Make Money With a Membership Website

A membership website is a great way to earn a steady stream of income by presenting information or services to a population who pays for access. News services are a common membership site. Some information is free but for full access, you need a subscription. Other similar websites include Ancestry.com (a full membership site) or course work/learning sites where you can access some training for free but need a membership for full course work.

If you can dream up a membership based online business, you can make money at home.

Common Membership Website Content

As stated above, most people are familiar with membership websites. If someone is willing to pay for it and you can put it online, you can have a membership website.

Ideas include:

Courses – for academic, art, exercise… the list is long
Premium content – news, articles, reports
Industry insights – financial or research into a specific market
Curated content – information that you gather and sell – coupons are a great example
Digital products – content like website themes or apps
Community/mastermind groups – help members with issues or peer-to-peer mentoring

You are certainly not limited to these!

There are, of course, pros and cons associated with membership websites.

The pros are a steady income, creating or enhancing a reputation as an authority, increasing memberships help to build momentum, automatic updates can be built in, and you can have a flexible schedule.

The cons are the effort to keep your site relevant, membership recruitment, technical knowledge, and frequent updates.

The technical knowledge is the simplest to solve with the assistance of a professional web designer and manager!

Different Types of Membership Website Models

There are a number of different membership websites that may fit your membership website needs.

The Drip Feed: this is a monthly subscription and new content is added monthly. No matter when the members join, they receive new content every 30 days.

The All-In: this involves either a fixed upfront fee or a monthly payment but all information is available all at once.

Online Course: there are several setups for this model. Offer courses on demand or as a set schedule. Include moderator interaction or have the modules stand alone

Online Community: these generally provide access to private forums, messaging systems, or online groups. These are usually built around a specific topic and provides a community.

Fixed Term: this model might include a topic like 30 Days to Better Health. After the course is over, the membership ends.

Product Model: this may involve access to a specific protected download or protected online content. Adobe (Indesign, Photoshop, etc) is offered through a product model website.

Service Model: these are based on delivery of a service, for instance, coaching or design sites with a set amount of monthly time to use the program.

Hybrid: this is simply a combination of any of the above.

WordPress Membership Website Design

One of the huge benefits of WordPress is ease of setting up a membership website. The model(s) you choose will determine how to set up the payment walls within WordPress and that is probably the hardest aspect to setting up a membership website.

As you set up a WordPress membership website form, you’ll need to locate the appropriate registration plugin to capture needed data about your member. Then you need a membership plugin to collect fees. This includes setting up levels and access conditions such as once a day, or to specific information. You need to provide a login area. You’ll then get to enter your member only content. I’ve glossed over a few of the steps, but you will need to have your site functional before going live.

Your next step is to market your services. Happily, WordPress offers options to spread the word through social media. Once you start building your membership, analyzing your market reach and response can help you fine tune your website.

If you are tech savvy or are comfortable with web design, WordPress is a great place to build a members website for your business.

If you are not, San Diego WordPress Website Design is a one stop web design services. I offer all website design services from logos to website management to digital marketing. I can even code your WordPress website and personalize the theme, just for your specific needs.

San Diego WordPress Website Design

No matter what your website needs are, I can create or redesign and manage yours to your specifications. I am comfortable working with everyone from the CEO of an existing company to the dreamer; and with people who have no web design skills all the way to professional development teams. I can work with you on your level and help you understand your website and how to maximize it for sales and growth.

I have spent more than 20 years designing websites for startup companies and design agencies and have recently acquired 10 years of digital marketing experience. Combine that with my graphic design talent and you do not need to work with multiple people or agencies. Your website will be in one set of capable hands instead of a multitude of people who may not understand your vision.

My education includes a degree in Computer Graphic Design and several certificates in Front End Web Development. I learned digital marketing on the job and now manage marketing for a very large financial corporation with a strong online presence.

Contact me with your vision for your new company or to get your current company quickly and reasonably online.