Subscription websites are excellent for earning recurring income. You can monetize from exclusive content, merch, or selling digital products. Subscription offers personalized experiences and unique perks to different audiences.
One of the biggest advantages of starting a subscription website is steady recurring revenue despite dry sales! The global subscription market is expected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2025. Platforms like OnlyFans, Patreon, and Substack have created sparkling golden empires from the realistic subscription model.
Whether you’re starting your subscription website full-time or as a side hustle, we simplify the process of building it. So, you get a clear roadmap to get started with your business!
How to Build a Subscription Website: 7-Step Easy Guide
Building a subscription website is a profitable venture. Subscriptions are popular for several reasons, including predictable revenue, less marketing, easier customer acquisition, and more cross-sells and upsells.
Whether you’re starting a membership website, offering subscription boxes, paywalls, or digital products, it’s a lucrative opportunity.
Let’s navigate through the key steps to start your subscription business!
Step 1: Identify a Profitable Niche
First, you need to discover the right niche for your business. Your niche lays the foundation for the long-term success of your subscription website. Decide whether you’re starting a paid newsletter, coaching memberships, fan club memberships, etc. This will make the next steps for your subscription website easier!
For example, you can start a subscription platform like OnlyFans. However, you need to find profitable niches for your OnlyFans-like website.
Consider factors like expertise, skills, passion, market demand, and target audience while determining your niche.
Step 2: Determine a Befitting Business Model
Your business model is essential and determines how your platform drives revenue! Choosing the right business model before developing your platform is essential. This makes design and development easier.
Here are the most popular subscription models for your website:
- Content Library for blogs, videos, or podcasts
- Drip Feed Subscription
- Community-based Subscription like Patreon, OnlyFans
- Service Subscriptions like coaching and consultation
- Online stores
Your business model depends on the functionalities you wish to integrate into your subscription website.
Step 3: Design Your Subscription Platform
Design is an essential aspect of the development process. For a great platform experience, design a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate website!
Here are the essential aspects of your subscription website:
- Registration/ Sign Up
- Dashboard & Analytics
- Payment Processing
- Content Management for Subscription Tiers
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Live Streaming & Courses
Additionally, you need a unique selling proposition and a smooth onboarding process to run your membership website.
Step 4: Build Your Subscription Platform
There are different ways to build your subscription website.
Below are the different development approaches to build your subscription website:
- Custom development approach involving building from scratch
- WordPress plugins like MemberDash and LearnDash
- Saas solutions like Kajabi, Thinkific, Podia
- Readymade Clonescripts like OnlyFans Clone Script and Patreon Clone Scripts
The traditional custom-development approach involves extensive investment of your time and money. In the age of agile development, use approaches like clone script launch your subscription website within a few days! They’re perfect for skipping the hassles of coding.
Step 5: Decide the Pricing Model
One of the best ways to maximize user retention and drive your platform revenue is to choose the right pricing model. It could even affect your profit margins!
Let’s list the four common pricing models to scale your subscription website!
- Flat-rate pricing model – Fixed monthly price to access a product or service, regardless of the usage
- Tiered Pricing Model- Multiple packages with unique features for different price points
- Pay-as-you-go pricing model – Charged based on the consumption of a product or service
- Per Unit/ user model – Charge based on the number of users
Step 6: Create Content for Your Website
Your subscribers are looking for high-quality and exclusive content! Choose content that appeals to your audience. Offer a mix of different content formats: text, video, ebooks, live streaming, and recorded webinars.
Plan well ahead and create a consistent schedule for sharing your content. Engage your subscribers with quizzes, polls and surveys to spark conversations! Incentivize your subscribers with exclusive offers, discounts, and free downloads to attract new subscribers.
Step 7: Promote Your Subscription Website
Once your subscription website takes off the ground, spreading the word about your website is essential. There are several marketing strategies to promote your subscription website. We have listed the best tried-and-tested marketing strategies:
- Word-of-Mouth & Referrals: Encourage your friends and family to share your website links and offer referral incentives.
- Social Media Marketing: Create compelling social media posts and pre-launch teasers across relevant social media platforms.
- Email Marketing: Share newsletters on industry news, festive discounts or content updates to engage subscribers.
- Influencer Marketing: Partner with niche-relevant influencers to expand your reach.
Conclusion
Building a subscription website is a profitable business, considering the steady income. Your development approach depends on your goals, budget and platform complexity. Choose an approach that allows you to build your brand and launch the platform on the go!