Tip #26: Wishlist Member Membership Site Pre-Launch Checklist

If you are only making your first steps with Wishlist Member or even if you already started building your membership site but got stuck… this tip is exactly for you!

Membership Site Pre-Launch Checklist

Follow the steps below to have your membership site’s core pages and elements up and ready quickly:

1. Setup Core Pages and Elements

Setup core membership site protection settings and pages using Wishlist Member Setup Wizard (Settings > Setup Wizard) including:

• Membership Levels
• Error Pages – Non-members / Wrong membership level / Cancelled members
• Protection Settings – for posts/ pages
• Redirection Pages – Thank You page (also referred to as the after registration page) and Dashboard

2. Edit the Membership Site’s Core Pages

Go to Pages > All Pages in the WordPress and edit the core pages the Setup Wizard created for you:

1. Dashboard (Recommended dashboard plugin – Wishlist Dashboard 2.0)
2. Membership Cancelled (Error page)
3. Oops! This Content is Members Only (Error page)
4. Oops! Wrong Membership Level (Error page)
5. Thanks for Joining! (Thank you / after registration page)

 3. Edit the Membership Levels Settings

Go to Wishlist Member menu > Levels and define the settings of each membership level according to your needs.

If you need to upgrade members from membership levels use the Sequential Upgrade feature in the Wishlist menu to define the right settings.

4. Upload and Protect the Content

Upload the content to the membership site and define the protection settings inside each post/ page according to the membership level the content belongs to.

Recommended Plugin: To make sure you don’e accidentally forget to protect content or set the wrong protection settings we recommend using Wishlist Protection Display plugin which adds a visual icon-base Protection Level column to your posts and pages tables and gives you an overview of all your protected content vs. non-protected content.

5. Add an Autoresponder Integration

Integrate your membership site with your favorite autoresponder to build your email list.

6. Add Shopping Cart Integration (Paid Membership)

Integrate your membership site with your favorite shopping cart/s to start receiving payments.

Recommended plugin: Wishlist Auto Registration to automatically register members to your membership site, so they won’t need to fill-in 2 registration forms:

One in the shopping cart to complete the purchase and one inside the membership site to register to the site. Takes way too much time and creates time-consuming problems of incomplete and duplicate registrations.

7. Create a Registration Form for Free Membership

Use Wishlist Member shortcodes to create a registration form to the free membership.

Inside every post / page in the toolbar you will find the Wishlist blue icon with the shortcodes.

Recommended Plugin 1: To get a more visible registration form that can also be placed in sidebar widgets and can be adjusted to have only 1-field use Wishlist Registration Widget.

Recommended Plugin 2: For registering members in just 1 click  you can use Wishlist 1 Click Registration plugin.

8. Test All is Working Correctly

To test your membership site’s settings are correct make a test purchase / free registration (depending on whether you offer paid / free / both memberships), that the members are redirected to the right Thank You page and that they have access to the posts / pages they should have access to.

Other Adjustments Needed

After you have all the settings of your membership site setup correctly, you can start designing the look and feel of your membership site and make more adjustments that are needed to have your membership site up and ready for launch!

For example: Adding your logo, links, affiliate program, changing your theme, general pages to the site etc.

Need More Help with Your Membership Site?

We provide services for businesses and membership sites’ owners including:

• Consulting
• Troubleshooting
• Custom Development
• Membership Sites Building
• Speed Optimization

Click on this link to get more information about our services

Our Complete Wishlist Member Tips Series

We publish tips on a weekly basis, so don’t miss our previous 25 tips! You can find all of them here

You May Find These Posts Interesting:

Tip #2 – Managing Your Membership Site Easily Using These Wishlist Member Shortcuts

Tip #8: 6 Free Excellent Plugins for Managing Your Membership Site Better

Tip #3 – Must Have Plugins for Managing Your Membership Site

How to Set Up a Membership Site – Step by Step Guide

Tip #7: Personalizing Your Membership Site’s Email Notifications

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