Are paid membership sites a good idea?

mrey86

mrey86

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Jan 6, 2010
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I have an article site where up until now i've made it completely free for visitors to come and read hundreds of articles then fuck off without buying any of my ebooks (NOT in the make monies online niche)

So I know making a decision to make my site a "gimme 10 bucks and you can read my shit" members area is going to piss a lot of regular visitors off but at the end of the day I want to make money.

Question is, do you geniuses think this will work?

k thnx bai
 


Yeah - it could work. It depends on your salez skillz. Maybe do a Jeff Walker style thing.... This site is gonna be be a $50 per month pay site but you can lock yourself in now for $10 if you move fast.
 
depends on the content. If its dumbass shit they can get anywhere else, then your conversion rate will blow. I'd say to drop an optin-box under each post and pitch them your exclusive content membership shapow! on the backend
 
Garrett said:
depends on the content. If its dumbass shit they can get anywhere else, then your conversion rate will blow. I'd say to drop an optin-box under each post and pitch them your exclusive content membership shapow! on the backend
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It hundreds of articles of ORIGINAL content, you can tell how original and authentic it is by the caps lock. Probably why i get few buying eBooks
 
mrey86 said:
It hundreds of articles of ORIGINAL content, you can tell how original and authentic it is by the caps lock. Probably why i get few buying eBooks
Click to expand...

if there are magazines for your niche (which their probably are) I say go for it. I'm not sure what would happen to your SEO if you chop the bottom half of content off though. Is that where all your traffic is coming from?

You could always just throw a huge banner above the title of every post urging people to register (optin) and start going through the funnel.
 
Why don't you make the site exclusive but have the membership free. Drip emails on them once a week for related offers.... or, members get first access to new content, non-members have to wait a week.
 
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Both Garrett and LotsOfZeros have good advice. I do this exact same thing.

Entice your visitors into opting in via pop-up and/or an opt-in form inside or under each article. Give away something related to your niche. Once they're opted in to that list, send them more "exclusive" content (or just teasers back to articles they may not have yet read) in each email you send out, two to four times per week.

Also, mention your "Platinum content club" in each email. You'll also want to put a mention for it prominently in your side bar. However, here's the thing: make it so that if they're opted in to your list, give them a 50% off discount. So if you were planning on charging $10/mo for the premium membership, charge $20/mo from the page linked to from your sidebar and then offer 50% off from your emails to your list.

This way, you'll increase the perception of value to all your visitors and the opted-in visitors will look at it like they are getting a bargain.

You can even use an autoresponder to deliver your premium content so you dont have to build an entire membership area back in (which may just get compromised anyway). Just deliver a "platinum newsletter" every few days with your premium content in it or a hidden link to your premium content (with or without login, your choice). Pull all premium content down after 1 week.

Here's why:

After 6 months to a year you can sell the archives of all this premium content over again to both members and non-members as a digest of sorts for $20+ ~or~ you can just offer it as a bonus to new members after a while. Get creative with it.

It's a great model and if you have the traffic for it, then you can be adding a good chunk of change to your bottom line monthly as long as you really do add exclusive value to your members.
 
Garrett said:
if there are magazines for your niche (which their probably are) I say go for it. I'm not sure what would happen to your SEO if you chop the bottom half of content off though. Is that where all your traffic is coming from?

You could always just throw a huge banner above the title of every post urging people to register (optin) and start going through the funnel.
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I was concerned about the SEO side of things at first but i guess the robots will still be able to crawl the members areas of the site.

I rank well for 2 out of 3 competitive keywords and get up to 400 uniques a day... I may as well give it a try because I do feel like im working hard and spending a lot giving away unique and quality content for free with not enough reward
 
What about sprinkling some adsense around if you arent already.

Logging in / or subscribing turns the adsense off....
 
Allow "people" to view a page or two - then bammo a big fat pop up saying to see more they have to join your membership site for free.

You gots the e-mails. They get pounded by your offers. You win.
 
This sure became a solid thread. My two cents is don't take anything away from your users as it stands. You need to come up with something new to offer them. If your niche is conducive to a forum, make a guide/series that they have to pay for that also includes access to the special forum.

Then, like everyone else has said, drop that opt-in form on all of your posts to snag them. Once you have their email you're golden
 
If you're going to go the list route, make sure you teach them to buy. And do it from the beginning.

Give 'em something they perceive valuable, whether that means ideas they can take immediate action on, special reports, interviews with authorities in your space, etc. But promote something in every mail. And spice it up with discount deals, package promos, etc. A footer promo selling the same product is not enough. Make your promos unique and weave them within the copy of each mail.

Matt Furey used to do this very well (it's been a few years since I've followed his sequence). The guys who used to write Eben Pagan's stuff were good, too. Kern's old stuff was brilliant.

Bottom line: give value and promote. Do both from the outset. Having their emails does not make you "golden." Teaching your list to trust you, anticipate your mails, and buy whatever you're selling makes you golden.

Any other route leads to a dead list, bad reputation, or both.
 
There are membership plugins that still let Google crawl your content.

If you want to build a mailing list but don't want to charge, you can create a pop up that shows up after they've viewed a couple articles: "Thank you for enjoying our site. If you would like to continue reading for free, please enter your name and email address for a no-cost membership."

If you insist on a paid membership, definitely create something new.
 
Guise what i'm thinking of doing is having my email subscribers gaining free access to the new members area.

BUT what i'm currently doing anyway is creating an eBook, so the membership area will be an added bonus to the eBook.

So say the eBook is $40 you get membership to the articles free, otherwise its $10.

Good ideas?
 
mrey86 said:
Guise what i'm thinking of doing is having my email subscribers gaining free access to the new members area.

BUT what i'm currently doing anyway is creating an eBook, so the membership area will be an added bonus to the eBook.

So say the eBook is $40 you get membership to the articles free, otherwise its $10.

Good ideas?
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$40 may be a high barrier for entry to start out with out of the blue.

Not a bad idea overall, though. Never know till you try it.
 
mrey86 said:
Guise what i'm thinking of doing is having my email subscribers gaining free access to the new members area.

BUT what i'm currently doing anyway is creating an eBook, so the membership area will be an added bonus to the eBook.

So say the eBook is $40 you get membership to the articles free, otherwise its $10.

Good ideas?
Click to expand...

I think you're contradicting yourself here. You say people can sign up free to the members area, and then you go on to say the membership will be added as a bonus to the $40 eBook.

I think you should do it like this.

People land on your site via various means (seo, referring sites, youtube vids, etc...)

At the TOP of each article, include a link/banner to a sign-up page.
At the BOTTOM of each article, just throw in the optin form.

When people sign up, give them some cool shit for free. Don't skimp on this part. Give them something really kickass. This is your chance to make an impression on them and basically dictate your future conversion rates & retention. Include references to your eBook during this sign up process.

Give them cool shit all the time now that you have their email address and have sales/discounts on your eBook/exclusive members area/forum.

....
????
profit
 
Dare Devil said:
$40 may be a high barrier for entry to start out with out of the blue.

Not a bad idea overall, though. Never know till you try it.
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$40 for the eBook and it's bonuses which i was going to sell anyway

$10 for entry to the members area of the site alone


membership will be free with ebook
 
Garrett said:
I think you're contradicting yourself here. You say people can sign up free to the members area, and then you go on to say the membership will be added as a bonus to the $40 eBook.

I think you should do it like this.

People land on your site via various means (seo, referring sites, youtube vids, etc...)

At the TOP of each article, include a link/banner to a sign-up page.
At the BOTTOM of each article, just throw in the optin form.

When people sign up, give them some cool shit for free. Don't skimp on this part. Give them something really kickass. This is your chance to make an impression on them and basically dictate your future conversion rates & retention. Include references to your eBook during this sign up process.

Give them cool shit all the time now that you have their email address and have sales/discounts on your eBook/exclusive members area/forum.

....
????
profit
Click to expand...

The free membership is an extra incentive to buy the eBook... (MY eBook)

I already have eBook banners (as an affiliate) at the top and bottom of my articles and a call to action to go to the sales page for my affiliate product im promoting.

The problem is because all of my articles are free to view (300+ of them). People just keep reading. So I plan on making my archived articles part of the members area.

I already give away a free mini eBook with my newsletter subscription
 
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