Having a membership site is an efficient way to earn passive income and achieve some freedom and flexibility.
Whether you’ve just launched or have been running your platform for some time now, it’s wise to think about how you can maximize membership revenue and make the most of your subscriptions.
One way to do this is by diversifying your income streams to increase revenue. There are many ways for your existing membership site to bring in more money without you having to start from scratch.
In this post, we’ll discuss a few things to keep in mind when you want to maximize revenue. Then, we’ll highlight several different ways to diversify your online business income streams to make more money. Let’s get to work!
What to Consider Before Trying to Maximize Membership Revenue
When you first created your membership site, you had your customers in mind, right? Well, the same goes now. You want to keep your customers in mind when making any changes to your offers, pricing, or overall structure.
If you alienate your existing subscribers, you’re not likely to succeed in increasing your profits.
Before undertaking any major projects to boost revenue, be sure you’re not missing out on any low-hanging fruit. You might want to make use of some of Google’s free marketing tools to be sure your search engine optimization (SEO) and landing pages are up to snuff.
You might also have a look at your current pricing. If you’re not making use of tiered pricing, you could be missing out on customers who think your subscription is too costly.
You might also be losing out on additional revenue from those who would be willing to pay more for bonus content.
All that said, revisit your pricing if it’s been a while.
How to Maximize Membership Revenue (4 Ways)
So you’ve taken all the factors above into account and still aren’t satisfied with your site’s revenue. There are several more techniques you can try to maximize your profits.
Following are four that we’ve found particularly effective.
1. Do Affiliate Marketing
There are two ways to maximize your income with affiliate marketing – (1) become a product affiliate yourself and (2) start an affiliate program for your product. Here’s a breakdown of both.
Become a product affiliate
You can use your membership site to make more money by becoming an affiliate marketer. This is a simple monetization strategy where you include links to products or services in your content.
When one of your readers clicks on a link and makes a purchase, you receive a commission from the company.
Affiliate marketing is an excellent addition to a membership site, as it doesn’t require much effort from you.
Once you’ve signed up for an affiliate program, you just need to add a few links throughout your content. This can be incredibly lucrative if you have a large user base.
This tactic isn’t limited to your members’ area. You can use your blog, email newsletter, and social media platforms to share the brands you love.
However, you’ll want to make sure the products you’re promoting provide value to your audience. For example, if your membership site is based on a fitness program, you can include affiliate links to your favorite workout equipment or clothing.
Start Your Own Affiliate Program
Another strategy is to set up your own affiliate program to promote your site. You can use a plugin like Easy Affiliate (created by the same team as MemberPress) to get it rolling.
Starting an affiliate program is a great way to benefit from the influence of popular people on social media. It also makes it easy for your satisfied customers to spread the word about your business (referral marketing).
While you’ll pay a percentage of any new subscriptions as commissions, the opportunity to reach a wider audience could pay off big time.
2. Upsell Related Services and Products
Another way to earn some extra cash from your membership site is to sell services or products that complement your business.
Since membership sites tend to be built around a specific niche, they can provide you with plenty of opportunities for add-on purchases.
Start by thinking about what your members already value in your business, then offer them even more. For example, if your membership is for plant enthusiasts, you might try selling custom flower pots or a beginner botany class.
As long as the product or service fits what your customers are interested in, you’ll be on track for some potential sales.
If you are a WordPress web development agency, the WP Buffs 24/7 white-label support program could be a great fit for you. Resell their website management subscriptions, and drive revenue to your business with minimal effort.
Upsell With the Order Bumps MemberPress Add-On
Now all your cross-selling and upselling efforts are made super easy with the Order Bumps MemberPress add-on.
Available to everyone with a MemberPress Pro license, Order Bumps lets you suggest your other products at checkout. Things like:
- Memberships / membership upgrades
- Courses
- Ebooks
- Sessions (like coaching or consultations)
- Product bundles
And pretty much anything you can think of.
Customers won’t be able to resist the 1-click convenience of adding more of your amazing content to their cart. So why not tap into the irresistible power of spontaneity to maximize your membership revenue?
3. Teach an Online Course
The world of learning has rapidly changed in the past few years, and you can now easily sell online courses to your members. With the right tools and expertise, you can teach a class on just about anything.
You may want to use a learning management system (LMS) to get started. An LMS can do a lot of the heavy-lifting involved in building and maintaining a virtual class.
MemberPress Courses makes it super easy for anyone to create and sell online courses complete with quizzes and progress tracking.
Adding an online course to your site is also an effective way to keep existing customers coming back.
Once you’ve created the course, you might want to use a drip model to release the lessons over a period of weeks or months. This could entice members to stick around for the entire experience.
4. Start a Podcast or YouTube Channel
If you’ve become a bit bored with your blog, you might want to try getting more creative with your content.
Rather than limiting yourself to text, consider expanding into audio and video formats. You can earn money directly by selling access to this content or using it to reach new potential members.
Podcast listenership has been steadily increasing over the past few years, and there’s no reason you can’t capitalize on it.
With MemberPress, you can use Blubrry to host your podcast and promote it on platforms such as Spotify and Stitcher:
When creating your podcast, think about the topics and issues that are most important to your members.
For example, if your membership is for people who collect baseball cards, consider starting a sports podcast. You might even capture some video while you’re recording to create a YouTube channel where you share highlights each week.
Speaking of YouTube, this is another booming outlet where you can produce valuable content. This platform has over two billion users and accounts for more than 90% of online video viewing. It’s also very easy to monetize your channel and to embed videos on your WordPress site.
Conclusion
Having diversified streams of income can be ideal, but that doesn’t mean you have to manage multiple businesses.
The beauty of having a membership site is that you can expand your offerings to serve your members better and improve your bottom line.
In this guide, we shared four ways you can increase your membership revenue:
- Engage in affiliate marketing.
- Upsell complementary services or products with the Order Bumps add-on.
- Teach an online course.
- Start a podcast or YouTube channel.
What ideas do you have for boosting your membership site’s income? Tell us about them in the comments section below!
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