Many Internet marketers are turning to membership sites as a way of earning recurring cash. Membership sites can be great for bringing in money month after month, with very little extra work required to maintain them.
A membership site is a website that’s password protected, and generally requires users to pay a monthly fee. Most membership sites are protected by special scripts that handle the managing of the usernames and passwords of members. They also take care of canceling members whose payments don’t go through, or members who cancel manually.
Starting a membership site is relatively simple. You need a script, a billing provider, and content. The script will generally take care of the automatic monthly billing, member management, and protection of the content in the members’ area. All you need to do is set up the script, add a billing provider such as PayPal, and add content to the members’ area.
Sometimes, a marketer gets burned out with their membership site, or they need money quickly for something. Selling a membership site with members can bring in pretty good cash.
Another huge benefit of having your own membership site is that you can offer products and services to your list of members as an affiliate. Simply poll or survey your members to see what their needs are. Then investigate the affiliate programs that offer solutions to their problems. Sign up for a program, and send a link to your members, and you can generate relatively easy affiliate income.
Getting new members is probably the most difficult part of managing a membership site.
The best way to get members is to run an affiliate program and have other people bring in members for you. You can also get members by running PPC ads, advertising on forums, posting ads to relevant magazines and newspapers, and forming strategic partnerships and JVs with other webmasters.
As you get more members, your monthly income can continue to grow, so you can have money coming in each month. You’ll just need to continue delivering whatever it is you promised your members and subscriptions should remain relatively constant, or perhaps even increase.
Stay tuned for another marketing tip real soon, and good luck with your online marketing efforts!
To your online success,
Bill Brine, Home Small Business Coach
Learn How To Build A Real Business, No Hype
P.S. Here’s another great resource I created to help you build your business: