Integrating WordPress and CCBill is usually one of the first thing you’re thinking about, before creating an adult membership website using wordpress. There are number of wordpress membership plugins out there, but only a handfull integrate WordPress with CCBill out of the box, therefore, if you are not a programmer, you do need to rely on reviews and go through the hoops of trial and error. I have always loved the idea of wordpress and the ease of updates, but the integration with CCBill was holding me back few months, while I was doing my research.
And even though, I have done my research, read reviews, I have still made a huge mistake. Therefore, before I get into this article, let me start with this message: Do not use Magic Members plugin! I wrote an article about this horrible plugin, you can read it here: Magic Members plugin review.
Now, when I got that off my chest, let’s get back to WordPress and CCBill integration. While my sites were running Magic Members plugin, I had to look for a better, reliable solution and get away from Magic Members asap, to save what was left of my unhappy members. I’ve stumbled upon AMember Pro, a membership software. I’ve looked over the main functions, payment processors integrated with the software, I saw CCBill and other hi-risk merchants on the list and I have decided to contact them with bunch of pre-sale questions. Even though, amember.com do have an extensive forum, where you can find answer to pretty much everything around AMember Pro membership software, because my sites are somewhat unique, in a way, that I usually run an adult or glamour content membership websites, I do like to talk to them one on one, instead of using a forum.
My main questions were about the installation of the membership software on my membership website, integrating existing members into the database. All I was looking for, was a program, software or plugin to integrate WordPress with CCBill. AMember runs their business professionally. I have always gotten an answer to all my questions within a reasonable time. I never had to wait more than 24 hours. They do have daily and the times are on their site. If you contact them within the time they’re open, they usually respond right away. I have had one meeting with them over a SKYPE as well. They are seriously on top of it and they do care enough, to answer all your questions.
Just to clear the air, AMember Pro is not actually WordPress plugin. It is a stand alone membership software which fully integrates with WordPress.
From AMember Pro website:
Our free add-on for WordPress allows you to manage protection from inside of WordPress. It has never been so easy to make paid pages in your WordPress membership website.
When you place your order on AMember Pro website, you can have them set up your membership website without any additional fees. Once AMember Pro staff installs your licensed AMember membership software on your server, you are ready to start setting up your membership levels and WordPress CCBill integration. I’m not going to describe every single detail here, it’s very straightforward process, AMember admin is as friendly as WordPress admin. I had everything set up within few hours and ever since, I’m a happy customer and this review is a way of me saying Thank you to Alex and Vladimir from AMember for creating such a great membership software. Oh, yes, it does cost money, it’s not free, however it’s well worth the price. As a wise man once said: You have to spend money to make money.
And what made me really happy? It was when I was finally able to DELETE MAGIC MEMBERS PLUGIN from my sites. No more heavy weight on WordPress database, not more site down, no more “user can not log in” even though they have active and valid subscription, which by the way they paid for, no more blank screens. NO MORE MAGIC MEMBERS. Please spread the word! They have many fake reviews, business like Magic Members should not be in business, we webmasters can do without them.
If you’d like to purchase AMember Pro, here is the link, you can mention Matt, from Periscope Media, cheers!
AMember Pro membership software
This review is based solely on my experience. Our sites are set up using AMember Pro and there are no membership issues since AMember is in charge. I have AMember set up to manage memberships processed with CCBill, PayPal and Verotel all on one page. There are really no limitations as to how many ways you can get paid and most importantly, as we “mac” people like to say … it all just works!
Hi, i cam across your site by looking at http://www.bustysara.com/ and was just wondering how much it would cost to have the same made for myself?
Thank you
Hi Louise,
site like I’ve created for Sara Willis, Wendy Fiore, Brooke Becker and more beautiful girls can be done for very little or no money to start. It’s actually much easier that it appears. You do need to have your content ready or have someone who will be able to help you create a great content on continuous basis. If you live in the area, I can help with that, if not, you’d have to look around in your area for a photographer who will work with you closely. If you need more info, send me an email or call anytime.
Thank you,
Matt
HI,
great article. I am in same situation. We prepare website and we need CCBILL integration to WordPress. aMember looks as good solution but on their forum they write , that CCBILL is not supported. How difficult is integrate CCBILL to aMember plugin?
You wrote that you tested s2member but it was not so good, may I ask what was be wrong with s2member plugin? I mean s2member and CCBILL.
Thank your for answer!
aMember is out of the box ready to integrate with CCBill. The forum you may have read on their site must have been from few years back. If you check amember site, you can see CCBill as one of many payment processors already integrated. I’m in no way saying, that there’s something wrong with s2member. Only at the time, when I was looking for a solution to integrate wordpress with ccbill, s2member did not support ccbill integration and I have also emailed couple times to s2member email support, however, I have never heard back from them.
I was thinking of opening up a paysite/membership site like your wend4.com. So did you get the wordpress theme for that site from some place else or did that come with aMember? Do I need to create like a wp e-commerce store first or can I do that in aMember? Also, what’s the best shopping cart to use, in your experience?
Thanks.
Kaleb, sorry for the late reply, somehow I missed your comment. You can use any wordpress theme you like and you’re comfortable with, aMember integrates easily with any theme. As far as shopping cart, there are just too many out there:) It’s totally different topic and personal preference.
Hope that helps!
Hi Matt,
Awesome article! After reading your blogs I feel inspired again. I have a couple of questions and was hoping you could answer. I have a client who wants an adult site set up and I’m thinking of wordpress with your recommendation of Amember. Here’s what the client wants:
free area
paid area
both areas would include:
models from A-Z
picture galleries for each model
video galleries for each model
blogs for each model
What would you recommend for video playback on wordpress via amember? I see you’ve used NextGenn as a photo gallery??
Thanks in advance.
Also…what plugin are you using for your email/confirmation system? I like it!
Hi Matt,
I’ve had no end of problems with MagicMembers. It basically just doesn’t do what they say it does. Well not with CCBill anyway. So boosted by your confidence in the product, I contacted AMember yesterday with some simple pre-sales questions about migrating from MM to AM. Sadly I’ve yet to receive a reply. Which isn’t a good start. However, given your experience, do you have any useful advice in a suitable migration approach please?
Hi John,
I can’t speak for aMember, but my experience with them was great, even though I didn’t have to talk to them in a while. (things just work)
About migrating from Magic Member plugin to aMember, that I have no idea, however, when I have migrated from MagicMembers, I’ve just hit the delete button in my wordpress plugins and bye bye Magic Members haha. Now seriously … after installing and setting up aMember on the server, I have exported my ccbill member’s info in a simple file with their subscription ID directly into aMember. Now, if and when you do that, just make sure that the member’s info is imported correctly into aMember. Hope this helps.
Thanks Matt. I did get my response from aMember shortly after your post. It was refreshingly helpful and echoed your response, only in more detail. Also, since my first contact they have been much more responsive to subsequent questions, and most helpful. So I’ll be planning the migration very soon, and if you don’t mind, I’ll post my findings here for the benefit of others.
I had a look at this.
As i was building a adult page.
However – you need to be a “Visa sponsored merchant”, which requires you to pay an Initial Registration Fee of $750.
Plus, you need to buy aMember Pro which is $179.95 which give you a total of $930.
We charge $2.98 for each customer.
That would mean approx 312 paying subscribers.
And then i haven’t taken ccBills ‘win’ into consideration.
Is there no cheaper or free way to charge for adult sites?
Agreed with all you said. In order to run adult site, you are automatically considered “high risk”. Therefore you can forget about PayPal, Google Checkout or any other regular widely used merchant account. Make some phonecalls, do your research, but at the end of the day, you will be left with fewer options that you’ve thought.
No worries, there are some payment processors with no start up fees or smaller fees. CCBill is probably the most recognized name in the industry, but there are other options, like Netbilling, Zombaio, Epoch and more…
You don’t have to purchase aMember to manage your membership, there are also other options, but rule of thumb is … you get what you pay for.
Cheers!
Pastebin – If you are based in Europe you don’t have the Visa issue – took me months to discover this. That’s with CCBill and some of the others too – they need to have a Europe-based branch of their company.
Hope that helps you progress a bit
You saved my life. I am a content provider and been working on launching my own adult site with wordpress. Well after breaking my head and keyboard on finding a decent, reliable, not expensive solution I FOUND YOU. Thanks amigo!
This has really helped me and my client alot! Thanks.
What WordPress theme would you recommend ? Thanks again
Hi Matt: Have question. On wordpress for a pay site what it have to be the folders structures in server? I mean where you file the videos that people have to pay for watching? May you help me on this? Thanks