20 Successful Membership Website Ideas

Membership Website Ideas

So, you are ready to build your first membership website. 

Nice to hear that you have now realized the importance of online business in your space.

You might be excited and a bit nervous at the same time for your upcoming membership website.

Maybe you don’t know what niche to pick, what value to provide your visitors, and how much it should cost. 

And most importantly, how much revenue can I generate from my membership site?

In this article, I will provide examples of great membership websites that can inspire you and hopefully spark some ideas in your head. 

But before getting into it, we need to cover some basic things.

What Is a Membership Site?

A membership site is a type of online business where you provide some sort of recurring value to your members who typically pay for it on a monthly or an annual basis.

These websites are a great way to build your audience and community while making a recurring revenue.

Now, it may sound super hyped and “too good to be true” that people will come to your site, see your content and start paying you for it. It usually isn’t as simple as that, but that’s essentially a simplified version of how membership sites work.

When creating a membership site, you need to be super clear what you are going to do, what you are going to offer people, what is your goal behind it (except for just making money), and what content you are going to create for your members. 

You need to provide something really valuable to people. And valuable is a relative term. In some instances it can be educational content, in other cases, it can be something different like entertainment (Netflix is a good example).

The important thing to be aware of is that the content has to be valuable to your members, not necessarily to you.

There can be different ways that you can create content for your membership site. Some people may love to read PDFs, emails & articles, while some people will prefer to listen to podcasts & videos.

There are many different ways to go about it, but it has to make sense and be valuable to your members as they are the ones who are paying you.

Why Membership Sites Are a Great Business? 

Membership sites are getting popular day by day. Both of the members and site owners can earn a huge benefit in several ways. Here are some of those:

Build your Community & Relationships

If you want your members to stick around, you need to build relationships with them. Figure out their problems, help them out if you can. Respond to their queries ASAP, make them feel important, and take care of them.

By doing that you will build a great community of people that help each other, and that trusts you. It’s a great feeling to be a part of such a “tribe”, let alone be responsible for creating it.

Not only that, but it’s also a great way to build your audience for business purposes. You can collect emails that you can then use for marketing purposes, survey people, and then offer another product or service that would help your members while simultaneously helping you make more money.

Recurring revenue

A great thing about membership sites from the business perspective is that you can earn recurring revenue. Most membership sites that I’ve come across charge a monthly or an annual fee for their membership. 

Isn’t it great to know where your next payment will come from and not having to find new clients every month?

Of course, every month you will have some people leaving while others will be joining. However, if you have a good membership site and keep on providing value every month, you shouldn’t have that many people leaving.

That’s why recurring revenue is one of the best benefits of running a membership website.

Leverage 

Leverage is one of the most important principles in business. It basically means: “How can I get disproportionate results from my efforts”. 

Unlike some businesses like running a restaurant or a digital marketing agency, a membership model (when done right) is much more scalable and you have bigger leverage.

Think about it. If you had a membership site where you teach people once a week for 2 hours via a video call, would it be much different to teach 100 people vs 500 people?

For the most part, the amount of effort required will be the same. And that’s the beauty of a membership site. You can increase your profits disproportionately to the amount of work that you put in. 

Now, let’s explore some of the membership website ideas.

Membership Website Ideas with Examples

An idea is the first step to build a successful business. You should first try to brainstorm your own ideas. 

What problem do you face in your daily life? 

What is your expertise?

How can you help others solve the same problem?

Below are some examples of membership sites that you may get inspired by and want to emulate.

1. TemplateMonster

If you are a developer, who knows how to develop websites, plugins & templates, you can surely make a passive income per month. Here, we are talking about the best membership site on plugins & templates known as TemplateMonster.

TemplateMonster

It is a website built to help people design their website in the easiest way.

They are providing thousands of assets for website design & building, graphics design templates & WordPress Plugins at a monthly subscription fee. People can access their products at an affordable monthly payment.

2. Kelbyone

Kelbyone is offering monthly & annual memberships named Plus & Pro, to access their photo editing & graphics training. They have more than 800 courses & they also add 1 new course every month.

Kelbyone

No doubt, they have a dedicated team to handle this as it takes time, effort, and money to maintain such a website and pay your instructors. 

However, you don’t need a big infrastructure in the beginning and can build a simplified version of the website using WordPress and its plugins. Alternatively, you can partner up with a developer to build a website like this.

People who want to pursue their career as a Photo Editor will definitely want to learn from you. You can produce & launch the whole video course once without worrying about updating again and again.

You can also teach video editing (or any other software) as it is extremely related to this.

3. Code Academy

“Everybody should learn how to code because it teaches you how to think to solve a problem” – Steve Jobs

Code Academy is a leading website on the internet that teaches development. More than 45 million people in the last seven years across the globe have learned to code using Code Academy.

Code Academy

They have a Pro version for their members, with a 14 days’ money-back guarantee or a free trial for a limited time to make their members feel secured. 

Once you are done with a course, you can get their certificate. Each course has a milestone timeline, which helps its users to understand where to start. 

They also let their members connect with other members & instructors to ask queries, make projects & get them checked. It is one of the best membership site examples.

If you are a developer, you can build your own membership website with a similar structure and teach people how to code.

Building a similar website may include topics like:

  • Website development
  • iOS development
  • Full-stack development
  • Front End development
  • Android Development

4. Oberlo101

Oberlo 101

Oberlo is teaching people drop-shipping with their 8 hours long course known as Oberlo101, launched by Jessica Guzik.

They are teaching aspiring dropshippers how to start an online store, how to find a profitable & trending product, Facebook ads strategy, up-selling & a lot of other things for less than $50.

This looks like a good entry-level course for drop-shipping, but there’s a lot of work to do. 

If you are an experienced dropshipper and you know e-commerce very well, you can certainly build a similar site but with better and more in-depth content. Another idea would be to provide a community feature and/or group coaching calls to deliver better experience and results.

5. Harmon Brothers

Harmon Brothers

Harmon Brothers is a website that teaches people how to write a video script that sells.

Video Sales Letters (VSL) have been a popular way of selling for years if not decades and it has proven to be an effective strategy if done correctly.

Harmon Brothers will teach you how to write video scripts to become a professional VSL marketer.

When users purchase their video ads script challenge, HB gives them instant access to their 14 days video script challenge. This also includes over 50 exercise workbooks for a lifetime, with their dedicated Facebook group to help their members to get feedback & suggestions for their video ad.

They deliver the video lessons from day one along daily exercise to teach their members how exactly things work.

6. Mark Bowden

Mark Bowden

Mark Bowden is a qualified clinical hypnotherapist for life strategies. He runs a website named MarkBowden.com, dedicated to hypnotherapy. He is the best-selling hypnotherapist on Amazon who also had collaborated with British Airways for sessions which got popular.

His sessions have reached over 13 Million people across various countries, helping people to live their life happily through his sessions.

He has over 85 sessions in audio format which people can listen to if they buy a monthly subscription.

Mark has covered several topics like confident dating, anxiety relief, relaxation, creative thinking, motivation, gain confidence, positive thinking & a lot of other topics. 

Once people purchase their membership or a single session, they get a downloadable link to download the session(s) in an MP3 format. He also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, which is again a great thing to win members.

7. Jessica Sprague

Jessica Sprague

Jessica Sprague’s website is one of the most successful & recommended sites by Teachable.

Jessica has used her skills she knows like photo editing, WordPress themes, web design & a few others to teach people how to design in Photoshop.

All of the courses she has on her site are taught through video instructions. She has been teaching such courses for 13 years.

When people purchase a course, they have given lifetime access to the course content with 30 days’ money-back guarantee.

8. Digital Marketer Lab

Digital Marketer Lab

Marketing is getting difficult day by day and DM Lab claims that they made it easy for everyone. Launched by Ryan Deiss, hhis website is a bible for those who want to start their career as a digital marketer.

After signing up, members can get instant access to tons of digital marketing content, which has been taught by successful marketers. All of the content available on the DM lab is in video format. Learners have a complete action plan with a task for each day.

They have various content formats like articles, PDFs, checklists, playbooks, workshops with a supportive community of people. 

They have courses on topics like Content Marketing, Social Media Advertising, SEO, Email Marketing, Podcasting, Video Ads and a lot of other marketing related stuff. All of these cost less than $50/month to an individual and they also provide membership to teams & agencies.

9. Astrosymbolica

Astrosymbolica

People are curious about how astrologists predict anything. Do they have any special power, or it’s something else?

Astrosymbolica is helping people to learn western astrology. They help to study the planets, natal charts, signs, horoscopy & the other astrological elements.

Their course includes its history, influence over the centuries, its type like horary, karmic, modern astrology, zodiac signs, classifications, planets locations & impact on the prediction & way more things. 

Their course is a 25-hrs long course, with 64 lectures & 25 assignments. They also provide certification after the completion of the course.

Their membership price is a one-time fee of $20, which includes lifetime access to the course, assignments, quizzes, certified mentorship with a certification after passing their exam.

10. Ultimate Job Interview

Help people find their dream job & what they actually deserve. People have skills, but they don’t have such confidence to face & pass an interview.

Ultimate Job Interview

If you think you can help them, just get into it by either launching your own course or by providing them a PDF each month.

Check out how the Ultimate Job Interview is doing. They have an entire course for this which includes 06 modules, 27 video lessons which can take up to 04hrs to complete the content with some worksheets.

Teach people how to dominate their job interviews by teaching them how to satisfy the interviewers and convince them they are the right fit for their business company.

11. Running Restaurants

Running Restaurants

A membership website launched by Jaime Oikle that provides business tools for accounting & managing the restaurants to grow their business without hustling.

Their members get access to printable, eBooks, spreadsheets, downloadable guides, articles, podcasts, webinars, seminars, sales tips, email marketing & checklists, which help them to build a strong strategy in order to get more sales & customers at the minimum costs.

Running Restaurants subscription costs $500/year or $49/month. They also offer 90 days money-back guarantee. It is a good example of a  membership website idea in a broad niche.

12. Bekahfit

Bekahfit

Bekahfit is a fitness website, targeting females that exercise.

It was launched by Bekah and she has been training the ladies on how to modify and shape their bodies, how to work out while being pregnant.

The website covers a lot of topics from stretching and warm-ups to workouts. 

It also provides a complete training schedule every month.

The membership costs $9.99/month with complete access to fitness tips, healthy recipes with a proper diet plan.

13. PLR websites

PLR Websites

If you are a lazy person who doesn’t want to spend time writing articles, making video courses, designing the arts, or anything which takes time to offer that to your members, you can open your PLR membership website.

A PLR (Private Label Rights) site helps you save your time because you have all the products that are ready to publish. You just need to acquire a license to sell it.

This may contain digital products like eBooks, audio courses, video courses, presentations, templates, software, marketing tools. articles, or anything which has a demand and value in the market. Once you get a license to resell, you will likely be keeping 90-95% of profits (depending on the royalty fees and other costs).

You just need to join a trustworthy PLR resources website as a member and you can access everything they have, to sell them later on your website.

A few popular & reliable sites are:

14. Carb Manager

Carb Manager

More than 30% of people around the world are overweight. And most of them want to become fitter and healthier. 

One of the most popular and outspoken methods for weight loss is the Ketogenic Diet. Keto is probably the most popular diet in the United States.

People who are on diets can not eat anything or everything they want. They are required to stick to a low carb diet plan every time.

Carb Manager is helping Keto dieters make & enjoy delicious food by delivering them the full meal plan along with the recipes on a monthly basis membership.

They have a database of premium recipes, meal plans, jump starter guides, fitness trackers, devices and a lot of other things to help their members to manage their diet in an easy way.

All of these features (and some more) are offered at an affordable price of $40 per annum.

15. Online Cooking School

Online Cooking School

OCS has been teaching cooking with some exceptional techniques & creativity to those, who love to try new things every day. They have added more than 300 courses. 

This list may include recipes like the Mediterranean, Asian, Chinese, Transcontinental, Western cuisines, seafood, baking, sweet dishes, Vegetarian, Non-Vegetarian, Seasonal, BBQ & a lot more at a Single Price.

Members can get instant access to all of the courses with & without instructors along with recipes, lectures, assignments & feedback. They also provide a 14 days’ free trial to everyone.

16. Guitareo

Guitareo

Playing guitar is fun, but playing it professionally is challenging. If you can help people learn how to play guitar, you can also create your own membership site on this niche.

Lasting our list of Membership website examples, check this ultimate guitar training membership website known as Guitareo, launched by Nate Savage, a famous & expert guitarist.

Guitareo has designed the training course to be followed step by step. From holding a guitar to changing the strings and how to play your hand on it.

Nate was first using the home delivery to their members, but now, he has turned his business into a complete membership site, which helps him to increase its profit & reduce its costs.

The website offers multiple courses, some of which cost $29, $97, and $197. They also give a 90-day money-back guarantee.

17. ScaleMath Pro

ScaleMath Pro

ScaleMath Pro is an SEO & Marketing Community and Academy. Their goal is to be the go-to destination for people in the SEO industry looking to learn, connect, and grow with like-minded people.

ScaleMath Pro doesn’t have tiered pricing, everything is flat-rate (no upsells) to keep it simple (the only difference on our yearly plan is that you get 2-months free, which is fairly standard).

They are currently an invite-only and have more than 100 members.

18. My Hot Yoga Dublin

My Hot Yoga Dublin

MyHotYogaDublin is a membership site for yogis. It saw the light after COVID, as Jane and Jo-Ann Nolan sisters have an actual studio, and wanted to keep the doors open online.

Members get yoga, pilates and mindfulness online on demand classes, anywhere, at their own pace.
There are over 100 classes uploaded, from beginners to advanced, and different class length to choose from.

They have 3 different tiers: $35 euro a month, unlimited classes / $25 euro a month for ONLY pregnancy yoga / $10 euro a month for ONLY chair yoga. They also offered free yoga classes for Frontline Medical Workers during the year in thanks for all they do.

19. Grow & Glow

Grow & Glow

Grow & Glow is a membership site for creators and creative business owners who are looking to build stand out personal brands online. They have around 700 paying members at the moment.

Members get monthly masterclasses, actionable task lists, monthly group coaching and access to a vault of templates, workbooks, cheat sheets and resources. Grow & Glow’s have 2 membership levels: £30 monthly £85 quarterly.

20. Starter Story

Starter Story

Starter Story is a membership site for people that want to start their own business and grow their current one. Members get unlimited access to thousands of case studies, our database of business ideas, step by step guides, and more. They have 2 membership plans. The highest pricing tier gives you unlimited access to our paid courses.

Conclusion

Membership sites are a great business in terms of both building a brand and creating a recurring income from whatever you like to sell. But membership websites are not ideal for everyone.

Finding and validating an idea for your membership site is mandatory for you to plan a better site.

If you aren’t kind of a thinker or if you’re running out of ideas, you are likely to waste a lot of time on this project. In this article, I have shared with you the best membership website ideas along with examples to make your work easier.

If you are thinking of building your online presence in an effective way and you have something incredible to offer to the community at a reasonable price, your chances of growth are very well. But, if you are here just to earn money, it will not be that easy as it looks.

About The Author

Andriy Haydash

Andriy Haydash

Andriy Haydash is a WordPress Expert who helps people build and launch successful WordPress membership and e-learning websites.

Note: Not all of the articles are written directly by me.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in the post may be my affiliate links

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