memberarea is one place to run a membership business. You publish content, you sell access to it, and your members sign in to a space that carries your name and your colours. This article explains how the parts fit together so the rest of the Help Center makes sense.
Two sides of the same platform
Everything you build lives behind two doors.
The admin area is where you work. You create courses, write posts, set up products and check your numbers. Only you and the people you invite can get in.
The member area is what your customers see after they sign in. Same platform, different door, and it looks like your brand rather than ours.
The building blocks
You switch these on and off as you need them, so your platform stays as small or as complete as your business.
Five blocks are available today: Community with its areas and forums, Courses, Hubs, Events and Payments. What each one adds is set out in Turning features on and off.
A membership usually starts with one of them. A coach sells courses. A network sells the community. A club sells events. You can add the rest later without starting over.
You do not have to decide today. Turn on what you need now, and switch the rest on when your business asks for it.
How access works
Nothing in memberarea is public unless you say so. A member gets access in one of three ways:
- You give it to them. Add the member and assign a course, a group or an area by hand.
- They buy it. A paid order unlocks whatever that product is mapped to, and a refund takes the access back.
- They belong to a group. Groups carry access, so adding someone to a group hands them everything that group can reach.
Most businesses use all three. The first for your early customers, the second once you are selling, the third to keep it manageable as you grow.
Where your platform lives
Every account starts on a memberarea address. When you are ready, you point your own domain at it and your members never see our name in the address bar. Your logo, your colours and your domain are what they experience.
What to read next
If you are new, work through the Get Started checklist on your dashboard. It puts the first steps in a sensible order and marks them off as you go.
If you would rather look around first, take the tour of the admin panel. And when a word in this Help Center is unfamiliar, the glossary explains the terms we use.