Everything You Wanted To Know About Subscription/Membership Websites Part 1

I'm putting together some briefs on membership/subscription websites that I thought are of interest for internet based entrepeneurs . I know many would also be interested in learning more about them.

I'll combine several of the mini series and post them this weekso you don't have to wait for them like you do with emails. Let's start with the basics:

Before we get too far I want to make sure I anwer the question:

What exactly is a paid membership site?

Some membership sites provide mentioning or coaching, some containuseful articles or information in a particular field or product,some publish the results of tests and studies, some provide accessto libraries and other reference information, some containreviews, some act as a a meeting place for like minded people.

But all these sites have one thing in common: to access all (orthe best information) on these sites, you have to pay for it.

Why would people pay for it? People pay for magazines, newspapers,books, clubs, memberships, and access to porn sites, then whyshouldn't they pay for website access containing specializedinformation, mentoring or ? However again to get people to pay for access to a website itneeds to have specialized information that you can't find anywhereelse … is hard to find anywhere else, or would be time consumingto find on your own.
After the dot com bust it didn't take long for the big companiesto realize there was huge amounts of money to be made by chargingpeople for access.

For example:
-Consumer Reports has over 1 million paid subscribers paying$19-24/year!
-The Wall Street Journal is also raking in millions for access totheir paid site.
But for every one of the big companies raking in tons of moneyfrom their subscription websites, there are literally hundreds(probably thousands) of "little guys" quietly running profitablepaid websites all over the world that you will never hearabout…and you wouldn't believe some of the topics.
Topics like: tall people clothes, PT Cruisers (cars), buying websites,unusual business ideas, selling drafts, patterns, divorcees, financial, dating, fitness, employment, work abroad, marketing and the list goes on.

The paid membership of these sites range from a few hundred to afew thousand in most cases but …depending on your pricing andtopic you could earn $50,000/month with just 250 paidsubscribers!!
Next time we'll talk about why you should have your own membershipwebsite!