If you’re familiar with me, you know I’m a BIG advocate of the membership/recurring revenue model for businesses.

In fact, I’ve built my career around creating membership sites and helping others do the same.

Why? Because a properly structured membership saves the business owner time and increases their bottom line with stable, recurring revenue.

That being said, a membership site might not be the best fit for everybody.

If you’re curious about using the membership model in your business, there are three questions for you to ask yourself about your market.

These three questions really serve as a great way for you to get an understanding of whether a membership site would be a good fit for your market.

The first question that I want you to ask is, “Is there an ongoing need for the product/service/information my business provides?”

“Is there an ongoing need?”

This is the best kind of membership site you can create – one that satisfies an ongoing need.

For example, my friend Paul Evans has a membership site called TeenLifeMinistries.com and he helps youth ministers with their Sunday service.

What he initially discovered was that youth ministers often don’t have the time to prepare for their Sunday service, so he made it easy for them.

He provides PowerPoints and handouts, everything a youth minister would need to deliver their service. Now, the youth minister has a substantially shorter prep time for their service and they feel less stress as a result.

It’s a great example of a market and a membership. The market has a need and the membership is satisfying that need on an ongoing basis.

The second question that you can ask to determine whether a membership would be right for your market is, “Are people looking to learn or master a subject?”

Are people looking to learn or master a subject? 

One of the mental blocks entrepreneurs face with online learning is how much information is already available for free online.

However, if there’s a lot of free information available, it actually makes for a PERFECT opportunity for a membership site.

As I teach in TRIBE, overwhelm is the #1 factor that discourages people from continuing to learn a subject. This gives you the opportunity to offer a membership that organizes the information to give people a clear and simple direction to learn or master a subject.

The key is to give your audience clear directions on the steps they need to take to get the result they want. Do the thinking for them.

More information isn’t better, but organized information that has a clear direction is.

I call this the “Success Path.”

A good example is the guitar market. A beginner obviously wants to be coached through the basics until they become more skilled.

However, once a player has a high skill level, their learning isn’t over. They will still want to learn different techniques, different styles of playing and so forth.

There’s both an immediate and an ongoing need for people from all corners of the market.

That’s why business/entrepreneurship memberships are popular, because the business landscape is always changing, especially in digital. And entrepreneurs are looking to grow their business so they’re always looking to stay up-to-date on the latest trends.

The third and final question to ask is, “Are people gathering online?”

“Are people gathering online?”

Many membership sites focus on teaching information but there are other memberships that are dedicated purely to bringing people together.

We live in an amazing time. No matter how quirky or obscure your interests are, chances are you can connect with a whole bunch of people around the world who share the same interests.

Before you might have been the only person in your community who had these interests, but now the Internet gives us the opportunity to create and join communities of like-minded people.

Heck, Facebook is community-based membership site and they are the third most visited website in the world!

There are some membership sites that are all about the community. People pay month after month just to be around others like them, have discussions, and engage with one another.

Most often, people join a membership for the information but stay for the community aspect. Once they’ve got active and started networking and engaging with others, they don’t want to leave!

Summary

Is there an ongoing need you can fulfill? 

Are people looking to learn or master a subject?

Are people in your market gathering online? 

If you answered yes to any one of those questions, there’s a good chance that a membership site could thrive in your market.

That’s not to say it’s going be a perfect fit, but the odds are certainly in your favour and it’s something worth exploring.

If you’re interested in learning more about membership sites, you’re invited to join me for a FREE membership workshop beginning April 3rd, 2017.

You can secure your spot in the free workshop here ==> www.tribeworkshop.com

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Additionally, I’ve compiled a PDF that might interest you titled “Membership Masters: 10 Proven Strategies for Growing Successful Membership Sites” 

You can download the PDF here ==> stu.clickfunnels.com/membershipmastery