Last Updated 1 month ago by Emily Standley-Allard

Building a WordPress membership site is one of the most effective ways to monetize your business and generate consistent income online. By offering a members-only section with content that people are willing to pay for, your site becomes a valuable resource, builds community, and creates a steady stream of recurring revenue. Ready to get started? Follow this guide on how to create a membership site using Elementor and MemberPress.

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Building a WordPress Membership Site – Setup

WordPress offers a wide range of options for creating membership sites, but for this tutorial, we’ll focus on MemberPress, one of the easiest-to-use and most powerful WordPress membership plugins.

MemberPress is ideal for adding subscriptions, paid content, and digital downloads to your site. It integrates with any WordPress theme and offers top-notch support, making it beginner- and developer-friendly. While it’s a paid plugin, its robust features often pay off in the long run through increased efficiency and ease of use.

1. Installation

After signing up for MemberPress, you’ll receive a download link and license key via email. To get started, head over to your WordPress site, go to Plugins > Add New, and upload the MemberPress plugin.

Once installed, activate it by going to MemberPress > Activate, where you’ll input your license key.

2. Configuration

Next, configure the basic settings of MemberPress by visiting MemberPress > Options. Here, you’ll set up essential pages, such as the Thank You, Account, and Login pages.

If you plan to monetize your site, configure your payment options under the Payments tab, where MemberPress supports platforms like Stripe, PayPal, and offline payments.

3. Set Up Membership Levels

Now it’s time to create your membership levels. Under MemberPress > Memberships, click Add New to define various membership tiers. You can set different pricing, features, and access levels, giving each membership a name and description. Customize the membership options for registration, permissions, and pricing, and then publish the membership level to make it available to your users.

4. Customize with Elementor

Once your membership levels are created, you can tweak the design of your registration pages using Elementor, a leading WordPress page builder.

Navigate to Templates > Add New in Elementor, select Single Post, and start customizing the layout. By previewing the page with Elementor, you can easily adjust your membership registration forms and design to fit your brand.

5. Create a Pricing Page

After setting up your memberships, create an enticing pricing page where users can compare membership plans. In MemberPress, go to MemberPress > Groups > Add New to create this page.

Customize the membership options and use the built-in pricing tables or create your own with Elementor’s Pricing Table widget.

6. Protect Your Content

With MemberPress, protecting your content is easy.

Use MemberPress > Rules to set which content is accessible based on membership level. You can restrict access to posts, categories, tags, or any other content.

You can even drip-feed content to members or expire access after a set period, encouraging continuous engagement.

Final Thoughts: Creating a WordPress Membership Site

With the powerful combination of MemberPress and Elementor, building a WordPress membership site has never been easier.

Once you’ve set up your membership tiers, designed your pages, and protected your content, it’s time to focus on growing your subscriber base and generating consistent income. Want more tips to help drive traffic to your site?

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For more detailed guidance on setting up your membership site, check out these related articles: How Creators Generate Revenue with Subscription Based Services

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About socialbuzzhive

Emily Standley-Allard is a writer, author and digital content strategist with more than 15 years of experience creating and publishing online content. She is the founder of SocialBuzzHive, where she explores social trends, wellness, relationships, money, culture, entrepreneurship and the changing ways we live and work.