What is the Point of Having Free Memberships

Posted on 25. May, 2010 by Steve in Tips & Tricks

Creating a membership website has proven to be one of the most effective ways to create a sustainable income online. While the benefits of a membership site with paying members has its obvious benefits and methods of generating a profit are obvious, having free members may not be. In reality, having either free member tiers or simply a membership that has no subscription fees at all, can be a profitable venture.

The most common way that website owners profit from free members is to simply create multiple membership tiers. The most basic tier is free. This gives members a chance to see inside the membership site and determine whether or not the additional content is worth paying for. If it is, they are likely to upgrade to become paying members. While free members will not get access to the premium content, they should be able to see enough to find value in becoming a paying member.

Another way that free members can be profitable is to treat free members just like you would someone who is on your mailing list. Almost every mailing list is free to sign up for, however they are also extremely profitable. You can profit from free members of your membership site in the exact same way.

The first way that this is possible is to simply provide them with offers that can generate you income. This may include affiliate offers, offers for your own complimentary products, or simply referral traffic profits. Along the same lines as affiliate offers, free members create an excellent bargaining chip when trying to establish joint ventures.

Another way to profit from free members is to use the additional traffic they generate to boost the value of your advertising space. Instead of having a bunch of different affiliate banners, you can sell the ad space instead. Since your membership site offers a free membership tier, your total membership numbers will be much higher, which in turn makes the advertising space more valuable. While this is not a profit that comes out of the members wallets, it is still additional income that streams through your membership site.

There are a variety of other ways to benefit from a free members tier or simply a website without subscription fees. However, creating an upgradeable free tier, promoting affiliate offers, creating joint ventures, and selling ad space remains that most common methods of making a profit from non-paying members of your membership websites.