Membership Sites Mean Income With membership sites gaining popularity by leaps and bounds in the marketing arena, it’s obvious that at some point or other you’re probably going to want to get in on it too. After all, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately, this desire often ends up staying as nothing more than a pipe dream – and [...]
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Residual Income Makers Starting a membership website is one of the best profit centers you can add to your business. Contrary to popular belief starting one doesn’t have to be hard. But if you want to maximize the benefits of your site you must avoid these five common mistakes. ————————– Visit a simple Membership Model [...]
The number one success factor for your membership website is finding and attracting enough visitors to your site so you can then convert them into customers. Want More ? Click to View The 5 Keys To A Thriving Membership [VIDEO] One thing that many online marketers are guilty of is chasing every new technique or [...]
If you’ve been trying to make it as an Internet marketer for any length of time you clearly know that building your own membership site is one of the best revenue generating activities you can do for your business.
You work so hard finding customers to buy your ebook or other product one time. Why not put that hard work in finding those same customers to pay you every single month, month after month by providing them a paid membership site?
A huge myth out there is that building and maintaining a membership site is hard work. Its difficult to keep your site fresh with new, valuable content. You have to continuously come up with new information that will actually benefit your members and this causes a lot of stress and takes a lot of the fun out of owning your own profitable site.
This is a myth because that is only one way to start your own membership website. However, the second way is way easier, more fun to do and is proven to keep members far longer than traditional sites.
So what is this easier way? Building what’s called an “Automatic Content” membership site.
The reason it is called automatic is because you deliver your content at fixed intervals through an autoresponder. For example, you deliver your lessons every week for as long as you want via an autoresponder.
When customers sign up for your site they also signup to receive their weekly lessons delivered via email. You then simply input each lesson into the autoresponder and then it works automatically on autopilot.
When you create a membership site like this you eliminate the pain and pressure of continuously coming up with new content. You develop the content once and you’re done. After the content is created you never have to worry about it again. After the autoresponder series is created you never have to worry about it again. Talk about simple profits!
Some of the critics say that this method is not as strong as a traditional membership site. Frankly, I laugh in their face because this method is proven to work over and over again. And you can create as many of these paid sites as you want.
Create them once and then market them forever without having to touch them again. Now I don’t know about you but that’s how I like to make a living on the Internet.
If you’re struggling to make it as an online or Internet marketer then you’ll want to start your own membership website today.
Here’s why:
Customers Pay You Month After Month
Unlike selling an ebook or any other one-time product membership sites allow you to collect money from your members every single month, month after month. Doesn’t it make sense to have customers keep paying you over and over again for your services rather than just one time?
Look at it this way, you will work just as hard finding and converting customers to buy your ebook as you will selling them a membership to your site. If you’re already working hard why not gain the most benefit?
Sell Them Additional Backend and Affiliate Products
As new members turn into long-term members you will begin to develop a strong relationship with them. In doing so, they will begin to trust you. When customers trust you they will believe the recommendations that you give them. This means you can sell them backend or affiliate products. This will help your business grow without having to do much additional work.
Membership Sites Have Less Refunds
For whatever reason, membership websites have a much higher perceived value than other sales sites. For example, a site that sells an ebook. Now selling an ebook is not a bad thing at all but my point is why not convert that ebook site to a membership site and earn substantially more money?
Due to the fact that membership sites have a higher perceived value your refunds are much lower. Sure some people will cancel. But most will be members for several months at a time before they move on. And if you have a top quality site that actually helps solve the member’s problems they will be active for several months. Again, with the same effort you can earn a lot more money by having your own membership site.
One of the biggest concerns membership website owners have is reducing the number of cancellations. It’s a legitimate concern but it doesn’t have to keep you up at night.
The obvious way to relieve the pressure of possible cancellations is having a paid membership site that is of tremendous value. A second obvious way is to have so much traffic to your site that even if members do cancel it doesn’t hurt your immediate income.
However, you want to keep members active as long as possible. You work so hard to get them in the first place, why not maximize the long-term benefits.
In my experience of running several success membership websites I’ve discovered three keys to getting members active longer and dramatically reducing the number of cancellations.
Manage Expectations
One of the most important success factors in anything you do is managing expectations. If customers know exactly what they are getting when they join your site and then you deliver what you say you will, there really is no reason for them to ever cancel. Think of it like this, if you told them they were going to receive a proven way to solve their problems and then you delivered on that promise, why would they cancel? They wouldn’t and they won’t.
Over-deliver with Surprise Bonuses
If you add a few unadvertised bonuses here and there and over deliver what you originally promised it is nearly impossible for them to cancel. The thought of them missing out on something is too strong for them to quit their membership. And if you spread out your bonuses over time it doesn’t become a burden on you. But the benefits are huge because customers won’t cancel.
Whet Their Appetite for What’s Coming Next
This is a secret I discovered not so long ago. By simply selling them on the next lesson or the next video, audio or whatever you will build anticipation. That anticipation creates a desire to not miss out on what’s coming next. Each time you do this it creates more and more momentum for each and every lesson. Next thing you know is that your members have stayed with you much longer than industry averages say.
Bottom line is if you follow these easy steps with your own paid membership site there is no reason why you should ever worry about your members cancelling. Why would they?
Membership sites provide a great opportunity to combine the benefits of a dependable income stream and the ability to teach and share about your passion. This article looks at the different options on how you can monetize your membership site.
1. Mass appeal
One way to monetize your membership site is to have a low monthly fee that has a mass appeal. This makes it affordable for the average person so they will find it attractive to join and easy to maintain the monthly payments. This method of attracting high numbers of people at a low price can translate into a comfortable income for you. For example, having 1000 people paying $30 per month means an extra $30,000 per month or $360, 000 per year.
2. Low Volume
This way of monetizing your membership site focuses on keeping membership numbers low and charging a higher rate. You can do this if you don’t want to deal with too many members and just want to work with a select group of people. So instead of having 1000 people paying $30 per month like in the above example, you can have just 300 people paying $100 per month. This method works best with highly sought after professionals who are extremely difficult to get access to, so people in their industry jump at the opportunity to be part of their membership site and are willing to pay a premium price.
A few more tips
Once you have chosen which model you want to use, it is important to offer various payment options to those who wish to subscribe to your membership site.
• Offer a monthly payment option that will appeal to those who may be on a budget
• Offer a half-yearly or yearly payment option at a discounted rate to those who can afford it. For example, offer 12 months membership for the price of 10 months membership fee. This way you can collect membership fees in advance from those who can afford it.
• Offer a money-back guarantee to all your prospects so that they feel comfortable knowing that if they opt-out within the specified time frame, they will get their money back.
• Give all your prospects access to some free content to whet their appetite that will help them know what they will be getting once they sign up for paid membership.
When most people consider starting an online membership site the first thing they think of is a paid site. They forget about, or don’t realize that they can make great money with a free membership site.
In this article we’re going to cover three great ways to make money from a free site. But first, how can you develop a membership site and invest all that time when it doesn’t bring in immediate income?
You can create what’s called an “Automatic Content” site that provides weekly lessons to members via autoresponder. These membership sites are very easy to build and once their completed it’s on autopilot. All you have to do is market it.
For example, you can create a 4, 8 or 12-week training course solving a key problem of your target market. Once a week your autoresponder will send out the lesson automatically. There is great value to the member because they know what to expect. And you don’t have to worry about creating additional content on the backend.
Top Secret Profit Tip:
Instead of marketing it as an ecourse or something of minimal value, promote it as a unique, highly valued membership site. Something that a person interested would expect to pay a nice monthly fee for. But since it’s free and presented as a membership site your conversions will go through the roof.
Then you’ll be able to profit from your free membership site several different ways. But these three are the best.
Build Your List
You’ve heard it so often it probably makes you sick, “The money is in the list.” The reason you hear it so often is because it’s true! Statistics prove that for every person on your email list you can expect $.50 – $1.00 in revenue per month. Granted there are several factors that play into this but if you send consistent messages with valuable content you can expect that number to be closer to the $1.00 range then the $.50 range.
Affiliate Marketing
While you’re already building your list you can now market quality affiliate products and programs to your list. Once you’ve built value, this is taken care of by your free membership site; your list will trust you when you recommend affiliate products.
Sell Your Own Products
Finally, you can of course sell your list your own products. Why is this last on the list? My experience shows that most people don’t want to start out creating their own products. It takes too long and some people perceive that it’s difficult to do. So the easiest and fastest way to make money online is by promoting other’s peoples products. However, at some point you’ll definitely want to create your own products because your profit margins will be so much higher!
As you can see starting your own free membership site can be very lucrative and beneficial.
It’s hard to argue that building your own membership site is one of the absolute greatest ways to make great money as an Internet marketer.
I own several very successful membership websites in different niches. Whenever I consider building a new one I have three things I always take into consideration. If the potential site does not fit perfectly in all of them I scrap it and move on to the next one.
Here are the three criteria that are proven to work for me and provide me a very nice income:
Must Be Easy to Maintain
My experience has proven that if a membership site is difficult to maintain that the site owner won’t keep the content fresh and updated. Therefore the site will have many cancellations and won’t last very long.
On the other hand, if the site is easy to maintain, meaning you don’t have to add content every week or multiple times per week that the site is almost guaranteed to be successful. It sounds almost like the opposite would be true. But it’s not.
When you use what’s called an “Automatic Content” site maintenance is not an issue. In short, this type of membership site sends out weekly lessons to its members once per week via autoresponder. Once you create the lesson you never have to worry about it again.
Must NOT Be Dependant or Need Membership Site Software or Scripts
Most traditional membership sites use third party software or scripts to run their site. Usually this means that the site is not easy to maintain. There is also a huge learning curve to try and figure out the software to be able to use it correctly. For me it’s not worth it when there is an easier way.
Must Be Able to Run on Autopilot
To me, earning a living as an online marketer means being able to have my business operate in the background so I can make money any time, day or night. I want my membership sites to be hands off. I want them to run on autopilot. If you have to use software or scripts or regularly maintain your site it’s impossible for it to run on autopilot.
On the other side, if you operate an “Automatic Content” membership site it is 100% on autopilot. So when you’re on vacation or golfing you’re making money. That’s why you got into this business anyway isn’t it?
One of the challenges of having a membership site is having a low opt-out rate. It takes a lot of careful planning and marketing to enroll members, but once they are enrolled you need to pay even more attention to keep them as active members.
Here are 2 tips on how to keep members happy:
1. Over deliver
The fundamental reason people join a membership site is to get access to content that they cannot access anywhere else. This means your content has to be fresh, relevant and out of the public domain so that people feel they are getting much more than what they are paying for. The key is to over-deliver so that if your members are paying $30 a month, they need to be receiving content that is worth double or triple that amount. As you go above and beyond what you promised, members will believe you are going out of your way to give them value for money and will keep paying for their membership. For example, you can get interviews with highly sought after individuals in the same industry or negotiate special rates and deals for products and services that your members may be interested in purchasing.
2. Types of Content
Another way to keep members happy is to be creative about your content delivery. You can use a wide range of mediums to deliver your content such as blog posts, videos, pdfs and audio recordings. People often want a choice in the way the content is presented because people take in information best in different ways. For example, visual learners prefer videos and pdfs while those who like to maximize their time while on the go may prefer to listen to the audio files on their iPod.
Starting a membership site can be one of the most exciting, online income tools that you can use for your blog. There is nothing like receiving passive income each and every month. Memberships sites can be used in just about any niche. All you really need to do is use video and some content that you create that answers questions for people in your niche. You can show them how to make something or how to do something step by step. I use this in my models for my customers because there Success Is Mandatory Today.
However Do Learn to Keep it Simple. Here are 3 simple steps for you to consider if you need to get started immediately and I mean immediately.
1. Use Password Protected Pages in WordPress
Use protected pages in WordPress. Give it out, the same password to everyone in an automatic email after they sign up. Each page has a different week’s worth of content.
2. Use the Paypal Subscription Button
Paypal allows you to set up add to cart buttons that will charge your customers monthly and automatically for you. Set a payment amount for X months. Get paid instantly and use that money to improve.
3. Use an Autoresponder Service to Drip Content
Dripping content means that you give out the content a little at a time. I use Aweber and I set up X emails in the system to match the distribution. Each email contains a brief descriprion of that week’s content and a link to the worpress page where the training videos were. Everything happen automatically. Yes I am a big believer in Holistic, Automated and Repurposed Solutions.
And remember you do not have to have all your info setup. You develop as you go.
3 Helpful Resources
Micro-Continuity Program – I learned most of this membership model from a set of free videos on Micro-Continuity. These free videos demonstrate 1 type of membership site but I’m sure you’ll quickly see all the possibilities.
Membersnap Instant Membership Site – Just Minutes From Now… YOU could be Downloading “The Next Best Thing”… Released by the Gurus — Without Breaking Your Bank Account! Yup this is an instant membership model in case you just want a site now.
The 10 Membership Models – Video Series
If you want a more complete educational series on different membership models, the guys over a Wishlist have created a free video series on 10 different membership models that you can use. You can watch the video series by clicking here. The wishlist plugin is a good product with a lot of robust options. Essentially, it is a WordPress Plugin that gives you a built-in membership site.
Question:
If so, you may want to take a look at my recommendation here at my link http://burrusgregory.com/memberships
It’s a solution built for “everyday people” -that means you don’t need to be a technical genius to figure it out. Plus, if you use WordPress, you’ll be excited to know that it was built specifically for WordPress 
It has all the bells and whistles you wouldexpect but they’ve also got a number of other VERY cool features. These videos will show you what I mean:
http://burrusgregory.com/memberships
.Learn more about the top 10 Membership Models - Click Here
When it comes to website design it’s always better to be user friendly than it is to have the coolest site out there. Too much stuff on your site does not help the visitor. It actually hurts the user experience. They get confused and frustrated because they can’t find what they’re looking for easily. That usually means they leave your site.
So how do you prevent that from happening?
Considering there are two successful ways to start a membership site we need to cover them both. The good news is one of them is way easier than the other. Let’s cover the tough one first.
Traditional Membership Website Design
The first site is your traditional membership site. This is one where you have to regularly add and update content manually. Members have to log into and access the site using a membership site software or script.
When using this kind of site you want to make sure it has three things. They are:
1. Login Area Clearly Identified
Nothing is more frustrating then not knowing how to log into a site that you’re paying for. Be sure to have a login link at the top and bottom of each page as well as a login box on your landing page. This should be enough to satisfy even the most stubborn member.
2. Limit Your Site to Two-Columns
Whatever you do, don’t make your site so complicated to navigate that members struggle to find what they are looking for. The easiest way to prevent this is to have a navigation bar on the left or right hand side and the content in the main area of the page.
3. Have Your FAQ Link Clearly Visible
This tip not only benefits your members but it also benefits you. By placing a FAQ link on all your pages you will eliminate a ton of questions and support issues before they even get to you. That saves you time. When a member can get answers to their most common questions that saves them frustration. And that of course equals more money in your pocket.
Bonus Tip
It’s also important to have a search function so people can easily find what they’re looking for. There is nothing more aggravating then when you’re trying to find a solution to a problem and not be able to do a simple search on the membership site.
Automatic Content Membership Websites
These website are my favorite and I use them to create all my membership sites. This site is much easier to run because you use an autoresponder to automatically send the content for you.
Since the autoresponder does most of the work you don’t have to worry about third party software or scripts. That means there is no member login area on your site!
The best website design for these membership sites is a simple one-page sales letter or minisite. Once someone signs up for your membership they are directed to your autoresponder signup page. Then all you have to do is upload your content to the autoresponder. You don’t have to touch your website!
These sites are very easy to setup and can be done very quickly. There is no software or scripts to learn. These membership sites are proven to be more profitable than their traditional counterparts. And they’re easier to operate. Talk about a win-win!
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Visit a simple Membership Model - http://www.SuccessIsMandatoryMultiMediaMarketing.com
Discover more at http://www.successismandatorytoday.com
Learn more about the top 10 Membership Models - Click Here
