For writers and independent publishers

Your readers would pay. You just don’t want to hand the publication to someone else to take it.

The writing is the easy part to explain. The paid side isn’t. Put it on a newsletter platform and it’s quick to start, but the publication lives on their platform and a share of every subscription goes with it. Put it on your own site and you’re suddenly the person configuring paywalls, tiers and renewal emails instead of writing the next piece.

Where paid publications leak

A publication’s product is its rhythm: new work keeps arriving, and the free pieces exist to prove the writing is worth paying to keep reading. So the setup is fiddly in a particular way. Which pieces stay free? What does a subscriber get that a free reader doesn’t? Is there a higher tier for the readers who want to back the work?

And once it’s running, the quiet failures cost more than the setup did. A renewal reminder gets switched off somewhere along the way and nobody notices until the renewals don’t come in. A tier stops converting. When you’re the only person running it, those are the things that slip.

What it sets up

Tell it what you publish. It sets up the paid side and keeps an eye on it.

MemberPress.ai builds the paid side of your publication on your own WordPress site, from a conversation, and you approve that setup up front, in one step. The reader tiers go live as they’re created, so you won’t see them first; the signup pages and a course arrive as drafts for you to review. What it sets up:

  • Reader levels to start from. A free preview level, a paid subscriber level, and an annual founding-reader level for readers who want to back the work at a higher rate. What each level can read, and what stays free, is yours to set with MemberPress’s access rules.
  • Subscribing, from the first click. Setup drafts MemberPress’s own signup, checkout, login and account pages for you to publish. Once you’ve connected Stripe or PayPal in its payment settings, a reader can subscribe, pay and manage the subscription there.
  • The renewal leaks, caught. It reads your publication’s own subscribers and revenue and points at the leaks, a renewal reminder switched off being the classic one. Each finding comes with a fix you approve in one click.

Keep writing and sending the way you do now. MemberPress.ai handles who’s paid and whether they renew.

The alternative you’re weighing

Substack or Patreon, or a site you own

Substack and Patreon make going paid genuinely quick. Substack takes care of the newsletter, the paywall and the app, and it can put your writing in front of new readers through its own discovery. Patreon adds memberships, tiers, video, chat and exportable email lists. Both say you own your subscriber list.

The trade-off is that both keep a share of what you earn, plus payment processing, and the publication lives on their platform. MemberPress.ai runs on a WordPress site you own, with your payment gateway and your reader list staying yours.

A publisher whose renewals were slipping

Illustrated portrait of Tariq Haddad

Tariq Haddad

AI-generated illustrative persona, not a real customer

Publisher · A paid investing newsletter

Tariq publishes a paid investing newsletter with a high-ticket annual tier. His site was already working, so this wasn’t a rescue. Somewhere along the way his renewal reminders had been switched off, and renewals were slipping away without him seeing it.

View the full profile→

Questions publishers ask

Does it send my newsletter?

No. Keep your email tool and your writing routine. MemberPress.ai sets up and runs the paid side: the tiers and renewals.

Can I keep some pieces free?

Yes. MemberPress’s access rules, which you set, decide what each tier can read, and the free preview tier exists so new readers can sample the writing before they pay.

My site already works. What would it do for me?

It reads your own members and revenue and flags what’s quietly costing you money, like a renewal reminder that’s been switched off, with a fix you approve. You get answers about your own publication, not generic advice.

Can I run it from ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. On any plan, connect Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant to your site’s own endpoint and run the site from there; ChatGPT needs a one-time setting on your site before it can sign in. Connecting Claude or ChatGPT to your MemberPress.ai account for the advisor is on the paid plan. The same approvals apply either way.

Keep the publication, and the readers, yours

Connect your site, tell it what you publish, and approve the setup; the tiers go live as they’re created. Then get back to the next piece.

More on who MemberPress.ai is for