I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you what exactly is in the “start a membership site” ebook that comes with the Easy Membership Toolkit.
As you can see from the table of contents reprinted below, the start a membership site ebook covers all aspects of creating a membership site. From brainstorming, researching, and developing the best membership site idea, to a look at paid and free membership sites so you can determine which is a best fit, as well as creating content, landing pages, building your list, marketing methods, creating a marketing plan, and even case studies of successful membership sites.
Those sections below often have sub sections that aren’t listed there. For example, the sections on content creation and marketing methods are quite long. All up, it’s 103 pages of no-fluff know-how designed to get your membership site up and profitable quickly.
Introduction - Using The Toolkit
1.0 Membership Site Overview
1.1 Why Start a Membership Site?
1.2 Membership Sites Today
1.3 Who Should Start A Membership Business?
1.4 Different Types of Membership Sites
2.0 Starting Your Membership Site
2.1 Choosing Your Theme
2.2 Ideas To Get You Rolling
2.3 Swipe File - Other People’s Ideas
2.4 Tips On Choosing Membership Site Themes
2.5 Choosing A Web host
2.6 Membership Software and Scripts
2.7 Using Auto Responders
2.8 Deciding on Your Membership Model
2.9 Deciding What Content to Use
2.10 Choosing Your Publishing Schedule
3.0 Free Membership Sites
3.1 Free Memberships Overview
3.2 Advantages
3.3 Disadvantages
3.4 How to Make Money
4.0 Paid Membership Sites
4.1 Paid Memberships Overview
4.2 Advantages
4.3 Disadvantages
4.4 How to Make Money
5.0 Case Studies Of Successful Membership Sites
5.1 Chris Parkin
5.2 Stanley Roberts
5.3 Kathy McCabe
5.4 Jimmy Brown
5.5 Holly Pike
6.0 Content For Your Membership Site
6.1 Using Your Own Written Content
6.2 Using Resell Rights
6.3 Using Private Label Rights
6.4 Using Ghostwriters
6.5 Audio and Video
7.0 Putting It All Together
8.0 Creating A Landing Page
8.1 Introduction To Landing Pages
8.2 The Landing Page System
8.3 Before Getting Started
8.4 Planning Your Landing Page Theme
8.5 How To Write A Landing Page That Converts
8.6 Increasing Your Landing Page Conversion Rate
9.0 Building Your Opt-In List
9.1 Building Your Business With An Opt-in List
9.2 E-courses
9.3 Newsletters
10.0 Getting Members with Affiliate Programs
10.1 Affiliate Programs and Membership Sites
10.2 How Much & How to Pay Your Affiliates?
10.3 The Affiliate Directories
10.4 Affiliate Marketing Materials
11.0 Other Marketing Methods
11.1 Viral Marketing with E-Books
11.2 Joint Ventures
11.3 PPC
11.4 Search Engine Optimization
11.5 Web 2
11.6 Article Marketing
11.7 Other Notable Marketing Methods
11.8 Traffic Methods To Avoid
12.0 Creating Your Marketing Plan
13.0 Managing Your Membership Site
13.1 Regular Publishing Schedules
13.2 Suggestions to Improve Your Membership Site
13.3 The Main Focus of Your Membership Site
13.4 Being Professional with Help Desk Systems and Forums
13.5 How to Manage Your Growing Member Base
14.0 Conclusion
14.1 Should You Really Start A Membership Site?
14.2 Last Words
14.3 Recommended Resources
You’ll notice the first section in the start a membership site ebook is in fact a guide to using the toolkit, of which this ebook is a part. I personally find it frustrating when I get an ebook on a new business idea, which has great ideas in it, only to find I don’t have what I need to get it started.
In the case of setting up a membership site, you need a membership site manager. There are a lot of software solutions, and they end up being quite expensive.
For example:
- Memberstar - $3995.00 for 1000 members to $29,995.00 for unlimited members (that’s not a typo!)
- Membergate - $59 for the 1st month (heavily discounted), then $129 per month - per site!
- VisionGate Portal - $97.00 a month
- Easy member Pro - $137.00 for 1 site to $297.00 for unlimited sites
- aMember - $139.00 plus around $40 each for the plugins essential to membership site success - such as a content management plugin (drupal, Joomla, wordpress), and a forum plugin. This is a single, per domain license only (you have to search the fine print for that bit of info).
The cheaper membership site managers aren’t really that cheap when you consider you’ll be paying month in, month out for the privilege of hosting your membership site. Now, you will no doubt be making a lot more money than that, but why throw away money when you don’t have to? It’s a basic premise of good business to keep your operating costs as low as possible.
The more expensive membership site software scripts usually have other restrictions - like, usage for 1 domain only, and a membership cap per price level. Then there are those which have a lot of hidden charges for all the things they advertise on the sales page.
When I was writing the start a membership site ebook, I came across a free solution that was as good as the best of these expensive membership site software scripts. It’s Joomla, with the fully integrated plugin to manage your membership site. You can read about all the things you can do with Joomla as a membership site manager here, but I was really impressed by the way it allowed anyone, regardless of their budget, to get started in developing their own membership business.
And to give you an idea of how good Joomla is, many churches and other organizations use it for their websites. And some big-name internet marketers use it too.
Joomla is free, but it can be pretty confusing to set it all up. So I had an 8 part video series put together to show you how to do it. It saves a lot of time. And with the start a membership site ebook covering all the nitty-gritty aspects in developing, setting up, and promoting your membership site, you’ll be light years ahead in setting up your own succesful membership site business.
Oh - it’s the cheapest of all membership site software solutions too - at only $47.97. Check it out here….
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