Starting A Membership Site

Social Communities

The easiest free social community to start is through Ning.com. You can set it up fast without technical knowledge and start promoting it right away through the Ning community and around the web.

People love social sites and will join the ones they are most interested in. Having a free social community is a great way to introduce lead-in products and services around the topic of your community.

It is also a great, fast way to build a list and credibility with your members. There are many kinds of social community software apps out there, but by far the best we've used is Ning's.

Paid Membership Site Software

Depending on what kind of paid membership site you want to start, there are different kinds of applications and services to suit your needs. The industry leader in sales and sheer number of features is VTribes.com.

We use their membership software for one of our memberships with over 400 members and we love it.

Combining a free social community as a front-end to your paid membership is a powerful one-two punch for growing an online business.

It is unbelievable the topics people have started free/paid memberships around. From mineral water to stock clubs to churches and fans clubs, people are monetizing their ability to build communities around all kinds of topics.

Why Start A Membership Site?

The #1 reason is residual income. Instead of selling one-off products or services, for the same effort you can create a membership site and get paid by members month to month.

By starting people off in a free social group and building up your expertise in their eyes, it is pretty easy to get a certain percentage to join your paid membership if the niche is right and people really are into what you are selling them.