Ways to Sell Online Memberships for Recurring Income

Do you want to know effective ways to sell online memberships for recurring income?

Online memberships have become a powerful revenue stream for businesses and individuals alike. Whether you’re offering exclusive content, community access, or specialized services, selling online memberships can provide a steady stream of recurring income.

However, determining the most effective way to sell online memberships for recurring income can pose challenges, particularly for first-timers. Fortunately, there are several proven strategies to capitalize on this opportunity effectively. By understanding and leveraging these ways, you can establish a sustainable revenue stream and foster a loyal community of subscribers.

In this article, we will discuss in depth the best ways to sell online memberships and generate recurring income for your business.

You should know that ProfilePress is the perfect solution for creating and selling online memberships if your website is built with WordPress. It is als capable of letting you sell online courses, digital downloads, restrict access and add paywall to your content, and create a community website with member directory and user profile.

How Does an Online Membership Work?

An online membership typically operates on a subscription-based model, where individuals pay a recurring fee in exchange for access to exclusive content, services, or community features provided by the membership platform. For example, you can let users access high-quality, “members-only” content on your site if they pay $200 monthly or subscribe to your membership plan.

Here’s a breakdown of how it works in detail:

Subscription Model: Memberships are usually offered monthly, quarterly, or annually. Users sign up and agree to pay a set fee at regular intervals to maintain access to the membership benefits.

Access to Exclusive Content: Members gain access to content unavailable to non-members. This content can include articles, videos, tutorials, webinars, podcasts, or any other form of digital media.

Specialized Services or Resources: Some memberships offer personalized services and resources such as coaching, consulting, downloadable tools, and software.

Community Interaction: Many online memberships foster a sense of community among members. This may involve access to discussion forums, social media groups, or private messaging platforms where members can interact, ask questions, share insights, and network.

Member Benefits and Perks: To incentivize membership, additional benefits or perks may be offered, such as discounts on products or services, early access to new content, exclusive events, or member-only promotions.

Automatic Renewal: Subscriptions are often set to auto-renew unless the member cancels. This ensures uninterrupted access to the membership benefits and convenience for the member.

Management and Administration: A membership platform typically includes features for managing subscriptions, processing payments, tracking member engagement, and communicating with members.

Benefits of Recurring Income for an Online Membership

Creating and managing an online membership comes with various challenges and opportunities. One key advantage is the ability to generate recurring income. Let’s explore some of the main advantages of getting a monthly regular income for your business.

Stability and Predictability: Selling your online membership and generating recurring income from it offers a stable and predictable revenue stream for your site. Unlike one-time product sales or service fees, which fluctuate from month to month, recurring subscriptions provide a consistent source of income that allows for better financial planning and management.

Scale and Growth Opportunities: As your membership base grows and more members join your site, your recurring income stream can scale accordingly. This scalability opens up expansion opportunities, such as adding new membership tiers, offering additional products or services, or diversifying your revenue streams.

Deeper Engagement and Loyalty: Recurring income incentivizes you to focus on delivering consistent value and excellent customer experiences to retain members and encourage them to renew their subscriptions. Investing in quality content, personalized interactions, and community engagement can foster deeper connections with your members and build a loyal community around your membership site. This sense of belonging and loyalty improves member retention and strengthens your brand reputation and credibility in the marketplace.

Best Ways to Sell Online Memberships

Now that we’ve covered how an online membership works and highlighted the benefits of recurring income, let’s discuss some of the best ways to sell online memberships and generate monthly recurring revenue for your business.

#1 Monthly Evergreen Content

Monthly Evergreen Content refers to content that is created regularly (typically monthly) and remains relevant and valuable to readers over time. Unlike timely or trending content that may become outdated quickly, evergreen content continues to provide value to readers regardless of when it was published.

An essential aspect of a monthly evergreen content subscription is selling online memberships that release new content every month. This means that regardless of when subscribers join during the month, they will only gain access to the content released the following month. For example, if a customer joins your membership site in January, they will have access to more content than a customer who joins in April or March. In a monthly evergreen content subscription model, all membership content is released sequentially based on the join date of your subscribers.

A monthly evergreen content subscription works excellently for businesses aiming to drip-feed content to their members and create a content sequence that keeps target audiences engaged while encouraging them to renew their subscriptions each month.

Types of Evergreen Content

Evergreen content encompasses many materials that address timeless topics, solve persistent problems, or provide foundational knowledge in a particular subject area. Examples include:

• Comprehensive guides and tutorials
• Educational courses and workshops
• Reference materials and templates
• Toolkits and resource libraries
• Inspirational content and motivational resources

Benefits for Members

Continuous Value: Subscribers gain access to a growing repository of high-quality content they can explore at their own pace, ensuring they receive ongoing value for their subscriptions.

Flexibility and Convenience: Evergreen content subscriptions offer flexibility, allowing subscribers to access content whenever they need it without time constraints or deadlines.

Tips for Implementing Evergreen Content 

• Create a diverse collection of evergreen content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience, ensuring relevance and value.
• The subscription library should be regularly updated with new content, updates, or enhancements to maintain subscriber interest and retention.
• To enhance engagement and community building, encourage subscriber interaction and feedback, and offer opportunities for discussion, Q&A sessions, or live events.
• Implement effective marketing and promotional strategies to attract new members and communicate the value proposition of your evergreen content subscriptions.

Examples of Successful Evergreen Content Membership Platform

Online Courses Platforms: Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and Skillshare sell online memberships that offer monthly subscriptions, providing members access to a vast library of educational courses covering various topics.

Content Libraries: Subscription-based content libraries, such as Medium’s membership program or Scribd’s unlimited reading subscription, provide subscribers with access to various articles, books, and documents.

#2 Month-Specific Content

You can consider implementing the month-specific content subscription model to sell online memberships. This unique approach allows members access to exclusive content for each month. This model ensures that members receive fresh, relevant, and timely content regularly, enhancing their experience and boosting the perceived value of the subscription.

For example, if someone signs up for the “Baking Mastery” membership in January, they can see the same content as someone who signs up later in the year. The main difference is that people who join earlier can see all the content from previous months. But if someone signs up in a later month, they can only see the content from that month and anything that comes after.

Even though new members can buy older content separately, this setup keeps things consistent for everyone. Plus, it allows businesses to make more money by getting new subscribers to purchase content from past months.

Benefits for Members

Fresh and Timely Content: Members receive new monthly content, keeping them engaged and informed.

Relevant Content: Content is customized to address current events, trends, seasons, or holidays, making it highly relevant and valuable to subscribers.

Tips for Implementing Month-Specific Content

• Create a detailed content calendar outlining each month’s topics and content types. Plan ahead to ensure consistency and alignment with your overall content strategy.
• Take feedback from your members to understand their interests, preferences, and expectations for month-specific content. Use surveys, polls, or community discussions to gather input and insights.
• Develop high-quality content that delivers value and addresses the specific topic for each month.
• Collaborate with experts, influencers, or industry leaders to contribute content or participate in interviews related to the monthly topic. This adds credibility and diversity to your content offerings.
• Promote month-specific content through various channels such as email newsletters, social media platforms, blog posts, and community forums.
• Encourage member engagement and interaction around month-specific content through activities such as discussions, challenges, contests, or live events.

#3 Full Access to Previous and Upcoming Monthly Content

To sell online memberships effectively, you can implement full access to previous and upcoming monthly content. This model grants members the privilege to access all content released in prior months and the content scheduled for release in the future. It is the best way to offer maximum value to your subscribers while encouraging them to renew their subscriptions each month.

For example, when someone new signs up for your membership site, they can see everything that’s been shared in the past and will have access to new content your business releases the following month. It’s an ideal way to encourage more users to join your membership site and helps build long-lasting customer relations with your members.

While this method of selling online memberships can seem overwhelming for new members, it’s also a great way to show your customers that they’re getting a good deal when they join your site.

Benefits for Members

Continuous Value for Members: Members gain access to a vast library of content spanning multiple months, providing them with a comprehensive resource from which to explore and benefit.

Flexibility and Convenience: Members can explore content at their own pace without feeling rushed to consume everything within a limited time frame. The flexibility to access content from previous months allows subscribers to revisit and review materials as needed.

Tips for Implementing Full Access to Previous and Upcoming Monthly Content

• Implement a clear structure, such as categorization by topic or date, to help members quickly find the content they’re interested in.
• Design a user-friendly interface allowing members to access previous and upcoming content easily.
• Encourage members to provide feedback on the content they consume and their overall experience with the membership site. Use this feedback to improve content and meet members’ needs.
• Provide responsive technical support to address members’ issues or questions about accessing or navigating the content. To accommodate members’ preferences, offer multiple support channels, such as email, live chat, or a dedicated support forum.

Which of these ways will you implement?

As we wrap up our discussion on ways to sell online memberships effectively for recurring income, the question remains: Which strategies will you implement?

Consider how each strategy aligns with your expertise, interests, and audience preferences.

Ultimately, the key to success lies in selecting the approach that resonates most with you and your audience and executing it with dedication, creativity, and perseverance.

The ProfilePress plugin enables you to implement any of the strategies discussed. This powerful WordPress membership plugin enables you to build paid membership sites, sell digital products, and control who can access your content.

So, take these insights and put them into action today!