Membership Site Vs Ebook Site

[teenmoney]

Hey Warriors,

I have a question for you guys. My friend and I have some related content that we would like to develop into either a membership site or a site with 10-15 lower priced ebooks.

I am here to ask you which you think would be most profitable.

I think both would work equally well. The content is all about one niche, but is in several different aspects of that niche.

So I could easily see each group of content being made into an individual ebook OR being a month's worth of content on a membership site.

Now you just to give you an idea what we are thinking as far as pricing.

We are thinking of charging $9.99 per ebook, if we go that route. Now I know all the hype about prices ending in 7's sell more etc etc. Plus higher priced products obviously make more money, but we want these guides to be affordable and useful.

If we went the membership route I think that we would charge the same amount, $9.99 per month. So we would most likely earn more money from one person if we create a membership site. However, I am hoping our ebooks are affordable and helpful enough that we will have multiple buyers.

Can anyone offer any advice?

I know that the membership site might be a little more work, but after reading the threads of several users here. I see that you can preload content into the membership site and have it release monthly. This would mean that except for promotion it would be almost automated.

Thanks in advance for the help.

-Rory

[teenmoney]

Originally Posted by BlogBrowser

Why pricing it so low? no need to be so cheap: people will probably pay more for quality content.

Ok well forget the pricing. Assume the cost of one ebook will be the cost of one month for the membership site.

[Brett2000]

Membership site is better... it will bring you more money over the long run and, best of all give you monthly revenue you can count on. You'll never get that from eBooks. If you want to test it, why not self publish on some of the eBook publisher sites and see how they do, are they how-to books?

[BlaineGlynn]

I would do a book upfront with a trial for the membership site. that way you are getting customers into a " sales funnel" then make all of your content into videos and upsell them for $297 or so later on. that's how you make the big $$

[James Seward]

Go for the membership my friend, but beware because it is a lot more work... Make sure that you already have some ebooks in advance before launching the website (maybe two months content) to save you from any emergency... But if I were you, i would go with the membership only because it pays regularly, just like a normal job...

[bauger]

I would go with a membership site thats way you can release the info over a period f time to keep them as members. Plus if you give away a free chapter just for as a sign up incentive. The income over time is what adds up

[Robertas]

I did something very similar to what you're about to do

Basically I would first of all recommend you to make sure that those e-books don't suck, because the quality of the content you'll provide will determine whether people will join your monthly membership website or not.

Secondly I would bump-up the prices just a little bit, because from the "continuity point of view" there's basically no real difference in conversion rates whether you charge $9.99 or let's say $19.75 a month. I would even raise that price to $27 a month, because very often the difference in conversion rates is very low and at the end of the day you end up making more money.

Also because you've mentioned that you've got more than one initial-offer (ebook) I would look for some affiliate networks which would allow me to give 100% commission to my affiliates. By doing so they would be happy to sell my ebook and at the same time I let more ppl to try out my uber-membership website

Good luck and don't let the "technical" side to freak-you-out!

[mrmatt]

Why not sell the ebooks on an ebook of the month subscription and a membership site at the same time. Two different prices or bundle them together for one lower price. $27 for the ebooks and $27 for the membership site or $47 for both.

[jbsmith]

That's tough to say without knowing the content.

From my personal experience (I have both ebooks and membership sites in two niches) - the ebooks tend to be fixed, step-by-step processes for accomplishing one thing while the membership sites are designed around different ways to get there, more in-depth video content and a support system for those who are trying to accomplish the same end via a discussion forum, polls, and monthly teleseminar.

It's typically not enough to just provide written content for a membership site (and have it stick) - also good to have tools, resources, discussion/support forums, monthly or bi-weekly calls, interviews, etc...

I would look at how you can take 4-5 ebooks and offer them as up-front of your sales funnel, using the rest with the techniques listed above to develop a few months worth of content for your membership site.

Jeff

[David-JP]

Once you get some members you do have to keep up with the content to keep them from canceling. Since you have several ebooks already, why not do an ebook sale, with 30 days free trial to the membership site? Each ebook becomes a funnel item into the membership site- and offer affiliates 100% of the 1st sale (Ryan Deiss's continuity Snowball Model).

With ebooks, you need to keep selling them on the next one, with a membership site, you need to unsell them.

David

[honestbizpro]

Quality first.

Make sure you really have a quality ebook. Over deliver. Then offer membership to your list and again...over deliver.

[teenmoney]

Originally Posted by honestbizpro

Quality first.

Make sure you really have a quality ebook. Over deliver. Then offer membership to your list and again...over deliver.

I think that is what we will go with.
Have a site full of ebooks. Then collect emails and offer them a membership at a later date.