Membership Sites
The most common type of membership site where new content is added in each month for an indefinite time. The easiest way to set these up is often by using a Wordpress site for content management along with a password protection script to keep the content available for members only.
Another type of membership site that has gained popularity over the last couple of years is the fixed-term membership site. This type of membership site does not last indefinately, but is limited to a clearly defined time such as the next 20 weeks or the next 12 months. Once the members get through it, the membership ends.
You may, however, separately offer advanced versions and similar courses. If your members are happy with their first membership they are quite likely to sign up for another.
With every fixed-term membership site you build the lessons around the time frame you decided on. After the last lesson is delivered it's the end of the membership.
The lessons should be delivered automatically by an autoresponder.
Some of the benefits of running a fixed-term membership site include:
- Easy to set up
- Low cost
- Less content needed
- Doesn’t require constant updating
- People feel that they’re getting an inexpensive course
A fixed-term membership site would be a great way to start out on the Internet. All you need to do is create content for the specified amount of time - or pay someone to create it for you - and then set up the site up so that the content is delivered to each member at the time you have specified in your sales letter.
These memberships are actually easier to sell than a standard membership. Prospects may not be willing to sign up when they see an indefinite membership fee. They may be thinking about that monthly $19.95 fee for the rest of their lives.
With a fixed-term membership, however, people know there’s an end to charges. It won't go on indefinitely.
Chances are that you’re going to retain members for a longer amount of time than you otherwise would. People do want to quit in the middle because they hate to feel as if they haven’t finished something. They also might feel as if they’re going to miss something if they leave.
So do you feel this is the solution to what you want to market on the Internet? If so, get more information here.
A membership site means focusing on continuity income. The easiest way to provide content is to have other people produce the content. Something we often don’t think about is just because it’s your membership site doesn’t mean you have to be the content producer. Here are a few content ideas to get others to produce your content for you:
1. Interviews - instead of producing your own content, do an interview every month for your members.
2. Private label rights - You can purchase PLR content at a very low cost.
3. Public domain materials - You can put together your own unique products out of public domain materials.
4. Find experts to produce free material for you - You could request columns and content from experts in your market. Maybe that expert regularly produces videos and this one writes content for their newsletter. Perhaps you get an excerpt for 5 of these different experts each month. Why would they do this for free? More exposure. With each element they would likely have larger courses they sell they could promote at the end of the excerpt they provide for you.
5. Or pay experts for their content - You may purchase a license for their work. Some experts will allow you to pay monthly for some of their print newsletter content.
6. Pay experts to write for you - You can hire others to write your content for you. It doesn't have to cost much to hire a ghostwriter. Sometimes it’s shocking just how little people will charge to write entire ebooks for you through sites such as Elance and others. You may be able to get 10 articles researched and written for $50 and up.
7. Member generated content - For example, there is a site that gives traffic generation tips each month. Where does most of the content come from? It comes from members making suggestions. You could do this in any market. Then give prizes for the best content submitted (free memberships, cash, prizes, etc.). You could even ask for videos on the subject as the content you’re looking for.
