I’ve realized that coming up with the subject for your membership site is difficult. After all, it’s the first step and if you get it wrong, the rest of your steps are ruined. How do you decide on what kind of membership site you’re going to present? How is the content going to be delivered? What price will it be? What niche will it be? And so on. Here are five ways to overcome this roadblock and finally decide for sure what membership site you’re going to have.
1. What is your competition doing?
What do you see other membership sites in your niche presenting? How are the membership sites are they monthly, quarterly, yearly or even single payment? What price do they charge? What is the inside look like? Do they include any live component or physical component to the training? What about these membership sites makes them unique?
Usually if somebody tells me they had thought of a completely new idea for a membership site, it’s probably either been done before and they realized it or been done before and failed. That’s why they never heard about it. Don’t be a trend setter, do what your competition is doing but do it better.
2. What hole in the market can you fill? Where do you see the problem?
If you see a membership site teaching real estate and it’s 100% video or audio training with no live component, maybe the thing that makes you unique is you provide live hand holding. You run live webinars or have call-in days where people can ask you questions.
3. What do you like to do or teach?
There is no point in making a membership site if you’re miserable about that subject. If someone’s always asking you the same questions over and over, if you find yourself blogging about the same subjects or making reports about the same subjects, maybe it’s time to create a membership site to have ongoing training on that same material. That way, you teach the information one time and get paid over and over again.
4. What are people asking for your to explain to them?
It’s one thing to think of an idea on your own and teach it but the best kinds of teaching are the ones based around real questions the questions that real people are asking because if one person’s asking that question, chances are at least 10 others are thinking of the question but not asking you. Instead of thinking up your own questions and answers try answering the questions people are asking over and over.
5. Finally, what solutions are people already paying you for?
I personally can’t stand it when I see information product creators polling their blog audience or their list or their forum participants for the next kind of product they create. You should be entering the market with a low ticket, single payment report or video home-study course, testing the marketplace and if it’s selling very well, create a membership site out of that. But let your buyers vote with their wallets instead of with their mouse clicks.
Those are my five favorite ways to decide on what membership site is right for you. Look at your competition, look at holes in the market, consider what you like to do or teach, examine what people are asking for you to explain to them and look at what solutions people are already paying for.