And why not?  Membership sites charge recurring payment for updated information and services or access to specific resources on a bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annual basis and for most forms of information and services it makes perfect sense.

By consistently adding new members and retaining existing customers you can quickly build a very large, stable income base that turns your online business into a highly reliable, more valuable enterprise. 

Membership sites in financial planning, stock advice have been significant for years, many newspapers have gone to membership site models as have coaching programs and information delivery.

But there are also many niche market membership sites as well including markets such as gardening, model airplanes, artists, independent music promotion, lego fanatics, home improvement and many, many others. 

Any business that delivers information or a service can typically find a recurring revenue business model in their market – how big that becomes depends a great deal on your ability to market and deliver as with any other products.

I’m embarassed to say that it took us almost 2-years of being hit over the head by our customers and subscribers about ongoing advice, information and coaching before we really GOT IT and turned that into a membership delivery model. In our case, it’s turned out better for our customers since they get more information, advice, tools and motivation when they need it instead of when we are able to deliver in the form of another product.

So, when do you start your membership program? 

My advice would be to operate for a few months in your niche driving traffic to your website or blog with the intent of building a list, creating relationships with your visitors, understanding what they want to know more about (by operating a forum, watching the comments on your blog, surveying your readers, holding interactive teleseminars, etc…) and then launch your private membership site covering the higher value information you have identified as in-demand from your entry into the market. 

You can start by including higher value information such as more in-depth articles, resources you find on the web, a private discussion forum, including group coaching calls once each month, adding audio podcasts or videos that help to add value to your readers.  

You will be amazed at the results you can achieve within one-year of operating your membership site – so get started now. 

If you have any questions about operating your own membership site, place a comment against this blog posting and I’ll get them answered for you.