Starting a Membership Site – How Free and Paid Membership Sites Differ
There are many pros and cons that can be mentioned for both the free membership site model and the paid one. Basically with the free site you will attract more members and have no recurring income but you can make money as you cross-sell to them. The paid membership will yield fewer members than the free one but you will have a recurring income through membership fees. The paid site will have a higher drop out rate than the free one and the paid site is more difficult to upsell to because they have already paid for content.
To understand fully which model is better for your particular membership site you have to analyze your content or service to see how valuable it is, know your market and know how well your backend products will sell. If you have weak backend products than the paid membership will be better. If you have a narrow niche than the free site won't work.
One solution is to use both models, the free and paid. You can entice the larger numbers to your membership site by offering a free 1st tier and then increase the content and tools for those who want to upgrade to the paid 2nd tier of membership. This way members can try out your site and get a feel for how valuable the content is and then when they learn to trust that what you have is consistent quality products or service they will be confident enough to pay for the 2nd tier of your membership site.
With a free membership site you can generate an income through ad revenue.
Look towards your closest competitors to see if they are paid or free. If you have a close competitor that is free and you come along, as a paid site unless you are offering superior content and can promote it well prospective members will probably opt for your competitor's free membership site.
You will need to test your market to discover what your prospects respond better to the free model or the paid one.
Your content will ultimately be key in determining if you can successfully have a paid membership site. High quality content that is fresh and consistent will mean real value to your customers and they won't mind paying the monthly fee.
Most successful membership sites have found that the best solution seems to be having a limited free option for members with a quality package of goodies for paying members. Whether you will do best with a limit on how many free members or if you will have a time frame limit for the free membership depends on your market, your content and your upsell products as well as your competitors.
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Understanding What A Membership Site Could Be
Membership sites are becoming very popular. They provide information to hungry Internet readers and can offer a range of content such as mentoring or coaching, articles and ebooks, product reviews, results of tests or studies, reference information, or a place to share information about a shared interest or hobby. No matter how different membership sites are from each other they have one thing in common: they all allow access by members who have paid for the priviledge of being on the site and receiving the information or resources contained in the site. Some sites have a free trial or a entry level that is free or costs less than a higher level and there are sites that cost less than others but the common thread is that members receive benefits that the general public do not.
You might now ask, "Why would anyone pay for information when the Internet is a super highway of information?"
The answer is that membership sites provide information that is of a higher quality or information that is not available elsewhere on the Internet. It is very specialized information that is contained on membership sites. Being a member of one of these sites gives an edge over those who are not members. There is value in being a member as opposed to not being a member. The value is equal to or greater than the membership fee. The information may be hard to find or time-consuming to find and this is what makes it valuable to go to one site and have the information contained in that one convenient location.
Membership sites appeal to all age groups all over the globe because everyone has a need to be filled and smart marketers are looking for those needs so that they can fill them with membership sites. At the present time membership sites are generating BILLIONS of dollars each year for site owners. Membership sites have revolved around the need for people to share a hobby or to form book clubs, find out how to make something, or learn how to make money online. Membership sites have been designed around the need to find a mate, or find others of the same faith. Membership sites have been started in order to mentor others or to give product reviews.
Those individuals interested in taking advantage of membership sites and wish to start their own need to find a hot topic and one that they have knowledge about. Then they have to design a membership site around that topic. They need to set up the site so that members will be able to easily navigate it and be able to use the resources and information on the site. The site owner needs to build real value into the site and to maintain the site with fresh content on a regular basis.
There are endless possibilities when designing a membership site not only concerning what topic to focus your site on but in the content that you provide to your members. Your content can include informational products such as articles, videos, ebooks, teleseminars, coaching as well as forums, chat rooms and physical products such as books, CDs and DVDs.
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