Membership Sites: Can You Make Money from Them?

Recently I wrote 30 Real Ways to Make Money Blogging, and lots of people have expressed their enthusiasm in the variety of ways to make money doing something they love.  One of the best ways to make a long-term income online is with membership sites.  They offer a wonderful service to the customer and a way to continually make a monthly income that could perhaps sustain your lifestyle indefinitely. 

What is a Membership Site?

Looking for the right information online can sometimes be very hard.  That is one reason why Blogussion was created.  To offer targeted blogging tips to interested readers.  To go a step further then just your blog and it’s posts, some bloggers have begun to use membership sites to offer content to readers. 

The purpose of these sites are to create such incredibly resourceful information compiled in one place, that others think is worth paying for.  Usually membership sites offer information that can be found only through their content and often it includes expert training.  Many membership sites even have coaching available from authority bloggers in their niche. 

For example, I love to ride road bikes or cycle.  If I was to start a membership site about cycling I would want to have everything a cyclist would want to know about riding.  How to buy a bike, where to buy a bike, recommendations, how to fix a bike, do your own repairs, train for a race, track your mileage, diet, etc.  I would put together a site that has everything you could ever want on it, including some software that would track member’s progress and help them develop into amazing cyclists.  To top it off I would pay so pro riders to put together a video, article or occasional webinar with their experiences and expertise.  Like maybe a 5 minute promo with Lance Armstrong.

If you are into road bikes and riding can you see how valuable this membership site would be?  I would pay upwards to $400 – $1000 to belong to it.  Especially if I got occasional one on one training with some experts.  These kinds of sites would make all the difference.

Now convert this idea into your niche.  Think about it for a minute.  BRAINSTORM. What could you do that would be so incredible people would clammer to sign up for it? Now that you have the idea how would you create it?

How to Set-Up a Membership Site in 15 Minutes

I am going to show you three ways to set-up a membership site and each of them are very easy.  Some will provide much better protection, more powerful features, and much more professional tools to help you, but each can get the job done.

All you will need is one of the site building options, an email list or promotion technique, and content to get on your way.

How Much Can You Charge? 

This is a very good question.  It all depends on the uniqueness of your content, the size of your market, and the quality of your membership site.  To learn how much you can charge for products or membership sites just start surveying, asking potential users, and trying different things out. 

Some sites I have seen for up to $1000 for a lifetime membership to the site.  The site promised continual updates and expert coaching. Other sites are as low as $20.  Just make sure to not sell your content short.  If it really is unique and extremely useful, they will pay for it.

Option 1:Built in WordPress Membership Site Maker

This option is free, easy to setup initially, and built in to your current wordpress dashboard.  Sounds good right?  Let me tell you how to make this happen.

The first step is easy: Write Unique and important content in your wordpress blog.  Then go into the “Edit” tab of your “Posts” menu in the WordPress Dashboard.  Select the content you would like to make part of your new membership site and open the individual “Edit Post” screen.  In the right sidebar, at the top there is a “Publish” widget.  Go to the ”Visibility” option and select “edit”.  Then out of the 3 options choose “Password Protected”.  Input the password and you now have protected content.

The next step is to create a “page” with the title of your premium content, membership site.  Then use this page to describe the membership, offer a Paypal or other automated payment option.  Give out the password to those that have bought the rights.  And watch your income start to come. 

Of course it is important to note that membership sites take a lot of work to publicize and get members to. 

Here are some Pro’s and Con’s of this WordPress Option:

• Pro’s- Free and very easy to set-up initially.  Already built into your current WordPress dashboard and easily converts all of your  blog content into premium content.
• Con’s- Administration of the membership site and content will be tedius and difficult.  Keeping track of members, changing passwords for security reasons, updating status, getting paid, and running the membership site will be challenging and long.

Option 2: Free Membership Site WordPress Plug-in

 The next option is also free, offers more options and is easier to administer the site with.  MemberWing is the company and name of the membership plug-in.  It also touts that the plug-in works seamlessly with Thesis Theme and offers great seo.

Just like any other plug-in, you download the membership plugin from their site and load it into your wordpress blog.  Then configure it and in no time you have a membership site.

Here are a few of their options:

• Insert {+++} anywhere into a post or page to create a text marker.  Everything before the marker is free to see (a teaser) and everything afterwards is paid content.
• Content and Download Protection to stop “guessing” and unauthorized links to your premium content. 
• 4 Membership levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum options allow for different pricing option and content availability.
• Works seamlessly with Paypal, Ejunkie, PayDotCom, Clickbank and other popular payment programs

Pro’s – Much better administration then with password protecting your blog.  Allows you to have more control with specific coding and scripts to do much of the work for you.  Additionally the free plug-in allows you to see how well the membership site will work with your content.

Con’s - The plug-in is free, but to receive all of the options there are multiple levels of plug-ins.  So to get the best support, features and help you will need to have the premium versions of the plugin.  I also think that although functional, the free version is not very appealing to the eyes.  It could use some design work to make it look more professional.

Option 3: Premium Membership Site Plug-in

 This is my favorite option.  Of course it is the highest quality and best value.  No it is not free, but the value comes in what you get out of it for what it costs.  The Wishlist Membership Plug-in offers both a powerful and lite plug-in to get your site optimized and up and running as quickly as you can create content. 

One thing that is particularly great is that you can create content in waves.  For example if you start the membership site and want to create 10 lessons, you only need one to get members to start on.  Then automation takes place where they are upgraded to new content based upon your preferences of time, content, or choice. 

Also, unlike the free choices the premium membership site offers a very sleek look that lets your members and potential clients know that they are working with a professional site that will offer amazing content.

Here are a few features:

• Unlimited Membership Levels
• Easy Installation with New or Existing Blog
• Flexible Membership: Free, Trial, Paid and any combination of them all!
• Shopping Cart System
• Gradual Content Delivery System
• At-A-Glance Membership Administration: easy to see all members, import/export files, upgrade members, pause or delete, status checks, and more.
• Secure RSS Feeds
• Content/Download Protection
• “Sneak Peak” Content Display
• Custom Error Pages
• 30 Trial Period with Guaranteed Money Back Offer
• Sleek Design
• Easy integration with Current Theme
• Free Upgrades to your plug-in for life
• Great free support
• Support Videos and tutorials
• Auto Response and Auto Payment options

 

The best feature I found is the ability to make the content and then automate the process completely.  I have been amazed with the system and know that if you can leverage your traffic, build extremely unique content, and use a powerful membership plugin you will make money.

After looking over the options and checking out the features, check to see if starting a membership site is right for you.  Many of the Probloggers are using these options to maximize their income online and build their authority online.  At the right price, you can do it too!