people have to log in, WordPress has this built in, which is so much easier than the DIY route.
Thom
This is a great system for delivering downloads, Thom. Personally I don’t see there would be much problem for buyers to complete one more step in the process. I far prefer WordPress to other systems I’ve tried.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
I definitely prefer WordPress Mandy from the point of view of managing the whole process.
Interestingly enough, a lot more people are using WordPress now then when I wrote this post. I can’t remember the last time someone moaned about the use of WordPress in this way, so it’s definitely becoming more acceptable (and it’s cut down on the support requests).
Thom
Thanks Thom, I’ve been looking for something like this, not necessarily for WSos though, will check it out!