My first Membership Site. Looking for input on its structure.

16 years ago

Originally Posted by deckman

I am having a membership site quoted to build by two different companies and wanted some input on how I should structure it.

Hi,

Sounds as if you have a lot to do?

I investigated a "membership style site" earlier this year and this is still something on the cards.

You may prefer a membership site with a built in replicator so your members can promote your niche on your behalf to grow your business and theirs.

If you Google "website replicators" you will soon discover Free and Paid options to suit your budget.

Aaron Riddell

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WD Mino

16 years ago

Hi,

so let me see if I understand this.

Your structure for the site needs to have banner space maybe using a banner rotator or something like that.

You want to have the membership as a free model and then monetize it through ad space is that right?

you are thinking of selling ad space in your ebook already done.

you want your membership to be expandable.

There are a ton of ways to do this. The easiest and less costly way is to use a wordpress theme you can easily add java snippets to the html for the banner rotator.

You can easily expand your site and membership .

To have a membersite designed is going to be a lot of work and you will be paying a lot of cash and upfront without a secured advertising base this doesn't make sense. For the ability to be able to edit easily add pages protect your pages and site info as well as do the things listed I do think wordpress self hosted is the best option for you to run this type of model.

That is my own 02 cents. If i did not understand the original post I apologize but as far as I can tell this is a perfect model for this type of venture

HTH
-WD

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deckman

16 years ago

Originally Posted by WD Products

Hi,

so let me see if I understand this.

Your structure for the site needs to have banner space maybe using a banner rotator or something like that.

You want to have the membership as a free model and then monetize it through ad space is that right?

you are thinking of selling ad space in your ebook already done.

you want your membership to be expandable.

There are a ton of ways to do this. The easiest and less costly way is to use a wordpress theme you can easily add java snippets to the html for the banner rotator.

You can easily expand your site and membership .

To have a membersite designed is going to be a lot of work and you will be paying a lot of cash and upfront without a secured advertising base this doesn't make sense. For the ability to be able to edit easily add pages protect your pages and site info as well as do the things listed I do think wordpress self hosted is the best option for you to run this type of model.

That is my own 02 cents. If i did not understand the original post I apologize but as far as I can tell this is a perfect model for this type of venture

HTH
-WD

I am looking for input on the basic framework of its structure but leaving room for expansion.

Banner space- Yes
Since the basic structure will have a few different forums, I will want the ability to ad banners to each forum.

Membership as a free model then monetize thru ad space-Yes

Thinking of selling ad space in already done ebook- Ebook is not done yet but yes I will sell ad space in it but will also sell ad space in the free report.

I have used wordpress and am a little familiar with it and one offering will be using wordpress. One company is offering a monthly fee to build and maintain which seems to be really affordable.

"To have a membersite designed is going to be a lot of work and you will be paying a lot of cash and upfront without a secured advertising base this doesn't make sense."
I know that I am going at this in a reverse direction but the main focus on the site will to be helping people that really need it and have no where to turn. Like I said lots of people dont know that this is even an option and my intent is to give them info on this option that very well could save their life. My way of giving. If they can afford the price of an ebook then it will be available but will not be my main focus
The cost to operate it will be a write off to charity but once I get the membership base built up is when the money comes in from the ads.The ads will give me a long term residual passive income.

What I am looking for is to try and make sure that I dont miss anything like with the double opt in I want to make it so that it will be hard for spammers to get in there.
I want the availability to have ads put in when the timing is right.
I want to put the articles in on the forums w/ you tube vids that will stay at the top of the forums (stickys)so that it will give the topics that will give the basic knowledge to the members. This will also get the asking of questions started for the threads to get the site built up so that here will be a lot of content for educating and SEO. It will also give me the needs and concerns from members that other ebooks can be based off of.

This niche is something that will not be here today and gone next year. It will be for a long time. I think that creating a site that can get their questions answered and give them a direction can be a long term site. I want to structure this site so that it can withstand any changes that may come along.

Thanks WD and I hope this gives a little better idea of what I am asking here.

Thanks
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WD Mino 16 years ago

Hi,

Ok so basically your wanting to run a forum based membership site like this one.

So the structure is pretty clear you can actually get your own forum without having to pay and it kicks @ phorum.org

If you do it this way you might have a better result the way your thinking is long term and it is not guranteed because adverts are a dime a dozen . Not trying to discourage you just give a different perspective.

If you run your wordpress site linking to the forum/forums. you will do 2 things one is give you more advertising space=more dollars potentially. the other is it will force users to view what is on the forum so if your advertising people will see it. people by nature are social creatures so your plan is awesome in it's strategy. the best thing for monetizing it with adverts is to have a high amount of traffic which will produce results for the business.

grabbing them with a free report and a free membership is awesome awesome awesome. my next site is going to offer this feature. but. Once they are in then it sounds more like a support thing so rather then having them immediately on the forum you can have them in the site and when the forum is updated make a post it is and that will get them in there. because it will be support based it will be something they need and utilize-Great idea.

I think the best way over all would be to go this route tweak it to suit your plan but overall it is better then just a forum site or regular site on my sites I install a forum and chat room because i understand human nature a tiny bit. at least enough to know the social part this forum is proof of that as well. you can always monetize it as well through special offers on the main site special discounts etc .

HTH
-WD
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deckman

16 years ago

Thanks WD. Great info there and I will reread it and will respond with a few more questions. At the moment I have to step out to give an estimated for a deck but I get back will respond directly to your last post.
This is the kind of info I was needing to help get my basic structure.

Thanks a Million !

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WD Mino 16 years ago

hey No worries at all I am glad to help.

I will be off and on so send me a pm and I will respond as soon as I get back on. Been up all night workin 10 0 am here I am off to bed BBL

-WD
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affenpinscher

16 years ago

As previously noted, you're going to spend a good deal of time and money on a concept: your market will find material on your membership site that makes them want to join, even though it's free, and come back.

Have you done any testing of this? If you host on Hostgator, you have two free options to set up discussion forums. You could try setting one up and add Adsense ads. Create discussion topics for the ones you'd want on membership site and see if enough people are interested in the topics. Add posts yourself with content to get them going.

You may want to tweak your topics once you see what's popular and what's not.

Good luck whatever you decide to so.

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deckman

16 years ago

Originally Posted by affenpinscher

As previously noted, you're going to spend a good deal of time and money on a concept: your market will find material on your membership site that makes them want to join, even though it's free, and come back.

Have you done any testing of this? If you host on Hostgator, you have two free options to set up discussion forums. You could try setting one up and add Adsense ads. Create discussion topics for the ones you'd want on membership site and see if enough people are interested in the topics. Add posts yourself with content to get them going.

You may want to tweak your topics once you see what's popular and what's not.

Good luck whatever you decide to so.

Thanks for the input.
It will cost me a little money to set this up and maintain it but it will be in the giving spirit to help these people with the info that it can provide. If it never makes it dime it will of been worth the effort because of the lives that it can improve.
The ads will come into place once the traffic is built up and the ads will be from professionals that can improve their lives while saving them a considerable amount of $ and this in its self could mean the difference of living a better life or going on with life as is.
I really dont want the site cluttered up with adsense as to pull from the focus.
With Fantastico you have several free options for content management including phpbb
but this is why I am hiring someone to do this for me since this is a little beyond my knowledge and I want to get this venture off with a good solid base to build from.

Thanks
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WD Mino 16 years ago

Hello my friend,
I am back online . if you have more questions fire away and I will do my best to answer.

-WD
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deckman

16 years ago

WD, Did you have a good nap? You know when burnin that midnight oil even just a short nap will do wonders.

Yeah, I am pretty much wanting a forum like WF but with a little bit of bling. I will be meeting with a company here in about 1 hour so I will give him the thoughts that I have and will be able to feed them to him as I can. I am liking what he is offering so far like setting me up on a monthly fee arrangement so they can keep it maintained make any changes that I require. Before I do sign a contract and get him started I will have a little more time to lay out to framework to present him with. He is local so that gives me a little more comfort in working with him.
He has mentioned that he will set it up with wordpress and says that he can pretty much work in what we want to.
Just wanted to make sure that once started that I didnt leave out anything like a double optin or "no Follow" coding in the free report download page as well as any other things that I may not know about that some of you experienced people might.

I really feel strong about the social aspect of this creating the content that will attract others and I like the your comment about more advertising space and this gives you twice the exposure also.
The free report will have enough info to really get them interested in coming back to the forum to gain more knowledge on the subject matter at hand.
It will be a support thing but I see that a lot of the support will be coming by and thru other members once I get the initial content loaded. I am guessing that I will eventually need to get a few moderators to help ease the load once I get the traffic rolling. Once the traffic starts rolling in is when I will persue the professionals to show them what I have and what it will take to let them get in front of my audience. Giving the pro's the opportunity to have their own forum will also give a lot of needed support and info to the members.
I know this will take a while to monetize but the sheer fact that it can be informing people of what is available while have its own value.
I will let you guys know how the meeting goes.

Regards
Deckman

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WD Mino 16 years ago

Yup nap was good I needed it but had the phone ring about half hour into it so had to start all over finally got up around 2 or so.

Sounds good my friend I am glad you have that much planned out your very wise to not just start one up because as you se there is a lot to consider. your on the right track let me know how it goes and what solution you come up with.

the initial design should not cost more then $300 because most of it will be wordpress which is free and any themes used can also be found free
so basically you should be paying for the setup and maintenance make sure it is not more than say 60 bucks a month at most because maintenance is not that hard and not that time consuming especially given wordprsses ease of use in adding pages links etc
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deckman

16 years ago

Is it just me or does anyone else take punctuality as firmly as I do. I set aside eating dinner with my family so that I could meet with this guy to go over the framework and he dosent answer or return my calls. I email him then step out to get a bite to come back to see a returned email telling me that it was an unusually busy Monday but tomorrow is good.
I did like one thing about this company though and they offer to sign NDA prior to you giving them any info. I even offered to write up a review on WF. What gives?
I dont know. The jury is still out on this one.

Thanks

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WD Mino

16 years ago

Hmmm For a business transaction already pre planned consult I would be thinking twice with no notice and no show he would be no go . Your a patient man

LMK if there is anything else I can help you with.

-WD

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deckman

16 years ago

WD I really appreciate your willingness to help and I will let you know the outcome of this meeting if it indeed happens.

Thanks !

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WD Mino

16 years ago

Any time friend Any time.
-WD

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deckman

16 years ago

This guy was a no show and I will not work with someone that cant be prompt in returning calls. Once or twice might be acceptable but after 3-4 days of this I am not wasting any more time.
Are there any reliable designers that are fluent in English that want to work?

Ok enough with the rant its time to get back to work!

Thanks

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My first Membership Site. Looking for input on its structure.

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