This is the second post in a series on “How to Start a Membership Site” that continues on through the week.  To get the entire series, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed.  And to get started with your own membership site, check out this great video series.

So you’ve decided that starting a membership site is the right thing for you to do.  At least, I hope that’s what you’ve decided.

But what type of membership site are you going to start?  What will best serve your niche?  How can you become one of the premier sites by offering amazing content on a regular basis to your customers?

Getting a membership site setup is one thing, deciding what exactly is going to go in to that membership can be an even more daunting task.  It’s not just as simple as saying, “Hey, come check out my new membership site.  It’s really cool and you’ll get lots of stuff.  And it’s only $27 a month!”

But what are you giving people for their $27?

That’s what you have to figure out first.

Here are 4 membership site models that, I hope, will get your creative juices flowing.  There are a million different models you can use, or you could come up with a new one, or modify an existing model.  It’s your site, do what you want!  Just be sure that your audience accepts what you are doing and that you’re going to make money.  If not, skip it!

Model #1 – Monthly Training

This is a popular model in the internet marketing space, but can easily be transferred to other niches.  Suppose you are one of the world’s leading experts on knitting.  Do you think that there would be people out there in the world that are willing to pay a monthly subscription to get more tips on how they can knit better?  You better believe it!

Any niche that brings out someone’s passion is a good fit for a training membership site.  If you can help people by showing or telling them how to do something, you’ve got a great start for a membership site.

Do your training however you see fit.  Audio, video, email, PDFs, you choose.  I will tell you that video is very hot right now, but there may be  some niches that don’t transfer well to video.  Training sites are always a great model for a membership site.

Model #2 – “Blank” of the Month Club

Do you remember the Book of the Month Club?  How about the Cake of the Month?  Could you create something like this for your niche?  Absolutely!

Maybe you have a site on productivity.  You could create a new productivity tool, check list, or anything else that will help your members be more productive and release it each month.  A software of the month club.  If you’re in our previous knitting niche, maybe a project of the month.

The point is, you keep your members involved and waiting for what is going to come next month.  It’s like getting a gift each and every month, only they’re paying for it.

Model #3 – Forum

One of the oldest sites still online is the forum.  While many of these sites are free, it’s pretty easy to create a paid forum site.  You could create a special area of your forum site for “private coaching” or “expert advice”.

If you have an existing forum, this is the easiest way for you to add a membership model to your existing site.  If you’re just starting a forum, it might take you a while to build up enough traffic to make your forum site profitable.

Model #4 – The Exclusive Group

Have you ever joined a club that you paid a fee for so you could get a discount on products and services?  Many small businesses will create these types of memberships to get their best customers to spend more money.

Think about this scenario:  a popular local restaurant starts a “premier club”. People pay either a monthly or yearly fee to enroll.  As a member, they enjoy perks like call-ahead seating and a 20% discount on all meals.

Do you think that people would pay to be a part of this club?  Just think about it for a second.  You’ve got your best customers paying you a club fee and they’re probably coming in more often spending more money at your restaurant since they get a 20% discount.

Could you come up with something like this for your niche?  A club that gives people access to your products/services at a discount?  Early access?  Members only products?

People want to belong to something, and if they have to pay to belong they feel a bit more “exclusive”.  Cater to that feeling, everyone wants to be someone special.

Now that you have some ideas for how to organize your membership site, you can learn how to create a membership site faster and less expensive than you though possible.  The offer for this fantastic new product is only available for a short time before the price goes up.  Get your membership site off the ground right now and start creating a recurring income for yourself and your family!

How to Start a Membership Site

See you next time, world changers,

Mike Paul

There’s a lot of buzz here in Internet marketing land about a topic that a lot of people are afraid of, and that’s membership sites.

I’m telling you that you shouldn’t be afraid of running your own membership site.  In fact, you should be practically jumping at the chance to create your own membership site!

Membership sites are one of the most powerful business models online today.  Think of it like this, you work really hard one time at creating amazing content that your audience will rave over, and then you get paid over and over again each month.

Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?

But far too often, we become paralyzed at the thought of creating a membership site.  How do I set it up?  Where will the content come from?  How do I market the site successfully if and when I ever get off my rear end and get the thing up and running?  Do I really have what it takes to create content that people are willing to pay for month after month and not go running into the hills with their credit cards?

So, to help you (and me) get over some of our fears about creating and running a membership site, here’s five reasons why you need to start a membership site right now…

Reason #1 – Brand Establishment

Your business is new online.  You’ve got a niche that you know inside and out and have a ton of great information to share with people and improve their lives, fatten their wallet, help them lose weight, be more productive, or help them grow better tasting tomatoes.  Whatever.  You’re trying to establish your brand online.  Whether it be you or your company’s reputation you’re trying to build, a membership site is a great way to help establish that.

If people know you are running a membership site, they’re more likely to believe that you are an authority on your given subject.  I’m hoping that’s the case, but whether it is or not, that will be people’s perception.  And as we all know, perception is reality for us normal human folks.

Getting your membership site up and running is a great way to establish your brand for the long term.

Reason #2 – Focus Your Marketing

Why, o why, are you trying to build so many little sites that only sell one thing as a one-time purchase?  If you have a membership site, you can begin to focus the vast majority of your efforts on marketing that single site.  Then, when you have a new site you want to launch (related to your niche), you’ve already got an existing group to market that site to, your current members.

See, when you create you own membership site, you have an on-demand source of traffic for any other project that you work on in the future plus you have a base income from your memberships that can help finance your other projects.

Reason #3 – Continuity

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this subject, the explanation should be pretty apparent.  When you have a membership site, you have recurring income.  Whether you charge weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, bi-annually, or yearly, or whatever, that is income that you know will be coming in.  The beauty of a membership site is that if you want to give yourself a pay raise, all you have to do is get some more people signed up to your site!

And you’ve already done all the heavy lifting of creating content, now you’ve just got to use your marketing know-how to get 5, 10, 50, 100 more people to your site and sign up.  It sounds amazing and fairly simplistic, but I’m amazed at how difficuly many of us make this concept, including myself.

Reason #4 – Build Your List

I’m sure by now you’ve heard that it’s a lot easier to sell to someone that has already purchased from you.  If you’ve spent any time in any business, you know this is true.

So why do you want to build your membership site?  You’ve got a hot list that is already purchasing something from you each and every month like clockwork. Do you think that you will make more money sending a related offer to this list, or to the one that you built with some freebie giveaway event?  You do the math and let me see what you come up with.  I’m waiting with baited breath…

Reason #5 – Lighten Your Work Load

Back to something I said earlier, why are you trying to build so many little sites?  That’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.  I’m pretty much a one-man operation at this point.  There’s no way that I can maintain 100 different websites.  No way, not gonna happen.  No matter how much I want it to.

And unless you have a full staff of employees or are bringing in enough money to outsource a lot of the work, neither can you.

If you’re trying to, the only thing you’re going to accomplish is sending yourself to an early grave.  Yes, you might be raking in a ton of cash, but I bet you don’t have any time to enjoy any of it.  And isn’t that why we all wanted to start our own business, so that we could finally have control of our time?

With a membership site, the bulk of your efforts are concentrated in one area. One site, one list, one group of customers.  The more you can focus on that one thing, the better your product will become.

Stop trying to be a jack of all trades.  Become the master of your niche, no matter what it is.  And yes, I truly believe that you can have a membership site in any niche, you just have to think about it.  And you are the master of your niche, so get to thinking.

Final note, I know many of you don’t know how to start a membership site.  What software do you use, how do I manage it, where do I get content, are all some questions you may have.  Right now, you can get a start on your membership site and get it up and running faster than you thought you could.  And for much less than what you probably thought it would cost.

Until this Sunday, you can pick up “How to Set up a Membership Site” for an amazingly low price. $17 as a matter of fact.  But, I can assure you that this offer will not last forever.  After Sunday, it will go back up, so don’t hesitate.  You’ve got a membership site to get started on, make sure you build it the right way so you can start making some money as quickly as possible.

Click here for your special price – “How to Set Up a Membership Site”

Once you get your site set up, let us know, won’t you?  I’d love to see what you’re doing.  Leave your comments below and let’s see how many amazingly great membership sites we can create.

Until next time, world changers,

Mike Paul