Membership Sites - "Why pay for what I can get for free?"

I'm about to launch a membership site in the IM niche. I have collected together every piece of experience (I have made quite a bit of money online) and information I have and poured it into my membership site through videos, ebooks, tips and pointers.

I also offer unlimited support and some free hosting. I believe sometimes people just need things laid out in a step-by-step manner in front of them with some motivation. A membership site usually gives them that

a model that i've seen others have great success with is a coaching style membership site. provide detailed instructions on something and break it down as a course, then have a forum for members only where you provide support, and also add content to the site regularly to keep members.
i know a few warriors who do this in IM with super success.

I've a friend into his fitness training and he's a good case study (with a few ideas added).

- He likes the lazy approach and having workouts provided for him

- Go a step further and these are workouts, systematically put together into 30 or 60 day programs he can simply plug into.

- "On the internet no one knows you're a dog" so while there is tons of free info there ... if you can brand yourself as an expert then the trusting of the reliability of the information counts for a lot.

- You could have proven success stories from your members (to go it alone and find the information for yourself could carry a greater risk of failure).

- Lots of the free information is simply given to people and they read it without any realization of how good it really is. If you can sell the benefits and help people realize how good the information you are providing is ... then it's already going to get more interest than if it's just posted on a thread on a forum that gets zero replies. You're doing them a favor by highlighting it's importance (that they might otherwise gloss over).

- Accountability ... if you are going to get an hour or two homework everyweek then you're probably more likely to do it because you're part of a membership site than off your own back.

- Convenience

I'm sure there are lots of others - but these are the obvious ones to me.

All the information in the world could be free but if people don't know what they are looking for in the first place then how will they benefit?

This is known as unconscious incompetence - You don't know what you don't know...

Make sense?

PLR memberships are pretty popular in IM. You can get top quality ebooks, blogs, and even turnkey products (info product + sales page + graphics + source files) that you can literally turn right around and resell without making any changes. In other words, memberships are not always just about the information provided. Sometimes it's about packaging and having a business in a box that's all set to go.

I have just launched a membership site in the IM niche. The reason I am offering it is because it truly is a unique membership website because it offers a unique product and access to some exclusive tips and tricks.

Some people are lazy or dont have the time to get free information, so they decide to pay for a course and get upfront the information needed.

Take Care
Luis Gabriel

Honestly it is about trust. People tend to trust a membership site over free information.

You are paying
- step by step instructions
- coaching and experience.

If you can be a credible source of information for the people that are seeking it, they'll definitely pay to be in a membership site. Not only are you saving them lots of time and from hours of frustrated searching around for information that may or may not be accurate, many membership sites tend to have an interactive element such as a forum and/or personal access to moderators or mentors that is very reassuring especially for someone getting into a brand new niche or field (as a result, they want people to interact with and guidance when needed).

Paul

imho the only good "membership" type sites are the ones that offer some sort of software that you can only access if you are a member. otherwise they are pointless as far as im concerned. anytime i see an intriguing membership site i usually just pay for a month, watch every video, then cancel my membership before i have to pay for the second month, so its more just like a 1 time product for me. the only monthly subscriptions id ever be willing to pay for is software like SENuke or Magic Submitter

two words - perceived value. People think that if they pay for something it is better than if they got it for free.

There is a lot of crap information out there and most of it is free, there are people willing to pay for the information they are looking for as I am sure most of us have done on occasions when we are looking for what we need, instead of sifting through thousands of free useless information.

The benefit of membership sites as a business model is you get recurring customers each month instead of just making one sale once to your prospect.

Most of the membership sites are a piure waste! They just copy paster information from other places! You have to choose !

The most expensive advice is free advice.

Thanks guys, there's some useful information here. I wasn't referring to membership sites in the IM niche though.

You see, I'm currently in the process of creating a membership site in the gaming niche, for a particular online game. There are no paid sites for this subniche, and the free sites deliver minimal information. I know there is a market for this because I used to sell in-game currency.

I'll probably add personal coaching as a feature to the membership site. I might also add an upsell to a secret technique that players can use to earn loads of in-game currency, and limit the number of people I let in on this technique so that it doesn't become diluted and lose its effectiveness.