Do you consider yourself a connector — someone who brings people together, whether it is in
\nbusiness or personal life? Maybe your knowledge or ideas position you as a thought leader in
\nyour field? If you answered yes to either question, consider leveraging your status by building a
\nmembership website that will generate passive income and build an online community.
\nReasons to build a membership website:
\n\u25cf You are an expert and want to sell access to your ideas instead of:
\n\u25cb Taking time to give individual advice or coaching.
\n\u25cb Letting people pick your brain for free.
\n\u25cf You belong to a loose community of people based upon interest in a specific topic. Paid
\nmembership can:
\n\u25cb Add more structure.
\n\u25cb Provide passive income for you or the group.
\n\u25cb Allow you to develop additional benefits for the group members.
\n\u25cf You have an existing group and want to provide more value to your members by
\nrestricting access posts or pages, events, tickets and networking to members only.
\n\u25cf You want to provide a way to connect people in your group to each other or potential
\ncustomers through an online directory.
\nWays to test the waters:
\nConsider which of the ideas below feel right for you and the kind of members you hope to have.
\nThe goal is to see if you can build an audience that can be converted to members with recurring
\npayments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
automatically. This can be handled within WordPress or you can use MailChimp\u2019s RSS-
\nto-email feature to send out branded emails.
\nCreate social media profiles:
\nThe goal of social media is to gain followers that could one day be members. When you have
\nreached critical mass in terms of the number of followers, it\u2019s time to build your membership
\nwebsite. Before you begin, consider that social media is not a one-way communication tool. You
\nwill need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cb Make posts on a regular — at least weekly — basis.
\n\u25cb Use hashtags to ensure your content is being seen more widely.
\n\u25cb Respond within 24 hours when people comment.
\n\u25cb Comment on other\u2019s posts, especially those in your field or industry. Answer
\ndirect messages within a day.
\n\u25cb And perhaps moderate discussions among group members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t start a group or set up profiles if you aren\u2019t prepared to spend time in these ways. If you
\nplan to create a number of profiles, use tools to schedule posts and centralize activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
initially they can attract followers for your channel. You\u2019ll also benefit from learning how
\nto create good videos before your videos need to be professional enough to warrant
\ncharging for them. Add links from your channel to all of your other social profiles and
\nyour email signup form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n