Play/Pause/Stop

What Are Your Concerns About Your Membership Site?

Membership site owners like other business owners have concerns about running or managing their business. Their concerns may be about setting up the site or administrative needs or they may be about the members, they may even be about financial issues of the site.

Set-up Concerns:

The concerns a membership site owner may have include deciding on a title for their membership site that will draw members, tell what the site is all about and attract search engines. They also are concerned about designing the site logo or slogan and all the other site graphics in such a manner that will add to and not distract from the site. They are concerned about being able to produce quality content for the membership site that will give great benefit to the membership and may include articles, eBooks, interview transcripts, and also software. They are concerned about the possibility of hosting a site community such as a forum or chat room to give the members a place to share information and stories about the topic of the membership site. They may be concerned about the site's navigation, and the ability of members to search for information, the ability to have relevant links, and other key elements of the site such as index and table of contents. The site owner may also be concerned about back end products, how to use the site as a promotional tool and how to make sure the members are getting the benefits they expect from the site so that they will remain loyal to the site. You may be worrying about the type of payments you will be accepting. Will you offer monthly, quarterly, or yearly memberships or all of the above? Will you have a free membership version or paid only? If you have both versions, you will need a password-protected area for the paid members. What are your security concerns for the site?

Member Concerns:

Should the members contribute in any way to the content? How will I attract new members? How will I keep my members happy and loyal to my site? How can I receive feedback from my membership so that I will know what is working and what is not in time to make necessary changes to the site before members become disenchanted and leave? How can I design my site so that members will feel that they are a part of the site?

The Financial Concerns:

A membership site owner may have several financial concerns about the membership site for instance am I offering the payment options that my members use? Is my site secure enough for credit card transactions? Am I offering all the payment options that members may be interested in like monthly, quarterly and annual payment choices? Is there a way to find out why members cancel and offer reinstatement so that I do not lose revenue?

Site set-up, member concerns and financial concerns are the major concerns of the membership site owner. Concerns may change as the membership site ages. A membership site owner must always be on top of the needs of the membership community addressing the membership concerns as well as ownership concerns. Understanding what the concerns are, brainstorming solutions and applying the right solutions will help in making your membership site a success.