So, you want to start your own membership site. Starting a membership site online can be an exciting thought. There are tons of blog posts mentioning how lucrative these types of sites are. Successful membership sites such as Netflix rake in billions.
On a smaller scale, ‘software as a service’ (SAAS) memberships such as autoresponder companies, graphics design software, etc. make six to 7 figures sums every month.
They have thousands of members who willingly pay for the benefits of the service. The sheer promise of having a stable, recurring, and wildly profitable income can warm the cockles of most marketers’ hearts.
The good news is, that there is a way for any determined marketer or course creator to generate recurring revenue without it stealing your time, energy, or resources. The answer is a Membership Site – but you must be aware of what will be required from you. Do not go in blindly just based on your dreams of quick and easy money.
What is a Membership Site?
Many entrepreneurs dream of being able to work from a tropical beach in The Bahamas at least once in a while. But most business owners are tethered indefinitely to their office, and the idea of leaving their business and touring the world — or even taking a weeklong holiday — seems absurd.
If only there were a way to secure a recurring revenue stream …
Enter the gated membership site.
A membership website is an online community that features gated, exclusive content that only members can access and make use of.
A subscription product doesn’t require anyone physically at the wheel to guarantee an income, and it requires little daily upkeep. Successful membership sites combine the right software with valuable content and a sales funnel that reliably converts leads into sales.
You may already have a successful web presence. Perhaps you’re a blogger with a strong following, have an eCommerce site, or are publishing podcasts or videos. Or maybe you just have a list of contacts receiving your monthly newsletter. Regardless, adding a membership component to your web presence can help you earn more money.
So, in this post, I’ll be sharing how you can get your membership site up and running, as well as presenting some amazing membership site examples for you to get inspired by. However, there is no quick and easy money with this business model. Let’s see why…
Prerequisites for Membership Sites
There Is a Learning Curve
Generally, running a membership site is not nearly as complex as some other online business models such as eCommerce and so on. However, there is a learning curve, especially if you’re new to online marketing.
You’ll need to learn product creation. After all, there has to be a deliverable for your paying customers each month.
Next, you’ll need to know how to install WordPress and set up the membership software. Most membership software comes with video tutorials to guide you, but you’ll still need to follow along step-by-step.
The learning curve is where most beginners throw in the towel. They lack the fortitude and patience to learn whatever they need to.
So, be ready to spend time in the trenches mastering the tech stuff. It’s not difficult, and you’ll only need to learn it once.
Some Investment Is Required
You’ll need to pay for a domain, hosting, an autoresponder, membership software, etc. This is not a business you can start with no money down. Ideally, you should have about $250 to $500 when starting off.
You can either earn this money by doing some freelancing work online or save some money from your day job. If you’re on a tight budget, it’s best to do freelance work on sites like Fiverr or Upwork until you have an initial sum to bootstrap your membership site.
What to Expect
Once you’ve set up your membership site, it would be good to upload 2 to 3 months’ worth of content so that you’re ahead of the curve. Once you have enough content to deliver for 2 consecutive months, then you can start marketing your site while you work on the upcoming months’ content.
The 2 months serve as a buffer for you just in case unexpected hiccups occur in your content creation. As you get more and more members on your site, you may wish to outsource content creation.
You’ll need to find reliable and proficient freelancers so that your deliverables are of high quality. You must satisfy your subscribers’ expectations. This will ensure you have a high subscriber retention rate.
It’s Only Hands Off to Some Extent
Many beginners dream of earning passive income. A membership site does provide that, but only to some extent. Automation in your site will take care of a ton of tasks for you.
Customers will be onboarded smoothly. The payments will be taken care of… and the content delivered like clockwork.
However, you will always need to be actively involved in marketing your site and figuring out ways to improve it. This is a never-ending process, and it’s a fun one if you enjoy what you’re doing.
You’ll need to test out paid advertising. Or experiment with different content formats and so on.
Are You Serious?
The crux of the matter is this – success in this business is an ongoing process. You’re either progressing or regressing because no matter how good your membership site is, there will always be some attrition.
If you observed Netflix, you’d notice that they’re constantly adding new content and testing things out. That’s how they stay at the top of their game – and that’s what you’ll need to do to stay at the top of yours.
- Are you willing to take on the challenge of learning new concepts and tools?
- Will you go through the learning curve and do what you need to even on days when you feel like giving up?
- Are you ok with taking 4 to 6 months to grow your membership site even when results seem slow to come?
If the answer is yes to all the questions above, then you definitely have what it takes to start your own profitable membership site.
Just imagine…6 months from now, you’ll have a business that generates a stable monthly income for you. And with time, your membership will go from strength to strength… and you’ll realize that all the effort was worth it.
Top 7 Benefits of Creating a Membership Site
Most online marketers crave stability in their income and are constantly in pursuit of ways and means to boost their earnings. Very often, they read or hear about running membership sites and how lucrative a business model it is.
Yet, they procrastinate on their membership site because they’re intimidated by the technical process involved, which really isn’t that difficult if you consider the plethora of membership site software options available to you.
The setting up process has never been easier. You just need to take the first step without trying to see the whole staircase. Step by step you’ll get there… and if you’re still hesitant, let’s look at 7 benefits you can accrue by creating your very own membership site.
Income Stability
This is probably the biggest benefit of the lot. If your membership site charges $27 a month and you have 100 members, you’re looking at a ‘confirmed’ income of $2,700 a month.
Even with a certain percentage of member attrition and some members defaulting on payment, for the most part, you still know that you have at least $2500 or so coming in the next month.
This guaranteed income makes a membership site a necessity for most online marketers.
While creating and launching products is a profitable business model, it’s usually a ‘feast and famine’ type of income. You make money when you launch and your earnings start tapering off as the days go by.
Affiliate marketing can be hit or miss, and your income is subjected to the ebbs and flows of the prevailing trends. However, a membership site will give you a predictable recurring income that you can count on every month.
Build Your Own Brand
A membership site also helps you to build brand recognition. Think of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or even a subscription to magazines such as Time, Newsweek, or National Geographic.
You instantly recognize these brands because they’ve carved a name for themselves with a membership business model.
In the same vein, you too can make your brand more recognizable by using a membership site to put your ‘name’ in front of your customers every single month with clockwork regularity.
Less Work – More Profits
As your membership site grows, you’ll have more income, and that will give you the flexibility to hire freelancers to create quality content for you.
This will free up your time to focus on your marketing efforts to attract more people to your membership program.
This brings us to the next point…
Scalable
The membership site business model is scalable. The more members you get, the more you’ll earn. You can use a portion of your extra earnings to advertise your site and get even more subscribers.
Since you’re outsourcing the content creation now, you’ll have much more time to hone in on the marketing aspect of running a membership site.
This business is highly scalable because the content and delivery remain the same, even when the number of members you have increases.
Relatively Hands-Free
Unlike other online marketing models such as affiliate marketing or Kindle publishing, which requires you to keep several balls in the air at the same time, things are a lot easier with a membership site.
Once your membership site is set up, as long as the following month’s content is ready for your members and uploaded for delivery, you’re set. You don’t need to worry about a hundred and one tasks. It’s mostly automated, leaving you with a lot more free time for other activities.
Lifetime Value Per Customer
Depending on the quality of the content, the lifetime value of your customer will be much higher than with other business models.
If you’re selling products, you’ll need to keep producing new content and marketing over and over to new and existing customers. Some may buy your content and many won’t.
But with a membership site, most subscribers will not be faced with a buying decision every so often. The monthly deductions will be automated and they’ll be less likely to say no because the payments are happening in the background.
The whole process is more ‘palatable’. You’d be surprised to know that there are people who’ll stay on the membership just because they’re too lazy to go through the mild ‘hassle’ of canceling their subscription.
Besides that, most of your subscribers may have a need for ongoing content. For example, there are membership sites that deliver new keto recipes, martial arts tutorials, financial tips, etc. every month.
The constant need for fresh, reliable, and useful content will keep your subscribers hooked to your membership. So, do deliver nothing but the best.
High-Profit Margins
It’s interesting to note that the cost to run your membership site will ‘decrease’ as you get more members. What does that mean?
For example, if you have operating costs of about $50 a month for your membership site, and you have 100 subscribers, that’s 50 cents a month per subscriber.
If you recruited more members and you now had 250 subscribers, it would be 20 cents a month per subscriber.
That’s roughly how it works. Since all members will be getting the same content or be drip-fed the existing content in a sequence, your content creation costs will not increase.
You’re making more money with existing content and ‘lower costs’. Quite frankly, it doesn’t get better than this.
Besides the 7 benefits above, there are several others that sweeten the pot and make the membership site model highly desirable. Do spend some time learning the ropes and building your own membership. In a few months from now, you’ll be glad you did.
4 Compelling Membership Site Models
This is a very common question. There are about 5 to 7 types of membership site models and a few variations in-between. However, for the most part, the basics remain the same.
Which membership site model you choose to go with will be determined by what your goals are. It’s imperative that you know your goals and do some advance planning before settling down on a membership site model.
Let’s look at a few common ones…
Online Training Products/Courses
This type of membership model is very common and depending on the payment, it may or may not be ideal for you. Many marketers sell courses for a one-time fee, and after purchase, you become a part of the membership and get access to the training.
Since membership software is used to protect the download, some marketers refer to it as a membership with a one-time fee.
A variation of this model is where there is a content vault with lots of content that was added before. For a higher price, you’ll have access to all the content inside. This is usually known as an “All-Access Pass.”
It will seem like a good deal to most buyers because the amount of content they get is massive and they’re getting excellent value for money. You’ll also be able to monetize your older content with this method and breathe new life into them.
However, this too is a one-time fee type of membership model. If you want stable recurring income, this membership site model is not for you.
Community-Based Memberships
Over the past few years, this type of membership model has skyrocketed in popularity, thanks to Facebook.
Basically, members pay to be part of a closed Facebook group where like-minded people hang out to exchange valuable insider information and so on.
Usually, all that’s required is a payment processor that charges a recurring fee and once a person signs up, they’ll send a request to the group with the email they used to make payment.
The email will then be manually verified and the member will be allowed into the group once payment has been confirmed. There’s not much automation here… and should a member cancel their subscription, the group admin will need to manually delete the member from the group.
This is an effective membership site model even if it’s simple and lacks automation. With enough members, you can pull in a decent income every month without the need to build out your own site.
Drip Fed Content Membership
This is without a doubt one of the best and most effective membership site models to use. You’ll build out the site on your own domain and use membership management software to automate the entire process.
Upon payment, the member will automatically get access to their content. They’ll then be charged monthly, and every month, new content will be ‘drip fed’ to them.
So, different members will be at different stages of your membership depending on when they join. This will give your content maximum mileage and if you have enough content for 12 months, you already have a membership that can be a 1-year fixed term membership.
Service-Style Memberships
With this membership, you may or may not need a deliverable. For example, if you create a software plugin that helps marketers get more leads, you could charge monthly for it without delivering any more content.
The use of the plugin is the service. It’s that simple. You only create the service once and maintain it. This is why software as a service (SAAS) is so popular these days.
Once the buyer is hooked on your service, they’ll pay to use it for a long time. Think of services such as web hosting, autoresponders, support desk software, and so on.
Providing group or one-on-one coaching where the client/s gets a fixed number of training sessions every month can also be considered a membership. As long as they’ve signed up and are paying every month to be a member, it’s a membership site model.
Besides the models mentioned above, there are many hybrids and variations. Some membership sites are fixed-term, while others run in perpetuity until you cancel. Some are drip-fed, but have an option to upgrade to an “All-access pass”.
Whatever the case may be, choose a model that’s right for you. Ideally, when you build a membership site, it should provide you with a recurring income that lends some stability and scalability to your online business. These are the strongest points of having a membership site, and you should factor them into your decision.
4 Steps to Build a High-Performing Membership Site
Creating and running a membership site is a great way to build an additional income stream and nurture relationships with your target market. It takes a bit of planning and work to set up at first, but once it’s up and running, you can engage your audience with little effort on your part.
Here are the steps to quickly and easily setting up your membership site.
Choose Your Topic
Start by deciding on a topic to focus on. Think about your target audience. What kind of help do they need? What information are they looking for? How can you help them? Focus on serving them with your exclusive content and choose a topic from there.
Your topic shouldn’t be too general or too specific. Too general and it’ll be generic and hard to compete with others. Too specific and you won’t have many members. The best practice is to go with a niche within a niche.
Plan Your Membership Model
There are many types of membership models available. You should choose the one that’s most suitable for your goals in starting the site and also the best fit for your members. Options include:
- Payment Structure. Do people pay once and get all access, or do they pay on a regular subscription basis?
- Member Content. Is the content available all at once for anyone who joins, or is it drip-fed over time?
- What is there for people to do on the site? You might include something like a forum where members can share information.
- Member Levels. Are there different levels with access to different content and features?
Think about your site from your user’s point of view. What would you want out of it if you joined?
Build Your Membership Site
There are many software programs and services available, but if you want to create a membership site quickly, the easiest is to use WordPress. Go to your site’s WordPress dashboard and you’ll find a variety of membership site plug-ins available.
Spend a little time checking out different plug-ins and reading reviews. You don’t need anything fancy or complicated. Choose one that offers the membership model and features you need.
Create Your Membership Site Content
Once you have your membership site set up, you’ll need to create some essential content. This includes the content for the site itself, exclusive content you’ll offer through the site, a high-converting sales page, and other marketing materials.
Make sure your marketing content explains to potential members the benefits they can expect from joining. Focus on writing the best copy possible, as this is what will entice people to sign up.
Once people have a way to join, pay, and access content, your membership site is up and running. Now all you need to do is drive traffic to it and moderate it.
7 Ways to Monetize Your Membership Site
We’ve already established that membership sites are great for building deeper relationships with your audience and offering exclusive content they can use to solve their problems. But even better, you can monetize your site and create one more stream of income to add to your marketing mix.
Here are 7 ways you can earn money through your membership site.
Membership Fees
The easiest method is to charge for membership. People pay either once when they sign up or on a recurring basis each month. There are advantages to each depending on the membership model you choose and the type of content you offer.
Exclusive Members-only Deals
You can pitch offers to your members that are only available to them. This is important as it provides an added benefit to being a member. Examples of what you can provide include additional content, courses, coaching sessions, masterminds, and access to resources.
One variation is to offer services and products available to non-members (like group coaching) but at a deep discount for members only.
If you plan to monetize through deals within the site, you can offer free membership, which will lead to more members. You don’t have to charge membership fees and you can still earn.
Membership Levels
You can monetize your membership site by offering different premium levels with corresponding levels of access. A simple way to do this is to offer a free and premium membership option.
In this freemium model, the free version gives members access to a limited amount of content or access to the community, but with restrictions. By upgrading to the paid version, they can unlock the remaining features and access more.
Sell Affiliate Products
You can earn through your membership site by pitching your own products, but you can also sell others’ products as an affiliate. With this model, you don’t need to develop your own products. Find products and services your members would love and tell them about these offers. In return, you receive a commission. You can find products to pitch by joining affiliate networks.
Ask for Donations
Some membership sites have great success only by asking for donations. Rather than charging membership fees, they provide value for free and ask their members to donate. They may hold drives where they call members to action during particular times of the year or offer recurring subscriptions.
Take Targeted Ads
Advertising offers a way to earn if you have a large and active membership. Ads can be distracting and intrusive, so make sure they’re highly targeted to your members. You can join ad networks or approach businesses directly that you feel would be ideal for your audience.
Sell Your Membership Site
If you have a huge site with a large and engaged audience, you’re sitting on a very valuable piece of real estate. You may be able to find another business in your niche that will pay good money for access to your warm leads.
The focus of your membership site should be to offer value to your target market. But whatever your overall goals, these monetization strategies can help you earn directly through your site.
Getting New Members for Your Membership Site
You have your topic idea for your new membership site, you’ve chosen a platform to host it on, and you’re ready to go. The next big challenge is to get people to sign up and join your site.
Here are 9 easy strategies you can employ to drive qualified leads to your membership site.
Entice with a Freebie
One of the simplest and most effective methods is to offer something as an incentive for signing up. A good idea is to offer a free information product like an eBook or video course that doesn’t cost you anything to make. People love to get something for free and it offers a taste of your expertise. Other ideas include a deep discount or free trial.
Start a Blog
Create a blog to drive traffic to your membership site. Write about topics related to your site’s topic. Focus on reader questions and problems and offer solutions through your blog posts. The posts should be purely informational and include a call-to-action and link to your site.
YouTube Videos
Create short videos and post them on YouTube. In each video, take one customer problem or question and address it. Offer a solution and tell people they can find more exclusive content on your membership site.
Be Active on Social Media
Build a large, active following on social media. Use sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to offer helpful content and build relationships through genuine interactions with others. In your profile, include a link to your membership site. Most of your social media content should be based on helping people, but sometimes tell them about your site as well.
Team up and Cross-Promote
Join forces with another business in your niche and promote to each other’s audiences. For best results, choose an influencer with name recognition. In exchange for them promoting your membership site to their audience, help them by telling your audience about them.
Start a Referral Program
Give your members an incentive for telling others about your site. Again, your incentive can be a freebie that costs you nothing, like a digital info product, a discount on products, or some free coaching sessions.
Create an Affiliate Program
Create an affiliate program where other content creators can promote your membership site for a commission.
Offer Free Educational Opportunities
Offer free webinars where you teach something related to your site’s topic and answer questions. While the event is focused on a specific topic and helping your participants solve their problems, mention your membership site and tell people what benefits they can get from joining.
Offer a Free Trial
Give people a chance to see what your membership site offers for free for a limited time. This is the best way to drive home its benefits because prospective members can actually experience it firsthand.
The best way to drive traffic and boost membership is to use a mix of the above methods that work well for your target market. Try out each and see which ones get results. You can use feedback from your efforts to decide which methods to focus on.
Basic Tools Needed to Build Membership Sites
Building a membership site may seem like an onerous, monumental task that’s not for the weak of heart marketer. This is a misconception that many beginners and even intermediate marketers have – and it’s far from the truth.
With some study and application, even a newbie to online marketing can build a relatively profitable membership site. Of course, earning a 4 to 5-figure monthly income will take a bit longer, but it’s within your reach.
In this section, we’ll look at the basic tools you’ll need to create your membership site. You’ll be amazed at how easy it really is.
A Profit-Pulling Domain
It goes without saying that you need your own domain to build out your membership site. Do note that you may have an umbrella site for your niche, but it’s highly recommended that you build each new membership site on a different sub-domain.
For example, you may own a site fitnessgeeks.com. This is your main domain where you make blog posts, etc. on fitness, diets, and so on. But what if you wish to have a membership site on keto recipes.
You’ll build out the membership on a subdomain (keto.fitnessgeeks.com). Members who sign up will get new keto recipes monthly.
In the future, you may have different memberships for topics such as bodyweight training, paleo recipes, muscle building, and so on. Each will have its own sub-domain (e.g. paleo.fitnessgeeks.com).
The reason each site needs its own domain is so that the membership plugin you use does not create conflicts within the main site due to different membership needs… and everything is just kept neater and more manageable.
Reliable Hosting
Good web hosting is a must. You want your sites to be secure and load fast. You may choose to start with a shared server when you’re a beginner, but as your site gets bigger and has more members, you may upgrade to a dedicated server. This will mean faster sites, enhanced security, more flexibility, and so on.
WordPress Installation
While this is not a tool per se, it’s an easy-to-use platform that will make setting up membership sites a breeze. Install WordPress on your domain and build your membership site with it.
Membership Software
You have no shortage of options here. In fact, the sheer variety of choices you have can be mind-boggling.
There are generally two types of membership software.
The first type is membership plugins sold on sites like Code Canyon where you pay a one-time fee and install the plugin. You can build a membership site with levels and ‘drip feed’ within minutes.
The second type is membership software such as Kajabi, MemberPress, etc. These generally cost more and have a yearly fee. You’ll often find people recommending software like Kajabi as the be-all and end-all of membership software.
Take these reviews with a bucket of salt. They’re usually written by affiliates for the software hoping to make a commission. Currently, Kajabi costs $159 a month (billed annually).
That is pricey. If you’re a beginner marketer – plonking down such a significant amount on membership software when you don’t even know if the membership you’re building is viable yet – is not a wise move.
Use a cheaper plugin that’s reliable and has a one-time fee. It will be more manageable for you financially. Once your membership site is profitable, you can get more advanced software and upgrade your site.
Autoresponder
This is so basic that it shouldn’t even be mentioned… but it’s so crucial it shouldn’t be left out. You’ll need an autoresponder account to build a list and send emails promoting your membership site to people who have downloaded your freebies.
You’ll also need to email your paying members every now and then so you can build a relationship with them. You absolutely MUST have an autoresponder. I currently use ConvertKit.
Amazon S3
This service provided by Amazon is called S3 (simple storage service). If you have lots of videos or huge files on your membership site, it’s best to host them on Amazon S3.
It’s inexpensive and you’ll not clog up your hosting account’s storage. It’s also much faster to download files from Amazon S3.
Payment Processor
You’ll need to set up a payment processor to accept payments and also charge your members monthly. You can use PayPal or Stripe. These are the 2 most commonly used processors, but there are others out there too.
Affiliate Tracking Software
Affiliate tracking software such as iDevAffiliate, Post Affiliate Pro, Affiliate WP, etc. will help you manage your affiliates and you can have options to decide if you’ll pay them a fixed rate or a percentage of sales and so on.
If you’re planning on having affiliates promote your membership site (and you should), you’ll definitely need affiliate management software.
Other Membership Site Tools
Besides the ones mentioned above, you’ll need accounts with different social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, etc. It’s all free, and very useful for getting organic traffic.
You may also wish to have a survey tool such as Survey Monkey. This will help you conduct quick surveys of your members to see what types of information they want or check their level of satisfaction with your service.
You can even use it to do a quick exit survey to discover why people are quitting your membership.
These tools and services will help you immensely when building a membership site that’s efficient and profitable. Don’t panic or worry about the technical details.
Most membership software come with tutorial videos and documentation to help you. When it comes to WordPress, autoresponders, etc. there’s a wealth of information available on YouTube and Google to help you out.
You just need to get started, and today is as good a day as any.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain.Click To TweetWhat Should You Charge?
Now it’s time to figure out the best pricing model for your membership
site. Indeed, pricing your membership site can be a tricky affair! There’s no right or wrong answer here – but there are a few general pointers you should be aware of. Therefore, consider and be informed about what others are charging for similar products, but don’t be bound by it.
You might create a budget solution to undercut other solutions, hoping to be the “no-brainer” option for price-conscious prospects. Yet, if you charge too low, you may have more subscribers but still struggle to make a healthy profit. Alternatively, you might create a premium solution that’s far more expensive and valuable than the rest, catering to the high-end market. However, if you charge too high, you’ll have fewer members and may not make as much as you expect to.
Either way, it’s good to know what others in your niche are charging for access to their sites. Research has shown that membership sites that charge between the $27-$47 range are usually successful – though there are some sites that charge $97 to even $397 a month.
Your Niche Matters
It all depends on the niche you’re in and what your customers are willing to pay. For example, if you’re in the financial niche offering the latest stock tips, you might be able to charge a much higher price such as $197 a month or more, if you deliver results consistently.
Your customers will tend to be in the higher income bracket and will willingly fork out hundreds for your membership because they’ll be able to make thousands back by using your information.
On the other hand, if you’re running a crocheting membership site where you deliver new crochet designs every month, you’ll probably need to go with a more modest price such as $10-$17 a month, because the people in your niche may not be willing to pay more.
Pay attention to your competitors. How much are they charging? Have they been in business a long time?
If they have, their pricing works. You could model their pricing or you could charge slightly more to create the perception that your content is better. People often assume that the more expensive a product is, the better it has to be.
What Are Your Costs?
The costs of running your membership site will also play a part in how much you charge. For example, if you’re using a membership plugin that you only needed to pay for once, your operating costs will be lower.
But if you’re using a membership software like Kajabi which has a monthly fee of $119 for the basic plan, now your costs are significantly higher.
Add up all your costs from the hosting to the membership software (if it’s a recurring fee). Now decide how many members you’ll need at a certain price to break even.
For example, if your monthly costs to run a membership site costs about $900 (includes everything from hosting to content creation), and you’re planning to charge $27 a month, you’ll need about 34 (900/27 = 33.33) paying members to break even.
Anything above that is profit. So, calculate how much profit you want to make and you’ll know how many customers you’ll need at the price you decide to charge.
Employ Pricing Tiers
Ideally, you should have 3 tiers for your membership site. A basic plan, an intermediate plan, and a pro plan. This will allow you to increase sign-ups since you can appeal to more people with varying budgets.
The more the customer pays, the more value they’ll get and there should be extra features to justify the cost. Those on the lower tier will still get value, but they should always be aware that by paying slightly more, they’ll get so much more in return. This will tempt them to upgrade in the future.
The points above are important when deciding how you’ll price your membership site. Think about how you wish to position yourself in the marketplace.
Then look at what your competitors are charging and choose your pricing wisely so that you make an attractive profit while your members feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.
Final Thoughts
Membership sites are a great way to attract a niche community of customers or to get your existing customers involved on a deeper level. Yes, they require a lot of work and planning to get started, plus ongoing upkeep to engage with members and make sure your content is current. But in the long run, it’s well worth your time.
Your members will be more engaged with each other and your business; you’ll have opportunities to build your brand, and you’ll be making lots of passive income. Armed with this knowledge, use a membership site to engage with as many people as you can draw into your funnel.
Why?
Because it’s the holy grail of business… recurring revenue.
It’s also the one thing that seems almost impossible for an online course creator to have. Undoubtedly, it can be the difference between having a side hustle and genuine business; the difference between everything falling on your shoulders and you building a team to do the hard work for you.
Here are some other useful resources from WPBeginner to help you grow your WordPress membership site.
- Essential WordPress plugins– Several expert picks of the must-have WordPress plugins for all business websites.
- WordPress Speed and Performance– The ultimate guide on how to speed up WordPress and boost performance.
- WordPress Security Guide– This step-by-step guide will help improve your WordPress site’s security.
- Best Membership Site Themes– A list of the best WordPress themes perfect for your membership site.
- Common WordPress Errors– The ultimate list of common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
And with that being said… we’ve come to the end of this post.
But what’s next?
Do you want to learn more about setting up a successful membership site? Check out my course, How to Create a Membership Site, which teaches you the A to Z of building and running subscription-based websites for reliable and recurring revenue. This resource will surely help you achieve your business goals. [CLICK HERE]
We hope you’ve found this Membership Site Guide valuable. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.
And if you have any further comments or questions, drop them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
Related Article: 8 Proven Ideas for Profitable Membership Sites
