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Membership Site or One-Time Charge?

by MrChill
8 replies
I'm entering into a new space that focuses on a specific type of women's hormonal health issues. I've done a lot of research on the topic, gathered a lot of info and am in the process of creating an informational product. Some input would be appreciated as to which format of the ones below would be the best way to monetize the content:

1. Monthly membership site (newsletter, podcasts, health product reviews with affiliate links)
2. One-time charge for lifetime access to the informational product (sold via the official website/udemy,etc.) and sell private label nutritional products that are geared towards each woman's specific health condition

Which of the two seems more viable given the niche? My concern with option number 1 is that eventually the membership base might get tired of paying the fee, even if they have an ongoing health condition. Perhaps if the fee is low enough, that wouldn't be an issue? For a long-term membership site in the health area, what are some common pricing structures?

For option number 2, it seems like there would be a one-time charge for full access, with more of an emphasis on selling private-labeled health supplement products as a recurring source of revenue. My plan would be to drop ship them with my branding via a 3rd party, and/or also utilize that private labler and use fulfilled by amazon as well to increase exposure.

Thoughts?

Thank you as always folks for helping critique!
#charge #membership #onetime #site
  • Profile picture of the author bostjan33
    Banned
    I'd go with a membership site, because a recurring revenue is always better. However, you need to keep your members engaged and retain them for at least a couple of months. And that's the tricky part. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author StuartWatton
    Hi MrChill

    I guess this very much depends on your reputation within the niche. People have feel that they trust you and you will only build that trust by regularly giving the niche great value for money. I would personally build a decent funnel if I have the knowledge that you say you have. A membership site should be the fourth level in that funnel -
    1) Squeeze page with free report that offers great value.
    2) As soon as they have signed up make you initial offer giving them access to a paid for upsell that gives even more value but at a small price. again value is the key here.
    3) Then offer an upsell if they buyin or a downsell of the same thing spread over 3 month s if they don't.once again this upsell should be seen as great value for money.
    4) Only now offer them the membership site
    5) finally offer a big ticket item - perhaps the chance to attend a wekend long seminar on the subjec that you will host.

    At each stage you will have some people come in and some people leave but if you offer an affiliate programme then you will get lots of people at the front of the funnel an eventually get some at the bottom.

    Obviously you will need an email followup series to once again give constantly valuable advice in greater proportion than your sales pitches.

    If your knowledge of the subject area is up t it then this is the best way to make real money from a niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Augustinus
    I suggest to go with membership site you can always make some special discounts to attract new paying customers, people come and go that's normal
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      There are specific reasons to have a monthly subscription site and one of them is not to get monthly income.

      If you're going to start a membership site, the things you're going to sell and the content you're going to provide should dictate that you use this model.

      For instance, if you're going to provide monthly tips, regimens, worksheets, step by step tutorials, logical progression of things, etc, then this might be a good model.

      If, on the other hand, you're going to sell a product or a solution and that product contains everything needed to cure the client's problem, then a membership site is not a good fit.

      Let what you have to offer dictate the type of site you are going to use.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author ElGuapo
        Steve's on the money about letting the offer dictate the model.

        I did a lot of research into this exact subject myself before launching a membership site. I ultimately came around to the one-off fee for a few reasons:

        1. A dollar today being better than a dollar tomorrow
        2. Our core content, by its nature, has to be provided upfront. It can't really be drip-fed
        3. I couldn't rely on my partner to produce big, regular new monthly content

        With those things taken into consideration, I figured it was better to get the money upfront and hand over the keys to the content. I find it a less hasslesome model, and I'm not keen to toy with it. More focused on the funnel's conversion points.

        But if I were running a site that gave punters new horse racing tips each month, however...
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        • Profile picture of the author GeckoTribe
          As long as it doesn't cost you non-trivially more for each additional member (eg. there's no one-on-one interaction required that makes it expensive to scale), the easy answer is "both". Offer the option to pay monthly or to pay once for a lifetime membership to exactly the same thing. The price for the lifetime membership somewhat higher than the average amount paid by monthly subscribers before they drop off. (Of course, you'll have to guess at first, and adjust the price later, once you have some data.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave37
    Each of those 2 options has their ups and downs.

    Having a membership sites that generates revenues on a monthly basis could be very lucrative in the long term providing that you have enough new contents to provide your customers for several months.

    I wouldn't worry too much about the customer getting tired of paying the monthly fee. Everyone cares about their health, and as long as you keep providing them with helpful information they wouldn't mind paying for it, unless they don't have much capital.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    As long as you have enough content and plan on continually adding more content, I'd do the membership site idea.. But on going new content is very important for this..
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