Membership Website posts focus on what to consider when building and operating a membership website.
In this section, you’ll learn the difference between membership and subscription sites, how to build a successful membership website, increase sign-ups, balance free and paid content, and the best practices for running a membership website that is both valuable and profitable.
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If you are not utilizing some form of paid marketing, you are limiting the size of your online business. Google Adwords pay-per-click campaigns, affiliate marketing partnerships, retailer partnerships and banner campaigns all help to sell your products for a percentage of the revenue. … Continue Reading »
Publishers need to embrace organic marketing methods for audience development purposes. Utilizing only premium models is a mistake that isolates the single biggest channels for adding new subscribers to your database like search engine optimization and social media marketing.
It’s important to understand that in a content-driven world you need at least one of two different types of subscription websites: the portal and the blog. Both of these content models are Google-friendly options, which makes it easier for your content to get noticed, crawled by the Google bots and ranked within search engine results pages. … Continue Reading »
Legacy magazine publishers are not paying close attention to whether their business is sponsor-driven or commerce driven. They are then going online with a completely different model.
In doing so, publishers disregard the historical print business model. If a publisher monetized his magazine assets in the past by selling advertising, it’s highly likely that the economics favor an ad-driven online publishing strategy. Or, if a publisher operates where circulation is the primary source of revenue, a membership website is a good option. … Continue Reading »
Niche businesses need additional channels to acquire large enough market share to succeed.
Beyond building an audience through search and website traffic, it’s important to generate retail partners like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Partnerships are how online businesses are able to open new channels to build upon the market share they need to grow. … Continue Reading »
People often overestimate their market. They do this by looking at the number of nuclear engines, bakers or weekend woodworkers and assume they can get a higher penetration than they’ve seen.
Look at the market, profession or hobby and pay close attention to the penetration levels of mature products in the two-five year range. … Continue Reading »
Every website is going to have its own dynamic in terms of pricing. Let’s take the premium reference content model for instance. There is a typical inclination to decide upon a particular price due to the fact that you’re bringing archives online. The decision to charge more due to an archive of content is a common mistake.
The best strategy for a magazine, newsletter or periodical model is tiered pricing. For example, some publishers utilize the one-some-all pricing structure. Here, the consumer can buy one issue and receive the lowest possible price point that will meet their need. This process exposes them to some pricing. The next ideal step is subscription, considered to be the platinum option.
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Providing too little content to your audience is a major issue, especially if you purport to have a comprehensive collection of informative content.
For instance, if you’re looking to launch a reference model, and you do not have enough content, it’s a deadly sin. A reference website – which is often organized in an encyclopedia-like fashion – is suppose to answer questions on a specific topic and implies that you can answer any question your audience has on the topic. … Continue Reading »
Having too much content typically means you’re utilizing too many content models in one interface
The club model is the most prone to this problem. The blog, portal, forum, magazine, reference or periodical model do not have the problem of too much content as long as the site architecture allows the user to navigate and find content.
The software model could also have too much information within it. The most successful type of software model incorporates a single, highly desirable app opposed to a collection of apps. This main app should be freestanding. If you make the mistake of burying it, then you’re forced to sell the club subscription and a collection of tools. This makes the user much less focused and may lead to confusion. … Continue Reading »
Choosing the wrong format for your membership website involves mislabeling your membership website and deciding to build it based off customer relationships instead of making it content-based.
The sheer number of content model choices – which totals nine through six premium models and three affinity models – dramatically increases the chances of choosing the wrong model for your membership website.
… Continue Reading »
Discover the membership website content model that fits your content best
In our new Membership Website Strategy free report, you will discover the nine deadly membership website mistakes and the nine membership website content models, including six premium and three affinity models. Premium membership website content models require registration and payment to access all of the content. Affinity membership website content models require only registration to access all the content. These membership website content models include: … Continue Reading »
Discover the nine deadly membership website mistakes when you download this new free report from Mequoda Group
Download your free copy of Membership Website Strategy: 9 Deadly Membership Website Mistakes & How to Avoid Them now
The membership website can be a lucrative addition to online publishers’ arsenal if they have the ability to create a premium product that meets the expectations of their audience. … Continue Reading »
Literary perfectionist Gustav Flaubert once said “our ignorance of history makes us slander our own times”. He was right on the money here and not just in his never-ending quest to find “le mot juste” (“the right word”) in a sentence. Finding the perfect word, he believed, would lead to the Nirvana of written quality. Dramatics aside, the main lesson here is one that we all know well: history is important. … Continue Reading »
Three quick tips on how to make a membership website work by letting your users define the content
The main revenue source for a membership website comes from its users, which means that 9 times out of 10, membership websites accept no advertising. What this means is that any membership website that’s going to be successful will need to focus solely on the user-experience.
So how can you get better at convincing people to join your paid community? … Continue Reading »
Two handfuls of WordPress membership plugins that you can use to turn your free website into a paid membership product
If you’re running a website on WordPress, you probably know that it’s not meant to be run as a membership website. However, being as flexible as WordPress is, you’ll find many publishers who have turned it into a full-fledged membership or subscription site.
WordPress membership plugins are essential in saving both money in time when building a memberhip website. Here are some of the top ten that get a lot of buzz and compliments. … Continue Reading »
The conundrum continues: How much should you give away on your membership websites?
There’s no scientific methodology behind subscription websites. Publishers with excellent conversion architecture can get away with giving away a lot of free content and still converting a large percentage of those free users into paid users.
Others still, have such a good reputation and and worth-while free trial that it doesn’t require giving anything away (other than the free trial) in order to get people in the door. … Continue Reading »
Lots of content doesn’t always equal valuable, useful content
Every story that a publisher has ever published in its magazine or newsletter or book series is an asset. And the question that every publisher must ask is, “How can we best monetize that asset?” If the publisher monetized the asset in the past by selling advertising, it’s highly likely that the economics favor an ad-driven online publishing strategy.
Therefore, think about the economic history of the existing print publishing business. Regardless of the amount of available content, the way the organization is set up to make money and the economics that have worked in the past are what matter. … Continue Reading »
Sell more “gift” membership subscriptions by offering a physical reciept, pricing for the gift-giver, and making your website look valuable
It’s the holiday season, and consumers are frantically looking for things to give the people they love. They’re also looking for gifts to give people they don’t love but need to buy gifts for anyway. The good news here is that when you run a membership website, you have the opportunity to capture last-minute buyers with an item that doesn’t need to be shipped.
However, there are plenty of places where membership websites can fail with this method.
Give the customer something to print out, email, or otherwise disribute.
Even more importantly, let them know that they’ll recieve something that they can “give” as the physical gift. This tiny detail can make or break a digita sale.
Four things that successful membership websites have in common
The goal of a membership website is to acquire and retain members. After all, membership websites generate the majority of their revenues from user access fees. The business model is similar to a print newsletter or magazine that accepts little or no advertising, relying primarily on user support.
Membership Website Tip #1: Community Building – Membership websites have to clearly invite visitors to become involved with other members. Surveys and polls are a great way for members to instantly voice their opinions and feel involved. Discussion boards and chatrooms allow members to interact with peers. This creates a sense of community, which increases visits to your website. … Continue Reading »
Five things you must do before launching a membership website
It would be foolish on the part of anyone to jump into a project without contemplating all aspects to be certain that they could accomplish their goal. Before launching a membership website, be sure you have what it takes to be successful.
Here are solutions to five common mistakes we’ve seen online publishers make when launching a membership website. … Continue Reading »
Five must-have features for membership website conversion
After reviewing statistics for website visitors, are you wondering why traffic is up and conversion is down? How could so many visitors not become subscribers? What is your membership website missing?
Here are the top five must have features to convert visitors into a subscribers. … Continue Reading »
How to use paid and earned media to build your membership website
Most publishers continue to rely on paid media to generate traffic for their membership website. For good reason – paid media works. And it’s often easier to buy website traffic than to rely on earned media.
Basic paid media sources for building your membership website: … Continue Reading »
Take these membership website ideas into account when A/B testing
It’s no easy task to convert a user into paying a monthly subscription price for a website. Sometimes a customer might think they can find the same information somewhere else for free, or they just don’t want to commit. Your job when designing the “sell” for a membership website is to convince them that they are indeed going to receive something special, and if they just sign up they’ll learn that.
In order to get the sale, however, there are a few things that should be tested on your sales page, and they apply to every publisher trying to increase membership website conversions.
Misunderstanding Membership Website information architecture
Misunderstanding the characteristics and attributes of a Membership Website compared to, say, a subscriber-access-only magazine or newsletter Retail Subscription Website is a common misunderstanding when publishers are launching a paid-access-only website.
A Membership Website is an online medium—a destination—in and of itself.
It may be structured as a “pure-play” site, which does not depend on a primary relationship to, or experience with, an online or offline product. Or it may be structured as a “companion” website, which does relate to an online or offline product. Either way, “members” or “subscribers” register and pay to access information, organized library-style by topic of interest, or research information or find answers to a question.
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Membership websites require content and effort – don’t attempt building one if you haven’t got either
While a Membership Website can be a profitable addition to a publisher’s online strategy, the decision to launch one must be carefully considered. If the publisher has been sponsor driven print, a Membership Website may be a bad idea unless the publisher can come up with some clever way to populate both a free website and a paid membership website.
Your free website includes your blog. Some publishers only repurpose print content, while many others create fresh original content to publish on their website, or Internet Hub as we like to call it. Your Internet Hub is the face of your brand. It tells people exactly what type of quality your content has, and whether it’s worth spending money with you.
… Continue Reading »
Mark Ragan of Ragan.com and Ragan Select, tells publishers how their new membership website and social network has brought profitability from 31% to 49% … Continue Reading »
With traffic and sales doubling in the past year, Taunton’s Janine Scolpino discusses some keys to membership website success
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With advertising sales dropping, many publishers are considering charging for content. Will you?
After hearing Jim Malkin, CEO of SourceMedia spoke this week at FOLIO about how he intends to transform into a paid-subscription model, we thought now might be a good time to talk about membership websites and the Five Deadly Membership Website Mistakes you can make. … Continue Reading »
Executives from ESPN, Rodale and Harvard Business Review discuss the challenges and benefits of charging users for online content
General Manager & Editorial Director of ESPN Publishing Gary Hoenig admitted he didn’t know anything about SEO 6 months ago. The concept of using SEO to acquire subscribers (link to some article we’ve done about this please) fascinates him, but admitted it isn’t exactly easy. “You can harness it if you try really hard,” said Hoenig. “You must allow the search engines to work for you, not against you.” … Continue Reading »
Do you know how users consume print and digital media? If you think they’re the same, you’re wrong. And if you’re building or running a membership website with that mindset, you’re in trouble. … Continue Reading »
Many publishers refer to a Newsletter Website as a Membership Website, but the truth is that Newsletter Websites stand on their own. … Continue Reading »
Giving away the same content customers once paid for is no longer an option – think of it as your new circulation marketing program. … Continue Reading »
Download our complimentary Membership report today and learn what every magazine, newsletter and book publisher needs to know before launching a Membership Website … Continue Reading »
Adapt to changing subscription models … Continue Reading »
Make 2.0 Work for You … Continue Reading »
Optimize Your Marketing Mix … Continue Reading »
Defend Against Economic Downturn … Continue Reading »
The casual visitor makes an impression of your subscription website based on numerous factors. Whether consciously to unconsciously, most potential members are looking for certain elements that indicate to them that you and your business are legitimate. … Continue Reading »
Digital editions are quickly creeping up on the magazine industry. If you are a magazine publisher and haven’t looked down this avenue, you might have another thing coming. You might think that users prefer paper, but you’d be surprised to know that users now prefer to have both, and you don’t really have a choice unless you’re prepared to be the underdog. … Continue Reading »
One of the biggest problems a Membership Website can have is that it’s not a Membership Website
Membership Websites are as commonly used as they are misunderstood.
Hiding information behind a firewall with a username and password gate and charging for access does not automatically make a Membership Website.
A Membership Website should be designed to be a unique destination—not another place to provide access to your print publication’s content. … Continue Reading »
Does your membership website measure up in all these important areas?
A membership website is not a shortcut to Internet riches. In fact, unless you consider all of these elements and execute each with precision, your membership website or online newsletter will probably fail. … Continue Reading »
If you’re promoting your online newsletter or membership website in person at a trade show or seminar, you might want to hand out CD-ROMs to potential members.
CD-ROMs are not expensive to duplicate. And they can enable a prospective membership website subscriber to experience a portion of your site’s content without having to logon to the Internet and visit the actual website.
It’s a little gimmicky, but it’s likely to grab their attention, especially if you add value by providing some other free information files on the CD-ROM. … Continue Reading »
Emphasizing the benefits of joining your membership website means appealing to your prospect’s self-interest
People do not subscribe or pay for access to your membership website, per se. They are really paying for the benefits of access to your membership website, or for the benefits of membership in your organization.
Features are descriptions of what premium information they will find beyond the turnstile when they join your membership website. But features are not benefits. … Continue Reading »
Internet publishing profitability boils down to four elements
If you serve a small niche market, then generating website revenue may require creating additional information products, doing joint ventures with other entrepreneurs, and joining the affiliate programs of other Internet publishing businesses that offer quality products and services. … Continue Reading »
Offer an additional bonus to new members for information about how they found your membership website
Do you know where your best membership website traffic is coming from? Not merely the casual visitors to your home page but the serious customers who actually join your membership website?
Is it Google, Yahoo! or MSN? … Continue Reading »
Great testimonials can be very persuasive. The value of member corroboration and its ability to get new subscribers to your membership website cannot be under-estimated.
Know this about the buying process: Whether they know it or not, everybody has a personal strategy for rationalizing his purchase decisions.
All purchase decisions are emotional, but in order to be congruent, buyers need to create reasons for their choices. … Continue Reading »
When you build a membership website, provide an incentive to subscribe and offer instant gratification
Many membership website landing pages promote the overall value of their site’s content, but fail to create a sense of urgency about joining.
In broad, sweeping generalizations the landing page characterizes the content that awaits you if you join the membership website, and promises a boatload of new articles to be delivered over the course of your membership, but offers no incentive to join RIGHT NOW! … Continue Reading »
Brevity is the soul of wit, according to the Bard. And all the more so online. So of course, someone created rules for you to follow when writing for the Web. OK, so maybe they are more like guidelines than hard and fast laws of cyber language. That said, here is what you want to strive for in most of your content.
Try to follow these seven guidelines when writing for the Web. … Continue Reading »
First impressions really do count, especially online. If the look of your site doesn’t immediately gain the respect of visitors, you are in trouble.
Studies have shown that visitors decide within the first 10 seconds whether they will investigate further or move on. That’s how long it takes to run the look of your site through their mental filters and determine whether you are worth their time.
The quickest way to lose visitors: design your site to look like an amateur did it. … Continue Reading »
Consumer Reports revenues top $190M in 2005 by pursuing a simple integrated media strategy driven by three simple concepts and the world’s largest membership website.John Sateja is a happy guy. The man in charge of information products for what may be the most trusted media brand in America is on a roll. … Continue Reading »
“What should you consider when starting a membership website?”
The answers are not always obvious, even to a seasoned print or electronic publisher. Starting a new website is very different from running an existing property. Over the past 10 years, Mequoda Daily Editor Don Nicholas and team have worked on over 100 successful website startups, as well as several that were not successful. His understanding of website publishing is rooted in the world of print, which has given him insight into the similarities and differences between the two types of launches. These tips will document the best practices he’s seen, and been part of, over the past decade. These tips are geared toward a website that will generate $2 to $5 million per year in total revenues after three to five years. … Continue Reading »
