05APR08 – Few things are more tempting and pervasive these days than a website that allows you to join. As a rookie webmaster, you may not know exactly where to begin looking for help in creating what is truly a daunting website when you consider what happens behind the scenes. If you’ve gotten your hands VERY dirty with HTML and dabbled in CSS, PHP and any Content Management System on the market, you might be able to wrangle up some form of membership site based on your experience. If you crave a subscription site but have done little or none of the above, either get dirty NOW or find some antisocial bookworm web wizzard who has and pay them enough to eat and concentrate!

Before your eyes get to the end of this article, let’s ask the obvious to all this writing that comes before: Is it worth it to learn some code yourself; test Forum and TextPattern installations; not buy a boxed solution; visit CMS Matrix? One of many self-taught PHP membership website creators now makes $12 MILLION annually in advertising alone while others only make about $4-5 MILLION. Sound interesting enough to read?

To begin your trip down the rabbit hole just as we are (hence, fewer site updates lately), you’ll need to know certain buzz words and reasons that membership sites behave the way they do.

According to Dave Taylor, membership sites in PHP aren’t that hard until they become subscription sites. Everything, and we do mean everything, is controlled by a Content Management System or CMS.

Flexing your rookie CMS system through PHP databases is best performed by installing a Forum. We once did and although no one uses it to get computer questions answered, it provides a sound foundation of just how information travels for membership activities.

According to Derek Scruggs, having a good grip on HTML will help set your eyes and mind to reading and writing better code. Open TAGS and close TAGS and CALL FIELDS are very important to understand whether your using CSS, HTML, FORMS, TABLES, PHP (through MySQL) and tweaking any CMS. HTML is antique, but remains the grand-daddy of it all.

One constantly recommended resource is the site, The CMS Matrix. It’s so ugly, it took us a day to understand what was being said and advised on that site. But it’s true, it’s a site worth recommending. If you’re even considering a membership site, you’re on your way to becoming an elite brand of code writer. You’re also on your way to becoming the target of attacks; your site will be pummelled by curiosity seekers.

WHY’S IT SO HARD?

Once a membership site is up and running, consider the communication that must take place between numerous databases. Members, Posts, Styles, Filters, Meta, Format. We just assigned generic names to databases that all have to chat with each other very quickly to create the experience of a membership site WITHOUT subscription.

Add to that payments, dates, schedules, varying levels of permission (based on paying more or less), receipt systems and third-party security databases where logs are stored. You are definitely in the elite code-writer guild if you can manage all that with any grace.

The first page of any membership site is actually really simple. It just makes a ton of calls to show whatever information first. Who’s the newest member? There’s a little tiny querey from the page that PHP asks the membership database who’s the most recent date? The name is CALLED into the FIELD.

To get a really great grip on this sort of CMS behavior, I personally encourage you to download and install the free blogging software, TEXTPATTERN. It’s a Content Management System that you can really cut your teeth on. The first page of Dinarius/commentable (our TXP installation) calls the latest 10 articles, calls a SIDEBAR FORM (mostly scripted in HTML) and runs commands that are automatic allowing visitors to see a “Previous” page. That little “Previous” button must know where you are and what came before. It’s already managing content in a way that’s fairly advanced.

WILL ANYTHING DO IT FOR ME?

Frankly, you’re already considering a large site that you probably hope will bring in revenue. Why trust that to code that comes from a box that might very well be constructed with backdoors for pirates? Why not consider absolute control? There are plenty of boxed sites and to trust any of them is something you do at your own risk. No large membership site you’ve heard of came from a box.

If it takes you a full year to familiarize yourself with HTML, CSS, CMS, PHP, MySQL (PHP Admin) and a few basic Javascript techniques, you’ll solidify your webmaster kung fu. An old saying of Dinarius (a teaching and tutoring entity) was, “LUCK is the intersection of PREPAREDNESS and OPPORTUNITY.” Go learn something. Screw up and learn something else along the way; just BE PREPARED!

DINARIUS Bryan's old Digital Interest blog