by BlondieWrites on May 16, 2009
A paid membership site can be a great way to start creating some serious income. They can be a bit work intensive on the front end, but once its up and going, you’ll find it practically runs itself.
There are a few components you need for a membership service. As with any service, you should shop around and find one with the features you want at a price you can afford. In order to get a membership site rolling, you need to consider three things: your script, your payments and your autoresponder service.
Scripting Software
The easiest way to develop a paid membership site that meets the needs of your clients is to find a scripting service with the functions you want. There are dozens of these types of services available, so here are two tips to keep in mind.
1. Shop around – Look for as many features as you can find in one script. You may not find one with everything you want, but if you do your research, you can certainly find some great deals. Membership sites are hot and that means scripting services are enjoying heavy competition. Like any type of sales, competition means benefits and deals for the buyer. You may be able to find free trials of a scripting service – which might be a great deal – but remember that switching services can be a real chore, so be reasonably certain your first choice is the best choice. The cheapest route may not be the best route, but the most expensive isn’t necessarily the best either, so do your research.
2. Look for reviews of the various membership scripts you’re considering. Find out what others think of the service before you choose one. Look at some of the sites you like and check around for the scripting software company. You’ll likely discover the scripting service information available – although it may be in the fine print somewhere.
Payments on Your Site
Obviously, you can’t make any money from your paid membership site without a payment processor. Many scripting software services include a payment processor, but if yours does not, you need to set one up right away. You can choose whether to accept credit cards, checking account payments, debit cards or other online payment services. Most sites accept a variety of credit cards as well as PayPal. PayPal is a very common payment processor that allows users to make online payments without needing to share their financial details with merchants. Many people are familiar with PayPal and will expect to be able to use this feature.
Autoresponders
A third component you need for your paid membership site is an autoresponder to handle your mailing list. Autoresponders let you capture email addresses as well as names and other information you might need. You can then load up your email messages to the autoresponder at your chosen service and have them delivered automatically, regardless of when a member joins or how long they remain. They will receive your messages in the order you load them. You can create several different mailing lists with your autoresponder service, including separate lists for different levels of membership, as well as a newsletter, if you choose.
These three pieces are all critical to a successful paid membership site. Once you’ve made these decisions, you are well on your way to creating your own site and a new stream of income.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on May 16, 2009
Creating a paid membership site is perhaps the best move an online business can make in these tumultuous economic times. Paid membership sites offer a constant flow of income that can grow overnight in some instances.
When setting up a paid membership site you are doing the work once, and then reap the monetary rewards over and over again for as long as you offer information to your members. The site can be set to be accessed monthly or by a yearly subscription. No matter what, money will be coming in all the time. Passive income possibly at it’s best.
Knowing how much to charge for your paid membership site is something that is as individual as your company is to the whole of the Internet. Only you can decide what the price should be. Since the start up of a site like this is relatively low, it’s safe to assume you can expect to make your initial outlay back rather quickly. Although you may have ongoing expenses, for the most part, once you repay yourself for the start up costs, the remainder of what you make afterwards is profit.
The potential profits are unlimited once you set your price. Let’s say you want to start out by charging $19.99 a month to let people have access to your membership site. You have 100 people who have signed up. This will give you a guaranteed $1,999.00 a month. Now imagine if you charged more?
You are in control of how much your site makes. You control the cost of the membership as well as the content inside. Speaking of the content, you need to make sure the content is actually worth the money you expect to charge to have access to it. This is a common mistake most newcomers make, they charge way too much for way too little content.
People want to be sure they are getting more than their money’s worth for anything they purchase or subscribe too. If you do not offer content that is informative, updated and current, you have made a crucial mistake and subscribers will catch on fast. A great site will include quality content more than worth the price you charge for it. In turn you lead yourself to people spreading the word and business growing over and over again.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on May 16, 2009
The whole point behind setting up a membership website is to make money through recurring payments sent in each month by members. But, there’s more to making a decent income from membership sites beyond just the member payments. Here are a few ways to make money with a membership site once your members are in.
Information Strategy
If you have information about a certain subject there are a couple of ways you can go about setting up a membership website and making money from that knowledge. You can set up a blog type of website where people can subscribe, for a fee, to receive regular information updates from your website.
You can also set up an informative website where members have a clear way of participating with your as well as the other members on the chosen subject. This is useful as it makes them feel as if they are getting special information from you directly. You don’t have to be a constant presence either. Simply state that you will be available X amount of times a month or week from say 12pm to 2 pm to answer questions. Another option that won’t require a set time commitment of you is to create a forum where you can pop in and out to help members as you can.
Member’s Only Benefits
Offer more information or your services to members at a reduced rate. For instance, if you have a fellow business owner who sells a product your members would find useful, see if you can set up a special discount for your members only.
Do you offer a service or know someone who does? Again offer your members a discount created specifically for them.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are another way to generate income from membership websites. If you promote products as an affiliate, be sure to include those promotions in emails and posts to your members. As with the previous money-making option, you might even be able to set up a discount just for being a member or give them an added bonus of your own when they purchase through your affiliate link.
However you go about adding to your membership website profits, one thing is essential; Make certain the information or discounts you’re offering is relevant to your membership and valuable to its members.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on May 9, 2009
by BlondieWrites on May 7, 2009
