Members only areas or client only areas can be useful ways of providing privileged information to a select group of your site visitors. This can allow you to create better relationships with these people and use your website to present or distribute information privately with a guest list that you directly control. It’s one of the features that makes WebEden unique among other website builders, and extremely powerful.

We’ve also been asked about ‘paid membership’. By using Groups to create a set of VIP members it is possible to charge a fee before adding a member to that group, though this has to be done manually. So here’s how to do all of these things.

Members only pages

Creating members only areas is reasonably easy and very powerful. It also means that anyone who joins your site will immediately get access to that page so there is no manual work to update the permissions with each new member.

Once again I’ll be using my favourite and highly ranked taxi website www.joeslondontaxis.com. (some of you will remember this from our series of SEO Guide articles).

To create a members only area first click on ‘People’ in the Toolbar and then the ‘Permissions’ tab. Here you will see a list of all your pages on the left, and the permissions settings of the selected page (or pages) on the right.

Every page can have its permissions set individually, or you can change the permissions for multiple pages as once (use the ‘control’ or ‘shift’ keys while selecting pages to select several at once).

I’ve created a page called ‘members welcome page’ which allows me to give a special welcome to my members. If I position this top of my pages list, then this will actually replace the normal ‘welcome’ page for members when they visit the site. Clever eh?

To make the page members only select the page from the list on the left, then change the ‘view’ settings for that page to ‘members only’. And that’s it.

Client only areas

Creating and managing Groups is the key to client only areas. Groups can have permissions set as a whole, and any member who is part of that group will get those permissions. You can add or remove members from Groups at any time.

If you don’t have any Groups you will need to go to the ‘group’ tab first and set one up. I’ve created two groups, one called ‘Clients’ and one called ‘Drivers’.

Next go back to the ‘Permissions’ tab and select the page that you wish to edit from the list on the left, then change the ‘view’ settings for that page to ‘Group’ and you can then choose which Group can see that page, e.g. Clients. I’ve done this for my ‘clients’ page, and also my ‘drivers’ page.

You can then add or remove individual members from that Group to control which ones can see that page. Here I have added 2 of my clients into the ‘Clients’ group, and selected the third in preparation to add him too (or her ;-). This would be the same process if you were creating a VIP section of selected members only.

You can also create members directly for clients by going to the ‘members’ tab and clicking ‘create member’. You can then define a username, password and email for the this client when you create the member. Once the member is created you can add them to a Group on your site so they have the correct permissions. Finally you can email your client with their username and password and a link to the login page. The ‘create member’ function makes it easy to setup client only areas without the client having to do anything themselves.

There are numerous ways you can use this kind of functionality, so have a go and let us know what you think!

Update 28.7.09
To give you a helping hand we’ve put together a video tutorial that shows you how to add members to your website.

And here’s one that shows you how to send membership invitations.

And finally, here’s how to send updates to Facebook and Twitter.

Judging from your feedback, our new update that turns your WebEden website into social media hub has been a big hit. We’ve tried to explain why its good to create members to your website, and lots of you are taking full advantage. Our previous tutorial showed you how to add members to your website. This time around we’re looking at how to send membership invitations to people.

Follow the tutorial and let us know how you got on.

How did you get on? Leave us a comment below.

We’ve been speaking quite a lot recently about how you can introduce things on your site that make it more interactive. These include things like adding a poll to your website, or adding a forum.

All these features are part of a website movement that the media have dubbed ‘Web 2.0′. In the original (Web 1.0!) vision of the Internet, websites were places where a 1-way process took place. A company would give out information about themselves, or a newspaper website would tell the news.

In web 2.0, the interaction between visitor and website is two-way. Not only does the website distribute information, but the website visitor also contributes to that information. The communication is two way between website and visitor. And the communication can also be between one website visitor and another.

One of the principles behind Web 2.0 is that if a website visitor contributes to and interacts with a website, then they are more likely to come back to that site later. It improves the ‘stickyness’ of the site. In addition, if a website visitor contributes to a website they are more likely to feel ‘part of it’, and will recommend it to others.

One of the great new features we introduced with our most recent update is the ability to create members to your website, and allow those members to add to and sometimes edit your site. This is another fantastic Web 2.0 feature.

Members have their own login that they have created by signing up and getting an account with your site. These members have a close relationship with your website, and are highly likely to both return to the site, and also recommend it to others. One of your main objectives should be to look after your members, so that they in turn will sing your website’s praises to other people.

In order to get members to your site, you need to give website visitors a good reason to sign up. This could be exclusive access to members-only pages on your site, pages that have unique and valuable information on them. You might want to grant them editing privileges for some pages, so that they can shape the content there. Additionally, it might be that they can join in on certain discussions. Another idea is that they can get a regular newsletter that gives them access to valuable new insight. Most importantly, you need to give them unique information, advice or ideas that they cannot get elsewhere.

Whatever you do, however, don’t force people to sign up: the last thing you want to do it alienate them.

Here are the four main rules to follow in order to grow your site membership:

1. Give your members access to unique content and information that they cannot get elsewhere

2. Give your members MORE than general website visitors e.g. members-only content, discounts or communities

3. Communicate with your members using newsletters, Facebook & Twitter…

4. Listen to what they say, and given them a forum for their feedback. This helps them feel valuable and valued..

Have any of you managed to create lots of members so far? What pitfalls or successes have you encountered? Leave us a comment below.

Last week we announced the launch of a range of new features of the WebEden website making system. These features put your WebEden website at the heart of your social networking sites. The feedback so far has been very positive. However every new thing always takes a bit of getting used to, so we’ve put together video tutorial that shows you how to add members to your site.

Have a go and let us know how you got on!

WebEden is today (hopefully) catapulting itself into the world of Social Media, Social Networking, and Web 2.0. Whilst we’ve talked before about how to best make use of Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter to promote your site, with our latest update we’re trying to put your WebEden site at the heart of your Social Networking activities.

What are we talking about?

Want to know how to grow your website with more members and advocates? How to interact, manage and develop a better relationship with your visitors? Want to create members-only/client-only pages or sections? Want to post information or updates from your website to Facebook/Twitter? Build a collaborative website with edit rights for different people?

Well then, the membership release is what you’ve been waiting for! After many months of development it has finally arrived, jam packed with new features and a lot of improvement. Read on for more detail…

This release sees a whole new membership section with a number of improvements to make it easier for site owners to attract, manage and communicate with their members.

In particular, the main areas of improvement are:

a) to make it easier to invite members to join;
b) to ensure members become members of the site only and no longer have to create a SiteMaker account;
c) to replace ‘SiteMaker’ branding in the join process with the site owner’s own look and feel;
d) to allow site owners to create site administrators;
e) to make managing page permissions easier; and finally,
f) to enable integration with some Facebook and Twitter services.

More detail on these features is provided below. While there are over 100 new FAQs in the Help section covering the various new features, we will aslo be publishing some specific articles over the coming weeks. These will highlight more of what’s new, what’s improved and how you can make the most of it.

Getting new members

It’s now possible to invite new members using your Windows Live or Gmail address books. Alternatively, you can also just copy and paste a list of emails addresses if you want to transfer them from an offline address book. The content of the invite email can also be customised by you. As a site owner, it is now possible to create a member yourself, while in edit mode. Previously, the site owner would have to ask the new member to come to his or her site and create an account before being able to assign any access/edit rights.

Site Level Membership

Previously visitors to a WebEden site who wanted to join as a member were required to complete a two-stage sign up process: firstly, they had to create a SiteMaker account; secondly, they then had to join the site. Now, all new sites will be built with Site Level Membership, which means that visitors join the site in a one step process. It also means that the members are free to choose a username that is unique to that site alone. Previously, usernames had to be unique across all usernames for all members of the sites built by the partner.

Sites built before the launch will be able to upgrade their site to site level membership, therefore getting access to all the new features provided under site level membership. However, this is not mandatory and in fact some sites use the WebEden wide membership so that they can run a number of sites with shared logins.

The join up process now involves setting up a join page which contains a new customisable login/join widget where the site owner can create a branded experience explaining the benefits of joining their site. Previously, the join process took place in a SiteMaker editor style popup window Emails from the site now refer to the site’s name and come from the site email address. Previously, some account emails were from the SiteMaker Team and mentioned SiteMaker.

Site Admin

A new role of Site Administrator has been created. A site admin has access to all the toolbar functions, but any information regarding the site owner, such as billing details, are not accessible. This feature is particularly useful for website resellers.

Managing members and page permissions

It is now possible to set up permissions for multiple pages at once. The interface on the settings panel has been improved to make it much simpler to understand what permissions have been given to individual members as well as each group.

You can now create groups and drag and drop members into those groups from a single panel. Site owners can now view and update members’ email addresses and send them an email that allows the member to reset their password (as long as the site is using site level membership)

Integration with Facebook and Twitter

It is now possible to allow visitors to become a member of your site using their Facebook login credentials, therefore making it easier for users to register as they won’t have to create another username and password.

You can also link your site with your Facebook account enabling you to post notes and updates on your wall about your website so that your friend network on Facebook can hear about your site or be updated with any changes.

It is also possible to send updates to an associated Twitter account to communicate with your twitter followers about your site.

NB. If you have your own domain name you’ll have to get a Facebook Application key to use the Facebook features. You can do this in the new ‘People’ section on the ‘Settings’ tab and we’ll talk you through the process. It’s quite simple.

And that as they say is that. It’s taken a while for us to get our heads around it all, but we’re sure you’ll get to grips with it much faster. Let us know what you think and we hope you enjoy the new tools!

To give you a helping hand we’ve put together a video tutorial that shows you how to add members to your website.

And here’s one that shows you how to send membership invitations.

And finally, here’s how to send updates to Facebook and Twitter.