Digital Entrepreneur

Offering membership subscription options on WordPress websites is becoming an increasingly popular way to generate income by restricting content to paid members.

Choosing the right WordPress plugin to help manage membership site can be daunting if you haven’t installed one before.

To help make your decision easier, I have reviewed 3 of the best plugins that offer features to help you set up and manage a membership subscription business.

Editors choice Member mouse – WordPress membership plugin that’s powerful… flexible… and easy.

Member Mouse

MemberMouse WordPress plugin offers you everything you need to easily manage your online membership business no matter what you’re selling. MemberMouse claims to provide a flexible platform, with absolutely no programming required allowing you to get up and running quickly.

Features

23 Features

Support

Online

Price and payment

From $19.95 per month

Accepts Credit Card

Find out more

Memberpress

MemberPress WordPress plugin integrates fully with your already-existing WordPress website, is robust but is also simple to use.

Features

24 Features

Support

Online

Price and payment

From $195 per year

Accepts Credit Card and Paypal

Find out more

Cozmoslabs

Cozmoslabs Paid Member Subscriptions WordPress plugin doesn’t force you into a predefined structure by integrating with your existing WordPress site and content instead of complicated setup pages.

Features

13 Features

Support

Online support ticketing

Price and payment

Free plugin available

From $69 one off/yearly (Support and upgrades)

Find out more

Stay fit and save time in 2018

By Max K-Thompson

On 5th January 2018

In Advice, Trends

As the endeavour to continually seek more efficient and effective use of our precious time increases, so does the popularity of group fitness sessions. Combined with the growing trend towards the uptake of high-intensity exercises followed by slower-paced recovery times, will we see a healthier population in 2018?

Note: Intense exercise may save time, however, if training is not done correctly, the potentially higher rate of injury may not be worth it.

Be more flexible and go gym free

As well as the cost-saving benefits, being free from the confines of the gym can allow you to be more flexible about your choices when and where to exercise to help you fit your workouts during less busy times on your day.

Yoga offers a range of ideal exercises for increasing mobility which doesn’t require complicated equipment that is normally associated with going to the gym.

Stay on track with wearable tech

Coming soon – wearable tech review 2018

The use of social video predicted to grow in 2018

By Max K-Thompson

On 5th January 2018

In Marketing tips

Video marketing experts are realising even more now that reaching genuine customers is significantly more important to focus on rather than the sheer volume of people that are watching. So the objective of going “viral” won’t hold as much value in 2018, after all, ultimately you want to reach actual customers who want to buy something.

If you combine this with the latest AI-powered tools, which are removing the guesswork about which videos will lead to what results and can be achieved in a matter of milliseconds, video marketing is becoming better targeted and can offer the capability to include more personalized messages.

My first two weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand

By Max K-Thompson

On 2nd January 2018

In Journey updates

Arriving in Chiang Mai

I arrived from the U.K to Bangkok airport and after 4 hours wait. I transferred from there to Chiang Mai where I was met by a friend and hitched a ride on the back of his moped. If you’re looking for tips on spending your first day in Chiang Mai, I’ve included provided some notes from my experience in a separate article.

Cafes in Chiang Mai

There is no shortage of places to grab a coffee. The Chiang Mai Guru has a review of some of the best cafes in the area.

Restaurants in Chiang Mai

With a wide variety of options for eating at street food stalls, small restaurants or larger chains, it’s easy to be spoilt for choice.

Nightlife in Chiang Mai

Most bars and clubs start serving alcohol from 5 pm onwards and start closing around 12 am.

Shopping in Chiang Mai

Markets, shopping centres and Super Markets

Accommodation in Chiang Mai

Options for places to live and stay

Christmas Eve in Chiang Mai

I spent Christmas eve with friends enjoying a 5-course meal at Bistro 8

New Years in Chiang Mai

Heartwork Co-working space organised a NYE party.

Now accepting bitcoin cryptocurrency payment 2018

Now accepting bitcoin 2018

By Max K-Thompson

On 2nd January 2018

In Experience

I first invested in buying cryptocurrency at the end of 2014 and didn’t think much more about it until recently (end of 2017) when I noticed the news reports coming through seemed to be particularly focused on bitcoin, so I checked in to my wallet to find out my small investment had increased with no effort on my part.

What is Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralised cryptocurrency payment system designed by Satoshi Nakamoto and released to the public in 2009.

Cryptocurrencies use a ledger called a blockchain which is a new and innovative way that people and companies can create, verify, and enforce transactions without a middleman or central authority to records transactions chronologically.

Since it’s release, updates and improvements have been made to this software-based currency by a network of developers.

Making an investment

My initial investment in Cryptocurrency was minimal, so the risk was very low. Similar in a way to gambling, I believe that it’s sensible and important not to invest more than you can afford.

Depending on your usual approach to making investments whether that be a short-term or long-term strategy, you might research the reasons for investing in Cryptocurrency differently and come to your own conclusion.

The first biggest and most popular question seems to be about the long-term value of Bitcoin, will it trade at a value of millions of dollars per coin or ultimately drop to a zero value.

There are a number of sources, such as this article on Forbes that recommends that if you think BTC has a 10% chance of becoming a long-term trusted store of value, it is a good investment with a nice expected return and that it’s good to remember that, similar to gold, its value is only what others think it should be.

It’s not my place to say if you should invest in Bitcoin. What I would say though is do your homework, research using qualified sources and never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Get paid in Bitcoin

Now, as a freelancer, I’m currently accepting part payment in Bitcoin and Ether in return for offering some marketing solutions as an additional approach to buying cryptocurrency directly and I will soon be investing in other cryptocurrencies.

Market value

There are a number of sources for checking the latest value of your investments, I am currently using the cryptocurrency price checking services at Coin Ranking.

Tips for your arrival, first day in Chiang Mai, Thailand

By Max K-Thompson

On 30th December 2017

In Uncategorised

Comfortable bed for the night

There are plenty of choices for staying in Chiang Mai for a short time or long stay. Choosing a place that suits you will depend on your preferences, budget, availability and the duration of your stay.

Prices may vary depending on if you’re planning to stay in the same place for a longer time as you may receive a favourable rate.

On arrival in Chiang Mai, I was fortunate to stay with a friend for the first week.

You can also get £25 discount when you sign up and book a place to stay on AirBnb

Getting around

Booking an Uber is being more popular with tourists and locals in Chiang Mai

co-working spaces Chiang Mai, Thailand

By Max K-Thompson

On 30th December 2017

In Advice, Experience, Featured, Working space

A space for Digital Nomads

Why quality link building will help grow your business in 2018

By Max K-Thompson

On 30th December 2017

In Marketing tips

Introducing link building

Simply put, link building is the process of getting links from other websites to yours. Generating these links can be a timely exercise, however, the end results will signal to Google that your site content is a quality resource.

Why search results matter

If Google recognises your content as a high-quality resource that is worth citation then your chances of appearing number one in the search engine results increases. In the top position, your website is much more likely to generate more traffic than similar websites that appear lower down.

Choosing the right keywords

Appearing at the top of Google is not the only consideration when link building.

Determining which keywords that you should target is an important factor when you’re improving your search engine optimisation.

Quality over quantity

Increasing the number of links that point to your pages is one of the objectives when link building and having more backlinks does help improve where your pages will appear on a Search Engine Result Page (SERP) however there can be a negative impact on your results on Google if a large quantity of the links are low quality.

Google is more likely to penalise if you appear to have large volumes of low-quality links. There are also a number of other factors to consider which we won’t go into detail right now.

More quality traffic, more quality customers

If you’re targetting the right keywords and your website pages are ranking highly for those search terms then you’re increasing the likelihood that more of the right customers are seeing your marketing content, increasing your brand awareness and ultimately helping your visitors buy from you. All you need to do next is measure and improve your conversion rates.