WordPress Membership Sites: Owning Your Online Space

Should you create a logged in member area on your site? Are you currently running courses or creating communities on third-party platforms?

Owning and controlling your communication channels, and your customer’s online brand experience, is more important than ever.

It’s becoming clear that bringing your audience to your own site, where you have full control, is a better decision for both your business and your customer’s experience.

Most of us know there are now more and easier tools than ever for creating logged-in experiences with WordPress.

When I mention building a membership site or online community, though, many clients pull back worried it means spending their days putting out flame wars and political debates, or worse.

Thankfully, that is not the case, you do not need to create a forum, and I would argue most of our customers are not looking for that kind of experience anyway.

So Why Build Your Own Community?

Social media and third-party platforms can be frustrating and sometimes actually counterproductive, and not just in terms of hours and dollars wasted.

Many people have realized this the hard way.

• Facebook’s algorithms and its pay-to-reach model have left many businesses feeling invisible and disillusioned.

• Online marketplaces, such as Etsy, are not just blurring your brand (“I bought it from Etsy” rather than they bought it from you), but they are increasingly getting a reputation for user hostile behaviour, closing and banning stores without any explaination or recourse.
• When your students go from your online course to your website to read your articles, does your website treat them differently to regular visitors?

At the same time, if you need specific and actionable help with something, turning to niche communities often produces the best, and least biased results, without all the algorithm-feeding “Hit the bell, like and subscribe” fluff.

• Generative AI tools are filling online spaces with fake discussions and regurgitated advice, rather than actual insights gained from first-hand experiences.
• Even Google is more and more favouring online communities, such as Reddit, Quora, and smaller branded forums, for surfacing user-generated answers.

The Frustration with Social Media Has Been Years in the Making

Forrester reported almost ten years ago that many big companies were totally disenfranchised with social media:

For years, businesses attempted to convert social media followers into customers directly, but this approach often failed because an organic Facebook ‘like’ does not equate to a ready-to-buy customer.

Shallow and ubiquitous interactions might keep you top of mind but they do not produce the kind of real engagement necessary for conversion.

It turns out, not all “social media influencers” are influential.

While email is significantly more effective (reportedly 40 times better) at converting sales compared to social media, we are seeing even that channel’s reach being curtailed due to privacy controls, spam, and waning interest in the medium.

This is why many people are now shifting their focus to branded communities.

These communities drive fans and followers to fully owned sites, encouraging them to register and engage more deeply, interacting in live Q&A sessions, and via highly-targeted, exclusive content.

Aren’t Branded Communities a Lot of Work?

Branded communities offer a more meaningful interaction compared to social media, but that does not mean you have to create a chat channel or moderate a discussion forum.

Forums can enhance user experiences through social proof and peer interactions, but it is not the only way to create these member areas, and they can be more trouble than they are worth.

Ask me how I know.

Comments, questions and messages can still be posted by members without a classic forum, but interactions are restricted to focused responses, such as in reply to a posted news update or lesson.

This prevents the free-for-all chaos that requires minute by minute moderation and member on member fights breaking out.

When users register on your site, they opt into a personalized, and safer, more private and controlled environment.

This setup allows you to guide the onboarding, outcomes, and overall experience more effectively, and create sales opportunities organically.

For example, you can gently and precisely prompt members to upgrade their accounts or purchase products when it makes sense for them in ways that are just not possible on social media platforms.

Members of your community can also organically post reviews for your products or services as they acheive and celebrate milestones, providing genuine testimonials and building trust among potential customers.

Online Communities Are Super Valuable

LinkedIn’s acquisition of Lynda.com for $1.5 billion serves as a prime example of the huge value of a well-built online community.

While Lynda was admired for its extensive library of educational content, I would argue the most value was in the engaged customer base of advocates.

Lynda were also a great example of a tiered approach:

1. Free content to attract users,
2. A premium, logged-in experience,
3. Enhanced and premium offerings for deeper engagement or greater utility.

As an example of the last item, you could pay more to, say, get the full archive of example programming code and downloads, or for access to live classes versus short video clips and written materials that could only be read in the lesson area.

The fact that LinkedIn is itself now owned by Microsoft reinforces the value of an engaged membership and community.

This all aligns with what I’ve been advocating for over a decade – a combination of freely available but valuable content, transitioning to logged-in experiences, and then eventually paid, premium content.

I don’t hate to say I told you so – I love it!

LinkedIn integrated with a comprehensive learning platform offers user continuous learning opportunities that complement and enhance their career progression.

Email Opt-Ins to Online Libraries and Courses

Back in my Copyblogger and Rainmaker days, we moved from simple email opt-ins to offering a content library.

These log-in areas significantly increased subscriptions of real email users, and helped boost engagement.

When we then introduced a dripped-out course instead of just a huge download dump of PDFs, we saw even better results.

For instance, the My Copyblogger content library saw a 400% increase in email opt-ins when we shifted to this model.

People are overwhelmed and distracted, they are increasingly collecting but not consuming education.

The drip approach keeps members educated and engaged over a longer period, without overloading their mental bandwidth. This creates a stronger, longer relationship and therefore increases retention rates.

I can’t answer why it took so long for me to implement that here. Sometimes I am just dense I guess.

Over time, we further refined the approach with the free course offered at Rainmaker, which delivered smaller, punchier lessons, every few days.

This structure not only attracted more subscribers but also maintained their interest, involvement, and results, over time.

Enhancing Engagement via Marketing Automation

Marketing automation has been powerful for maintaining and enhancing user engagement, but sadly has been mistaken as something only for corporations with big budgets or those with highly technical teams.

Using today’s marketing technology allows us to create personalized, adaptive content that responds to user interests and actions using if-then logic:

• If a member doesn’t engage with a particular lesson or action item, we can send them a motivational message, or switch to another interesting topic.

• If they do engage, we can encourage them further with positive reinforcement and rewards.

This tailored content approach ensures that users remain engaged and continue to progress, but most importantly they direct what they see more and less of.

Education with Engagement

It will only get more important to integrate education with engagement.

For example, rather than outline a step by step process, create a 30-day challenge where people can register, participate, and interact with a community to celebrate successes, for accountability and get support.

This not only boosts the learning experience but also strengthens the community.

By combining education with interaction, you can keep students interested and motivated throughout the challenge so that they actually achieve what they were promised.

7 Steps for Solo Creators and Smaller Teams

While implementations like Lynda are out of reach for smaller or solo setups, the underlying idea are the same.

Here are some things you can do to build and nurture your own online community:

1. Figure out your customer: Who are you aiming to serve? What do they need? Why are they not succeeding already? Write out your marketing avatar of your perfect client.
2. Develop and expand your free stuff: if you are not already offering something to opt-ins then this is where you start really growing your list.
3. Develop a Content Library: Organize your free content into a member library that users can access by registering on your site. This library serves as an incentive for users to join your community and provides immediate value.
4. Offer Online Courses: Develop online courses that deliver content in a curated and structured, dripped-out format. These courses can be free or paid, depending on your business model. The key is to keep users engaged and progressing through the material.
5. Implement Marketing Automation: Use marketing automation tools to personalize the user experience and keep your audience engaged. This could include sending targeted emails based on user behavior, segmenting your audience for more relevant content delivery, and automating follow-up messages.
6. Encourage Community Interaction: Foster a sense of community by encouraging interaction. This could be through replying under lessons, live Q&A sessions, streamed webinars, or satellite cohort groups. The goal is to create a space where users feel heard, connected and supported.
7. Measure and Adjust: Continuously monitor the performance of your community and make adjustments as needed. Pay attention to user feedback, activity, engagement, and conversions.

Bottom Line: Own Your Online Experience

Building a real and engaged community around your brand is more important than ever.

Social media platforms and email services will continue to change their rules and algorithms, often at the expense of your reach and engagement.

By creating a space where you cultivate a welcoming and fulfilling user experience, you can build a more engaged, loyal audience.

Email newsletters, branded communities, interactive online courses, and coaching programs can all work together to bring your audience closer and keep them engaged over the longer term.

This allows you to build deeper relationships, provide a more tailored experience, and increase sales without annoying people who are not ready to buy.

It’s a strategy that not only financially and logistically benefits your business but also makes you more valuable to your community.