Building Your Own Membership Site - Time To Choose A Topic
The very first thing you need to do, before you start thinking about domains, hosting, scripts etc is what your site is going to be about. Generally speaking, there are three ways you can go with this.
- You Have An Existing Skill Or Interest
- You Have Something In Mind - Not Necessarily An Existing Skill Or Interest
- You Have Absolutely No Idea Whatsoever!
The first two are obviously the easier route. The first consideration should be how and what you can deliver to your members. This can be all manner of things including electronic information (i.e. software or e-book downloads), a newsletter that you publish, physical goods or some type of service. So … ask yourself right now … what am I going to give my members? An even better question would be “What am I going to give my members that will keep them coming back month after month?”. Write it all down. As you read through this course and think about your membership site you will be coming up with some GREAT ideas. Write them down NOW! Don’t even question whether you think you need to write them down or not. Just do it!
Lets get back to what you are going to deliver. This is one of the key questions that you absolutely MUST be able to answer before you start a membership site. If you can’t deliver (or better still, over-deliver) to your members on a regular basis then you will find most of them cancelling their accounts or simply not returning (depending on whether you have a monthly or one-time fee). Make sure you have a very clear picture in your mind of the types of products and service you can provide and write them down. If you can’t think of anything then perhaps you should consider a different topic. There are very few topics where there’s absolutely nothing you can offer … but if that is the case and you are absolutely sure then don’t spend too much time dwelling on an idea that isn’t going to work.
The next key question … is there a demand for what you intend to offer? If it is an existing interest then you should already be able to answer that question fairly accurately. Particularly if you have been active in forums or other sites that are related to your area of skill or interest.
If it is something that you just thought may be a good topic for a membership site, or you have absolutely no idea what you want to do then it’s time to do some research. There are plenty of places to research hot topics on the Internet, but before you go browsing away looking for the ideal niche, do some offline research. newspapers, radio, television, friends and family are all good research subjects. Think about it this way - if you are searching for good topics on the internet, then obviously there are already some sites and services related to those topics. By researching offline you have the opportunity to bring something totally new to the Internet. There’s a potential goldmine there if you are the very first! I’m not saying that you will find something brand new, but it is well worth a look.
For your online research, follow some of the links in the Research category at HotMarketingSites.com. This is a directory i created a while back with all sorts of resources for online marketing and product development.
Don’t expect to find something today .. or even this week! Take your time, do your research and make sure you have a good, popular topic that you know you can deliver to.
So, assuming that you have an in-demand topic or niche for your site, and you know that you can provide quality to your members, you are now ready to move on to getting a domain and web hosting.
Additional Tips
Participate in Online Forums - This is a must if you want to gather a ‘following’. You need to let the online world know that you ‘know your stuff’ and are willing to help others. On that note, go out of your way to help others. In the longer term it will establish you as an authority in your chosen topic and someone who gives more than they take. Thus, when you do start your membership site there will already be many people who know you are going to over-deliver.
Become An Authority - notice I use the word ‘authority’. There are very few genuine experts or gurus in any topic area and you really don’t need that tag. An authority is someone who has an above average knowledge of a particular topic. It’s the person who you go to because you know that he or she has most of the answers to your questions.
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