Getting started with a membership website may seem a daunting task at first but is readily achievable.
The secret as with many activities is to start simple, perhaps with a short blog, but think big.
In terms of approach a membership site owner should position themselves as the expert or consider hiring an expert.
This is to provide content for the site.
An alternative idea is to consider interviewing an expert or series of experts to create material for the site.
In this article 4 membership site models are discussed.
Methods for attracting members and keeping them are also presented.
Membership Site Models The first model is the "download-page-model".
This is where the member pays to access a resource page.
The author provides a resource in the particular area which may include articles, videos, a forum and other particulars about the area of interest.
The fee paid is a one-off.
This can easily be setup using a provider such as ClickBank with payment being made through to an online payment service such as PayPal.
The next model is the "fixed-term-content-fixed-fee" model.
This content of this site is delivered over a fixed period of time, for example 6 months, via an auto-responder.
The fee is paid up front although it is possible to split the fee payment too, for example monthly payment.
An auto-responder such as AWeber could be used to deliver the content.
A third model is the "monthly-product-model" which delivers one physical product each month in exchange for a one-off payment.
This model is more complicated to set-up but can be done using a WordPress blog using a specialised membership plugin such as "Wishlist".
The final model is the "multi-level-magazine" site.
This has an open-term membership and would normally provide access to a resource page with written, video and email content.
A forum may also be provided along with webinars and live content to the subscribers.
This is the most complicated of the models discussed here but can be accomplished with a combination of WordPress blog (with Wishlist plugin), auto-responder, video creation tools and software to deliver the webinars (e.
g.
Go-Meeting).
Getting Members and Keeping Them In order to attract new members to your site some key strategies can be employed.
A free sample or offer can be offered to a prospect in exchange for their contact details.
Email marketing can then be used to promote the site by giving the prospect further free valuable information and also a trial membership option.
An evergreen over, i.
e.
one that doesn't expire, can be made to potential members too.
Another way of promoting the site could be to partner in a joint venture and market the site to your partner's email list.
The list would have to be targeted to the particular membership site.
A proportion of the income generated due to subscribers would be shared with the joint venture partner.
Keeping members will depend fundamentally on the quality of the content but also depends on the site-model used.
The fixed fee models do not require you to keep members although the quality of the website will help to prevent refunds.
Attrition and stick rate are important measures and give an indication of how quickly people are leaving the site.
Measuring these rates and identifying drop-off points, i.
e.
when members leave the site, are important.
To incentivise the members to stay, bonus offers can be made just before the drop-off point is reached to try to keep them on the site.