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Anyone running a membership website knows that keeping your members engaged and active is a challenging and time consuming part of the business. Smart membership site owners come up with creative and new ways to engage members and keep interest alive. Online discussion forums are great places to hook people, and there are some tips and tricks that may make it easier to keep people coming back for more.

Every entrepreneur (which is probably a good description of every one of your members) wants to show off what they’ve learned, and boast about the tips and tricks of the trade that have made them successful. Every entrepreneur also usually loves to commiserate and share their not-so-successful experiences, especially if they’ve overcome any of those hardships by coming up with their own great ideas.

Why not start a little contest on your forum? Consider starting a thread that asks people to submit their best tips for “whatever,” picking the top ones, and having other members vote on them? Offer some sort of simple prize for the top few contenders; you can give them a month’s subscription, an e-book, downloadable software, or a membership upgrade. Trust me when I tell you, people will be breaking a nail trying to submit their ideas. This is a genius idea, really, and you’ll find your forum to be quickly full of members consistently, and very lively and active.

When you’re done with that contest, ask for submissions of the best rags-to-riches stories, or ask people to post about things that maybe have not worked so well for them. Not only will your membership be clamoring for more, your forum will be practically running itself and bursting at the seams with action.

These ideas are really quite simple, but very effective. Keeping members engaged and active when you are running a membership site is really the key. How else do you expect to make any money from your membership site? Oh, that could be my next question for you. How DO you plan to make money? What’s your best idea???

Popularity: 22% [?]

There are several ways to get members to join your membership website and start paying you. You might recall that this is how you plan to make your money? One way that you can get members to your site is to offer some sort of a free trial membership. Free trial memberships are one way that you can advertise how great your site is. In fact, you are telling people that you are so sure they will love it and sign up, that you will offer them the free trial.

The best way to set up a free trial membership for your membership website is to have potential members register in full first. This way, you have all of the contact information that you need for your database, and for any follow-up that you might need to do, and they are all set up to transfer into a real, full-fledged, card-carrying, paying member after the trial membership expires.

You can choose the length of time that the free trial membership should last. Often, owners of membership software websites will decide that a 30-day or 60-day free trial membership is best. This offers potential members to sample the software you offer, poke around your site and learn about your different membership levels, obtain any technical support or business support that you offer through your FAQ and contact pages, and explore and participate in your discussion forums. If your membership site is worth its weight, these potential members will be hooked and stay long after the free trial membership expires.

Once the free trial membership expires, you will already have the payment information that you need to charge your subscription fees to these new members. Make sure that you have a mechanism in place for them to cancel without penalty if they choose to pull out before the trial membership ends (but why in the world would they want to??). However, you will probably find that many will stay on knowing your full benefits, and they won’t have to worry about any re-registering or any lapse in their services.

Popularity: 22% [?]

After all of your hard work recruiting new members, it’s even more hard work to keep them. Most membership websites lose members faster than they can find them. Stopping that reverse flow is critical to your success.

So, how do you do actually convince your members to stay? Here are several ideas that help memberships retain their members:

Incentive Plans: Offer small incentives to members who recruit other members. Yes, you’re right, this is a tip in the Recruiting Plan also, but, keeping people interested (by giving them incentives to find new members) will mean that they stay. Members retained!

Membership Levels: As each entrepreneur gains speed in his or her online business, you will want to keep them interested in staying with your membership site. By offering varying levels of membership, this helps people realize that at each stage of their business development that they still need your services, your sage wisdom, and the support that they receive from being a member of your site. Let your members advance to the next level of membership as they are ready to be offered more. Members retained!

Active Members: Keep your blog updated regularly. Send out weekly email newsletters with small tips and relevant links. Keep your discussion forum lively and active, make sure it’s a place that your members want to bookmark and return to on a regular—hopefully daily—basis. Members retained!

Online Meetings: It used to be that regular conference calls could be considered meetings. Today’s conference call is the private chat room online. Schedule these types of meetings, perhaps on a monthly basis, and you’ll find your members are setting aside time to join you. Even better, put yourself on video while you do that—people are more interested in watching while they listen or read. Record these sessions, make the tapes available to members who might not be able to make the scheduled times. They’ll be hanging on your every word. Members retained!

These few tips will help you retain your members that you’ve worked so hard to recruit. Can you think of any more ideas that might help?

Popularity: 25% [?]

Your website needs exposure to get traffic. Finding inexpensive ways to advertise your website, and gain exposure, is a high priority for any owner of a membership website. You invest a whole lot of your own blood, sweat, and tears into your website and you want to watch it turn a profit. One inexpensive way to get increased Internet exposure is to concentrate on building links to your website. While this is pretty easy and definitely inexpensive, there are some considerations before you just go blasting forth with both barrels, so to speak.

Not just any link! While increasing your number of links will improve your ranking, in the long run it’s important to have the right kind of links. Links from authority sites and well-respected sites are way better than empty blogs and crappy websites. Remember that links will each have their own worth, and weigh them accordingly.

Link in your niche! The more links you have that are relevant, the more the search engines are going to pick up your site. If you have an authority site on bunk beds, then linking to a site on bird watching may not be as useful as linking to a site that markets children’s furniture. Beware the “link farms,” the pages that contain hundreds of links that are completely unrelated. The search engines eventually pick up on that and drop your site’s ranking quickly.

Developing a good linking strategy can be a key to your success. If you are running a membership website, use your members’ connections, too. Ask for relevant links from either sites that your members run directly or sites that they may have come across that are worthy and relevant to you.

Linking strategy is further outlined in many places on the Internet. Online entrepreneurs can find tons of information online about how to increase your traffic by using good linking strategies. Don’t forget that this is a FREE way to promote any site, and it just takes a little time and a little surfing to find out the best links (most reputable, most popular, etc.) that are available out there. You’re in this to increase your membership and your traffic, these are some perfect solutions!

Popularity: 22% [?]

Do you realize the true power of membership websites? Current estimates show that less than 9% of Internet users actually pay for any online content. That number is increasing exponentially, and growth is estimated at about 500% per year. Hello Entrepreneurs!! This is your wake-up call. This is where it’s at, business-wise.

The world is ready and waiting for you. What’s your passion? How can you harness it and market it, and make a fortune from it? Any hobby can be developed into an Internet niche—just look at what’s out there. It used to be things like Internet gaming, real estate, and financial planning were the only big players. While they are still the most popular niches, the smaller, more specifically-targeted markets are extremely hot right now. I happen to know someone with very successful and lucrative online niches in bunk beds, knee socks, and cowboy boots. Go figure…

Membership sites will increase your credibility and your reputation as an authority on any topic. Gather as much information as you can about a topic, and present it in a polished and professional way. Check out how others are presenting their information and advice. Blue Sky Brothers is one blog where you can find helpful and practical tips for getting your niche membership going.

Remember, you should have the expert opinion in your particular niche. There aren’t really a whole lot of secrets out there, you can really find plenty of information by aligning yourself with the right experts and gurus. Making yourself an authority on any topic can put you way in the lead when you are trying to make money from membership websites. Not only should you be finding ways to make money by having ads, affiliates, and links, but don’t forget that charging membership fees can really add up.

Enthusiastic and savvy entrepreneurs have an incredible opportunity for huge profits in the right niches. Develop your niche, establish your authority and reputation, capture the target market, develop your membership website, and then sit back and watch the dollar signs add up, virtually overnight in some cases!

Popularity: 23% [?]

The moral of the story is: Use your connections wisely. If you are running an online membership website, you have truly an endless supply of resources right at your fingertips. All of these members have the potential to recruit other new members, as well as help you keep your current members, and even encourage those current members to upgrade membership or simply become more active in their current membership capacities. This is such a simple concept, but one that many owners of membership websites overlook, which may cost them big money in the long run.

Your current members can be worth their weight in gold, if you use these resources wisely. Active and lively members stimulate interesting discussions in forums, inspire you to make adjustments and changes in your membership site, and provide you with invaluable advertising. Keeping those members happy can be a make-or-break difference for your business. They are paying you, after all!! Try to not overlook that little tidbit…

There’s always more than meets the eye when you are running an online business. Finding successful mentors, gurus, or whatever you want to call the people you choose to trust and turn to for advice, is critically important to your success. Jason James outlines his own personal rags-to-riches story on his blog and he offers some practical tips on how he attracts and retains his members. Using simple math, he shows you how much money you can make, but it will depend on your membership!

Inspire your members with friendly competitions (offer simple little prizes to keep them interested), begin lively discussions in your forums, provide a personal “tell-all” that (supposedly) exposes all of your secrets to success, and provide real, accessible, and practical advice and relevant links or pointers to help your members be more successful. Don’t compete directly with your members—remember, it’s already pretty likely that you are more way successful than they are, otherwise they wouldn’t be coming to you for advice. There is more than enough business on the Internet to support all of us…..

Do you have tips or tricks for using your membership to recruit and retain your members?

Popularity: 22% [?]

Anyone running a membership website knows that keeping your members engaged and active is a challenging and time consuming part of the business. Smart membership site owners come up with creative and new ways to engage members and keep interest alive. Online discussion forums are great places to hook people, and there are some tips and tricks that may make it easier to keep people coming back for more.

Every entrepreneur (which is probably a good description of every one of your members) wants to show off what they’ve learned, and boast about the tips and tricks of the trade that have made them successful. Every entrepreneur also usually loves to commiserate and share their not-so-successful experiences, especially if they’ve overcome any of those hardships by coming up with their own great ideas.

Why not start a little contest on your forum? Consider starting a thread that asks people to submit their best tips for “whatever,” picking the top ones, and having other members vote on them? Offer some sort of simple prize for the top few contenders; you can give them a month’s subscription, an e-book, downloadable software, or a membership upgrade. Trust me when I tell you, people will be breaking a nail trying to submit their ideas. This is a genius idea, really, and you’ll find your forum to be quickly full of members consistently, and very lively and active.

When you’re done with that contest, ask for submissions of the best rags-to-riches stories, or ask people to post about things that maybe have not worked so well for them. Not only will your membership be clamoring for more, your forum will be practically running itself and bursting at the seams with action.

These ideas are really quite simple, but very effective. Keeping members engaged and active when you are running a membership site is really the key. How else do you expect to make any money from your membership site? Oh, that could be my next question for you. How DO you plan to make money? What’s your best idea???

Popularity: 23% [?]

It used to be that you could design a website, throw some content up there, and eventually get some traffic flowing that would result in gaining members, or selling products, or whatever you were trying to accomplish. These days, traditional, or static websites, just don’t cut it. You need to know the social Internet or you can just completely forget about any Internet success.

Static websites just cannot compete anymore. Webmasters today all know far too much about social networking and bookmarking, and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that give them so many more options to market a website and drive huge amounts of traffic. Static websites end up with no ranking in Google, MSN, or Yahoo, and have virtually no market share anymore. Anyone surfing the net ends up on the higher-ranked pages, making those companies increasingly more successful.

So, you’re wondering exactly how can you use social bookmarking sites to network your own online business? Find the big ones, you can start with MySpace, Facebook, del.icio.us, or ning.com. Get your home page started up, and begin looking for your online “friends.” Find people who seem to be like-minded, others who are looking for business networking and building links to their own websites. Hopefully you can find people with websites that have relevant content, because this can make a big difference. Linking just for the sake of linking doesn’t necessarily work, it helps a lot if the links provide relevant information for visitors to your site.

Another way to build your online business is to visit any blogs that are relevant to your niche. Visit the blog, leave a comment and a trackback, and you’ll have another link. Just doing a few of these a day or even a few a week will build your ranking slowly but surely!

Social bookmarking is a free and easy way to promote your website. Develop your pages carefully, and begin linking them to others, and you’ll definitely see your traffic increase.

Have you built up your website and increased traffic using social networking? Tell us how you did it!

Popularity: 24% [?]

All memberships, including membership websites, have basically the same three kinds of members. You’re either going to be a regular member, an activist member, or a leader. No group, whether it’s a political party, business group, or basic neighborhood book club can really function without these three types of members.

Generating increases in membership must target all three of these groups. You’re wondering how exactly you can do that? Well, the general membership, or regular types of members, often are the type that respond to advertising, to word-of-mouth recommendations (these often come from the activist members, by the way), and by being impressed with your membership site’s reputation and what you have to offer.

Activist members are recruited in several ways. These folks often have a long history of being involved in one capacity or another with various groups. They have likely experienced frustration with how other organizations are run, and will probably speak their mind. These are the people who really ignite your forums and discussions. These are also very valuable members to have when you are trying to recruit a lot of regular members. They tend to make a lot of “noise,” so give them something to really shout about with your products and services.

Leaders are hard to find, but when you have them, it’s important to keep them happy. Leaders often rein in the activists, keeping things level, keeping arguments and disagreements to a minimum. These are your level-headed and experienced members, the ones who the newbies look to for advice, and often they’ve been the ones that recommended your membership—so treat them well and respect their leadership abilities.

Building a membership website that incorporates all three types of members, and caters to each group appropriately, is an important part of running a membership site. Each type of member is looking for something a little different, but, they are all also looking for each other. Make your site the one they use to connect and network!

Which type of member are you? Has that changed with your experience or over time?

Popularity: 24% [?]

One of the most current, most successful entrepreneurial undertakings is online membership programs and membership subscription software. If you’re reading this, then you are obviously one of the chosen few that have been given the gift of never letting anything go. You are constantly searching for the latest, greatest tricks to make a few bucks. Ideally, you are on your way to being rich. That’s the goal of any entrepreneur.

So, you’ve chosen online marketing as your way to the top. Forget about those retail stores, forget about being a service provider. You’re going to wow the world and create a following for your membership website. Become the next online guru….

While you work on establishing your online presence, there are a few angles to work. First, you have to have something to offer people so that they are compelled to join your membership program. The best membership programs are tried and true, and they are trusted solutions to online businesses. Start with yourself as a testimonial—think about how you got to be this successful. Who did you listen to? What advice did you follow? What bad advice did you follow that you would avoid next time? These are the important tips that other entrepreneurs are looking for.

Start up your own membership website, and members only software program. Find the gurus that you believe in, and continue to follow them, link to them, and learn from them. Then, present the information that you’ve learned from so many others before you.

On HowToSpotter.com, more insider tips are revealed as the gurus push the sage advice of successful membership site administrators. Find out exactly, in great detail, how you can go from being a start-up entrepreneur to one of the great ones. Being organized, knowing who to listen to, and being smart about selling your own advice will get you to the top of the heap (and the top of the page rankings, too)!

What’s YOUR favorite trick for making more money from your website? Share it here and start becoming the guru that everyone is waiting to hear from!

Popularity: 45% [?]