How to build an online community for your small business

March 06, 2013

These days, most people think of "social media" when they hear "community building," but forums, membership sites and old-fashioned meet-ups are also good places to promote your brand, share your expertise and attract customers. Membership Sites: Exclusive resources, for a fee One way of building an online community is by creating a membership site, where you charge a membership fee in exchange for exclusive resources that can range from tutorials to software programs. Just make sure the information that you'll provide is unique, has high value and is unavailable elsewhere for free. You can take several approaches with pricing. One is a fixed price, paid up front, for one year of membership. Another is a fixed monthly price. A third option is a low introductory price that will then roll over into a monthly fee. Using a monthly rate as opposed to a yearly fee will ease sticker shock. For example, a yearly price of $199 could turn off potential customers, but a monthly fee of $19.95 may not-and with the latter fee, you would actually earn more over the course of a year. Monthly rates also make subscribers less likely to cancel their membership, since they don't see the larger $199 fee recurring once a year. ClickBank has some tools that will allow you to create a recurring fee structure for a membership site. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.cio.com/article/729731/How_to_Build_an_Online_Community_for_Your_Small_Business#tk.rss_howto