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This article is for those building a membership site using Ontraport Membership Sites. If you're using WordPress and PilotPress, click here. If you're getting started and don't know which to choose, this article will help.

There are two ways to get started building a membership site using Ontraport Membership Sites.

The easiest is to install one of our prebuilt automation maps, which will create all the basic parts for you and hook them all together so they work right. Then, you’ll just need to customize everything and add your content.

The other way is to start from scratch, and create the membership settings, pages, and set up your own automation.

Whichever way you choose to build your site, it’s important to first understand how the whole thing is going to work once you’re done. This will make it easier for you to set up and manage your site over time.

The core functionality behind Ontraport Membership Sites is the systems for protecting and granting access to content. Here’s an overview of how they work: 

Protecting access to pages: To protect your membership site pages so that only members can view them, you’ll first set up a domain, then choose whether you want to grant access to the pages on that domain to “all logged in members” or “some logged in members.” If you choose “some logged in members” you can further dictate who can access site pages, such as only members with a certain membership level. You can also set up a page where you’ll redirect people who attempt to visit a page they don’t have access to.

Granting page access to members: When new members join your membership program, their status as a member is enabled (you can set this up to happen automatically or do it manually). Then, Ontraport will send the contact a registration email that contains a link to a page where they can set their password. From there, the contact will be logged in and, in the future, will be able to log in on your login page. Members will also be able to access the site’s pages they’re authorized to access based on the protection levels you set.

The registration email, reset password page, and login page are automatically generated by Ontraport and customized with your brand logo and colors when you create your membership site.

Now, with that understanding, you can confidently proceed through the steps required to launch your new membership site!