Are Membership Sites Really Worth The Price?

Are Membership Sites Really Worth The Price? I recently read a post on the Warrior Forum. It was great. I have reposted part of it here as well as my own experience with one.

“Looks like some site flipping going on to me.

1. Build a membership site.
2. Release it as a WSO to get members and traffic.
3. Add stuff for a few months to keep regular traffic.
4. Sell it on ebay as a high traffic, high membership site when you have run out of plr stuff to add to it.
5. Rinse and repeat.
6. Release a WSO on how to flip sites , how to sell sites on ebay.”

That is a riot! And this is exactly what is going on. Followed by yet another WSO down the road called, “How I made $50K flipping membership sites. And I’ll show you exactly how I did it!”

This will be followed by “Flipping Software Websites.” Follow same point form above. Just replace membership site with software site. Then this will be followed by “How I made a cool million dollars flipping software sites.”

I have a new twist on these membership sites though. Here are my recommended rule:

• Let members first decide whether they even want to subscribe to any month individually. By showing each member what they will get in the next month 15 days ahead. Then if they want it, you will bill them, otherwise they can just “opt out” for a month.

• Think of membership sites like book clubs. “As long as you buy X times in a X period of time.” But to make your offer the best, just allow people to opt out and opt in every month. This way no one gets hurt feelings and it will keep you competitive by offering what your members came to buy in the first place.

Oh well, cats out of the bag now. I believe only membership sites that allow the greatest freedom and prove ahead of the billing month will survive long term. As long as there are these membership flipping sites or ones where someone gave it a shot and it didn’t meet there expectations. Or worse, is partying with all the short term money. Then the path to what I propose will be laid with gold and the others will never get anyone to join, because of the constant burns and disappointments.

What are others experiences with membership sites? I had one experience, and it was a good one. The reason it was good was it was only nine dollars a month and I was able to download about fifty “Instant Cash” articles which were like step by step instructions.

One of the articles was how to even setup a membership site just like the one I was reading. I learned about it at a “Warrior Special Offer.” It was great. I kept it for two whole months and canceled after I had at least 50 to 70 new ideas. That was enough for me.

The reason it was good was the information was timely and useful and worked. Every idea could be applied, recorded and put in to a brand new e-book product with accompanying video and podcast. I have enough work for at least four months! And this would have given me a good 50 new products I could sell for twenty dollars each and even bundle.

Did I follow through? No, I never did, because I was already being paid to develop software, software video training series, training centers, e-book training manuals, podcasts, and even webinars. Which is what I am on now. All for Bryxen Software, Inc. The fine makers of SEO Elite, Keyword Elite, Article Submitter, Directory Submitter, Affiliate Elite, and a few new products.

However, nothing stops me from getting some help on these great ideas and I plan on doing so very soon. I have alot on my plate right now, but I did want to express my personal experience with membership sites. The one thing I can pass on is pay for one month, download everything and run!

Then you get what you want and you don’t get burned. You are satisfied and if the membership site had anything else to offer, they can tell you about it upfront and you can decide then. Always make the membership site prove what they have for the upcoming month in full before you allow them to automatically withdraw from your bank account like an automatic teller machine (ATM.) And if you can’t find a membership site like this, negotiate one for yourself. Or wait until next month, when we will do just that on a new software training platform coming out in July, 2008.