Content is absolute King in the online world and nowhere so much as in membership sites. For most membership sites, the content will be the reason for continuing or canceling. This is how one informs one's members and keep them coming back for more. It is also an opportunity to showcase your expertise!
Planning is key and you should plan your content several months in advance. That's because it's|It is far too easy to get excited to start running the membership, only to get lost a few months down the road. When one strategical plans this in advance, it's just a matter of plugging in the content and going on from there.
The first thing you'll need to do in order to plan your content is some research into the needs of your niche. One of the great places to do this is in niche forums. Online forums are great because this is where passionate people hang out. Sort forum threads by the most viewed and replied to, and the chances are that you will find some hot topics.
Another great way to find ideas for great content is to go to Amazon.com. Search for books and magazines in the niche of your interest. Many of these books or magazines will allow you to search in a limited way inside them. Even without an Amazon registration, most of us can review the table of contents. The topics written in the table of contents will have some very good ideas for you to focus on alternately.
Your content planning does not have to be very in depth. Some people create whole outlines for every single month. Others just write down a few lines about the topic generally. This is frequently all you need to do! Consider that this is not only great for your own organizational purposes, but it can be a great way to entice your members. Showing them next month's hot topics makes it unlikely that they will cancel their membership.
After you have gathered the ideas for your content, and made your plan, you'll need to start writing the content. If you are an expert in the niche already, this should be quite easy to do. If you are not already skilled in the area, you can find a lot of information both on the Internet and at your local library. We suggest that you supplement your online research with material from known reputable authors to serve your members as best as you can.
Then you can get started writing! No time to write? Perhaps you can outsource to guru, scriptlancer or rentacoder. If outsourcing, be careful to first try to use native speakers for your chosen langauge. You may get it all done without having to do more than a few minor corrections here and there.
I have heard of two guys running a stock based membership site, who regularly pull down over 600,000 monthly.
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