The model you decide upon for your membership site is of the utmost importance and the one you choose depends upon your objectives. There are basically two types of membership sites. There are free sites and there are paid for sites. The two types of membership sites have one thing is common. Their memberships are made up of people who share a common need or have a common interest.

However, free membership sites don't have quite all the advantages of paid ones, and vice versa. Let's take a closer look.

Free Membership Sites

Making a business model work financially with a free membership site is a must; otherwise, the site will in all likelihood fold after while since no one wants to work for free. So monetizing strategies need incorporated into the structure from the beginning to bring in revenue for the publishing team.

Some ways to generates revenue are:

-Sell your own products and services to your members through the membership site and any communications: email promotions, ezines, teleseminars, etc.

-Sell affiliate products in a similar manner

-Create content from your members that you can sell to them; for example, host a webinar and sell the recording.

-Place ads up in the membership area and include them in communications, too: Adsense, banners, classifieds, invite members to sponsor paid ads, etc.

-Sell upgraded paid membership levels that offer more content and value.

Paid Membership Sites

While on the other hand, paid membership sites immediately begin working for themselves, generating cash flow, they may bring in less traffic than free sites because of the cost factor. So attracting leads, prospects and new members will be a little more of an ongoing challenge.

Top ways to attract new people to your paid membership site include:

-Entice people with free items that have your membership information, contact information and website link inside: free reports, ebooks, ecourses, ezines.

-Think and act: viral marketing - invite others to pass along your free tools so that more people come into your marketing mix - fast.

-Multi-media works wonders, too. Offer short teleseminars and other types of workshops to draw the attention of interested parties. Include a free trial membership and other goodies for attendees.

Regardless of which type of membership site your choose, both offer a variety of earning possibilities. Just remember that offering good content in both keeps people coming back for more. Your members will learn to trust you and will keep coming back for more of the same. So don't let them down!