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Don’t Start A Membership Website Until You Count the Cost

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

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.

Membership Website Tip #1 – Define your niche. A membership website is targeted to a specific group of readers that share a common interest with a need for information, for which they are willing to pay a premium.

Membership Website Tip #2 – Determine your target audience. Who is your membership website appealing to? Your target audience should have an established interest in your niche but are not already being served by an existing membership website.  Your target market should be part of a stable or growing audience who are already proven membership website users.

Membership Website Tip #3 – Understand your market. Prepare an in depth competitive market analysis. Search competitive sites to grasp their advertising and pricing policies. Request their media kits, they often contain information about your market.

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Membership Website Tip #4 – Line up key personnel. Your online editor should be a good journalist with SEO and copywriting talent who’s not afraid to be social. Find the right people who understand you idea and can make it happen.  Personnel and subscribers are your main assets.

Membership Website Tip #5 – Test a membership website prototype. This is vital and often not done thoroughly enough prior to launch. A well tested website ensures that it is user friendly.

Of course there are also many financial aspects to consider, but we’ll save that for another day.  🙂

Do you agree with these tips? Please comment below.

By Amanda MacArthur

Research Director & Managing Editor

Amanda is responsible for all the articles you read on the Mequoda Daily portal and every email newsletter delivered to your inbox from us. She is also our in-house social media expert and would love to chat with you over on @Mequoda. She has worked with Mequoda for almost a decade, helping to evolve the Mequoda Method through research, testing and developing new best practices in digital publishing, editorial strategy, email marketing and audience development. Amanda is a co-author of our four digital publishing handbooks.

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Contact Amanda via email at amanda (at) mequoda (dot) com, @amaaanda, LinkedIn, and Google+.

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