As a WishList Member Certified Developer (and yes this is an affiliate link and I do get $$ if you use it to purchase the product), I just love introducing my clients to the world of membership sites. Over the past couple of years, Membership sites have been popping up here there and everywhere, and have quickly become the next best method for getting known as an expert in your field, building a community or developing your next product! For those of you who have been thinking about jumping into the world of membership sites but just don’t know where to start, I’ll be covering the top 10 membership site models over the next couple of weeks to give you an idea of the possibilities, and hopefully get your creative juices flowing. Part 1 will cover the first 5 top membership models, and we’ll finish up with Part 2 next week.

1. Publisher Model: This is probably one of the most common membership models, as it is one of the easiest ones to set up. With the publisher model, fresh content is delivered on a regular, ongoing basis – typically daily or weekly. With this type of membership, it doesn’t matter when someone becomes a member … because they will automatically gain access to the current content as well as all of the content that has been published in the past, which can be delivered in a variety of ways … as articles, audio files, video, PDFs, etc. A good example of this model is http://www.money-guy.com/. Content is delivered as an audio interview on a weekly basis with both a free and paid level of membership. The free level gives members access to the 15 latest shows and show notes as well as receive an email update every time a new show is posted. The paid level (Premium), however, gains instant access to a variety of other benfits and features. [Read more…]