Free membership websites can help Internet marketers in so many ways and they are relatively easy and inexpensive to set up that it's a wonder there aren't more of them. Don't ever underestimate the power of 'free'! Everybody loves 'free'. Those who don't have a lot of expendable income like free for obvious reasons but those who have plenty of expendable income LOVE 'free'... maybe that's why they have so much expendable income.

The fact is that people who are surfing the Internet are all looking for the very same thing... INFORMATION. Granted, they are not all searching for the same information but they are nevertheless searching for information... and they love nothing better than free information about whatever topic they are interested in and that is where a free membership website comes in.

There are two major parts to building a successful free membership website. The first one is to actually construct the website on the Internet. The second one is to get members to join the free membership website. Here is how to go about doing both of those tasks:

Building a Free Membership Website:

Building a free membership website is pretty much like building any other kind of website with just a couple of additions.

1. Choose a topic for your free membership site.

This topic should be one that will attract the specific group of people to whom you want to market your products or services. In most cases you are advised to narrow your topic but in the case of building a free membership website, it is better to make your topic a bit broader.


2. The next step is to register a domain name that reflects the subject of your free member ship website.

It is best to keep your domain under 20 characters if you can. Find a domain name that is available and secure it for yourself. Pay for two years.

3. It is true that web hosting comes with a domain name but you need a web host that will allow you to have as many domains as you want on the same server.

Go to either HostGator or NetHost and subscribe to a web hosting service.

4. You will need a membership script for your free membership site.

Go to one of these three sites and buy the script: Amember or Butterflymarketing.

5.You might want to add a 'Refer a Friend' button, as well.

Two sites on which to get this program are www.sendtofriends.com , and www.kcscripts.com/scripts/refer_a_friend/features.htm  

6. You might also want to include a helpdesk option on your free membership website.

This is strictly optional but the site to get the program is PerlDesk.

7. You need content for your free membership website.

The name of the game for free membership websites, as for all websites, is content, content, content. There are many ways to obtain website content. You can download and reprint articles from article banks or you can join a PLR website and get articles that are much better. In either of these cases, you will need to do some rewrite on the articles to avoid the duplicate content problem.

If you have the ability you can write your own articles or you can hire a ghost writer to write them for you. One good ghost writing service can be found at www.writingandtransciptionservices.com

The above are the information and tools needed to build a free membership website (or a paid membership website for that matter). Now you either build your site or have someone build it for you. Your web host service will have features that will provide for you to set up a blog or forum on your website and you will need to include that when you are constructing your website. Additionally, there are other features that will likely be included in your web hosting service such as polls or content management systems that you might also want to include in your website.

Promoting Your Free Membership Website:

Promoting a free membership website is done exactly the way any website is promoted. When you build any website the only person that is aware that it exists on the Internet is you so it is up to you to promote and advertise your site and let the rest of the world know where to find you.

You accomplish that task while you are building your own credibility. One will not exist without the other. A free membership website builds credibility and credibility builds a free membership website. There are several very well established ways to promote a website on the Internet...and the first three listed here are free.

1. Write (or have written for you) short articles, 300 to 400 words, and put them into article banks for others to use.

Your resource box will include a link to your free membership website. The same is true for E-Book. Either write short 10 to 15 page E-Books or have them written for you. List these E-Books with E-Book repositories for others to use and be sure that there is a link to your free website on every page.

2. Post to blogs and forums on other related websites after you join them.

Don't go in like gangbusters promoting your free membership site...that will get you kicked out. Simply include a link to your free membership site in your sig tag and post thoughtful and helpful information.

3.Find link exchange partners and exchange links with them.

Since you are not actually selling anything it should be very easy to find link exchange partners.

4. Buy advertising for your free membership website in related E-zines.

This is a very cost effective method of advertising. The cost of advertising in E-zines is usually less than $20 and the advertisement is sent directly to those people who are going to be your best prospects for your free membership sites as well as for the products and services that you will be marketing to them.

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