The membership sites offer exclusive content for customers who are paid members or subscribers of the website. This trend is becoming increasingly popular in the WordPress community of website owners. While the concept seems easy, the success of the site depends on many other factors besides designing a beautiful and attractive site from a technical standpoint which entices customers. So, while building a membership site, the seven points described below are important considerations.
Find Your Exclusive Content at the Start
The millions of Internet users translate into high competition in whatever area you are planning to start your membership site. Thus, offering general content related to your subject may attract a lot of traffic, but not paid followers. A better approach is to study the competition and offering the missing links in your site. It is always beneficial to offer content to a dedicated and focused smaller group of followers interested in your offerings for sustained business.
Form a Community or Following
Before you form the core group of paid followers, it is always a good idea to have a healthy pool of generally interested viewers. These may include your current website’s followers, social media circles and other kinds of online community associated with you. These people are already aware of you and may become direct customers or at least publicize about your newest venture.
Have Enough Materials ready before Site Launch
One of the main reasons that make potential customers shy away from membership sites is the lack of content. Thus, allocate ample time to create saleable content before the actual launch. After all, this is what will entice and retain customers at the end. Also, you won’t have enough time for content creation after the membership site launch as many other aspects will take up your time.
Plan your Publicity in Detail
Publicity is an important aspect in your bid to create a successful membership site. Potential customers need to be made aware of the usefulness of your content. Guest blogging in other websites is a good way of promotion, as is organizing online competitions and giving away free memberships of your new website as a reward. A landing page with enticing details for your target audience is also a good strategy for publicizing your membership site.
Identify your Customers
The research which will identify your potential customers is essential this will help in the identification of the ideal profile of your target audience. Your community will provide the ideal starting place, but you also need to reach out to wider markets. With proper clarity about your customer profile, it becomes much easier to formulate strategies for reaching them.
Consider the Membership Charges Carefully
This is another important aspect for consideration before your membership site launch. The membership pricing, the period of subscription, lifetime membership offers are the salient points to spend time in finalizing. You should also take into consideration successful competitor pricings in the past and take inputs from pricing experts.
Keep Adding New Contents
Fresh content is the watchword to remain viable in today’s competitive online atmosphere. This is especially true for membership sites, where customers are paying money to receive exclusive content regularly. To retain current customers and enlisting new ones, fresh and interesting content keeping in mind what clicks for your customer profile.
So, these seven points will help you to plan effectively for building a membership website which will remain viable to the subscribers, earning revenue for you in the process. The hard work you have put in before actual publication of the site will pay dividends once you start receiving loyal customers who are both benefited by and committed to your efforts and products.
