Roll up your sleeves and conduct preliminary research and testing to make sure your membership site focuses on a targeted niche and offers content people need. Make the niche too narrow, and you will need to charge more for your membership fees and / or get more out of backend sales and cross promotions in order to help cover maintenance and publishing costs.
You can use a free tool like Good Keywords goodkeywords.com to help research what people are looking for on the Internet. Then head to industry-related forums to find out what "needs" people are posting about and searching for - -then fill them.
Site Components & Functionality
Then make sure the membership site offers a variety of components that are compatible and navigable for your members. People don't want to sign up, then get lost in a maze, encountering broken links, downloads with corrupted files, etc.
Map out your site first, then seek membership software or a website designer who can help you turn your design into a feasible plan. Main components usually include a: news area, forum, download area, member profile area to update account information, help desk to submit support tickets and good menu to reach all areas.
Super Systems
Then set up systems for both your members and your publishing team so that both parties get what they want: good content and income. You basically need two super systems in place and rarely can one person can do it all - -at least long term for a growing business:
(1)Creating Systems to Create Products & Content - Hire help or delegate product and content creation to team members on a continual basis. You want good, fresh information; for example, interview members and industry experts, conduct surveys and write up reports and articles on the results, write up case studies, etc.
(2)Creating Systems to Market Products and Generate Leads - Products are great but you need to market, get your presence known out there constantly. Make sure to set up several campaigns like: pay-per-clicks, article writing and marketing, quality link exchanges, press releases, participation in workshops and networking events, email and phone call follow ups, forum posts, set up an affiliate program, host paid teleseminars and webinars and check with the Small Business Administration (sba.gov) for many more ways.
If you were trying to sell cookies the very best way to build a customer base is to give away free samples of your cookies and hope that the majority of the people love your cookies and come back to buy some.
Another way freebie sites work is by a company using the power of something very popular to drive visitors to their site by giving it away for free.
Let's say a company is marketing their mortgage services online and they know every mortgage they secure means thousands of dollars in profit. Would it not make sense for that company to offer something like a chance to get a free iPod in return for people filling out a form to get a free mortgage quote.
If that company finds a really good deal buying large amount of pods and for every 20 people they give it to for free they are able to gain one new mortgage customer they covered the cost of the give away and made thousands of dollars.
In contrast if you were in the market to buy a home and needed a mortgage company would you not sign up to get information from a company that is offering a way to get a free iPod at the same time?
Many of these companies believe that what they are offering is such a great selling product that even people simply looking for something for free will make a purchase once at their website because they will realize the company is also selling something they want or need.
There are methods to help identify the best ways to get free stuff like nice home electronics, samples or even gift cards online. Once you know the answer to how do freebie sites work you can quickly find and spend very little time getting all kinds of freebies online.
Information about the various free give aways online and how they work has been documented by people who have spent years searching out and trying these offers. Using this information can save you a ton of time and also save you from wasting your time on a site that will never deliver as promised.
It is not hard to spot a bogus site from a legitimate one once you know exactly what to look for on a particular site. This allows you to spend your valuable time actually doing thing that will get you some pretty cool stuff for free.
Everyone likes free stuff but no one likes spending their time only to wait and wait by the mailbox for something that is never going to arrive.
Both Jason James & Trevor Murrow are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jason James has sinced written about articles on various topics from How to Sell on Ebay, Recreation and Sports and How to Sell on Ebay. Jason James is a 10 year internet marketing veteran and runs several successful membership websites whos customer base numbers in the 1,000's. To learn how to start your own membership website register for a free 14 day crash course. Learn more at. Jason James's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.
Trevor Murrow has sinced written about articles on various topics from Recreation and Sports, Iphone Reviews and Recreation and Sports. Trevor Murrow is the leading guru on getting expensive free stuff. To learn more about how to get free stuff on your own, visit www.getfreestuffguide.com. Trevor Murrow's top article generates over 1900 views. to your Favourites.