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How much should I charge for monthly membership to my site?

by realnetworker
23 replies
Hi,
I have put up a health & wellness blog specializing in local business, specifically in chiropractic.
My plan is to go to each chiropractor in the area I'm targeting, (currently I have a list of 14) and offering them a monthly membership.

With the membership they will get:
1. A one page review on my site with their customer testimonials. (pictures, links to their website)etc.
2. A chance to post 2 - 3 articles a month on my blog. (I was thinking of giving a discount to their monthly fees for each article they write to encourage them to add content on a regular basis. (5% discount per article etc.)

My website, http://canandaiguanychiropractic.com is currently ranking halfway up on the first page of Google for the local town keyword I'm targeting, (Canandaigua Chiropractic), and I'm getting approx. 850 visits a month now, and I am still constantly building backlinks to get my ranking up even more.

I was waiting to approach them until my site is good enough so they will think it is worth it to become a member.

So, my question, what would be a fair price for a pay-monthly membership?

I will do SEO on their pages and posts, and edit them if necessary. I would also build a certain amount of backlinks to their pages etc, then if they wanted more backlinks, I would charge a fee too build them. If they want me to, I will also post their articles for them if they email it to me so I can copy and paste it.

They would be getting publicity by posting on my site.

Thanks for your help and any different ideas to this plan are welcome too!
#charge #membership #monthly #site
  • Profile picture of the author tmo
    Between 10 to 30 maybe, haha, If I sign up for this program and it must be good and worth it, the price is the secondary. By the way, the top image is kinda blurry. If you are really serious about this site or business, in my perspective, you need something "eye-catching" webpage.
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  • Profile picture of the author realnetworker
    Yeah, I was wondering where I could get a custom header to put into the twenty-ten WP theme.

    20 - 30 dollars is what I was thinking too.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Jackson
    Originally Posted by realnetworker View Post

    I have put up a health & wellness blog specializing in local business, specifically in chiropractic. My plan is to go to each chiropractor in the area I'm targeting, (currently I have a list of 14) and offering them a monthly membership.

    So, my question, what would be a fair price for a pay-monthly membership?
    Split-testing various prices will give you the answer. That's the only way to know for sure the optimum price you can charge. When testing prices, don't be afraid to start out high.

    Just for the record, higher prices often convert better than lower prices because people often equate higher prices with higher quality. Google's Website Optimizer is excellent for this type of testing.

    David Jackson
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    • Profile picture of the author SPC
      Originally Posted by David Jackson View Post

      Split-testing various prices will give you the answer. That's the only way to know for sure the optimum price you can charge. When testing prices, don't be afraid to start out high.

      Just for the record, higher prices often convert better than lower prices because people often equate higher prices with higher quality. Google's Website Optimizer is excellent for this type of testing.

      David Jackson
      I have thought about this too. But for my membership site that I am building, I think that sometimes you can't just keep changing your prices around too much. My site is more of a dating site so I have to offer it for free to entice people to sign up. My plan is to get to a certain point and then start charging people. But do i start charging people that use to get the service for free? I think they will not want to stay after receiving the free service and then all the value in the (which is the number of members) will go back down again.

      Obviously I am just making educated guesses but each membership site is got to be different
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      • Profile picture of the author David Jackson
        Originally Posted by SPC View Post

        My site is more of a dating site so I have to offer it for free to entice people to sign up.
        Who says you have to offer a free membership? Top paid dating sites are making hundreds of millions of dollars, while free dating site are stuggling because ad revenues are down. Even the world's #1 free dating site, Plenty of Fish has started charging a Premium Membership fee.

        How about getting creative and think of ways you can convince people to pay a membership fee?

        David Jackson
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        • Profile picture of the author SPC
          Originally Posted by David Jackson View Post

          Who says you have to offer a free membership? Top paid dating sites are making hundreds of millions of dollars, while free dating site are stuggling because ad revenues are down. Even the world's #1 free dating site, Plenty of Fish has started charging a Premium Membership fee.

          How about getting creative and think of ways you can convince people to pay a membership fee?

          David Jackson
          Very true. I look at Match.com and Eharmony and they are obviously doing something right. But my worry is that people will be more hesitant paying for a dating membership when for an example there are only 50 other members. Not very much to chose from. So how do you go around that and entice people? Any thoughts?

          Thanks

          Dan
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        • Profile picture of the author David Jackson
          Dan, like I said, get creative. For example, how about starting a dating site for smokers? Or alcoholics? Or educators? Or medical professionals? Or athletes? Or vegetarians?

          You are limited only by your imagination. So, imagine!

          David Jackson
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          • Profile picture of the author SPC
            Originally Posted by David Jackson View Post

            Dan, like I said, get creative. For example, how about starting a dating site for smokers? Or alcoholics? Or educators? Or medical professionals? Or athletes? Or vegetarians?

            You are limited only by your imagination. So, imagine!

            David Jackson
            Thanks David. I have some creative ideas that I am going to run away with!
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            • Profile picture of the author David Jackson
              Originally Posted by SPC View Post

              Thanks David. I have some creative ideas that I am going to run away with!
              Your quite welcome. Good luck, Dan!

              David Jackson
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  • Profile picture of the author d0rhk
    Yeah I would agree with testing different price ranges. Starting at around $40, then maybe if the client thinks that is to high, going down. But you really need to sell it to them that their $40 will go a long ways.

    Also, if you need a header made just go to fiverr.. hundreds of ppl on there willing to make you a decent one.
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  • Profile picture of the author musicaltouch
    I would charge a yearly fee to get people in the door and get some proof started. Start at $30 a year and get results for them. Then take that proof and apply to any local area and sell it for $20-30 per month. This way you get real results without ever over charging anyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    I think $10 to $30 is too low for the type of service you are offering. An offline company would never get a full page add plus the opportunity to submit articles in a magazine or something for that price, they would pay a LOT more.

    I understand that magazines are distributed to thousands of people so they have big audience but I'm guessing that one day you hope your website will also receive a lot of visitors.

    If you are targeting 14 services, are there more to add later? You will need to consider how much you would like this website to make overall. 14 x $30 - $420 and that is if all 14 signed up.

    If you are going to spread out further and include chiropractors from a wider area to increase that income then maybe $30 would be ok, but if 14 is all you'll ever have then I would be charging more. After all, it is a benefit to those clients that they only share the website with 13 other chiropractors.

    I'd maybe think around $50 a month and they'd still be getting a good deal (that is of course if your site is getting a good amount of targeted traffic).
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  • Profile picture of the author realnetworker
    Thank you Sheryl, I like your answer! And yes, I plan on continuing to add on more chiropractors as I go along, very possibly spreading out to a wider area.

    I also am promoting health and wellness, as it goes hand in hand with chiropractic stuff. I think it will make my blog more interesting with a wider audience. I also am researching the possibilities of listing local health/natural stores & resources, and possibly offering them the same kind of service I am doing for the chiropractors.
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  • Profile picture of the author realnetworker
    Another question I had was, do I need to have some kind of legal papers drawn up to ensure that both them and myself would abide with what we agreed on in the beginning, so no one tries to make trouble?

    I am very new with this kind of business undertaking! I was thinking I would be a more physical presence to these people, since they are local. Like I would mail them invoices every month, etc. And drop by to visit now and then, and possibly help them learn how to do SEO on their articles if they wanted to learn. Maybe be a sort of consultant.
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    • Profile picture of the author sylviad
      Chiropractors make a lot of money and certainly are in a position to pay a lot more than $30 a month. As Sheryl says, it costs a ton more to advertise elsewhere, even in the local phone book.

      Have you found any other sites offering this or a similar service to chiropractors? If not, I'd look for them and see what they're charging. Even looking at advertising for chiropractors will give you a good idea of what the market can bear.

      One thing to keep in mind is that chiropractors tend to be quite busy, leaving little time to spend on learning SEO. However, if you wanted, you could offer to provide SEO on their articles as part of the monthly fee. This would give you more reasons to charge a higher rate. From my experience, doctors and chiro's would rather let others take care of that stuff, which is why you'll probably find that they use marketing agencies to help them if they are a sizable company. They rely on the 'experts' .

      As far as legal documents go, I don't see that you'd need much more than a standard agreement notifying them of the monthly fee through recurring billing, and outlining what they'll get. You know, kind of like what you get when you sign up for a hosting account. Getting lawyers involved would be far too expensive for what you're doing. If they fail to pay, they lose their presence on the site and whatever services you are offering. I don't think you need to make it more complicated than that.

      Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    First of all you have to decide what kind of business you're in. Are you into giving Chiropractic advice or are you into teaching chiropractors how to market their businesses online?

    Personally I would opt for the second option and in that case I would refocus your sites content to talk about marketing a chiropractor business online.

    Here is a great website that focuses on teaching personal fitness trainers how to get more business and market their business online. Fitness Marketing - Personal Training Business - Personal Trainer MarketingKick Back Life

    You see, he is a fitness professional himself but is teaching other personal trainers how to conduct marketing online to increase their own businesses.
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    • Profile picture of the author realnetworker
      Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post

      First of all you have to decide what kind of business you're in. Are you into giving Chiropractic advice or are you into teaching chiropractors how to market their businesses online?

      Personally I would opt for the second option and in that case I would refocus your sites content to talk about marketing a chiropractor business online.

      Here is a great website that focuses on teaching personal fitness trainers how to get more business and market their business online. Fitness Marketing - Personal Training Business - Personal Trainer MarketingKick Back Life

      You see, he is a fitness professional himself but is teaching other personal trainers how to conduct marketing online to increase their own businesses.

      Mike, I was a bit unclear on that in my original question. I am targeting local people who are looking for chiropractors in the area. My site will have listings and reviews, etc. of all the local chiropractors.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
        Originally Posted by realnetworker View Post

        Mike, I was a bit unclear on that in my original question. I am targeting local people who are looking for chiropractors in the area. My site will have listings and reviews, etc. of all the local chiropractors.
        Okay, so the monthly membership is for advertisers to advertise on your site then? Is that correct?

        If that's the case then I would charge at least $200 a month. I would also start collecting leads on your website and sell those leads to Chiropractors in your area for hundreds of dollars more.
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  • Profile picture of the author Meharis
    Originally Posted by realnetworker View Post


    So, my question, what would be a fair price for a pay-monthly membership?
    I did look your site. I would change the top photo.
    Have you seen the pictures in the following link? No Affiliate link

    Canandaigua, New York (NY 14424) profile: population, maps, real estate, averages, homes, statistics, relocation, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, moving, houses, news, sex offenders

    The following data may help you to answer your question along with some other good responses you have received:

    Canandaigua Population: 11264, 100.00%. Sex and Age. Male, 5392, 47.87%. Female, 5872, 52.13%. Under 5 years, 655, 5.81%. 5 to 9 years, 750, 6.66%

    Estimated median household income in 2009: $40381 (it was $37197 in 2000)

    I believe you said you have 14 clients. That means 804 each up until now.
    The goal will be to find out the total chiropractors to determine how many
    patients each of them will be sharing.
    Finally, getting the info of what's the average cost per session.
    Once you've that information will be easier for you to determine
    what the monthly charge could be.
    In other words. How much represents your monthly charge against
    what a patient is paying per appointment. Good luck!
    Meharis
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  • Profile picture of the author sylviad
    Ruth,

    Your site needs some work. Right side runs out of the top banner (they don't line up), the content on that side on the bottom is unreadable (black on black), and there is a script error showing on the bottom - for a plugin.

    I know this wasn't in your OP, but it needs some design help.

    Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesGw
    I'd pay up to $20/month for it, personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author sonic74
    You can also try different levels of membership (free,silver,gold)

    starting from low price to higher and revealing your content accordingly
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    • Profile picture of the author KateW
      I would suggest testing a few different prices for the membership but wouldn't start at anything under $37.00 month ....I think you could definatley get more for what you are offering...but make sure to test it to see which does best.

      Also I can help you with the design aspect of you site if you want...just send me a message here in the warrior forum and we can talk more about it.
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