Fasten your seatbelt and get ready to be flooded with a lot of valuable information that will give you a core foundation on what membership sites are and how to use them adequately so that you can make loads of money.
I’m not sure if you knew, but membership sites have become increasingly popular over the past couple of years, and there’s a good reason for that. They are an excellent way to deliver first-class content to your audience and get paid over and over again for the work that you did years ago.
By the time this post is over, I will equip you with all the necessary knowledge and tools to go out there and launch your first successful membership site, and hopefully, you can offer me a special price so I can join you inside once it’s done.
WHAT IS A MEMBERSHIP SITE?
Any information that is hidden somewhere on a site behind a ‘doorway’ can be considered as a membership content or what others like to call it – membership site.
This content is usually available to anyone ready to pull some money out of their pockets and pay for the required membership fee. The fee comes typically in the form of a monthly payment or a yearly one, as you have seen with many membership sites that you may be a part of. I like to think of it as a gym membership. Most of the time, gym’s will have several membership options that you can take advantage of.
The basic one usually limits you to use the machines only, while the higher membership plans may give you access to other benefits like using the sauna or the swimming pool. It’s pretty much the same thing with your online content, except you won’t have to worry about cleaning someone else’s wee-wee from the pool.
5 BENEFITS OF RUNNING A MEMBERSHIP SITE
1. YOU CAN REUSE YOUR CONTENT TIMES AND TIMES AGAIN.
This is undoubtedly my number one reason why I would consider building a membership site for my audience. My content would become entirely reusable, and I can serve it to my newest members even if it was created ages ago.
The other reason is that I can be sluggish from time to time, and the possibility of reusing my content instead of creating new ones all the time seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.
2. BECOME AN AUTHORITY IN YOUR NICHE BY ADDING VALUE
Establishing authority in your niche matters more today than it ever has, and the same goes for providing value to your readers.
And surprisingly, people don’t cherish freebies as much as they treasure the stuff that they pay for, meaning that they would find your shielded content much more valuable than the free one.
I’m sorry to say, but you’d be a fool not to take advantage of this since it’s indeed a genuine opportunity to rack up higher numbers and deposit even more money in your bank account.
Please Note: When we’re discussing higher numbers, I would strongly advise you to catch a glimpse at my Affiliate Secrets Review if you want to learn a thing or two on how you can succeed as an affiliate marketer in this online chaos that prevails today.
The course will give you an in-depth look at how affiliate marketing works, reveal some of the best tactics to use and teach you how to make money by giving stuff away for free. It’s a no-brainer and I’m positive that it can be beneficial for anyone that’s trying to succeed in the online world.
3. YOU CAN HAVE AN ONLINE COMMUNITY OF RAGING FANS
You wouldn’t pay a monthly fee to be a member of someone’s community if you didn’t find his content valuable, and the same applies to your members as well.
There’s a huge possibility that most of the members will not even make it to the third month as members of your platform, but the ones that do are likely going to trust you and be willing to buy from you.
Your retention rate would highly depend on the quality of the content that’s inside your membership site. If you’re curious to learn how you can make the most out of your website, then I suggest you take a look at the following membership sites examples.
4. YOU CAN MAKE A LOT OF MONEY WITH MEMBERSHIP SITES
And when I say a lot, I mean millions of dollars of revenue per year. Please don’t get fooled by these numbers since they are tough to reach, but still doable.
Carson Lim and Kyle Loudon – the owners of Wealthy Affiliate are a great representation of what is possible if you dedicate yourself to the craft and put in the much-needed hours to succeed. Their membership site has been functioning for more than 15 years now, and it’s considered one of the best hangout spots for affiliate marketers.
They have made millions of dollars throughout the years, and it was all possible because they have been consistently adding value to members of their platform.
5. YOU CAN DRIVE HUGE AMOUNT OF FREE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG
Being an owner of a membership site gives you the freedom to push as much free traffic to yours or someone else’s blog whenever you feel like doing so.
In other words, you can charge people a lot of money to send traffic to their blog, or you can use that traffic for your purposes, such as growing your mailing list. Whichever path you choose, know that there’s a lot of money to be made.
HOW MUCH MONEY DOES IT COST TO BUILD A MEMBERSHIP SITE?
There are many people out there that will tell you that a membership site can cost you a small fortune, but there are also others that will agree that you can get one up and running with less than $200.
The truth is, the price of hosting a membership site depends on the method you choose to build it with. There are two routes that you can take, the expensive and the more affordable one.
You can either choose the high-end route that requires you to use an expensive hosting provider, set up a payment processor, and hire a web developer to structure the site for you, which can cost you anywhere from $200 to $15000.
Or…
Go for the cheaper route and use a membership site software like Kajabi or Clickfunnels. If you’re a WordPress user, then you should consider using a membership plugin like MemberPress, Member Mouse, or Paid Membership Pro.
And if you’re short on cash, then building a membership site with Leadpages might be the best option for you, but know that it will require you to undergo a few extra steps just to set it up.
HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO SETUP A MEMBERSHIP SITE?
Once again, it just depends on the amount of money you’re ready to invest, but to be honest, you shouldn’t worry too much about this and should focus more on another question, and that is: “How much time does it take to run a membership site?”
You must know by now that every business is different and requires personalized attention for it to flourish. Some companies demand more attention than others, and the same goes for membership sites as well.
In other words, it really just depends on the niche you’re in.
I have met many ‘gurus’ online who claim that membership sites are the sacred-chalice for passive income, and that can’t be further from the truth.
Whatever you do, please do not fall for these types of scams that promise you thousands of dollars in passive income, especially the ones that claim that can make you an overnight success.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH MEMBERSHIP SITES?
Making money from membership sites is a legit business opportunity that requires you to invest a significant upfront investment so that you can reap the rewards later.
I know, passive income has been a hot topic lately, especially for ‘flat-earthers’ that think they can make a million dollars by tomorrow and live the rest of their lives on the sunny beaches of California.
And if you’re one of them, I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s not the way things work in real life. Running a membership site is far away from being a quick path to riches, and you should avoid building one if you think that it will magically help you to find the ticket to Neverland. I’m not an expert when it comes to building membership sites, but I know a few guys that might help you out. I’m not associated with them whatsoever so you don’t have to worry about me sounding over-promising and making you believe in something that it’s not true.
I think they’ve done a tremendous job and that they can teach you a thing or two about building membership sites and making a living out of them. Their course is not the most economical course you can find on the market, but I still think they’re worth checking out.
Their site is called Membership Academy.
Feel free to take a look at them and I would deeply appreciate it if you could come back to this post and give your feedback on them in the comment box below. Thank you for your time, and hopefully, you can invite me to join as a member if everything turns out all right.