Internet publishing profitability boils down to four elements
Most traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses have known for years that essentially there are only four ways to generating additional revenue:
- Acquire more customers with whom to do business.
- Increase your average dollar amount per sale.
- Increase the frequency with which you do business with these customers.
If you’re publishing a membership website or online newsletter, generating website revenue translates into:
- Acquiring more subscribers for your membership website.
- Increasing your subscribers’ average length of membership (number of renewal cycles).
- Increasing the total sales in related products and the frequency with which you sell these products to your membership website subscribers.
If you serve a small niche market, then generating website revenue may require creating additional information products, doing joint ventures with other entrepreneurs, and joining the affiliate programs of other Internet publishing businesses that offer quality products and services.
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What about generating website revenue by charging more for your membership website?
Of course, the fourth solution to generating website revenue is to raise your prices.
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Some women won’t buy anything unless they can pay a lot.
Her face cream, formulated according to a family recipe, made Helena Rubinstein a fortune. She charged handsome prices for her products by creating both real and perceived value.
She didn’t just sell cosmetics. She sold hope. She offered the promise of romance.
Are you charging enough for your membership website or information products? If not, you may be leaving money on the table because of the perception of their value.
Consider the time and effort you expend, plus the specialized knowledge required to produce your proprietary information products. With a membership website, as with a printed newsletter, you do the same amount of editorial work whether you have 10 subscribers or 10,000.
Then consider your support issues. With this component of your membership website, the more subscribers you have, the greater support you are required to provide. Are you charging enough to be compensated adequately for answering questions, coaching and monitoring the discussion forum?
Hint: You’ll probably enjoy greater satisfaction having 1,000 subscribers paying you $225 annually, than having 3,750 subscribers paying $60 annually. The membership website income is the same but with fewer, higher-paying subscribers, you deal with fewer kooks and cranks, and the rewards will exceed the monetary.
Finally, consider the perceived value of your membership website. What promise does it fulfill for your subscriber? How important does she think it is in terms of her ego gratification, income, or just plain fun? Does is get her closer to her dreams?
Helena Rubinstein knew that they are all important.
The combined components—content, service and perceived value—are all factors in creating real value and determining right price for your membership website.
If you have the right niche, provide outstanding content and service, and market your membership website properly, generating website revenue won’t be a problem, Your subscribers will pay the membership website price that you ask and deserve.
