Membership Script – Frustrations!

May 5, 2009

I’ve been busy installing and testing various scripts over the last few months. There are all kinds out there, some great, some good, some not so good and to be “Polite” some that are absolutely dire.  More detailed in depth reports to follow on each one. But for now I’m so frustrated I need to let you realise what you may be letting yourselves in for. Do your due diligence, if you’ve decided on a script, google it “name of script+complaints” see what comes up before you part with your hard earned money. Another secret as to how good a script can be is to also google “powered by +name of script”  take a look at how many of those sites are active and live and how many are dead in the water.

In general the ones I class as not so good are the ones that don’t seem to want to install on your average hosting package. Because let’s face it, most of us out there don’t have our own dedicated servers now do we?, no, we have shared hosting space on a baby croc or free site or even worse could be with no root access oneandone.  And don’t even get me going on UK2.net. !  Think I’d better leave that one there for now.

As an experienced script installer, I really can’t understand why some program manufacturers make it so hard to install their programs.  And when you’ve managed to find a hosting company that does have the right version of PHP and MySQL, root access, the ability to run Crons and allow you to use their smtp for the email functionality of the program……. you’re darn well nearly exhausted.

So after the runaround of  “it must be your hosting, the program runs fine on our hosting”  They then try and sell you a package on their hosting company as well. Beggars belief really.

So you limp away completely drained from the installation phase, only to find that half the time there is no decent user manual, or it’s not completed or it just doesn’t flow intuitively at all. My biggest pet peeve is where they say look at the installation videos, and there aren’t any! you click the link and it says something really stupid like “Coming Soon” -  that’s no use to existing customers who need the information NOW!..

There, I feel better now! Or Do I ?

One script that is going to flood the market in the next couple of months is Simple Member Basic. (This is the lite version of Simple Member Pro – to be reviewed in the next posting.) Simple Member Basic will run a basic membership site and has been offered to the market with give away rights to those who have purchased the PLR ( I believe there were 50 rights offered ) Those who have PLR rights can offer resale rights etc, yesterday I got an email offering this for just $3.

Why am I telling you all this, well, if you want a basic script, and it is very basic at this level, but it won’t work straight out of the box ( even if you have the instructions to install it ! ) to run a basic membership site, then if you are offered it don’t bother to pick it up.
Not at $17 as I’ve just been offered Hmm? $3 or $17 and I’ve not even finished this Buyer Beware post………YET!
The downside is of course, is there is no user manual. Now, why am I not surprised.

Caveat – Buyer beware!

“Some things in life are free, others things are worth paying for”.

Posted in Internet