Sharing our most popular subscription website publishing posts — feel free to chime in!
The subscription website publishing posts below get into subscription website best practices in design and monetization. They also dive into the many different archetypes that we’ve identified.
If you have any other favorites, or suggestions for posts we should write about, please let us know in the comments!
1. The 9 Most Profitable Subscription Website Business Models [+ Video]
Soon to be updated once again (we do this at least one per year), this post explains nine discreet models for subscription websites. These include six premium (paid) models and three affinity (free) models. In many cases, two archetypes are needed for success: a portal or blog to drive traffic, and a premium subscription website to use as a primary monetization factor.
2. The Membership Subscription Website Business Model
In this model members (subscribers) register and pay to access information that is organized by topic or to research information and find answers to a question. Some membership subscription websites require payment by the donor; others require payment by the member.
3. The Mysterious UTM Code Explained
An Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) code is the way that businesses track sales from their origination point (like a tweet, email or a brochure) down the funnel to their conversion page. Every audience development campaign is packed with UTM codes to see which campaigns perform best. In Google Analytics, these codes can be tracked under the general “Traffic Sources” area just like any other source.
4. 3 Top Niche Membership Website Ideas for 2014
Users of membership websites are looking for other people: Some are looking for dates, such as at Match.com, and others are looking for employers, as at The Ladders. Membership sites are about connecting people to people in a value transaction, and they work best when there are repeated transactions.
5. What Do the Best Membership Websites Have in Common?
The goal of a membership website is to acquire and retain members. After all, membership websites generate the majority of their revenues from user access fees. The business model is similar to a print newsletter or magazine that accepts little or no advertising, relying primarily on user support.
6. The Newsletter Subscription Website Business Model
Newsletters have long been a staple of the periodical publishing industry, focusing on a specific, narrow topic in a shorter, less graphic format than magazines, usually black and white text only and shorter than 20 pages. The newsletter subscription model is one of the more profitable models on the Internet by using certain characteristics that help to promote the newsletter to increase circulation and profits.
7. The Magazine Subscription Website Business Model
A magazine subscription website archetype is set up to build subscriptions for a related print or digital magazine and to provide access to issues of the magazine. A magazine website is only a magazine website if the user can view or download an issue of a magazine—one that is linear and periodic, has pages and a regular frequency, and can be viewed in HTML, downloaded as a PDF or downloaded to a mobile device. The MIU of the magazine subscription website is an article.
8. The Portal Subscription Website Business Model
A portal subscription website aggregates content from outside sources. Portals are intended to build and feed an audience; they are specifically designed for SEO, email marketing, list building, and lead generation.
9. 8 Subscription Website Homepage Ideas for Audience Engagement
We’ve come up with eight subscription website homepage ideas which can help you offer a better customer experience. These subscription website homepage ideas are needed elements to website homepage design, especially if you want to increase time on site and pages per visit.
10. 10 WordPress Membership Plugins That Work
If you’re running a website on WordPress, you probably know that it’s not meant to be run as a membership website. However, being as flexible as WordPress is, you’ll find many publishers who have turned it into a full-fledged membership or subscription site with these plugins.
Now it’s your turn! If you have any favorite subscription website publishing articles on the Mequoda blog, please let us know in the comments!
