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Make Money Online : 4 Reasons & 3 Steps To Start A Membership Site

4 Reasons Why You Should Build A Membership Site

There are numerous advantages to running a membership website, both for you and for those you serve – members, clients, readers, or customers. Membership websites provide a channel for engagement and connectivity. And the subscription-based products are nothing new.

The subscription model, believe it or not, dates back to 1638 and is credited to King Charles I of England. However, with the rise of digital content consumption and the modern dominance of eCommerce, the subscription model has evolved into digital online membership sites in almost every niche imaginable. 

So what are the main advantages of owning a membership site?

#1: Your Site Can Generate A Reliable and Sustainable Income

Starting your own business can be intimidating, particularly when it comes to budgeting. When you offer a service or sell a product, sales can fluctuate from month to month, making it difficult to predict how much money you’ll have at any given time.

Membership on your site does not have to be expensive, and in many cases, free content is more likely to draw people in. Simultaneously, monetizing your site can provide a consistent, dependable income.

Setting up a membership fee for your website on a monthly or yearly basis is one way to accomplish this. You can also require users to pay to access certain areas of your site, such as a specific course or service. You can even charge a base membership fee that includes limited access and charge an additional fee for additional content.

In any case, there are some important factors to consider when determining the costs for your membership site. These include the amount of content you intend to provide as well as the ongoing support you intend to provide. It’s critical to choose a fee that will make running the site worthwhile while also being fair and affordable for its users.

Build Your Membership Site The Right Way

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#2: You Get Pre-Qualified Audience for Marketing and Upselling

Starting your own business can be intimidating, particularly when it comes to budgeting. When you offer a service or sell a product, sales can fluctuate from month to month, making it difficult to predict how much money you’ll have at any given time.

Membership on your site does not have to be expensive, and in many cases, free content is more likely to draw people in. Simultaneously, monetizing your site can provide a consistent, dependable income.




Setting up a membership fee for your website on a monthly or yearly basis is one way to accomplish this. You can also require users to pay to access certain areas of your site, such as a specific course or service. You can even charge a base membership fee that includes limited access and charge an additional fee for additional content.

In any case, there are some important factors to consider when determining the costs for your membership site. These include the amount of content you intend to provide as well as the ongoing support you intend to provide. It’s critical to choose a fee that will make running the site worthwhile while also being fair and affordable for its users.

#3: You Get Exponential Growth Potential

If you’re like most business owners, you want to run a company that allows for exponential growth while not requiring a lot of overhead.

The ability for this type of exponential growth and vertical scalability is one of the most significant advantages of owning a membership site. Using your existing infrastructure and content, you can truly scale your site to unimaginable heights.

In fact, there are no restrictions on the number of members you can acquire. As a result, membership site ownership is one of the most profitable business models in eCommerce.

Other digital business models frequently necessitate a significant investment of additional time and resources as your company grows. For example, you’ll almost certainly need to:

  • Increase your overhead expenses.
  • Purchase more inventory.
  • Staff your company to accommodate rapid or unexpected growth.

However, one of the primary advantages of owning a membership site is that it can be easily scaled without requiring significant changes to your core operations. Even when comparing membership websites to sites that only sell low-volume digital products, a membership site requires far fewer resources to build and maintain.

#4: Builds Trust, Loyalty, and a Strong Community

This is probably one of the best reasons to own a membership site.  When creating a membership website, it’s critical to remember that you’re laying the groundwork for a community.




Typically, new members become paying members because they are interested in, or committed to, the niche in which your website operates. And this can be any niche, on any subject you can think of, such as education or entertainment.

Because your members are already interested in the topic you’ve chosen, they’re also likely to be interested in the things that you promote, including…

  • Products
  • Resources
  • Tools

But, more often than not, what your members want most is to be a part of an interactive and exclusive community.

A strong membership site is built on value exchange. Your members should believe that they are receiving a good amount of content or support in exchange for their patronage from your website.

Going above and beyond expectations by providing your users with high-quality content and making it fully accessible raises the level of value you provide. This, in turn, can strengthen your members’ loyalty and sense of investment in your company and website.

3 Easy Steps To Build A Membership Site

Basically, these are the main steps that you need to carry out to build your membership site.

  • Decide on your membership model.
  • Choose a membership platform or plugin.
  • Create members-only content.

#1: What's Your Membership Model?

Before you install a membership site platform or plugin, you should develop a membership model. 

This is when you decide what you’ll offer and how much you’ll charge per year. When you run your business on this model, you charge customers a recurring fee in exchange for access to services, perks, information, events, networking opportunities, classes, or facilities.

You’ll need to answer three questions in order to create your membership plan:

  • What services will you provide to your members?
  • What, if any, membership levels will you provide?
  • How much will you charge, if at all, and how frequently will you charge?

Build Your Membership Site The Right Way

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#2: What Membership Site Platform or Plugin To Use?

After you’ve established your membership model and developed your members-only content, it’s time to find the right platform to help your site succeed. If you already have a WordPress or Squarespace site, there are plug-ins that can make this step a breeze.

Alternatively, there are a number of membership site platform software/providers that you can use.  These include Kajabi, Thinkific, Podia, Kartra and more.

Whichever platform or plugin that you use, there your membership site should include the following features:

  • Membership management –  This function allows you to create different membership tiers as well as add and manage members.
  • User registration and member profiles – These are front-end features that allow users to sign up and access their profiles.
  • Content restriction – Gated content, so make sure your site has the capability to hide those valuable assets from non-member audiences.

#3: Create Members-Only Content

If you’re going to offer exclusive content through any model, it had better be exactly that – exclusive.

When potential members pay a fee or provide personal information, they should receive something of value in return.

Knowing your buyer personas helps to determine what content assets are required to ensure that your members find value in your site.

Once your website is up and running, it will run on its own with minimal effort, providing opportunities for your members to engage with your organization and each other through activities such as:

  • Exclusive content for members
  • Calendar of events and registration pages
  • Member forum or newsletter
    Online store for members
  • And a lot more.

In addition, your membership site will handle all registrations, payments, contact information updates, and even email reminders automatically. In total, a good membership site can save you 20 hours or more per week in administrative work. That’s because it works in the background like a machine, processing data.

In Conclusion...

What you want to eventually achieve is to offer more features to your members – but not having to do more work.

Once your website is up and running, it will run on its own with minimal effort, providing opportunities for your members to engage with your organization and each other through activities such as:

  • Exclusive content for members
  • Calendar of events and registration pages
  • Member forum or newsletter
    Online store for members
  • And a lot more.

In addition, your membership should will handle all registrations, payments, contact information updates, and even email reminders automatically.

In total, a good membership site can save you 20 hours or more per week in administrative work. That’s because it works in the background like a machine, processing data.