membership restricted access on new site ..

Hey Everyone ..

I'm about to launch a rather large website and there's a section on the site that will be member-access only. The member-only section will be free. I just want to set it up that way as an incentive for people to sign up, input some specific information, agree to a disclaimer and to revieve a monthly newsletter.

Am I looking in the right place here at amember.com? I was recommended this service by someone in another forum. I was told that since I already have the site done, all I would need is some specific script to input on the pages that I want to restrict access on ..

Under the feature description, I saw this ..
"Can be used to setup free areas on site, requiring only registration, not payment (possible after admin approval)"..

This sounds like what I'm looking for. Just want some confirmation.

Also, since the primary purpose of gathering the information is to form a mailing list, would I have to go through an autoresponder program such as aweber.com or does amember.com offer a similar service?

Thanks in advance ..

Bill
aka - confused newbie

aMember will work for you but it since you are not charging money for a subscription, or so worried about site protection, it may not be necessary.
aMember does have a built in autoresponder system.

aMember's strength is in the controlling of paid subscriptions, and created multiple levels of access/protection.

Since your main goal is creating a list, you could simply use aWeber to collect the email info, and send them a general username, password to access the content. You can usually protect a directory using your hosting cpanel to create a single username and password that you give everyone. Then just change it monthly and send it in your aweber email.

If you are gonna be charging for access, need to create unique usernames/passwords, or control multiple levels of access, then aMember would be the way to go.

David

I hired web designers to create it but I do believe that it was built from scratch.
Thanks for the advise so far guys ..