Online Business Automation Tips - Subscribing To Online Membership Sites
The following article is from a series of online business automation articles on the advantages of joining membership sites …
In other posts, I discuss how online business automation is something you do not truly “experience” until you have reached the end of a specific business development sequence that looks like this:
Reflection > Decision > Planning > Organising > SetuP > Systems Development > Online Business Automation.
In this article, we will examine in more detail one of the most important components of the online business automation process you will want to consider investing into during the “Setup” phase … membership sites. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be specifically addressing the topic of joining one or more membership sites, not starting your own.
There are many types of online membership sites which you can look at becoming a member of. There are free membership sites, and there are paid membership sites. There are sites that focus on delivering a particular kind of product (e.g. content on a particular niche category, like “home repairs”) and there are “Mastermind” membership sites, where the aim of the site is to share information and promote the creation and sprouting of new ideas. There are exclusive, or limited membership sites that limit their intake of new members once a certain level of subscriber numbers is reached, and there are membership sites that have no limit to the number of members that can join. We will be looking briefly at each of these types of membership sites.
Before we do this, however, an important question we need to address first is “why” are membership sites important to the process of automating an online business?
There are many reasons why you should really plan on joining one or more membership sites during the “Setup” phase of your online business development process. One of the principal reasons, is that the virtual universe is expanding in all areas at such a phenomenal rate, that if you are not connecting with other online business developers, you will quickly discover that all of your ideas, knowledge, strategic planning, marketing efforts, etc … will become obsolete. Other businesses, networks of people and entrepreneurs that plan to occupy your market space, will overtake you in every aspect and your “virtual” business presence could become literally extinct overnight.
Other reasons for joining membership sites are to increase your own technical, business, or marketing knowledge (e.g. by interacting with other members in a member’s forum), to leverage and synergize your efforts (e.g. by forming joint venture partnerships), and to outsource some of the necessary “production” requirements of your business (e.g. Private Label Rights, membership sites that provide you with content for your business - articles, information products, software, etc…).
So now that we’ve established that you do need to consider joining one or more membership sites in order to build and eventually automate your online business, what kind of membership sites should you join?
Well, that depends on your business plan. You only have so much time to invest in networking with other members, browse forums for information, etc, so you will really need to be discerning regarding the type of membership sites you will want to join, especially if most of these are paid membership sites. Since most paid membership sites bill their members on a monthly basis, the costs can quickly add up.
The real answer to this question is found in your “Planning” stage. If you have decided to build content sites, whether that’s just one portal site on a specific subject, or many sites on a range of categories, you will probably want to initially consider joining one or more good “Private Label Right” (PLR), membership sites. These types of sites pay for the cost of research and hiring article writers using a significant portion of member’s fees, then co-op the created products among all paid members. For this reason, good PLR sites tend to cap their membership numbers (normally between 150 - 500 members only).
Beware of membership sites that provide you with PLR or “resell rights” software. You really want to do your due diligence before joining sites that offer software which you can resell as your own, because at some stage, you will have to deal with customer support issues. Find out who is responsible for providing technical support, software upgrades, handling customer service enquiries and complaints, etc. before you join a software resell membership site. Preferably, this responsibility should not be yours.
This brings up another concern regarding membership sites that rely on using proprietary software. If the cost of the membership is too low, you should not expect to receive satisfactory customer support or regular software updates to improve software functionality or correct bugs and shortcomings (and there will always be a ton of those in any kind of software). In my experience, it’s definitely better for a good paid membership site to charge a reasonable subscription fee, provided they deliver a quality product, excellent customer service and are attentive to the needs of their members. In fact, the best membership sites to join, are those that effectively treat their members as stakeholders of the business, and allow members to have a significant input in the future progress, development and direction of the membership site itself. After all, the members are ultimately the real target audience of the membership site.
For more tips on online business automation, visit: Online Business Information
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