Creating Cat Membership site? Bad Idea Or Good?

Go for it! There is competition on damn near everything. Try to be the Pepsi to their Coke.

Thanks!! I mean surely I can get people to pay 10 bucks a month. I will make it a very special place. People spend money on their cats and some people even subscribe to cat magazines.

try building large community around it, people will not pay before they know what they getting, create a facebook page for the site, then target in facebook ads only the people that liked cat, and bring them to the site.
(you have to make sure that everything is ready before they come to the site)

You should at least try. If the competition is low, and the demand high, you may do well, especially if you're easily found on Google's front page. As long as you have something of value to offer people, they will come.

You might be better off having a much larger free site and monetizing with advertising, CPA coupons, mailing, JVs etc. Not saying this is the necessarily the right way to go, but worth thinking about.

Also like the idea from poster above of having different membership 'levels'.

Where there is competition there is quality, is not it? Also what is the better one free or paid?

You are right, people think paid one must have something that the free one will not be able to provide you. So, just try to give something better and surely your hard work will bring you some lovely $$$$...

Don't worry, everything will go the way you planned it. Just make sure you have something to offer that they don't have. Be unique and creative. Good Luck

LOL....ok so mixed thoughts here. People spend a lot of money on pets. I must have something unique right? I mean if people are paying 10 bucks a month for a cat magazine wouldn't they pay this?

I know I got to be unique and offer something no other site has right? I know there are free sites out there but that seems to be the case for any niche really. I am a little scared though to see how this turns out.

Do it anyway. But consider something a little different. Maybe cats for newbies. Everything the first time kitty owner needs to know. Now you've got a niche where people aren't already hip to everything about cats and every site on the planet catering to them. Load that sucker up with absolutely EXCELLENT content and listen to your members purrrrrrrr.... Good luck.

I would also suggest you make it a free membership site.

The marketing potential to MANY more targeted members inside the membership and through email follow up could be enormous.

I think this is one of those "no harm, no foul" situations.

You might as well try to charge $10/month and see what happens. If it doesn't work out, you can turn it into a free membership with minimal hassle and add different income streams.

If you get a decent amount of paying members, but feel like you hit a income ceiling, add a free membership level later on.

Thanks guys I am going to give it a go at $10 a month and make it a unique site loaded with content/features. I think I can get this to work

LOL....awesome advice. Thanks man. Yea im sure this will work. I am going to create something unique here.

I have seen that there are cat magazine subscriptions out there. I read in a wso once that if there are a lot of paying members of a magazine subscription you can build a paid membership site in this niche. I guess I just gotta try and see what happens.

I use optimize press, and find it one of the best tool out there. Even for a techno dweeb nincome-poop like me.

Having a residual income is one of the most powerful and effective way to earn money online, whether you are in bed or screwing off down at the beach. Go for it.

I like what one of the posters said about how you could narrow down to new cat owners.

You could also find out what are the higher-end breed of cats, the ones that actually cost a lot of money to have, and target the owners of those kind of cats. They obviously have money to spend.

I also like the idea that someone mentioned above about having a 2 level membership.

The first level could be a way to get people's attention and then you have the paid level as an upsell.

Good idea creating a community for Cats, but your readers must know what you are actually offering them & then only they will be ready to pay $9+ per month for the services you are claiming to offer them...

Even you can include free giveaways, run great contests, polls which must attract your buyers at each point of time they see it

Corey, before charging people a fee, maybe is better to offer them a free 3 months membership - enough time for them to see if there is value for them or not, to get them "addicted" to your web site.
After that, have a monthly fee, a reduced amount for 1 year membership to encourage 1 year subscriptions (for example $9 or $10 a month and $90 a year...) and a 2 years membership with 1 year free for getting them to pay for 2 years.
Monetize your site with some affiliate links, for example about organic food, etc.
Build a list by offering a free eBook cat related (do not post the eBook on your web site) and offer a monthly free report for people not interested to pay you a membership. You can use this list to emails about various items for sale offered by you or affiliates and make some money from non members.

People are crazy about their pets and there's no end to the amount of money people will spend on them, I think it's one of the most over looked niches online.

I have had cats for a few years now (package deal with the wife). She had 2 before we met and then we got suckered into 2 more after we got married. I am trying to think of a time that I would sign up for a cat membership solely to get info. Probably not happening. However, I would definitely be interested in a place where we could get discounted products for a monthly fee. The litter we use costs between $32-35 depending on the store. Food can get expensive as well. I am sure that I am not alone on this. Solve problems like that and you will have a devoted market.

So a better question is what does your membership solve?

Hmm wow great advice here guys. I guess what I was trying to create was a "fun" place for passionate cat owners and lovers to be at. My goal was to create a tight community for this. I just wanted to create something fun and make it a special little group of say 500-1000 members. I wanted there to be a emotional connection.

But I realize I also need to solve some problems. I will offer ebooks also on cat behavior problems, how to litter train etc. My friend wants to promote this in the offline world too. Not sure how that will turn out.

I think after really thinking about it one thing is certain. I got to work my butt off to make this something unique and worth the $10 a month. I think if I can provide valuable content as well as make it a fun community I can hook my members. I must update the site every day and figure out a way to make it fun and unique too. I have a ton of ideas and really think I can figure this out.

I think if I build a email list and build relationships with those on the list they will eventually join my cat membership site. LOL.....I think a lightbulb went off in my head. It's all about making friends with the members on my list and soft selling them the membership site. I will make this happen guys I promise I am 90% done with the site as far as the basics go. Wish me luck and I might even make a dirt cheap wso about it when im done...or perhaps give it away free

I write an "ask the vet" column for a dog training membership site that charges $39 a month so there are people out there who will pay a recurring fee for something even when there are free alternatives out there.

Lots of people have animals that get older then when they get a new one, they comment to me that they can't remember all the in's and out's of starting again with a youngster. One idea could be to set up a membership for people with brand new kittens that helps them raise a healthy well behaved kitten (training, socialization, feeding, health info etc) and then provide enough community and other benefits to keep them on afterwards.

You can charge $1/month but before that you have to promote your site, your site should look authority site in the niche..

its a good idea
go with this
its a less competition niche easy to promote

If you can offer unique content not found anywhere else or just present the same content but in a different and better way you will differentiate yourself. You can also advertise smarter and reach people they do not.

If there is a successful site out there it just shows there is a good market for it.

If the content is good and presented in a beautiful way, $10 is a pittance for pet owners.

Sometimes people because they think a site that offers something for free is not as good as on that costs something. It's all about perceived value.

great idea. one way you can advertise it it's on youtube, with almost every cute cat video going viral and getting at least 100k views, you can drive huge traffic from there

some people will say..no don't do it..some people will say make it free....there are a lot of opinions online....the truth is you can make money in just about any area..

You can join the WF for free....but there are also paid forums about IM that charge $99 a month or more....

I would suggest you create a good funnel....offer to give away a free ebook about cats...gather emails..then funnel them into your membership site...it's an awesome model that many people use...

I hope to see your site up and running with a membership...I see too many people only warrior forum and elsewhere starting something....then you look 3 months later and the domain expired...but they were so eager when they first started...

You can make money from this...and a good amount...dont' let anyone else tell you differently..

If you were to promote your paid cat membership site, i'm willing to bet that you will STILL make alot of money from it - assuming that you market it correctly.