Membership Sites and Paypal Subscriptions

I thought I would post a little tip about this topic since I recently went through this myself and wanted to take a minute to share some tips with others that are thinking about starting a membership site and using PayPal as their choice to handle member subscriptions.

You’ve gotten the “membership site bug” and are ready to get started. That’s all great and good, but have you thought about future plans? Sure, you’re probably thinking about the products you want to offer, the content you will provide, how you will promote the site, etc. But, have you thought of this one important element? What if I want to sell my site down the road?

Ahh, you didn’t think of that? Well, you may be starting your membership with the intentions of holding onto it for an eternity, but you should always think about an exit strategy as well, as with any business that is started and a membership site is no different.

In fact, by not taking some of my tips to heart you may just find yourself with a huge headache in the end - I know I’ve been there.

If you plan to use Paypal subscriptions with your new site here are some of my tips for you BEFORE you get the ball rolling.

1. Set up a generic email account that will accept the payments for the site. For example; paypal@yoursite.com or sales@yoursite.com and use this email ONLY for your membership site.

2. Set up a NEW Paypal account specifically for your membership site. Use the generic email account that I mentioned in tip #1 as the main email address in this new Paypal account.
By following my tips you will save yourself a big headache because you will simply be able to transfer the Paypal account with all of the subscriptions intact to the new owner.

Plugging in a new email address into an existing Paypal account and collecting payments from that isn’t going to work because no matter what email address you use, the subscriptions are tied into the owner of the Paypal account and they will not transfer the existing subscriptions over to a new account.

It may seem like a HUGE hassle to go through setting up a new PayPal account, but you will save yourself from stocking up on the ibuprofen when it comes time to selling your membership site.