Membership sites – What Do You Need To Start and Run One?
A Membership Site is a website that only allows registered members to visit. Quite often the members pay a monthly fee to belong. The common point of interest amongst the members is passion for a particular topic. It may be about a particular car, or a particular video game, or a particular type of software. The owner of the membership site is usually perceived as an expert in that particular niche. Although almost all members join the site because of the promise of information on their niche, many of them continue paying for their membership because of a sense of community. If you have a lot of passion about a particular topic, even a topic about a very narrow niche, there are probably thousands of people in the Internet universe who are also very passionate about that topic. If this describes you, you can own that membership site.
Why would someone want to operate a membership site? Some people answer that question by saying that their passion drove them to begin the site. However, I am sure that many people do it for the money. Those passionate members are each paying a monthly fee to belong. At a monthly fee of $10, a site with 250 members results in an income of $2,500 per month. Once the site is active and you have those paying members, the time cost of maintaining this site is a part time job.
What does it take to start a membership site?
1. First of all, a topic. More specifically, a niche topic. As has already been stated, it is best if the owner are passionate about this topic.
2. The second requirement is content. You need to have high quality content in order to both attract and retain your members. Don’t forget, they are spending money every month and expect quality in return.
3. Third, you need some technical expertise. The membership site will require software to maintain memberships. The forum will also require software. Knowing how to install and maintain the various types of software will be a valuable ability.
4. The fourth item is optional but I believe it is very important in order to create the sense of community. A forum. This allows the members to share information and questions with not only you, but each other.
There are other ways to benefit from a membership site, without building one yourself.
1. Find a partner. If you have the content ideas, you can find a technical partner. This obviously would require some legal documentation in order to determine how work and profits are shared.
2. Find a membership site that offers an affiliate program. The owner has already created this site and will share the profits with people who do the marketing. Your job would be to find potential members and in return receive a monthly residual for all that join. That residual is quite often 50% of the membershipfee, but may be higher or lower.
3. There is another model that combines the first two. In this model you pay an up front fee, and you then get to keep all the monthly fees from the members you find. In addition to the fee you pay to join, there may be a monthly fee as well, akin to a franchise fee. Again, you find members, and the site’s owner finds a niche topic, suitable content, and a technical support team. A good example of this structure is the new MemberSnap system started by Eric Louviere. You can understand more about how this system works by going to the MemberSnap site.
Start your Membership site out of passion; continue it for the residuals!
Tags: 
