Creating a profitable membership site is the dream of many online entrepreneurs. It’s no wonder, because the profits can be huge with the right membership site created for just the right market and the right niche. When you consider that a membership site that only charges $10 dollars a month can bring in an additional 1000 dollars of profit each month with just 100 members, you can quickly start realizing the power of a well-created, profitable membership site.

Know Your Market

Maybe you get tired of reading it, but you must know your market. Research your market to find out what they want in a membership site and whether or not such a thing would interest them. You can send a survey to your existing market to find out their interest in a membership opportunity and even what price point would best suit them. Based on that information you can create just the right membership site opportunity.

Understand Your Product Funnel

Your product funnel probably looks something like this: you offer a small report or other inexpensive (or even free item) to your target audience to get them on your email list. You then market your more expensive information products, they purchase something a little more expensive, and then you move them down your product funnel until they’ve bought the most expensive item you have – which might be one-on-one coaching or an email course.

Then they’re gone. In fact, most probably don’t even buy your one-on-one coaching because it’s so expensive (and rightly so). To add in a membership opportunity to your list, simply start marketing the opportunity before your one-on-one coaching as a way for people to get more connected with you. You’ll likely sell more one-on-one coaching to members than you will to anyone else, which will make your membership site even more profitable.

Offer Exclusive Products and Services

Aside from your regular offerings that you provide to anyone, your membership site needs to offer products and services that no one else can get unless they are a member. By making members feel exclusive, you’ll encourage them to join and to stick around. To keep creating good products, remember to stay very focused on your niche and don’t move outside of that niche for your membership site. You don’t want to confuse your members.

Under Promise and Over Deliver

Another component of a profitable membership site is to practice under promising and over delivering. You do want to brag about your awesome membership site and all that it provides to members, of course, but you want to throw in some extras that only the members know about. This will encourage them to stick around, creating the recurring revenue that you need to make membership sites profitable.

Create Scarcity with Limited Memberships

If you’re priced your membership well, you might consider limiting the number of members that can be involved. This works especially well if you plan to spend a considerable amount of your time coaching members via message board, webinars, or other specials that you provide to members.

Limiting to even fifty members can create a situation where you literally have a waiting list to get in. Even if you charged 100 dollars a month, which is not unreasonable when you’re only allowing fifty members in, that’s an additional 5000 dollars a month. Tip: If this works well, and you feel like you have more time, create an additional copy of the membership model with a slightly different focus but which can use some of the same materials.

Find Well-Working Automated Technology

One of the biggest components in creating a profitable membership site is to find the right technology that delivers what you need. Some membership site software can deliver “drip” content so that members do not receive all that you offer the first day they sign on. Yet others offer several levels of exclusivity to members with the ability to offer an inexpensive membership and move up levels for access to the most expensive and most exclusive offering. To really be effective the technology must be automated so members don’t get frustrated and you don’t have to work yourself to death.

You may decide that a membership site is something you want to do, and if that is the case, consider your expertise, narrow down your niche, and get started on creating your profitable membership site as soon as possible. You can get help creating your membership site by hiring people who are experts in membership site technology and understand the components that make membership sites profitable.