Want Some? $2 Billion Pie!

Bill Gates estimated that membership Sites would be worth $20-$30 million dollars a year in the Internet Marketing Industry. Well, that was back in 1996,however he was way off.

Now to Bills credit he has got much more in the right column then in the wrong column. However he was way off here. Membership sites are a huge business, just 14 short years later they are a $2 Billion Dollar a year business. Yes,they continue to grow regardless of the world economic troubles.They are also growing in the area of importance in peoples lives.

The standard Membership Site charges a monthly fee to access its information on its site. There is a new Idea in town to help conversions. A new model that us clever marketers came up with was a free entry into membership, however we monetize the site through special subscriber offers every time the member logs in.

In each version of your choice, you well need a few specific tools in place.

You Need fresh content to the site to keep the members happy and hungry for more. You will definitely need an autoresponder like Aweber or i- contact. Of course you need a site, and that will need hosting and a catchy domain name. Last, but not least you will need Membership site software.

Hosting, Domains and autoresponders are topics for another article. We will concentrate on membership site software.

Membership site software

There is software out there for everyone and everyone’s budget. Take Easy Member Pro real good for new comers to the Internet Marketing world. Very user friendly. Then there is a WordPress plugin that will make a WP blog a membership site in 3 simple sets. This one is best for people comfortable with WordPress. Then we have the big daddy of them all Login Frequency Marketing. Yes there are some free options as well.

Why are people joining Membership Sites In Droves?

The Internet has become synonymous with ‘free’. People expect information to be available for free and sites like Wikipedia are happy to provide that service. However, people have also come to realise that with free information there is relatively little quality control. If they want good, premium content then they know that they will sometimes have to pay for it.

Also there is something about being a member. The idea that they are part of an exclusive club. Online Membership sites offer a similar exclusivity just like real world Memberships clubs do.

Memberships sites can only survive if the members feel a sense of comradeship,and there is great fresh content that keeps them excited and craving more.

The advantages to building membership websites

In internet marketing we are primarily salespeople looking for our next sale. We are always looking for new customers and trying to find the next hottest niche. Now don’t get me wrong its all a lot of fun filling peoples wants with great products. But wouldn’t be nice not to have to reinvent the wheel moth after month?

Membership Sites are a great business plan to help remove the stress of the monthly grind. They add a constant cash flow to your business. Of course you need to keep your end of the bargain. That would be great content and a friendly atmosphere for the group. You sell the site once, and month in and month out you get paid for it. The best part is you never ask for the money, no chasing customers. Your Processor does all the dirty work for you.

Although three will be a number of people who will unsubscribe and cancel their subscriptions each month, on the whole most will stay.

The average “stick time” of a member is said to be about 4 months,but depending on the quality of your site you can have a retention that is much much higher.

The Idea here is to work once, get a great site up and running(Don’t Get Lazy and Fall Behind On Content) and you will have a site that gains more members then you lose on a moth by month basis. Your business will then be based on residual income and positive leverage. Once yourmembers start paying you they will continue to pay you for that great content and living room feel of the club!

Residual income is the sweetest money of all and can quite literally last for years with no extra effort on your part.

Again I know you are all rubbing your hands together, and making that mad scientist laugh. However as stated earlier you have to provide new content and excellent service to keep your members engaged for this cash cow to work!

If you have a site based on the use of a piece of software you’ve written or had created for you, your ongoing input may be negligible after the initial set up, but if you are providing information, you will need to develop a routine for creating new stuff for your members on a regular basis.

Some internet Marketers ignore the power of a residual income from a Membership site, but they do so at their own folly! Lets say, I told you that if you just write 1 unique article per week packed with useful information, that for those 4 articles a month I would pay you $1000.00, would you do it? I think you would ! That’s the point a $9.99 per month membership site with 100 members will pay you $1000.00 per month. Simple stuff, all at the bargain low price of 4 articles per month.

Some membership sites are even set up so that the members themselves create the ongoing content. Recipe sites, for example, encourage members to post new recipes for all to see, and to participate in discussion forums that only members can access. The site owners can charge a nice monthly fee, but in actuality don’t have to create any content at all!

Whatever your current online marketing business model, consider adding a membership site or two to your stable of Internet properties. Your residual income will skyrocket and your workload may well be lower than you ever imagined possible.

A Membership Site could be just what you need to grab that Internet Lifestyle that has been eluding you.Your rags to riches story on the internet maybe a few Membership Sites away!

And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free instant access to several of my highly acclaimed reports. When you visit TomPaige.com. You will be able to instantly download valuable reports to help you with your internet properties. From Tom Paige “The Prince of Print” and Internet Marketing Guy.. Free reprint available from: Want Some? $2 Billion Pie!.