Online Business Automation Tips – Membership Sites

In a previous article, I explain how online business automation is something you do not truly “experience” until you have reached the end of a specific business development sequence that looks like this:

Reflection > Decision > Planning > Organising > Setup > Systems Development > Business Automation

In this article, we will examine in more detail one of the most important resources you will need to consider investing in during the “Setup” phase … membership sites. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be specifically addressing the topic of joining one or more membership sites, not starting your own.

There are several types of online membership sites that you can join. There are free membership sites, and paid membership sites. There are sites that focus on delivering a particular type of product or service (e.g. articles on a specific niche category, like “health”) and there are “Mastermind” membership sites, where the main purpose is to share information and promote the creation and sprouting of new ideas. There are exclusive, or limited membership sites that “close” their doors to new members once a certain level of membership numbers is reached, and there are membership sites that place no limit to the number of members that can join. We will be looking briefly at each of these types of membership sites.

Before we do this, however, an important question we need to address first is “why” are membership sites so important to the process of automating an online business?

There are many reasons why you should consider joining one or more membership sites during the “Setup” phase of your online business development process. One of the main reasons is that the online universe is expanding in all areas at such a prodigious rate, that if you are not connecting with other online business developers, you will quickly find that all of your ideas, knowledge, strategic planning, marketing efforts, etc … will be rendered obsolete. Other businesses, networks of people and online entrepreneurs that want to occupy your market space will overtake you in every respect, and so the danger is that your “virtual” business presence could literally be extinguished overnight.

Other reasons for joining membership sites are to improve your own technical, business, or marketing knowledge (e.g. by interacting with other members in a member’s forum), to leverage and synergize your efforts (e.g. by forming joint venture partnerships), and to outsource some of the basic “production” requirements of your business (e.g. using Private Label Right, or PLR, membership sites to provide you with content for your online business – articles, information products, software, etc…).

So now that we’ve established that you will most likely want to join one or more membership sites in order to build and eventually automate your online business, what type of sites should you join?

Well, that depends on your business plan. You only have so much time tonetwork with other online business owners, browse forums for answers to your questions, etc, so you will really need to be discerning regarding the number of membership sites you plan to join, especially if most of these are paid membership sites. Since most paid membership sites bill their subscribers on a monthly recurring basis, membership costs can quickly add up if you’re not careful.

The real answer to this question is found in your “Planning” stage. If you are planning to built content-driven sites, whether that’s just one portal site on a specific topic you’re passionate about, or multiple sites on different niche subjects to collect AdSense revenue and affiliate commissions, you will probably want to initially join one or more good “Private Label Right” (PLR), membership sites. These types of sites pay for the cost of researching and hiring article and content writers using a significant portion of member’s fees, then co-op the content among all of their paid members. For this reason, good PLR sites tend to offer only limited membership openings (normally between 150 – 500 members only).

Some membership sites are free to join, but then offer their new members upgrades to paid membership levels in the form of “one-time-offers” (OTO’s). If you decide to pass on the one-time-offer, you will most likely miss out on some form of expanded functionality that paid members have access to, and you will also most likely not have the opportunity of upgrading later at the same discounted level, or receive all of the bonuses offered when you first joined.

Beware of membership sites that provide you with PLR or “resell rights” software. You really want to do your due diligence before joining sites that offer software which you can then resell as your own, because at some stage, you will have to deal with customer support issues. Find out who is responsible for providing technical support, software upgrades, handling customer service enquiries and complaints, etc. before you join a software resell membership site. Preferably, this role will not be handled by you or your organisation.

This brings up another issue regarding membership sites that feature or rely on using proprietary software. If the cost of the membership is too low, you should not expect to receive great customer support or regular software updates to improve functionality or fix bugs (and there will always be a ton of those in any kind of software). In my experience, it’s definitely better for a good paid membership site to charge a reasonable monthly subscription fee, provided they deliver a quality product, excellent customer service and are attentive to the needs of their members. In fact, the best membership sites to join are those that effectively treat their members are stakeholders of the business, and allow members to have a significant input in the future progress, development and direction of the membership site itself. After all, the subscribers are the market audience of the membership site owners.

If you are considering starting an online business, or building a successful business online, the membership site I strongly recommend you consider first is called Portal Feeder.

I have been a member of Portal Feeder since it launched in December 2005 and I have written a personal recommendation that you can read here: Portal Feeder.

Portal Feeder is a closed membership site. Since launching in 2005, they have only briefly opened their doors twice to new members, and all available spots were quickly filled, before the doors were closed again.

Whether or not you are ready to join a membership site like Portal Feeder, I definitely recommend you visit their site, read some of the entries posted on their blog and either register for their Priority Notification list, or subscribe to my blog, so you can be informed of any new updates or possible future openings.

To view the Portal Feeder site, go here: PortalFeeder.com

To view the Portal Feeder blog, go here: Portal Feeder Blog

For more articles, posts and reviews on the benefits and features of being a member of Portal Feeder, click on the “Portal Feeder” category of this blog.

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