It’s always fun to see companies that REALLY get into the Holiday spirit…

… Especially when they give stuff away — and the WishList Member team is doing just that for all their WishList Member customers, new AND old.

Anyone who buys WishList Member before Dec. 31st, 2011 will get a whole bunch of extra gifts (valued at $400+) at no extra charge.

This gift package includes:

1) 1000+ Custom Drawn Icons
2) Custom Membership Site Graphics
3) Our Top 3 Kick-Butt Plugins
4) 3-Module Membership Site Basics Course

It’s an awesome package and people are loving it.

…BUT…

This gift package is only available for those who purchase BEFORE December 31st, 2011 @ 11pm PST.

So, if you are planning to start a membership site in 2012, this is the time to pick up the RIGHT software for the job… WishList Member.

Cheers,

P.S. WishList Member is what I use to run my own membership site on Affiliate Blogger PRO.

I was plugging away today at building content for my new membership site (the mulitmedia version of the Super Affiliate Handbook) when I stopped long enough to read an email from Stu McLaren.

The email pointed me to a video about the top 10 membership models created using Wishlist Member — software that you can use on a WordPress blog to turn it into a membership site.

One of the membership models that Stu mentions in the video was one I hadn’t thought of before – but it’s brilliant – and now that’s what I want to do with the site.

Too, some of the models that he talks about in the video you wouldn’t normally consider a “membership site”. However, once you hear how they are setup, you’re going to get a lot of ideas for how you can use it in your business.

Each of the models discussed in the video also includes a real-world
example of a web site using these models — along with the URL, so you can check them out first-hand.

Watch the membership model video and check out these sites. Stu also gives you a link to see some how-to videos. If you decide to optin, you’ll also see comments from other people who’ve created similar sites. They’ve even added their own “twist” to the “Top 10″.

Check out the videos for really great blogging / membership site ideas.

Too, the first 5 readers to leave a comment correctly naming the model I’ve chosen, will win a free membership to the new site. (I anticipate it will launch in January).

Comments are now closed and the winners have been announced here.

With all my affiliate site posts queued up for the next 2 months and some time on my hands this weekend, I decided to get to work making the Super Affiliate Handbook available as an online tutorial, through a membership site.

My primary concern was how to set up a membership site easily.

Gail and I use Amember on PrivateLabelCentral.com. The setup is relatively simple for someone who has worked through installation directions more than a few times, but I did manage to mess things up with some bad file permissions that required another intervention by my favorite geek and host master extraordinaire, Steve Hetrick. The temporary downtime aside, I am quite happy with Amember.

However, I recalled reading that there might be a plugin available that could turn a WordPress blog into a membership site.

What could be more perfect, especially since the main focus of the tutorials is affiliate blogging.

My search brought Wishlist Member to the top of the results.

Per the sales page, the list of features include:

• Unlimited Membership Levels
• Simple Installation With New or Existing WordPress Blog
• Flexible Membership Options
• Sequential Content Delivery
• Control Viewed Content
• Shopping Cart Integration
• Easy Member Management
• Multi-Level Access
• Total Content Protection
• Secure RSS Feeds
• Subscription Length Control
• Login Redirection
• Create Your Membership Site Using WordPress & WL Member
• “Sneak Peak” Content Display
• Custom Error Pages
• Partial Content Display

On confirming that Wishlist Member could be integrated with my shopping cart of choice (Clickbank) and my Aweber autoresponder, I decided that it was worth a try. Note: Wishlist Member also integrates with 1ShoppingCart, PayPal, Cydec, Autoresponseplus and GetResponse and generic systems.

The single licence version of Wishlist Member is $97 and the multiple licence version is $297. With a 30-day refund policy, I opted to buy the multiple licence version – realizing that if the plugin worked as well as promised, I would definitely want to use it on other blogs.

My experience with Wishlist Member

After buying Wishlist Member, I purchased a new domain, set up hosting, did a 1-minute WordPress installation, uploaded the plugin, installed the theme that came with the plugin… and was off to the races.

Within 30 minutes, I’d watched a few of the tutorial videos, set up 8 modules using Pages (you can restrict member access by post, page, categories and comments) , a sequential upgrade that drips content over time and input some articles. By the way, the video tutorials are accessible without having to purchase the product.

The video below shows the results of those 30-minutes, as well as how membership content is protected, even when someone is smart enough to figure out the URL of a higher-level module.

If you’d like to view a larger sized video, it’s available on YouTube.

The only thing that would make Wishlist Member absolutely perfect, is if it could be integrated with the more popular forum software, such as phpBB or vBulletin. I haven’t heard that this is planned, but with all the other features that were integrated after user suggestions were submitted, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that option turn up at some point — or at least, I’m fervently hoping it will — Are ya listening, Stu?

Other than that,  Wishlist Member is a GREAT choice for bloggers who want to set up their own membership sites, especially in terms of ease of set up and price.

Wishlist Member gets a 2 big thumbs up from me and my HIGHEST recommendation.