Guest post today from Jimmy D Brown. Hope you enjoy.

5 Ways To Make More Money From Membership Sites

By Jimmy D. Brown

Many people mistakenly believe that their membership site income only comes from the monthly subscriptions that they receive. This is far from the truth.

While there is certainly a bulk of monthly income that streams in from the rebills, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

What you have to realize is this: you members are customers. That makes your membership database a customer list.

Now, I’m not a proponent of bombarding your customers with a whole slew of offers day after day. I don’t believe in becoming an offer harlot where you do nothing but blast out offers for the sake of making a buck.

These are your CUSTOMERS. And as such they should be treated with regard.

But, at the same time, there are several different ways that you can make backend income from your membership site without blasting out an “offer of the day”.

Here are some ideas to help you turn your site into a profit-pulling machine.

1. Promote affiliate offers.

Affiliate marketing works really well within the membership site model because you’ve built up trust with your audience. They’ve seen your monthly content and know that you offer quality. They will trust your recommendations because you’ve offered good content in the past.

Choose affiliate offers that tie directly into popular topics within your membership site.

Re-read that last statement. It’s all about relevance.

Ebooks, video courses and short reports will add value for your members and boost your backend sales, but primarily as an ENHANCEMENT that is related to your content.

Post an article to your membership site members with good content and a link to the recommended product.

The offer becomes an extension of the content without competing with the content.

2. Sell advertising

You can charge a small fee per month to existing members or outside advertisers to display their text ads or display ads on your site. You can display advertising in the sidebars and just under the header of your membership site.

Search for advertising directories to list the advertising space and add the offer to your signature file in forums that you visit.

Create an “Advertise On This Site” link on your site pages. Mention advertising in your newsletter, etc.

You’ll start to see advertising dollars start to roll in the more you publicize the offer.

3. Offer personalized coaching

No matter how much instruction you provide inside of the membership forum, there will always be people who will want something a bit more hands on.

You can offer exclusive one on one coaching for members who want that extra help. You can charge this as a one-time fee or as a additional monthly subscription (sort of like a membership site within a membership site).

Alternatively, you can offer teleconference calls for membership site members for a small additional fee.

4. Sell your own advanced products

There are bound to be topics within your membership site that deserve special attention.

You can make backend sales by creating products around these topics and offering them to your members.

For example, if you’re running a membership site on weight loss you can create a special report on the best exercises to do to blast through a weight loss plateau. Offer this at a special price to your members.

You can also sell the same report at a higher price to non-members to drive traffic back to your website to grow your membership.

For even greater results, sell licensing to the report so other people can sell it to their lists and thus promote your membership site that is mentioned inside the report.

The ideas are limitless.

Again, the key is to make the special report fit with the content itself. It’s never a replacement for the content you share. It’s an extension of it.

5. Turn membership site content into individual products

Once you’ve built a good amount of content within your site, you can start using the content for other purposes. Package up your articles on a specific topic and sell them as a special report. You can even sell resell rights to the report so that your membership site’s name and link is distributed widely around the ‘net. You can do this with several different sections of your website to make some backend income and get new members for your website.

With one or several of these techniques you can create several streams of income from your membership site and attract new members.

Again, I want to emphasize that you should always take care of your members. Don’t treat them as bottomless pits that you want to continue dropping offers into. Present additional offers sparingly and strategically as we’ve mentioned today.

You’ll keep your members happy — and you’ll be happy as you make more money.

And if you’d like to KEEP your members LONG TERM, I can show you how to get a staggeringly high retention rate. Most members drop out after about 3-4 months max. I can show you how I keep my members 12 months easily! All from a membership site setup in less than 48 hours. Check out this video to show you how.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses PLR to enter various niches profitably.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, ezine articles, Jimmy D Brown, membership database, revenue streams, video courses

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean. I’m a friend of Mike’s and I’m here as a Guest Expert sharing my tips about “How to Get Ideas for your Next Blog Post”. I’m wrapping up the series today.

If you missed any of the last posts, you can catch up here:

Let’s move on to our last 5 tips.

16. Customer Support Questions.

Every single question that you get from a customer should make you ask yourself “Is this an issue that I should write about on my blog and/or add to our frequently asked questions page?” That will not only inspire blog posts ideas, but help you better address questions that your visitors may have that are preventing them from buying — or that you can turn into a marketable ebook to sell. (Here’s a great guide to help you write and sell small reports for profit.)

17. Refunds.

Just like #16 above, you can take a negative experience like getting a refund request and turn it into a positive. All you have to do is use the objections that you receive in the refund request as inspiration for your blog. If the customer said “I’m returning this because the bird costume doesn’t fit” then write a blog post about “how to size your bird for a bird costume”. If you can overcome the objection on your sales page — and in a blog post, you can use their refund request to make money for you for years to come.

18. Cross Blog Conversations.

A cross blog conversation works like this:

• You ask a fellow blogger a question on your blog.
• Notify that blogger about your question.
• That person answers the question on his/her own blog and ends with a question for you.
• You answer the question on your blog and end with a question for the other blogger.

And, it can go on … and on… and on… as long or as short as you’d like.

This is a brilliant strategy that I’ve used on a number of occasions to get exposure on other blogs.

You can see one of my favorite posts here: How I plan to Double My Income.

19. StumbleUpon and Digg.

If you’re not using StumbleUpon and Digg yet, you’re totally missing out on my favorite tool for watching what’s hot (and you’re missing out on boatloads of traffic). I love my StumbleUpon.com traffic, but I also use the site to research interesting ideas for blog posts and Twitter tweets. Check out the site.

20. Twitter.

There’s a cool twitter search at http://search.twitter.com/ that’ll help you to find out what people in your market are talking about. Whether you’re in the frugal housewife niche or if you’re helping marketers to outsource the research is invaluable.

Speaking of Twitter, please follow us. We’re good peeps!

• Follow Mike on Twitter.
• Follow Nicole on Twitter.

I could go on all day with this topic, but I have to give Mike back his blog.   I do hope that you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have. Thank you ALL for your comments and thanks for reading.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Nicole’s Blog & Podcast

PS. If your blog isn’t earning you the type of affiliate commission that you’d like, this report can help Affiliate Payraise: 27 Ways to Increase your Affiliate Commission – check it out!

Update:  Joel Osborne – You won the lucky commenter prize on this Blog Tour Stop!  I’m tracking you down to give you your prize.

Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post ideas, idea generation, Nicole Dean

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m doing a fun Online Success Blog World Tour and this week I’m sharing my ideas about “How to Get Ideas for your Next Blog Post”.

So far we’ve covered 10 ideas and they should give you enough blog content ideas for the rest of the life of your blog.

11. RSS Feed Swipe File.
This idea came from my friend, Susanne of HillbillyHousewife.com – Set up a Google reader account which is a RSS feed reader/aggregator. Then, go and sign up for the RSS feeds for several competing sites. (If you don’t know of any competing sites yet, the feed reader will allow you to search for them.) Then, log into your feed reader any time you need ideas for a blog post. Alternatively, you can log into the feedreader once per week or per month and jot those ideas into your idea notebook for later.

12. Magazines & Books.
Both magazines and books are huge resources for blogging. Just because they aren’t “online resources”, it doesn’t mean that they can’t give you lots and lots of ideas. Start by finding magazines and books in your niche and go through their table of contents to generate ideas.

I love doing this because it gets me out of the house to Barnes and Noble where I can grab a cup of coffee and relax for awhile while doing research. Of course, I could go through the table of contents online at Amazon.com but that’s not nearly as much fun. (Don’t forget to jot them down in your notebook!)

13. Yahoo Answers.
Have you been to Yahoo Answers recently? It’s a treasure trove of questions that people have about just about any topic. Now the site is basically the clueless leading the clueless, so I wouldn’t recommend actually taking advice from anyone posting answers there, but it’s a great research tool to come up with blog ideas that you can write about. 

14. Google Alerts.
My friend Tracy of LoveImpossible.com suggested this tip. Set up a google alert for just about any keyword, URL, or person’s name. It can be a topic you’re interested in, your competition’s website -anything! and you’ll (tada) get an email alert any time that term is posted online anywhere. The alert will lead you to blogs that are posting about items of interest to your niche which can jumpstart your brain to a multitude of ideas. 

Don’t forget to add a Google alert for your own name & sites to see what other people are saying about you and then use those blog posts to get the ideas flowing.

15. PLR Packs.
I love PLR. (For those who don’t know, PLR stands for Private Label Rights and is usually referred to in regards to content in internet marketing.) What that means is that you can buy PLR articles affordably and use them on your website or blog. You can edit them as much or as little as you want (I recommend editing more than less) and use them to speed up your blog posting.

How I use PLR articles is to grab a paragraph and see if it gives me inspiration for a blog post. If so, I may use that one paragraph as a draft and build from there. Another option is to just go through the titles of the PLR articles on your hard drive and see if any of them give you an “ah ha” moment to help you to begin writing.

Speaking of PLR articles and reports, here’s a great resource that you will most certainly like: click here –> PLR Special Offers Club.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Please keep sharing your ideas.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If your blog isn’t earning you the type of affiliate commission that you’d like, this report can help Affiliate Payraise: 27 Ways to Increase your Affiliate Commission – check it out!

Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post ideas, idea generation, Nicole Dean

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m here this week as a Guest Expert for Mike, sharing tips for how you can get ideas for your next blog post.

Today, I’m going to talk about your mailing list and lists in general. You do have one of those, right?

If you do, but they aren’t profitable — of if you don’t yet, go right now and grab this free report:

Six Steps to Six Figures with List Marketing.

It’s quite good.

ok. Let’s move ahead… 

Here are some more tips for generating ideas.

8. Track your email results.
If you’re tracking your open rate in your newsletter & promotional emails, you’ll quickly find what your list members are most interested in hearing about by which emails are opened and which links are clicked upon the most. Obviously you’ll want to take those topics and write lots more and post it to your blog.

9. Sign up for your competitors’ lists.
Now, don’t sign up with your main email address, unless you set up the promotional emails to filter to a special folder. You don’t want your competition interrupting your work day or weakening your self-confidence during the day. But, you do want to keep an eye on trends to see what’s up and if they’re talking about a topic that you think your readers would like to learn more about, too.

10. Ask your readers.
You’ve got a list. You want those people on your list to like you and buy from you, right? So, ask them what they’d like to hear more about. Survey them with a tool like SurveyMonkey.com or  EasyInternetSurveys.com or any of the other great free services and find out. Then, offer them more content based around that topic.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I’m not sure if you’ve seen these yet, but they crack me up! Click on the graphic below and you’ll find 15 Internet Marketing comics to enjoy. See you tomorrow with more.

Thanks so much for reading!

Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post ideas, idea generation, Nicole Dean

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m a Guest expert here all week at Mike’s request sharing ideas. (And, I’m having a blast and I thank Mike for inviting me here.)

This series is all about “How to Come up with Ideas for your Next Blog Post” and I’m on part 2. If you missed part one, you can catch up by clicking below.

Part One: Finding Blog Post Ideas

First of all, I’d like to comment on how very responsive this blog has been. Thank you for all of your comments! Please keep them coming. I see lots of familiar names over here. Doug & Joel & everyone ((waving to you!)) Leave lots of comments so that you can win! I’ll be giving away copies of the report of your choice from SRZone.com (My favorite is Homepreneur Habits – check it out!)

Today I’ll move on to one of my favorite sayings “Find out what works in your business. Do that more.” and the opposite is true, of course. “Find out what doesn’t work. Stop doing that!”

How does that apply to generating blog ideas? Simple.

Here are some of the easiest ideas.

5. Listen to your Blog Stats.
Find out which of your posts gets the most traffic and use those posts as inspiration for writing an entire series on the topic — IF, and only IF it’s related to your niche and there’s a way to monetize it in some way.

If you’re unsure how to read your web stats, it’s actually quite easy.

1. Log into your hosting panel. It’s normally www.yourdomain.com/cpanel (or something similar). 
2. Once you’re in, look for “web stats”.
3. Click on Awstats which are my favorite.

OR you can utilize the power of Google by setting up Google Analytics.

OR you can use a plugin that displays your most popular posts on your blog so that not only you, but your readers, can view which are the most popular blog posts. I’m not seeing it on Mike’s blog (perhaps I’m missing it?) but I have it on mine and you can view it here at the bottom of this web page: Bird Diapers & Bird Costumes: Weird Niche Wednesday.

Either way, you can easily see which of your web pages are the most viewed each month. A quick peek into your stats will tell you what your market is reading. Use that information to create more content about that topic.

6. Most Commented Blog Posts.
If you listen to your readers, they’ll TELL you what they’re interested in.  And, actually, you can use this tip even if you are on a competitor’s blog. Look at blog posts that are most commented and you’ll find hot topics that you should consider writing about.

7. Most Active Forum Posts.
Hang out on a forum in your niche? Find hot hot hot posts and use those as inspiration for your next blog post. Obviously the topic is hot or it wouldn’t get such a response.

Your homework?

Check back through your stats for the last 6 months and look for which blog posts had the best response, both with traffic and comments. Also keep an idea notebook on your desk and jot down a note any time that you are reading a blog or forum and see a very interactive discussion. That may just be your next great blog post.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Want to earn more in affiliate commissions? You can’t fail with these ideas –> Affiliate Payraise

Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post ideas, idea generation, Nicole Dean

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m doing a crazy marketing ploy called “Nicole Dean’s Online Success Blog World Tour”. To explain it simply, I’m hopping from blog to blog all summer long, spending a week at each blog, sharing marketing advice and tips from my years of experience online.

Who am I and why should you care?

I knew you’d ask that. I’m an Affiliate Marketer, Content Expert (focusing on viral marketing and repurposing your content), and am Affiliate Manager for Jimmy D. Brown (my mentor and friend). I’ve been earning an income online since 2005 and am continuing to grow each year. At this point, both my mom and my husband work for me and I’m proud of the fact that they have the flexibility to be in charge of their own lives and how they spend their time.

How will you benefit by reading my blog posts this week?

I’ve compiled a list of many ways to get inspiration for your next blog post. Some of them you’ll love. Others, you might think stink. But, if you feel uninspired about blogging, this week is for you.

Today, I’ll get started with finding hot topics quickly and easily.

Here are some of the easiest ideas.

1. Article Directories.
Most article directories like EzineArticles.com list “popular articles in this category” at the end of each article. Don’t believe me? Go to EzineArticles.com and go to your category. Click on an article. Scroll down. Find it? There you go. That tip alone should give you enough blogging power for the next few months.

2. YouTube.
Another great content site, YouTube.com (and the dozens of other video directories) are a fantastic place to find ideas for your next blog post – or just copy/paste content for your next blog post.

When you get to the site, just search for some of your keywords in their search bar. Voila. You can choose to embed those videos into your blog posts and write a summary above or below the video – or just use the video as inspiration for you own blog commentary.

• If you’d like to embed any of my videos on your blog, just go to Nicole Dean’s Free Reprint Content.
• To embed Mike’s go to Mike Paetzold on YouTube.

3. Blog Talk Radio.
If you haven’t been to Blog Talk Radio yet, you’re in for a treat. It’s a podcast site that lists “online talk radio” shows that you can listen to on demand for free. Again, search for keywords in your niche like “fantasy football” or “triathalon training” and you’ll find podcasts to listen to and, just as importantly, ideas for your own blog. If you enjoyed the show on Blog Talk Radio, you can even link to the episode as reference (and I do recommend it).

• Listen to Mike on Blog Talk Radio!
• Listen to Nicole’s Podcast.

4. Google.
I’d better include Google right away, since they’re the big guy on the ‘net. Search for your keyword or keyphrase along with the terms above “parenting video”, “parenting podcast”, “parenting articles” – and you’ll never run out of ideas.

Well, guys. I’m sitting in an airport writing this, and I’ve got to get on my flight, so I’m going to wrap up this first blog post. I have plenty more ideas coming your way. I promise.

Your homework?

Run through the list above and jot all of your ideas into a notebook (pen and paper) so you can start an idea journal. Then, you can pull that journal out whenever you blog so you don’t feel the pressure to be brilliantly creative every day that you blog. (It works!)

I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Let me know what you think.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I give away prizes at every stop on my tour to those who comment. Leave some comments so that you can win! I’ll be giving away copies of the report of your choice from SRZone.com (My favorite is Homepreneur Habits – check it out!)

Technorati Tags: blog post, blog post ideas, idea generation, Nicole Dean

This is a new software launching tomorrow from Guido Nussbaum. Now Guido opened the doors to make it easy to create your own giveaway with his JV Giveaway software and lots of people have benefited from it.

This software solves another problem that the new or even experienced marketer has with setting up the pages for a giveaway. After all you need to have your squeeze page (or multiple squeeze pages if you have upgraded and added more than one gift).

Then you need to add an offer to take advantage of the virtual real estate as people sign up. A good offer here can add quite a bit to your bottom line.

Then you need to set up a page to deliver the gift.

All of these items take time and a bit of effort and changing them can be even more time.

After testing this software you can easily set up your pages, attach an OTO and track your results. The tracking is key to being able to improve your results.

Finally you can use the software to sell and set up all of those resell rights and PLR products you have gathered that are collecting digital dust.

Send your new subscribers through a series of offers of the best of that digital dust and finally get them to start generating cash for you.

Now you need hosting and a MySql data base to set this up but it is quite a nice all in one system to handle everything you need to make the most out of using a giveaway and tracking your results so you can easily improve them.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty it is probably a 5 to get set up but once set up is probably a 2 to operate making it extremely easy to use.  The time savings are enormous that you can get if you regularly use giveaways or if you regularly set up resell rights and PLR products. Check out the video at Marketing Operator to see how it helps you.

The only downside if you primarily set up resell rights products and PLR products is that it is not set up for an affiliate program.

Overall though this is a piece of software that I will be using quite regularly for a variety of purposes especially tracking the results from the various giveaways.

Check out Marketing Operator

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: giveaways, Marketing Operator, Marketing Operator Review, resell rights, squeeze page, using giveaways

If you have already defined your business and reviewed your results from last year you are ready to start your planning.

Look at what worked last year and take some time to figure out why it worked. The reasons could be…

• Picked a good niche
• Generated lots of traffic
• Got great affiliate support
• or many other things depending on your business model

Now once you understand why it worked can any of those things be applied to the projects that did not do well or should they be killed off. (One of the toughest things to do is to kill off a project that does not work after you have a huge investment of time or money in it.)

You now have an idea of what to continue with and what not to continue. Add in new projects that will fit with what you are doing.

Now lay out what needs to be done for each part. This could be any of the following

• List building
• New products
• More affiliates
• More traffic
• and many more items

Create an action plan and write it down for the year. Sort it into a monthly plan and then further into weekly and daily activities. Prioritize these and you now have a plan to increase your business.

One of the things that was asked by quite a few people for this series was specifics on things like

• how many subscribers a day
• how much income a day
• how many new things to add

The problem is that each of these answers will be dependent on where you are at in your business. Adding 20 new subscribers a day may seem like a lot to one person and adding 200 a day may seem low to someone else.

The big thing is to break things into a daily and monthly plan, Measure your results at least monthly and if you are increasing reset your goals to be higher. If you are not increasing then check your plan and what you are actually doing. Make sure that you are actually getting results from what you are doing and that you are doing what you have planned.

It is very easy to get side tracked dealing with email, Twitter, Facebook, your favorite forum and not do the things that actually add to your business.

Finally revise as needed and measure your results against you and not what others are doing.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: action plan, business plan, daily goals, goals, weekly goals

Charles Burleigh here from www.StayHomeDads.com .

Mike asked me to relate my experience this past weekend at JV Alert Live in Philidelphia. It was my first ever Internet Marketing event and it was life changing!

JV Alert Live takes place 3 times a year and is hosted by Ken McArthur. This event is THE NETWORKING event in Internet Marketing, where hundreds of IMers gather to meet, learn, network, form new partnerships and create new products.

I arrived on Thursday night and everyone was gathering in the bar for networking and socializing. When I arrived I was kind of intimidated because there in person were some of the big names in IM that I’ve been following and buying products from. Names like Jeff Dedrick , Mike Steup, Brian Edmonson, Frank Sousa, and more. The place was crowded and there was a lot of energy and excitement.

As I was sitting there introducing myself to people, I heard, “Charles?” I turn and see none other than Pat Marcello!

Later that same evening I met Mike Paetzold!

The days were packed full of presentations by the likes of “Million Dollar” Mike Morgan, Yanik Silver, Larry Benet, Stuart Tan, Jeff Johnson, Simon Leung, Alan Bechtold, Keith Wellman and of course Ken McArthur. These sessions were packed with great information. I have over 30 pages of notes from these sessions!

We finished each evening around 5 or 6 p.m., and that’s when the real fun started! We stayed up till all hours of the night networking planning, strategizing and developing relationships.

Last night, Sunday, Mike Paetzold came up to me and said, “Just the guy I’ve been looking for.” I was shocked and surprised because he someone I really want to work with. Then came the biggest surprise…

“I want you,” Mike continued, “to write a blog post for my blog, as a guest author, telling what goes on here at JV Alert.”

I was shocked, and immediately humbled and gracious.

I was able to meet some incredible people, and have many new friends and partners.

I want to thank Mike publicly for this opportunity. This post, is EXACTLY what happens when you attend JV Alert Live. You have the opportunity to create partnerships and relationships with great Internet Marketers that will help the business of both partners to grow.

If there is any way you can attend the next event, do it!

Attending JV Alert Live has changed my life!

Hope To See You At JV Alert Live in the Future!

Best Wishes,
Charles Burleigh, “StayHomeDad”
www.StayHomeDads.com

Technorati Tags: jeff dedrick, jv alert, ken mc arthur, mike steup, pat marcello