What exactly is a Paid Membership Site?

What exactly is a Paid Membership Site?

It would probably be useful to define what a ‘Content based’ Subscription Website actually is. This is rather difficult to do however, since different people have slightly different ideas about what a Subscription Website is.

But in essence, a Subscription Website (also known as a ‘Subscription Site’ or ‘Member Site’) is a special kind of website which has all of its information ‘hidden’ from view within a Password Protected area.

In order to access the ‘private’ member’s area, people have to pay a monthly, quarterly or annually recurring ‘subscription’ fee to become a member of the site.

If you like, it’s rather like an Online Newsletter and Private Club, which only paying members can access.

A Subscription Based ‘Membership’ Site provides specific kinds of information on a particular Topic/Subject of interest to its members, and allows them to communicate with one another, share information, and generally have a great time in the company of like minded others.

Types of Subscription Websites.

Generally there are three main kinds of Content based Subscription website:

1.Online Newsletter/Ezine/ Newsletter Websites
Some are very much like an online Newsletter/Ezine. With this type of site, the owner produces a page or more of ‘Information’ every week or month, and sends an email to their subscribers to direct them to a page on their website where they can see the latest ‘issue’. (The subscriber can also usually access all ‘back issues’ from within the private site too.)

2. Magazine Websites
Other Subscription sites are structured to look more like the traditional ‘free to view’ Content based website, where all the information is contained within lots of different ‘sections’ on the site. New ‘articles’, and other information is added at regular intervals into the different ‘sections’, and all subscribers can view any of the content, anywhere in the site, once they’ve paid their subscription fee.

3 Application Websites:
The last main type of Subscription site is more of a ‘Downloadable Resource Library’, where the site owner provides their subscribers with access to Information, Resources or Digital ‘Tools’ they can download and use.(This is the type of Subscription Site model I have used for the Membersite Manager Website Hineni operates)So, you can see that there are actually a number of different types of Subscription Websites. But, whichever type of Subscription Site a site owner uses, the end result is much the same. Their customers pay a subscription fee to access their site’s content and resources, and must continue to pay to continue using the site. All three require registration and payment for full access.



Marisol Diaz is an experienced workshop presenter/facilitator. Executive editor,IA and a small business specialist. She has been also writing on Canada settlement, employment and immigration law since 2006. contact her @ hinenisyndicator@gmail.com