Many Internet marketers are turning to membership sites as a way of earning recurring cash. Membership sites can be great for bringing in money month after month, with very little extra work required to maintain them.
A membership site is a site that’s password protected, and generally requires users to pay a monthly fee. Most membership sites are protected by special scripts that handle the managing of the usernames and passwords of members. They also take care of canceling members whose payments don’t go through, or members who cancel manually.
Starting a membership site is relatively simple. You need a script, a billing provider, and content. The script will generally take care of the billing, member management, and protection of the members’ area.
All you need to do is set up the script, add a billing provider such as PayPal, and add content to the members’ area. One thing to keep in mind with regards to billing is that if you use PayPal, the most popular form of billing for most Internet marketers, you’ll have a harder time selling your membership site later if you ever want to.
Many marketers get burned out with their membership site, or they need money quickly for something. Selling a membership site with members can bring in pretty good cash. PayPal doesn’t have any way to transfer payments to other accounts, and that’s a big problem when it comes to selling a membership site.
If you’re using PayPal, you’ll either have to continue accepting payments yourself (then send them to the new owner), or you’ll have to cancel all of the members and ask them to sign up again under the new owner.
If you continue accepting the payments yourself, you could end up with problems with your PayPal account if the new owner does anything to violate PayPal’s TOS, or if they stop updating and members start complaining to PayPal.
If you ask members to sign up under the new owner, many of them may decide to just cancel their membership. You can always have the new owner bribe members by offering them a bonus like a free month or a special upgrade if they sign up under the new owner, but some members will probably still cancel.
This is why it may be better to try to find other billing alternatives. Unfortunately, there really aren’t very many available. CCBill is one billing company that makes it easier to transfer memberships, but they aren’t used by most membership scripts, and they require a lot of paperwork to get started.
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About Warren
Good article. Very helpful. Thanks for the post.
Is there any way to contact Warren directly ?
Thanks Michael
Hi Michael, I’ll shoot you an email!
It takes a great idea, or some premade high quality content to attract members I think.
This is an interesting idea! I agree with Ginger, you’d have to have high quality content as well as goods or services, something that would draw people to you and to want to return.
Membership sites are a great way of earning that repeat revenue – but like the others commenters have mentioned, you have to have the goods that justify people paying a monthly fee. I definitely suggest going this route for anyone who is capable of producing high quality material or sharing knowledge/skills that is in high demand.
Great overview of the topic, Warren.
They definitely require some solid (and ongoing) info, but can be quite lucrative when done 100%
Thanks for stopping in Melanie!
Looking for possible investors or agents who want to help grow our Vegas membership with is only $25 per person per year via our affiliate program. Please check our one of my sites for more info at: PartyLasVegas.us We have over 50,000,000 visitors a year going through the air port alone. Thanks again Warren for the helpful info and I help I can make some good connections with your help.
Nice Article. Thanks for sharing great information about membership site. It is great info for me. I also will try became a member in membership site. I like your blog because your posts are very informative me.
Nice Article. I think membership site is a great way for make money online. Most membership sites are protected by special scripts that handle the managing of the usernames and passwords of member.
Thanks for this informative post on Membership Site
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