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 April 27, 2009
Membership sites are one of the hottest trends on the Internet today. Entrepreneurs in a wide range of specialties are learning how to leverage their time, information and clients into an ongoing income stream that keeps adding to their bank accounts month after month. If you’ve haven’t started your own memberships site yet, here are five good reasons to get started today.
1. Passive income beats working for a living every time. You can spend your time creating content for clients on an individual basis and then searching for new clients on a daily basis. If you are providing quality content at a reasonable rate, you will earn money this way. However, wouldn’t you rather do the work once and collect the paycheck on a regular basis? Of course you would- that only makes sense. Creating a membership site is the perfect way to generate passive income. With an autoresponder, you set up your content one time and then distribute it on an ongoing basis to your members without lifting a finger. Each month you upload that month’s content and through your membership site, every member has access to it.
2. You can add products to your membership site for additional income. You can add digital and physical products for sale to your members and create more sales without having to sell through a list or drum up new prospects. You already have all of your members’ information within the site, so making new sales is a piece of cake. Members will be inclined to purchase products at your recommendation, because you have already established a bond of trust and because they can do so at the click of a mouse.
3. Split the work and share the wealth. You can offer your members an income opportunity by creating an affiliate program for the site. Members can earn a percentage of the profits by recruiting new members to join. Because they are selling with the additional power of being satisfied customers, current members are a perfect choice to do your affiliate sales for you and spread the word about your membership site.
4. If you do it right, you really can work less and earn money while you sleep. We all hear it and secretly wish we could find it- that magical way to earn more and work less- ever since we were teased with the idea of a Four Hour Work Week. A membership site may be as close as you can get to truly passive income – and that can buy you the one thing you want more than money – time. Time to spend with your family, time to have some fun, time to work on dream projects. If you find the right niche and create a quality membership site, you can make a lot of money. If the price of membership is $40 and you have 100 members, that is $4000 dollars a month. If you have 1,000 members – it’s 40,000 a month. With $40,000 coming in every month, you really can afford to lie on a beach somewhere and work from your laptop.
5. Membership sites have a long life span. If you create a growing membership site, you’ve got a long-term stream of income – as long as you continue to provide quality content to your members.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on April 27, 2009
Paid Membership sites are a great way to create a mainly passive form of income. Once you have your membership site up and running, you just need to keep it updated with fresh content. Setting up a membership site can seem a little intimidating, however. Just take it a step at a time and you’ll soon be ready to launch your new site and get on with the business of making money.
The first step in creating a membership site is making sure you have an audience who is ready to join. Like all types of content sales, you need to find a target market hungry enough to want what you have and willing to realize they need to pay for it.
Search out your market as you would any type of content product. Start by choosing a topic that either you have experience in or have a strong interest in. Do some keyword research to be certain of your market. Use Google’s keyword tool to find out how many people are doing daily searches for your niche. Next, spend some time doing a little research to see how many other paid membership sites are already operating in your chosen field. Just because there is a little competition in your field, doesn’t mean you should pick another topic. Competition can be a good thing- it gives you a benchmark to work toward and beat! However, if there are a lot of heavy hitters in your market, you need to know you’re in for a challenge. Your best research can be done by joining a few membership sites and checking them out from the inside. Mind you, you still need to create your own content and fresh ideas, but you can see what is popular and what isn’t, which can help you choose topics and features in your own site.
As you look at different paid membership sites, take note of the special features they use. One of the most common features is the forum. A forum gives site members a dedicated space to discuss ideas, share information, ask for help and interact in a number of ways. Forums will also allow members to send private messages to one another. As the site administrator, you will set the rules for the forum, as well as interact with the members yourself. It’s usually a good idea to keep forum rules to a minimum, although you will want to notify members of the rules against spam. You will also likely want to set some ground rules regarding tone and etiquette. While a forum is only as good as its diversity, members should agree to a policy of mutual respect and avoidance of abusive remarks.
You can also use your paid membership site to sell additional products and resources to your members. Choose these resources wisely. Your members are already paying to participate in your site, so be careful not to push other products too heavily. Instead, consider setting up a resources section members can check out at their own leisure. Choose only high quality products that offer a good value to your members. You don’t want to violate their good will or trust or you will find yourself losing members.
These steps are obviously just the beginning of creating your membership site, but they are an important beginning. By starting out in the right way, you have a much better shot at ending up where you want to be- at the top of your market, making a great income from your membership site.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on April 27, 2009
By now you’ve probably heard about membership sites and how everyone on the Internet marketing scene is starting one. The reasons vary, but the main reason membership sites are so popular with online business owners is because they allow less work while creating more money for the owner. Basically, you do the work once and get paid over and over as new members sign up and get the content you’ve already created.
Maybe you’ve thought of starting your own membership website but aren’t quite sure what types of things make good material for this type of site. If so, you’re in luck as I’ve compiled a list of membership site ideas that are popular right now.
Training – This can be training on just about anything. From how to care for a pet to how to start a business, training is a hot topic on the Internet. People come to the web for one thing – information! If you can find a market willing to pay for the training, you’ve got yourself a great membership site topic.
Content – As I said before, the Internet is nicknamed the Information Super Highway for nothing. Website owners know their potential visitors and customers are looking for quality information on all kinds of subjects. If you can provide these business owners with quality, well researched information on the topics they are looking for, they’ll come running to buy from you.
Internet Marketing – Marketing online is a HUGE market and if you have the know how in even one small part of being a successful Internet marketer, whether it’s putting together websites, affiliate marketing or something else, the chances people will be interested are good.
Starting a Work from Home Business – This ties in somewhat with Internet marketing, but it can also be its own membership site idea as well. Everyday millions of people are searching for a way to run their own business from their home. If you can provide them with everything they need to do it, you’ll likely have more buyers than you could imagine.
Living a Less Stressed Life – We’re all busy, busy, busy. That’s no secret. There are tons of people who want tips, suggestions and even step-by-step instruction on how to live a less stressed and more enjoyable life. If you’re skilled in anything from organizing to scheduling, you’ve got a money maker on your hands with this idea.
No matter which avenue you choose to take with your membership site, the most important things to do – before ever creating your site – are to research your topic and determine who your target customer is. Once those things are in place and you’ve determined you do in fact have the knowledge and an interested market, the rest will go much smoother.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
by BlondieWrites on April 27, 2009
A membership site is a website that provides information or services to those people who register and pay to be a member. Most membership sites bill their members on a monthly basis. Once someone signs up as a member, depending on the owner’s set up, they are automatically billed each month. Those who sign up to become members have access to member’s only information provided by the site owner on a regular basis.
In order to start a membership site of your own, you must first determine who your market is. Next, you’ll need to put together a product, service or other information your market is in need of. Remember, it must be valuable enough they will be willing to pay for it on a recurring basis.
Once you have this information it’s time to think about how you will receive and keep track of member payments for each billing cycle. Popular payment options for members include credit cards or Paypal. Clickbank is also a popular payment gateway for membership sites, since they’ve recently added a recurring billing feature for publishers. The payments are still made by your customer via a credit card or Paypal, but Clickbank deals with all the accounting for you. This saves you a lot of time each and every month. You receive your check after all returns and fees have been removed and that’s it.
Next you’ll need to determine which type of membership site software you want to use to manage your members, the content, and all the important confidential information such as logins, etc. that come with a membership site.
If you’re looking to save a bit of money with this step (some membership management software can be a bit pricey) one way you can handle how you offer your content and member access to it is to set up an email list. Each month send an email telling current members where to go in order to access their new information via a special link on your website.
Get our Online Paid Membership Site Manual to get started with your own money making paid membership site.
