Starting a Membership Site

Start-Up Costs for Starting a Membership Site

Starting a business is never free, but thankfully you can start a membership site on a small budget. Here is a rough list of things you will need to budget for when setting up your site:

Domain Registration: Your domain name is the web address of your site. Domain names must be paid for on a yearly basis. Your cost here will range around $3 - $10, depending on what domain name registrar you work with and what domain type you buy (.com, .net, .biz etc.).

Keep in mind that it may be worth spending the extra money to get a .com, as most people will automatically input a .com address. If your address ends in a .net, you could lose some visitors. You can pay for your domain name a year at a time, but many registrars will give you a discount if you purchase your domain for two or more years at a time.

Web Hosting: Your web host is the company you pay to have your site up on the web. This can be paid for on a monthly basis. It’s always a good idea to do some research and compare several providers before deciding on a hosting company. Monthly fees can vary widely and some sites will offer you a month or two free if you pay by the year. Depending on what host you go with and what additional services you utilize, you could spend from $40 - $250 per year.

Membership Manager: In order to keep your content exclusive to members, you will need a membership program such as Amember. This will be about $130, but once you buy it and install it on your server, it is yours to keep forever. The company will actually do the installation for you, so you don’t have to worry about that. Once it is installed, it will protect the area of your site that you specify. Anyone who tries to access it will need to enter a username and password.

Automation Tools: Automation tools make it easy to manage your membership site, and will definitely come in handy as your site grows. These tools include things such as an autoresponder and credit card processing service. The prices on these services will vary, and it is a good idea to compare several companies before you purchase any of these tools.

It is possible to find some of these tools for free, but be wary of them. When you subscribe to a free autoresponder service, the service will display ads from other companies on your messages. Some of your readers may not mind this, but some readers may feel that this looks unprofessional or cheap.

Marketing and Advertising: As you develop your membership site, take some time to think about what type of marketing you will participate in. There are lots of things you can do to market your business for free, but in order to achieve the fastest growth, you may want to buy some ad space on other people’s websites or ezines, or purchase pay per click advertising, such as Google Adwords. These things can be done on any budget. Keep an eye out for affordable advertising options and you will definitely find some.

Membership sites can be set up quickly, and as you can see, relatively inexpensively. Once you have developed a nice amount of customers, they can also bring in a steady income.
 

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