Do You Want To Start A Membership Website?
You’ve probably heard a lot about how a membership website can provide your business with a recurring and stable income online (and remember, membership works offline too). You basically create a subscription website where the public is blocked from your content. It’s only available only members who pay a fee to access the membership area.
But getting people to join your membership is only half the battle. Getting them to stay is the other half. The key to member retention is to under promise and over deliver. Creating a subscription website, no matter how lucrative some might be, isn’t for everyone. Do you sometimes wonder if starting a membership website is right for your business?
Let’s look at some factors that can help you decide.
Is A Membership Website Right For Your Business?
A membership site is basically anything that you offer as a subscription where the customer receives a product or service automatically on a schedule until they choose to cancel or the subscription runs its course.
Delivery is usually on a monthly basis, but it can be more often or less. And the subscription can have an ending date or go on forever.
In more traditional membership sites, subscribers have full access to a product or service via password protected content. Once they sign up, they are given a User ID and Password that they use to access content on your membership site.
FREE Checklist: How To Build A Membership Website
Is the Problem Recurring?
If you can identify a solution for a problem that recurs, then you can start a membership site. For example, meal plans, weight-loss shakes, vitamins, and so forth. There are also solutions that you may not have thought of as being recurring in nature. Take a deep dive into your solutions and determine whether you can justify a recurring product or a new product each month.
An example of that is PLR – private label rights content. Most website owners need content every week or even every single day. This is a perfect opportunity for recurring price products. Another good example is coaching. You coach for a few weeks, sometimes years – not once. If you do it more than once or can figure out a way to make them want more on a recurring basis, you can make a membership website.
Have You Built an Existing Audience and Community?
Do you have enough current customers or a big enough audience that feels like a community to support a membership? For example, do you have a Facebook group? Do you have a good community that you somehow regularly communicate with, such as via an email list?
It’s important to have a good community and an established brand if you want to build a profitable membership site. You can, of course, start with that idea that you’re building a membership site, but it will take more time to build it than if you first build up the audience, then work on the membership portion when you see that there is a demand.
Can You Realistically Commit to Providing Products Regularly?
Are ready to create something new on a regular basis to justify the membership price you want to set. Creating new content on a regular basis is crucial to maintaining a profitable membership website that provides value to the members. The value of the content is what will encourage members to stick around. You don’t have to add massive content daily, but you should add something on a regular and planned basis.
Try writing an outline for a landing page or sales page for your membership site first. List everything you want to offer, then realistically craft a short outline of a plan to see it through. After you make your sales page, when you see it written down, does it still look doable and realistic to you? If so, then continue your plans by developing step-by-step actions that will lead you to finally launching your new membership site
If you can provide enough or even more value less expensively to your customers, but make a higher profit (which is how a membership should work), then why wouldn’t you do it? It’s sort of how the idea of insurance works. Everyone pools their money so that those who need help can get help.
Free Checklist: How To Start A Membership Website
If you market your membership correctly, you’ll have a successful online membership business – provided that you’ve done your homework on starting it in the right niche. People want to feel as if they belong, and they like having privacy. If you have information to offer, membership is the best way to do it.
Creating a membership website is a great way to set up recurring, passive income. You build the site and create the core content once, and you receive recurring weekly, monthly or quarterly payments. To make money with membership websites you do need to choose the right membership software, consider your budget, know how many members you want to attract, how much you plan to charge and what you want to include. For an easy to follow guide, download my free checklist, How To Create A Membership Site and start receiving passive, recurring payments sooner rather than later.
