| Maintaining a membership site requires constant supervision. Even after you've reached a point where your site is stable enough to give you a little breather, you still have to be on the lookout for anything that might impact it negatively. However, during its initial stages, your most important concerns will be centered around the challenge of driving qualified traffic to your site. After all, a membership site is all about qualification and qualification requires a good fit. Driving qualified traffic to your membership site Ready to meet your new members? Here are steps you should take to find qualified traffic and send them to your site: Have a solid plan. It's all about structure and procedures. Being too spontaneous about the way you run your membership site might backfire in the end. Determine the type of traffic you want to market to and write down your plans on how to get them. Always provide a Plan B, in case things don't turn out so well. Again, it's about procedure. If you have a solid one in place, it can cover for any glitches you might encounter later on. Prepare a convincing ad and a commanding landing page. There are two gatekeepers that you must focus on improving when you're running a membership site. These are your ads and your landing pages. When you put out the word out there that you're offering memberships, your ads must be powerful enough to bring in the right kind of traffic. Once they've come in, your next step is to convince them that they came to the right place by setting up a landing page that will pull them in, no questions asked. Try to ensure that your ad campaign is highly targeted and that it leaves no doubt as to whom you're marketing to. The logic here is quite simple: if you're running a school for ballerinas, why put out an ad that will attract flamenco dancers? Make sure that when a prospective member arrives on your landing page, they know immediately that they're supposed to be there. Design a specific e-mail campaign. Let people know you're putting out invites for your membership site. Advertise. Write an e-mail message that leaves no room for doubt about your purpose. Craft your headline well and make sure anyone who receives your e-mail will know right away whether or not it's right for them. Hook up with the right channels. If you belong to one big industry, you're in luck. There are plenty of resources online that you can use with which to advertise and drive targeted traffic to your membership site. Look for industry-specific sites, blogs, community sites and social bookmarking sites. Most of these sites will allow you to post your invites for free but there are others that will charge you a fee. Determine if the cost is worth it. Otherwise, stick to the free resources. Optimize your site. Strengthen your campaign to appear in the top spots on the results pages of search engines. You want to be noticed so you'll have to make it a point that your website is relevant. That way, anyone searching for memberships related to what you have to offer will find you immediately. Offer something for free. Another effective way to drive qualified traffic to your membership site is to provide freebies. They don?t have to cost much ? use free articles, e-newsletters, ezines, reports, advice, etc. Design these 'gifts' in such a way that they become industry-specific. That way, you only get to give them to qualified traffic who will be potential leads. |