Setting Up A Site Membership
June 24th, 2008 by admin
Membership sites have increased in popularity with internet marketers in the last year. Marketers know they provide one of the best ways to earn reliable, recurring income online. Once you’ve established yourself in your niche with some good advertising, and found a number of members, the rewards quickly add up.
The benefits are not just financial.. A paid membership site is a profitable way to brand yourself. Nothing says you’re a professional, and an expert in your field, than having your own subscriber base paying you month after month. You’ll need to continually invest either time or money in your membership site to maintain it. Depending on how much you outsource, and the type of content provided in your paid membership site, this can be a reasonable investment. But given the scalability of a members-only site, this is still going to be well worth it.
When you look at how to create a membership site a paid membership site, it all originates with the germ of an idea. Jot down all your hobbies, and use those as a starting point. Don’t forget the skills you have from work and life.
If you already know what type of membership web site you want to build, you [spin}will still have to|should still[/spin] do some market research to see whether your idea is financially sustainable. Whilst it’s good to find a niche, not all niches are large enough, or willing to part with their cash for information or services.
One way way to establish if there is enough interest in your paid membership site idea is to browse some of the main forums on your topic. Are the forums popular? Are there a lot of posts? Are there recent posts or does it appear to be abandoned? The answers to these questions will start to give you a clue as to whether you should get to work and develop your idea into a paid membership site.
Forums can be a good way to generate the questions that are asked, and the answers - especially if you are still learning about your topic. You can incorporate this into the content for your paid membership site later.
Don’t forget to have a look at offline media - magazines and articles in newspapers. Are there any specialist magazines in your niche? The more [spin/narrow|[/spin]focused the topic, the less chance of this.
The bestseller lists on Amazon and other online bookstores is another way to check for both content and demand as you go through these preliminary stages in how to start the membership site. These lists will also tell of information people are willing to pay for, and how they like it presented.
Throughout this exercise, make a note of who your ideal customer is, based on what you find out about them. Offline media can’t get this wrong, or they will go out of business quickly. And it’s much more expensive failing in business offline compared to online. Do you have more women or men, or a fairly equal amount of both? What is their average age? What type of job would they be likely to be in? With a better knowledge of your customer, you will be more able to provide what they want. And the better you’ll be able to persuade them to become a paid subscriber in your new paid membership site!
Once you’ve gathered all your preliminary research, you can get into the nitty gritty to start the membership site. This encompasses buying a domain name, setting up your membership site script, configuring your membership site manager, adding the content, devising a marketing plan, writing your marketing material, and the sales letter of the paid membership site.