Most online marketers crave stability in their income and are constantly in pursuit of ways and means to boost their earnings. Very often, they read or hear about running membership sites and how lucrative a business model it is.
Yet, they procrastinate on their membership site because they’re intimidated by the technical process involved, which really isn’t that difficult if you consider the plethora of membership site software options available to you.
The setting up process has never been easier. You just need to take the first step without trying to see the whole staircase. Step by step you’ll get there… and if you’re still hesitant, let’s look at 7 benefits you can accrue by creating your very own membership site.
1.Income stability
This is probably the biggest benefit of the lot. If your membership site charges $27 a month and you have 100 members, you’re looking at a ‘confirmed’ income of $2,700 a month.
Even with a certain percentage of member attrition and some members defaulting on payment, for the most part, you still know that you have at least $2500 or so coming in the next month.
This guaranteed income makes a membership site a necessity for most online marketers.
While creating and launching products is a profitable business model, it’s usually a ‘feast and famine’ type of income. You make money when you launch and your earnings start tapering off as the days go buy.
Affiliate marketing can be hit or miss, and your income is subjected to the ebbs and flows of the prevailing trends. However, a membership site will give you a predictable recurring income that you can count on every month.
2.Build your brand
A membership site also helps you to build brand recognition. Think of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or even a subscription to magazines such as Time, Newsweek or National Geographic.
You instantly recognize these brands because they’ve carved a name for themselves with a membership business model.
In the same vein, you too can make your brand more recognizable by using a membership site to put your ‘name’ in front of your customers every single month with clockwork regularity.
3. Less work, more profits
As your membership site grows, you’ll have more income, and that will give you the flexibility to hire freelancers to create quality content for you.
This will free up your time to focus on your marketing efforts to attract more people into your membership program.
Which brings us to the next point…
4. Scalable
The membership site business model is scalable. The more members you get, the more you’ll earn. You can use a portion of your extra earnings to advertise your site and get even more subscribers.
Since you’re outsourcing the content creation now, you’ll have much more time to hone in on the marketing aspect of running a membership site.
This business is highly scalable because the content and delivery remains the same, even when the number of members you have increases.
5. Relatively hands-free
Unlike other online marketing models such as affiliate marketing or Kindle publishing, which requires you to keep several balls in the air at the same time, things are a lot easier with a membership site.
Once your membership site is set up, as long as the following month’s content is ready for your members and uploaded for delivery, you’re set. You don’t need to worry about a hundred and one tasks. It’s mostly automated, leaving you with a lot more free time for other activities.
6. Lifetime value per customer
Depending on the quality of the content, the lifetime value of your customer will be much higher than with other business models.
If you’re selling products, you’ll need to keep producing new content and marketing over and over to new and existing customers. Some may buy your content and many won’t.
But with a membership site, most subscribers will not be faced with a buying decision every so often. The monthly deductions will be automated and they’ll be less likely to say no because the payments are happening in the background.
The whole process is more ‘palatable’. You’d be surprised to know that there are people who’ll stay on the membership just because they’re too lazy to go through the mild ‘hassle’ of cancelling their subscription.
Besides that, most of your subscribers may have a need for ongoing content. For example, there are membership sites that deliver new keto recipes, martial arts tutorials, financial tips, etc. every month.
The constant need for fresh, reliable and useful content will keep your subscribers hooked to your membership. So, do deliver nothing but the best.
7. High profit margins
It’s interesting to note that the cost to run your membership site will ‘decrease’ as you get more members. What does that mean?
For example, if you have operating costs of about $50 a month for your membership site, and you have 100 subscribers, that’s 50 cents a month per subscriber.
If you recruited more members and you now had 250 subscribers, it would be 20 cents a month per subscriber.
That’s roughly how it works. Since all members will be getting the same content or be drip fed the existing content in a sequence, your content creation costs will not increase.
You’re making more money with existing content and ‘lower costs’. Quite frankly, it doesn’t get better than this.
Besides the 7 benefits above, there are several others that sweeten the pot and make the membership site model highly desirable.
Do spend some time learning the ropes and building your own membership. In a few months from now, you’ll be glad you did.
