There are a lot of great membership plugins out there
As you saw in an earlier post I wrote reviewing membership plugins, the “right” plugin is often a matter of what you value most. Just yesterday, I wrote about a different one, Restrict Content Pro, that works like a charm.
But I must confess, one of my favorites is a favorite because the guy behind it. To be fair, I don't know all the guys behind all the other membership plugins, so that's part of it. But I have met, face to face, with Jason Coleman and I like where he's coming from. And that's why Paid Memberships Pro is a favorite of mine. It may also be the reason I like Restrict Content Pro.
Paid Memberships Pro is still young…but Amazing
Paid Memberships Pro is one of the plugins I referenced in my earlier review and I've been working with it to get prepped for my new launch of online courses in January. If you haven't read my other posts, the quick recap goes like this:
- It can protect pages
- It can protect post categories
- It can handle subscriptions
- It can work with Stripe
- It has functions that let you get down and dirty
But you know what it doesn't do? It didn't give me a way to drip content. And by now, you know that's a big deal for me.
A Pre-Announcement
If you're reading this today, then tomorrow, when you wake up, if you're into memberships and content dripping, it's going to be like Christmas came early. Because tomorrow Jason Coleman is going to announce a revision to Paid Memberships Pro. And in case you forgot already – Jason's plugin is FREE.
In that update is a feature that is very special to me. It's support for simple content dripping – just like how Premise does it, with a single modifying term inside the short code.
[membership level="1" delay="7"]...[/membership]
How do I know?
Maybe you're wondering how I know what's coming tomorrow? Have I broken into his computer and read his email? If I did, I'm not telling. But no, that's not it. The reality is that this was a feature I wanted so bad, I was willing to buy it. So I contacted Jason to see if I could essentially pay to accelerate the timetable and get it introduced sooner than later and he welcomed it.
Why am I telling you that I picked up the check on this one?
Honestly, it's because I think more of you should do the same.
You should do it too
I'll end with a different kind of call to action than normal. One that challenges you just a bit, if you, like me, regularly use WordPress and all the amazing plugins and themes that developers produce. We've commoditized software development to the point that we honestly think a plugin that costs $50 is too expensive and we're only willing to pay when it's $25 or $30. That's ridiculous.
Yes, it's gotten easier to write some code. Yes, tools can help automate little parts (and testing). But writing fantastic code is still work. Hard work. And so we should pay for that work. I'm not saying you have to pay $400 for a plugin (unless it is crazy awesome). But I'm saying, this model – of paying a developer to escalate the development of a feature to an open source product is a business model we should all embrace a bit more.
So go find a feature you've always wanted to see in BackupBuddy or GravityForms or Types & Views and ask them if you can send them a bit of cash to help things along. I can't promise you that they have capacity or room in their schedule, but I can promise they'll appreciate it.
And we'll all thank you later for some amazing new features.