membership sites. more confused than ever...

I disagree. I think membership sites are still a great source of ongoing passive income. There are a lot of platforms to choose from. It can be overwhelming. If you have a budget, you can outsource the tech stuff. I really believe that FusionHQ is a good option for newbies. With it, you can build your sales page, create the members area and even manage the affiliate program. It will work with clickbank, too. They have a free membership.. see if it meets your needs.

I just purchased gary ambrose's memberspring. it's awesome except for a few payment problems on my sites coz i'm underage and my dad isn't eligible for a business account yet.

I do not have personal experiences with starting membership sites yet but will sure do one in the future.

I don't know all that fancy membership site script so I am more tend to build what Jimmy D. Brown said, "Fixed Term Membership".

You can check out his blog post Residual Income In 72 Hours Or Less where he gives a very solid content on how to use autoresponder and PLR (for your content) to set up your very first membership site.

If you are more tend to create a membership site that's password protected. You may want to check out Robert Plank's Membership Site On Crack, Membership Cube. But I am not too sure if there is spot available for his course.

Go for FTM I would say. Easiest to set up and you do not need to worry too much about technical part. Just focus on the marketing part to make profit.

Hope this help.

bay37 - your obviously superior experience gives you
so much authority on this subject that I certainly, for
one, must defer to your dogmatic and absolute position.

Errr.... not.

I agree that there are membership sites that are nothing
more than regurgitated PLR material filling space for a
monthly fee. True... they exist.

But to say most or all are that way is a gross mistatement.

It's also erroneous to assume that just because you don't like
the free trial or $1 trial model, it isn't a good profit model to
use.

Personally, my first membership sites were massive failures.
I used the "put it all in there and give 'em access" model... the
content was rock solid and personally written by me, but as
many folks who have created these types of sites know, members
download all of the content, might hang around for a month or
two to get some more, then cancel - or worse yet, ask for a
refund, now that they have all of the content from your site.

Jimmy D. Browns Membernaire was great... went through the
whole program and created my first personal FTM (Fixed Term
Membership) site in about sixty days. Had over 100 $37 members
in the first month, a few Inner Circle students who also invested
$197/mo. for my personal time.

I closed the program due to legal issues with the Real Estate industry
and the slammed RE markets, even though the site was growing each week.
Most would not do that to a growing membership that had only a 1% attrition
rate - I felt a personal responsibility to do so however. I'm not like most.

I build membership sites for some of my copywriting clients... most
come to me for advice and end up with FTM sites.

There are so many advantages to time released content managed
well... presented in a linear manner to your audience.

* No swiping all content then leaving... they only get what they've paid for.
* No overwhelm... for educational sites, this is so powerful - we all want to look ahead - that doesn't mean it's a good thing. Time released content allows you to
better control the learning process and help your customers personally sound the
material down before moving forward.
* Gives you weekly active involvement (or daily or monthly, however you set up
your lessons) because members are reminded each time a new lesson is available
and log in to get the lesson. This also gives you active marketing each week
to put in front of your audience - so you can plant seeds for whats to
come and keep them engaged.

There are so many more reasons FTM works as well... and sometimes a
free trial period is a LOT easier to market than an up-front obligation. Its
all a matter of how well you present your offer and how good your content
really is... or is not. It takes confidence to market with a free front-end.

It's not good marketing to rule out a free front-end for some niche's and
markets. Imagine buying a car with no test drive or a CD without hearing the
music first. How 'bout getting married without a date?

Just saying... never say never and be careful about being critical of
something you obviously haven't tested or used youself first.

I do agree with you that memberships are evolving... with video
moving forward so quickly, a whole new dimension of teaching can
now be offered.

Services.. sure - I think that being available, accessible and there
will play a big part in future membership sites. Just like the owner
of the best restaurants (or at least the manager) is usually there
every weekend dinner meeting and greeting her clients, that will
be more important than ever as people tire of connecting... but not
having any real connection.

Be careful however, individual connection for a mass of even a
thousand members can be a very daunting task. That is why
group coaching and webinars or seminars are the intelligent
choice. Unless you plan on charging $4k/mo. per client to take
the time they demand, one on one and do it well for those
clients you want to serve.

As for the best membership platform? There is great software
out there to manage membership sites with, both hosted and
stand alone.

Some easier to set up than others, some more powerful than
easy to set up, some a mix of both.

Some require a monthly fee.. some are yours to own and use
on unlimited domains.

Need an affiliate program? There are some solutions with this
built in, some don't have this at all...

Want time released content? Some have it, some don't.

Want an email program built in - will your host allow that?

Want multiple levels of membership (though I've rarely seen
this work, its one of the most requested features... don't
know why... I guess people think its the way to go?), some software
does it, some doesnt.

Want to do a launch? Does your software handle launches?

Want security or convenience? Thats a big one if you are using
open-source WP as a foundation... just saying, should be
carefully looked at.

What's your budget? There are $5,000 solutions and there are
$97 solutions.

And.. of course, you can even do everything for free and just deliver
your content via email each week if you want.

Email courses have successfully been used for years. No software,
no cost - but not nearly as powerful a model as some alternatives
and limited.

Still... the question isn't which solution is BEST... the question is
which solution is best for YOU?

And content? Please, don't just toss a bunch of crap into a membership
site, or for that matter - anything.

If you don't care enough to deliver real, unique value... you won't be in
business too long anyway. Short term profits, long term poverty.

I'm just saying...