If you listen to all of the “gurus” on the internet right now, then you know that nearly all of them are preaching the message that you need to have your own membership site.

Creating and maintaining a membership site used to be a job for expert programmers, database administrators, and web developers, and the average “little guy” internet marketer was left out in the cold. Most could not afford to hire these experts and therefore owning a membership site was out of the question.

Those days are gone forever. Anyone now can afford to have their own membership site. You can easily learn what you need to know to create your own site quickly, easily, and at very low cost.

You can purchase a video tutorial at very low cost that shows you step-by-step how to create a membership site using WordPress (which is free), and a plugin, which varies in price from a free one on up to one that costs around $150, that will handle Paypal billing and keep up with your membership.

Some of the “big guys” in membership site ownership use the Joomla content management system to manage their membership sites. Again, there are low cost videos available that will teach you how to install and configure Joomla and use it to manage a membership site. Joomla is a powerful content management system. There is a large selection of professionally created templates available, so you can get the exact look and feel that you want for your site.

Instead of selling your products one at a time, why not consider putting them in a membership site? If you have a hobby, a passion for some subject, an expertise in some field, put it in a membership site. Imagine getting 10 people a month paying you $19.95 per month, month after month! What if you had 100 people paying you $19.95 per month? What if you had 500 or 1000 people paying you $19.95 per month?

Yes, membership sites are the way to go, and with the training and software now available, anyone can build their own membership site and have it up, running, and bringing in a monthly income in no time at all!

My very first membership site took me a total of about 4 days to build, and at a cost of less than $100.00. I knew exactly nothing when I started, so anyone can do it.

Video tutorials are available at TutorDaddy.com and they can speed up the process of getting your membership site up and running.

If you use WordPress to build a membership site, you will need a good membership site plugin to manage membership chores, and you can find information on a couple of good ones at Digital Access Pass and at YourMember.

Give it a try, I think you will find it enjoyable and rewarding.

Can I use a “blog” to build a membership site?

What is the best “blogging” platform to use?

Good questions that may seem to have obvious answers to the “seasoned internet user”, but maybe not so obvious to the ones just starting out on their internet journeys.

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing supply of information and news.

A blog is a frequently updated personal (or business) website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles and/or other web sites.

Blogs range from the personal to the political, the sublime to the ridiculous, and they can focus on one narrow subject or a whole wide range of subjects.

Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as health, dating, dog training, web design, politics, sports, or mobile technology.

Some are more into just presenting links to all manner of other sites, mostly affiliate links that pay them when someone purchases a product after clicking one of the links..

And others are more like personal journals or diaries, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.

Whatever they are used for, blogs are ideally suited to building membership sites.

How does a person create a blog, you ask?

WordPress is probably the most popular and most powerful and versatile blogging software, and when I talk about blogging, I’m talking about using WordPress as the platform.

As far as using WordPress to build membership sites, I can say that it is definitely a very good way to get started. It is also a very low cost way to get started.

Membership sites are one of the hottest money makers on the web right now, and more and more people are creating an extra monthly pay check by building their own membership sites.

If you have a passion for a particular subject, almost any subject, chances are that a lot of other people have the same passion. Create a membership site where all of those people can mingle online with other like-minded people, and you are set to go.

If you have an expertise in a field, create a membership site, charge a monthly fee for others in the field to access your information, and you have money coming in every month, month after month.

You can find video tutorials that will guide you through all of the steps and show you exactly how to create membership sites using WordPress at TutorDaddy.com.

If you use WordPress to build a membership site, you will need a good membership site plugin to manage membership chores, and you can find information on a couple of good ones at Digital Access Pass and at YourMember.

Installing WordPress for the first time and getting it configured correctly can be a little intimidating, so watching a video tutorial on how to install WordPress can really give you a jump start on getting a membership site up and running.

In conclusion, if you want to build a membership site that costs almost no money, is easy to update and manage, and brings in a monthly recurring income, then I suggest you give WordPress a really close look.

This is not meant to be a tutorial on how to build a membership site. It is meant to give you information on platforms such as Joomla and WordPress that can easily be used to create membership sites.

It is also meant to give you information on components, plugins, and custom themes that you can use to accomplish the task with minimal cost and effort.

First of all though, why would you even want to have a membership site? The answer, of course, is that owning memberships sites can earn you a recurring monthly income. That means money in your bank account…..month after month after month.

Some reasons to start a membership site…..

• You have a book or ebook with some really great content that people would be interested in. Rather than try to sell the book or ebook as a one-time sale, break it up into sections and put it on a membership site, giving members access to one chapter or section each month. So, rather than sell 100 copies at $37 each and making $3700, charge 100 people $9.95 per month and give them a chapter each month for 12 months. Do the math on that and see what you come up with.




• You don’t really feel that you could sit down and spend several months, or years, writing a complete book or ebook and put it up for sale, but you could sit down each month and write a really good article to put on your membership site. That approach takes less time initally, and gives you a recurring income each month right off the bat.




• You want a site that gives you a captive audience that you can sell other products to each month. Affiliate products, other ebooks you own, adsense ads, all are opportunities to make even more money from your membership site members.




• You have knowledge or expertise in a subject or area that other people are interested in. People are willing to pay to belong to a group of like-minded people. Membership sites have been started on subjects such as:




• Cabin Enthusiasts,




• Fly Fishing Enthusiasts,




• Wedding Professionals,




• Cruise Ship Workers,




• Magic Enthusiasts,




• Acupuncture Professionals,




• Digital Photo and Video Enthusiasts,




• Travel Lovers,




• Golden Retriever Owners,




• Ferret Owners,




• Gambling Information Seekers,




• Religious Groups,




• Philosophy Lovers,




• Art Lovers,




• Home Builders,




• Dress Makers,




• Car Salespeople ,




• Cross-Stitch Enthusiasts,




• and on-and-on….

Trouble is though, building a membership site from scratch can be intimidating, even impossible, for a lot of people.

However, with the right instructions and a helping hand, you can easily do it using either Joomla or WordPress as the platform.

Since both are free applications, and components and plugins are readily available for both, you can do it for very low cost.

Video tutorials are available that will show you step by step how to setup your own membership site. You may choose to use free components or plugins to create a basic membership site. You also may choose to create a more advanced membership site using components or plugins that are available at very reasonable prices considering the advanced features they offer.

Detailed step by step video tutorials can show anyone, regardless of experience level, how to create a membership site that can possibly produce an ongoing and sizable income .

You can learn how to install your choice of Joomla or WordPress, and then be shown how to install and configure the necessary components or plugins to convert it into a paid membership site.

Creating a recurring monthly income is an established method that really does work. It is used extensively by many successful and savvy marketers.

Still not sure you can do it, even with detailed instructions? Don’t worry – it is easier than you think.

Picture this scenario – you make ten sales today for $47.00. OK, you made $470.00. Not bad at all. Now imagine that you have a membership site and you make those same ten sales, and they sign up for your monthly membership. You made the same $470 today, plus you rake in $47 per month, per member, for as long as your customers remain members. If they only remain members for four months, you just made $1810 over the four months for the same amount of effort on your part. Meanwhile you continue to make daily sales and your recurring monthly income grows and grows and grows. You are now well on your way to creating a sizable and dependable monthly income.

So, what are the problems you will need to overcome in order to accomplish this?

First…..how do you keep track of your customer activity? You have customers joining every day and some of them unsubscribe from time to time. Keeping track of this can be a big job if you don’t know how to do it the easy way.

Second…..collecting payments can be difficult. You need a choice of ways for your customers to pay for their membership. Without that you limit your chances for success. The solution sounds simple – buy some software to do it all for you. The big problem with that is that software that runs membership sites can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That is a big problem for a lot of people just starting out.

So…..what is the solution that will allow a person to build a membership site at a reasonable cost, possibly even free?


Let’s Consider Joomla First…..

There is a video tutorial available showing How To Create A Membership Site Using Joomla 1.5 and at a very reasonable cost and it will show you exactly, step by step, how to install Joomla 1.5 and then configure it to be a paid membership site. The components you will need to accomplish this task are either free or very reasonably priced, so you will be able to have a membership site up and running at very low cost.

If you want to go first class and use a professionally designed Joomla template that will make your site stand out above the rest, then take a look at the Joomla templates available at RocketTheme.com.

As mentioned, the components are free or reasonably priced, but that doesn’t mean a lack of features. Look at what you can do using Joomla and the membership software (generally known as components in Joomla).

* Integrated Subscription Handling using the following payment processors: Paycom. CCBill, Paypal, Paypal Subscriptions, epsNetpay, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, Paysgnet, Allopas, Alertpay, Viaklx and more.

* Up To Four Membership Levels. You have the means to offer several different levels of membership to your clients thus increasing your possible profits.

* Integrated Document And File Handling. No worries. Your subscribers can only access the files they paid for and are entitled to receive.

* Integrated Forum. Create your own member forum so your subscribers can talk over items of interest with each other.

* Trial Memberships. Set up trial memberships so your members can take a test drive before they buy.

The above mentioned video tutorial is a seven part video series based on the new Joomla 1.5 series, and it takes you step by step through the whole process. It takes you from knowing nothing about Joomla or putting together a membership site to being somewhat of an authority at it.

And For You WordPress Enthusiasts…..

If you just want a good basic membership site built using WordPress, then there is a video tutorial that will show you How To Build A Membership Site Using WordPress And Free Plugins.

If you want a more advanced and full-featured membership site, then you will want to consider using either YourMember WordPress Membership Site Plugin or Digital Access Pass which works with WordPress as well as regular HTML web sites, and is loaded with features to power a full-blown membership site.

As with Joomla, there are custom templates available for WordPress.

You can purchase templates custom designed to create a professional quality web site themed to almost any type business you can imagine, from real estate to grunge to ecommerce to news sites, you name it and it is probably available to make your site stand above the rest. Check out what’s available in WordPress Custom Themes And Templates

So whether you prefer using Joomla or you prefer using WordPress, there is step by step training available, and there is a choice of components and plugins and templates available to allow you to build a great looking membership site at a very reasonable cost, possibly even free.

It also is a place where hopefully other caregivers that are coping with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and caring for wives, husbands, parents, patients, or others can share their experiences, feelings, and knowledge with each other.

Alzheimer’s disease is a much worse disease than I ever imagined until I found myself having to care for a 72 year old wife and a 95 year old mom, both of whom are afflicted with this terrible disease. Stressed and frustrated to say the least.

I thought Alzheimer’s disease was just forgetting where your car keys were, or where you put the TV remote control. I never dreamed that it has such a debilitating effect on persons afflicted with the disease, and I surely never realized just how difficult and stressful it can be for caregivers.

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder and it was named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described the disease in 1906. Scientists have learned a great deal about Alzheimer’s disease since that time.

Here are some facts about Alzheimer’s:

• Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and fatal brain disease. It is estimated that as many as 5.3 million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease destroys brain cells. It causes memory loss and creates problems with thinking and behavior. These problems can be severe enough to affect work, hobbies and social life.
• Alzheimer’s normally gets worse over time, and it is fatal. You may be surprised to know that it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.
• Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a general term describing memory loss and other intellectual abilities that are serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for a whopping 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.
• Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. However, there are treatments for symptoms and these treatments combined with the right services and support can help make life a little better for the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer’s. There are worldwide efforts under way to find more and better ways to treat the disease, or to delay its onset, or prevent it from developing altogether.

What Causes Alzheimer’s?

Doctors and scientists are still trying to answer that question. They are pretty much in agreement that plaques and tangles are a major factor. They also agree that there are risk factors that affect a person’s likelihood of developing the disease.

What Are Plaques and Tangles?

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a build-up of proteins in the brain. While this can’t be measured in a living person, autopsies have revealed this to be true, and the build-up manifests itself in two different ways.

One Of These Is Plaques, which are deposits of the protein beta-amyloid that accumulate in the spaces between nerve cells.

The Other Is Tangles,which are deposits of the protein tau that accumulate inside of nerve cells.

Doctors and scientists still don’t know exactly how plaques and tangles are related to Alzheimer’s disease, but they do have some solid theories. One such theory is that they block the nerve cells’ ability to communicate with each other, and this in turn makes it difficult for the cells to survive.

Autopsies have shown that nearly everyone will develop some plaques and tangles as they age, but those with Alzheimer’s disease will develop far more than those who do not develop the disease. Scientists still don’t know why some people develop more than others, but they know it is true.

Known Risk Factors For Alzheimer’s

Factor One–Age

Simply getting older is the number one risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s.
Fact– One out of eight people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s.
Fact–One out of every two people over the age of 85 has Alzheimer’s.
Fact–The odds that you will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s nearly doubles every five years after age 65.

Factor Two–Family History

Those people who have a parent or sibling that had Alzheimer’s disease are two to three times more likely to develop the disease than those with no family history of Alzheimer’s. And, if more than one close relative has the disease, the risk increases even more.

Scientists have identified two kinds of genes that are associated with this family risk factor. The first, known as ApoE 4, is thought to be a “risk gene” that increases the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s, but does not necessarily guarantee it. In addition to ApoE 4, scientists note that there may be up to a dozen more risk genes that are yet to be discovered.

The second kind of gene is a “deterministic gene”. These are much rarer than risk genes. Deterministic genes are only found in a few hundred extended families around the world. If a deterministic gene is inherited, the person will almost surely develop Alzheimer’s, and most likely at a much earlier age.

Factor Three–Lifestyle Factors

Age and family history are something we can’t control, but scientists have also identified several lifestyle factors that can possibly influence a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. A connection has been shown to exist between serious head injury and future development of Alzheimer’s. In view of that finding, persons who practice safety measures such as wearing seat belts and not engaging in activities where there is a high risk of falling are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

It is also likely that exercise and a healthy diet lead to a reduced Alzheimer’s risk. Also, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol consumption, and staying socially and mentally active have been shown to have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease.

Finally, there appears to be a strong link between heart health and brain health. Persons who are free of heart disease or related conditions are at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia than persons who have cardiovascular problems.

Stay tuned for more information…..

I will be making regular posts giving information on possible causes, treatments, and cures for Alzheimer’s disease. I will also be outlining my experiences coping with Alzheimer’s as a caregiver, and I invite readers to make comments and share experiences that may help all of us provide care for loved ones while at the same time maintaining our own health and well being.

Lewis S Poteet