Regardless of the software that you choose to power your membership site, there are a handful of features that you will most likely want to make sure are included, even if you don‟t intent on using them right away, chances are, you will want to implement them
later on in order to maximize your income. This includes:
1: Autoresponder Integration
It‟s very important that you are able to capture your visitor and member‟s information so that you can send follow up emails, promotions and frequent updates of when your
website has been updated or in the event you are promoting a special offer or time
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limited bonus.
List building is an essential component in being able to community with your
members and in maximizing subscriber retention. The more frequently you
communicate with your subscriber base by offering new features, releases and
updates, the more likely your members will remain active.
It‟s also a good idea to notify your member‟s base of an upcoming update, in the
event you plan to archive the previous months release. That way, members have
the chance to download or view the content before it‟s pulled from the site.
You can also use this email system to survey your members‟ base to determine
what they are interested in receiving with future updates. This information is
incredibly valuable in order for you to create a membership program tailored
towards your target audience, and to ensure that your subscribers remain active
members!
2: Timed Release Content
With timed release content, you are able to create and schedule posts, pages and
updates so that they appear on scheduled times and dates.
This is exceptionally helpful in planning out your updates and in saving time by
publishing content in advance and setting it to appear only on the day your site updates.
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3: Integrated Affiliate Program
You also want to make sure that your membership script offers the ability to run an
affiliate program, so that you are able to encourage members to promote your website
while earning commissions.
Most membership scripts come bundled with a ready-made affiliate program, where you can choose to make all members affiliates or you can allow members to choose to enrol in your affiliate program.
By offering members a commission for every new subscriber they refer to your site, you will able to maximize your websites exposure and build a massive customer base, with
very little marketing of your own! If you‟ve done a great job at delivering quality content, your members will be more than happy to promote your site, and what better way to
generate new interest than from satisfied members?
4: Sequential Content Delivery
Depending on your setup, you may want to graduate your members from one level to
the next. For example, a member joins your site today and receives access to one
module. Then, your sequential delivery system would deliver the next module only after the subscriber has been active for a week (or another period of time).
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This is a great way to build a training program that automatically delivers content based on where, in the training, your subscriber is.
5: Unlimited Membership Levels
Your membership site software should offer you the option of creating various levels
(Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc) so that you can offer extended upgrades and upsell offers to your subscriber base as your website grows.
For example, you could offer “Group A” with access to certain areas of your site for
$9.97, while Group B can access all of the areas that Group A can, as well as extended resources, tools and content areas for $19.97 per month.
Having the ability to assign levels is also important in the event you want to feature a temporary offer or a special update that is not part of your regular membership program.
Then, you can advertise the offer to your subscribers and allow them to purchase
access for a limited time.
6: The Option To Scale Your Website
You need to make sure that the membership software you choose will allow for your
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community to grow, and is equipped and able to handle large amounts of data and
frequent activity.
Not every membership script is powerful enough to handle a lot of
database activity, so be careful to choose a membership solution
that has been thoroughly tested and proven to accommodate large