Setting up a successful membership site is a great online business model, but how do you know if your idea will fly? There are a few key things you can do upfront to make sure you choose a profitable topic & niche.
You'll start with basic market research. First look at keywords and see what people are searching for. See: Ideas for How-To Content and How-To Products for my own method of using "action words" as a good starting point. (Note: next you should take the "how to" out of the keyword phrase to research the niche keywords more thoroughly.) For a membership site, you are looking for a very specific market that needs some type of ongoing help or training...
Once you choose a potential niche or topic, you'll move on to more in-depth market research. Start with this 5-point checklist:
- Niche Forums
- Google Search
- Magazines
- Books
- Info-Products
Going through each of these 5 steps in your market research, in addition to your keyword list, will give you a good idea of what people are searching for and what they are talking about online. Pay close attention to the last 3. If there is a high number of books, magazines and/or info-products in a niche that is a sure-fire indicator that the market is buying.
What are they buying? Make note of the best-sellers, any top 10 lists, info-products that rank highly in the ClickBank Marketplace, highly ranked websites, etc. Compare these more popular products with your keyword list to see if anything stands out to you.
Your next step is to research the membership or subscription-based sites that are already established in that niche. Dont let the results discourage you. People often subscribe to multiple magazines on any given topic, read a variety of blogs, join more than one community, etc. Look at your own bookshelf: do you own more than one book on a certain topic? Of course.
Research each site and make note of the details so that you can compare them side by side. This will give you some great ideas for how to structure your own membership site, and a pricing scale to work with.
Your list or spreadsheet should include:
- Who are they and what do they offer?
- What type of format are they using?
- What is the pricing model?
- Do they offer special bonuses or incentives?
- Is it a fixed term membership, such as 90 days or 6 months, or indefinite?
- What are the key selling points?
Again, don't let this list discourage or intimidate you as you study it. This type of competitive analysis is not only smart, it's a goldmine for ideas! Look at ways that you can improve on what is already available, whether it's in content or delivery or some other feature. Get creative.
Your next step is to research the Info Publishers and Affiliate Programs in that niche. Make sure there are plenty of experts to interview, publishers to joint venture with, products to promote, etc. More competition equals more opportunity. You want to work within a thriving market.
Going through each of these steps will help you figure out your topic, your angle, your pricing and your offer. In less than an hour you should be able to easily determine whether any membership site idea is viable.
Best,
p.s. The easiest way to set up a Membership site fast, that will keep your members highly engaged (and paying you!) month after month, is to use the Membernaire model. You'll find my personal review here: Read Membernaire Review
About Lynn Terry
Thanks Lynn. Once again you have ignited a flame that could burn for a very long time. I've been thinking lately of starting a member site for my Jazz Guitar site and your posts in the past few days have been a goldmine...hopefully literally...:) I'll keep ya posted and thanks again. Take care and all the best.
Lyle
Forums are a HUGE resource for finding out what's most important to your target market. It's like a ton of free research done for you 🙂
The easiest thing to do is to find out that YOU like first. Research to see if there are other people that could be interested in your passion and then build your membership from this starting point.
you are really right with the keyword search part. The difference between plural or not even can make a difference sometimes. The action part is interesting-i hadn'ht about that before, but it's true people usually search "how can i..." etc. With action verbs.
Thanks for the advice!
Membership sites are really targeted towards a specific niche. Proper research and planning is necessary to ensure that the effectivity and longevity of such sites. Thanks for the excellent brainstorming ideas! Really nice ones.
Forum is a great online community. It's easy to use and it's effective for archiving important discussions. I also like it when a site owner offers free stuff to its users. Thanks for sharing this post.
Thanks for a great article. I actually had an idea on a membership site while reading it. I have never thought of doing what I'm doing now as a membership site, but it does make a lot of sense.
I'd add one more step to your article...
Subscribe to at least one competitive membership site in your niche. That way, you will be able to see - from your own experience - what works and what doesn't; perhaps you will get ideas on what could be improved or you might start to see an entirely new direction your site could go. That is what I'm going to do with my idea. Once again, thank you for a great article.
once again great article and a timely reminder, so many people forget that research is key to finding a hungry market, membership sites are the way to go. All the big named guys have now gone into membership sites. I have a few ideas for sites and I have also subscribed to membernaire I cannot recommend this product highly enough if anyone is thinking of building a membership site.Angela has a link abovemembernaire review
Thanks again for info
It requires a lot of time and commitment to develop a membership website that members will be happy to pay for. It’s a full time job in itself, if members are paying, they will expect regular updates, constant support, fresh content etc. Especially when there is so many other competitors (in most cases) that will offer the same for free.
Sometimes it can be misleading to specify that membership websites are easy money/income which is what many portray. Some great starter tips in this article though.
Memberships sites mean hard work but great rewards too 🙂
I agree with Matthew on that one, membership sites are definitely a lot of work, but with time comes success, just gotta be consistent.
There are many ways to provide people information that they want but can’t find. The internet is full of quickly written and often out of date information. Also consider rewarding long term customers, so people have another reason to keep paying.