Creating membership websites to share content with a community is a rewarding yet challenging task. If you are a content creator or an entrepreneur and you want to build a closed space for creators and fans to interact and create a source of recurring income, building a membership website with subscriptions will do the trick for you.
What is a membership website?
A membership website is a platform that offers premium content like images, videos, online events, and other perks to subscribers. You can create a membership website that is free but the “gated content” is an important element of a membership website.
How does launching membership websites benefit entrepreneurs like you to make money? With the available community marketplace scripts like Fanso, you will be able to tap into this opportunity.
So, what are the benefits of owning a membership website? Let’s look at the benefits of launching your own membership website:
- Diversify income streams to find long-term success.
- Build trust and loyalty with great content.
- Increased authority as you hold a powerful message that your membership website offers exclusive content for your audience.
- Build a supportive community for all types of users. For example, if you create a membership website in marketplace style, you can offer opportunities for both creators (who create content) and users ( who consume content).
How to build a membership website?
Now that you know that building a membership benefits entrepreneurs, let’s see how you can take it forward. Here’s how to build a membership website in 5 simple steps.
Find your target audience
When starting a membership website, it’s tempting to target everyone possible. That is why you need to find your target audience to market your membership website more effectively.
When choosing who to target, finding a large niche to sustain your growing membership website is important. You can use Google Trends to find how many searches for keywords related to your target audience, which will help estimate the size of your potential customer base.
Choose the membership model
Before building your membership website, you will have to choose a membership business model. Start by identifying the type of content you will offer to your customers. Your exclusive content can include anything from images and videos, blog posts, courses and webinars or product samples or exclusive content like that of Patreon and OnlyFans.
Then you need to choose whether you will offer a single membership or multiple tiers. It is recommended to choose the latter as your target audience will preferably unlock more content and perks as they purchase high membership levels.
Now it’s time to create a pricing model; some membership platforms use a freemium model where access to the website is free. Then they charge membership inside and charge a commission.
If you charge a fee it can be a one-time fee or even a recurring subscription fee to sustain your membership website over the long-term.
Build your membership platform
When it comes to building a membership platform, you have a couple of choices. For instance, you can build your membership website from scratch or purchase a readymade solution like Fanso. The latter will be a viable solution to building a membership website or a subscription-based creator community platform like OnlyFans or Patreon.
With Fanso, you can build a customizable subscription platform, as it comes with pre-installed features and functionalities to support both adult and non-adult content. Plus, you get 100% access to the source code, and you can customize it according to your unique needs and preferences.
After choosing Fanso, you must choose your web hosting partner. Choosing the right hosting service is important for the smooth running of your website. This is extremely important as your membership website includes a lot of personalized content.
Give attention to the quality of your content
To drive conversions, your membership platform must offer value to your target audience, and the value lies in the uniqueness and quality of your content.
You must offer a more convenient experience; for instance, the creators should have essential features and tools that help them to create and sell content.
Monitor the performance of your membership website
The overall performance of your membership website can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. Your membership website must be compelling enough in terms of user-friendliness and the presence of essential features for all types of users so that it reduces your churn rate. If you can convince your users to hang around, this will bring in additional revenue for your membership business.
Conclusion
Launching a membership website is an excellent way to build a community of your own and start making money. However, the path to creating one isn’t always clear, especially if you don’t choose the right development approach.
But with the right tech partner, you can build your membership website the way you want, add the customizations you want and launch it quickly.
