We’re excited to share a new way to build your online course or membership site. This new plugin can save you hours of work when you’re creating new membership site or course.
The Membership Site Builder by Membership.Coach gives you access to a small (growing) library of pre-built site templates that you can pick from to build your membership site or course with.
All you need to do is pick the site design you want to use and it gets imported, along with all the plugins needed, in just a few clicks.
Access to the Membership Site Builder is now available to all Memberium customers at no extra cost. The Membership Site Builder works with both Memberium for Keap / Infusionsoft and Memberium for ActiveCampaign.
This plugin currently has site templates available for Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg.
This plugin currently has site templates available for Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg.
All membership sites need a set of common pages that make the site work as a “membership site” or “course”.
Members need to log in, they need a members “dashboard” page showing them all the content they have access to, they need to be able to consume all the individual lessons…
On top of that, they need to be able to update new credit card info, make changes to their account settings, view their invoices and other things depending on what you want your members to be able to do on your site.
Instead of having to build all these pages, one by one yourself, we’ve done all this work for you and give you a small library of site designs that you can pick from.
You can use these templates to get your new membership site or course launched quickly.
We’ve also included some templates for front facing marketing pages that you can use to promote your site with.
Throughout this article, we’ll show you how the Membership Site Builder works and show off the templates it gives you.
Even if you’re not using Memberium for your membership platform, throughout this post you should be able to get some new ideas on the type of pages you could include in your existing membership site or course.
You might even walk away with some fresh ideas for new marketing related pages that you could use to promote your existing site with.
Here’s a preview of some of the marketing related templates available through one of the site designs in the Membership Site Builder…
Special Thanks & Credits
We’d like to share a special thanks to Kadence WP, Awesome Motive and the team behind Astra.
We heavily pulled code and structure for the Membership Site Builder plugin from the Starter Templates by Kadence WP plugin, the One Click Demo Import plugin by the team at Awesome Motive and Astra’s Starter Template plugin. The Membership Site Builder is GPL licensed and open source.
Over time, we plan to make more unique improvements to the plugin and build out a larger library of membership sites and courses for you to choose from to build your site with.
Overview of All the Membership Site Templates and Online Course Templates Available
Right now, three different site templates are available for Elementor users.
For Beaver Builder and Gutenberg users, one site template is currently available. More designs are being worked on and we’re planning on adding more in the future.
If you have any feedback or suggestions on what we should add next, please share your ideas with us by emailing support@memberium.com with your input.
Here’s an overview of all the different site templates included in the Membership Site Builder currently…
Elite Program - 37 Templates Included
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The first prebuilt membership site pack available is called “Elite Program”. This site is made up of 37 pages. In addition to all the pages you need to set up a basic membership site or course with, it includes some front facing marketing pages, home page, about, opt in pages, sales pages and more.
These pages can be used to sell an online course with or without a learning management system like LearnDash.
We’ve also included a template specifically for serving audio files to your students. This allows you to display your audio files in a simple, but stylish way for your members to access.
All the standard pages are also included such as a home page, login pages, members only pages, account management related pages, excerpts and much more.
Modern Course Creator - 40 Templates Included
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The second prebuilt site pack available is our Modern Course Creator templates. This site design gives you access to 40 individual pages, completely prebuilt, and ready for you to add your content to.
This has all the same pages as the Elite Program site, it just has a different design and color scheme when compared to the Elite Program templates.
The other three additional templates you get with the Modern Course Creator are an Updates page you can use to show latest blog posts, news, etc. You’ll also get more variations for your Members Only page. That’s the page people see when they don’t have access to certain protected content.
Standard Membership Site Templates - 27 Templates Included
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The last pack available is our Standard Membership Site Templates.
In this pack, you’ll get 27 different individual pages. These templates are based on our original Elementor pages templates we previously had.
This pack is designed for brand new sites looking to get launched as quickly as possible. It doesn’t include some of the marketing related or other extra pages that the previous two sites had.
Of the three site packs currently available, these are the simplest templates available if you’re just looking for a basic course or membership site.
Setting up a course with these templates is simple. We’ve included individual course homepages that link to the individual lessons (another template). Everything is editable with your page builder of choice. We recommend Elementor.
What Pages Do the Different Membership Site Builder Templates Include?
As we stated at the beginning of this article, there are certain pages any membership site needs in order to work correctly.
Your site may have some unique pages that other sites won’t, but for example, all membership sites need a login page. Without one, there is no way for members to access gated content.
We’ve tried to make setting up a membership site or course as quick and easy as possible. Part of that was thinking through all the pages someone like yourself would need in order to launch.
Here is a list of most of the pages we include in each pre-built site pack that you can import and start editing today.
Even if you’re not using Memberium, you can look at these templates as examples of the type of pages you can add to your membeship site or course. If you’re using the Membership Site Builder for Memberium, you can be able to install and create these pages instantly on your site.
With that said, here’s an overview of all the page templates that we have available for you…
Front Facing Home Page for Your Membership Site
Any membership site needs a front facing home page.
Your homepage should explain what your site, membership, or course is about and introduce who you are. It should also include some aspects of a sales page, or lead to your sales page or a lead magnet that you can use.
We include a home page template in both the Elite Program and Modern Course Creator pack that are similar. The only difference is the color scheme and fonts used.
Membership and Course Lead Magnet / Opt-In Pages
Any successful membership or course also needs to be collecting leads.
That’s why we’ve included some simple lead magnet opt-in pages AND pages you can use to fulfill your lead magnet so you can launch your lead magnets quickly.
Here’s an example opt-in page included that can be used for an ebook, checklist, PDF, guide or any other downloadable freebie that you want to give away…
We’ve also included pages for a “Free Premium Lesson” opt-in. This will let you collect the name and email of a prospect and in return they’ll get access to 1-3 of your lessons from your paid program.
We’ve included both the opt-in page for the free mini course and the actual fulfillment pages – the free lesson fulfillment pages. These lesson pages are different from regular lesson pages, they can serve as mini sales pages for you. The call to action buttons on the page can lead to your full sales page, or order form directly. Here’s what that opt in page looks like…
Creating content for a new lead magnet can be a pain. It is however, really easy to pull different lessons from your existing program and turn that into a lead magnet. It’s also a great way to promote your membership site or course and consistently generate new sales.
As a tip, you can experiment with pulling different lessons from your paid program on different topics and subjects to create different lead magnets to test. Once you find one that works really well for you, you can scale it up by sending more paid traffic to it or promote it in other ways.
You can also use automated emails to make sure your leads watch all the free lessons your giving them, and send some sales related emails once they complete watching the free lessons that you have to give away.
Your “Members Dashboard” or “Course Dashboard” Page
At the heart of every membership site lies a “members dashboard” page or “course dashboard” page.
This is the homepage a member sees after they log in. Where at a quick glance, they can see all of the content they have access to as a member.
Depending on how your membership site is setup, you can have this page display where a member last left off in their training, which courses they’ve completed so far and the ones they haven’t.
Individual Course and Lesson Pages
The “Individual Course” page template can be used to create your own individual course pages. This can be used to create your own course listing pages without having to use any LMS, or with one if you want.
We have individual course pages available in each template pack. These are used to link to all the lessons or modules in a specific course.
Each one of your courses would have a page similar to the ones above. This allows your members to easily navigate between lessons and also lets them see the overall sequence of things included in a course.
When someone clicks on a lesson for a course they’re enrolled in, they’ll be taken to that individual lesson. “Individual lesson” templates are included in our page templates.
When a visitor doesn’t have access to the course and they attempt to click into a lesson, they’ll be redirected to the “member’s only” excerpt automatically. You can also set your site up to not allow visitors who haven’t bought the course, to be able to view that course fulfillment page.
To use the lesson template you just need to copy in the video embed code, add an optional description, and any relevant lesson files (such as a PDF, Powerpoint or audio version of the lesson) and it’s good to go. Nice, right?
The lessons title is pulled in automatically by the page title and author name that’s set for the page.
If you’d like to include links to the next or previous lessons in the course you can update those links manually. Some of our templates also include a sidebar navigation using WordPress menus. This is covered in this video that walks you through how to setup a whole site using the Elite Program or Mordern Course Creator template pack.
Additionally, if you’d like to add other custom content to your lesson you can do so easily with Elementor’s easy drag and drop page builder.
If you’d like to create multiple lessons with this, you can save it as an “Elementor Template”, that allows you to easily clone it to create additional lessons using the same template.
Your Account Page Templates For Your Membership Site
Every membership site needs some type of “Your Account” page so your members or students can update their settings and profile.
In all template packs available, we have a my account page available.
This page has everything included that’s typically needed on a “Your Account” page for any subscription type program or online course.
The page gives your members a central area where they can manage their billing related settings with Infusionsoft. They can add a new credit card if needed, view their past paid invoices, pay any past due invoices and manage their existing subscription. The eCommerce links can also link to WooCommerce if you’re using that.
The members profile picture comes from Memberium’s gravatar shortcode that uses WordPress default Gravatar images. If the user has a Gravatar image associated with their email address, their image will show up as shown in the above example.
On this page members can also update their name, email and see their current membership level.
If you want to add any other relevant content to this page, adding anything is easy by editing the existing template and using the Elementor page builder.
Upsell / Upgrade Related Pages
As your membership site grows, you’ll probably add more products, courses, and content that can be offered as upsells.
These upsells can be offered during the initial checkout for a new member. Or you can have offers show up in the members dashboard for people on a specific membership level.
In each prebuilt site we offer, we’ve included an upsell/upgrade page. You can pass members here to give them information about an upgrade offer. Beneath the offer information, there is a button that, when clicked, will automatically (and instantly) charge their card on file if you’re using Infusionsoft / Keap.
If you’re using ActiveCampaign, you’ll have to take the member to a checkout page for your eCommerce system of choice.
Standard Membership Pages (Login, Forgot Password, Register, Etc..)
There are many other pages that are included in our site templates that don’t require their own section to discuss. These pages are self-explanatory for the most part.
Pages such as Login, Register, and Forgot Password are all included and linked together with the site templates.
Whichever prebuilt site template pack you choose, you’ll get these pages which match the style of all your other pages.
Although these are being grouped together in this post and are considered “basic”, these pages are crucial to your site working properly. Without a login page, no members would be able to actually get access to your site.
The membership site builder will save you tons of time by giving these pages to you ready to go.
“Members Only” Excerpts and Other Templates
The “Members Only” page can be used as the default excerpt page for your membership site.
Meaning, when someone tries to visit a protected page or area of your site and they don’t have permission to view it, they’ll get redirected to this page that lets them know it’s for “members only” and shares how they can join.
The copy and link can be easily edited with Elementor. This page will need to be set as the default excerpt page.
We also include templates (see bottom right image) for payment failure notices. When a member’s monthly or yearly payment fails, you can show them this page and link them to a credit card update form. Their access will be restored automatically after making a successful payment. You can learn more about how this works here.
Umbrella Account Related Pages
We already include the page that allows team leaders or parent users to manage the sub accounts they’ve added.
They can click on ‘Invite a New Member’ to add more users, see the existing users they’ve added on the same page and see how many spots they have left.
They can click the disconnect button to instantly remove a user added under their account. You can easily change the colors and styling of this page to match your branding with Elementor’s page editor.
When a parent user clicks the “Invite a New Member” button they get sent to this page where they can add additional members under them.
The form will only be visible to users who are considered the team leader/ or parent user.
Here’s what it looks like if you’re using the Elite Program templates…
You can also customize the form and add additional fields, depending on what you want the parent users to add, like a phone number, address, CRM custom fields and more.
How the Different Pages In the Membership Site Templates Link Together
To help you understand how all of the page templates link together, we’ve put together a few visual sitemaps that you can reference. Even if you’re not planning to use our templates, these sitemaps can help you see how all the different pages involved in your membership site or course fit together.
You can also get some ideas on how you can use different marketing related pages to promote your program.
You don’t have to use all of the templates we give you in the membership site packs. Using any of the marketing or front facing pages is completely up to you.
Here’s an overview of how they fit together…
Your Membership Site’s Marketing Related Pages
The first part is the front facing pages that people see before they become a paid member. We’re calling this the “Front Facing Pages”.
The first and main page is the home page. This links to a few core pages that guide members closer towards becoming a paying member or finding out more about you.
You can also use emails to bring visitors to these different pages depending on where they are in your funnel.
In this site, the top of the home page links off to the main sales page for your program and a lead magnet where visitors can opt in to get 1-3 lessons for free from your premium program. Giving them a small taste of your program through a free lesson like this is an effective (and easy) way to promote your program since you already have all your lessons created. We also give you a “free lesson” page that doubles as a mini sales page for your program.
There’s an “about” page, where you can tell people more about yourself, how you can help them and all the programs and content you offer. Your about page is a great place to link to the other free resources you have to offer. For instance your podcast, any lead magnets or other valuable resources you have to five away.
Another template included is an opt in page that you can use for an ebook, checklist or download. Along with a fulfillment page you can use. Another useful marketing page is an “Inside Tour” page that you can use to give prospects a sneak peak at what it’s like to be a paid member of your program..
Leverage Email Automation to Bring Prospects Back & Move Them Closer Towards Becoming a Paid Member
When you’re using automation tools like Keap, ActiveCampaign or another email marketing platform, you can bring users back to the different pages to move them closer towards becoming a paid member.
For instance, if they opt in to watch your free lessons that you offer, you can send reminder emails making sure they watch all of the free lessons you give away. Along with a relevant follow up after leading them back to the other pages that we give you.
This could be an email inviting them to check out the other free lead magnets that you have, an email to check out the “inside tour” of your program, making a direct sales offer by sending them to your sales page. There’s a lot of possibilities of how you could use these pages.
Where Does Your Checkout Pages and Order Forms Fit in?
All of the sales pages and links from certain pages will lead to your order form or checkout pages for your course or membership site. After a visitor purchases your program they’ll automatically get access through Memberium and your CRM.
Here’s an overview of how it works…
In this screenshot, we’ve zoomed in to the top right portion of the map. This is the order form or checkout page that your sales page, or other relevant pages link to.
For your checkout pages you can use Keap or Infusionsoft’s default order forms, WooCommerce, Spiffy or ThriveCart.
Once someone makes a purchase, they can optionally be redirected to an upsell page using Memberium’s one click upsell feature, if you have a relevant upsell offer you want to include.
After that, Memberium gives them access to your site automatically. It generates a password, delivers access, and the member will be taken to the Member’s Area.
That’s where the member’s area of the map comes in…
Your Membership Site’s Member Related Pages
Members will log in to the Member’s Area (or reset their password if they forget it) and be taken to their Member’s Homepage or Dashboard. This page will list all the courses or content the member has purchased and has access to. If you’re using an LMS with your site, you would link to all your LMS courses instead from your members dashboard page.
Sections the member has access to will take them to the course content and individual lessons. If they click on something they don’t have access to, they’ll be given the opportunity to purchase access. If they make the purchase, access to that content will automatically be given to them.
The other thing linked from the Member’s Homepage is the account management page. The final image below explains how everything is linked on the Your Account pages…
Your Member’s Account Related Management Pages
The My Account page will let the member update their account info, CRM data, billing details, and can be customized to your site’s needs. By default, this page shows the current memberships and lets the member update their password and basic CRM info (name, address, and a custom field).
This page also has links to other pages such as the Invoices and View Receipt pages. This data is pulled in from Infusionsoft.
If you’re using ActiveCampaign, our templates have the WooCommerce account pages included by default. You could also link to an external ordering system such as ThriveCart or Spiffy.
Support for Three Major WordPress Page Builders: Elementor, Beaver Builder and Gutenberg
Memberium and Elementor: Our Preferred WordPress Page Builder
Currently our preferred page builder is Elementor. The simplicity it brings to creating pages in WordPress is unmatched. In our experience, it also has the shortest learning curve when compared to other page builders currently available.
Memberium’s integration with Elementor allows you to control the visibility of any Elementor blocks with Membership levels or CRM tags.
The Membership Site Builder Elementor templates are also built to work with Elementor’s global styles in a unique way.
Elementor Global Styles: Change the Fonts and Colors On Your Entire In a Few Clicks
If you’re using the Elementor templates, you can change all the colors, fonts and branding on your site in just a few clicks. The Elementor templates included take advantage of Elementor’s global style settings. What this means is that instead of having to change colors on every single page, you set your brand colors in one spot and it updates across the entire site.
Once saved, this would change the colors and fonts sitewide. Not just the page I was editing.
As of now, the global color options are only available for Elementor. If you want to be able to use this feature, make sure to choose Elementor as your preferred page builder during the setup.
Ready to start using these templates with your membership site?
All new Memberium customers or any existing ones can get access to the Membership Site Builder at no extra cost. It’s included in your Memberium purchase. Immediately after purchase, you’ll get access to the Install Wizard which includes this plugin. For all existing customer, it's available for download through the Memberium member's area .
To use the Membership Site Builder to quickly build your membership site or course, just pick the plan that’s right for you and you'll be able to get started instantly!
