Membership Site Wealth

To Build A Community Or Not

While many membership sites are actually communities of people that share an interest, many are not community driven at all. In fact, many of the newer membership sites do not have any type of communication between members at all. Instead, each member interacts with the website – not with the other members.

But which option is best for your membership site? This is a decision that needs to be made before you go any further, because this decision affects other decisions down the road.

This greatly depends on your content, and the importance of your site members communicating with each other. For example, there is a successful membership site that caters to those who are looking for joint venture partners or deals. Obviously, the site members need to communicate with each other, and have the tools necessary for that communication provided.

There is also a membership site that is completely content driven, where no communication with other members is needed or provided. Both of these membership sites are successful. They deliver the content that they were designed to deliver, in a way that satisfies the members.

Again, which one will be better for you? First, determine whether or not communication between the members is necessary. Next, determine whether or not communication between the members is beneficial. There is a difference here between the words necessary and beneficial.

It is easier to create, operate, and maintain a membership site where there is no communication between members. But on the other hand, you may greatly increase the value of the website if there is communication. With a website where members are able to communicate with each other, you will also find that you don’t need nearly as much content to make the site valuable to the members.

Overall, sites where the members are able to build a true community usually command a higher monthly fee than those that do not. So, while building a non-communication site is easier, if you can’t see any other reason for the members not to communicate, go ahead and make it possible.

One reason for not making it possible for site members to communicate is privacy. Some topics are sensitive, and people simply will not want others to know that they are a member of the site. They do not want to communicate. Take this into consideration.

Otherwise, if you will be building a community based membership site, you need to determine how that community will interact with each other. There are numerous options, and you can employ all options or one or two. This choice is yours.

Posted in Membership Sites

The Popularity Of Membership Sites

These days, it seems that everywhere you look there are membership sites. There are membership sites for every topic you can imagine – or so it seems. Don’t be fooled! There is still plenty of room for more membership sites, and many topics that have not been adequately covered in terms of membership sites.

A membership site is a site that caters to a specific group of people. Those who wish to access the community pay either a one time fee, monthly fees, or yearly fees. The owner of the site ensures that the content stays up to date, and that fresh content is added on a regular basis, to make sure that he or she retains those members.

The amount of money to be made from a membership site varies greatly, and depends on the number of members, the price of membership, the cost of maintaining and operating the site, and of course retaining members. The average membership site costs about $20 per month, but there are those that command a much higher price.

In fact, depending on your content and your niche, you could charge upwards of $97 per month, per member. There are even those that charge higher prices, for highly targeted information that cannot be acquired from any other source. The more exclusive your content is, the more you can charge. It is as simple as that.

At one time, it took a great deal of technological skill, and a great amount of money to build and operate a membership site. That is no longer the case today. Technology has made great advancements, and starting a membership site is easier and less expensive than it has ever been. Today it is easily done, and easily affordable. In fact, once the site has been built, the way that it operates is mostly automated.

Posted in Membership Sites