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How To Start A Profitable Membership Site This Year

ByAntony C.
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Whether you want to teach or create a community for likeminded people, start and create a membership site is ideal way to reach your audience. With a membership site, it lets you connect with your audience in a deeper level, building a sense of belonging and adding credibility to what you have to offer.

Types of Membership Site Models

Starting a membership business can be done in a few ways such as:

  • Creating a membership website using some of the best membership website builder where you can engage your online community and build stronger bonds and rapport.
  • Creating a membership App using App development platforms where you can connect with each of your members anywhere anytime, sending instant message and notification directly onto their mobile devices.
  • Create a membership site using membership plugins that build on popular Content Management System (CMS) integrating membership features onto your branded websites.

With our simple step guide below, it can help guide you the right direction towards building a high converting successful membership site.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

8 Essential Steps to Start And Create a Profitable Membership Site

Starting a new membership site is never easy, You’ll need to accept that an online membership site is not going to be something you can setup within a short time. When you are launching a membership site you are essentially starting a new online membership business.

Steps to start a membership site includes:

Building up a membership site business takes effort:

  • Take a day or a week of work to create a working memberships site.
  • Take a week to 1 month to get your first paying members, depending on your audience based.
  • Take 3 to 12 month to get your first 10 to 30 paying members, depending on your niche.
  • To grow your membership site into a 4 or 5-figure online membership business generally takes 24 to 36 months.

But you can actually reach success faster.

With the steps listed below, you can build a community and create an advance membership site as fast as just 3 months or so.

With this, let’s dive in and see what are the steps you should take to set up a membership site.

Source: Podia (Full Review)

1. Decide on Niche And Focus On A Subject Matter

Of course, the most important component to having online memberships is the niche and subject matter you intend to promote. But, it should be something people need and/or care about. Therefore, you will want to consider the following questions:

  • What will make your membership site attractive and standout against others like it?
  • What benefits will members receive by being a part of your membership site?
  • When do you want to launch this membership site?
  • Are you doing this for the sole purpose of earning money or do you have another driving principle?
  • What is unique about what you’re going to offer that isn’t available anywhere else?
  • Who is your target audience? What kind of people do you want to hook into the membership?
  • How big do you want this membership site to be? Do you want room for future growth?
  • How long do you intend to keep this membership going?

Create a Statement of Purpose

Once you have a rough outline after answering these questions, make a statement of purpose with your target audience in mind. This should be one or two sentences making a succinct proclamation of what you want to do and what you hope to achieve. It should clearly iterate your purpose that’s easy to understand.

In general, if you have to get longwinded about your statement of purpose, it’s not worth stating. Keeping everything as simple as possible will help maintain your focus while also being plain enough for anyone to understand. You must mitigate the potential for confusion as much as possible.

2. Select a Platform

Your next step before deciding anything else is to select a platform to host this membership site. There are several options available, which you can determine based on your webmaster skills.

  • Membership plugins build on top of CMS platforms.
  • All-in-one online membership management platforms.

Each have it’s own advantages and disadvantages, depending on each site owner, you may want to choose one over the other.

Online Membership Plugin Build On CMS Platforms

If you know computer language related to websites such as basic HTML, understand how plugin works and understand SEO, then you can publish your site on WordPress. With this approach you’ll have total control over the look and feel of your whole membership site.

Online membership plugins are the go-to option for site owners who wants to include a membership program to their current self-hosted site. Some of which that are most popular in the industry are:

Today, there are many wordpress membership plugins that offers full membership features. With these wordpress plugins, it gives you everything you need to create a fully customizable membership site without the need of hiring a website developer that can lead to thousands of dollars in saving.

All-In-One Online Membership Management Platforms

However, building a membership site yourself is time consuming and it may present more frustrations for those not so versed in this arena. It requires some knowledge of HTML and how plugins work as well as how to use code like PHP, CSS and JavaScript.

For an easier setup experience, start your membership site on a dedicated membership platform designed to build your membership site. Some of the best dedicated membership platforms includes:

While some may prefer to create a membership App instead of just a site, if you are one of them, I personally think Passion.io, LearnWorlds and Mighty Networks offers all the features required for you to create a profitable membership App, including features such as live events, one-to-one coaching and selling digital course or products.

I’ve personally tried and used most of these mentioned here, and personally, I think all of them are easy to use with intuitive interfaces and seamless setup.

3. Create Multiple Membership Levels and Tiers

Depending on the type of membership site you are creating and the membership platform you use, you can opt for setting up membership tiers with a specific set of requirements. Consider the length of time for which each tier is valid and what happens upon expiration. Each can offer a special lineup of content specific to users’ needs, desires and goals.

For instance, you can have:

  • Basic membership where people will receive the primary details of information, classes and other tidbits you offer.
  • Midrange membership that includes the basic items but also an added bonus.
  • Third and final tier will be all-encompassing, complete with bells and whistles not offered with the previous two.

However, if you’re going to use your membership site for instruction, you can arrange several tiers based on level achievement.

To illustrate with an example: Let’s say you’re teaching math.

  • The first tier will be basic arithmetic,
  • The next will be pre-algebra
  • The next will be geometry
  • The next will be algebra
  • Then advanced geometry, advanced algebra and so on…

Define Your Requirements

You also want to write down the requirements for each tier.

  • Think about whether payment will be the determining factor or an individual’s advancement on the site.
  • Also ruminate over the personal skills and talents a member must have to become a part of that tier, regardless of whether they pay the fee or not.

Some membership sites will require prospective users to take a quiz or test, which will place or suggest to them the correct tier.

While this is good for educational membership sites, it’s also good for professional communities where there are newcomers to seasoned veterans.

4. Configure Payment Methods And Pricing

With the creation of your tiers and their requirements, you want to consider your pricing strategy and pricing model. There are several components to factor in here.

  1. You want to do a little research and seek out other membership sites with a topic and setup similar to yours.
  2. See what they charge and, if you can, find out how many members they have.
  3. You want to keep your prices competitive but not too expensive or too cheap.

Then there’s the matter of your tiers and the value of each.

The trick here is to weigh the value between your personal needs and those of your target audience.

Pricing Strategy Infographic by Income Buddies

Pricing Considerations

Think about newer members versus ones who will be with you for a long time in how you want to create discounts.

  • Price-based incentives: For instance, some people will make things less expensive the longer someone stays a member. This incentivizes newcomers to stick around, if only for the savings.
  • Value-based incentives: Longtime members will find what you offer more valuable and will probably pay more than someone who’s new.

Of course, this will all depend on what you’re trying to achieve with this membership site and what your vision is for it.

Also, don’t forget to figure in the fees you’ll have to pay for setup. There’s going to be the cost for using the platform but then there’s also payment processing and the site’s overall valuation.

In the case of teaching, you want to charge enough so you cover your overhead costs while also making it worth your time.

Payment Processing

Naturally, to monetize your membership site, you must have a means of processing payments. If you’re using a management platform, chances are, they will have their own payment processing system.

However, if you’re using WordPress, you will have to incorporate something like PayPal, Square or Stripe. These usually charge a percentage of every sale you bring in. So, you will want to configure this with the pricing.

Forms of Payment

Also, consider various forms of payment you will accept from members.

  • Direct online payments will always be credit cards.
  • Using third party payment provider such as Paypal and Strip will be a great option too.
  • Snail mail payments with a check or money order is possible as well.

However, you can also think about accepting other forms of currency, such as Bitcoin or other forms of currency.

Having several avenues for payment will make your site more attractive to potential members. It will give you that edge over competitors while being fully accommodating.

If a website doesn’t offer a form of payment a potential consumer prefers, they will lose that profit.

5. Develop Members-Only Content

Developing content is an essential part of your membership site. Without it, you’ll fail to attract people to your cause, forcing them to look elsewhere. This means creating content not just for paid members but also some free tidbits to inspire new people to join.

This means creating real content people can use and find useful.

  • Content should be original
  • Simple to understand and easy to implement
  • Content should be sharable, which can increase instances of going viral.

Content created can be videos but it can include articles, infographics, memes and other such digital documentation too.

Offer Free Stuff

There should also be a healthy library of free stuff but save the juiciest information for your membership tiers. You can use this as part of your marketing strategy, making the membership more appealing and desirable.

Additionally, it’s important to have a variety of engaging activities like:

  • Chat rooms, directories, member advertising programs, affiliate projects, forums, newsletters, videos, articles, quizzes and etc.

Make everything printable, sharable and transferable.

This will be especially important if your site is for teaching or instruction.

As an example, we’ll pretend your site is for professional dancers.

  • Level one people get a listing in your website directory and one week of banner advertising on the home page.
  • Level two receives this but they also have access to instructional videos about the industry.
  • Leve three, the top tier gets all this plus direct gig offers.

6. Advertising and Marketing

Once you have everything setup and ready to go, complete with fully fleshed out content, it’s time to attract members. This means devising a solid advertising and marketing strategy that should include a range of options for online and in-person situations.

Your description is the key to increase your conversion from 1% to as high as 5 – 10% so don’t forget to invest your time in creating a persuasive description.

For in-depth marketing strategies you can check out our article on the best strategies to market your site or online course platform, otherwise here are some effective ideas to help you grow your membership site.

Typical Avenues (Paid & Social)

Of course, you want to sign up your brand to as many social media sites as possible along with creating email campaigns.

Find other routes for free advertising before you jump onto paid ones like Google Adwords. Post your classes on public databases and listings along with community calendars.

Also, make quick promo videos that are entertaining, engaging and informative to your cause. Try to create them with the intention and hope of it going viral. This is probably the best way to drive traffic to your site while adding more members.

SEO (Free)

You should also incorporate SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, especially if you’re designing it yourself.

This is the use of special keywords and phrases in the content throughout the site. Once people type these terms into a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go or Brave, your site appears nearer to the top.

To use SEO effectively,

  1. Find out what the top search words are for your particular niche.
  2. Then, include those specific words in your site’s description and on all pages available to free users and paid members.
  3. The more people who visit your site and stay there will put your site high up on the search results.

While this description is somewhat an oversimplification, it is the basic gist. There are many aspects to SEO and it’s advisable to hire outside help.

There’s a whole world of agencies that will give you the best suggestions to optimize your site for a nominal fee.

Flyers

However, you may want to create physical flyers and put them up in the public sphere. Grocery stores, laundromats and tanning salons are just some suggestions.

You can also use them when hobnobbing and networking at social gatherings, meet ups, conventions, seminars and other such places.

The idea is to use as many avenues as possible to get as many new members as you can. The more buzz you create around your site, the more people are likely to join it.

7. Buildup Followers And Brand Ambassadors

The best way to create a buzz that keeps on humming is to attract loyal followers and brand ambassadors. Catchy content, viral promo videos and desirable offers are what is going to help you be successful in this regard. However, you may want to consider setting up other situations to expand upon your site with things like:

  • Webinars and Livestreams: Having live video on a regular basis can be part of your elite offerings to members. Here, people can ask you questions, you can give classes/instruction or provide a place for everyone to chat. It puts a face on your brand and allows members to know you better.
  • Slack or Skype: You can post online office hours, making you more accessible and easier to contact directly online with Slack or Skype. Members can get personalized help with their questions or assistance in troubleshooting the site. It also shows potential members you’re serious about what you do, which lends you more credibility.
  • Social Media Groups: Setting up a private group through various social media sites (Facebook or Twitter) adds another layer of accessibility for members. Plus, you can use it as a tool to attract new members. It’s a great way for people to coalesce outside the membership area.
  • Forums: Having a public area on your membership site where people can post their questions, get support and engage in general conversation is ideal. It provides a safety net for members while giving you the ability to observe what members discuss. You can adjust your offerings according to their wishes and desires.
  • Live Events: Hosting live events on occasion is a great way for members to meet you and each other in person. This has the potential to foster new members while galvanizing the relationships you have with established ones. This can be a party, performance, gallery gala, seminar or other speaking type of event.
  • Personal Contact: Another way to endear people to your site is treating each member with respect. This means sending personal emails, phone calls, surveys or even snail mail letters. It shows them you care about them, their opinions and their support.

The idea around setting things like this up is to promote and encourage communication.

In fact, some of the best membership sites out there are ones where members actively interact with the site and each other. So, whatever you have to do to deliver such results will be the key here.

8. Maintain Consistency

The most important step of all of these to start a membership site is to maintain consistency. You want members to trust you and that means staying predictable. Ergo, make a schedule for things like newsletters, blog posts, responding to forum questions, answering Skype calls and replying to emails.

If you falter too often, you’re sure to lose members because they’ll lose interest.

  • Remember to keep things fresh and updated.
  • Stick to your schedule and post it for everyone to see.
  • In the event you’ll be on vacation or away for awhile, notify your members.

However, maintaining consistency also means being as honest and forthright with your members as possible. This will play into your projection of trustworthiness and people will have more respect for you as an individual.

If you make a mistake or are incorrect about something, simply rectify and apologize for it immediately.

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Antony C., Founder of IncomeBuddies.com.
Antony C.
Founder & Financial Writer at Income Buddies | Website | Posts by Author

Antony C. is a dividend investor with over 15+ years of investing experience. He’s also the book author of “Start Small, Dream Big“, certified PMP® holder and founder of IncomeBuddies.com (IB). At IB, he share his personal journey and expertise on growing passive income through dividend investing and building online business. Antony has been featured in global news outlet including Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq and Non Fiction Author Association (NFAA).

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