How To Find A Good Niche For A Membership Site Topic
Most individuals looking to start a membership site understand that they need to have a topic for the site. The site will be successful if the topic revolves around a niche that you have some knowledge or expertise at. The site will also be successful if the niche is one that lends itself to fresh content and one in which the members will need to keep coming back for more fresh information.
Niches not to choose for a membership site:
A niche that would not be good for a membership site that needs fresh content and a reason to return would be the topic of quitting smoking. The goal of someone who desires to quit the smoking habit is to be successful at quitting, and once they are successful there would be no further need for the member to return to the site would there?
Another bad idea for a niche would be one that is a "how to do" site in which once you have the information it would be difficult to provide fresh content. In order to avoid this problem your niche should not be too narrow. A membership site about how to make Snowmen would be hard pressed to come up with fresh monthly content but a membership site that revolves around the Winter holidays would indeed have fresh content every month because of all the possible content variations.
Good examples of niche membership sites that lend themselves easily to fresh, quality monthly content are: Earning online cash for the new internet user, or a membership site that revolves around investing in the stock market.
When doing research on niches for membership sites make a list of all the things that bring pain or sadness to an individual and then make a second list about all the things that bring pleasure or happiness to people. Brainstorm for a while on these two lists and you will soon have many good ideas that you can research.
One of the most valuable true statements about finding a niche for a membership site is that you have to know your market. An idea for a site may sound good, may even be one that you are interested in; but if the market demand is poor than it will be a dead site. You have to understand what your members need in the niche you are contemplating. Will you be able to provide enough fresh content each month to address the needs they will have in that niche?
One obvious point that must be made is that the niche you decide on must be one that can be served online, if you choose a niche that can only be done strictly offline you may not find enough interest.
When deciding on a niche look towards keywords to see if there are membership sites already in existence on the niche you are considering. Use keywords that people would actually use when searching for your topic.
Try doing a survey to gage the interest in your chosen niche. One useful tidbit I learned about in college was the fact that there is a site that helps you design surveys called SurveyMonkey.com You want to be able to gage if the niche you are thinking of using will actually be one that will bring in members in large enough numbers to allow for the success you envision for your membership site.
Filed under Blog, Start a Membership Site by 
What Are Your Concerns About Your Membership Site?
Membership site owners like other business owners have concerns about running or managing their business. Their concerns may be about setting up the site or administrative needs or they may be about the members, they may even be about financial issues of the site.
Set-up Concerns:
The concerns a membership site owner may have include deciding on a title for their membership site that will draw members, tell what the site is all about and attract search engines. They also are concerned about designing the site logo or slogan and all the other site graphics in such a manner that will add to and not distract from the site. They are concerned about being able to produce quality content for the membership site that will give great benefit to the membership and may include articles, ebooks, interview transcripts, and also software. They are concerned about the possibility of hosting a site community such as a forum or chat room to give the members a place to share information and stories about the topic of the membership site.
They may be concerned about the site's navigation, and the ability of members to search for information, the ability to have relevant links, and other key elements of the site such as index and table of contents. The site owner may also be concerned about back end products, how to use the site as a promotional tool and how to make sure the members are getting the benefits they expect from the site so that they will remain loyal to the site. You may be worrying about the type of payments you will be accepting. Will you offer monthly, quarterly, or yearly memberships or all of the above? Will you have a free membership version or paid only? If you have both versions, you will need a password-protected area for the paid members. What are your security concerns for the site?
Member Concerns:
Should the members contribute in any way to the content? How will I attract new members? How will I keep my members happy and loyal to my site? How can I receive feedback from my membership so that I will know what is working and what isn't in time to make necessary changes to the site before members become disenchanted and leave? How can I design my site so that members will feel that they are a part of the site?
The Financial Concerns:
A membership site owner may have several financial concerns about the membership site for instance am I offering the payment options that my members use? Is my site secure enough for credit card transactions? Am I offering all the payment options that members may be interested in like monthly, quarterly and annual payment choices? Is there a way to find out why members cancel and offer reinstatement so that I don't lose revenue?
Site set-up, member concerns and financial concerns are the major concerns of the membership site owner. Concerns may change as the membership site ages. A membership site owner must always be on top of the needs of the membership community addressing the membership concerns as well as ownership concerns. Understanding what the concerns are, brainstorming solutions and applying the right solutions will help in making your membership site a success.
Filed under Blog by
