Having a successful member only, paid membership site is one of the best ways to make money online. A successful membership site can give you the steady income of a CEO ?.but without the job!

For example if you had just 200 people paying you just $20 a month, you would have a steady cash flow of $4000/month, month after month, rain or shine. Many people accomplish this the first month or two their site is up. But that?s just the beginning. Some individuals have member only websites that generate 5-10x that amount of money!

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let?s discuss exactly what a member only, paid membership site is?

Whether you call them member only, membership, subscription, or mentor websites, they all have one thing in common. ? they are bringing in steady, recurring cash flow for their owners, month after month, from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars with an endless variety of topics.

Some of these sites provide mentoring or coaching, others contain useful articles or information in a particular field or product. Still others publish the results of tests and studies or product reviews. Finally some membership sites provide specialized service or act as a meeting place for people with a common interest.

But all these sites have one thing in common: to access the website (or the best information on the site) you have to pay for it!

Why Would People Pay for Information on the Internet?

The key to getting people to pay for access to a website, is to provide specialized information/coaching/data/service that is hard to find anywhere else, or would be time consuming to find on your own.

Here?s another way to look at it:

Have you ever subscribed to a newspaper, magazine, or newsletter? Have you ever bought a non fiction book that gave advice on a topic you were interested in? I?ll bet you have. I?ll also bet that you could have found almost all of the information these resources contained from free sources.

You paid for the information either to save time or because you thought the information would be better or more specialized for what you were looking for, isn?t that correct?

Just a few short years ago it was almost unheard of to charge for access to a website and almost no one was doing it. Today it?s not only much more acceptable but there are still relatively few membership websites. This makes it the perfect time to start your own member only site, since there is still little competition.

Choosing a Topic

This is the most critical decision you'll have to make. Choose the right topic and you'll have people clamoring to give you money to access your site. Choose the wrong topic and you're doomed before you even start.

The first place to look for potential topics should be within your own world. The list of potential topics could come from your interests, hobbies, vocation,

Find a topic that you are passionate about, and the odds are that enough other people are also passionate about the topic to make it a successful membership site. Since you are going to be spending time building and maintaining your membership site, why not choose a topic that you enjoy?

Note: If you are already a speaker, consultant, writer, or "expert" on almost any topic, then you are in a perfect position to create a membership or mentor type of website which could double or triple your income. You should start a membership site today! In just 3-4 months, one of my clients turned his existing expertise and client base into a member only site that generates $40,000/month!

You wouldn?t believe some of the unusual ideas that people have turned into profitable paid membership websites. Topics include: unusual business ideas, fireworks, repairing guns, physical conditioning, marketing, specific makes and models of cars, digital cameras, dieting, dating, tall people, and 2nd wives clubs.

Setting Up and Running Your Member Only Website

Finally there are many tools to help you build and maintain your member only website.

At the most basic level, you can do much of the website creation yourself and use 3rd party services to help you with the administration. However, a quicker and even better way is to use one of the new all in one membership management software systems that helps you get your site set up quickly (even if you don?t know anything about programming) and automates almost all the administrative features. These membership software programs can reduce your workload by 75% as opposed to trying to do it all yourself.

Is There a Members Only Website in Your Future?

I hope this brief article has given you a glimpse into the tremendous potential that could await you with your own membership website.

All over the world, people are earning large sums of money online, on a regular predictable basis from the comfort of home, because they had the insight to start a paid membership site.

What are you waiting for?

Want more information on membership websites? You can receive a FREE mini course by email with more helpful information. Just to http://memberstar.net .

Ron Ruiz is a product developer, marketer and newsletter publisher. He has extensive experience in all aspects of starting and running a membership/subscription/coaching website. His own membership website http://www.businessfastlane.com has been operating for several years and has members from over 26 countries. He has also developed his own all in one membership software system called Memberstar? which makes it easy to set up and run a members only site.

rruiz@napanet.net