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Secrets About Membership Sites

Today, let’s continue talking about how you can make money with membership sites. You’ve probably noticed that membership sites and continuity programs have exploded in popularity. Sometimes, it seems as if marketer has one. There’s a good reason: they can drive a reliable income stream, month after month.

The problem is, very few marketers know how to truly maximize the revenue they generate from their membership sites. Driving people to your landing page and converting them to paid subscribers is one thing. And to be sure, the income stream can be very healthy if you do it correctly. But, there are secrets to dramatically increasing that income that are seldom talked about.

I’ll share three of them with you below.

#1 – Charge Higher Prices

Most membership site owners are shy about raising their subscription prices. They often convince themselves that if they charge more, their current subscribers will drop away while fewer visitors will come aboard. In reality, the more you charge, the greater value people will place on your content. There is a price ceiling, of course, based on your market. Options traders will pay far more than gardeners.

The key is to realize that people will nearly always pay more than you think for something they consider valuable. If you’re charging $7 a month for access to your membership site, subscribers will likely pay $17. If you’re charging $17, they’ll usually pay $27.

You’ll need to test the price level at which you’re generating the most revenue. Charging higher subscription rates may reduce the number of subscribers while catapulting your income. If you’re already operating a membership site, raise your prices for new subscribers while keeping rates level for your current subscribers. That will give you a great testing platform.

Membership Residual is awesome platform to teach you how to create your own membership site. -  click here to see it.

#2 – Email More Frequently

If you don’t have an email list for potential subscribers, you should start one. If you already have a list, there’s a good chance you should be emailing it more frequently.

A lot of membership site owners are loathe to email their lists because they’re afraid subscribers will complain or unsubscribe. First, some might. That’s okay. There are a lot of people that would unsubscribe even if you emailed winning lottery numbers to them. Let them go.

Second, frequent emails will give subscribers a higher level of familiarity with you, your knowledge, and the value of your membership site. The more familiar they are, the more likely they will be to join your site.

Keep in mind that not every email needs to be a sales job. A quick tip or link to a related piece of content may be plenty. The key is to build the relationship. There’s nothing wrong with emailing your list every day, especially if you’re offering something of value. Those who don’t want to receive the emails will unsubscribe.

#3 – Give Them A Reason To Take Action

This is a copywriting rule that should be aggressively applied to your membership site. Regardless of how valuable your paid content is, you’ll need to give people an urgent reason to join. You could be offering the secret recipe to KFC’s special herbs and spices and many people will still refuse to budge without urgency.

There are several ways you can motivate your visitors and email subscribers to take action. You can use time-sensitive discounts (for example, “join in the next 48 hours for 30% off the normal monthly rate”). You can also offer a Special Report or similar product for a limited time. Another strategy is to open your membership site to new subscribers for a short window. Those who don’t act quickly enough are forced to wait until the next window.

Your prospects will always be tempted to procrastinate before joining. Giving them a sense of urgency solves that problem.

Creating your membership site and filling it with high-quality content is the easy part. Motivating people to join and maximizing your income stream is a little more difficult. There is such enormous potential to make money with membership sites that we’ll return to them again in the future.

P.S. Memberships sites are not that hard to create and I am making one as we speak,  be sure to click here to learn how to create your own —– Start A Membership Site.

A few months ago, we discussed how you can make money with membership sites. It’s important to point out that membership sites fall under the broader umbrella of continuity programs. Most online marketers think of them in the context of delivering content. That is, you create exclusive articles, videos, special reports, and other information products for which a subscriber base pays a monthly fee to access. There is a lot of potential there, but it is only scraping the surface.

You’ll find continuity programs everywhere you look and many of them have little to do with content. For example, the savvy owners behind Aweber, Wordtracker, and similar tools have built small online empires based on delivering valuable tools for a monthly fee. You can do the same. Regardless of your niche, here are three reasons to create and profit from a continuity program.

#1 – Predictable Revenue Base

Suppose you write an information product and sell it for $97. During the first month, you sell 100 copies and gross $9,700. It’s a good month. During the following month, suppose you sell 60 copies. In the third month after your product’s launch, you sell 50 copies. The income generated from your information product is falling. Soon, you’ll need to brainstorm ways to boost sales or develop another product.

A continuity program helps to solve this problem by providing long-term, stable revenue. You won’t need to create a continuous stream of products and motivate people to buy them. Instead, you can upload those products to a membership site and charge subscribers a monthly fee to access them. It is far easier to encourage paying members to continue their membership than it is to persuade people to make a new purchase decision.

#2 – Larger Audience Through A Lower Price

Here’s an advantage that is often overlooked, even by those who operate continuity programs. Because the monthly subscription fees are recurring, you can charge less for your content and tools. In doing so, you’ll reach a much larger audience and make more money in the process.

For example, suppose you develop a new online tool each month for twelve months. If you were to release them individually, it’s unlikely that your audience will purchase every product; a few might, but most won’t. In effect, you’re limiting your exposure because most people won’t be able to afford the entire collection.

Now, imagine uploading your tools to a private site and charging members a small monthly $10 fee in order to access them. The lower price will attract a much larger audience. Rather than a few customers buying your products sporadically, a larger number of people will be motivated to become members and pay monthly. Assuming each person maintains their membership for at least a few months, you’ll make far more money in the long run. What’s more, some people will remain members for years.

Click here to create your own Continuity program!

#3 – Platform From Which To Promote Related Products

You’ve heard it is easier to sell to customers than it is to those who have never purchased a product from you. As ongoing customers, the members of your continuity program are more likely to buy products from you than anyone else on your list. But, the potential to generate recurring income goes further than their individual sales.

For example, suppose one of the online tools you have created for your continuity program uses an API to collect keywords used in Twitter’s search facility. Your members will have access to this tool. But, suppose you were to create a separate info-product that describes – in detail – the steps involved with using your “Twitter tool” to make money. Your program members are perfectly targeted for this info-product. As ongoing customers, their trust will not only lead to sales, but it will also encourage them to become affiliates.

Even better, you can “reward” members by giving them a discount from the price non-members will pay, thereby encouraging them to maintain their membership.

There’s an enormous opportunity to develop a continuity program in nearly every market imaginable. Whether you’re offering search engine optimization strategies, dating tips for the divorced crowd, or automotive repair advice, this type of program can represent a major profit center. Start thinking of ways to add a continuity program to your online business. In a few months, you might discover it’s your largest income generator.

Click here to create your own Continuity program!

5 Steps To Making Money With Membership Sites

There are several ways in which you can make money online. The goal of this post is to introduce you to proven and innovative marketing strategies that will generate income. Today, we’re going to explore how you can make money with membership sites.

There are a number of powerful advantages to operating one or more membership sites. You can enjoy a predictable income, devote yourself to your paid membership base, and promote related products to an audience who trusts you.

Plus, through smart outsourcing, you can build a portfolio of subscription-based sites, scaling your income in the process. In today’s post, I’ll give you a 5-step blueprint for making money with your own membership site.

Step 1: Developing Your Reputation

The most common mistake I’ve observed others making is launching their membership site without first building their reputation as an expert. Even though you can attract members solely through PPC and search engine optimization strategies, your success will be limited. If you can develop a loyal fan base through a blog, forum participation, or even a weekly newsletter, you can launch far more successfully.

Step 2: Marketing Through The Funnel

You’ve likely heard of the sales funnel. It’s a proven internet marketing strategy that is used to qualify your audience and motivate them through the sales cycle. One of the most effective ways to use it in marketing your membership site is through an email list. By focusing the content of your emails on topics that interest your prospective members, you can disqualify those who aren’t interested while pushing others further through the funnel toward joining.

Step 3: Lining Up Your Tools

You’ll need software to build your membership site, a payment processor that can handle recurring payments, and a few other tools, depending upon your plans for content creation.

There are a number of robust software solutions that you can choose to build your site, such as aMember and MemberGate. You can also find free scripts online, but you’re better off using a proven application with reliable tech support.

Next, select a payment processor. You can use PayPal, ClickBank, 2Checkout, or your own merchant account. In my opinion, PayPal is a fantastic choice because it’s cost-effective and fits seamlessly with most high-quality membership site management software.

Finally, you’ll need to determine how you intend to deliver content to your members. You might choose a forum (for example, vBulletin), video production, or weekly webinars. The key is finding the tools you’ll need ahead of time so that you’re not scrambling when you launch your site.

Step 4: Creating Your Price Structure

The subscription price that you charge your members will depend upon several factors. First, realize upfront that a lot of your members will cancel their memberships. Most of the high-profile membership sites build retention rates into their pricing formula. Also, your price structure should represent the perceived value of the content you provide for your members.

You’ll also need to consider your market (some markets are willing to pay more than others) and the amount of income you’d like to generate. Obviously, charging $2.95 a month with only 500 members won’t generate much income (unless you’re operating a dozen such membership sites).

Step 5: Launching Your Membership Site

Finally, the launch. To truly explode out of the gate with hundreds of members, you should treat the launch of your membership site as you would any product launch. That includes building anticipation in your space as well as attracting affiliates and keeping them excited. We’ve touched on product launches before and we’ll do so again in the future. The important thing to remember is that launching your membership site properly will not only generate more income, but it will also provide valuable conversion data on your sales page.

I’ve given you a proven 5-step blueprint for making money with membership sites. We’ll cover the above steps in more detail in future posts. For now, understand that subscription-based sites have the potential for generating a high level of reliable income.

This week on the show we are joined by Kelly McCausey of wahmtalkradio and we are going over the topic of memberships sites. Kelly has been online now for about 5 years teaching work at home moms how to start an online business. In the time that she has been online she has been able to help many come to understand many internet marketing ideas through awesome membership’s site.

We are going over the fabulous topic of her new site and who can be a blog evangelists and all that is has to offer.  A Blog evangelist is something that is so new and something not to be taken as another offer or site. This all one learning system is complete with all that you can learn about Blogging and providing Blogging services to your local community.  Kelly is also a revealing a special announcement right here on the show for the first time so make sure you tune in to listen.

Also don’t forget to check out mom mastermind because the special lifetime membership is soon to taken away and gone forever. As they update the site and add tons of new features this is the last month to get in become a founding club member.
http://makemoneyonlinediva.com/blogev

So head on over there right now!  mommasterminds

 

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