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The Truth About Membership Sites

Receiving phone calls and emails is something I handle every day of every week. Individuals write to me often on the advice of programs they join, or from finding me in the search engines. They come to me for clarification on how to market and advertise online.

In many instances, the caller has actually joined a program that is designed to address the very questions they are asking me. I can't help but think, "What's wrong with this picture?"

In order to be considered a viable program or service online, the website owner is required to provide something in return for your hard-earned dollars. Typically, that something is information. Information in the form of ebooks, software, or training are the most common kinds of membership sites.

When you discover a likely program online, it is important to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the program selling you for your money?

2. Other than promoting that program to others will it also show you how to make money online for any business?

Here's a typical scenario painted for me: I'm contacted only to find out the caller or emailer has no real idea about what they joined!

Sad but true. Somehow, somewhere along the lines of reading an action packed and powerful sales letter, the hunter forgot what he or she was hunting for - direction to help him or her build their own business online.

Another possibility is the person really has no current viable idea for starting a business online and, instead, opts to promote that program as if it were their own. Therein lies the problem. You become an affiliate of the program, not the sole proprietor.

This is the background painted for you, but the problem does not stop there. In the rush to tell others about their wonderful find, they totally neglect to educate themselves on the finer points of what that program (membership or not) has to offer.

Simply put... the details are completed avoided. It's not hard to pinpoint which category I'm talking or writing to... someone really wanting to make their dream of making money online a reality or someone hoping to get by on the bare minimum of knowledge.

My advise is simple and even easy to follow. When you join any membership site or buy any product online re-read the sales page. If you can lift out the "here's how to make money" part, and still have lots of valuable reasons for joining remaining that's the program for you!

If the allure of making money is the only reason for parting with your own, think it through carefully. If you're not one for researching so that at a minimum you can put your own carefully crafted advertisements together, and you think promoting it will be a walk in the park (and you don't have an active mailing list) your job will not be an easy one. Do-able only if you're willing to work very hard promoting something you know nothing about.

If you can't explain it to me, how are you going to help the guy under you?

You can't do that if you don't know what or why you joined.

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Theresa Cahill invites you to educate yourself in the proper use of online membership programs. Learn how to build a business online at Molten Marketing.
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