7. Subscription websites

7. Subscription websites
Finally we come to what I believe is an under-developed opportunity to make money online ... subscription websites!
Subscription websites, often referred to as membership sites, are becoming increasingly popular with people willing to pay a regular subscription to access information that is difficult to find elsewhere. Other types of site that often use the subscription model are sites that provide a specialised service, or make available a library of useful content. Internet dating sites and image libraries are two prime examples.
Anyone who can provide a unique service or specialised information in a niche market could set up a subscription website. By signing up new members on an annual or monthly payment plan, you could soon build up a sizeable income. For example, let’s say you’re a bit of an expert on how to make money from property development. You could set up a site that gives free information on this subject, but only allows paying members access to your private membership site. This would be a secure area which can only be entered using a username and a password. It would contain those ‘closely guarded secrets’ that only your expert knowledge and experience can reveal. Only subscribers would then have access to the most effective methods and shortcuts on how to succeed in the lucrative property development business.
This is just for illustrative purposes of course. But anyone who has a passion and expert knowledge of a hobby or business could set up their own subscription website, providing they know how to go about it. Fortunately there are some very good resources and examples of how to start and run a subscription site.
One of the best sources of information is Membership Site Advisor which offers membership site management tools. Subscribing to their service will give you access to the information and tools you need to set your site up.
Also take a look at Bill Myers Online. Bill has produced an all-in-one solution that enables a company or any individual to set up their own membership site online. It’s called ‘Membergate’ and is an excellent product.
Bill made a fortune from his skill as a product developer. His website is a superb resource for anyone interested in product development. Whether it’s a simple ebook or professional DVD production, there’s a ton of information here that can help you succeed with producing and marketing your own products.
The most important ingredient of course is to have a target market. If there isn’t enough people out there who will be interested in what you have to offer, then you’re unlikely to succeed in your venture. It’s important to do some research first to find out if there will be a demand. One way to do this is to use Overture’s search term tool. Overture provides information on how many searches were done on a specific keyword or phrase. For example, at the time of writing I did a search for ‘dog breeding’ and there were 16,943 related searches carried out during the previous month. However, ‘dog breeding’ is a fairly generic term, so if you specialised in breeding boxer dogs then the results would be much lower but highly targeted towards a niche market.
So let’s assume there’s enough demand and little competition in your chosen category, after setting up your site, the next step would be to attract subscribers. To do this you would need to generate a lot of good quality traffic to your site. By good quality I mean carefully targeted traffic which consists mainly of visitors who are definitely interested in what you have to offer. Not everyone will sign up of course, but the more focused your advertising campaign is, the more likely you are to receive good quality traffic.
Using some of the methods oulined above will produce good results. PPC (pay per click) advertising on Google and Overture for example.Viral marketing using free giveaway ebooks that offer useful information and a good introduction the benefits of subscribing to your site.E-zines and newsletters that promote your service. Either produce your own or choose existing publications that are suitable to advertise in. Affiliate programs. Find affiliates who are eager to promote your membership subscriptions on a commission basis. And of course, let’s not forget to mention search engine optimisation which is essential if you want your site to rank highly in the search engines.(See resources list below for more information)
Once set up and running, in order to maintain and increase subscriptions, it’s important to continue to provide a first class service. If you don’t give your members a good reason to return to your site regularly then your venture will fail. Always provide a high quality service and good content. Information and services that people can use to their benefit will ensure that they continue their membership, and hopefully recommend you to their friends. In conclusion
I have given you some insight into the methods which I consider to be the seven best ways to make money online. There are other ways of course, but these are the ones that I would recommend to anyone looking for new ways to boost their income with their online business, or for newbies just starting out.
Ok, I hear you say. It’s all very well having your own website and knowing which methods work best to make money online, but how do I get people to visit my site?
That’s a good point! If you can’t reach a big enough audience, or target the people who are actively seeking the products or service you’re trying to promote, then you’re hardly going to succeed. But the fact is there’s an endless source of free information online which explains how to get visitors to your website. From how to achieve a high search engine ranking to the simple technique of getting link exchanges, there are many ways to choose from.One way to get more visitors to your site if you’re starting out on a shoestring budget is to join some of the better startpage programs which send free hits to your website when you open your browser a set number of times (usually 1 hit for every 2 times you open your browser). By joining a select few of these programs and recommending others to do the same, you can soon begin generating extra hits to your site. One of the programs I can recommend is Trafficswarm.
If you’re serious about making money online then the methods outlined above are the ones that are most likely to succeed. And there’s nothing to stop you implementing all seven of these methods to create multiple streams of income. Forget about ‘paid to read emails’ and the like, either set up your own website or e-zine and promote it vigorously, applying the methods described above. Or put the same effort into promoting SFI or selling a niche market product on eBay
Then, if you try hard enough, you will succeed at making money online!