A really exciting aspect of memberships is that you can actually get free help. This is super important when first starting out, because you don’t want your membership website to seem barren and void of conversation and connection – especially in the discussion group.

* Look to Your Audience – If you already have an audience that you’re creating the membership for, why not put out a call to them asking if anyone wants to volunteer. List the types of things you need done and make it like a job application. In this way you can be assured that they’re right for the membership but also have the right talents that can benefit the membership.

* A Particularly Prolific Paid Member – Once you’ve started your membership website, you’ll notice some especially prolific members who always jump in to help, make suggestions, and have a lot of knowledge. You can ask them to keep doing what they’re doing in exchange for either free membership or something else of value.

* Offer Volunteer Incentives – You can immediately incentivize all your members to volunteer to start discussions, contribute content and even recruit new members by giving incentives such as a higher affiliate payout or points to get free stuff.

* Open the Blog for Guests – If you have a blog on your membership site, you can ask for volunteers to put content in it. You can set it up so that it’s mostly automatic with the exception of someone needing to approve the blog post for publication. You can choose to make the blog private for members only, or public to help encourage new members to join.

* Implement a Point System – The point system has been mentioned, and it works well for encouraging activity on the forum, attendance at calls and so forth. Encouraging people to participate is volunteering in the respect that the more people who participate, the more people who will want to participate.

* Reward Volunteers Publiclly – When someone has done something extraordinary, it’s important to recognize them. Member of the month and other freebies given to the most active members will automatically encourage more members to volunteer their time to keeping things moving.

* Ask People – It doesn’t hurt to simply ask a member to volunteer a certain number of hours in a more formal arrangement in exchange for free membership (or ask those who aren’t members but whom you feel will benefit from a free membership). The number of volunteers you can get will coincide with the value of your membership.

* Get Interns – Another way to get volunteers, if you have a popular and active membership already, is to get inters. There are laws and regulations you must follow when it comes to internships, but the main thing is that the intern needs to get more out of it than you do. So, it’s important to offer the interns some form of education.

You’ll be surprised at how many people will want to volunteer if you put out a call for a popular and valuable membership website. You have a lot to offer so giving people free membership, or points and coupons for your products and services based on what they offer, is a great way to encourage more interaction on the membership.

When you have a membership, you want to add value when you can. One way is by offering one-on-one opportunities. You don’t have to include this offer in the membership price, but you can offer it as an upsell opportunity for a more expensive form of the same membership.

Some of the types of one-on-one opportunities you can offer are:

* In-Person Coaching – You can agree to meet people who are local for one-on-one coaching opportunities. For example, if you have a membership website about exercise, you can offer a membership upgrade for local people for in-person personal coaching to help people with their workouts.

* Skype or Telephone Coaching – A great way to offer one-on-one opportunities is to offer coaching by phone or Skype. You can offer an upgraded membership option which includes whatever level of calls you want to offer, from a simple hourly rate with open-office hours, to a serious coaching relationship over a period of time such as six weeks where there will be real work done.

* Email Coaching – Allow upgraded members to email you once a day for quick answers to easy questions. Be sure to make these limited to a simple answer, which can also be used to upgrade the member to more coaching opportunities.

* In-Person Events – Have events that only members are invited to, then offer upgraded versions of the event where you will meet with those paying members for 30 minutes or one hour before, during and after the event.

* Speak at Their Events – Agree to speak at your members’ events. Provide one opening a month, with a 90-day registration so you’ll have warning and can arrange your schedule. This can be an exclusive opportunity for top-of-the-line members.

* Host Webinars – If you have a top affiliate for your group, offer to host a webinar for them where you’ll speak about the memberships for them, and they will get to use their affiliate link to make a big payday.

* Guest Blog – For exclusive upgraded members, who are at the top of their game, offer them the opportunity to have you write a guest blog post for them to put on their website to help promote something.

* Joint Venture Opportunities – You may have some stand-out members whom you identify as great people to form limited JV partnerships with. Offer this to only your most active and exclusive members who have proved themselves as movers and shakers.

As you see there are plenty of things you can do to ramp up your membership and make people want to become more exclusive and a cohesive part of your membership. When they know there is always a rung higher that they can join, they will strive for it. This is most especially true if you have a valuable membership.

You’ve built an awesome membership program and now you need to get members. Members will bring in regular income on a monthly basis that you can count on. But, first you have to get the attention of your target audience. You do that by promoting your membership program in a variety of ways.

1. Social Media – Not only should you post information in your updates about your membership, but you should also put information about your membership program in your profile. On LinkedIn, for example, you can even put videos and other information for viewers to see so that they can get more information.

2. Blog Posts – Create a lot of blog posts leading up to the launch of your membership program. Discuss problems, solutions, and how your group fits in. You can put the posts in different formats like videos to get even more reach.

3. PPC Ads – Social media like Facebook is a good place to run pay-per-click advertisements about your membership, because you can laser target your audience using the tools provided.

4. Affiliate Marketers – Let other people market your group by setting up an affiliate program. Offer your affiliates all the tools, graphics, emails, posts and more to help them promote your membership.

5. Webinars – A popular and effective way to promote your new membership program is to have a webinar that offers some solutions for the problems of the target audience. At the end of and throughout the webinar, promote the membership program as an extra form of help.

6. Email Marketing – Using these other venues, get people onto your email list. Then send them a series of emails educating them about their problems and how the membership is the solution.

7. A Great Sales Page – Your sales page for your membership is very important. There are a lot of tools you can use to ensure that you create a good sales page, like LeadPages.net or InstaBuilder.com.

8. Magazines – You can put advertisements in specific magazines that have to do with your niche. Trade magazines often have cheaper advertising costs than popular general magazines, so look for the right niche magazine.

9. Personal Networking – Whether in person or online, networking is an important component of helping spread the word about your membership program. Tell everyone you know that you have it when the opportunity comes up.

Promoting your membership program is imperative if you want to get enough members. You can’t build it and expect them to automatically find you. You have to be proud of what you’ve created, and get your membership program to more people who are in your target audience by promoting it.

When you are deciding on technology for your membership site, it’s important to consider not only technology that works, but also technology that works for you in the way that you want it to work. What features do you want the membership software to have? What is your skill level with troubleshooting technology? Who will you hire if you don’t have the skills? There is a lot to think about when choosing membership software.

1. NewRainmaker – This software is software as service (SAS), meaning it’s running from the cloud. You don’t do anything but set it up, kind of like you would WordPress. All the plugins and functionality that works best with membership sites are included, such as affiliate management, drip technology, and forums. This software includes a monthly fee for hosting, tech support and use of the software.

Link – http://newrainmaker.com/

2. aMember – This is an add-on to your current website. If you use WordPress it works very well with it. It also works with other types of website builders. It includes affiliate management, drip technology and more. You will need to purchase separate software to have a forum. They will install it for you for a fee and provide great support. It’s a one-time fee and upgrade fees yearly. You’ll have to pay extra for tech support if things go wrong.

Link – http://www.amember.com/

3. iGrOOps – This is another hosted solution where you pay a monthly fee for using the system. They provide all the upgrades, updates, and hosting. You simply use their template system to create your membership site. It has all the bells and whistles but it cannot be made to look like your current site.

Link – http://www.igroops.com/

4. EasyMemberPRO – They promise anyone can set up a membership site, and connect it with your current software quickly and easily. It also has a lot of what you need with a profitable membership site, including affiliate management. There’s a one-time fee with one year of free upgrades.

Link – http://www.easymemberpro.com/

5. WishList Member – This is a plugin that works with self-hosted WordPress websites, turning your current site into a membership site with all the bells and whistles except that if you want a forum you have to purchase software for the forum.

Link – http://member.wishlistproducts.com/

6. MemberGate – Another hosted solution with a monthly fee but one that offers every bell and whistle you can imagine from forums, to video hosting, to drip technology and more. The look is slightly dated for the choices of templates, but you can use your own coder working with them to change that if you want to spend the time and money.

Link – http://www.membergate.com/

7. ONTRAPORT – This is a very high-end solution (with a high-end price). But, if you plan to run a six-figure business, this is a great solution that offers managed membership without having to ever worry about technology. It will also work with your current WordPress website.

Link – https://ontraport.com/features/

8. SiteManPro – This is a great solution if you want to sell digital items and run a membership solution. You can use this to automate the entire thing. It can work with your current WordPress site. You will need to get separate forum software if you feel you need one. It integrates easily and works as it states.

Link – http://www.sitemanpro.com/

9. Smember

Remember to write down the features you want your membership site to offer, as well as to take into consideration your level of technological skill as you pick a membership software solution. It might cost a few dollars, but you can’t make any money if you don’t make a choice and get started.

One of the most important aspects of starting a membership site is to determine how much the membership will cost members. Like with any product, there are many factors that go into pricing – issues such as the cost of the technology, cost of the products, time spent on the membership each month, the number of members you believe you can keep, and the profit you need to earn. Let’s look more deeply into these issues.

* Cost of Technology – First, figure out what technology you plan to use for the membership. Include the cost of upgrading and maintenance, and everything that may need to be paid for to keep the membership going in terms of the technology.

* Cost of Products – How much will it cost you to maintain your commitment to fill the membership with content? For example, if you’ve promised a full information product monthly to do with this niche, how much will it cost to produce?

* Time Factor – How much time do you plan to commit to the membership each week and what is your time worth? For example, if it’s going to take a couple of hours a day, you need to count that in the cost.

* Membership Equilibrium – How many members do you think you can get? Your audience may consist of thousands of people, but thousands aren’t going to join or stay members. More than likely 2 to 5 percent of your audience will join if the price is right. Most will only stay paying members for four months.

* Profit Desired – After expenses, how much do you need to earn? Will this be your main source of income? If you know that it will be, and you know that after expenses you’d like to make $2500 a month from the membership, this will get you closer to the right pricing point.

* Audience’s Ability to Pay – Your niche audience has an income and you need to know that information, including how much income they can spare to spend on something like your membership.

* The Value You’re Offering – Even when people think they cannot afford something, if it offers a lot of value, they’ll come up with the money.

* Your Niche’s Popularity – If your niche is super popular, and there are many other people doing the same thing, you may need to consider how you can differentiate yourself. But, if it’s really popular, that means more people to join your membership too.

* The Competition – Is anyone offering the same thing you’re offering? If so, how much are they charging and how busy are they? If you can spare the money, join a few of your competitors’ membership programs to find out how it’s working for them and how you can do it better.

Pricing the membership program you’re offering has many factors involved, but you’ll be really glad you gave it thought before just slapping any price on it. Consider all factors, including your competition, and you’ll get started off on the right foot. Remember, you can always raise or cut prices based on what happens after your grand opening.

Once you’ve decided to create a membership, one of the things you’ll need to determine is the price. How you price your membership is very important. You can turn away or bring in the right market based on the price. Price in and of itself doesn’t always indicate value, though; that’s for the members to determine. What you need to do is figure out what you want to charge based on the type of value and the number of members you want to attract.

Limited Memberships Mean Higher Fees

If you have a limited membership where you only let a certain number of people in the group at any given time, then your fee structure will be based on that. Figure out the time and effort the membership will take from you, how much you want to earn each month, and then use that information to determine the monthly fee.

For example, let’s say you’ve created a membership that you’re only going to allow ten people to join. In this membership you allow open office hours, a one-hour personal call each week, unlimited email interaction, a weekly teleseminar, and a monthly webinar on a topic of interest to the group. Plus, you have a private Facebook group for members current and past only.

You can go by the time it takes you to conduct all this work, or you can instead just determine how much you need and want to make. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to earn $100K a year with the membership. With only ten paying members allowed at any given time, you’ll need to charge about 833 dollars a month to each paying member to earn $100K a year.

Here’s the math: Desired earnings 100K a year / 10 Members = 10,000K /12 Months = $833 per month, per member.

Unlimited Members Means Lower Fees

With unlimited members allowed, you won’t have time for the one-on-one work, so it’ll be hands off other than interaction in a private forum. So, let’s say your membership offers a learning center, with a new course added each month that relates to the niche, plus a group coaching forum. Through the membership you’ll offer other opportunities, but they’ll all be group format and no one-on-one activity. For example, you may offer a teleseminar monthly on a topic, as well as early intro to new products and services.

In this case, you need to find out how many potential customers you can attract to meet your goal of $100K a year. If the market has one million people in it, how many of those can you convert to paying subscribers? At $27.97 a month you’ll need about 298 members to meet the $100K a year goal.

You’ll need to study whether it’s a possibility or not. If not, you may have to raise or lower the price to ensure that you attract the right amount of regular members to the membership. Here are some examples of how it might break down.

Goal $100K a year:

* 418 Members @ $19.97 a Month
* 298 Members @ $27.97 a Month
* 174 Members @ $47.97 a Month

You’ll need to also keep in mind the payout to affiliates, marketing, advertising and so forth, but this gives you a general idea of what to consider when pricing your membership for best results. It always starts with your goal, big or small group, and your audience. How many of them are there, and how many can you attract and keep happy?

Building an online community is an important way to build your business online. Online communities usually consist of an information area, members’ area with a message board, perhaps a chat room, and then some members only resources like a membership directory, checklists, white papers, eBooks and more.

* Determine What Technology You Will Use – One of the most important aspects of starting an online community is choosing which technology you will use to build it. There are many options to choose from. Base your choice on your technical knowledge, your budget, and what features you want the community to offer.

* Choose the Niche You’ll Focus On – It’s best if the online community you build is based on one target audience and not too widespread. Just like you focus on a niche with your business, focus on the same niche with the community.

* Create Content Specifically for the Community – Once you have a community it’s important that you create content specifically for that community on a regular basis. Consistency is the key to ensuring that you attract new members and keep the old members satisfied and interested.

* Invite New People on a Regular Basis – You want to have regular new members showing up because it keeps the group fresh and brings in new questions, thoughts, and conversation.

* Connect Your Community to Social Media – Social media is the best way to market your online community. You can even start with an online community first on Facebook with Facebook Groups.

* Be Engaging and Caring to Your Members – Your personality will show through if you participate on a regular basis in discussions with the community. Let them see how caring you are.

* Make It Easy for Others to Promote the Community – Start a referral club or an affiliate program that enables your community members to promote the group to others. Reward them for bringing in new members.

* Interview Members on a Regular Basis – A great way to add content to the community is to choose a special member each month to highlight and interview. You can do these interviews in podcast form and put them on iTunes as well, for another way to promote your community.

* Interview Experts in Your Niche – A great benefit for your community is to be able to learn from movers, shakers and other experts within your niche.

* Promote Members of the Community – Once in a while allow the members of the group to promote their offers by having a something like a yearly fire sale that enables them to benefit from the entire community sharing.

* Keep the Conversation Going – Don’t let the community die down. Keep the conversation going; ask for volunteers to monitor the group and to contribute to the content and discussion.

Building an online community can help you create an entire community of raving fans that are not only ready to purchase your current products but who will also stand in line to purchase your new products. They’ll also promote you to their friends, family and associates. It’s a wonderful way to get to know your audience better and to improve product development.

When you start a membership program you want to have a steady flow of new members entering the program at any given time. The average time someone stays in a membership program is usually 12 weeks or 3 months. Therefore, you need a constant stream of people coming into the membership to keep it full and active.

Members Only Referrals

One of the easiest ways to not only encourage people to stick around longer than 12 weeks but also to get new members, is to allow members to refer your group. Require people to stay a member to be able to refer the group and receive commissions. Offer a nice 50 to 60 percent recurring referral percentage to the members who refer others. This will keep them around longer, as well as get more members.

Affiliate Marketers

If you don’t want to allow only members to promote your group, you can let affiliate marketers promote it. But, you do want to choose the marketers carefully to ensure that they will use honest methods to promote your group. Provide graphics, blog posts, and other information to help them market your membership.

Make YouTube Videos

A good YouTube video can go viral. If you create a regular channel on YouTube that people like to watch, it is another means of promotion for your membership program. You don’t even have to mention the membership program other than at the end of the videos, and in the description bar. Ask people to share – this is a great way to get other people to promote your membership program.

Create Infographics

People love sharing infographics that give data that the audience needs to know. They also are more likely to share visual material than the same data in print or a blog post. The best way to start is to put the graphic on your social media networks. Ask your family and friends to share, and you’ll create momentum.

Provide Excellent Graphics

Other people are more likely to want to promote your membership group if you offer good material and graphics to help them promote it well. Memes, infographics, videos and more all offer everyone a good way to promote your membership program.

Personalized Webinars

A really good way to promote your membership group is to ask movers and shakers within the industry to host a webinar where you’ll be the guest. You will answer questions and then promote your membership at the end of the webinar.

Ask for Testimonials

The testimonials of others will help you promote your membership program, but it will also help other people promote your group. The more good things you can show people about your membership program, the better. The more good people see, the more they’ll want to help promote your membership.

Memberships are a lucrative way to create a new stream of income based on the niche you’re already involved in. You can provide your products and/or services in an entirely new way that guarantees regular and timely income.