Starting Your Membership Site

Intrduction

Creating a membership site is probably the best way to earn a steady residual income every single month.

Before you set up a Membership site however, there are a few things you should be aware of. The average “lifetime” of a membership is around 4 month on most membership sites (!), forcing you to continuously recruit new members. This article should provide you with some helpful tips on how to extend the membership lifetime and to build real residual income.

Over Deliver and Exceed Expectations
The most important tip to consider before creating your own site is to make sure that you’re able to provide value to your members. You need to over deliver in every way possible and provide the most value, in order to keep your members satisfied and so they continue to come back every month.
In order to accomplish this, you have to make your members feel as if they are getting more for what they are actually paying. The products and information provided have to exceed the monetary value. By doing so members will stay and you will continue to get paid.

Plan Your Product Distribution
Another important tip, which goes hand in hand with creating value, is to make sure you do not reveal all your cards from the start. It’s a bit like playing poker. Don’t put your best products or information in your first month open on the table, and then be left with poor products or information,  or even worse with nothing at all for the following months.
You want to put out something of good value to start with, but you also want to make sure that your future products keep your members curiosity alive and willing to spend money for the following months.
In order to do this successfully, it is good practice to have a list of products already on hand and to breakdown their distribution on a monthly basis.

Build Hype
Yes, hype! Or if you don’t like this word: publicity! You have to make sure that you are sending your members frequent updates of the site and letting them know about upcoming releases. The best time to do this is shortly before their monthly membership fee is due.
This creates anticipation and curiosity within your member base and a lot of people will stick around just out of fear of missing out on the “next big thing”. Keep that in mind when creating a product. Ask yourself if you would want that product and how it would be beneficial to you. If so, you have a great chance that your members will want to have it too.

Gather Case Studies, Reviews and Testimonials
If you have the possibility, run case studies with a few handpicked members. Give them the beta version of your product to try out and ask for their feedback. This will give you the chance to modify the product, if necessary and you will get first hand reviews and testimonials
People love seeing reviews and testimonials from others who are actually using your product. Of course, in order for you to get these reviews and have people sharing their success with you, you need to make sure that your members can successfully use your products or information. The worst case is when member get products from you which they don’t know how to use. To overcome this problem you should provide support or setup a forum.

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Comments

Sean North   Business Great article Eric, I would also add that you need to get your members involved and make them feel that it their place, and don't be afraid to listen to or act upon suggestions by them. Jul 3rd 2011 10:25

Pierre Fricker   Web Illiterate You're right Sean. Maybe I should specify this point a bit clearer where I mentioned the forum. Thanks for your input. Jul 3rd 2011 10:36

Chukwuekwu Okonta   Forensic accountant @Eric, nice one, you touched very important points, may you add bonus to active members in affiliate program as reward that way they bring members for you. Jul 3rd 2011 13:49

Pierre Fricker   Web Illiterate Chucks, there is so much to say about about membership sites. I guess I will have to write a second article, which I will do if the demand (speak likes) is here. Maybe one about affiliate marketing membership sites. Jul 3rd 2011 13:54

Salim Benhouhou   IT Support i like membership sites i am planning to have one Jul 3rd 2011 13:55

Pierre Fricker   Web Illiterate I'm about to get one. There is quite a few things to consider before starting one. What I wrote here is all from infos I collected over the last 6 month. I guess, I will have to right more about membership sites. Also about the technical aspect. There too, many things are to be considered. Jul 3rd 2011 14:01

Mustafa Khumusi   Graphologist & Health Counsellor i like membership.....will create one soon Jul 3rd 2011 23:11

Roosevelt Evans III   Home Business Entrepreneur Enjoyed your informative article, Eric. Seems like having a good Group or Forum is good training for setting up a good membership site. Jul 4th 2011 00:05

Mohann Krish    Very helpful article on membership sites. One small suggestion, Eric. Please correct the words in the branding tags to avoid missing out some way or the other. Jul 4th 2011 00:11

Pierre Fricker   Web Illiterate @Mohann, do you mean I should write the branding tag: "membership site" as e.g. "membership-site" or "membership_site" or even "membershipsite"? Isn't this a long gone problem from the birth days of computers? Jul 4th 2011 13:10

Pierre Fricker   Web Illiterate To everybody tahnks for the constructive comments. I did quite some research for the last 6 month on membership sites, as I'm designing one right now. I have enough material for writing tow or three more articles about this subject. I'm not absolutely sure yet, but I think I will go for the franchise type of membership site. Any comments or suggestions? Jul 4th 2011 13:16

Mohann Krish    @Eric: What I meant was the spell. 'p' missing in the 1st tag and an extra 'i' in the 2nd tag. May be, you should correct it unless you are optimizing for misspelled words. Jul 4th 2011 20:55

Rammesh Perumal   Web Business & Development Consultant Agree with you Eric, nice insight of membership site. I am running membership site for almost a year now and satisfy with the progress :). Free membership also a good way to build your leads. Thanks for sharing. Jul 7th 2011 08:35

Patrick Isherwood   Retired I have one, but as yet it is not doing very well. Am just reading Rich Schefren's report - Beyond Traffic, he pulls no punches about traffic getting. Jul 8th 2011 10:23

Dan Lillpop  Internet Entrepreneur Membership sites are great, or at least they can be. I actually have three and try to "give" much more than I "take". There are some sites that seem to try and manipulate and take advantage of members. As the Admin, of course, you will receive overflowing benefits from your members, but the main thrust of the site should be for the benefit of the members, which will, in turn, make them happy and grow your site. Jul 9th 2011 13:00