How to launch a membership site successfully?

Does your monthly membership site require a monthly fee? I'm assuming it must since you've stated that its a "monthly membership".

If the views that you're getting is targeted traffic, you should be getting some signups if you have laid out clearly all the benefits of joining and your fee is fair according to your competition. If you're charging for membership, then you might try offering a free trial to encourage them to signup and test out your site first. Also, you could offer some nice bonuses to go with their free trial.

Another thought, if this is a social network, people don't want to pay for signup and then find it lifeless inside your membership area. So you might consider allowing the first 500 members to join for a free lifetime membership to get some action going. This immediately lets people know that your membership is new...so they know what to expect. And it also places an urgency to join while it's still free.

Have you tried any split-testing? Does the profile signup work correctly? With 1000 daily views you should have some conversions. Wouldn't be able to tell you specifically why without seeing the website.

Hi Smalls,

without seeing your site, it would be impossible to judge - however, the premise, as you describe in your post is that:

1) People join
2) People are allowed to market their services on their profile

If I were a personal trainer, and was going to pay to promote myself on your site I would want to know:

1) Where are all my potential clients going to come from?
2) How successful have you been in the past in finding new signups for others in my field?
3) What is my average cost per new client?

Here's what I'd do...

1) Set up a free social network for people wanting to get fit/lose weight (within a specific niche)
2) Sell flat rate/subscription advertising on it

I'm not sure if the paid membership model would work for this business, especially as social networks such as Facebook have free groups etc, and sites like bodybuilding.com etc have so much free content available.

That said, I'm not in the niche myself - so this is only my opinion.

First bro, before ANYTHING. You MUST be sure you have a market. Without people already buying this and a way to get your product in front of the people buying this you will fail. So get those first, and then worry about making the site.
-CEOGOD

Thanks for the opinions everybody! As for split testing, I've seen the term thrown around but I do not actually know what it is or how to do it. The reason for the monthly subscription price is because I will also be doing interviews with some of the big names in the industry and posting them for members only, so they are also paying for content. With the software I am using for the site I could allow all clients to join for free, but the forums and such in the fitness/bodybuilding niche are generally against free promotion without some sort of kickback to the owner. I understand that and it is only fair, I just have a very low budget right now so I have been looking for ways to promote for free. Also, what kind of potential would SEO have to help my site? Would it be worth the cost? Currently it can only be found by searching for the address.