How to Price Your Membership Site

When it comes to profiting from a membership site, one of the most obvious and important decisions you’ll have to make is how much you’re going to charge your members for full access. This is a crucial decision because it will ultimately decide how much your visitors are spending for the privilege of gaining access to your premium content. That in turn defines the type of readers you will have and whether you are aiming to earn lots of money from a few visitors, or a small amount from a large number.

But there are some important caveats that will help you to get this perfect…

How Much is it Worth?

This should be your number one question: how much is the membership you’re offering worth in real terms? What can you offer your readers to increase the value? Would you pay for this membership, considering everything that you it has to offer?
If you have very little to offer your visitors at this point then you can start out charging just $1 a quarter. If you have a huge package and tons of content then you might choose to charge a bit more – perhaps $30 for the same amount of time.

Likewise, think about how exclusive and rare the content, how much it will benefit the readers and how highly you rate your expertise and that of any contributors.

The Importance of Valuing Yours Membership

Something important to consider here though is that you need to make sure your membership site isn’t priced too low. The problem with pricing low is that it suggests that being a member isn’t that special. One of the big selling points of any membership site is the chance to feel like a member of something important and to be treated like a VIP. People love exclusivity and privilege and this is one reason they’ll often pay for membership.

Price membership a little higher and you make it seem more exclusive, rare and more important – and surprisingly his can actually make it more desirable!

More Options

Note as well that you have more options for your pricing than just ‘high or low’. One example is that you can charge different amounts for basic and premium membership. This way you can encourage someone to upgrade their membership and thereby pay more than they otherwise would have.

Another option is to run special deals and discounts in order to attract the lower paying members – and this will also have the advantage of introducing ‘scarcity’ and ‘urgency’ to your offer, driving more sales!