A survey of website member’s showed that paysite members would join and stay with a site if it provided the following:

A Solution To Their Problems:
If a dog owner is having a problems with their dog, they are probably very interested in finding a solution. That is why dog obedience schools are a thriving business. However, there is a large segment of the population that has a “do-it-yourself” attitude and would prefer to try to fix the problem themselves, rather than hire someone else to do it. Many of these people are willing to pay for the information that will help them.

Convenience:
While a person interested in dog training can do a Google search on the term, he will be overwhelmed with over 22 million results of which 99% are sales pages or worthless content. If a paysite gives them a collection of targeted content they will pay for it month after month. Many paysite members like to have all the information they need packaged in one place rather than trying to find it all themselves on multiple sites.

Exclusive or Hard to Find Content:
If your site offers them something they can’t get anywhere else, they will pay to become a member. The key is to find a hook, or what is known as a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). For instance, your site’s selling point may be “The only dog training site with over 40 hours of audio interviews”.

Low Entry Costs – While it used to cost a small fortune to start a paid membership site, now it can be done for under $20 and that includes the cost of the domain and hosting.

Almost Effortlessness Income – Once a paysite is started, it takes very little effort to operate the site. It’s the ultimate “Do It Once – Get Paid For a Long Time” business model.

Geographical Reasons – A paysite can be ran from anywhere in the world. A person living in India can run a site on Fly-fishing in Montana. Many paysite owners spend a lot of their time taking vacations and traveling the world. Occasionally, they will open up their laptop, check on their sites… then go on with their vacation.

Very Little Technical Expertise Required – Many people get started in paysites because they have problems operating other types of websites that require technical expertise. If you can install a blog and FTP some basic files, then you can create a paysite with the information in this book. Even if you can’t, you can pay someone $50 to do it for you to get your site up and running.
Other advantages of membership sites:

• Higher Conversion Rates: Generally a sales letter for a $19.95 membership site will convert three times higher than a $97 eBook. From my experience, the average conversion rate, with targeted traffic, for a $97 eBook is 1%, and the average conversion rate for a $19.95 niche membership site is 3%.

• Almost Zero Refunds: Unlike an eBook or other downloadable product, membership sites rarely have to make refunds. Members will more often than not simply cancel their recurring membership instead of asking for a refund.

• Stable predictable income: If you have a base of 500 members at $19.95 per month, then you can pretty much count on a recurring income of almost $10,000 the following month even if you don’t make another sale all month. Compare that to selling other products, where sales and income can dramatically fluctuate from month to month.

• Members are Pre-Qualified Buyers: Every person that enters your membership site is also a potential customer for other related products. And best of all, these are people that have a credit card (since they joined the site with one) and have shown that they are willing to use it on the internet. Many membership site owners actually make more money in upsells and backend products than they do on subscriptions.While the internet is full of a lot of free information, people are willing to pay to have information researched, refined, and organized.

Most forums, for example, are what you call free membership sites. Paid membership sites, also known as Paysites, require the member to pay before the member can access the content.

Pay per month membership sites are easier to start up and maintain than most people realize. Because paysites can be set to run on autopilot they are one of the best ways to build long term recurring revenue.

Paysites are one of the most profitable endeavors a private individual can begin on the internet. This is because paysites operate on the recurring revenue model. Many of the most profitable companies in the world use the recurring revenue model. Companies like AT&T, AOL, DirecTV make their profits by billing a loyal client base every month.