Membership Sites | How to Create, Promote and Monetize Your Content

Choosing Web Membership Software to Create Membership Sites

Web membership software is used to create a membership site that you can run either from your own website or from a site provided by the software provider. There are several types of such software, each having its own advantages and drawbacks, but generally a software package allowing you complete flexibility is best.

By flexibility is meant the facility to personalize and customize the membership website to suit your needs. Hence, you would certainly want to use your own site name on it rather than be obliged to use a name provided by the software provider. This does happen, and some web membership software packages are supplied already populated with the products you must sell, and already branded with a name - not yours!

This is acceptable if the web membership software is free to use, but not if you are paying for it. Some marketers use a membership site as a marketing tool for themselves, and offer it free to others as long as they retain the originators branding and sell their products. In some cases that's the only product allowed, while others permit you to also sell your own - but not change the site name.

Components of Good Web Membership Software

While there is nothing wrong with free membership sites, this form of subscription software will not be of significant benefit to you if you are looking for a member site to bring you income from the monthly subscription fees as well as sales of your products or your affiliate products. What you should be looking for at best is as many of the following options as you can get:

Personalizable with your name and your brand or site name.

Fully customizable, so you can change the colors and the layout of the site.

Able to sell any products or services, including your own products and affiliate programs.

Hosted on your own website or with the option to have a hosted version if you need one.

Compatible with PayPal and other payment collection systems.

Compatible with ClickBank so you can integrate the site with products selected from the ClickBank Marketplace.

Compatible with your blog - or with blogging software included in the package.

Compatible with forum software or included in the package.

You may have other requirements, but these options would constitute a good web membership software package. It is possible that you already have PayPal and ClickBank membership, and can simply add payment links to your membership site, but if not then the facility to add these easily would be an essential feature.

Other features you could hope to find in a top class web membership software package are:

Duplication

The facility to run unlimited membership sites from one license or software package. If you are successful with your first site, you will likely want to start up another, and so on. Even a limit of 100 or so would be fine for you, but if you are limited to a single site then you might find it difficult to make a great deal of money.

True internet success comes from repetition: find something that works and repeat it time and time again. 'Rinse and repeat' is the term used, though the derivation of that phrase is obscure. Nevertheless, it is true. Make a few hundred dollars from one program, repeat that dozens of times simultaneously and you find you are making significant sums of money every day.

Membership Restriction

You must make sure that your total membership is not restricted. Since you make money from your members, the more you have the more you will earn monthly, and if the web membership software restricts the number of members you can register, then it also restricts your potential income. Make sure that is not the case before you buy the software.

Purchase or Subscribe?

You can either purchase web membership packages or subscribe, making a monthly payment for use of the software. There are pros and cons for each, and while an outright purchase is generally the least expensive option in the long run, you should keep in mind that the monthly cost of subscription software will be covered by your first two or three members.

One benefit of web membership software that is paid monthly is that you get the benefits of any updates. And you might also find new products being added on a regular basis. This keeps the products aspect of the site fresh, and you also get enhancements and improvements as they become available. Support also tends to be very fast and top class, because no business wants to upset regular subscribers - you will be the same with your own members.

Choosing web membership software might not seem easy if member sites are new to you, but if you keep the above advice in mind then you should be able to make the right choice. You generally get what you pay for, and if all you want is a very basic membership site then you needn't pay much - no more than about $57 for the whole software package. However, if you want to make real money online, then double that each month is realistic - keeping in mind that your subscribers will be paying it for you.

More information on how to create a membership site [http://memberdesk.com/blog/] is available on MemberDesk.com where you will find a package suitable for the most sophisticated subscription sites, allowing unlimited members in unlimited sites and domains. They are the authority on all things membership website [http://memberdesk.com/]!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6642321

How to Build an Email List Fast and for Free — My Secrets to Reaching 270k+ Subscribers

SEO vs PPC: A Quick Guide to Online Marketing

Search engine marketing is better than Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing on almost every occasion. However, there are many times when the search engines are not your friend, in which case the SEO vs PPC argument starts to apply. Here are the answers to the questions you haven’t asked yet but should and which will guide your marketing strategy.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Ranking up the search engines is just as important as being seen on the search engines. Nevertheless, your main priority should be to get yourself on the search engines like Google, Bing, and Ask, (Yahoo uses Bing’s index). Once you are on those search engines, your website will also become available on every app, online crawler, and search website that uses the same indexes.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

If you are paying for clicks so that people land on your website, then you need to get value for money. Sometimes, the value doesn’t come back via a profit, but through brand dissemination, social validation, or whatever marketing goal you are trying to achieve. For example, you may want to promote your YouTube video. You pay for clicks to it with the hopes that people clicking “Like” will help improve the video’s position in YouTube’s search engine results.

Can PPC Power a Website’s Traffic on Its Own?

PPC can power a website on its own, but you have to be very good at it. You need to be able to convert your traffic on a regular basis, and you have to make a profit on your sales on a very consistent basis. If your PPC is not paid for by the profits it produces, then it is not powering your website–it is propping up your website.
All of this brings up the question as to if SEO can power a website on its own, and in many cases, it can, and it can do so without the help of Google. You may be result #140,000 on the Google search engine results, but there are many web crawlers, online tools, and mobile apps that use the Google index. Your site may be last on Google’s results, but first on an app’s results.

Is It Always an SEO vs PPC Issue?

Let us not forget that search engines and PPC are not the only methods for getting traffic. There are many ways to generate traffic, but SEO and PPC are the most consistently dependable. For example, you could generate epic amounts of traffic via Twitter, but once you stop posting, or once you start losing your Twitter followers, you suddenly (and sharply) lose your web traffic. That is not to say that PPC and SEO cannot let you down, but not as often or as devastatingly as other traffic-generation methods.

Search Engine Marketing Wins

PPC can open many doors that search engines cannot, however, in terms of broad reach and long-term success, search engine optimization wins in most cases. Yet, do not forget that some websites and some online businesses simply cannot profitably function using search engines to generate traffic, in which case the SEO vs PPC question comes into play. A ready mixture of both may help your website grow at a steady rate.
There are hundreds of amazing articles full of brilliant tips and advice at Searchengineguide.com. Browse through a few of the other articles right here on our site, you will not be disappointed.

https://www.articlecity.com/blog/seo-vs-ppc-a-quick-guide-to-online-marketing/

7 Advanced Ways to Get Free Traffic That Converts | Neil Patel

How To Start An Online Business: How To Get A Tidal Wave Of FREE Traffic!

I hear people all the time asking, "How to start an online business?"

In this article, you will learn about:
The different kinds of traffic.
Why some traffic sources are better than others.
How to make sure you attract as much FREE traffic as possible.
Traffic sources to avoid like the plague. The first thing you must understand as you embark on your internet journey is that the internet is all about information. When you do a search let's say on growing tomatoes, it is no fluke that the first page of the search engine response is exactly about growing tomatoes, not cucumbers or a sale on cultivators.

This is exactly the same with any search term. This matching of search terms with the exact best website answering the search term has made some people very rich.

There are many sources of traffic:
Solo ads are ads you pay for people to put your ad on their mailing list. The traffic you get can be luke warm.
Pinterest pins are free or you can pay for promoted ads. This traffic is tightly focused.
Facebook ads are quite cheap, but you have to really know what you are doing to get them to accept your ads.
Google AdWords are the little ads you see on various websites. They are cost effective and generally deliver hot to buy traffic. There are quite a few other sources of traffic, but for this discussion I am going to focus on FREE search engine traffic.

There is more than 1 reason to understand what the search engines are looking for when assessing your website in order to send you organic (free) traffic. They have many criteria for judging a site.
How many pages does it have on various aspects of the site's main theme?
How long does the average visitor stay on site. (The longer they stay, the more useful information they must be getting and therefor the higher quality your site must be).
How many inbound links go to your site. The more that other sites link to yours usually means that they view your site as an equal or as an authority site on your subject. (This is pure gold for you)
Does your site sell unknown (maybe risky stuff) or do you offer quality links like Amazon or eBay?
Apparently they have hundreds of things they look for, but they are hidden in the secret search engine algorithms. Traffic sources to avoid are those offering tons of traffic for next to nothing. These usually have really low quality traffic and you stand a good chance of the search engines banning your site. This is bad news.

Some places offer content spinning software for you to create content for your site very quickly. These are to be avoided like Ebola because they take a simple piece of text and "spin it" many different ways. What you end up with is terrible text. The search engines can smell a rat and declare your site a poor place to send free or even paid traffic.

The search engines are all about quality of the content on your site. They even judge it when you buy traffic. If your site has a poor page ranking, they will charge you more for the traffic they send you than if your site is ranked highly for the quality of its content.

How to start an online business? Always keep in mind what your visitor is looking for.

An excellent example of this was someone who had an excellent site on anxiety attacks. He wrote an excellent eBook on the subject, but nobody was buying it. It's main theme was how to deal with an anxiety attack.

In desperation, he did a survey of his visitors. He found out that what they were looking for was NOT how to cure an anxiety attack, but "AM I HAVING AN ANXIETY ATTACK?"

He rewrote the eBook to satisfy the actual need of his visitors and his eBook is now selling briskly.

Traffic is the lifeblood of your site. Make sure to attract traffic that is looking exactly for what you offer.

By the way, if this article has gotten you to believe that how to start an online business isn't rocket science and that this is something that you can do, download my free PDF 10 day checklist How To "Start An Online Business".

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10203199

TOP 15 Best Webinar Software Products

How to Create a Webinar That Becomes an Online Course

Did you know that it’s possible to make over $100,000 a year selling online courses?
That’s right — and hosting a webinar is a great first step into the lucrative world of online education.
Webinars are live video events, usually with some elements of audience participation, that teach viewers a specific skill or technique.
opics for webinars and online courses range from ‘How to Make Money Selling on Amazon’, to, ‘How to Start an Aromatherapy Business.’ It’s important to choose a topic that you know well and have firsthand experience with.
Want to learn exactly how to create a webinar that later becomes a bestselling online course?
Keep reading for all the details.

Create Clear Audience Personas

Before you start planning and creating content, you need to know exactly who you’re targeting with both your webinar and your online course.
Is it stay-at-home moms looking to make some extra income online?
Is it small business owners who need help with social media marketing?
You should think about the age, gender, economic status, location, and personality of your ideal audience member, then target your webinar to them specifically.
This helps you make important decisions about the content you include, where you promote the webinar, who you invite to speak with you, and how much you charge for your course.
Don’t be vague about your target audience, as this makes it hard to decide on anything.

Know Exactly What You’re Teaching

Just because you have a general topic in mind, doesn’t mean you’re ready to start creating your webinar.
Make sure you’ve really drilled down to figure out what your audience needs to know, or you risk making your course too general.
For example, teaching online marketing to business owners is quite vague. Instead, you might need to focus in on a more specific area, like content marketing, social media marketing, or influencer marketing.
Honing in a specific area shows that you’re an expert, allows you to dive deep into topics, and makes it easier to select content to include.
Try creating an outline of the topic you’re planning to cover. If it feels too broad, you might need to focus in on just one of the sections instead.
Once you have your final outline, make the first section part of your webinar.

Make the Webinar Step One of the Learning Process

If you want people to purchase your course then it should feel as though it’s the natural next step to take after attending your webinar.
The best strategy is to start your webinar with an overview of why what you’re teaching is so important, with details about the positive outcomes learners can expect.
For example, ‘Learning how to market products on social media can increase sales by up to 300%.’
Once you’ve got people convinced that this topic is worth their time and money, you can launch straight into the content that will form the start of your course.
This way, viewers are getting genuine value and being encouraged to buy the full course.
It also allows you to reuse content, rather than having to everything from scratch, which saves time and helps you get more out of everything you create.
Using a dedicated learning management system makes it easy to manage your content and present it in different ways.

Include a Screen Sharing Portion If Applicable

If you’re explaining how to do something on a computer, try to include a screen sharing section in your webinar.
This lets you walk viewers through a new process in real-time and offers way more value than simply talking about the theory.
If you plan to include screen sharing in your course, now is a good time to test out different methods and make sure everything works well.
Screen sharing is especially useful if you’re using an obscure piece of software or doing something that has lots of complex steps. It shows that you actually know what you’re doing and aren’t just talking a good talk.
If possible, do some research before your webinar starts to identify pain points and decide what kind of screen sharing segment will work best.
Be sure to record the entire webinar, as sections like this can be reused when you come to publish your full course.

Interview Other Industry Panelists

If you don’t want your entire webinar to be you talking alone, consider interviewing another industry expert.
You could ask them questions about a specific skill they have, a project they’ve worked on, or a piece of software they’re an expert at using.
Ask if they’re happy for the interview to be used as part of your course to get extra value from the session.

Follow Up With a Live Q and A

A big part of the appeal of webinars is the fact that they’re live and allow viewers to interact with the host.
Including a dedicated Q and A session at the end of your webinar is a great way for audience members to get extra details on what they’ve learned.
It’s also a useful market research tool, as the questions you’re asked could be incorporated into your course later on, or used to make part of future webinars clearer.
You can accept questions via a text chat feature, or invite people to communicate via voice chat. Text chat works best for larger webinars, but voice chat is a nice option to offer if you have a smaller group.
Be sure to invite questions about your course to help increase the hype around it.

How to Create a Webinar With Long-Term Earning Potential

Knowing how to create a webinar that eventually becomes a full-length online course is ideal if you’re looking to boost your income.
Focus on creating a clear audience persona, targeting a very specific topic, and creating webinar content that can be reused in your course. Allow questions on your course content and invite feedback to make your course the best it can be.
Need help marketing your first webinar? Visit the digital marketing section of our site today.

https://www.articlecity.com/blog/how-to-create-a-webinar-that-becomes-an-online-course/

5 Proven Ways to Make Money on Social Media (No Product Needed)

3 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2020

Social media marketing is forecasted to grow rapidly, estimated to more than double in market size from 2018 to the year 2023.
Most markets do NOT double in size within five years. This growth rate is a strong indication that social media marketing is not going anywhere.
However, it is going to morph with the times. If you are a small to medium-sized business, you need to know about any social media marketing predictions, so that you can keep ahead of the already complex social media marketing game.
Therefore, to keep your social media marketing methods effective into 2020—read on and find out how social media marketing is predicted to change.

1. Organic Video Content Goes Big

Advertising prices are rising across platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks to this, it is likely that many marketers will utilize the production of video content for the promotion of their brands.
According to statistics, video content is the content type with the highest level of engagement. 83% of marketers believe it is growing in importance, and 53% of consumers engaging with a brand after watching video content from them.
What’s more, video content offers the ultimate ‘pause scroll’ advantage. Thanks to its engaging format, consumers are likely to stop scrolling when a video starts playing within their feed. Provided that it is attention-drawing from start.
This poses large potential gains on social media, where everyone is vying for the users’ time and attention.

2. Businesses Will Take Advantage of Stories

Social media stories and live video have exploded in popularity. Fed up with staged and stilted content from influencers and brands alike, users are looking increasingly for content that is real, raw, and unfiltered.
While many businesses have held back from posting stories, for fear that it will be unprofessional, 2020 is likely to be the year when businesses access the full potential of stories and give their audience more behind-the-scenes and authentic content.
Incidentally, Joseph Kenney, the president of 316 Strategy Group, often refers to the brilliance of Snap Spectacles which were launched in September of 2016. Spectacles are high-tech sunglasses which carry a tiny camera with a 115-degree field of vision plus a microphone and can be used to create authentic stories and live video via the Snapcat app. Although still in use, they didn’t catch on. Kenney says innovations like these foretell that the future will hold more live video and stories, not only from consumers but from brands as well. Kenney encourages businesses of all sizes to give consumers a behind the scenes look into your brand or business. It’s one of the easiest and most often overlooked ways of building trust with the consumer.

3. Social Media Predictions That Quality Content Will Become Even More Key

With consumers increasingly tiring of typical marketing content and overtly self-promotional advertising—the stage is set to see social media marketing relying more and more on quality content.
Quality content has always been king. However, with increasing competition on platforms, 2020 is likely to see an even more heightened need for social media marketing content that engages users and which speaks to their tastes, interests, and needs.

Are You Ready for 2020?

Do you feel ready for 2020? The advice from these social media marketing predictions will go a long way to preparing you for the new year in social media marketing and what it will bring.
If you are in need of professional social media marketing services to keep up with this ever-evolving (and crucial) form of marketing—you can call on us.
We are avid followers of changes in social media. Our president, Joseph Kenney, has spoken on social media across the country, throwing to light developments in the space and what is to come.
We are the proud leader for social media in the Omaha, Des Moines, and Nashville markets. So, do your marketing strategy a favor, and browse our services today.

https://www.articlecity.com/blog/3-social-media-marketing-predictions-for-2020/

Best Web Hosting For 2020

Change Web Hosting Providers in 2020 and Use These 8 Principles to Find a Better One

There are 1.7 billion websites online right now.
The way that those billions of websites sit on the internet is that they’re all hosted on physical servers that are hard-wired into the World Wide Web.
If you’re reading this article, you probably knew that already. After all, assuming you’re a website owner, you’ve probably had to go through the stress of picking a web hosting provider to get your site up and running.
While we get that you probably don’t want to go through that stress again, we really think that you should change web hosting providers (or at least consider it) next year to cash in on price and performance upgrades.
In this article, we offer some tips on how to find the perfect host to switch to.

1. Do a Reputation Scan

There are a lot of web hosts offering their services online. While many of them are good and dedicated to providing the best possible customer experience, other hosts aren’t.
Of course, no bad web host is going to advertise on their website that they’re bad. They’re going to promise you the moon and the stars and the moment that your credit card gets charged, they’re going to burn you.
To avoid getting bamboozled on your hosting experience, do reputation research on any hosting provider that you’re considering before signing on the dotted line. People’s online reviews should be telling as to what you can expect.

2. Look at Pricing

One of the top reasons why people change web hosting providers is that they want to cash in on better pricing. If you feel like you’re paying way too much to have your website hosted, you’re going to want to make savings a top priority in your plan to switch.
Web host pricing isn’t too hard to find. Just go on a host’s website and they should have their rates promoted on their front page.
As a matter of fact, any hosting provider that’s being coy about letting you know how much they charge is A) A scam company or B) A company that’s targeted at enterprise customers.

3. Watch Out for Promotions

One of the absolute worst parts about getting a web host is the bait-and-switch pricing schemes that they use. You know what we’re talking about.
A host flashes a great price in front of you and then 12-months later when your account auto-renews, your price magically goes up by 400%.
To make sure that you’re not caught off guard by promotional rates, understand how much your web host will cost when you to renew and shop based on that price rather than their low initial promotional rates.
Some hosts have price-lock programs that promise to keep rates the same. If you can find a host like that, jump on their offer.

4. Consider Upgrade Options

Different websites have different hosting needs. As your website grows, you may very well have to upgrade from one kind of hosting package to another.
Consequently, picking a web host that offers hosting plans that you can easily grow into is a big plus.
In general, a good host will offer shared, virtual private and private web hosting packages.
If your host only offers shared hosting, you might want to think twice about doing business with them since you may run into problems if a server migration becomes necessary.

5. Think About Customer Service

A lot can go wrong with your website. Your web host’s customer service team can either make solving those issues a breeze or a nightmare.
Read reviews regarding a web host’s customer service team. If you’re seeing that their group seems to be made up of unhelpful people that pass around problems and aren’t domestically based, you’d do well to avoid all of that.
Sometimes, you have to pay a premium for a web host that offers exceptional customer support. In our opinion, that premium is well worth it.

6. Get The Full Story on Unlimited

Just about every web host offers unlimited bandwidth, storage, sub-domains, etc. What they don’t tell you though is that they reserve the right to mess with your site if they feel you’re taking up more than your fair share of resources.
Ask what your prospective web host’s policy is on taking full advantage of their unlimited services. If they tell you that they will slow your site down or take your site offline if you scale too quickly, move on.

7. Always Go With a Trial

When you change web hosting, try to switch over to a host that ticks the boxes we’ve discussed thus far and offers a trial. Any web host that’s not willing to stand by their services by offering a trial or money-back guarantee is likely trying to take your cash and run out the door.

8. Ask Yourself if Migrating is Worth It

This post is meant to entice you to see what your alternative hosting options are. If you’re finding that new deals aren’t that much better than what you’re getting with your current hosting package, stay where you’re at.
There’s no point in undergoing the stress of a server migration if you’re not going to get something great out of your efforts.

Wrapping Up What to Look for When You Change Web Hosting

Most people that change web hosting providers enjoy better service for a lower price. If you stand to reap those benefits by making a switch, we recommend doing so!
Looking for more write-ups that can help you solve technical problems, improve your business and more? If you are, browse more of the content that we have featured on our blog now!

https://www.articlecity.com/blog/change-web-hosting-providers-in-2020-and-use-these-8-principles-to-find-a-better-one/