How to Create a Membership Site with ARMember (And Why You Need It)

Are you looking for a definitive guide for how to create a membership site with ARMember? If you are, we have got you covered. In this article, we are going to show you everything you need to know about membership sites and how you can create them.

Why Use ARMember?

If you check for a membership plugin, you will land on multiple options. Some of them are free, and some are premium. Finding the right plugin for the task is challenging if you are a beginner. But, in our experience, ARMember is the finest membership plugin you can use. ARMember is a freemium WordPress membership plugin, and it comes with a lot of unique features. The free version (ARMember Lite) is available in the WordPress plugins repository, and if you are a beginner, you can use it. On the other hand, the premium version of ARMember will give you access to more cutting-edge features. Some of the most popular features of ARMember are:

• Content Restriction
• Form Builder
• Drip Rules
• Membership Setup Wizard
• Pay Per Post Setup
• Multiple Add-ons
• Access Rules
• Multisite Compatibility

And so on. If you are looking for a feature-rich but easy-to-use membership plugin, ARMember would be your best partner. We will use ARMember to set up the membership website for this tutorial. So without any further ado, let’s start building the membership site.

How to Create a Membership Website with ARMember

There are multiple steps involved in setting up a membership website. They are:

1. Choosing a domain and web hosting
2. Installing WordPress, Themes, and Plugins
3. Configuring ARMember plugin

You probably know these things if you have been in the blogging and WordPress industry for a while. However, let’s speed-run these and look at each step quickly.

1. Choosing the Domain name and Hosting

There are so many web hosting and domain registrars available. The domain name will act like your website’s address. Hosting will help you store the files of websites. Some of the famous and affordable web hosting providers are:

1. Bluehost
2. SiteGround
3. GreenGeeks
4. Cloudways
5. A2 Hosting
6. HostGator

And so on. Usually, a .com domain name will cost you between $10 and $15 a year. The web hosting service will cost you between $5 – $10 a month. For most of us, it is affordable. You can purchase the hosting and domain from any of them. You can pay for the service using PayPal or a credit card. Once you have paid for the service, you can log in to your cPanel, and make necessary changes to the website.

2. Installing WordPress, Themes, and Plugins

You can start installing WordPress CMS, themes, and all the required plugins. You can install WordPress manually or using the Softaculous installer. If you prefer a simple way to install WordPress, we recommend the Softaculous method. On the other hand, if you need to do everything manually, you can install WordPress that way. It will take some time, but you will eventually get WordPress installed. Once you have installed WordPress on your server, you must look for a membership WordPress theme. There are many multipurpose WordPress themes like Divi, Avada, Astra, Jupiter X, etc. You can choose any of them and redesign the template. On the other hand, you can select a dedicated membership website theme. After that, install all the necessary plugins. Some of the popular plugins you need to use are:

• Classic Editor (if you need to disable Gutenberg)
• OneSignal
• Rank Math
• ARMember
• Elementor
• OptinMonster
• MonsterInsights
• Jetpack
• Akismet
• BackupBuddy

And so on. Some of the plugins we mentioned above are premium. But you have total control and can choose your preferred solution according to your budget and requirements.

3. Configuring ARMember Plugin

Here comes the central part of the process. If you prefer the lite version of ARMember, you can directly install it from the WordPress dashboard. Or, if you are interested in the premium subscription, get it, download the plugin file and manually install it. Once you have installed the plugin, you can activate it. After activating the plugin, you can see all the settings on the left-hand side. Inside your ARMember account dashboard (official website), you will see a unique license key. To receive updates and support from the official development team, you need to verify the license key here: This is mandatory. You will get access to add-ons after you verify the license key. You need to set up payment gateways. Under the General Settings, you can see the Payment Gateways option. From there, you can configure the gateways. The development team integrated payment gateway solutions like

• PayPal
• Stripe
• Authorize.net
• 2Checkout
• Bank Transfer

Into the plugin. So, you can choose the solution you prefer. You must enter the API keys in the field to complete the integration. After finishing, you are done with the payment part. When someone pays for your membership subscription, the amount will be directly credited to your PayPal or Stripe account. It is that easy! Under Manage Plans, you can see all the available plans. You can click the + Add New Plan button to create new plans. This is the option you need to use when offering premium memberships. You will have total control over the plans. You can choose the plan’s name, description, type, pricing, etc. You will see all the details when someone subscribes to your membership. On the other hand, you can also add members manually. In the Manage Forms section, you can see all the existing forms. You can always create new forms or edit existing ones. By default, they will give you forms like:

• Registration/ Signup forms
• Login/ Forgot Password/ Reset Password forms)
• Profile forms

And so on. If you are thinking about editing a form, you can use this pencil icon. You can use this tool if you are ready to configure the plans on a signup page. There, you will see multiple options for setting up the signup page. You can start the customization by mentioning a name. Once you have done that, add all the plans you need to list on the page. Now, list the form and choose the payment gateway you will use. If you scroll down, you will also see options for editing the labels, tweaking the CSS styles, etc. Once you are done with the configuration, you can save it. After that, ARMember will show you a unique shortcode. You can use this shortcode to display the membership registration page according to the customization. If you ever want to update the pricing of the memberships, you can tweak them from the plugin’s settings. That’s it! This is how you can set up ARMember on your website.

Conclusion: How to Create a Membership Site with ARMember

With a CMS like WordPress and a cutting-edge plugin like ARMember, it is straightforward to create membership websites. Anyone with some technical knowledge can create a membership website these days. But are they worth it? Can you make a passive income from membership websites? The answer is yes. If your content holds quality and users are interested in it, you can quickly turn your passion into profit. So many people rely on membership website revenue and consider the membership website as their primary revenue source. So, it works. That’s it! This is how you can create a membership site with ARMember. We hope you have found this article helpful and enjoyed reading it. You can check our blog archives for articles about handling a membership website.