In the world of marketing, it’s a well known fact that having a solid customer base is akin to having a dedicated team of sales reps who are only too happy to promote one’s business without actually being aware that they’re doing it. Having a membership site offers you this type of relationship with your customers.

Admittedly, this form of marketing does not focus entirely on email marketing campaigns, a method which was extremely popular a decade ago. However, there are distinct advantages of using memberships rather than email based marketing. Additionally, it has a far higher success rate at turning first time customers into repeat customers, not to mention the fact that it’s a lot easier as well as more convenient.

Secondly, building an online business which relies heavily on email marketing is becoming increasingly difficult as a direct result of spamming.

The primary requirement of any successful online merchant should be to establish a loyal following with regards to clients and the best possible way to do this is by allowing you customers to feel as though they’re a part of your business. How do you do that? The proven method is for you to create a Membership site or a  “members only” section within your site. Of course, just as most others do, you can charge a fee for this privilege and this on its own has two noticeable benefits. Firstly, it allows customers to feel as though they belong and secondly, the membership fees which you collect can prove to be a great source of secondary income.

Of course, not only should you provide benefits in order to encourage customers into signing up as members, but you also need to reward those who have signed up, and one of the most effective means of doing this is to offer special discounts to members. Understandably, members will feel that they’re receiving special treatment. Your members are worth it.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of a membership area is that the members themselves can prove to be invaluable with regards to any future products or services you’re contemplating offering. Having a populated membership area will in essence allow you to seek the individual opinions relating to these planned products or services before actually implementing them, thus leading to a higher success rate when you do present new products or services.

Creating a membership site can prove to be difficult for some people, but there are tools, services, plugins, etc. that are available to help you establish one, some of which I’ll list:

Wordpress / WishList Member plugin: With self-hosted Wordpress as a free software install on your web server (often a one-click install with your web host), and the WishList member plugin at a price of $97, this is a duo that is hard to beat. It is a fully-functional membership solution that is both easy on the pocketbook as well as the technically-challenged. It integrates with major shopping cart solutions, including Paypal. It has secure RSS feeds that expire when someone stops paying. But my absolute favorite feature is Sequential Content Delivery, where you control the schedule when content is made available to members and eliminating those that like to sign up -> download everything -> then unsubscribe. I also like that you can expire a module just as you’re making the next module available. For example, you have a 4 week course and you set it up as a 4 module product, each week’s content is contained in the corresponding module. Week 1 content expires (and is not visible) when Week 2 content becomes available to the member, and so on. This offers you a ton of control over the delivery of your content.

It’s top on my list of solutions for you to check out. This is TRULY an amazing solution. When time = money, the fact that it is so quick and simple to set up makes this the BEST bargain out there.

Moodle / aMember: Another free software to look at is Moodle. It is very geared toward an education delivery site and is flexible enough for delivery of digital products, too. It is packed with a ton of modules with the default installation, but it’s good to note that there are a lot of free modules that you can download and install for added functionality. Many web hosts offer Moodle as a one-click install <– a favorite feature of mine. This takes the pain out of the installation process for anyone not inclined to be messing under the hood in their web host account. aMember has been around for a long time and is a standard in the membership software industry. Pricing is currently at under $200 for a single domain install. It’s not quite a user-friendly as the Wordpress/WishList Member combo, but it’s still a very good option. If you like, aMember will install their software for you, which is a nice touch. There is a Moodle addin for the aMember software which helps connect the two together. At one time I took a course with Teaching Sells, which showed the ins and outs of using the Moodle/aMember combo to create and sell your training products and courses. It was a top-notch course which only opens its doors to new members periodically. There are even Moodle hosted sites if you don’t want to, or are not in a position to install anything anywhere, which might be a good solution for some. Membergate is also highly regarded as a membership software choice, although I have no experience with it myself.

ExtremeMember: claims to be the “Ultimate All-in-one Online Membership System”. I remember a lot of Twittering going on about this solution about 6 months ago. It seems to be a system that’s very easy to set up and includes a ton of features built right in.

Private Ning Social Sites: this solution should not be ignored as an opportunity to create an invitation only site where you can interact and post members-only information. While simple in its features, this may be all you need. Oh yeah, and it’s free to set up. Perfect for those whose needs are simple and budget is already strained by other business obligations. Plus, it offers a good testing ground if you’ve been toying with the idea of setting up a membership site, but not sure you’ll have any takers interested in purchasing what you’ve got to offer.

And then for the very, very simple solution – think about a password protected page on your website. I’ve found the Password Maker Pro and Password Maker software from Oven Fresh Web to be just what I needed in some cases.

A site you can check out for more information and resources on membership sites is Membership Site Owner. There are a ton of resources available for you to do your research on. Simply Google “create a membership site”. A favorite resource of mine is Membership Academy.

One thing which has been proven time and time again is that those who enjoy some form of exclusive membership tend to develop a sense of loyalty towards the site. In this respect, it’s fundamental that your members’ area stands out from the rest of your site, thus further strengthening the feeling that they belong to something which is exclusive. Yes, sure, it’s only the work of a graphic designer but unlike in the physical world, in cyberspace, graphics can make or break a business. Lastly, but not least, provide some form of incentive to encourage existing members to recruit new members. This can be done by offering additional discounts, cash rewards, participating in an affiliate program, etc. Even handing out a limited amount of free memberships can return long lasting customers who will pay you back by recruiting yet more members further down the line.

Andrea Kalli
Certified Internet and Social Marketing VA

Your powerhouse virtual assistant support for:
Keyword and Competition Research, on-page SEO, and Link Building strategies
WishList – Wordpress Membership Sites and Retention Strategies, Wordpress Support

MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that I, Andrea Kalli, have an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this page and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

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