There are so many different membership site solutions out there that it’s very very easy for you to get confused or distracted about which membership software you should use, especially because some of them are free. There are some membership solutions that have a live version, where they will give you some of the features disabled or even add on the software itself and in exchange it’s free, or even it comes with a 30-day free trial, so you install it and then have 30 days to decide if you want to keep using that software or not. I know it’s really tempting to try out free membership software, but there are a few things to think about. Who’s going to support it? Is it any good? And should you really base your business around free software?
If you use WordPress at all, I want you to think for a second about how many thousands of WordPress plugins are out there. And if you ever try to find the right WordPress plugin to do what you want to do, think about how many times you found some old plugin that’s broken or a plugin that simply did not work on your web host and when you tried to get support, there was none to be found because it was a free plugin. Think about how many millions of software titles are available for free on download.com but many of them are old and broken. And again, if you try to get support, it’s nowhere to be found because it was a free piece of software. So when you’re paying for a software, a lot of what you’re paying for is the support. So, that’s something to keep in mind. If you ever get stuck, if you ever want a feature added, or if you’re simply having trouble installing the membership software on your particular web host, it really helps to be able to email somebody or even call somebody on the phone and get that issue resolved. Free software is not supported. Paid software is supported.
Next, think about, is the software any good? Everybody knows in their mind that OpenOffice which is a free Office suite, will never really be as good as Microsoft Office simply because it’s just not valued as much, it’s not updated as frequently and it’s not used by as many serious businesses to warrant putting tons of time and effort into it. There’s no reason at all for free software to be any good. So, that’s something to think about. Free software is usually much worse than paid software. So, even if you happen to be able to find some kind of support for free software, it probably won’t have all the features you want as it comes in paid software.
The final thing to think about is are you running a business or aren’t you? If you are trying to make any amount of money from a membership site, then you are running a business, and therefore, you should invest in that business by purchasing a membership site software. I always find it funny that people try to pinch every penny and try to get $10 off here, 10 cents off there, and yet when it comes tax time, they wish they had more write-offs. This is your write-off, get membership software.
Those are the reasons why you should avoid free membership software like plague. The only advantage a free membership site software has is that it’s free, but everything else sucks. Free membership software is usually unsupported, it usually has less quality than paid membership software, and it’s not something that you can invest in for your business. So, go ahead and use a paid membership site software right now.
I want to provide you complete tutorials and training on how to set up your very own membership site right here.