One of the things you need to understand in building your business on the Internet is that it takes just as much work to get a one-time sale as it takes to get a sale that will pay you every single month.
You still have to write a sales letter in order to get a person to purchase your product whether they’re paying you one time or monthly for that product. You still have to put the same amount of work into that sales letter.
I personally believe that membership sites will continue to be one of the biggest ways for people to make money on the Internet. It actually started at the end of 2005, carried on into 2006 and has just become more prevalent and more popular since then.
The problem with most membership sites is that people don’t take a lot of time to manage them. Quite honestly, most of the sites out there really don’t give you a lot for your money.
The Success of Your Membership Site
The success of your membership site is all relative to how much work you’re willing to put into it, how much your market is willing to pay, and how lazy the marketplace has become over the years on the Internet. (And that’s good for you).
The reason it’s good for you is because no one else is going to compete at the level that you’re going to compete at. The way the Internet has developed itself over the years is that people have gotten used to making money very quickly and easily. Therefore, they’re not working as hard as they should in order to bring as much value to the end customer.
When it comes to a membership site where a person who is paying you every single month, you have to be willing to give some inherent value to the members for their money. You have to decide what the offer is going to be. Are you going to offer a series of products, a study course, a series of coaching calls or interviews with other experts?
Giving Value to Your Members
Whatever you decide to offer has to have value and be able to be delivered easily. The other thing you have to remember about a membership site is, whether you have products or information that can be updated monthly, you never want your clients to get bored or run out of a need for your services.
You have to ask yourself if it is a good deal for you. You also have to ask if it is a good deal for them. If it seems like it is going to be too much work for you to keep or not enough value to keep your clients happy, you should rethink the whole thing.
You never want to get into a situation where you have people paying you for something that they will not be happy with or something that you can’t fulfill because that will be how they remember you. It will leave a sour taste in their mouth for your other products and other future offerings you may have.
The Payoff is Residual Income
A membership site not only requires monthly posting of new material and interaction with your members, but it’s also about being able to deal with customer service issues quickly and efficiently. It is important for members to know that you are responsive to their needs and concerns. More and more Internet users are willing to pay for quality information on the web, especially information that helps them make more money, helps them use an existing product better, or helps them receive more training.
Do not ignore this residual income opportunity.
