Choosing Your Membership Theme

Choosing the theme or subject for your members-only website is a matter of personal choice and preference. Some member only sites provide mentoring or coaching, some contain useful articles or information in a particular field or product, some publish the results of tests and studies, some provide access to libraries and other reference information, some contain reviews, some provide specialized service, and some act as a meeting place for people with a common interest. The theme of your membership website needs to be something that you are passionate about or something that you have a great depth of knowledge about in order for people to be willing to pay for access to your site.

When the dotcom bubble burst, it didn't take long for the big companies to realize that there were huge amounts of money to be made by charging people for access. Such businesses as Consumer Reports and The Wall Street Journal are making millions with subscriptions to their websites. There are thousands of little guys making big bucks off membership sites as well. You won’t believe some of the themes of these paid for membership websites. There are such topics as “short people, music lessons, paintball, dating services, financial, fitness, marketing and work-at-home directories. There really isn’t any subject that somewhere in the world there aren’t people who would be eager to join a site to learn more about. The key to getting people to pay for access to a website, is to provide specialized information, coaching, teaching, instruction, data, or a service that is hard to find anywhere else, or would be time consuming for them to find on their own.

The bottom line is that you should choose a theme or subject for your paid-for membership website that is something you are proficient at or that you are passionate about.