The Essentials: Maximizing Membership Profits

In every business, success can usually be boiled down to a handful of “essentials”.

The fundamentals.

The nuts and bolts of what it takes to succeed in that market with that business.

Running a membership site is no different.

In part 1 of this article we will first focus on the most important (in the beginning) “ESSENTIAL” for Maximizing Membership Profits.  Part 2 and 3 will focus on other “essential” areas for long-term membership success.


So let’s get started shall we?

A profitable membership site depends on a number of key factors.

1)  What happens BEFORE a sale is made (Traffic).

2)  What happens WHEN a sale is made (Conversion).

3)  What happens AFTER a sale is made (Retention).

For now, let’s focus on the first part (what happens BEFORE a sale is made).

Traffic

In order to get new members, you first have to get people to your site.

Sounds basic right?

But this is one of the ESSENTIALS we all need to focus on each and every month.

You need to continually ask yourself…

“How can I get more website traffic this month?”

For the sake of length, I’m not going to go into great detail regarding all the different ways to drive traffic (we’ll save that for another set of articles).

But here are a couple things to think about:

How can I get more FREE TRAFFIC?
(Search Engine Optimization, Links On Other Sites, Guest Authoring, Articles, Video Directories, Blogging etc.)

How can I get more PAID TRAFFIC?
(Adwords, Blog Ads, Facebook Ads, Solo Ezine Ads, Affiliate Program, Offline Ads etc.)

How can I get more VIRAL TRAFFIC?
(Reports, Videos, Infographics, Quality Articles, Interviews, Contests etc.)

How can I get more LIVE TRAFFIC?
(Webinars, Teleseminars, Events, Get Togethers etc.)

How can I get more SOCIAL TRAFFIC?
(Email, Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, Flickr, Digg etc.)


DO NOT TRY TO DO ALL OF THESE AT ONCE!!

The key is to pick a few strategies and concentrate on getting REALLY good at them.

Then expand your “traffic portfolio” only AFTER you’ve mastered a few reliable streams of traffic.

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Traffic Generation is vital to your business.  In order to get more members “in”, you need to get the word out about your membership.

If you build it, they WILL NOT come.

You have to be proactive and continually give them a reason to come back – that means focusing on traffic generation each and every month.

Traffic Generation is an ESSENTIAL part of your business.

So set aside time to focus on this each month.

Because if you don’t, your growth rate will suffer.  And if your growth rate is smaller than your drop off rate (as evidenced by the Membership Calculator), it’s only a matter of time before your membership site suffers a slow death.
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Now it’s your turn…

What traffic generation ideas have worked well for you and your membership site?

Share them below and we’ll organize them and publish them in an easy to reference PDF