Switching from WishList Member (WLM) is usually a fairly straightforward process. There are some key differences to some of the site concepts, including membership levels and ecommerce.
The number one mistake we see is not scheduling enough time to inventory your current system and plan the migration including testing the end-result. A migration is a rare event, don’t rush it, and give yourself time to document what you currently have and plan on implementing the new system.
Differences
- WLM is designed as a mostly standalone system that has Infusionsoft integration available. Memberium is designed and optimized to integrate deeply with Infusionsoft.
- WLM has it’s own ecommerce system. Memberium uses Infusionsoft’s ecommerce system, and primarily operates off of tags.
- WLM extensively uses various HTTP POSTs for functions. Memberium uses HTTP POST minimally, directly synchronizing with Infusionsoft in real-time instead.
- WLM uses Membership levels for every change in access including content drips. This makes shutting off access difficult. Memberium uses Membership levels (based on Tags) for broad on/off access controls, and individual Tags for things like content drips.
- WLM stores user passwords encrypted in WordPress. Memberium by default stores passwords in Infusionsoft, however you can set Memberium to use WordPress based passwords by enabling “Secure passwords / local auth only” option from Memberium > Settings page.
- Users will need to use their email address to login.
What Doesn’t Change
- Your website content will come across without any changes.
Prepping
- Carefully review this entire document before starting the upgrade process.
- Review your WLM site and the features you use, and compare it to the Memberium documentation.
- If you use any custom WLM API calls in your themes or plugins, then you will need to replace those with Memberium equivalents.
- If you find a function you need in your WLM site that is not included in Memberium please contact Support for assistance so we can guide you to another solution, or implement a replacement for you. If you rely on a feature we don’t support and have no alternative for, then you may not be able to upgrade your site (This has never happened yet).
- Decide on a conversion process: either upgrade your existing site in place, or clone your site and upgrade the clone, then copy it back. Upgrading in place is more suitable for smaller, low traffic sites that can accommodate some minimal downtime during conversion. Cloning and upgrading is suitable for larger or higher traffic sites.
- Decide if you wish to do the work yourself, or hire another firm to do it. Memberium maintains a list of implementation partners, some of who have experience with WLM.
Start Conversion Process
- Go through your WLM configuration screens and note down your settings, including your page protections.
- Export your users by Membership Level
- Import each of your groups of users into Infusionsoft and tag them with a tempoary tag indicating the access level they had.
- Deactivate WLM
- Install Memberium on your site using the Memberium installation wizard.
- Recreate your main Membership Levels in Memberium from Memberium > Memberships page. We can help coach you through this process.
- Re-Tag your contacts with their new Membership tags.
- Search your pages, posts and other content types for WLM shortcodes. You can easily do this by searching for the text of “wlm_”, or “private_”.
- Review your pages, posts, and other content types, and mark their Memberium security settings to match your original WLM settings
- Setup your sales pages in Infusionsoft
- Review Email templates for WLM AutoLogin links, replace with Memberium AutoLogin link.
