Marketing 4 U

Make Money With Membership Sites

Part THREE of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series

The third method for making money online that Jimmy D. Brown shares in his free report is to set up your own membership site (pages 11-13). In the first two methods that Jimmy suggested – Creating Info Products & Affiliate Marketing – the focus was on building a list of buyers. Specifically people who purchased a specific product from you, or from a merchant through your affiliate link.

This third method actually goes hand in hand with one or both of those ideas, giving you an opportunity to capitalize on the niche mailing list you created.

Imagine this scenario…

You create your own info product. You either set up a sales page to sell your low-cost report, or you set up a squeeze page to give it away for free. That’s method #1 for making money online. And by the way, I prefer to sell short reports in the lower price ranges ($7-$27) to build a list of buyers in my niche.

You can include affiliate links within your info product, wherever you recommend specific resources. But you can also follow up with your buyers or subscribers by email and recommend related products as an affiliate. That’s method #2 for making money online.

Now you have successfully made money on both the front end and the back end, as a publisher and an affiliate. You could simply continue to publish low-cost reports or promote affiliate programs that your readers need or want (an active income model)… or you could move on to method #3 for making money online: start your own membership site on the topic (a passive income model).

I wouldn’t normally consider a membership site to be a passive income model. Traditional membership sites require very high maintenance such as ongoing coaching or frequent interaction with your members. However, Jimmy teaches a new model in his Membernaire program that could work in practically any niche – and truly is a passive model. For details, see my Membernaire Review.

Whether you choose the Membernaire model, or a more traditional membership site model, this is a great next step in your quest to make money online. Jimmy gives you 3 membership site ideas on Page 12 of his report, and more than 20 creative ideas for various niches in his Membernaire program.

Note: You do not have to target the internet marketing or online business niche to start and run a successful membership site. This method can be used in practically any market.

Using Jimmy’s example, a membership site with 500 members at $20/month equals $10,000/month in revenue. A membership site with 1000 members at $10/month would earn you the same.

The basic steps are:

• Choose a hungry niche
• Find out what they’re buying and what they want/need
• Set up a membership script & payment processor
• Set up your squeeze page and sales page

It’s those last 2 steps that stump you, isn’t it? You might be thinking ahead to the marketing, and how to promote your new membership site – but that’s actually the easy part. Once you’re set up you can recruit affiliates and JV partners, create lead generators (such as squeeze pages or low-cost reports), use article marketing and social media, etc. The only real reason you haven’t done this yet is because of the technical hurdles, right?

If you’re shaking your head “no” and still stumped on choosing a market or a topic, see this link and this link. Read everything, do the steps, jot down some ideas, and then come back when you’re done. Or if you’re taking the Membernaire course, watch for the free bonus in your first few emails that gives you 20 very specific membership site examples targeting primed markets.

Also see: Brainstorming Your Membership Site Ideas

Back to the technical hurdles, I have two very good solutions for you. My top recommendation would be to use the Membernaire model – it just doesn’t get much easier (or have more passive potential) than that. Period. But if you’re looking to set up a more traditional membership site model then I have another solution for you:

http://www.simplemembershipsites.com

This is a low-cost script that is almost identical to the popular Butterfly Marketing model. It’s easy to install, has a built-in referral program, builds a mailing list, is highly customizable, etc. And it’s only 17 bucks. I actually bought the resale rights to this script and priced it that low to make it easy and affordable for you to get your membership site up & running. (I also included Master Resale Rights as an unadvertised bonus )

Consider all of your options, start brainstorming some ideas on how you can implement this method, and let me know what questions come to mind. Post them below and we’ll do a full Q&A here in the comments section.

Best,

p.s. Put some serious thought into this method for making money online. A membership site can be highly profitable, and a great combination strategy when combined with info products and affiliate marketing.

See my personal review of Membernaire here.