When you decide to create a home based business online there are many different blue prints available on the web you can follow with regard to selecting which product or service you’re going to promote and how you’re going to promote it. One of the most lucrative opportunities for making money on the Internet on a consistent basis is by creating a membership website. What I mean by consistent income is knowing each and every month how much your site is going to contribute to your coffers.
First of all, for the uninitiated, a membership website is established when you charge your subscribers a monthly fee to access the content on your home page. This information, of course, should be related to your overall home business theme.
For example, your topic could be “How to start a home based business online”. If this was your subject matter then you would collect and organize all the information you possibly could find about this particular issue and charge a monthly membership fee for ongoing access to it.
When you’re creating a membership website there are several factors you must take into consideration throughout the process including these 5 issues:
1. During the development phase of your membership program you should continually remind yourself to make the user interface for accessing your information as easy to use as possible while making it pleasing to the eye.
To accomplish this you must dedicate yourself to putting in the time necessary to make your membership site more convenient to use and more attractive than that of the competition online, some of which charge nothing for access to their content. Without due diligence during this stage you may be doomed to failure even before you launch your website.
2. Upon completion of your site you should ask yourself if you would pay a monthly fee for regular admission to your content. To avoid any bias you could ask other independent webmasters to view your finished product and give their opinion or their critique of your site. In order to justify being able to charge a monthly fee your membership site must be unique when compared with other similar sites online.
Is your content different than other similar programs on the web? Is your approach to the topic different than that of your competitors? If you can answer yes to these questions you should have no problem attracting paid subscribers to your membership program.
3. Even though the information you’re presenting may be readily available online people may want to pay you to access it because you have it organized in a logical sequence and in an easy to find manner. Therefore always keep in mind that organization and presentation may rule the day when trying to convince your potential customers to become paying clients. Therefore ease of use, navigation and convenience should be your top three goals during the development of your home page.
4. Always keep in mind how you’re going to market your membership site when you’re creating it. If, upon completion, you determine that your content doesn’t really differ significantly from that of your competition then how you market your program will be the key to your success.
You must focus on all the positive aspects of your site in your advertising, as discussed earlier, such as ease of use, navigation and convenience. This may give you the edge over competing sites irregardless of your similar information. Because your content isn’t unique you must be able to market it in such a way as to attract paying members.
5. Always remember to update your content on a regular basis. Failure to do so will result in your members becoming bored with your website and as a result canceling their subscriptions. When collecting the content for your program you must remind yourself that it must be capable of being updated.
When you complete changes or updates to your site send a mass email to your members advising them of the changes and invite them to drop by to take a look. This should reinforce their belief that you’re paying careful attention to providing quality information on a regular basis. People will stop paying for the same old same old every month.
By keeping these five factors in mind throughout the development and creation stage of your membership site you will increase your odds of success greatly and you should soon have a consistent monthly income stream to your home based business online.