I make around $4900p/month from membership site, you should too

[alexei_aus]

with membership sites it is so easy to make passive, ongoing income.

• what you have to do is:
• find a niche (hungry crowd)
• build the actual membership site with reliable payment system that allows subscription payments
• set up strong marketing funnels via landing page
• built content that will be accessible on weekly bases for few weeks in advance
• launch the site
• promote it

i currently have about 100 on average in my membership site where i charge them $49 per month and this website has been around for over 12 months.

continuity is the key in making money online as it allows you to establish relationship with the client

[MommyEnterprises]

I would love to have a membership site that I make monthly income from.

[Dayne Dylan]

The question is though, what kind of content do you give them to justify paying almost $50 a month?

[anth.elias]

What's the link can we check it out?

[Sheryl Polomka]

A membership site is something that I have been thinking about for a long time. I guess the reason I keep putting it off is because I wonder whether people really ever stay with membership sites.

When you say your site has been around for 12 months, are your members sticking around or are you continually promoting to get new members to keep up the income.

Then the other thing is keeping the content going and good enough for people to really want to stick to it.

It certainly is something to think about though, thanks for your post.

[Chuck Evans]

Our membership site has over 10K members and we charge $49.95 a year! Before we changed over to paid we polled out members and asked for their input. What they would like to see, how much they thought it would be worth to them etc.

The response back said the majority was willing to pay upwards of $50.00 a month and some even said $200.00

So we bucked the odds and gave them the current pricing. Works for us! In addition to a forum we also have tons of articles and 275 videos that we produced. We add to the videos whenever we get a request for something specific that we haven't covered - and there's not much that we left out, but we are always asking the question...what would YOU like to see!

chuck

[joshmac]

Originally Posted by Chuck Evans

Our membership site has over 10K members and we charge $49.95 a year! Before we changed over to paid we polled out members and asked for their input. What they would like to see, how much they thought it would be worth to them etc.

The response back said the majority was willing to pay upwards of $50.00 a month and some even said $200.00

So we bucked the odds and gave them the current pricing. Works for us! In addition to a forum we also have tons of articles and 275 videos that we produced. We add to the videos whenever we get a request for something specific that we haven't covered - and there's not much that we left out, but we are always asking the question...what would YOU like to see!

chuck

What is your membership site? I'm a golf addict

[Chuck Evans]

I appreciate your asking but it wouldn't be cool to insert in a post...but it is in my sig line

chuck

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by GuruCreation

No ****!

Everyone knows this! Like Obama says everytime he speaks. "we are in a bad economic time here" NO ****!

Get us out of it, not tell us we're in it!

Is that really called for??? Posts like this are good for motivating others, no need to be rude!

[jonb]

Originally Posted by GuruCreation

Sorry didn't mean it like that....

I mean we hear it everyday, but no-one ever shows, in detail what to do..

I'll play!

Building a membership site? Here's exactly how I built mine.

Best,

Jon

[myob]

If you have a subscriber list, it is easy to convert them into paying members. Just poll them to find what their interests are. I have several memberships sites in various niches from as low as $1/month (gardening) to as much as $400/month (forex, investing). Don't just go out and build a membership site, though. Build your subscriber list first and get input from them for content.

Price is seldom a factor as long as you are providing real value for their money and how your marketing model is set up. Even free membership sites are a profitable model (but not recommended) for selling exclusive products to members. For example, I often make much more per customer selling gardening supplies to my $1/month members than to investors paying $400/month.

There are so many variables in setting up a membership site, no one can really give a step-by-step explanation. Just start with your existing subscribers and fill their needs.

[alexei_aus]

the reason for this post is motivation for others. people need reassurance.
i am often at multi-speaker event seminars and some of you might actually know me. just want to be a real example of someone who went from zero to something in making money online.

there is not a lot of information on the membership site process step by step, so i am actually putting a website right now to cover that.

anyone interested?

[vsl.online]

It's really funny what other people come up with these days, but this is a good idea here. I guess the biggest problem with this one is finding the perfect niche and sources to keep it updated.

But this one is good, I might try this one.

[alexei_aus]

keeping it updated isnt hard either. you just have to be passionate on the topic or be smart about it.

some ideas for content:
if you dont know a lot on the topic approach article writers in article directories for more content.

buy sites with good content that do not have much traffic.

approach and interview experts (face-to-face and over the phone). dont forget to record that.

do camtasia how-to videos

those are just some of my strategies. i am sure you will hear plenty more

[ExRat]

Hi gurucreation,

Everyone knows this! Like Obama says everytime he speaks. "we are in a bad economic time here" NO ****!

Get us out of it, not tell us we're in it!

If you wait for politicians to get you out of it, it will be a long wait.

Get yourself out of it (I mean that in the nicest possible way.)

I mean we hear it everyday, but no-one ever shows, in detail what to do

Yes they do. The examples are all over the internet. That's what this thread was started for - to give you an example. But they don't want to show you in detail - they just can't hide it. So take what you can from what's on view.

Do you want it on a plate? Have a nice wait.

Empower yourself, take it upon yourself to accept the responsibility to go out there and reverse engineer other peoples' businesses (if you are stuck for ideas) and find what is working and apply it to your own business.

No offence, but the attitude you are displaying is typical of the 'entitlement mentality' that has been bred by those who would keep you down. If you don't take total responsibility for your situation then even if you do start a working model, you will probably fail because when the obstacles arrive that need to be negotiated or overcome, you will again look for others to help you to do it - and they are too busy feathering their own nest.

So go forth and feather your own and never look back.

[alexei_aus]

how many members mate?

Originally Posted by mastermarketer

I own 2 membership sites and I charge $99 per month.

[alexei_aus]

its really all about mindset. as humans we look for excuses not to do something rather then do it. try doing something, just understand what you are doing and you will succeed.

i was amazed how easy it was to setup a membership site, just took me a while to put my act together. wish i did it earlier.

so if you have been thinking about something for a while and havent done a thing, get off your bum and do it. stop dreaming and finding excuses not to do it.

[TheNightOwl]

Originally Posted by alexei_aus

buy sites with good content that do not have much traffic.

Now THAT'S gold right there.

Thanks Alexei!

TheNightOwl

[WinsonYeung]

Membership is coool, but still not yet for me. I should build up my strong foundation in my other areas and proceed on the membership revenue in the future

[George Montagu Brown]

Originally Posted by GuruCreation

No ****!

Everyone knows this! Like Obama says everytime he speaks. "we are in a bad economic time here" NO ****!

Get us out of it, not tell us we're in it!

I'm gonna have to agree with Gurucreation here. I fail to see how posts like this are motivating... it's just someone basically bragging about their acomplishments and not really revealing any specifics.

Everyone knows you can make a lot of money online, and it's no secret that membership sites work great too.

A more motivational thread might have been the story of how you created the site in question...

Just my 2 cents.
George

[phish3rz]

Originally Posted by Chuck Evans

Our membership site has over 10K members and we charge $49.95 a year! Before we changed over to paid we polled out members and asked for their input. What they would like to see, how much they thought it would be worth to them etc.

The response back said the majority was willing to pay upwards of $50.00 a month and some even said $200.00

So we bucked the odds and gave them the current pricing. Works for us! In addition to a forum we also have tons of articles and 275 videos that we produced. We add to the videos whenever we get a request for something specific that we haven't covered - and there's not much that we left out, but we are always asking the question...what would YOU like to see!

chuck

What is your URL so we can check it out? I always wanted to start up a membership but im a little worried about how "Determined" and "Dedicated" people will be to pay per month. For me with very little experience in membership sites It wouldn't be a guaranteed monthly income.

[Fernando Veloso]

Alexei, first of all congrats on your smart move.

May i ask what script do you use to run your membership site?

I am very interested cause i am starting some free coaching sessions and i will try to put up a Membership site focused on more advanced techniques, a paid one, giving them weekly updates on seo, new tips, new techniques, etc

Cheers!

[blogonator]

I guess the main stumbling block stopping folks from creating a membership site is coming up with monthly content.

[Chuck Evans]

Originally Posted by phish3rz

What is your URL so we can check it out? I always wanted to start up a membership but im a little worried about how "Determined" and "Dedicated" people will be to pay per month. For me with very little experience in membership sites It wouldn't be a guaranteed monthly income.

Posted above in another reply. BUT, you won't be able to see it unless you are a member!

chuck

[geeza10]

Originally Posted by alexei_aus

its really all about mindset. as humans we look for excuses not to do something rather then do it. try doing something, just understand what you are doing and you will succeed.

i was amazed how easy it was to setup a membership site, just took me a while to put my act together. wish i did it earlier.

so if you have been thinking about something for a while and havent done a thing, get off your bum and do it. stop dreaming and finding excuses not to do it.

just curious i went on your david blaine site and was wondering what part of that actually makes money , is it the google ads or is that a membership site? and i think discussion is motivating you need the mentality "he can do it, I can do it"..

[Kay King]

A more motivational thread might have been the story of how you created the site in question...

It wouldn't help to have a step by step to how this membership was built because it starts with being an expert in the niche, developing a following and reputation and then moving into a paid membership.

If there is a demand for your service or knowledge or experience - you can create a lasting membership. It's a process and totally different than starting a "membership site" where the focus is on your monthly income rather than developing a loyal following in a target niche.

Before we changed over to paid we polled out members and asked for their input. What they would like to see, how much they thought it would be worth to them etc.

The best membership sites provide what the target market in that niche WANTS. It's not a business model you can copy step by step from someone else - but requires you to create a plan for yourself.

kay

[Alan Mc Donald]

may i ask what membership software you use?

[George Montagu Brown]

Originally Posted by Kay King

It wouldn't help to have a step by step to how this membership was built because it starts with being an expert in the niche, developing a following and reputation and then moving into a paid membership.

kay

I said motivational, not educational. I never mentioned a step by step guide...

I said a story.

I think that a detailed story of how this guy went from 0 to $5k a month would be pretty motivating, maybe I'm alone here though?

Rather than just... I make 5k a month with a membership site, you can too. That's like me saying I make $100k a month with pay per click (which I don't by the way - In fact I dont really do any PPC). So therefore you can too! How motivational is that?

George

[Michael Motley]

I ran a 'membership' site for a while that had absolutely 0 content on it. What it did offer were tools
SE submittals
page rank checkers
site verifying/checking..etc.

Stuff that the average newbie would need, but may not know where to find.

The 'price' was an email address. These email addresses were then used in conjunction with a mailer site that was in the same network of sites.

on the mailer site you could send to 10/20/50k people for 9.95/19.95/29.95

a little more extended way to make the money, but the point is offer people something they want, just like building a list. If its worth paying for, get money, if what your offering isnt necessarily worth paying for, get email addresses, build a list and get your money from there.

[kdsm100]

I belong to a membership site that is $9.95 a month - but it is a Forum and the majority of content is created by the members. The site owner writes a daily blog which is open to anyone to read - but often the subject matter is "continued" on the Forum and people are invited to try the Forum free for 30 days. I love the model.

Of course the owner needs to be sure to post and participate in the Forum, but it's amazing how little is really required.

[urbt]

I've never really gone down the membership site route because it seems so hard to get great quality content that will keep them coming back. Eventually you must run out of ideas - how do you manage to get them to pay $50 a month?

[eMarketing_Tips]

Very cool! Which software do you guys prefer to use?

[Louis Raven]

Originally Posted by hidman

I guess the main stumbling block stopping folks from creating a membership site is coming up with monthly content.

Too much hard work.

Let the members tell you what they want

Louis

[Scott Ames]

Good job in keeping members. I've seen some pretty cool techniques for keeping people as members. Many of them were used on me and even though I know what they are doing, they work.

Good fresh, new, and regular content is the bare min. that must be done. That won't by itself guarantee sticky members. I've quit continuity programs that were very good at providing new content. Sometimes people just look at that monthly expense as something that can be done away with. The key to keeping people is to make them crave the information so much that they would rather almost go without eating to get it.

[tday01]

Good info and encouraging, Iv'e just launched a work from home review site with a membership program. We'll see how well it goes.

[Ian Jackson]

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi gurucreation,

If you wait for politicians to get you out of it, it will be a long wait.

Get yourself out of it (I mean that in the nicest possible way.)

Yes they do. The examples are all over the internet. That's what this thread was started for - to give you an example. But they don't want to show you in detail - they just can't hide it. So take what you can from what's on view.

Do you want it on a plate? Have a nice wait.

Empower yourself, take it upon yourself to accept the responsibility to go out there and reverse engineer other peoples' businesses (if you are stuck for ideas) and find what is working and apply it to your own business.

No offence, but the attitude you are displaying is typical of the 'entitlement mentality' that has been bred by those who would keep you down. If you don't take total responsibility for your situation then even if you do start a working model, you will probably fail because when the obstacles arrive that need to be negotiated or overcome, you will again look for others to help you to do it - and they are too busy feathering their own nest.

So go forth and feather your own and never look back.

Spot on ExRat, the trouble with many (UK) people is that the entitlement mentality of expecting something for nothing (usually at the expense of everyone else) is the doctrine of the current UK Gov't.

I don't completely dismiss your comment George, I too would like something more explicit too. But, it's given me a foundation idea from which to apply further research.

[jasonl70]

Heck, just promoting recurring-fee products/sites as an affiliate is awesome! I do the same amount of promoting as I used to, but I am making 3 times more money

[Aaron Elliott]

Originally Posted by George Montagu Brown

I said motivational, not educational. I never mentioned a step by step guide...

I said a story.

I think that a detailed story of how this guy went from 0 to $5k a month would be pretty motivating, maybe I'm alone here though?

Rather than just... I make 5k a month with a membership site, you can too. That's like me saying I make $100k a month with pay per click (which I don't by the way - In fact I dont really do any PPC). So therefore you can too! How motivational is that?

George

Agree - Whats the point, everyone knows you can make money online, either from memebership site, ppc, blogging.

People want to know HOW to make the money, you know DETAILS. Not vague info such as find a niche, get content, build a site....

[aboutalhah]

Recurring income should be one of your priorities online (and off). period.

[alexei_aus]

wow. i didnt expect so many queries. looks like i need to put an ebook or a manual on how to do membership sites just like mine.

the model i am using for my membership site is the one which has sequential emails sent out as eclasses. this way people get information gradually in the way so its broken down in logical chunks. this also allows you to keep members in the program much longer since a lot of people sign up only to copy the information.

the sequential model is based on aweber emails as eclasses and amember as user management platform. paypal, payflow pro or clickbank as payment platform.

i guess it really comes down to mentality of people. some people think that noone will ever pay for their info. this is the common mistake, as what is known to some is mystery to others.

if you never buy anything online, you probably think that others will do the same...

[Kunle Olomofe]

This is a great thread started by the OP. Thanks alexei, but there is actually a much easier way to generate monthly income from memberships than building a traditional membership site. Another warrior and I are setting up one for copywriting coaching and should launch soon (time difference between us slows us down, we live on different continents) otherwise we could have launched within 1 day actually.

The trick has been revealed and fully documented by Jimmy Brown one pretty astute marketer, the strategy is a membership site model but it's NOT a membership site, it's a membership training program delivered strictly via email autoresponder (so you can automate it as well once your content has been fully written).

The good thing about this style is that you can start within a day (if you already have content lying around or in your head (see How To Turn Your Hard Drive Into A Cash Cow Virtually Overnight!), or if you can outsource the writing), the reason is that you build your membership training content as your site grows and gains subscribers. The model works best it seems (I haven't used it, so not speaking with authority here, just from what I have gathered), to work best as weekly training modules. You send an "article", video, audios, any kind of content you like really out to your members once a week. so you have 6 or 7 days to create more content, meanwhile, they have paid for a month and you roll out as time goes buy (this is just for your first set of subscribers). Your next and much farther into the future sets of subscribers then get your premium email course (which is what i like to term it) on autopilot, you don't ever have to be there with the new set of subscribers, creating monthly content (which is often harder or more expensive), so this a model that seems to be working, Ive seen quite a few sites doing this and a friend of mine got this suggestion from me for his new SEO product and he's almost ready to roll in a few days, I'm on the same path and frankly would have never considered the membership model if I couldn't build it this way one week at a time, still get paid in full then automate the whole process once the first set has "graduated". Oh its important to have that last bit, the graduation stage where you let your old subscribers go and allow in a new set (that's how traditional schools, colleges make money year in year out, it obviously works).

So you would set a limit to the length of time they can be with you as subscribers, if someone knows they just need to be subscribed for a few months they are more likely to stay subscribed to full term, if you want them subscribed eternally then you have a lot more work to do, so you just turn over your customer base every few months to keep income coming in, i imagine it isn't much harder to do this than to keep subscribers over long long periods, everyone will have a different experience with retention so you can't base yours on mine or someone else's on yours etc, just get ideas and structure how you would build yours, then generate the right traffic and see how it works out.

Another good thing is with this process you don't even need cumbersome or even easy to use membership software, all you need is something like aweber $29 a month or so, and a PDF converter to convert your lessons into PDF for easier distribution to your list. You write or outsource your "articles" -- they can be short or long, our first lesson for our copywriting membersip training is going to be about 20 pages of very juicy content, we had only planned about 5-10 pages including introductions etc and then 3 - 5 pages on going content but sometimes when you write (if you knw your stuff) you get into it and just keep writing more and more sense and giving up more and more stuff so that would be a bonus to your subscribers, otherwise you could i imagine pretty much write shorter articles like 2 - 3 pages (as long as the content is valuable, revetting and very useful your subscribers shouldn't buck at it, they would be grateful for the insights, I know that's how I would react)

Case in point... many of the threads in this very forum can be valuable membership content, if you're wondering if you can write, if you participate here and do so in such a way that it really helps others, you have what it takes already. Just add whatever is missing.

I like Chucks idea of adding videos, interviews and so on, I will be doing that later down the line, but like I said the fun of it is we dont have to have a ton of content ready, not even several week's worth like alexei suggested, just one or 2 weeks (we have 2 weeks ready now) and you're good to go, put up your sales letter, drive the right kind of traffic and this should be relatively regular income for the length of your training program, then before that one is over, you're already promoting or having affiliates promote for the next set of students/members, so that your income never slows to a complete halt before you refresh your list... you could offer a discount for early sign ups and give them a start date a week or 2 into the future, in the meantime, give them some juicy bonuses for agreeing to join your site in advance... these are just some ideas, you can get a more detailed course on how to this at How To Setup Your Own Membership Site in 48 Hours Or Less that's Jimmy's site, and I have no affiliation just think it's very good content for the money and I'm following that model so I obviously approve, if you're thinking of a relatively easy way to set up a membership site, this may be something you want to try.

I'm also starting one of these OFFLINE. I market my content (whatever it is IM or other content to an offline crowd) set them up to receive one email a week, they pay in advance, i kick off within a few days follow the same strategy, it really feels easy.

I will update you later how it all goes once we're fully launched.

Good luck to all,

Kunle

[perfecthomebuz]

Kunle dear,

Thanks for this addition. I love it.

Taiwo

[reynald2790]

Nice income. But in my case I joined a membership site but it does not give me money from it. It says in their header that it is a legit online and real money and money back guaranteed. But in a month or so it comes with zero money back.

[Jill Carpenter]

Originally Posted by reynald2790

Nice income. But in my case I joined a membership site but it does not give me money from it. It says in their header that it is a legit online and real money and money back guaranteed. But in a month or so it comes with zero money back.

Were you informed it was a limited money back guarantee? Is it in the TOS?

The issue that the membership site faces is what if someone is there for a year, gets all the content they want and then asks for their money back.

Think about it this way - If you join a gym and you go and use the facilities for a month or two - and they promise you will get in shape and you will love their equipment.

So then you have joined the Gym but never actually go in, or use the equipment and when you didn't get in shape you want your money back. Is that the Gym's fault? It may take you longer than a month to get into shape, but in the first month you should be seeing some type of results or feel some kind of progress and if you don't then you need to hightail it out of there.

If you were not getting what you needed then you need to contact the site and tell them. And if you are now a paid member and can not get a refund then you should most definitely contact the site owner and tell them what you want.

[naruq]

Thanks for sharing your success strategies on membership sites! You made an excellent point in talking about the importance of residual income in your business. This would apply to offline businesses also.

[SkiBum]

I'm interested in whether the 100 members turn over alot or whether they stick around for long periods of time. What would you say is the average term of membership

[Chris Kent]

I am always a little disappointed when I hear people are running membership sites in the IM niche. 90% of such membership sites are crap and people leave within 3 months on average.

I am much more interested in people who have pulled this off in other niches. Chuck, much respect to you. I'm going to take a closer look at your model.

[Chuck Evans]

I am much more interested in people who have pulled this off in other niches. Chuck, much respect to you. I'm going to take a closer look at your model.

We've had ours paid now for the 5 years and before that free since 1999. We weren't too smart in the early days, we didn't even require people to register! Who knows how many names we'd have now!

One thing we don't do however is place our members on a mailing list outside of the membership site. We can send them announcements through the site but we also ask them to join our lists for ongoing and up to date news NOT covered within the site.

The majority sign up for those lists but the ones that don't...oh well! We try extremely hard to listen to our members and we give them what they are requesting. We even have a form of "affiliates" where if they send over 5 new subscribers we give them an extra year at no charge.

We will also run promotions and give away memberships under certain conditions. I even offered to give WF members a free membership but no one took me up on it!

chuck

[mg1000]

How do you know whats a good niche for a membership site?

I hope its ok to say this here, but in my mind the only membership sites I can think of are adult, so what are topics for people who dont want to be in adult?

I've had So Many sites Ive made turn into failures, my fear is that I start a site, work very hard for 12 months thinking that theres a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and then find out its a niche that people aren't that willing to pay for.
so I'm looking for a way to know that a niche is a good one.

[Chris Kent]

Originally Posted by mg1000

How do you know whats a good niche for a membership site?

I hope its ok to say this here, but in my mind the only membership sites I can think of are adult, so what are topics for people who dont want to be in adult?

I've had So Many sites Ive made turn into failures, my fear is that I start a site, work very hard for 12 months thinking that theres a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and then find out its a niche that people aren't that willing to pay for.
so I'm looking for a way to know that a niche is a good one.

Membership sites seem to follow two paths:
- developmental i.e. continual learning and need for fresh content. e.g. self development, internet marketing, hobbies.
- services - these have the best retention but require a better IT infrastructure, planning, scalability etc. And a unique idea too!