How much content do you need before you start a MEMBERSHIP SITE?

depends on your pricing, someone isnt going to be happy paying say $77 for a few pieces of content but may be happy for around 20-30 great products /content.

According to Yaro Staraks free Membership PDF (somewhere on Internet Business Blog - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak) the biggest mistake is to try and get as much content on there before you launch. You should put some on, and then build it over the months.

However, I would be pretty gutted to join a membership site with no content with the message 'coming soon'.

I'm contemplating turning my site (in my sig) into a membership site, but before I do I want to have at least a complete guide to Clickbank on there, plus at least one 'Earn Money With Clickbank' lesson.

Just make sure what you promise to your costumers in terms of what they will get everymonth.

Use amazon S3 for any videos or stuff that require some bandwith, its cheaper then getting a bigger hosting.

In terms of how much content...you should have enough to make them stay for the first month...
You can't really know exactly just look at others or put what you think its enough.

As for software, there are already a gazillion threads on this forum about membership site software, just get the one that suits your budget and/or needs.

I got into a lot of trouble with one of my membership sites because I did not have enough content prepared before going live.

I learned from that experience and recommend at least six months worth of content before you open the doors - maintain this buffer in case of emergencies. There's nothing worse then a mass exodus of members because you are unable to deliver content for the current month.

I can't recommend a script because I use my own, but Amember seems to be a popular choice.

I second what Colin said above. It's always a good idea to stay on the safe side and have content ready in advance - it saves you a lot of trouble.

It also depends on what kind of content you are going to provide. For example, if you are teaching them something that can be divided into a number of steps, you can divide the whole course into monthly or weekly modules. Then, you may want to have at least 6-8 modules ready in advance.

If the content is not arrangeable in a logical order, you must have enough content that can justify the price and the claims you make on your salespage

As for the platform, you have a variety of options. I would recommend the link in my sig BUT if you are going to have affiliate promote this membership in the future, I highly recommend Rapid Action Profits Membership Plugin. It works really well and integrates very well with WordPress and simple webpages too.

If you're not going to have any affiliates now or later, get DLGuard - it has built in membership support and is equally easy to setup as RAP.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Sagar

I think I will throw in my two cents here.

The amount of content you have depends in large part upon the price you are charging. The more you charge to more content you need to have before launching.

I would suggest at least having enough content on there to last the average user for at least a month. You also need to have a plan to be adding content every week so that you stay at least a month ahead of the average user.

I am launching a membership site myself and had to do some digging to determine what kind of software I should use it.

I chose to use a WordPress blog and secure everything using DLGuard.

Here's an alternate idea. I started my membership site by having the product delivered through a membership system. It allowed me to get people into a membership system right away. The membership is:

-Product they ordered
-A couple of extra reports (and promise of upcoming ones)
-Resources section and such

You can try the same.

All my membership sites are structured in a sequential way with new content being delivered every week.

I usually do an outline of the entire course/guide, divide the content into weeks and then write the first 2 months before launching the site. I'll then continue writing content for the following months.

It's a mistake to only write enough content to last for a month. You'll be extremely busy dealing with your clients in the first month to have any time whatsoever to dedicate to content development.

Tyrus

You should have at least 3 months of content available when you start.

Gunter

I do not have a membership site, but if I were to join I would expect
the following:

$9.99/month
3 months worth of written content or
36 hours of video content

$14.99/month
4 months worth of written content or
45 hours of video content

$29.99/month
6 months worth of written content or
80 hours of video content

so on so forth...
maybe I am exaggerating but i don't know...that is my personal
opinion on the matter.

You can start with a very low monthly subscription and gradually
increase it while keeping the promise that those who joined
from the beginning will have a lock price etc.


Peter

I would start with at least 3 months of content.