Is it worth starting a membership site is a question often asked by many people who wish to start an online business and the answer normally given is yes it can be very rewarding financially, but often what many people promoting this type of software and service forget to mention is that it takes quite a bit of work if your are new to this type of service.

There are many options regarding software today that make starting a membership site quite easy, these range from $20 up to thousands of dollars. The differences are great because of the functions offered, the option of having affiliates work with you to sell memberships.

There are options for paying your affiliates automatically as well as offering incentives and prizes to get others promoting your membership site and normally the affiliate would receive around 50% of the monthly cost of the membership.

The problem with membership sites is they take a lot of work if you don't outsource the content but there are many places where you can get all the content written for you if you don't have the time or knowledge of a membership topic.

Often it is possible to find writers on one of the many forums for your chosen niche who will be prepared to write for you at a price lower than a professional ghostwriter.

When outsourcing this work it is possible to set up several membership sites quickly and if you find reliable writers they will continue to supply you with all the content you require.

The options for getting members to your site is to have various memberships, for example you could offer a basic free membership where they receive limited content and then you could offer upgrades to other levels of membership. You could offer a free trial for 2 weeks or a month so people could see what kind of content they will receive.

The problem is that with many of the software available people who take a free trial download all the content and cancel after, so there are software options available that can avoid this but they tend to be more expensive.

So it is essential to plan on what type of service you will offer and what type of monthly fee you feel that people will pay for your type of membership. There are other important points to consider also like the type of payment you will offer as with certain payment processors it is difficult to sell a site on with some payment options.