Pleasing Your Members Equals A Successful Membership Site

The members of your membership site are your bread and butter. They are your income so pleasing them and keeping them coming back to your site is where the income is. Without your loyal members you will not have future income. If members are not happy with their membership you will lose them which means lost revenue.

There are many things a membership site owner can do to keep pleasing the members including providing a constant stream of fresh site content, creating a community that members will feel comfortable being a member of, and paying close attention to providing valuable customer support. It is also important to educate your members on how to use the site and how to enjoy what you have provided for them. Making them feel at home on the site will give them satisfaction in the fee that they just paid to become a member of your site.

Not all members will enjoy the same type of format. Some members enjoy getting information via the email, and others love to explore the member areas, others like watching and listening to videos. Still other members prefer the physical products such as audio, DVDs, and CDs. Some members like to know what is in store for them and like scheduled content, scheduled teleseminars or tutorials.

A quick way to add content to your site is to have a fresh supply of articles. Articles are usually low cost, are easy to read and you can place several new articles each week on the site.

If your topic lends itself to tutorials these are easy to do in the video format. With a video you can verbally give information as well as to visually show the members what you are describing to them. This is a very effective form of training, and can cut down on member frustration. A member that avoids frustration is a pleased member who will continue to pay future membership fees.

A successful membership site is always adding new content, giving real value to the members so that they know that they are receiving continuous information. Site owners will want to over deliver to the membership so that they will always be well pleased with what they are getting out of the site.

If you create a community spirit among members they will be more likely to continue to return to the site where they will spend more money. If members feel that they receive real value for their money they are more likely to return and spend more at your site. You form a community by providing a forum, or a chat room.

Forums are places where discussions take place that can be opportunities to share. When you have a new forum it can be difficult to get the first posts to appear. There are ways to get around the initial hesitancy to post. You can hire individuals to post for you to get your forum started. These hired posters will get threads started and possibly to make additional comments if the members are hesitant to start posting. Another route instead of hiring posters you can give free memberships in exchange for posting a certain number of quality posts each week. The site owner can also start threads, or add to the discussion. A good way to get discussion going is to ask questions. Ask for opinions about something that may be a current or controversial subject for the site topic. You can also bring up the subject of forum posts in your articles that you submit each week on the site to encourage members to post.

Make sure you have links to the forum in all areas of your site.

Most forum software allow for member polls or surveys that are wonderful ways of getting members to be active in your forum.

Chat rooms can be inviting to some members. Make sure they are secure and for members only. Promote chat rooms in your newsletter or in articles. Have monthly topics or teach a class in the chat room in order to encourage members to use the chat room.

Features Of A Membership Site

One thing that makes your membership site stand out from all the rest is your combination of features that you have to offer to your members. There are certain features that are pretty standard for most membership site and then there are advanced features that may be unique to your membership site. Features can create the atmosphere of your membership site.

Standard features are those features that most membership sites have because they carry with them common needs of all membership sites such as having Login ID or passwords to protect certain areas of the site that are private and for members only, or automated renewal reminders that go out so that members won't be surprised by the arrival of the date to renew their membership, and also content formats and membership subscription types, as well as the ability to handle account suspension and cancellations. Other standard features include the ability to handle data exports and reports.

Advanced features include the ability to have Real Time member tracking, and the ability for members to be able to initiate account creation and a responsive shopping cart system.

Payment features should include the ability to accept payment from payment services such as PayPal, or major credit cards. The website should be able to integrate a shopping cart as well as a forum so that the members can interact with each other.

Your shopping cart should have features that your membership will need especially if you have an international membership such as flexible tax models, the ability of members to manage their User Accounts, having the ability to manage their shipping address, and have the shopping cart in multiple languages.

Since most membership sites have content in various formats, products, tools and resources it is important to have catalog features that can encompass all that your membership will utilize as they grow as well as the things that administration will need as the membership site grows. These features may be the capability to have an unlimited number of products and categories, the ability to search for products, resources and tools, the ability to handle downloadable products.

There are also membership sites that offer both free and paid memberships so this is a unique feature. Free members can start to use and understand the value of the site before deciding to become a paid member.

One area of features that definitely makes a membership site unique is what the site has to offer as far as specialized content such as articles, ebooks, audio and video materials, forums and chat rooms or a discussion board. What kinds of resources and tools are offered on the site for the members to use that enhances their experience?