Online Membership Platforms: Monetize Your Expertise

Team Zenler Author

Aug 15, 2024 |

Learn how to Monetize your Expertise with Online Memberships, this blog post will open your eyes to the possibilities, let us begin the journey...

The subscription economy has witnessed tremendous growth in the past few years, thanks to the increase in online membership sites which deliver valuable content that suits people’s preferences and needs. As you compare online course platforms, it becomes clear that choosing the right one can significantly impact your ability to monetize your efforts effectively.

Content creators could leverage the possibilities and monetize their efforts by reaching out to a global audience.  

Membership platforms help you create a community with shared interests and goals. Subscribers can interact with content creators and relish unique content.

By creating a membership site, you could increase user engagement and look for a long-term relationship with subscribers, increasing the chances of subscribing to content you may publish in the future.  

Moreover, when you compare online course platforms, you’ll discover that the right platform fosters participation and provides a supportive environment where members can connect and exchange ideas.

The intention of this guide is to throw light on creating membership platforms with features that match your content publishing effort. 

What is an Online Membership Platform?

An online membership site is a members-only platform where exclusive content is delivered.  This can be educational content or other topics that interest people. 
Online membership platforms are ideal for businesses as this stands as a better way to engage users.  By building customer loyalty, creators of membership platforms can generate a new stream of revenue.  As you compare online course platforms, you'll see that there are a lot of membership platforms available today, each with its unique set of tools and features.

What is the Purpose of a Membership Platform?

An online membership platform is meant for managing the membership and creating a good membership experience for the users.  

These platforms help individuals or organizations to communicate with their members easily. 

Planning online events, online courses and other educational projects can be done on a membership platform.

What are the Elements of a Membership Site?

There are certain elements that are integral to a membership site and plays a vital role in generating user experience. Let us understand what are the factors that leads to a successful membership site.

Membership Plans: A membership site usually has different levels of subscription plans like basic, premium etc. You can control the level of access by inducting a CMS into your site.

Subscribers-only content: Exclusive content is one of the important factors that decide the success of a membership site. Articles, videos, webinars, downloadable content etc are to be restricted to subscribed members only.

Creation of Account: Users are to register and create an account on your membership site to access exclusive content. This helps you ensure that only authorized persons access your site.

Payment Gateway: If your membership site is a paid one, a safe and secure payment gateway is needed.  You also have to safeguard the payment gateway using web security infrastructure.

News update:  To keep members updated about new content, upcoming events etc, membership sites should have a news update section.

Dedicated Support: As a membership site, you should provide your members with adequate support.  You have to respond to their queries or any grievance that arises when they consume your content.

What Are The Types of Online Membership Platforms?

Standalone Membership Platforms: Standalone platforms offer comprehensive solutions to create, publish, market and Sell Courses under their brand. 

Platforms such as Zenler, Thinkific, Kajabi and Teachable provide tools which are helpful for content creators.

Online Course Membership Platform:  A widely used membership platform, the online course membership site allows learners to undergo different courses on payment of a fee. 

Where for the regular Online Course members make a one-time payment, on this platform they pay a subscription.

Community Membership Platforms: This is a private community membership programme, where people with a common interest or goal gather together to share ideas and to connect with others.  

If you are fond of creating communities online, you need to create an online membership platform. New Zenler is an ideal platform for you to build a community.

Coaching Membership Platforms: Coaching membership sites offer coaching programmes to their members. On this platform, members pay an annual fee to access content.  Being a creator, you can offer coaching sessions, courses and digital products to your members.

Fixed Membership Platforms: This type of online membership platform has a fixed time frame for enjoying the membership. You can decide that members can have access to the site for a fixed period, say a year.  When the period comes to an end, the membership also expires.

Hybrid Membership Platforms: Hybrid membership platforms offer a mix of various membership models that suit your goals.  It may be a combination of online courses and community events.

How Do You Benefit from Membership Sites?

A membership site can be of benefit to you and your customers in multifarious ways. What are these benefits?

Passive income: Membership sites help you create recurring revenue as learners subscribe to your courses or educational content for a considerable period of time. If you keep on delivering quality content, it can provide you with income consistently.

Better User Engagement:  Membership platforms are places where relationships are built between learners who think your content is valuable.  This enhances engagement and sharing of ideas.

Customer Commitment: People who join a membership and actively interact with the content will be the supporters of your venture and will remain your loyal customers. This will enable you to augment your online business.

Creating Authority: Your online membership platform will help gain authority in your topic and it will enhance your expertise.  You can thus expand your reach and gather more members.

Building Your Membership Sites

The success rate of your membership site is decided by many factors. When you compare online course platforms, consider the type of membership site, the content, and the financial aspects before you build your site.

These steps could help you in building your membership platform:

Defining your audience: Finding your audience allows you to create tailored content, community interactions and more that go in tandem with the preferences and goals of the audience.  

Understanding the right audience helps you zero in on the right platform that addresses their needs.  Knowing your audiences’ demographics, their occupation, awareness of the topic etc will help you create the best content.

Select a membership plan: You need to interrogate yourself about which membership model will be ideal for you to reach out to your audience.  That will be crucial for the success of your membership platform.

Figure out the value: Have an account of what you can offer to your members and check whether it clearly aligns with your mission and vision.

Be specific about your offerings: Gather a clear idea of what you are going to offer to your members like learning materials, access to the community, events etc.

Create a membership structure: A membership structure should be devised on the type of membership you are offering and its different levels.

Choosing the Right Software

In order to build a membership site, you need membership website software. Choosing the software is an important aspect of building a membership platform.  

You have to consider the preferences of your audiences as to whether they would like to access mobile phones to consume your content and whether it will match your niche.  

The type of content you are going to create is of importance when choosing the software.  Consider whether the tool supports payment gateways.  The advantage of membership software is that it can automate many of the administrative tasks when it comes to managing a membership platform.

Scalability: When your audience expands, you may need to scale up your business. So, check whether the membership site offers scalability for your venture.

Customization options: Check if you can customize the look and feel of your membership site to align with your preferences and goals.

Features: Be aware of the specific features offered by your membership software like member communication tools, content management, payment window etc.

Cost: Even if you have paid the cost of the membership software, confirm whether there are any recurring costs, fees for premium features etc.

How Membership Sites differ from Subscription Sites

Though the terms membership sites and subscription sites are used alternatively, they offer content for a recurring fee.  A subscription site is transactional where a subscriber is paying money for consuming the content. 
Membership sites are about building community.  The members can access the content, engage with others and participate in programmes and events.

Are Membership Sites Lucrative?

Membership sites can be lucrative if you have a good business model and a clear vision. When you compare online course platforms, consider whether the platform you choose will allow you to draw interest from the community, understand your target group, and effectively reach them. 

Additionally, your ability to engage your members and retain them will determine the profitability of your membership site. 

How Can You Market Your Membership Site?

Marketing is inevitable for the success of your membership site. Let us understand what are the marketing strategies that can yield growth for your membership site:

Affiliate Marketing: In affiliate marketing, you partner with companies or individuals for the promotion of your membership site in exchange for a commission on each referral or sale.  

Incepting an affiliate programme will help you extend the reach of your membership site.

Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with influencers who have considerable followers in your niche is a good idea to market your site. Influencers can create, review and showcase the benefits of your site through which you will gain a larger audience.

Retargeting Ads: Retargeting ads work well in wooing an audience who had once visited your site but did not subscribe to it.  By resorting to this, you can remind them of the advantages of joining your membership site.

SEO Strategies: To drive organic traffic to your membership site, you should invoke SEO strategies to rank top in the search engine page results. When your membership site ranks high it reaches more people.  

They search the content with keywords, and you have to find the frequently used keywords.  For this, extensive keyword research needs to be done. When you invoke prudent SEO strategies, more members are likely to join your platform.

Efficiency & Automation in Membership Websites

Workflow automation: You may automate repetitive operations related to your membership platforms with the help of automation solutions. In this context, automation solutions such as Zapier can be of assistance. 

These solutions allow you to automate repetitive processes such as adding new members to your site, welcoming new members with emails, updating CRM data, and so on.

Drip Marketing Initiatives: This marketing tactic aims to increase lead generation, foster client loyalty, and foster regular interaction. 

The goal of drip campaigns is to deliver a targeted message to the audience at the appropriate moment. You can focus on other things because this automatically sends notifications and creates emails on exceptional occasions.

Monetization Strategies

Upselling & Cross-Selling: Upselling means upgrading existing members to a higher plan or making them subscribe to additional products or services.  

Cross-selling is the act of providing members with complementary products to expand their buying options.  Through these strategies, you can enhance your revenue generation.

Exclusive Events: Through live streaming of exclusive events, you can build an online community and foster member relationships. Exclusive events can also add profitability to your site

Collaborations: Another lucrative strategy is building partnerships with other brands. You can partner with industries beyond competition and jointly promote your membership site.

Concerns about Law and Regulation for Membership Platforms

Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement: For transparency, security and integrity of your membership platform, be sure that you set specific terms and conditions and privacy rules. 

People will be able to comprehend your business and sign up for your membership platform thanks to the terms and conditions you set forth. Members will trust your site if you are transparent about gathering, storing, and handling their membership data. 

Additionally, this guarantees openness and shields you from legal conflicts.

Intellectual Property: Protecting your content as well as your members’ is vital to upkeep the integrity of your membership site. 

The content you publish is to be ensured for fair use. If a member contributes any content to you, the onus of honouring his intellectual property rights is on you. Your terms of service should say how you are going to protect their intellectual property rights.

Technical Considerations

Load Testing: Before commencing the operation of your membership platform, it is better to do load testing so that you can ensure the ability of your site to handle traffic surges and the increase in membership.  

Moreover, by conducting load testing, you can identify potential risks.  Further, with the test you can optimize the site’s performance and scalability, ultimately giving your members a seamless experience.

Backup & Recovery: Backing up your data is critical. Any unexpected threats or data loss can be mitigated through this process.  

Regular backing up of data will put you at ease in the event of a hardware failure or any other potential risks.  Thus, you can offer members a hassle-free experience and keep up your site’s reputation.

Choose the Right Hosting Provider:  When it comes to creating an Online Membership Platform, stability, security, customer support and pricing are to be considered.  

To ensure this, you have to choose the right hosting provider. Whether you are selecting cloud hosting, shared hosting or dedicated hosting, you should look for a provider who guarantees the aforesaid factors.

Personalization and Member Experience

Personalized Dashboards: Offering personalized dashboards is an ideal way to increase membership of your site.  Airing content according to individual preferences will enhance member engagement.

Analyzing member behaviour using algorithms will help you deliver personalized content recommendations.  Understand your members’ past activities and include relevant content like articles, videos or courses. 

This can boost the overall experience on your platform and keep generating new memberships.

Data Protection & Content Management for Membership Platforms

Use of Personal Data: The General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) initiated by the European Union stipulates that membership sites are bound to protect the personal data of members. 

The GDPR is a set of rules that sets a guideline for the collection and processing of personal details. The rules state that personal data should not be used without the consent of the members.

The instances where you may use personal data are;

• When entering into a contract between you and your members.
• When there arises a need for processing data as per customer instructions
• When legal compliance is required.

Content Management: Plan, create, manage and publish your content with specialized content management software. Though there is a lot of content management software available, WordPress stands as one of the most popular and free content management software.  

You do not require much technical skills or expertise to operate this, and most aspects of your site can be managed with this software.

Member Surveys

Conducting member surveys provides you with direct feedback from the members about their experience, preferences and the features they look forward to.  

This is an effective way of understanding your members’ feedback on your courses and other content published on your membership platform.  Membership surveys also help you take a data-driven approach through which you can understand how they rate your membership offer.  Moreover, surveys can make your members think that you have regard for them. This creates a robust relationship between you and your members.

How to Conduct a Survey

While conducting your survey, ask questions that fall under these categories:

Customer Satisfaction: This question is asked to understand how satisfied your members are with your membership site. 

User-friendliness: This is to check whether your members can find what they need and whether they are happy with your membership platform.

Brand Loyalty: It is important to gather how many members like your site and whether they would recommend it to their friends. By this, you can assess brand loyalty.

Innovations & Future Trends

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can impact membership sites considerably.  They can analyze subscriber sentiments and help you deliver them personalized content.  

AI and ML can also boost customer support and create more engagement.

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) are catching up fast, offering users an immersive experience.  For instance, VR can be leveraged in virtual events, training sessions etc.  

AR is capable of providing a real-world experience for users which is useful for educational content.  With these technologies in hand, you can fight competition and stay ahead.

Case Studies & Success Stories

Posting case studies and success stories can take your membership platform to a great height.  It can generate trust and credibility in new members.  

Sharing stories and testimonials from actual members about their experiences will help elicit interest among people to subscribe to your membership platform.

Tips for Running a Membership Platform

Running a membership platform requires diligent planning, careful execution and a vision for success.  These tips will help you run a membership site into success:

• Define your value proposition: Clearly define your membership platform’s value proposition, the uniqueness of your platform, how you stand apart from the competition, how the members will benefit from your platform etc.
• Understand your audience: As an owner of a membership platform, it is imperative that you know your audiences’ demographics, preferences, goals, pain points etc.  Devise a plan to meet your audiences’ needs efficiently.

• Create quality content: Content is of paramount importance when you create an online membership platform. Ensure that your content boasts superior quality and meets the expectations of your target group. Try to deliver engaging content that attracts new members.
• User Experience: When you craft an online membership platform, aim to provide the best user experience. Let it provide the members with easy navigation and opportunities for community building.
• Personalization: Understand the preferences of your members and deliver personalized content.

Conclusion: Creating a membership platform is an excellent way of generating a passive income.  Moreover, it is an opportunity to leverage your expertise on a particular topic. 

There are different types of membership platforms namely Standalone membership sites, Online course membership sites, Community membership sites, Coaching membership sites, Fixed membership sites, Hybrid membership sites etc.  

By building a membership site, you are engaging with a dedicated audience.  Creating a membership site requires a lot of effort from planning content to finding the right platform to market your site.  The success rate of your site depends on many factors like delivering quality and engaging topics, providing personalized content, creating user experience, considering monetization strategies etc.  

When it comes to a membership platform, Zenler stands out in offering features that fit best for the creation and marketing of your content.

See this Article on how Zenler can help you run a membership site.

Categories: : Zenler Marketing Help/Advice