Hi there, I'm in the very early stages of planning to implement and monetize from a lead generation website. I'm confident in my ability to produce the mockup in photoshop, code the basic structure of the pages in html and style with css. HOWEVER... I plan to have the website as a free / paid membership site where certain content is hidden from certain users dependant on their membership setting...annnd I have no idea how to implement this. The problems I'm having are: What coding language do i need to be familiar with in order to produce a membership site? And what CMS would be best to use as the websites back end system (sorry for not posting this in the content management section, I felt it silly to write two different posts for two related questions) I've noticed that a lot of membership websites are in fact using Wordpress, just off the top of my head websites like: http://raventools.com http://diythemes.com I imagine my own website would want a familiar format. Any ideas? Any help is hugely appreciated. Thank you.
If you need the Facility so opt for wordpress with a Members Manager...etc but if you need something powerful so you will need something done with PHP...
I think I could answer both questions with one answer, buddypress.org which is written in PHP and based on WordPress. You could learn PHP and try to make something from scratch to work around WordPress or some other CMS but why re-invent the wheel? You can find plugins for BuddyPress that will allow you to have paid areas and free areas as well as other functions. This will give you a huge head start and save you months (or years) of coding.