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How can a membership site benefit your business?
It’s not guaranteed that you’ll be successful by running a membership site, but you could potentially see some advantages if you’re willing to be patient. Once you have a sizable audience, you may consider exploring opportunities to generate revenue through a subscription model, including monthly or annual plans.
Publish free content to attract a small portion of your target audience who might, if they like it, subscribe to access more of what you already offer. Consider the potential impact of membership sites on customer loyalty and upselling opportunities.
Membership sites can also create a sense of importance by offering exclusive content, community access, and product discounts elsewhere; if you currently offer a subscription-based service or provide educational content to your audience, contemplate establishing a community platform.
What are the most important features of a membership site builder?
Some features might vary from business to business, but the fundamentals of a membership site builder are generally consistent across the board. You must look out for each of the following:
- Customizable Templates: Use these to create a website that reflects your brand personality and messaging; note that some templates will be less customizable than others.
- Member Management Tools: Give users the option to manage their membership and update their settings.
- Payment Processing: Integrate Stripe, PayPal, and other processing systems that help you take payments without needing significant technical expertise.
- Community Engagement Features: Look for tools that allow you to create engagement in your community, such as chat rooms and forums. You can also use social media (e.g. Reddit), but having your own gives more control.
What are the best ways to diversify or increase income with a membership site?
Besides taking membership subscriptions, you should diversify/increase your income by not putting all your eggs in one basket. Some of the other avenues to consider include:
- Affiliate Marketing: Sign up for affiliate programs and earn a commission when others buy via your link; make sure you aren’t misleading customers. Recommend products that you already use and your audience would potentially be interested in.
- Advertising: Sell ad space on your website or join an advertising network. Some platforms may have minimum traffic requirements; check these before applying.
- Sponsorships: Brands might partner with you to promote their products and services. You can do this via your membership channel and also on other platforms (e.g. your blog and YouTube).
- Extra Services: If you share educational content or have a product, consider offering “done it for you” or “done it with you” services. People often pay for these when they don’t want to set up the system they need, so they might be worth offering; make sure that they’re not too time-consuming that you neglect other responsibilities.
When you consider other monetization strategies, it’s important that these add to the user experience rather than detracting. Make sure that all monetization options you pursue are relevant to your niche.
Start with one or two monetization strategies to begin with and spend as much time as possible honing your skills. Picking too many things at once could result in you not making progress; once you’re comfortable and making money from your chosen methods, you can then consider branching out even more.
Conclusion
Membership sites can be a way to generate extra revenue from people already consuming your free content, though they take a long time to build. Giving yourself the best chance of success will largely rely on the site builder you choose, and you should think about the different tools available.
Payment processing and community-building are both important. However, you’ll also need to think about the templates you have access to and how much customization you want. Member management tools are essential, too, and so is choosing software that will continue scaling with you in the long run.
Before signing up for a membership site, think about how you wish to monetize your audience and have a clear content strategy. You should also know what your pricing model will be, along with considering other avenues for monetization.
