Should Your Website Include a Membership Section?


Bringing membership traffic to your website can certainly increase your revenue especially when that traffic is targeted. For users, half the appeal of the internet is all the free information. However, far too often users become frustrated because what they find in the free isn’t what they are looking for, and so more and more surfers are becoming interested in paid memberships where they know they will get the content they are looking for.

So if you have been wondering whether you should dedicate at least part of your website to members the answer is an emphatic yes! 

One of the biggest questions asked is what a membership page should include. A good place to start is in an area where you have the expertise. You might create a training course, a webinar, a video of some type, audio recordings, and the list goes one. Really, the list of what you might offer your members is almost endless. 

The key to a successful membership site is to make sure that you are offering what your members are looking for. Regardless of subject, all members are looking for quality and quantity. When you provide both of these, you will have no problem either building new members or maintaining old members month after month, and who become your repeat business and your ongoing revenue. 

Content Types
Types of content you can offer include:
Daily tips
Video or audio files such as interviews or webinars
PDF training documents, informative documents, etc.
Downloadable files
A blog that is updated often
Questions that are frequently asked
Interactive forums

Whatever methods you choose to provide to your members, always keep in mind that quality and relevant information is being offered to meet your members’ needs. 

For example, if your website caters to professionals, you need to make sure that your membership site offers it in a way that meets the needs of your member’s site, and that what you offer matches the particular profession in quality content and the manner they are presented. Your membership site for a profession will be much different from your membership site for a hobby. Keep this in mind when creating your membership site.

Coming Up With Ideas
This is often the most difficult step to building a membership site. Whatever you decide on needs to be profitable. There are all kinds of membership websites online already, so when you build your site you may be able to get some ideas from existing sites that are doing well and that have been successful. The competition is fierce so you need to make sure you build a site that stands out against other similar sites.

Choose an area where your expertise is strong, which will make it much easier for you to build a site with long-term members. If you match your skills with your targeted members needs, you will enjoy great success. 
