Are you looking for a great offer to tempt people onto your email list?
Do you want repeat visitors?
Can you bear the thought of people trusting you?
Membership sites might be the way to go.
What’s the logic?
- Most of us have much more to say than can be included in a single blog post, but that is what almost all your readers will see. Most bloggers have very few regular readers compared to the number of people hitting their site.
- A membership site is a great way to build trust with readers. They can see that you are committed to solving their problems. The fact that they have signed up shows some small commitment from users, too.
- You need some incentive to persuade people to sign up for your list, why not use what you have written already on your blog.
- The value of your blog posts is perceived as increasing when they are private.
- Free membership site sounds better than a blog.
Free Membership Though?
A free membership site has fewer psychological barriers to joining than one where users are expected to pay even a token amount. You can build users’ trust once they are reading your posts regularly. They will get to know you and hopefully like you. If they don’t bond with your philosophy they will just wither away.
You can do a lot with the growing trust:
- Endorse CPA offers
- Sell advertising space
- Sell your own ebooks
- Recommend affiliate offers
Make Yourself Stand Out
As a blogger you are competing with every 16 year old blogger on the planet. With a membership site you set yourself apart as someone who has something valuable to say, as someone that people listen to.
It takes time and effort but I think it is worth it. As a blogger I feel as though I am talking to myself. I am still a blogger, but with a membership site I feel like a story teller in the back room of a pub, with an audience that is willing to become involved.
Latest posts by Phil Turner (see all)
- Free Membership Sites – Why Am I Converting? - January 12, 2015
I get most of the traffic from social media sites and i know i should not totally depend on social media sites as they can only generate temporary visitors but not real readers. Thanks for sharing this post, I will surely give a try to membership sites to build trust with readers.
jitendra would love you to read ..Togofogo.com: Get the Stuff you want
I am glad it piqued your interest. Do let us all know how it works out for you.
Phil Turner would love you to read ..5 Newbie Steps to Success – #1 Investing Time
I get visitors to see my website via regular posting on social media. Converting level is unknown to me, I can only make a very brief estimate. I can assume that there is not so much of regular readers, as this is blog of moving company. Do you think giving an option of Free Membership to my visitors could have positive impact on my site visibility and conversion level ??
I take your point about people only being interested in the short-term, but I have moved house 8 times I think and the process still takes at least 6 weeks. That’s long enough to build up a relationship with people.
I found that free membership options didn’t work well, so there would probably be the cost of a paid plugin or software. I would been inteested, especially the first few times. Perhaps if you offered a discount to site members or some Special service it would be more tempting . ..
Phil Turner would love you to read ..Automate Your Day – Gain an Extra Hour
1 chief weapon in your arsenal Phil is that free sites offer folks a thriving, buzzing community where people can meet, share dreams, share problems and gain support. Your post and point makes sense to me. If I wasn’t so busy with my businesses and eBooks and writing a 7K post weekly I’d add this stream to my online gig too.
Congrats on your site and on your conversions!
Ryan
Ryan Biddulph would love you to read ..21 Things You Need to Know about Blogging from Paradise
Hey Ryan I appreciate your comments, thanks. I think if I could patent a way to create extra time in the day it’d be a wow! I did look at 25 hour clocks a while ago… maybe I will take another look
Phil Turner would love you to read ..Automate Your Day – Gain an Extra Hour
True, but you just have to persuade people that your content is worth signing up for. You have to be unique and show people enough to convince them that you have something to say
Phil Turner would love you to read ..Automate Your Day – Gain an Extra Hour
An unstoppable logic to make a success of its marketing campaigns on net and good to monetize his sites.
I am Tunisian and I take care of sites connected to the health, I am searching thus always for methods and for tricks(clevernesses) to convert better and exploit at best the tools of conversion and positioning.
Hi espoir.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.
Conversion is largely a matter of high quality content and having something to sell that is equally high quality. Personally I am close to giving up on Adsense and am building my own products to sell,
Phil Turner would love you to read ..Automate Your Day – Gain an Extra Hour