Whether you want to start a membership site as a social medium or a commercial venture – or a combination of both – you’ll need to approach it methodically and efficiently, in order to avoid the pitfalls most amateurs fall into.
What Do You Want From Your Site?
If you’ve decided that you want a membership site to support a product or service that you are selling, make sure that the incentives are there to keep your members interested.
What are you giving them for their membership fee? Anyone interested in your site will think long and hard about paying money to join, so you have to make it appealing.
Will you offer other incentives aside from your initial offering? This will take some planning on your part in order to make membership at your site something your clients would want to retain.
One way to keep your members is to offer exclusive access to parts of your website that are closed to non-members. You can stagger these throughout a matter of weeks or months in order to keep interest fresh and enthusiastic.
If you want a social membership site only, or one that combines socializing with a product you’re pushing, you’ll have to think of ways to keep members’ interest high while making sure the site is appealing to advertisers.
To Charge Or Not To Charge
An important part of a membership site’s structure is deciding if you’re going to charge a membership fee. If your product or service is one that is needed frequently, such as a wholesale item or a service, you may want to charge a fee.
How much will your customer base be willing to pay? Will it be a one-time membership fee or a recurring monthly fee? If your product is valuable enough, or if your members can make a good profit from it, you can charge more than if a member only needed to buy your product a few times per year.
If you’re starting a social membership site, such as a forum targeted to a specific interest or hobby, will members be willing to pay a fee? This largely depends on the socio-economic status of the interest you’re catering to.
For instance, a forum for people who enjoy sailing yachts would likely support a membership fee while one for amateur guitarists probably would not. If not, plan to make the site attractive to advertisers and even invite some of them to become members and participate. That method has proven to work effectively in attracting ad revenue.
Building A Base For Profit
Your software will be the most important part of planning your site. In the case of a commercial site with specific products, you will need software and scripts that can handle product deliveries on a regular basis.
It will also have to be able to handle repeat customers by retaining their information in a secure manner while imparting a personal touch.
Feedback is important to any website, so you will need to be able to handle communications and feedback, as well as troubleshoot any problems your members may have.
One way to lessen support tasks is creating a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page. This will not only save you a lot of work, but it will spare your customers from aggravation.
Your FAQs page can suggest solutions based on the problem or issue the customer has. Rather than spend hours communicating, this arrangement leaves you free to handle only the issues that aren’t usual occurrences. Include a live email address, so your customer can still ask assistance if the suggestion fails.
When planning your site, you should also choose workload-reducing software that can handle payment collections and deliveries. If you have an affiliate program, you will need to choose programs and software that can track, manage and promote the program.
Managing Your Time
When operating a membership site, the need for time management is crucial.
Those who are disorganized or have planned poorly usually find themselves tied to the keyboard – troubleshooting and straightening out product orders and deliveries, or moderating a spirited social forum.
This is an inconvenient way to lose money and your health! As far as possible, outsource tasks and hire people who can take care of the monotonous tasks. This may include helpdesk support, product and content creators, web designers or programmers. By outsourcing your tasks, you can focus more on improving your business and making more money.
Consider these important factors when starting a membership site, and you’ll minimize headaches and achieve better success in the long run.
