Why have a membership site?
A membership website is a business where people pay to access premium gated content, live training, or forums.
Membership sites offer recurring income by offering products or services that are only available to members. This business model can be used to monetize your site.
Pros and cons of membership sites
Running a membership site has some significant advantages, but it also requires more involvement to keep members interested and renewing.
Pros:
- Leverage- you can create content once and sell it over and over through new members joining
- Scalable-you can add many new members without additional costs. The only limit is when you offer a one-to-one product, such as a mastermind group or individual coaching.
- Recurring fees- once you sell a membership, there are recurring fees as long as members perceive value and remain paid members.
Cons:
- Customer service. There are more customer demands and problems with a membership site.
- Income comes in smaller monthly/ quarterly amounts. Monthly and quarterly fees are less than the initial price of a purchase but add up over time. A long-term member can pay more than a one-time price.
- More hands-on work to create ongoing value-there is more work involved than simply producing a product, such as a course that doesn’t change. You must keep providing new reasons for people to keep renewing.
What can a membership site offer:
Here are the most popular products offered.
- premium courses
- live training/ webinars
- masterminds
- Downloads/ PDF’s
- member only discounts
- forums/ discussions
- software and tools
How to pick your topic
If you don’t already have an idea for your membership site, here are some questions to help you find a subject.
- what you’re interested in
- what you’re most knowledgeable about
- what problems/advice do you know how to solve
- what does your audience want to learn
- what is there a need for
Different ways to charge
- You can charge a flat monthly fee or have tiers of prices that give access to various content levels. For instance, there may be online content and access to a community for the first tier, or tier two may have everything in tier one plus group mentoring or classes, and tier three can be a premium tier that includes everything plus 1-1 access to you.
- You can charge for a set number of services, such as hours of coaching, lessons, or participation in a mastermind group.
There are many pricing methods. Look at other membership sites to see what may work for you,
Two ways to deliver
There are two choices.
One option is to use your existing website and add a plugin for the membership portion, or another is to build a new site specifically designed for members.
Either way, the plugin or platform must integrate with your payment system to allow easy payment acceptance. Also, make sure it integrates with your email and other software and systems you use. Many plugins integrate with WordPress, a very popular platform used by many websites.
Examples
Here are three good examples of membership sites:
- 3- Painted Hair
Conclusion
Membership sites are a great option if you want a monthly income stream, a scalable business and are ready to create new content or services for your members regularly. Use the information above to decide what site you want to build.
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