If you're contemplating setting up a membership website, you may be looking for a little inspiration. We've gathered some outstanding examples using the SubHub platform. Why reinvent the wheel? Take a look at what others have done on their membership websites. Our guess is something will twig some ideas for you to implement in your own website.
Let's start by confirming that your business or organization is a good fit for a membership website.
1. What is a membership website?
Simply put, a membership site offers content that requires a recurring payment for access. But that doesn't mean that all your content should be behind a paywall. In fact, you wouldn't want the entire site to be restricted to paying customers. Some of your content should be free so that you can give website visitors a taste of what you have to offer before they buy.
2. Why start a recurring income website?
In a word, monetization. Many coaches, experts and trainers have a world of content such as e-books, downloads, blog posts, PDF's, infographics and more. But all that great content isn't providing any income until it's gathered together in an organized fashion that people can consume and pay for.
3. Isn't a membership website a lot of work?
On the contrary, a membership website is the perfect online solution to keeping all your content in one place, making it all much easier to update. Content management just got easy! Online courses can be evergreen and make money year after year, allowing students to sign up anytime. That means they can join the course any time and you don't have to be there to moderate.
4. Why do people join membership websites?
First and foremost, they want to gain access to you and your content in a way that is easy and convenient. A membership website lets you curate your assets in one place so your members never have to go anywhere else. Secondly, you can give your members unlimited access, allowing them to review the material over and over again. You also have the ability to cultivate a sense of community. Many of the web platforms available offer features such as a member directory and a member forum where your customers can get to know each other and benefit from each others' experiences.
Fitness & Wellness Websites
The membership website model is ideal for selling training videos in the fitness & wellness niche. Whether you specialize in weight training, yoga, weight loss or nutrition, there is always an audience waiting to jump into evergreen membership content they can consume at their own pace.
Bekahfit.com This women’s fitness site uses embedded video to allow her clients to follow her workout routines as she demonstrates. The small padlock icons on each image tell public visitors that the content is behind a paywall.
Fitin15.io On this fitness membership site, users can join the membership to gain access to a combination of streaming video and downloadable files, such as .PDF and audio files. Special reports, ebooks, meditations, and healthy recipes are available to logged in users.
Relentlessmuscle.com This workout membership site focuses on community and daily live content to both encourage membership and retain the interest of current members.
Business & Life Coaching Membership Websites
The coaching industry has never been bigger than it is right now. The estimated market size of the coaching industry is $15 billion in 2019, with a 6.7% expected average yearly growth rate. If you're an expert in your field you can't afford to over look this online opportunity for a profitable membership website.
Aaron Chong of Ultimatecloserclub.com makes good use of Facebook testimonials and a popup chat message bot to convert visitors into members. Once a part of the community, logged in members have access to a wide range of masterclasses and courses.
Runforgod.com offers their members various challenges and opportunities to enjoy running as part of a community. A coaching program is also available. The site uses the SubHub built-in FAQ block on their homepage to field common questions.
Resourcecenter.forumsherpa.com is a resource for Forum administrators to access instructional and informational articles on group leadership. A vertical sidebar menu on every page helps visitors understand at a glance how the content is organized, with easy access to categories and sub-categories
Expert Advice
tinnitustunes.com is an online information resource for the medical condition tinnitus. It provides expert advice on available treatments and techniques in the form of classes, downloads and relaxation audio files. The website provides free information to the public along with member only content for both sufferers and clinicians.
Financial and Investment Advice Membership Websites
Expert stock traders and financial advisors are always in demand, and that trend is not likely to change in the future. As Olivia S. Mitchell and Kent Smetters put it in their article "The Market for Retirement Financial Advice", "The longterm shift away from traditional defined benefit pensions toward defined contribution personal accounts requires us all to become more financially sophisticated than ever before." Advisors and coaches with stock trading and investment experience have a huge available market for recurring income from a financial advice membership website.
leadlagreport.com A dynamic video banner draws visitors in to find out more about this investment strategy report site.
oatinformation.com This niche financial strategy site focuses on the oat market and makes extensive use of the blog feature on their SubHub site to keep both public and logged in visitors updated on the latest oat information.
sltrades.com This site uses watchlists and alerts to keep members up to date on trading opportunities and strategies.
Industry News
runningrestaurants.com is dedicated to helping independent restaurant owners and managers by offering a wide range of online tools and resources to help build and improve their businesses.
profitandbeauty.com This site offers tax and financial management advice to professionals in the beauty industry. It offers courses and a selection of e-books in the online store.
Courses and Online Learning
Many membership websites also feature online learning. The SubHub platform lets you easily offer multiple online learning options. Learning material can be included in membership, sold as downloads in the stores or as a course.
loveprayteach.com sells access to their printable Sunday school handouts multiple ways. Members can access all the lessons available in their membership tier. Or website visitors can purchase individual lesson packs as needed from the built-in online store.
functionfirsted.com provides a comprehensive range of online courses, webinars and workshops to inform pain management practitioners in using evidence-based methodologies and exercise solutions to improve patient outcomes.
gentlesleepclub.com The Gentle Sleep Club's soft star-studded background is perfect for a site that helps busy mothers get enough sleep themselves as well as getting to know their child’s unique sleep personality.
profilebasedmarketingacademy.com offers entrepreneurs specialised social media training for LinkedIn. Laura has condensed over 15 years of social selling experience into compact, powerful lessons that can be completed in less than 5 minutes.
raphaeducate.com This membership website offers parents an array of online physical, occupational and speech therapy exercises they can do at home with their children. The site contains an extensive library of embedded video exercises for parents to choose from once they sign up for the membership.
stemsmart.net This membership site is a teaching resource for the parents of pre-school aged children. This site is unique in that it not only offers a large assortment of courses and trainings, but can be viewed in many different languages.
Publish an online magazine
horsemanship-journal.com uses SubHub to delivery an digital version of their monthly print magazine. The online magazine version helps to improve audience reach, generate leads and increase revenue potential.
growingformarket.com is the online magazine for market farmers. The site regularly publishes new content but also hosts an extensive archive resource of over 1600 past articles. Their membership website lets them sell subscriptions, books and apparel. Additional revenue is generated by utilising the article page sidebars for advertising opportunities.
How to Create and Grow Your Own Membership Website
Now that we've seen some examples of membership websites others have created, let's take a look at how you can get started on yours.
Creating your own membership website has never been easier or more affordable than right now. With an assortment of web platforms and expert help available, your online business can be generating recurring income in short order.
SubHub is one of the easiest to set up and affordable platforms out there. Course set up is a breeze with the course editor, and you can choose a beautiful modern website template, or create your own design using customizable layouts.
Follow these steps for a quick start and you'll be well on your way to your own membership website.
1) Sign up for a free trial with SubHub.com 2) Select a template and begin customizing your site 3) Set pricing and payment frequencies for your services 4) Get help with any of the above at support@subhub.com
Simply put, a membership site offers content that requires a recurring payment for access. But that doesn't mean that all your content should be behind a paywall.
What is evergreen membership content?
Evergreen content is content that is available to users any time. It allows them to sign up to an online course and consume the material at their own pace.
Why do people pay recurring fees for a membership website?
1) People love curated content that is available to them at their convenience. 2) People want to have access to advice and coaching from a particular expert who they follow. 3) A sense of community is an important aspect of any membership website. Users want to interact with and learn from each other as well as from the leader or administrator of the website.
Isn't creating a membership website extremely time-consuming?
The key is to be organized before you begin setting up your website. Know your audience and what they want, and how much they will pay for that knowledge. Many of the membership website platforms on the market today make it easy to create courses and membership content designed for easy set up and maintenance.
Selling digital PDF downloads and printables has become a highly popular and profitable online opportunity for individuals and businesses. Whether you're an educator, subject matter expert, coach, or crafter, creating and selling digital products can be an excellent way to generate passive income.
Launching a membership website is an exciting way to generate recurring income while building a loyal community around your content, expertise, or services. Whether you're offering online courses, coaching, or a private community, this step-by-step guide will help you get started.
In the world of membership sites, attracting new members is only half the battle—the real challenge lies in keeping them engaged and subscribed. Consistent, relevant content of course underpins success in membership businesses.But why?That's where understanding the psychology behind why people stay subscribed can help you craft a better, more loyalty-producing experience.
Operating a successful membership website doesn't end with recruiting new members. You need to ensure they keep coming back with engaging and timely content. But if you aren't strategic about it, that content will become a jumble of ideas in your brain -- and will look like exactly that on your site.
The covid pandemic has taught many yoga studios the value of having not just a simple website but one that allows them to generate an ongoing income stream.
Offering live or recorded yoga classes online can transform your yoga business by providing exposure to students around the world, increasing your income and providing the ability to upsell other products like retreats, courses or products.
Of course building a website can seem an overwhelming task at first. But, these days there are a wealth of affordable and easy-to-use tools for beginners that can make creating a website a weekend project.
SubHub’s membership website builder is a platform that provides everything you need to build and launch a website, accept payment and manage the members who are paying to access your yoga content. It's easy to expand your yoga practice with a membership website.
With our beginner-friendly platform, there’s no reason to feel intimidated. We take care of the tech and offer ongoing, hands-on support for when you need it.
So let’s outline the first steps to building, launching and getting members for your your website.
Don’t try to appeal to everyone. Instead refine your focus so you can target a specific audience. This makes appealing to and reaching an audience all the more easier.
For example, you may just want to focus on yoga for pregnancy or morning meditation or 5 minute sessions or chair yoga.
It might sound counterintuitive to be limiting your potential audience reach but focusing on a niche allows you to craft content specific to that audience’s needs.
By narrowing your focus, you can strengthen your online content offering because success comes from meeting the needs of an audience.
This also allows you to refine and tailor the keywords you use in your titles and copy making it easier for people to find your site via search engines.
Each template layout features sections designed to inform and convert visitors to members. But you can also customise your homepages with new layouts from the section library.
You should have a minimum amount of content available to members. I would suggest at least 14 pieces of content which could be a mix of blog posts and videos. Then regularly post new content to build your inventory and show commitment to your members.
You can also repurpose content into courses which can be sold individually or included in a membership. Sometimes it’s how you package and present content that can attract a subscriber. For example, a course that organises specifically themed content into a collection can provide a user with an easy to follow path into daily yoga practice.
Where to find high quality free use images, icons and graphics
There are plenty of sites where you can get free use, high quality yoga-themed images and video to make your site visually appealing. Pexels, Unsplash are my favorites and Canva is a superb free, all-round graphic software for creating media posts and more.
4. Get Organised
Your site’s organisation is very important. Your members need to easily find the content they are looking for. Spend time mapping out your navigation and assembling content into easily accessible categories. Think about the user experience. Users should be able to find the content they want in just a click or two.
This filter allows members to search for content that meets their specific criteria. The filter is particularly useful for searches that include multiple practice variables that you can define - such as duration, style and focus.
5. Build Your Audience
The best promoter of your website is yourself!
Using social media platforms to promote and drive traffic to your membership website is a must. The platform you chose varies according to where your audience naturally hangs out.
This might mean doing YouTube videos, Instagram Stories, TikTok LIVEs and expanding your practice from the studio into the digital landscape.
Use keywords in your titles that match what people are searching for so they can find your content.
An important part of any marketing strategy is consistently showing up. This is all part of the process of building trust with your audience. By witnessing your commitment, you'll create loyal followers.
6. Grow and Nurture Your Email List
In order to market successfully, you need to capture a visitor’s email address with an opt-in lead magnet.
This is easily done by offering something free in exchange for their email. It could be something as simple as a checklist. Of course, the offer needs to be relevant and of value to your prospective audience.
Then you must nurture this email list with a followup email sequence.
Conclusion
There’s a lot of free yoga content out there but users will join a membership website for the personal experience, connection and authenticity.
Your website doesn’t need to be perfect before you launch but it should be professional looking and provide value. But keep in mind that as with any experience, it is a continuing process that will improve as you learn and grow.
Creating a pricing page that converts isn’t just about listing numbers. It’s about making it clear, transparent, and easy to compare. When customers understand exactly what
Your website homepage is your brand’s first impression, and creating an engaging experience is crucial for keeping visitors interested and encouraging them to take action. Whether you’re selling a product
Repurposing your video content allows you to maximize its reach and impact across different platforms. Here are 10 ways to repurpose your YouTube videos to market your membership website:
YouTube is one of the most effective platforms for attracting, engaging, and converting potential members to your membership website. With billions of users and an ever-growing appetite for video content, leveraging YouTube can help you build brand authority, drive traffic, and grow your membership.
Kate Faulkner, founder of PropertyChecklists.co.uk, has created a valuable resource for aspiring property developers and professionals. By offering an array of detailed checklists, expert advice and access to a trusted network of service
Tony Eyers launched his membership website to offer online harmonica lessons to share his passion for music while providing value to both beginners and seasoned players. By offering a combination of free content
