[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report you’ll learn how to set up your own membership site where people will pay for your content. A membership site allows you to earn recurring income – income that keeps flowing in, month after month. You’ll also get some great tips on how to deal with all that yucky technical stuff and populate your membership site with compelling unique content.

Setting up a membership site may seem like a lot of technical work…mysterious and scary. But it’s not. A membership site is relatively easy to set up, and can earn you recurring income. Look at it this way…with many Internet opportunities you sell a product, you get paid once and that’s it, end of transaction. However, with your membership site, when you have great content and update it on a regular basis, your members will keep coming back for more…second helpings of the meat and potatoes of your site.

There are different types of membership site models…ones where members pay monthly, yearly, or a one time fee. Sites that have an end point…a light at the end of the tunnel…are all the rage online lately and are called micro-continuity memberships. An example of micro-continuity would be, say a 40 week online yoga course where you deliver weekly video lessons to your members. The membership period has a beginning an end with a specific result. So, at the end of the course you’ll have mastered the art of the downward dog and slanted cobra…

Each month, as you bring in more members, you’re getting cash from both new and old members, as more people land on your site, register and pay a fee to access your content. This steady flow of cash will continue, as long as you keep promoting your site and updating your members’ area with new and exciting content.

There will be something called an attrition rate…some members drop off after one month, or two, or six or twelve. You can reduce your attrition rate by updating your content regularly, in order to keep people from dropping off the map so quickly.

Here’s an example. Let’s say Stanley creates a dating membership site to deliver information continuously to readers looking for love. The first month he brings in 20 members, then 30 more the second month. During that second month, he would get cash from his 30 new signups, and another monthly fee from his first 20. Even if he loses some to the attrition rate…maybe some members get married, or just become bitter about the dating scene…whatever, he will still make money.

So how do you make your membership site the best on the block? You offer people content they can’t get anywhere else. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? A lot of people forget this golden rule and their site bombs. You need to offer people something valuable and be the best in your niche, so they’ll be happy to keep paying that ongoing fee to access your one of a kind content.

You need to be passionate about the topic of your membership site. You don’t need to be a pro athlete to start a membership site about football, or know the words to all of Lady Gaga’s songs to start a music site, but you do need passion, or updating your site as updating your site will be as tedious as scrubbing kitchen floors.

Target your market…Find the people you want to market your site to and focus in on them – whether it’s stay at home moms…or dads, retired travelers, or teen gamers. Find a market that’s hungry for information and has passionate people behind it. Make sure there’s a big enough market to constantly bring new customers in and keep them buying your memberships. Check out what else is out there in your chosen niche,..and then raise the bar and do it better.

The cost of memberships is all over the map…some sites will charge a few dollars, some will charge a few hundred, and some will be entirely free. It all comes down to your specific strategy. Perhaps your end goal is to have tons of members each paying smaller subscription amounts or maybe you’d prefer to have fewer members paying higher fees, in which case you’d need to offer better quality, fully interactive content. Yet another strategy would be to offer your site memberships for free, which is a good way to bring in fresh clients, or build a database of loyal members.

See, the value of your membership site lies in your database. As you offer up quality content, your members begin to trust you…Trust is a beautiful thing…because you can then send them special offers or discounts and recommend other products through affiliate marketing. Once you build up your member base, you’ll be in the powerful position to make these special offers to your members, thus creating multiple streams of income for you.

To most people, setting up a membership site seems daunting. I can’t even program my DVD player, How do I manage customer signups? How do I help someone who loses their password?

It’s alright…One option is to get membership site software. It’s like your own home office assistant…ok, this assistant can’t get you coffee or take your phone messages…but the software will handle lots of techie and admin tasks so you don’t have to. When your site is set up with this software, it will pretty much run on auto-pilot, so you’re making money 24-7, even while you’re sleeping, watching a movie, or walking your dog. To see my latest recommendations on specific membership software programs that are considered the Ferrari of member site management, be sure to visit RandyReport.com.

Another option is to use Wordpress…millions of people can’t be wrong…You simply go on over to Wordpress.org, sign up for a free account, name your site and start packing it with quality content. There are special tools called plugins, so you can get all the functionality you need for your site in minutes. It does take a bit more time and effort to get going, but there are forums of friendly people who can help, and pages and pages of resources online.

Unique content is a must – people aren’t going to sign up to pay for content they can find everywhere else for free. Use your imagination – find some experts in your field to interview…poof…there’s your unique content. Another way to get lots of great content is to get your users to generate it for you. Facebook and Twitter are examples of user generated content sites. Sounds good, doesn’t it, getting your biggest fans to create your content. They do this by chatting in forums, uploading videos and photos, or writing reviews and comments.

What’s better than a residual revenue stream? Several residual revenue streams. Look, you don’t have to manage your own site…it’s easy to find people to do that for you. The same places that you’ll find experts to interview on your topic, or advertise to find new members, is where you can also find moderators, volunteers, and people who will work for a small amount of money to manage your membership site for you. So once you get your first site up and running, why not find someone else to take over the ongoing maintenance of your site while you set up your next one. This, my friend, is how you can raise the bar…and your bank account balance.

Our question this week comes from Isabelle S, from Windsor, Ontario, who wrote:

I’m planning to launch my membership site next month, and I’m wondering if I should partner or go at it alone?

Many people ask themselves this question. It really depends on your business goals. If you feel you could benefit from the extra skill and experience, partnering can be a great way to get that support. The ideal partner for you is someone who can bring a skill to the table that you don’t already have.

Another way to look at it is to consider whether partnering will bring you leverage. Perhaps you have all the skills and so does your partner, but this way you can divide the workload in order to free yourself up to do other things. Just remember, there are pros and cons to partnering in any venture. Think of it like a marriage, and remember, it’s easier to get into one than out of one…and I’m not speaking from personal experience by the way.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How membership sites work, and how they can create residual income for you. We talked about picking a topic for your membership site, how to get your site up and running without having to be a computer programmer and how to make your content stand out. We also talked about ways to keep your customers coming back for more, bringing you recurring income, month after month.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to set up a business on Ebay and run your very own Ebay store. I’ll help you get started with the right products, attract customers and beat out the competition. I’ll also show you how to sell tons of products that you don’t have to store in your home, and teach you about the world of backend Ebay selling – which can double and even triple your profits.

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