“My wife and I are finishing up a standalone digital product and DAP came up in our research for an all-in-one shopping cart/affiliate program solution. So, my question is, how do you use DAP for your mini sites where you sell one product? Do you shut off the membership function?” – Jason Gregory (@IMNewbieDiary)

Here’s my answer:

Jason – DAP is a fantastic mini-site solution that allows the flexibility down the road of including recurring membership components, upgrades, etc., at a future time.

You simply create a single product inside the DAP dashboard, set the commissions, connect the product to your payment button in Paypal, and protect the post or pages that the buyer would see after purchase.

Your site would still actually be a “membership site” in the sense that a person gets a username and password to login for their products. But they would not be charged ongoing fees/subscriptions for ongoing delivery of information.

There is no “shutting off the membership function”. But you would simply not take advantage of those types of features.

Ideally,  you would still build your site with a WordPress platform, but in truth you could use standard HTML pages as well.

So let’s say that you and your wife are selling an ebook. You would create a page in WordPress that would serve as your sales letter. And you would create a separate page to serve as a squeeze page if you wanted to. A third page would serve as your download page.

You would create a “product” in DAP, which is really a membership level, and you would make sure that the download page was added to that product as protected content. You would also be able to protect the ebook file (PDF) if you loaded the file to your site in or out of the WordPress content folder. This file protection is all included with DAP, unlike other WP-Membership software systems that don’t really protect those files from being shared.

In addition, should you choose to later, you would be able to add supporting documentation, resource pages, etc., that only buyers of that product could see.

For the purposes of mini-sites, I’d highly recommend using Digital Access Pass.

Bob Jenkins

p.s. Be sure to check out the Discover DAP Membership Gold training program to get a fast-track to your profitability with DAP.

The short answer is YES, according to Ravi – I haven’t set one up personally for reasons I’ll explain in a minute.

Specifically, the version of DAP that is out when I’m writing this (3.7) integrates with:

• WP-Forum
• bbPress
• Simple:Press

And soon, Ravi tells me that vBulletin will be connected.

The reason they integrate is because the DAP membership database can be synched with a single setting with the WordPress user database. You can have them sync up for paid and/or free members.

However, I’d like to provide an alternative answer.

Before you create a membership site with a forum, make sure you have all your ducks in a row to make your membership site “sticky” and popular. Of course, a forum can help with that.

But a site with a forum of 5 boring people lurking and waiting for everyone else to post something is lame.

Build your site and get steady traffic to it. So when you do set up a forum, it won’t look like an instant ghost town.

Another problem with forums is they really do need to be moderated. This is why I haven’t been a big fan of having a forum on my sites just yet. Yes, the members can do quite a bit of self-policing, but ultimately you need to have a dedicated person (it doesn’t have to be you, but likely should at first) keeping tabs on the forum on a daily basis.

That being said, if you enjoy that type of interaction, and can stay on top of things, forums can be quite powerful. And DAP makes it easy for you to make forum access part of your membership site.

Bob

p.s. To see what other forums Digital Access Pass integrates with in version 3.8 and later, check out the main page. There’s a bunch of other features listed there for you, too.

After all, learning a tool doesn’t do any good if you don’t have a way to turn that system into profit.

So I’d like to help you imagine the type of membership site you could create.

Here are just 3 membership site models you can profit from…

Access To Experts

In this model, members learn from experts in a variety or narrow range of fields. Your role is to collect interviews (either by hosting them through teleseminars, or by getting resell rights to other interviews and/or ebooks) or other content that shows off the expert’s know-how.

As new members join your site, they would receive access to the first expert’s content. You would help them digest and implement through action guides, checklists, or self-check quizzes. During month 2, the process would repeat with the next expert’s content.

You can provide this type of content as MP3 files, transcripts, PDFs, streaming audio, blog posts, and/or video.

DAP Style: use the content responder feature to deliver this content on particular days of the person’s membership. Prevent new members from seeing future months’ content. Before the next month’s subscription is charged, give them a teaser of what’s coming up in the next module.

Roundtable

If you have a particular expertise you are branding yourself with, hosting a roundtable can prove quite enjoyable and profitable.

Put simply, you bring people together in your niche and let them ask questions, share strategies, brainstorm solutions, vent, celebrate, etc. As the expert, your role is to facilitate the sessions (usually done through teleseminar).

However, you can also host a forum where these discussions can take place online 24/7.

DAP Style: using a WordPress forum plugin with DAP, you can keep particular areas of a forum private for higher level members. You can lock previous calls from being seen by new members, and upsell the archive for a separate revenue stream.

Skill Training Center

If you can teach people how to learn and apply a certain set of skills, you can create an awesome membership site. Discover DAP is an example of this kind of site, since I’m teaching you how to create and profit from a particular business model, using a particular piece of software.

What skills do you have that other people could benefit from?

Create this kind of site with screenshots and instructions delivered via PDF. Or record screencast videos that you allow members to download or watch online.

DAP Style: protect your files from external sharing with DAPs file management protection. If you’re hosting larger files on Amazon S3, you can get the optional S3Plugin (free with the multi-site DAP licenses). Use DAPs pay-per-view mode to charge a low amount for members to see the videos.

There are plenty of other membership models you can follow, or you can be creative and come up with something entirely new.

The point is, creating the structure of a profitable membership site gives you an ongoing profit engine that can stabilize your income, while building up your reputation as a leader in your field.

Next Steps

All 3 of these membership site models can be set up to work with WordPress and Digital Access Pass.

In the Discover DAP Gold training program, I’ll be teaching these and other membership models as well. Plus, I’ll walk you through the specific ways to create your content and market your membership site for long term profit.

• Get Digital Access Pass
• Join the Discover DAP Gold profit program

Bob Jenkins

p.s. The sooner you get a membership site going, the faster you’ll see progress in your business. Instead of endlessly promoting different products and services, you can leverage your effort into repeatable, long term revenue.

But you may be wondering why you would want to create a membership site using DAP and WordPress.

Here are the top reasons why…

1. Using WordPress takes away the challenge of making your site look pretty. You can use any theme you want (free, paid, or custom), and change your mind as often as you wish – but your membership site will function the same. When you want to change the text, add pictures, or drop in a YouTube video, it’s as easy as updating a blog (because, technically, it is a blog).
2. Using WordPress gives you the added functionality of plugins. This is great to help your site grow through SEO plugins, social bookmarking, etc., with no special programming or expensive webmasters!
3. Digital Access Pass integrates with WordPress posts, pages, and even membership levels. This means you can protect part or all the content of your pages and posts based on what level your members have signed up for or purchased. Protecting your blog content is as easy as clicking a button. And you can even use DAP with forums on your site through WordPress.
4. DAP also protects your files and pages on your site OUTSIDE of WordPress. This means you can show special offer pages to particular membership levels, protect images, PDFs, audio files, video files, etc. You can even sell your products on completely different websites, or have payment links inside your emails!
5. DAP protects content based on sequence, specific dates, or even number of views. Want to show members content only when they’ve been a member for 6 months, and not before? You can do that. Want to show members a special page only during Valentine’s week? You can do that. Want to let people to “pay per view” of a video or “pay per listen” to an audio? You can do that.
6. DAP creates an instant affiliate account for all your members. The growth of your membership site will come not from your efforts alone, but through the word-of-mouth referrals of your members and affiliates. With DAP, you can send members their affiliate link right inside their welcome email, and even post it on any blog post or page on the site. Pre-code your pages with “re-tweet this” links or buttons, and watch your traffic increase much faster than your efforts alone.
7. DAP lets you sell as many different types of memberships or products as you want. Want to sell an ebook for a 1-time payment. You can do that. Want to sell a 5-part teleseminar series that requires 5 payments of $17 each, you can do that. Want to offer members a choice between getting content all at once (fast track), or seeing content come to them periodically, you can do that too.
8. DAP is a living, growing, evolving software. The creators of the software are both programmers and excellent marketers. Ravi Jayagopal and his wife Veena Prashanth are 100% committed to this software and its growing community. DAP was first released in early 2008, and has seen additional features and functionality added every 3-5 weeks. Best of all – these new features are typically put in based on community feedback!
9. You want a system that frees up your time, and provides you with ongoing revenue. With one-time purchases, and monthly memberships, you’ll finally get to grow and stabilize your online business income.
10. You want total control of your online business. You’re in charge with confidence when you combine DAP with WordPress. Plus, your site is easy to modify yourself, or just about any virtual assistant or team member could help you with. No longer will you have to pay exhorbitant webmaster fees for membership site customizations.

I could go on, but those are the top reasons you should use DAP and WordPress for your site. Best of all, if you already have a blog, you can add DAP right on top of it and get going even faster.

Your next steps:

1. Get Digital Access Pass, and test it out for a month. You get a 30 day guarantee to make sure it works for your business!
2. Sign up for the Discover Digital Access Pass Gold training course I’m teaching. I’ll shortcut your learning curve, and show you how to set up a blog, create products, and grow your site with the built-in affiliate program.

And remember: take action, revise later!

Bob

p.s. Have another reason why people should combine DAP with WordPress, post it below!

p.p.s. Want to compare DAP to Wishlist? Check out this head-to-head comparison between the 2 platforms (plus Amember and more). Digital Access Pass vs. Wishlist

Discover why Digital Access Pass is the premiere membership software plugin for WordPress during this revealing interview with the creator of the software, Ravi Jayagopal.

To learn the secrets behind Digital Access Pass, and what makes it rock, simply enter your name and email below.

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During the call, you’ll also find out more about the Discover DAP Membership Gold training program.

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This process not only gives you access to the call, but you’ll also become an instant affiliate of DiscoverDAP.com if you wish to be. Be sure to check your email right away for 2 messages – the first of which will have your password for this site.

Current DAP Users

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Discover why Digital Access Pass is the premiere membership software plugin for WordPress during this revealing interview with the creator of the software, Ravi Jayagopal.

In part 1 of this call, you learn all about DAP, Ravi and Veena’s passion for providing the very best software for membership sites to business owners like you and me, and multiple ways to design the profits for your site.

During part 2 and 3, you’ll find out more about the Discover DAP virtual training event that starts next week.

And in part 4, Ravi and I answer questions from the audience that attended live.

Program Replay:

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Please note: a free trial of DAP is no longer available. However, you have a full 30 days to use it during the guarantee period.

If you have used DAP already, please leave a comment below about your experience with the software. And of course, feel free to post a link to your site powered by DAP.

Example DAP site: Ravi’s No Business Like E-Business ebook dripping site

Compare DAP to Wishlist | Wishlist Homepage

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DAP creator Ravi Jayagopal at SIMPLE

Welcome to DiscoverDAP.com – your introduction to the Digital Access Pass membership site platform for WordPress.

The training you’ll find here will teach you the basics of creating a membership site based on information or services that you provide or create. I’ll teach you several ways to structure your membership site for recurring income. And I’ll guide you through the installation and cool features of Digital Access Pass.

In case you don’t know, DAP is the creation of New Yorker Ravi Jayagopal. Ravi was one of my guests at SIMPLE in Wilmington NC. He gets marketing, and he’s a tremendous programmer. You’ll get to know him a lot more through this site.

The Discover DAP program will start soon. In the meantime, head over to Ravi’s site and check out the features of Digital Access Pass. Of course, you’ll want to get DAP to see if it’s the right membership site for you. It’s closest competitor is Wishlist, which you’re welcome to check out and compare against DAP.