NOTE: WordPress is right for you, only if you want to actually launch your membership site some day, make money from your site, and do not wish to spend an insane amount of time creating and maintaining it, and only if you do not wish to spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars outsourcing the creation and maintenance of your site

I recently happened across a blog post that presents an argument about why you should not use WordPress for your membership site.

That seems to have caused quite a stir among my target audience (who are basically people who want to start a membership site using WordPress).

A couple of them wrote to me and asked me for my opinion, 1) because I am such a big evangelist of WordPress, and 2) because I have developed a Membership Plugin for WordPress.

I read the argument with interest, and of course felt that it was a very extreme, one-sided worldview of WordPress. I tried to comment there on the site itself, but I got a message that “the site owner has blocked you from commenting”. Not sure why. I will try again. But in the mean time, I simply had to post this here.

So, after you’ve read Alex’s argument for why you should not use WordPress for your membership site, read my (well-rounded, well-educated and balanced, IMHO opinion about why you would be foolish NOT to use WordPress for your membership site – especially if you’re a small-biz owner, info-product marketer, blogger or Do-It-Yoursef’er, and don’t have a big team or a big budget to outsource your membership site development.

My note to Alex…

Alex,

Having developed Wordpress and Non-WordPress scripts for almost 15 years now, I have to respectfully disagree with your argument for not using WP for membership sites.

Let me try to present an objective argument here.

You wrote:
>>it doesn’t matter which one you will choose to use as they all share one big flaw – their dependency on the core of WordPress!<<

I am the developer of a plugin called DigitalAccessPass (DAP), which does *not* have a dependency on the core of WordPress. DAP is a separate piece of software, that can be plugged on TOP of wordpress, and only needs a simple, light-weight “Plugin” that acts as a “bridge” between WP and DAP. In the 15 months since the launch of DAP, and 10 months prior to that when we were developing DAP, WP has released a huge number of updates in those 25 months (2+ years), and we have *never* had a single instance where a WP update affected our script.

Again, it’s all in the design, right? DAP was deliberately designed from the ground up *not* to have a dependency on *any* CMS, not even WP. That’s the reason why DAP works right out of the box with regular, plain-ol HTML web sites, and using the “bridge” plugin concept, can be integrated into other CMS like Joomla, Drupal, etc (Joomla plugin for DAP is in the works as I write this). In fact, with just a little bit of work, DAP can be made to work with every imaginable CMS out there, for this very reason.

>>By themselves they will not function and same goes the WordPress core<<
See above. DAP will function all by itself with just regular HTML web sites.

>>WordPress is Open Source and its code is constantly under scrutiny not only by the good guys but also by people who are looking for a way to compromise your site<<
I can kind of agree with you there, but then, even software and services from even high profile companies, like Google and Microsoft get hacked or gamed. So, just because it’s open source doesn’t mean it’s more vulnerable, and just because it’s “closed source” doesn’t mean it is secure. It all depends on the developers and the community behind it.

I mean, non-WP sites get hacked all the time because the shared-site owner left a PHP script in there that’s vulnerable to XSS attacks, or left the permissions wide open inviting hackers to come join the party. That actually says more about the security of PHP itself, and the security of a shared-host environment. But why blame WP for that?

>>You quickly contact support of the developer who created the plugin you use for Membership Management before jumping into upgrade, as you have to ensure that it will continue to work with new version only to learn that he is taking romantic vacation on secluded island somewhere in Fiji and will not be back for next couple weeks…<<

Yes, I agree, that if you went with a small-time, one-man-developer solution, then regardless of whether they are in Fiji, or get hit by a bus, you’re going to be in trouble. That’s why you pick software from companies like mine, which have been around for 15 years, have written millions of lines of code for small businesses as well as for the enterprise, have a team in place for support, and won’t be going away any time soon (we can’t, because this is what we do .

>>I personally prefer that my membership script is separate and with dedicated support!<<
DAP totally fits the bill here . It is separate, and has dedicated, “non-outsourced” support

You are recommending a downloadable script solution at the end of your post – one which is developed in PHP. PHP has always been (arguably) one of the most insecure programming languages, just because, if you didn’t quite know what you’re doing, it allowed newbies to easily shoot themselves in the foot. Of course, PHP has come a long way since then, but it’s still not the most secure language.

Are we next going to start recommending that no one should use PHP scripts at all, and instead use something like Java or .NET?

So, whether it’s a programming language (PHP), a content management system (WP) or an operating system (Windoze), the solution is only as secure as its developers, the company backing it, and the community supporting it.

And most importantly, the security of a site is only as good as the actual “user” using it (if you download spyware and infected .exe files from the web and your computer gets infected, can you really blame Microsft for it?).

I guess you could blame MS, but that doesn’t mean you’re right.

So, when it comes to the quality of code, extensibility (hooks and filters and plugins) and the community, and the insanely large user base, WordPress simply can’t be beaten.

And when it comes to a membership script for WordPress, DAP also can’t be beaten

My humble $0.02

Appreciate the soapbox, the opportunity, and for your great post which seems to have evoked so many great responses

Thanks much!

- Ravi Jayagopal
Founder & Developer, DigitalAccessPass .com
(Membership Script for WordPress)

I’m hoping to augment this soon with a more detailed article about using WordPress as the platform to build your membership site.

So stay tuned by subscribing to this blog or by following me on twitter.

Feel free to pass this link to other WordPress lovers, and don’t forget to add your comments below. And no, I won’t block them – even if you’re Alex

1 year ago, I launched a membership plugin for WordPress, called DigitalAccessPass (DAP).

It had some ground-breaking features – many firsts for its niche. Like “Content Dripping”, for example (I even coined a new word: ContentResponder .

Yesterday (October 11, 2009), DAP celebrated it’s 1st birthday!

Just some proof that with a lot of focus, hard work, persistence, passion, great customer service and a little bit of smarts, it is possible to create something a lot bigger than what was in your dreams

Click here to see how the birthday party went down…

1. Create a file called phpinfo.php




2. Enter these few lines of code in it: (you can copy-paste from below):
   
   <?php
phpinfo();
?>




3. Upload this to your root folder (where your home page (index.htm or index.html etc) lives.




4. Access this script via the browser like this:
   
   http://www.YourSite.com/phpinfo.php




5. You should see a nice page come up, with the PHP logo and headers, that shows all of your PHP configuration and settings. If you see it, then: Hurrah, you can run PHP on your site!




6. If you see some kind of errors, first try changing the file’s permissions (chmod) to 755. (CHMOD Tutorial)




7. If that still doesn’t work, then you’re probably SOL (S#!t Outta Luck). Confirm it with your web host.




8. If your web host doesn’t support PHP, don’t waste your time – or your web site – with your current host. Just switch to where I host my own sites.




9. WARNING: Don’t forget to delete the phpinfo.php file from your web site. Hackers can figure out a lot of stuff from this page!

[UPDATE: This script was free for a LONG time. Apparently, at some point, they made it not-free. FYI.]

At my MyWebmasterInABox.com site, I used to run a forum powered by phpBB. But phpBB turned out to be one of the most poorly designed, least secure, web-based applications I have ever used.

So, for the longest time, I had no forum software, and no official support system.

But recently, after a number of my customers had issues with sending/receiving emails to/from me, I embarked on a (rather brief) quest to find a good PHP application, and stumbled upon a brilliant, free, ticketing and customer support application called Maian Support.

I’ve installed it on my own site now at http://www.MyWebmasterInABox.com/support/.

Going forward, if you need support for any of my scripts, go here to enter a ticket.

And to download a copy of the application that powers this, go to Maian Support.

I’ve thought about selling my RSS Feed Publishing Script for a long time.

And then one day, I just decided to give it away.

All I want is for you to try out my free newsletter. You can leave any time. No questions asked. And you will never hear from me again.

Your permission to send you really good stuff (I think – You decide) is not asking for too much, is it?

My FeedMonster script will allow you to publish any RSS or XML feed from any web site – even my own blog feed from RavisRants.com – on any page of your web site. It takes under 2 minutes to install and set up. Publish either one feed on a page, or multiple blog feeds from multiple sources on a page.

Go here to subscribe and download the FeedMonster and 14+ other PHP scripts.

Once you download and install my scripts, don’t hesitate to send me your feedback.

The whole idea of podcasting is not to be just able to publish your audio files online, but to make your audio posts “subscribable” – i.e., your listeners should be able to set up their podcasting software (like iTunes) to subscribe to your feed, in which case the software (in this example, iTunes) will automatically download your newest posts to their hard disk, as soon (or soon after) you make your posts live.

Which means, when they next sync up their mp3 player (say, iPod), your newest audio posts will automatically be synced from your subscriber’s hard disk to their iPod.

That’s the real “subscription” model of podcasting.

So how to make your WordPress feed refer to your podcast? Simple:

1. Create your audio file (mp3, mp4, etc)
2. Upload it to your server (into a folder in your main directory, say “podcasts”)
3. Your post can have your usual text content, but make sure your post has a link to the actual audio file. Note: It has to be the full path.

   Wrong: <a href="yourfile.mp3">My podcast</a>
Right: <a href="http://Example.com/podcasts/aug2007-vol1.mp3">My podcast

4. WordPress automatically links your feed to your audio file, such that if someone were to view your blog posts in a feed reader, and clicked on the link for your audio post, then they won’t be led to your blog, but the audio file will start playing instead.
5. Once your listeners “subscribe” to your feed, their podcasting software automatically downloads new files (posts with your audio file in it) to their hard disk automatically.

WordPress is not perfect – not just yet. But there really isn’t any software out there that can do all it does: well written, open-source, extensible, has lots of plugins, and has a great community around it – like WordPress.

So, just make peace with the “comparison war” (which is better: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc), simply download WordPress (or sign up for a free blog online), and get going with your content.

Content is what makes money – not your blog software.

If you know what a “blog” is, you probably already know what a “RSS Feed” is.

One of the best (not to forget, cheapest and fastest) ways to get free content for your web site, is to display a third-party RSS Feed. Every time the feed’s content changes, content on your web site automatically changes, thus keeping the content fresh and ever-changing on your site.

This trick can be used for both legit and illegitimate purposes. Sploggers (those who create Splogs – “SPam-filled bLOGS”) often use it to generate thousands of “made for adsense” pages, whose primary intention is to increase PageRank, get ranked higher for highly competitive and high paying keywords, get people to visit their splogs, and manipulating the navigation that they end up leaving by clicking on AdSense (or other PPC) ads.

But if you use it for legitimate purposes, you will find that publishing RSS feeds on your site can be a great way to provide targeted, complementary content for your visitors.

Magpie RSS is a great open-source PHP script that will allow you to easily publish any third-party RSS feed on your site. I have personally tried many RSS scripts, and highly recommend Magpie. I have even used Magpie to create a pretty cool web-based feed-aggregator service, a la Google Reader and Google Personalized home page.

If you want a quick and customizable free script that is based on Magpie, and gives you sample scripts that show you how to publish one, two or more feeds on a page on your web site, go get my Free RSS Feed Publishing script, “FeedMonster”.

- Ravi Jayagopal