Planning is Essential to Starting a Membership Site

By Robert Williams

You may be very excited about starting a membership site and be filled with all kinds of ideas about the type of site(s) you wish to start. Before you jump in with both feet, it is best to do some planning and research ahead of time to ensure your work is put into the right place.

There are, unfortunately, some markets that aren't as popular as others, and some markets do not have willing buyers. Yes, it is possible to teach the market the importance of buying information, but that can be a very long and slow process.

If you are looking to make a quicker profit with your membership site, it is best to do the research upfront rather than putting in a bunch of work, only to find out that people are unwilling to pay for access to your site.

The idea of researching your market may seem a little scary or overwhelming if you haven't done much research before, but it can be a fun and interesting task. Plus, the more you learn about your market, the better able you will be to provide information the customers are looking for.

One of the first steps in your research could be to do a Google search and see what type of competition you have. For example, if you are interested in starting a content membership site with information for dog owners, type that into Google and see what comes up.

If no other sites come up, the normal tendency may be to feel excited. You may be thinking, "I hit upon a gold mine - there's no competition." However, this is actually a sign to be cautious. It may be a sign that other people have tried this idea before and failed. The reason behind the failure could be something on their part, but it could also mean that the market you are trying to reach is not interested in paying a membership fee for access to a website.

If you find a few other competing sites, look around and see what type of memberships they are offering and what their price points are. You may want to go ahead and purchase a month's membership to see what type of content they are offering their subscribers. If you feel that you can do what they are doing at least 10% better, then go ahead and develop your site.

Another idea is to do some keyword research through wordtracker to see what type of searches people are performing. You can enter some keywords that will be relevant to your site and see how many searches have been performed on them. If a lot of searches are coming up, then you know it is a popular topic. If no one is searching for this information, you may want to reevaluate your ideas.

By putting more work and research into your membership site in the beginning, it will be more profitable and easier to manage as it grows.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Robert Paul Williams is the Editor of Work At Home Business Website. Come Browse Our Free Article Library. Stay Informed with the Latest Home Business Website News, Success Tips & Strategies. Monetize Your Site Today with Audio Ad Clips

Writing the Perfect Sales Letter - the Basics

By Nickolove Lovemore

Here's a 7-step plan recommended by Internet marketing expert, Armand Morin, for writing the perfect sales letter:

1. Headline
2. Shocking statement
3. Tell your story
4. Introduce the problem
5. Agitate the problem
6. Give your solution
7. Introduce your product

Let's take a look at the first and last of this 7-step plan.

The headline is the most important element of a sales letter. It is the first thing a person will see when they land on your website and it plays a critical role in whether a prospect will continue reading your sales copy or whether they will click away.

Many great copywriters will tell you that 90% of their time is spent on the headline because it is fundamental to the success of a sales letter. Changing the headline alone can dramatically affect your sales. Armand Morin said that a change in one of his website's headlines resulted in an 800% increase in sales. Sounds almost unbelievable but other Internet marketing experts and copywriters can also attest to such statistics.

Armand Morin also gives a basic template for a headline which is:

"If you want to do this, this and this then this is what you will receive."

Alex Mandossian's headline for his main sales page for Teleseminar Secrets is a classic example of this.

"If you're an entrepreneur, independent professional or small business owner, I encourage you to find out why my Teleseminar Secrets training is absolutely your fastest, easiest and most economical way to:"

He clearly identifies his target audience and then gives three irresistible hooks - 'ease', 'speed' and 'save money'. Althought I have used a colon here, Alex Mandossian actually ends his headline with three dots. These draw your eyes downwards to the eight benefits of Teleseminar Secrets that he lists below.

Internet Marketers use multiple ways to increase the stickiness of their websites because they know they have mere seconds to convince a person to stay or click away. Hence, the use of graphics, colour, audio, video, font size, etc.

Alex Mandossian uses a relatively small font size in his headline - just 14px and the headline is written in sentence case for Alex is talking to you, seducing you with his words. In this case it's very effective.

Now for the main part of your sales letter - point 7. When you are introducing your product Armand Morin recommends "chunking" or writing in segments. Each chunk is capable of standing alone but it also flows into the next chunk and provides a compelling reason why someone should buy your product.

In other words it describes the problem that your product will solve. After each chunk you ask for the sale. Therefore, you will end up asking a prospect to buy your product 7-8 times. If you only ask a person to buy once then if they say "no" you are left high and dry.

There's an art and science to copywriting and research has shown that, for the average person, you have to ask for the sale at least 7 times to close the sale. If you only ask for the sale once you really are shooting yourself in the foot.

You have to understand what happens mentally when a qualified prospect reads your sales letter. They are interested in your product and if they are continuing to read your sales letter their interest is increasing but as soon as you ask them to buy their interest drops. You are trying to persuade them to get their credit card out while they are thinking of reasons not to spend money.

But they stay on your website and continue reading so you give another compelling reason to buy. Their interest starts to rise but again drops when you ask for the sale. However, if your copy is working, the resistance to buy is not as great. Can you see that with a successful sales letter a person's interest will therefore climb in saw tooth fashion until they click your order button?

The trouble is you don't know what reason will trigger the buying response. This is why you need to ask multiple times. Software exists so you can actually track the effectiveness of your order buttons and this data can help you to improve the conversion rate of your sales page.

You also have to convince a person why it is important to buy your product NOW, TODAY. You have to think that your prospects will never come back and so you have to pull out all the stops while you have your prospects in front of you.

There are two main ways to persuade a prospect to buy now. One is to make your offer time-sensitive, e.g. you can have special bonuses that are only available for a limited period. You can also have a limited quantity of your product. For instance, you may be promoting a membership site that you want to restrict to a limited number of individuals.

So there you have it, some of the basics that go into creating that perfect sales letter. While I have only skimmed the surface of this topic, the beauty of this is that even if you applied just one thing from the information provided you can still dramatically increase your conversion rates and transform the bottom line of your online business.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Check out Expert Internet Marketing Tips Blog for news, tips and great resources. And for a great program that will give you the low-down on writing sales letters with high conversion rates and much more about building a successful business online in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step manner visit Internet Marketing Made Clear.